hxcaquaman Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 welcome to my nano journal, I've been keeping fish for the past 2 years and decided to keep a journal on this newest set up after the last one crashed, mostly due to neglect from working and school and the fact that my urchin and brain coral died within 2 days of each other and turned my water toxic... next thing I knew I had a 10 gallon box of brown and green algae. so instead of giving up on the hobby the set up is a 10 gallon glass aquarium hoping to make it into a nice mini reef ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- whats in the box so far hardware --Toms Mini Rapid Canister filter -- Current 20 dual 40 watt fixture -- 5-15 submersible heater and a magnafloat -- and a korila nano Critters 1-black frog fish his name is Socrates and he is the destroyer of ghost shrimp and damsels. 2- scarlet hermits 4- zebra hermits 10- narassis snails 4- margarita turbos 2- mexican turbos 1- Flame Scallop Other Stuff roughly 10-12 lbs of sand 7.5-8 lbs of live rock 6 mangroves cheato macro out the wazoo grape macro stuffed in my filter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Corals green ricordia silver Xenia red mushrooms I started giving them away since they keep dropping off the rocks and growing new ones lavender mushrooms candy canes 4 heads tora tree leather toadstool leather Green star ployps Cabbage Leather Green Devils Hand Leather Button Polyps ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for looking --Ian Link to comment
marinekeeper Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 Looks good, but scrap the bio balls. Those will turn into a nitrate factory...bad for reef Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 hmmm, I haven't heard that until I started surfing this site... because my girlfriend used and is still using them in her tank that the coraline algae has spread like wildfire in her tank. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 hmmm, I haven't heard that until I started surfing this site... because my girlfriend used and is still using them in her tank that the coraline algae has spread like wildfire in her tank. Bio balls are not for the beginner. A lot of reefers will tell you to scrap them, not because they are bad, but because they induce a lot of extra maintenance. Bio balls are great at turning Amm into Nitrite and Nitrite into Nitrate...water changes remove the Nitrate...If you keep the balls clean, weekly stirring and making sure they do not collect debris they can be effective. Most people just avoid them... Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 sctn4Elk thanks for the advice. once I get a decent base of coraline I am going to remove them. Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 after having a long talk with a friend of mine from back home and recapping on our failed saltwater tanks nano reefers I'm putting my tank in your hands. tell me what to do, I don't want this tank to fail. if it does I'm done with this hobby tomorrow I'm removing the bio balls and will list all the chemicals and additives that I have at my disposal first thing first, do I have to much in my tank to cycle? how often should I do water changes and test? ....help me make a sucess outta this 10 gallon box i also downloaded reefcon 2000 to help me keep track of everything. if there is a better program that is free let me know please thanks for looking Ian Link to comment
reefone Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 1st i see no power heads in the tank. if the filter is the only water movement it isnt enough. u say u have alot of chemicals at ur disposal. if u r not testing dont dose. with only a 10g tank weekly water changes with a good salt will be enough that u shouldnt need to dose. why would u need to cycle if ur tank is set up and u have a fish in it? oh yea Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 well that damsel is a throw away, I plan on keeping a frog fish down the line I know that using a damsel is a cruel way to cycle a tank because of its hardyness but to be perfectly honest I just don't like the lil guy. the tank was literally set up over night, well in 4-5 hours. my last tank crashed and just replaced the sand bed and LR and transfer over the survivors. as for power heads I'm think of getting a wave maker kit, maybe next pay. any recommendations for wave maker kits? I know I'm looking at 300 bucks for a kit. any cheaper ones out there? / any favorites for regular power heads? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- any recommendations for a good test kit? I just realized that the kit I have expired. Link to comment
