Drew's 7 Gallon Nano

[seanoli]

Beautiful tank. Sorry to hear about the ATO.

[Reefkid88]

Damn,this tank looks amazing !!! That scape is VERY clean,I digs it. What sand are you using ?

 

 

You officially make me dislike my tank,and a I have the same one lol..

[reefernanoman]

Nice clean looking set up!

 

[drewgrano]

Damn,this tank looks amazing !!! That scape is VERY clean,I digs it. What sand are you using ?

 

 

You officially make me dislike my tank,and a I have the same one lol..

Thanks! Can't remember exactly what kind of sand.

 

Nice clean looking set up!

Thanks!

[drewgrano]

Okay question... can't decide if I like the new dry rock that I added in or not. Should I leave it in or take it out?

 

With

 

Without

 

I've moved a few corals around in the past week so my tank doesn't look quite like this anymore, but close enough. My GSP is doing pretty awful I think because it's kind of shaded by the new rock. So if I leave it I'll be moving the GSP. Also my zoas are struggling a bit. I'm hoping it's a lighting issue from moving to the bigger tank, but my Nanobox gets here THIS FRIDAY so we'll soon see! I am also probably going to ditch the MP10... I just can't find a placement that works that all my torches/frogspawn/hammer seem to like. Hmmm...

 

Another question - I have replaced the vinyl tubing that is connected to my MAME three times now because after about 2 days it is caked with a slimy whiteish coating? and my glass gets covered in the same thing but I'm able to clean that off semi-daily. Anyone know what it is??

[seanoli]

Unhelpful comment here but...

 

I like them both. I really like how spindly the new rock is and the way it just barely pierces the surface. I like how minimal the other scape and that it has tons of room for fungia!

[Reefkid88]

Switch. I think it adds some depth/dimension to the tank. Leaves you for more placement of coral too which is always nice.

[drewgrano]

Switch as in take out the new rock, right?

 

Maybe I'll break a small piece off to use. I like the minimalist look too but at the same time just feel like there needs to be more rock... lol

[spazizz]

Can you clone your tank? I love both aquascapes and cant chose. But the tall rock creates a very unusual tank scape that ive never seen so you got uniqueness going for you there.

[drewgrano]

Can you clone your tank? I love both aquascapes and cant chose. But the tall rock creates a very unusual tank scape that ive never seen so you got uniqueness going for you there.

 

Well, maybe sorta... I have a 3 gal that I'm going to setup at work. So maybe I can try to simulate the minimalist scape at work and keep the tall rock in this tank? lol Idk. Initially the only reason I added the extra rock was to displace flow from the mp10 but that didn't end up working so much.

[teenyreef]

For what it's worth, I like "with". It adds more interest and proportion to the scape.

[drewgrano]

Okay. I. Hate. Fish. I've gone through SIX fish, all jumpers. The first clown and goby jumped with no lid, my fault. I put an egg crate lid on and bought another clown and another goby, still managed to jump! They were both pretty small so I figured they jumped through the egg crate (which they might have idk). I finally decided to try again last night and bought my 3rd clown and 3rd goby. I used the same egg crate lid but I put plastic wrap around the edges, which is where most fish jump I assume. Well woke up this morning and they were both on the carpet. But they were both in the corner by my MAME. There is a small space between the overflow and the outlet that can't really be covered that I guess they could be jumping from. Either that or they jump through the egg crate in the middle of the tank. I would have just covered the whole thing with plastic wrap but the evaporation that gets stuck on it looks even worse than the egg crate already looks.

 

Done with fish for a while.

 

My stupid pistol shrimp has ended up in my sump THREE times too. He literally keeps swimming all the way up to my MAME and slipping through the teeth in the overflow. It's been a few weeks since that happened though, and he's still alive.

 

Apparently nobody is happy with my tank!

[Reefkid88]

Dude,that's crazy as hell !! Have you thought about picking up a DIY screen too from BRS ? That's what im considering doing ones I decide to add a fish. Even though I'm only planning doing maybe 2-3 neon gobies. I never had a problem with them.

[drewgrano]

Dude,that's crazy as hell !! Have you thought about picking up a DIY screen too from BRS ? That's what im considering doing ones I decide to add a fish. Even though I'm only planning doing maybe 2-3 neon gobies. I never had a problem with them.

