el fabuloso Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 Intro A friend of mine—who's been eagerly following the progress of my tank—asked me to set up a tank for her place. She wanted a tank to sit on her kitchen bar between the kitchen and the dining room, and wanted a nice clean setup sans the messy wires and bulky filters dangling everywhere. It was immediately clear to me that this was going to be a tank where function follows form to meet with her specific requests. I did some research to find a nice decent tank and came across the Finnex M Tank 9r which fit the bill nicely as far as the type of tank she's looking for. We got the tank from nanotuners.com for about $175 and took forever to ship. Funny thing is after we purchased the tank, the price tag on their site went up to $300! The Tank Finnex M Tank 9r Capacity and dimensions: 9 gallon, 20.25" x 9.75" x 19.25" (H) Material: domestic 1/4" cell cast acrylic Lighting: Fan cooled 24W x 2 power compact fluorescent + LED retrofit with moisture resistant lens. Filtration: Built-in 3 layers rain trays wet/dry filter with 211 gph pump The pump output seems decent enough so I have no plans of upgrading it. I did however want to convert the trickle filter into a fuge so I ordered a Rapids Mini Canister to function as the mechanical and chemical filter. I also ordered a Koralia Nano for added flow and of course a heater. The tank finally arrived last weekend and I couldn't wait to play with it! Upon close inspection I was finally able to assess what my options are for the back chamber: As you can see from the picture, the trickle filter assembly is built with stackable trays. So the plan is to remove the top two tiers and fill the chamber with some chaeto and leaving the canister filter to take care of chemical and mechanical filtration. Location: The canopy assembly: Filled with water with the lights on: I added a couple of inches of live sand, 7lbs. of cured Fiji live rock and 3lbs. of Florida live rock (my friend's preference) which I left alone to marinate for a week. I trained my friend to top-off regularly and so far she's done a good job. One Week Later Today I was surprise to see the tank completely clear and immaculate! A big difference from the murky water I left behind a week ago. Lots of hitchhikers on the two pieces of Florida live rock! Some sponges and macroalgae: Some unknown coral-looking stuff (it'd be awesome if anyone can help ID some of these!): I ran the first water test today and found ammonia at 0.25 ppm and nitrate at 10 ppm with nitrite at zero. Hardness was to be expected at 7dKH (I'm using Oceanic salt mix) but the pH is a bit low at 8.0. I'll have to run another test next week to see where these levels are headed. The stocking plan for the tank is yet to be decided. The first corals will undoubtedly be coming from my pico as some of my corals start outgrowing my tank. Interestingly my friend doesn't want any fish in this tank. At all. Not even a "Nemo." Every other conversation for the past week was spent trying to explain to her why she can't have a blue-ringed octopus, eel, jellyfish, anemone, cuttlefish, lobster or seahorses. Eventually I want to convince her to keep a goby/shrimp duo which I think could look nice in this tank. Link to comment
Lalani Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 Fantastic! And good thing you bought it at that price. I noticed this kind of tank a while back and always wondered how it would look setup, and I must say it looks pretty nice, especially for that location. Where did you buy the LR? Cool hitchhikers. Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted March 17, 2008 Author Share Posted March 17, 2008 Fantastic! And good thing you bought it at that price. I noticed this kind of tank a while back and always wondered how it would look setup, and I must say it looks pretty nice, especially for that location. Where did you buy the LR? Cool hitchhikers. The tank isn't bad at all! Not the kind of tank I would've picked out for myself but it worked out great for what my friend's looking for. The only thing I don't like is the LED moonlight which looks like it's coming out of a pin hole instead of filling in the whole tank. Also there are no separate switches for daylight and actinic so I can't do a dawn/dusk effect. Oh well. The Fiji live rock came from one LFS while the Florida ones came from another LFS. The Florida rocks have so much stuff on it it's scary. Again I wouldn't have picked out Florida live rock for my tank but this is what my friend wanted. This is good though cuz it allows me to play around with different ideas that I wouldn't otherwise try for myself. Link to comment
constantocean Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I want some of that rock! Link to comment
irishtexan Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I LOVE this tank! I want one, but the only bad thing is that it is acrylic Great job so far! -texx Link to comment
hecsrt-4 Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Nice tank and Welcome to Nano-Reef. Just got back from Vegas and already planning my next trip for the end of May. Haha do you guys have any LFS all I see is casinos. Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted March 19, 2008 Author Share Posted March 19, 2008 Yes! Real Vegas starts where the casinos end. In fact there are four good ones in town that I frequently go to. Link to comment
hecsrt-4 Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I know I have family that live down their. Is their any really nice ones, like the tank at the Mirage. Maybe I can take you some frags, next time I go. Just look at my 75g and tell me what you like. Link to comment
