My 8 gallon nano-borg tank

[metrokat]

Buuuuuuuut you have a bigger tank. How many months' worth of detritus is that?

Many. I want to say about 2 months worth, maybe more. And remember I feed like it's going out of style.

[FlowerMama]

What an incredible showpiece- no doubt that you can do anything you want w/ any pets. I'm new to this, only 3 mos, have an Aq Evo 8 which really is only like 6.5 gallons but one of my questions is once it's filled up, you really arent' able to stir the sand or anything so how does it stay clean? or do you just somehow vacuum the corals that the detritus lands on?

[metrokat]

Gravel vacs are great to get detritus out of the sand bed. Use a turkey baster to blow off crap from rocks.

[Herptile]

Many. I want to say about 2 months worth, maybe more. And remember I feed like it's going out of style.

 

Oh. How often do you remove detritus and and how long was the tank running before you started to do it? I'm trying out your suggestion of increased feeding now.

 

 

What an incredible showpiece- no doubt that you can do anything you want w/ any pets. I'm new to this, only 3 mos, have an Aq Evo 8 which really is only like 6.5 gallons but one of my questions is once it's filled up, you really arent' able to stir the sand or anything so how does it stay clean? or do you just somehow vacuum the corals that the detritus lands on?

 

Thank you. It helps if you have Nassarius snails or some other type of animal that regularly turns your sand. I do vacuum the uppermost layer of the sand and even between the sps branches and zoa polyps. I use a bendable drinking straw attached to air tubing to reach tight spaces.

[metrokat]

Oh. How often do you remove detritus and and how long was the tank running before you started to do it? I'm trying out your suggestion of increased feeding now.

I gravel vac once every couple of months but I really should do more than that given how much I feed. I started the detritus removal maybe 3-4 months into the tank being established.

[Herptile]

I gravel vac once every couple of months but I really should do more than that given how much I feed. I started the detritus removal maybe 3-4 months into the tank being established.

 

I started at the 1-year mark and vacuum every week since. I don't have a sump so I thought it was even more urgent that I remove as much and as often as I could. I guess I better show some restraint then. Thanks. Oh and congrats on your clowns.

[markalot]

I started at the 1-year mark and vacuum every week since. I don't have a sump so I thought it was even more urgent that I remove as much and as often as I could. I guess I better show some restraint then. Thanks. Oh and congrats on your clowns.

 

I vacuum every other week, and the change water is a nasty nasty grey brown, and smelly. I don't have a real sump either, just a too small HOB refugium/skimmer.

[Herptile]

I vacuum every other week, and the change water is a nasty nasty grey brown, and smelly. I don't have a real sump either, just a too small HOB refugium/skimmer.

 

Will you add one? For a future build, I'm going AIO. It won't be more than 20 gallons and I don't have room for a sump anymore. I'll check your thread out.

[markalot]

Will you add one? For a future build, I'm going AIO. It won't be more than 20 gallons and I don't have room for a sump anymore. I'll check your thread out.

 

No, I won't, no real sumps for me, just skimmers and DIY fuges to help, and lots of water changes. Buying my second 32 gallon Brute garbage can and wheels this week, so I can have more saltwater on hand. Two 32 gallon cans take up less space than my old collection of 5 gallon buckets.

[Polarcollision]

Oh No! So sorry to hear about the temperature problems. My heart dropped reading the news right along with ya. You're not alone in starving out corals - I did something similar with mine trying to prevent algae. If it helps, I took Kat's advice to make the water cloudy with food once a week just before water change. It helped a lot.

 

The birdsnest still has good polyp extension and there's hope for it. When I added Brightwell's Amino acids and KoralKolor, everything that survived starvation maintenance has colored back up and is growing well. I also started adding a bacteria supplement to help process the increased foods and waste. With the high temps, you might be seeing a bit of bacteria die-off as well?

 

The tank still looks great despite the challenges - which says a lot about your reef! Lots of great textures and coral variety. I still think it is one of the best aquariums on this forum. :-) Just love looking at it!

 

How big are those snakes? The eggs look almost like chicken eggs.

 

Thanks! Well, bad news first. The tank has seen better days. I lost all my xeniid corals, including my beloved Cespitularia that I've had for over a year. In fact, the Anthelia withered even faster than the Xenias I had before. What they had in common was they both did well and grew for a while. After reading Zeph's Batman cave thread, I most likely starved out my corals (even the sps) due to too much (?) detritus removal, water changes and carbon use. Some of the zoas shrunk and I even lost some nass snails in the process. I also think that the hot summer had something to do with it. My temps climbed to mid 80'sF despite having the fan and a room fan directed at the surface. It wasn't like this last year.

