Claw's first 10 gallon nano

[claw]

What size substrate would everyone recommend? I know the Jawfish needs some rubble, and someone on NR has offered to help me with that, but should the rest also be larger pieces, or is the small, fine grain stuff better? The Petco has some options, as well as live rock (it should be cured if it is in their display tanks, right?) that would really save me on shipping.

 

Thanks

[yardboy]

My personal preference is oolitic sand, the smallest grain available. It has the greatest surface area per unit volume, for bacterial colonization to help with filtration. Plus if you have a jawfish he'll help keep it sifted and looking good. Just throw some rubble around and he'll line his tunnels with it to make it more stable. Might want to consider this also.

Sorry if it's a repeat, haven't read your whole thread yet.

[twichstile]

Welcome to Nano-Reef!!

Go with less to no crabs-stay away from bumble bees.

T5HO is a cost effective compromise, LEDs are outta MY budget

Yeah, you want your fuge to be 3-5x turnover rate

I've ordered from bluezooaquatics.com in California shipped to my house in Florida. Everything did well but i'm sure the shipping cost definitely puts the "out the door" at or above retail. But it was all quality/healthy stuff.

Jawfish NEED A SUPER TIGHT LID!!!

PVC jawhead house is a great idea, it may take him a couple few months to find it but youll love it when he does, by the way dont compromise at all to the TIger Jawhead, the Tiger is super aggressive-now the Bluespot is my fav,(never had a Pearly Jaw)

Clownfish you can drop pellets, flake or mysis in the tank. The Jawfish IME you have to target feed.

Skunks cleaner shrimp aren't CUC, Sexies are purely aesthetic and may get lost in 10 gallon but they would have better odds than the 20L I put 3 into....you will have to feed them pellets-they are not cleaners.

Wait 8 months before an Anemone.

I have mixed fine sand with larger sand for the Jawhead, gotta give him some excercise...also: you are going to want a DEEP sand bed for that joker! I had 4" in my 20L and now 3" in my 55gal. Besides you'll need that deep anyhow to be able to bury the PVC jawhead house.

[claw]

Thanks to both yardboy and twichstile, you guys were very helpful. I looked around at various designs for jawfish houses, and some people used just a piece of PVC with and end cap (straight) vs the loop as in the post on NR. Do people know of any major differences?

 

I'll go with pretty light sand and a spattering of rubble. As for lids for jawfish, I was planning on doing a glass lid with an eggcrate cover for the back where the HOB enters. Would this work? If not, would a finer screen work better? I think I'll grab some LR while I'm home and bring it back to Montana. It's cheap enough, I can't see why not.

[yardboy]

I unfortunately was shocked at how small of a hole they can jump through.

[claw]

Alright guys, let's play the "What if" game. What if I bought some cured live rock from an established system, then put it in a bucket for two days? What if both those days were in a car that got cold at night? It doesn't seem like it can do too much damage, but will it cause everything to do a full long cycle again? It can't be any worse than buying uncured rock, right?

[yardboy]

It wouldn't be any worse that uncured liverock, but then that's the worst anyway.

If you are trying to get another piece of rock into your already established tank, I'd suggest at least curing it in a bucket at home with the water you take from your tank during water changes. Does several changes with the temp regulated and a powerhead moving it around and see what happens. If after a week or two it looks okay then move it into your established tank. I know that sounds very cautious, but depending on what livestock you already have in the tank, putting uncured rock in there could kill it. I tend to assume the worst and try and avoid that.

[claw]

Yardboy, I am just now setting up a tank so I don't have an established tank. However, I can get some LR right now while on my christmas vacation from an established tank. I'm wondering what would happen if it is in a bucket in the car for the ride home. Like you said, no matter what it won't be worse than uncured, but just curious as to what will be the situation. This way would save me some cash on shipping too.

[yardboy]

Oh. In that case, go for it. If the water the rock is in doesn't freeze I doubt you'll even lose any hitchhikers.

[claw]

Okay everyone, here is my latest question.

 

I have a HOB filter that I was planning on making into a fuge. I also want to put my heater back in the fuge. This is a penguin filter with two spouts, one on either side of the intake tube. I was hoping to have a heater on one side and a big ball of chaeto on the other, however, the heater has to lay across one side and partly into the intake tube area. So, would it be ok to put a piece of Plexiglass on the one side, channeling water to come up through the chaeto? I'm worried that the water will follow the least resistance to an extreme and flow only through the heater side and not at all through the other.

 

Any ideas? Should I just do it? Should I avoid all the plexi and still throw the chaeto in? Thanks!

[yardboy]

Yes. Try anything and see if it works. If not, try something else and see how it works. If the chaeto isn't in a totally dead zone it wil extract nutrients out of the water and do it's desired work.

While water does travel the path of least resistance, there might be several paths it will flow in. Every hole I've ever poked in a tank would allow water to come out!