klarion Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Very nice looking tank. Dindn't know they made such tanks. Also like your choice of life in it. Link to comment
Nick's Reef Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 That tank looks awesome!!!! The hitchhikers are probably porties sp. and some kind of open brain. Very nice rock too! Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted March 20, 2008 Author Share Posted March 20, 2008 Thanks! I was thinking open brain too, hopefully they'll make it through the cycle. My friend called me this morning and told me that one of the rocks, the one with the bushy red macro on it, turned out to be some kind of clam and opened up today! I'll have to investigate this thing and take pictures to post. Link to comment
Lalani Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Wow, now that is some awesome LR! What are you going to do with it? Link to comment
FateX9 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 i must be the only one but i hate fl lr, imo i think its the worst kind in terms of shape and porosity fl rock is just soooo dense and not my cup of tea and im also not a big fan of atlantic corals but nice looking tank Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 Wow, now that is some awesome LR! What are you going to do with it? I'm going to make clam chowder! Seriously though I hope everything survives. It's pretty neat to see all the little stuff that's coming out of it. i must be the only one but i hate fl lr, imo i think its the worst kind in terms of shape and porosityfl rock is just soooo dense and not my cup of tea and im also not a big fan of atlantic corals but nice looking tank I feel the same way but like I said, this isn't my tank and my friend really liked 'em. Link to comment
AcroporaLokani Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Nice tank, have you noticed if the acrylic has scratched at all? I have looked at this brand in the past but was not so sure about the acrylic. Link to comment
big_fat_mushroom Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 wow what a nice tank! those rocks are amazing. it's always nice to have hitch hiking corals. especially the cool ones.... Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted March 26, 2008 Author Share Posted March 26, 2008 Two Weeks Later It's been a little past two weeks since this tank has been up and running and parameters are looking good. Finally got a nitrate spike on Sunday with zero ammonia and nitrite so I did the first water change. So far there's very little diatom bloom but the hitchhikers seem to be thriving. The coral that looks a lot like a brain coral is doing fine except for a small portion that's turning a dark color. Not sure if this means it's dying but the rest of the coral is looking healthy. The other unknown coral seems to be doing fine as well. Caulerpa growth has exploded exponentially with lots of new "leaves" and runners that are quickly growing into other rocks. Mystery Creatures This small piece of rock with red macro and corals growing on it... ...turns out to be some kind of bivalve! Not sure exactly what it is but it attaches itself to the rock by a muscular foot. So far this is the widest it has opened but you can see a little of what's inside. It also squirts water and slams itself shut when frightened. Very creepy. In the middle of this picture are some branch-like tentacles that looks like the mouth of a sea cucumber. It seems to grab things in the water which it pulls into its "mouth." And then there's this thing hiding in the crevice that also looks like a sea cucumber. The tank seems to have finished cycling but I want to continue monitoring it to make sure the water parameters are stable before I start putting corals in. I've already dropped in a hermit crab from my pico and he's been busy at work. Link to comment
Lalani Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 My gosh, those are some cool hitchhikers! I tried to find some decent LR from my LFSs yesterday, but all I could find were white tonga branches, strange red rocks that I don't think should be in a reef tank, and aptasia infested figi rock. Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted March 26, 2008 Author Share Posted March 26, 2008 Thanks! Honestly though, the rocks kinda scare me but are cool and interesting nonetheless. I totally feel your frustration with live rock, there's only one LFS in my area that has cool Fiji live rock. The rest have these giant potatoes with tumors growing on them. Personally I don't like Tonga branches... they remind me of chicken feet. Nice tank, have you noticed if the acrylic has scratched at all? I have looked at this brand in the past but was not so sure about the acrylic. The acrylic is holding up pretty well! Crystal clear and not a scratch so far. Link to comment
Lalani Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Omg... those chicken feet look disgusting! Link to comment
disaster999 Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 chicken feet are YUMMY wanna go eat dimsum and order some Link to comment
c est ma Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Wow! What a fantastic start! I agree with everyone who's lovin' the Florida LR. What cool hitchers! BTW, I think one of your mystery corals might be an Oculina species--these are known to occur often on Florida rock... Love the bivalve & the cukes! What fun! --Diane Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Thanks for the ID on the mystery coral! So those are cukes just as I suspected? I wish I knew exactly what that bivalve is. Link to comment
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