ThePhilosopher Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 FTS as at 18/04/2012: FTS as at 23/04/2012: I consider this tank to be my little pet project and exotic ornament, almost like a living portrait. For that reason I opted to place it on my desk which is located inside my room, where it can easily be viewed from both my bed and desk. After a whole month of research on the topic, I decided to bring in my first saltwater nano tank, a Haqos Kit7 Deluxe. The water used is RO/DI and the salt mix is H2OceanPro. Parameters: 5 US gallon/ 20 litre tank 2 Kg Fiji live rock 2.5 Kg white quartz sand 50 watt heater (hidden in filter at the back of the tank) Specific gravity: 1.0235 Temperature: 25.5C/ 78F Lighting: 2X 13 watt 10,000k/15,000k powercompacts Light is on for approximately 12 hours a day I attempt to spot-feed all "feedable" corals with cyclops and shrimp every week, which has led to some much desired growth, from what I can see. Dosing consists of one drop of Iodine weekly and 5ml of Calcium daily (after lights out so as not to adversely affect tank parameters). Any recommendations will be seriously considered. Thanking you all in advance. Link to comment
Jakub.R Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 How did you figure out your salt level without a hydrometer? Do you plan on keeping corals? Other than that it looks good and its going to become an addiction, not a hobby, LOL. OOps edit: You should be fine with some soft corals like zoas and other polyps but thats it with that lighting. It all depends on what you want to do if you want the activated carbon or not, right now i would just let the aquarium cycle and leave it alone. The detoxifiers for the metals shouldnt really matter, i guess it could be seen as a saftey net of some sorts but as long as you are using ro/di water than there shouldnt be any metal leaching. The polyp looks fine and i would let it grow, but thats me... To tell you the truth it looks like a sponge to me. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 How did you figure out your salt level without a hydrometer? Do you plan on keeping corals? Other than that it looks good and its going to become an addiction, not a hobby, LOL. Oh. Stupid me. Please excuse me, it's getting late here :/ I meant refractometer, not hydrometer. I already have a hydrometer Yes, I do plan on keeping corals, mostly soft corals like Zoanthids and mushrooms, but I may venture into LPS territory and get a brain coral if my lighting is adequate. And I know all about the addiction, dont't you worry. I've had long enough to get addicted to my freshwater tank. Link to comment
Jakub.R Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 The refractometer would be a worthy investment, but if you only plan on keeping shrooms and zoas than there really isnt a point and the hydrometer should do you good. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 The refractometer would be a worthy investment, but if you only plan on keeping shrooms and zoas than there really isnt a point and the hydrometer should do you good. Thank you for your speedy replies. Expect to see a few major updates in a couple of weeks when I start stocking the tank. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 ***UPDATE*** After a whole month of cycling, I decided to add a CUC consisting of one blue legged tricolour hermit crab, 2 astrea snails and three cerith dove snails. The tricolour hermit decided to get to work right away and decided to peel off the white film that had started to build up on my coralline algae. My supposedly red coralline algae is now purple. The hermit crab is my favourite animal by far. I like him so much that I've decided to name him Paul. I've also managed to snag a view of the bristleworm in my tank: a beautiful blue bristleworm. I'll be keeping him unless he causes any problems. I decided to bring salinity down gradually, so the specific gravity is now at 1.022. Ammonia and Nitrites are 0, while Nitrate levels are so close to 0 they're negligible. Ph is 8.3 And now, without further ado, pictures: Ceriths Dove snails: Astrea, and Astrea with feather duster on shell: Paul the antillean blue legged/tricolour hermit crab: Also, some strange organism which started popping up in random places. I think they're some form of hydroid: Link to comment
.Newman. Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 your mystery organism is an athecate hydroid i think. same thing thats on your astrea's shell. the hermit isnt a blue leg, but im not sure what it is so tri color is good enough lol. those arent ceriths, they are some sort of conch possibly... Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 1, 2011 Author Share Posted July 1, 2011 your mystery organism is an athecate hydroid i think. same thing thats on your astrea's shell. the hermit isnt a blue leg, but im not sure what it is so tri color is good enough lol. those arent ceriths, they are some sort of conch possibly... I am sure the thing on the astrea's shell is a tube worm. It even retracts and all. I just called the hermit crab a blue legged because the wikipedia entry states that it's the same thing as a tricolour. Either way, I don't think I could have made a better purchase. My coralline algae has never looked better. Also, about the supposed "cerith" snails. You are absolutely correct. Turns out they're not cerith snails after all. After a few minutes of research, I'd have to conclude that they are dove snails. I highly recommend these snails either way. They eat algae and diatoms from pretty much any surface on the tank, along with the astreas. They also look really cute when they suck up any long kinds of algae which may have been left behind through their little siphon. Unlike the astreas. The astreas just demolish any algae in their way. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 *Update of relative importance* First coral! I'm actually quite excited for my first coral. I decided to go for a rock with a decent amount of mushroom corals on it. I counted 15 heads. The rock even has 3 small feather dusters on it, which I thought was a nice addition. While I'll admit the coral itself isn't exactly a stunner when compared to, say, blue ricordeas, I think its green/yellow polyps do stand out in a nice way. I was expecting my first coral to be somewhat stressed, but this one opened up in my tank in under a minute like nothing even happened. I also managed to add some actinic lighting to my tank, and even though it doesn't show on photo, the tank looks significantly more blue now. While I'm at it, I thought I'd also share a FTS and a photo of how I've managed to deal with this infernal summer. My next coral will be a favites brain coral frag which I've managed to reserve at a very reasonable price. Knowing how potent their sting can be and how aggressive the coral itself is, I'll be keeping it well away from any other corals. Does anyone here know if favites grow by encrusting the rock around them? If that is the case, should I provide my favites with a smooth rock with sufficient area to grow on, or can I just place it anywhere it will fit in? Link to comment