reefone Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 i like the koralia power heads. they put out a nice wide flow. the nano or k1 would work good for you. as for test kits i dont test to often i just keep up on my water changes and everything is doing fine. if u just need a kit for cycling look at the api kits. Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 oh send it back to the lfs at least domino damsels rock. frogfish would be a little big and messy for that tank I think. bio balls don't really help build coralline, I don't really get the connection. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Don't waste your money on a wave maker, your tank is too small....just get a koralia nano and place it where you will get some opposing flow. Start removing the bio balls now....a few a day until they are gone...don't remove them all at once or you risk a spike in Nitrate. You can cycle your tank without fish...just a CUC works great. I am no expert, but I set my tanks up like this: Lay egg crate on bare glass bottom of tank. Place LR Add LS Add mixed and tested RO/DI water set to SG 1.025 and PH 8.3 Add CUC at 1.5 per gallon..mix of hermits, Nass and Cerith Set Lighting at 10 hours per day Feed CUC pellets on 3 day intervals until algae appears then stop feeding. Monitor Amm, Nit, Nat every day, watching for the Amm spike. Once those 3 params return to 0, cycle is complete. 30 days after initial start perform 25% WC 1 month AFTER cycle you can begin adding coral 2 months AFTER cycle you can begin adding fish 10% WC weekly Top off with RO/DI daily or every other day Take all that with a grain of salt....just letting you know how I did mine. Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 my god was work terrible today, anyways.... I'm gonna remove 3 bio balls a day. I don't know what to do with the damsel, he's been with me for a while. the closest Fish shop is 30 miles away. had a slight out break of brown algae I'm assuming its diatoms the CUC is taking care of it. when I get paid I'm going to order 2 hydor nano powerheads and pick up a R/O kit. if only one will work I'll put the other in my girlfriends tank. now should I stop the weekly water changes til august? Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 ...I don't know what to do with the damsel, he's been with me for a while. the closest Fish shop is 30 miles away. ... now should I stop the weekly water changes til august? The damsel will probably be fine...a long time ago, back in the 80's, we used to cycle tanks with 3 damsels all the time...it was acceptable practice...now we use cuc so I am pretty sure the damsel will survive as he will gradually acclimate to the water conditions. As far as the WC...I would stop and monitor water params daily... Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 unfortunately I only have quick strips to test with until I get paid.... can't wait til friday, then hydors, new test kit and r/o Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 18, 2008 Author Share Posted July 18, 2008 well I ordered the hydors and they came in and they ended up being the wrong ones, they are the right size but they are the ones that only work with the wave maker kits and I don't have a wavemaker set up.... so I'm returning them. But in other news... I usually drive 45 minutes to get supplies and coral frags. and last night my girlfriend was looking on craigslist and found a guy that sells corals, live stock and supplies by appointment only and he met with my girl friend and I. NEEDLESS TO SAY his shop is AWESOME.. This guy knows his stuff, his corals are cheap and healthy and he sells premixed and tested r/o water. I picked up a kenya tree, a toady and a red mushroom rock, I'll have some photos up tomorrow. Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 19, 2008 Author Share Posted July 19, 2008 heres the toady kenya tree frag and my emerald crab with a face you can't love Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 22, 2008 Author Share Posted July 22, 2008 let me know what you think!?!?!?!?! Link to comment
EnjoiFish Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Those mushrooms are going to spread like wildfire once you get the new T5s. Link to comment
lilredneckman Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Looks good. I must have missed it. What t-5s are you getting? Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 28, 2008 Author Share Posted July 28, 2008 I'm not sure on the lights just yet, kinda low on funds... as for the FTS I'll have that up tomorrow, I'm beat from work and I'm thinkin about picking up some bulk rock and redoing my layout. ~ian Link to comment
hxcaquaman Posted July 30, 2008 Author Share Posted July 30, 2008 well yet another day of putting off the FTS, everything in my tank is ticked off except for the kenya tree, did some major changes to the tank. moved all the rocks around and all that good stuff. be on here tomorrow; ~Ian Link to comment
jazthree3 Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 I'm commenting on your tank! The pic with the 3 striped or "humbug" damsel next to the hermit crab looks soo much like a pic from my tank that I thought cyber space stole my pic! Too weird. 6 degrees of seperation.. that was weird! Link to comment
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