Noob - 2.5g

[Captain]

GSP= Green Star Polyp

Rics= Ricordia

Zoa= Zoanthid

[Banisher of Hope]

Thanks

[Captain]

np.

[Tentacles]

np.

nice idea! never thought of them but gsp sound so perfect in a pico

[circusordie16]

jsut dont let the gsp grow too much, im running in to a problem lately where some corals just look too big. and gsp really likes to grow haha.

[Matty1124]

could you put the gsp on an island of live rock in the sand? would this contain thier growth?

 

asking cause i was thinking of putting them in my 10gal but dont want them growing/spreading everywhere

[circusordie16]

yup that will stop them from spreading.

[15-and-6-GAL-NANO]

Here is the link to the light that you should buy..

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighti...mp_fixtures.asp

 

I used 2 of these fixtures and took them apart and mounted them into a custom made canopy.

 

as for the fish and inverts 4 hermits might be too many. and I have a peppermint shrimp in mine and he does just fine. I think that the volcano shrimp that you are talking about is a fire shrimp and they are not reef safe. I would not put a fish in there because you have to feed them and the more food you put in there the worse your water will be. I never feed anything in my tank all of my corals are photosynthetic except for a gorgonian and a chili coral but I take them out once every week and a half and feed them in another tank.

[Banisher of Hope]

As to the lighting, i did buy that hood. i bought the hermits and the peppermint shrimp to clear out my aitasia problem, which appears to be taken care of. I've also heard that simple doing a water change after weekly feeding keeps the water conditions fine. As to the shimp, i was not thinking of the fire shrimp (Lysmata debelius) but of the volcano shrimp (Halocaridina rubra). They are not a common type of shrimp.

 

Now as to the tank, i am going to build a 1g fuge with very simple spillover return, and fountain pump. This is mostly going to be for the Cheato, and some other macros i have, and a place to hide equipment. thought/suggentions? the tank i bought for this experimental fuge is the this...

[Banisher of Hope]

well, i couldn't wait for my fuge, my lfs got in a shipment of coral, and i had to go buy some. I picked up a rock of hairy mushroom, and a rock of zoas. i'll post pics once everything opens up.

[Banisher of Hope]

ok, i couldn't wait for zoas to open, so here are some pictures anyways.

 

^here is a picture of the fuge i made (i bought a coralife 20w 50/50 bulb, but i don't have anything to screw it into yet)

 

^FTS water still a little cloudy

 

 

^my new hairy mushrooms

 

^and my upopened zoa

[a1rabbit]

lol, I have 2 of those 1g tanks! I had them for bettas awhile ago and now use them for a ton of stuff for the salt water. Actually, the hood that came with it is now used to light my fuge (ac110 modded). I gutted the inside of the hood and zip strapped a new light in it from my 3g pico that I don't use, on the pico (in my sig) im useing the same light you have for this.

 

Here pics of the hood for my fuge.

 

 

I cut a peice of acrylic to fit the bottom of the light fixture and siliconed it on to keep out moisture. As you know the origional light is much smaller.

[Banisher of Hope]

that's a good idea, i was wonder what i was going to use for the light.

[a1rabbit]

that's a good idea, i was wonder what i was going to use for the light.

 

 

For now I'd just use the light that came with it, it's better than nothing for growing macro. That lets you use the hood that came with it, a bit nicer to look at. Stick your plumbing through the small lid on the front perhaps and the cords out the back of it where the slots are cut.

 

Might work.

 

May I ask how that fuge is setup? How is it spilling over and how is it pumping back with the fountain pump? I ask because you don't want to come home or wake up one day to the thing having sucked out all the water from one of the two tanks and overflowing the other one...

[Banisher of Hope]

it basicy just works like a big HOB. The pump moves water into the fuge, and there is a little section of the tank cutout where the water goes back into the tank. The power going out was a big concen of mine.

[Banisher of Hope]

Ok, new question, I just did another water test, it appears that i have an ammonia spike. I don't know what has caused this. What could this be? Is it something to worry about? It was quite high 0.5 ppm. thoughts.

[a1rabbit]

Ok, new question, I just did another water test, it appears that i have an ammonia spike. I don't know what has caused this. What could this be? Is it something to worry about? It was quite high 0.5 ppm. thoughts.

 

 

I'm not really sure..

 

Have you added anything to the tank recently?

Whats the last thing(s) you added?

Could you list whats already in it?

How often are you doing water changes, and how much?

[Banisher of Hope]

Uhm, in my tank right now there is an astrea snail, 4 blue-leg hermit, 1 red-leg hermit, and rock of zoas, a rock of hairy mushroom, and two single mushrooms. The last hing i added to the tank was about 2.5 mL of live Nannochloropsis Oculata (which is appearently pass is best before date). I do maybe 0.5-1 L a week w/c. I'm heading off to class now, but when i get back tonight i'll do another water test.

 

(on a side note, everything seem to be happy, the mushroom, and the zoas are open, and i think there are two SMALL hitchhiking starfish on the hairy mushroom rock.)

[circusordie16]

why did you add the Nannochloropsis Oculata?

[Banisher of Hope]

my lfs guy told me a couple drops a day help to kick start the alge growth in a new tank. he said it what he did for his two 2.5, and his 5.5 .

 

Also I just did a test, and NO2- = 0ppm, NO3 =0ppm and ammonia is down to around .125ppm and pH is around 7.8~7.9

[circusordie16]

hmmm, i dunno if that would cause an ammonia spike but you probably dont need to add it. i dont really know what benefits it would provide and almost all tanks on here thrive without adding anything. i dunno where else the ammonia would come from if nothing died and you didnt add any new live rock or anything.

[Banisher of Hope]

yeah, well, the ammonia seems to be dropping, and i don't see a spike in anything else, so it seems to be getting back to normal. And after i added the green water i got some interesting algea, so it might have added some diversity, i dunno. also, i was thinking of buying some live rootifer next time i was in also, has anyone tried this, the lfs guy said it can promote mushroom splitting.

[circusordie16]

i personally wouldnt add any food to the tank because zoas and shrooms will spread plenty fast on their own and you can always propagate shrooms easy enough if you really want. i think that adding rotifers to such a small tank would create more of a nutrient problem than a growth benefit.

[Banisher of Hope]

ok, i've stopped feeding the tank anything. Now i have some more questions, there is what looks like a mold on my poylps, and some of my hairy mushs are lossing there colour. thoughts. Should i be conceerned?

[15-and-6-GAL-NANO]

Man, I would change LFS's on a small tank you dont need to add anything at all if you do water changes often, if you only change it once a month or so I would add KENT marine nano part A & B but NO FOOD! everything that you have is photosynthetic and lives off of your lights.

 

P.S. you dont want to add algae to your tank unless its some kind of macro and even then you have to stay on top of it it can grow like crazy too. In a really small reef you should only add things that are photosynthetic unless you have a fuge big enough to handle all of the extra nutrients from food and stay away from adding anything that is supposed to put a diversity of anything in there, you need to be able to control everything that goes into your tank. my recommendation for starting off is zoa, shrooms, and some easy LPS like calustrea.