absolon Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Nice looking mushrooms! Things are coming along. I recently got a small brain frag and was amazed at how far its sweepers could extend for being such a short coral. Once it got comfortable in its new place it reach out and made sure there were no neighbors to close. Cant wait to see more. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 Second coral! Woo! This is the favites frag I reserved last week: Opened up like nobody's business after a few minutes, so hopefully that's a good sign. Either way, this thing has been sitting in my tank for 2 days now and it looks as healthy as it did when I purchased it. Next purchase will most likely be a skunk cleaner shrimp, so I'll keep you ladies and gentlemen updated. Link to comment
Bill Nye Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Nice looking tank. Really impressive for a saltwater newbie . Thats what doing your research gets you i guess. Will be following. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 Nice looking tank. Really impressive for a saltwater newbie . Thats what doing your research gets you i guess. Will be following. Research doesn't even begin to describe what I went through before I set up this tank. It was more like a frenzy of reef related website visits. Thanks you for your compliments, and thank you for following. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 looks like theyre happy which is what counts. great start to your tank. the mushrooms are nice ricordea yuma. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 looks like theyre happy which is what counts. great start to your tank. the mushrooms are nice ricordea yuma. Thanks. I'm kind of stuck on corals, though. Pretty much the only LFS in my country which sells coral frags halted all orders for this summer and will only be placing orders beginning this September due to the intense heat here. There aren't any companies which ship corals to here at reasonable prices, so I guess I'm pretty much stuck with these corals until September unless another LFS starts selling reasonably sized frags in the near future. The other LFSs which do import corals this time of year only import large corals on even larger rocks: the kind which would fill up half of my 5 gallon tank. So a little shrimpy for me in the near future, I guess. Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Looking great man! Like your coral and your plan to get a shrimp! Will be following this to see what this will turn into. Link to comment
Wizzy Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Coool Beaans! Subbed and can't wait to see this tank come along! Good Luck- Wizzy Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 Looking great man! Like your coral and your plan to get a shrimp! Will be following this to see what this will turn into. Coool Beaans! Subbed and can't wait to see this tank come along! Good Luck- Wizzy Thank you all. I'm trying to go for pretty much the flashiest reef tank I can, so I told the LFS to reserve a blue zoa frag for me in September. Not sure what else I want now. I've got the top layers of the rock reserved for maybe the higher light corals I can keep. I wanted to keep a hammer coral, but looking at a few pictures of its long sweeper tentacles were enough to dissuade me from ordering one. So, my question to all of you is, what corals/sponges/gorgonians/other organisms would you recommend to create a diverse and colourful environment in this tank? Also, a picture of Paul the hermit crab eating algae off an astrea snail's shell: Link to comment
michelleshusband Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 how u like ur sand? aren't they too fine? Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 how u like ur sand? aren't they too fine? The sand is extremely fine. Perhaps slightly finer than I would have liked it, but it seems to blend in well with the whole setup and I've got various organisms crawling around in it like these 2 groups of red spaghetti worms I found not long ago. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 get a purple sea fan gorg. some metallic colored shrooms too. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 get a purple sea fan gorg. some metallic colored shrooms too. I'll probably be getting a gorgonian when I can. Not too sure about the mushrooms. You have to understand that there's not much space to put corals in a 5 gallon tank, so I'm going to try and introduce various coral species, rather than different colour varieties of the same coral, where possible. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 Now I know I told you people that my main LFS won't be getting corals till like September, but I managed to find small corals at one of the LFSs I usually frequent. Being low on cash but nevertheless curious, I decided to go for a torch coral hammer coral. I know these corals aren't exactly recommended for newbies and that my setup might be more of a low-medium light one, but I thought I'd try out this inexpensive coral and see how it fares. I'm not looking to create the world's largest and fastest growing hammer coral, so I'll wait and see what develops. Also, is this thing part of the torch coral, or is it another independent organism? It's pretty quick coming in and out of its hole, so I'll assume it's not a tube worm. Its hole/home: Cleaner shrimp coming soon Link to comment
.Newman. Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 thats a hammer coral and that HH is a barnacle. Link to comment
sean.e Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Can i get a link to where you bought you light from also is it a good light Link to comment
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