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Nano Diary - running total £1547.83! - newbies stop now!


Sexy Shrimp

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Well I have bought my nano. Its a D-D Nano-cube 24 (gal).

 

I have butchered it already! Removed all the filter stuff and bioballs and binned them (well stored would be more accurate). The tank has a 3 part compartment at the back. In the left hand one I have filled it completely with small broken bits of live rock - all between 1 inch and 3 inches. In the middle I have put a little internal skimmer - JAD WG-308. It fits a treat! and in the right hand compartment I have the powerhead for the filter and the thermometer.

 

I filled the tank with RO last night. One of the advantages of working in a lab is that you can get RO free of charge (ie pinched). It is guaranteed good as it gets routinely tested before use and the filters get changed every 3 months. Oh and did I mention they are 7ft high things that deliver it at a rate of knotts? Added salt and left overnight to heat up etc.

 

Bought 17 kilos of live rock today and done some aquascaping. I have added 3 teeny tiny powerheads (still with a bit of kick though) at the bottom left top left and middle. Two are buried in the live rock to increase flow - live rock is arranged so they can be seen still, and the other it at the bottom pointing along the back of the tank behind the live rock. Hopefully this will keep enough flow around the rock.

 

Bought a range of rock. Some is out of one of the LFS customer's tanks so has tons of coraline. Some is only partially cured but pretty (only 2 days till "OK" so snaffled it so noone else could get it first). Reckoned it wouldn't matter as not putting fish in for ages yet...

 

Also got some crud out of their sumps so hopefully there will be lots of wildlife. So far all the wildlife is on the liverock. Spotted so far:

 

The usual stripy starfish in the rock

A black on which looks a bit like a brittle star

2 clams

A snail with blue tentacles that's about half an inch (not sure what it is so will research it after this)

5 of those wormy things that spit mucus. Luckily the rock is away from anywhere where I might put corals

Small area of orange sponge

Something that is about an inch across that looks like hard coral (will have to see if it has tentacles after dark eh?)

All the usual little tube worms

A couple of small what look like fan worms

 

Doesn't look like there's any nasties. No aptasia, no bubble algae nothing... Knowing my luck though I'll start hearing knocking...

 

Will post pics as soon as boyf is back from his trip to Germany as he's hidder the cam wire. - he won't go away again when he finds his surprise and how much it cost!!

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Waiting to see pics!

 

That's exactly why I don't leave my gf with my creditcard for extended amounts of time. :)

 

Although I may like it if she bought a new tank.

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Some pics

 

The tank

 

full.jpg

 

Aquascaping

 

tank1.jpg

 

Cupboard

 

cupboard.jpg

 

Lid

 

lid.jpg

 

t5s

 

t5s.jpg

 

Moonights

 

leds.jpg

 

Left chamber

 

chamber1.jpg

 

Right chamber

 

chamber3.jpg

 

Middle chamber and skimmer

 

chamber2.jpg

 

Skimmer height

 

skimmerheight.jpg

 

Skimmer froth

 

skimmerfroth.jpg

 

Powerheads in rockwork

 

powerhead1.jpg

 

powerhead2.jpg

 

Freebies that may become a pest (slime chuckers)

 

worms.jpg

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Parameters so far:

 

SG - 1.022

pH - 7.8 (awaiting digi for confimation as I don't trust it...)

Ammonia - 0-0.25 (well less than 0.25 but more than 0)

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate 5

Phospate - 2 (out to get some rowaphos or the like asap)

Calcium - 420

KH - 11

 

Question about KH - I thought about 7 was right. Kit says 8-12. Who's right???

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Was going to be softies and a pair of Maroon Clowns. I have now learnt the error of my ways and am thinking a pair of percs and some sort of sand sifting goby. Along the usual shrimps, crabs and the like. No definite ideas yet - open to suggestions.

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Just been Aips hunting. All too small to Joes Juice so plunged the whole 1kg piece of rock in boiling water. I had brown algae bloom (doesn't look like diatoms) but as soon as I plunged it into the boiling water it went bright green - very odd. Its a nice piece of branching rock so didn't want to bin it...Hopefully it shouldn't be too long before it becomes "live" again.