 

Yea some sort of screen that I can cut out holes for the mame so that literally 100% of the top is covered is probably going to be my next step. But after the holidays. Right now I don't even want a stupid fish lol.

[teenyreef]

Dang, that's crazy! I'd be done too. I hate when fish jump out

I haven't tried it yet, but I've read here on NR that some folks use "tulle" fabric instead of eggcrate or screen material. You can get it at any fabric store or at Walmart. You mount it just like screen material but it's cheaper and blocks less light. And you can get the window frame kit at Home Depot or Lowes. Here's a link to TigerLily's build thread with some pictures of the screen she made:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/349460-tigerlilys-im-fusion-30l-w-nanobox/page-2

[drewgrano]

 

 

 

[Reefkid88]

Damn that looks good man !!

 

Maybe look in to some Lexan and just make your own top,that's what I'm considering.

[drewgrano]

Damn that looks good man !!

Maybe look in to some Lexan and just make your own top,that's what I'm considering.

 

Thanks!

[Jay Wee]

Super nice setup here. I like what you did in the small space given. And that nano box looks sick! I'm going with a MAME overflow on my new build too. Just love how sleek it looks. Did you figure out that white caking problem with the vinyl tube? Could it be the brand of the tube?

[drewgrano]

Super nice setup here. I like what you did in the small space given. And that nano box looks sick! I'm going with a MAME overflow on my new build too. Just love how sleek it looks. Did you figure out that white caking problem with the vinyl tube? Could it be the brand of the tube?

 

Thanks! Still not sure about the white stuff... I wouldn't think it would be the brand of tube but I guess I really don't know. I can see it on my plate coral to though so I think I got some sort of water quality problem.

[teenyreef]

That clean setup looks even better with the Nanobox And the colors are nice!

On the white stuff - I used to get some in my clear tubing too, but only on the flexible vinyl tubing, nowhere else. Is it soft or hard?

If it's on the plate coral too, it may be something different, though. What are your water parameters? If your magnesium is low and your calcium/alkalinity is high, you could have some precipitation problems.

[DaveFason]

Looking great Drew!

 

-Dave

[drewgrano]

 

cleaned up my "sump" area. Looks a looot better. My stupid pistol shrimp is in there somewhere...

[drewgrano]

A lot has happened over the last month. Unfortunately mostly bad... I went out of town for 2 weeks over the holidays and pretty much the worst possible thing that could have happened did happen.

 

I came home to my ATO beeping, my sump completely empty, my pump not working, my heater EXPLODED, and my tank half empty. Everything I had in the tank died except two of my sexy shrimp, blood shrimp, porcelain crab, most of my snails, hoooppeefully my pistol shrimp (haven't seen him since I got home) and my zoas. The zoas look absolutely horrible and I assumed they were definitely dead, but when I touch them they still 'close' up. I say 'close' because when open they just look like... idk... just bad.

 

I assume all this went down pretty much immediately after I left. The way my ATO works is that it shuts down if it thinks its been filling for too long. Because my reservoir was still full, I know that it had to of happened soon after I left. I know that it didn't fail because my sump didn't overflow, my display overflowed. The only way that can happen is if my MAME lost it's siphon. Every time I tested the siphon to make sure it re-started it of course always did no problem. But apparently not this time. None of my clocks or other electronics tell me that the power went out either... Maybe my pump stopped and started back up again? Idk... *Sigh*

 

This is the 3rd time this setup has overflowed. Second time the display has, meaning second time the MAME has failed for whatever reason. So I decided to simplify things. I went and bought an AC70. Modified it into a fuge and got the tank back in working order. Looked awful compared to the MAME of course but whatever. I built a box to cover the AC70 and mp10 out of that vinyl wood flooring stuff. Looks a little weird to me... I think I'll try a few different methods. We'll see what I come up with. I moved my rock and added a barnacle cluster in there that I can't decide if I'm happy with either.

 

Long story short, this tank has an uphill battle ahead of it. Stupid Christmas...

 

 

 

 

[drewgrano]

I extended the box to the bottom of the tank and I think it looks better. Tomorrow I'll drill a hole for the grey Nanobox wire so that will disappear.