 

Here's my bleached birdnest.

 

Here's what the tank looks like now right after a water change. You can see it was a lot nicer looking before.

 

I've thought about addressing these problems by:

 

1. increased feeding,

2. removing the carbon or

3. less frequent and/or less volume water changes (maybe just enough to get the detritus out).

 

I think I'll go with number 3, unless anyone has a better idea. I'd appreciate any and all tips. Thanks.

 

For non-tank related good news, Tiny laid her third clutch a month ago.

 

Then her daughter Three had her first clutch last week.

[metrokat]

Herp, off topic question. You have 2 female pythons I guess since they're laying eggs. How do they breed? Do you have to have a male also or is it like chickens where a hen can lay eggs forever with out without a rooster being around? And what do you do with the offspring?

[FlowerMama]

Thanks for the suggestion on the straw and tubing. great idea.

 

Oh, and how perfect is that python wrapped around her eggs.

[Herptile]

 

No, I won't, no real sumps for me, just skimmers and DIY fuges to help, and lots of water changes. Buying my second 32 gallon Brute garbage can and wheels this week, so I can have more saltwater on hand. Two 32 gallon cans take up less space than my old collection of 5 gallon buckets.

 

I still have one of those old AquaClears, an AC300 that still works. I might just get a 15-20 gallon and do a fuge mod on the AC300 if I get impatient. Larger tanks like yours that work even without sumps inspire me. I'll resist the temptation of course but we'll see. I have two 6-gallon buckets myself.

 

 

Oh No! So sorry to hear about the temperature problems. My heart dropped reading the news right along with ya. You're not alone in starving out corals - I did something similar with mine trying to prevent algae. If it helps, I took Kat's advice to make the water cloudy with food once a week just before water change. It helped a lot.

 

The birdsnest still has good polyp extension and there's hope for it. When I added Brightwell's Amino acids and KoralKolor, everything that survived starvation maintenance has colored back up and is growing well. I also started adding a bacteria supplement to help process the increased foods and waste. With the high temps, you might be seeing a bit of bacteria die-off as well?

 

The tank still looks great despite the challenges - which says a lot about your reef! Lots of great textures and coral variety. I still think it is one of the best aquariums on this forum. :-) Just love looking at it!

 

How big are those snakes? The eggs look almost like chicken eggs.

 

Thanks for your confidence, it helps a lot. To think I was proud of myself for removing all that gunk. Too much of a good thing, eh? I'm trying out Kat's advice, too. Unfortunately those coral foods/supplements you mentioned aren't available at any of the LFS here. I'll try looking for them in another city. I'm sure the higher temps negatively affected the tank (and me!). I was thinking a mini El Nino is happening in my tank.

 

Tiny is a little over 4 feet, Three is around 3 feet. The eggs are bigger than chicken eggs but aren't as firm.

 

Your nano is also coming along awesomely.

 

 

Herp, off topic question. You have 2 female pythons I guess since they're laying eggs. How do they breed? Do you have to have a male also or is it like chickens where a hen can lay eggs forever with out without a rooster being around? And what do you do with the offspring?

 

Thanks Kat. Breeding season usually starts in October-December. I put the males in for 3 days, remove them for 3 days and put them back in until they quit mating. During mating they remain locked together for hours (longest I observed was more than a day - talk about staying power ). They usually won't eat during the entire process. My geckos would occasionally lay eggs without a male but my snakes never did. It's taxing to produce eggs and I think they just reabsorb any eggs if they don't get fertilized. Tiny and Three (both normal morphs) were mated with a spider ball and a pastel ball, respectively. Over there in the US breeders usually take the eggs and place them in an incubator but over here in the tropics it's hot enough (sometimes too hot) to allow the moms to incubate their eggs naturally as they would in the wild (maternal incubation). They also usually won't eat until the eggs hatch in 2 months. Not a problem for them. Ball pythons are known for going off their food for a looooong time (Tiny didn't eat for 6 months when she was around 1 year old and was completely fine). I just breed for the hobby and sell or trade the babies. For this clutch, I'm hoping to get some proceeds to fund a tank upgrade.

 

Here's some mating pics.