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In Europe CF bulbs are mostly sold as T5 compact, leading to much confusion.

 

I'd be a little worried about the chamber filled with life rock rubble, it'll trap detritus like no tomorrow. Apart from that it looks good :)

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Was looking at the D-D nano. Looks like D-D is a distributor and is selling (probably a partnership) the JBJ nano cubes under the D-D brand name.

http://www.deltecaquariumsolutions.com/doc...NanoFlyer_8.pdf

 

This is the lighting description.

Lighting – is provided by 2 powerful T5 power

compact tubes which are mounted within a

sealed housing and ventilated by two

integrated fans to keep your tank cool.

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The rubble is on a small sponge so detritus will be trapped in that. I will remove it every few weeks for cleaning. Have done this before and it works ok.

 

T5s are 72w by the way. I like the little tank!

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Another lot of parameters:

 

UP - SG - 1.022 (bringing up slowly)

SAME - pH - 7.8 (still don't trust it...)

DOWN - Ammonia - 0

SAME - Nitrite - 0

SAME - Nitrate -

DOWN - Phospate - 1.5 (probably come down due to the algae :( but just added rowaphos so we'll see what happens)

UP - Calcium - 440 (? only up due to variability in reading the chart??)

KH - 12 (colour change in between 11 and 12)

 

Noticed a couple of small bristle worms when I turned the lights on this morning.

 

Also have some macro algae growing on one piece of live rock. One type looks like Halimeda (nice chunky flat circles in a string - excuse the description) the other type looks like Caulerpa. Will keep an eye on it and sell the rock if necessary (sure someone would appreciate it in their sump :) )

 

Any clues on the KH anyone?

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Just been to the LFS and bought a CUC. Not sure how much to go for (not wanting to starve anything) plumped for 4 dwarf hermits (no redlegs in the UK at a reasonable price...) and 4 smallish turbos.

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Reviewed my stocking:

 

Clean up Crew

 

- 4 dwarf common hermits(no redlegs about...) - already in tank

- 4 small turbo snails - already in tank

 

Display fish

 

- Pair Perc Onyx Clowns

 

"Functional" fish

 

- Hector's Goby - sand sifter/algae grazer

- Six line wrasse/Rainford's goby/Swissguard basslett/Pseudochromidae/fairy wrasse - pod feeders (one of the listed- not decided which yet but like the fairy wrasse best)

 

Thats 4 smallish fish in total plus a clean up crew.

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Oh and here's the costings:

 

Tank and stand - £300 (including live sand, salt, hydrometer, thermometer, airpump (returned and refunded)

JAD skimmer - £35 (probably paid too much for this but hey ho)

3 power heads @ £12 each - £36

Live rock (16 kilos @ £10 per kilo) had 17kg but couldn't fit it all in so took some back and LFS refunded (top guys!) - £160

5 books (combination of UR and amazon) - £58

pH meter - £3.99+£6.99 p&p

Basic test kit - £15.50+£2.99 p&p

Calcium, Phosphate and nitrate test kit - £17.99+£3.49 p&p

 

Total so far: £639.95

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looks good but your lights arent actually t5... they are power compacts...

 

ohh onyx clowns good choice! i want to get two of those and a six line in my tank... let me know how it works out

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A few pics:

 

Surface skimmer

 

Weir.jpg

 

Snails/worms

 

Snails.jpg

 

Some sort of "hard coral" - yes I poked it... Tinged green.

 

Hard-1.jpg

 

Any ideas as to what the little coral thing is? Not bad for a hitchhiker...

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kermitthedaniel

hate to break it to you, but those are t5's those are CF or some people say PC( not sure what the difference is but i know for a fact those are not t5's, if you look at the end its one part and also those bulbs are too close together for t5's sorry. if someone told you other wise they are wrong. oh and if you still dont believe me you can see the clips for holding them up and the one part starts on the one side of the bulb then on the other side of the close other bulb. i have PCs so i would know.

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The thing is, PC/CF lights are sold under the name T5 Compact in Europe. So L34NN3 is right in thinking that they're what's sold as T5 lights here, but they're not regular T5HO bulbs nor do they have the PAR output of those.

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