[claw]

Alright, salinity is at 1.025, LR is in, sand has to be resent but is on the way. Let the cycle begin! Pics coming later. Thanks everyone!

[claw]

I bought some dry rock from a member on nano-reef, and another member sold me some live sand. Now I know most people like to seed the dry rock with premium live rock, but can live sand work as well? It says good until 9/2010. Is there any other way to seed or start the good bacteria in a tank than buy some premium live rock? Since I don't have a LFS, ordering premium live rock makes me nervous on it's "liveliness". Any help is great, and here is my FTS just before sand!

 

[yardboy]

Since the live sand has an expiration date, I'm guessing that it didn't come from someone elses tank but was bagged live sand, which in my opinion isn't worth much anyway. If you order rock from some reputable online vendor you can get really nice stuff. I ordered mine from Foster and Smith years ago and it was better and cheaper than anything I see in my lfs.

You might want to check out these guys if you haven't already. They're relatively close to you and they have had great success using homemade rock. I bought some stuff from them years ago, but not anything recently.

[claw]

Thanks for the tip on GARF.org. I've never heard of them.

 

Has anyone else used this HOB filter? Is it supposed to be friggin loud? I since I don't have anything in there yet, I moved the heater to the tank and have just the koralia running. Is there anything i should inspect on it? I sounds like the impeller is catching the sides of the intake tube but I can't seem to wiggle the tube and get it to stop. Is it cavitation? Any help would be appreciated, otherwise it is going to have to go.

 

Would just a koralia 1 be enough for a 10 gallon? I'm still thinking perc and jawfish for the fish, and zoas, rics, and maybe one hammer coral.

 

Thanks for any help!

[claw]

Bump. What would work for flow? I just want to keep Rics and zoas, with a slight chance of hammer, but decreasing every day.

[yardboy]

I'm sure a Korallia one would work well for flow, though sadly they can be obtrusive in a 10 gallon tank.

Why are your desires for a hammer, "decreasing every day"?

[claw]

The Koralia isn't nearly as obtrusive as the constant whacking sound of the HOB. However now the heater has to be in the tank...but still I prefer that.

 

The hammer just grows pretty big. I really want the fish to be the main thing in the tank with some bright colored rics and zoas to be the coral for the tank. When I see people do the same thing plus a hammer or frogspawn in a ten gallon it always seems to get so big. Do they not frag or is it really hard to frag these corals? I would have no problem doing that but I just don't want a coral to get out of hand when my tank is so limiting already.

[yardboy]

I doubt there is any coral easier to frag than a hammer. Particularly a branching one. The split and go their seperate ways on the branch and just snapping the polyps off is all it takes.

[claw]

Is there somewhere on here I can see other people's in tank fuge? The almighty search button and google aren't bringing up a whole lot other than the Drs Foster&Smith. I've heard a soap dish works but can't find pictures. How bad is it to have the chaeto in the same tank and on the same lighting schedule? I would like some extra life for the fish (NO MANDARIN) so let's keep the shouting down if we can

 

The HOB was going to hold it but I would rather have a quieter tank since it has been running so loud.

[claw]

Still no tips on in tank fuges. However, I did get some gorgeous live rock today. Turns out there is a small fish store in town, actually run out of a guy's house. He may be getting some awesome lighting for cheap too. Not to mention he has some jawfish and plenty of clownfish for sale.

 

Still no great source for zoa and rics.

[claw]

Nothing exciting but here is the update: In the last 8 days, I have added the piece of premium rock and that is it. I don't have a test kit yet, I figured I could look for a diatom bloom and save the money for now. The K1 powerhead is blowing fairly well and the tank is kept between 75 and 78 degrees. It should blow up with blooms and I can at least get a few snails in there in the next couple weeks, right? I'm getting anxious, which I know is everyone's problem during this cycling bit.

 

Thanks for keeping an eye on this!

[yardboy]

Keep patient.

You won't really be able to tell when the cycle is over without a kit. Or just bring a water sample to the lfs and ask them to run nitrate for you. If you wait long enough you will be able to only do it once to verify that your cycle is complete.

 

 

Think about what you want your tank to be while waiting. Maybe this will help.]

http://glassbox-design.com/wp-content/uplo...-reef-scene.jpg

[claw]

So I just bought a test kit today. I found my Ph is about 8.3 (between the 8.2 and 8.4)

Ammonia to be between 0 and .25 so I guess .125

Nitrite to be 0...dead on 0

Nitrate is I guess 5 or 10..they look so close I can't really decide which one.

 

What do you all think? Since I only started on January 20 with dead rock, and then added small piece of primo rock on Feb 3rd. Do you guys think my tank hasn't cycled yet or what? No huge diatom bloom either. Since the numbers seem somewhat low I just want to know if I should order a CUC or what. Thanks for helping and following!!

[yardboy]

CUC when there's something to clean up!