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the straw and tubing. great idea.

 

Oh, and how perfect is that python wrapped around her eggs.

 

You're welcome. Here's some pics of Tiny's second clutch in 2011.

 

The babies. There were 7 pastels and 7 normals.

 

 

 

I kept the only female pastel (she and a normal were the only 2 females in the clutch) and named her Sofetel, which is short for solo female pastel. Here she is now with my bearded dragon.

[mejamis]

WOW! Nice!

[Herptile]

Thanks.

[metrokat]

That was a cool thing to read and see. wow. I hope you will forgive me but I could never do that! But I am fascinated. So you have 2 adult females and 2 males that belong to you permanently or you borrow the males?

[Herptile]

That was a cool thing to read and see. wow. I hope you will forgive me but I could never do that! But I am fascinated. So you have 2 adult females and 2 males that belong to you permanently or you borrow the males?

 

Thanks Kat. I bet we both felt the same when your clowns spawned and my snakes laid eggs. Let's see, I've had Tiny since 2006 when she was 2 months old. Her daughter Three was born in 2009. Then I got Happy (the male pastel) and Bright Eyes (the male spider) in 2009. Sofetel, Tiny and Happy's pastel daughter, was born in 2011. So I hope this year's eggs will turn out OK, too. I hope you also take a crack at raising fry.

[eitallent]

So sorry to hear about the issues with the tank. It is so frustrating when things go awry and difficult to know what caused it. However, in the picture you posted the tank still looks beautiful. I love it.

 

I am learning from your experiences. Kat, Mark and the others are really giving some good insight.

 

My Xenia also suffered a set back when I changed lights. I guess some are just sensitive to certain things. It is now doing and looking a bit better.

I also tried not changing water as much to see what would happen, but the alkalinity got used up too quickly. I started dosing a little to get it back up so that when I did a water change it would not throw everyone in the tank for a loop. I am back to doing small frequent water changes because that is how my tank seems to like it. The fish in the tank have been great through out it all.

[metrokat]

I kept the only female pastel (she and a normal were the only 2 females in the clutch) and named her Sofetel, which is short for solo female pastel. Here she is now with my bearded dragon.

More ignoramus questions. Won't the python want to squeeze the lizard and have him for a snack? Ha, at least I know pythons squeeze. Go me.

[Herptile]

So sorry to hear about the issues with the tank. It is so frustrating when things go awry and difficult to know what caused it. However, in the picture you posted the tank still looks beautiful. I love it.

 

I am learning from your experiences. Kat, Mark and the others are really giving some good insight.

 

My Xenia also suffered a set back when I changed lights. I guess some are just sensitive to certain things. It is now doing and looking a bit better.

I also tried not changing water as much to see what would happen, but the alkalinity got used up too quickly. I started dosing a little to get it back up so that when I did a water change it would not throw everyone in the tank for a loop. I am back to doing small frequent water changes because that is how my tank seems to like it. The fish in the tank have been great through out it all.

 

Thank you. I really like Xenia but I've given up on keeping them in this tank. Maybe when I set up another one. My fish have also been fine. It's strange that I see some other reefers here who have tanks that are "too clean" to the point that even their sps suffer. I'm taking the others' suggestions into account. Here's to our tanks' recovery.

 

 

More ignoramus questions. Won't the python want to squeeze the lizard and have him for a snack? Ha, at least I know pythons squeeze. Go me.

 

Naw, he beardie is too big. The snake only eats rodents, too. I was there to make sure nothing happened. That was just for a photo-op. The snake only eats rodents, too.

[I4O9]

Wow, man. I knew you liked reptiles but right now my jealousy is overwhelming. I'm in love with your tank right now, far better than what I can expect to put together.

[Herptile]

Thanks. Yep I love my reptiles. Not true. You're still young and have lots of time on your hands, while I'm on my way down.

[I4O9]

Well, anytime in the near future, that is. Thanks for the words of wisdom. But youth also tends to come with impatience, which is pretty much a nano-reef's worst nightmare.

[User Deleted 2]

Herptile, you have a beautiful tank! I did an elective in Zoology whilst doing my BSc in Medical Bioscience, and it was a wonderful subject. Gotta admit I'm envious of your degree. You have a great collection of animals as well - but I love your tank the most. And the cute lil' hedgehog.

[metrokat]

I didn't see a hedgehog, I saw a cute mouse. Maybe he was snake food.