J-Ranko's Nano 11g - a new beginning

[xHereFishyFishyFishyx]

Are you running any kind of filtration? Or am I just blind? I can't see a hang on back or anything. I've been thinking about trying my setup without filtration...

[J-Ranko]

Well, second half of 2016 got crazy busy with work, I lost my clownfish and goby and with that I ended up neglecting the tank. Surprisingly, I lost only one acro frag and an acan frag. The rest of my SPS/LPS frags survived, though they did not thrive. Of course, with neglect comes the dreaded algae take over.

 

With the new year, I decided to take back control. I did a ton of water changes, hand-removed most of the algae and added one fish, a Clarkii clownfish. I found myself more engaged with my tanks whenever I had at least one fish, so this was a welcome addition.

 

I still have a long way to go to eliminate the algal pests, as I can only manually remove so much. I'll be boosting my clean-up crew soon.

 

Here is my new Clarkii hanging out by the Dragon's breath:

 

 

My elegance coral survived the neglect feeding on ceriths.

 

Here it is with its pink-tipped tentacles extended and waving in the flow, surrounded by empty snail shells.

 

 

[J-Ranko]

Yesterday I added a frag of orange acan echinata:

 

 

I've eliminated about 80% or so of the hair algae that overran my tank during the neglect. Despite the improvement it's still too ugly for an FTS.

 

Sand bed is still bad, but I didn't want siphon it all out too quickly. I think in the next water change or two I might take out all of it and go bare bottom in the interim.

 

[J-Ranko]

Are you running any kind of filtration? Or am I just blind? I can't see a hang on back or anything. I've been thinking about trying my setup without filtration...

 

Right now I have a small HOB with some chemipure to help cut down on the phosphates. I added it earlier after my tank suffered from neglect for several months. I don't think it will be there long-term but it seems to be helping now. You can run a nano without chemical filtration, but you have to be on top of your water changes and careful feeding.

 

Personally, my system probably needs a skimmer and chemical filtration because of the dendro, which requires frequently feeding as it is non-photosynthetic. My plan is to upgrade to a slightly larger system that can accommodate decent mini skimmer, maybe an AIO like the IM fusion.

[J-Ranko]

FTS. It's not very pretty right now, but as you can see most of the original frags are still alive and even grew a little bit. The green montipora setosa bleached, but it is in fact still alive.

 

 

I ended up adding a heater once it got chilly here in the Phoenix area. I'm not liking all the visible equipment so I think my next upgrade will be an AIO. But before that can happen I need to get the remainder of the hair algae under control. Hopefully within a couple of weeks.

[Rehype]

Glad to see the mostly everything survived J. The scape is killer... Just keep your feedings low while you sort through the algae and this tank will bounce back in no time. You might want to add some green macroalgae to your display to help outcompete the nuisance algae.

[J-Ranko]

Glad to see the mostly everything survived J. The scape is killer... Just keep your feedings low while you sort through the algae and this tank will bounce back in no time. You might want to add some green macroalgae to your display to help outcompete the nuisance algae.

 

Thanks, Rehype! My red dragon's breath is supposed to be competition to nuisance algae, but somehow it behaves more like the corals--doing great when well maintained with low nutrients. I noticed its gold-orange tips returned just as soon as I did lots of water changes and removed most of the hair algae.

[Rehype]

 

Thanks, Rehype! My red dragon's breath is supposed to be competition to nuisance algae, but somehow it behaves more like the corals--doing great when well maintained with low nutrients. I noticed its gold-orange tips returned just as soon as I did lots of water changes and removed most of the hair algae.

 

Yeah you definitely have to go with a green macroalgae such as a caulerpa or cheato they are much more efficient.

[RIP Sebastian]

 

Thanks, Rehype! My red dragon's breath is supposed to be competition to nuisance algae, but somehow it behaves more like the corals--doing great when well maintained with low nutrients. I noticed its gold-orange tips returned just as soon as I did lots of water changes and removed most of the hair algae.

 

Hey Ranko,

 

Someone local is giving me an Elegance that he says isn't doing very well, any tips on helping it to heal?

 

 

Nick

[J-Ranko]

 

Yeah you definitely have to go with a green macroalgae such as a caulerpa or cheato they are much more efficient.

