m109r Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Hello, After a ten year break from saltwater aquariums I decided to jump back into the game by starting out small. Over the last several months I have been putting all the pieces together for my nano setup, here is what I have going on so far: Tank:20" x 16" rimless AIO with dual 1/2" returns Filtration: Live Rock, coral & Chaeto. (No protein skimmer) Substrate: CaribSea Dry Aragonite Fiji Pink Reef Sand Salt Mix: Red Sea Coral Pro Lighting: AquaticLife T5 HO 4-Lamp Light Fixtures w/ Lunar LEDs Link to comment
KPclown Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Nice looking aquarium, I assume it is all acrylic? What are you going to use for return pumps? What does your stock list look like so far? Link to comment
m109r Posted January 2, 2010 Author Share Posted January 2, 2010 Nice looking aquarium, I assume it is all acrylic? What are you going to use for return pumps? What does your stock list look like so far? Thanks! It is made out of 3/8" acrylic. I am going to run two Eheim 600 pumps for the returns. The tank sits empty as of today, I have an order en-route from Marine Depot with everything except the live stuff. I plan to start the cycle process next weekend where I will start off with a small quantity of live rock from my LFS. The thing I am not sure of is how soon is too soon to add Cheato? Is it best to wait until the nitrates level off? Link to comment
m109r Posted January 9, 2010 Author Share Posted January 9, 2010 Here are some updated pics. I have a nagging feeling that the Eheim 600's are not going to give me the flow I am looking for. Water goes in tomorrow with live rock. Link to comment
ldballoon4 Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 Who makes the tank? looks like a good set up thus far. Personally I would not use the output elbows for flow restriction. Keep the pics coming. Link to comment
m109r Posted January 9, 2010 Author Share Posted January 9, 2010 Who makes the tank? looks like a good set up thus far. Personally I would not use the output elbows for flow restriction. Keep the pics coming. Thanks! The tank was made by John @ Advance Acrylics. I am not too excited about flow either am not sure I will keep the line-loc. The goal is to hide all plumbing in the display area and I am sure that I will make several changes as I go. Link to comment
m109r Posted January 11, 2010 Author Share Posted January 11, 2010 Updates: Added water Saturday: Note: Added small HOB filter for the start-up. Once it's moving along it's gone. Let the seeding begin. Added 6 lb live rock today. Did a few water test today to get back in the swing of using water test. SG: 1.023 (I Opted for the Refractometer instead of the swing arm that I am use to, what a difference!) PH: 8.2 Ammonia 0.25 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Phosphate: 0 DKH: 9 KH (PPM): 161.1 Calcium: 440 Link to comment
violinist Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 I know you'll add more, but damn if it doesn't look absolutely perfect with just that one piece of LR Link to comment
naw707 Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Really nice looking tank. Link to comment
imcosmokramer Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 love the simplicity of the aquascaping. Link to comment
m109r Posted January 11, 2010 Author Share Posted January 11, 2010 I know you'll add more, but damn if it doesn't look absolutely perfect with just that one piece of LR Really nice looking tank. love the simplicity of the aquascaping. Thanks for the comments! It does look quite simple, I may stick with the less is more approach and see where it gets me. I am not planning on running a protein skimmer, do you think this is enough rock to support the biological filtration process? You have me thinking though, I may play around with the idea of one or two bigger rocks instead of a bunch of smaller pieces. Link to comment
violinist Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 I would think it depends on your (planned) bioload. Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 +1. You can have less than the general guideline for 1-1.5 lbs per gallon, but in that case you should treat the tank as if it were smaller when considering livestock (i.e. as a 6 gallon tank because there are 6 lbs of rock). Link to comment
m109r Posted January 16, 2010 Author Share Posted January 16, 2010 Update: New light fixture. Still no signs of ammonia?!?!?!?! Tomorrow will be seven days.. Link to comment
violinist Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 Looks awesome, man. What do you plan on stocking it with? Link to comment
HernandezJ35 Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 awesome tank...looks really cool got any plans stocking wise? Link to comment
m109r Posted January 16, 2010 Author Share Posted January 16, 2010 Thanks! I am going to play it safe with mushrooms well after the break in process. If all goes well with keeping mushrooms I would like to add a few varieties of zoanthids. Fish will be the last addition and I am leaning towards a pair of Yellow Clown Gobies with a short invert list of a pair of sexy shrimp. Link to comment
sjaded Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 Nice, clean and very well done. Throw some food in it. Get nasty with it to start the cycle. Link to comment
m109r Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share Posted January 17, 2010 Nice, clean and very well done. Throw some food in it. Get nasty with it to start the cycle. Thanks! I took your advice and got "Nasty" with it. lol Added more live rock yesterday, paid a whole lot more but got way better quality. I did find a Stomatopod that made it's home in one of the rocks, the jury is out as to whether I will keep him or not. A night excursion with flash light in hand turned up several brittle stars and tiny bugs all over the place. Link to comment
m109r Posted February 6, 2010 Author Share Posted February 6, 2010 Update: Close to my one month anniversary and after testing almost every other day I never did see any evidence of a chemical cycle. I did run into some algae growth in the usual areas so I added a CUC last weekend. One huge turbo snail and ten hermits cleaned things up nicely. I went a different direction on fish and picked up a pair of fire fish and started my coral collection with a mushroom rock. So far I have been pretty happy with this setup but already planning/looking for a larger tank. I still have a long way to go with adding more rock but here are some current pics. Link to comment
quickfinger Posted June 30, 2010 Share Posted June 30, 2010 any updates on this? It's a great looking little tank Link to comment
m109r Posted June 30, 2010 Author Share Posted June 30, 2010 any updates on this? It's a great looking little tank Thanks! The tank is on cruise control and looks a little different from my last update. Here is a link to RC that has more updated info/Pics that also has not been updated in a long time... Nano Blog Looking at this RC thread I can not believe how much the few corals I have grown, I will take some more pics this weekend of the tank in it's current state and post them here. In addition to the Nano I got the bug to go bigger so I started up an aggressive 55G FOWLR. Inhabitants so far, Clown Trigger, Niger Trigger and a lonesome Green Chromis. I will post us some shots of that one as well. Link to comment
m109r Posted July 3, 2010 Author Share Posted July 3, 2010 Here are some pics: New Toy........... Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.