 

My options for now are limited without a sump or some other area to hide it in. I suppose I could put a clump of chaeto temporarily in the display area, but I'd prefer not too.

 

 

 

Hey Ranko,

 

Someone local is giving me an Elegance that he says isn't doing very well, any tips on helping it to heal?

 

 

Nick

 

I'm not an elegance coral doctor. All I can say is that you keep it in a well-maintained tank with stable water quality. And target feed it some meaty pieces several times a week. Food should give it extra energy to heal and grow.

 

Now, it's been said that the health of elegance corals in captivity depends largely on where they're sourced. Mine was collected from Australia, and those specimens tend to be a lot hardier than the ones collected from Indonesia. That's definitely been the case for me as it has done the best in my tank despite the neglect, and is still healthy after almost a year. Do you know where yours was collected?

[RIP Sebastian]

 

My options for now are limited without a sump or some other area to hide it in. I suppose I could put a clump of chaeto temporarily in the display area, but I'd prefer not too.

 

 

 

I'm not an elegance coral doctor. All I can say is that you keep it in a well-maintained tank with stable water quality. And target feed it some meaty pieces several times a week. Food should give it extra energy to heal and grow.

 

Now, it's been said that the health of elegance corals in captivity depends largely on where they're sourced. Mine was collected from Australia, and those specimens tend to be a lot hardier than the ones collected from Indonesia. That's definitely been the case for me as it has done the best in my tank despite the neglect, and is still healthy after almost a year. Do you know where yours was collected?

 

No, I don't. Thanks, though!

[J-Ranko]

I think I can now safely declare victory over the hair algae.

 

Sand bed needs work, though. Not sure whether to add some replacement sand or just go bare bottom.

 

FTS 1/27/2017

 

You'll notice I knocked off a couple of small pieces from the montipora. I made a slight adjustment to the scape and moved some frags a bit during my last water change.

[J-Ranko]

Added a few new frags: red-orange scoly, chalice, green-orange rhodactis and a green birdnest with purple tips.

 

This red-orange scoly:

 

The "LPS Zone":

 

 

You can see the Scoly, the rhodactis, the chalice and the birdnest. I'm gonna try and get a better shot of the rhodactis soon. Under blue light the green and orange are extremely bright. My LFS was selling large polyps with much more orange coloration, but sufice to say they were more expensive.

 

And of course, an FTS taken today 2-6-2017:

[J-Ranko]

Moar pics.

 

The chalice and the birdsnest.

 

 

 

The green and orange rhodactis

 

 

The red-orange scoly, next to my helmet fungia.

[Rehype]

Looks great J...I want that rhodactis!

[J-Ranko]

Looks great J...I want that rhodactis!

 

My LFS had a bunch of them, several with more orange fringes than mine. But of course $$$, so I took the smaller one hoping it'll grow and propagate itself in my tank.

 

Here's a pic of a rock full of them. They really do look like this in person, under their Kessil lights:

 

[Rehype]

 

My LFS had a bunch of them, several with more orange fringes than mine. But of course $$$, so I took the smaller one hoping it'll grow and propagate itself in my tank.

 

Here's a pic of a rock full them. They really do look like this in person, under their Kessil lights:

 

 

 

[teenyreef]

That rhodactis

Remind me to post a picture of the rhodactis I've got in the 10g tank. It's pretty similar but the colors aren't as bright. I need to figure out the right combination of light and nutrients to get it to pop.

[tam]

That rhodactis looks awesome. You have me wanting some that dragon's breath! It looks so damn cool with the orange fringe!

[J-Ranko]

That rhodactis

Remind me to post a picture of the rhodactis I've got in the 10g tank. It's pretty similar but the colors aren't as bright. I need to figure out the right combination of light and nutrients to get it to pop.

 

Apparently based on this article (section on Rhodactis), they require stronger light and flow than the typical mushroom (Discosoma).

 

That rhodactis looks awesome. You have me wanting some that dragon's breath! It looks so damn cool with the orange fringe!

 

Thanks! Funny thing about the Dragon's breath is that its care requirements are similar to SPS (high flow, low nutrients). Otherwise, it gets out-competed by more aggressive algae like hair algae or cyano and loses color. I only got it to color back up after getting the tank to recover from month's of neglect.

[The Pickled Reef]

The tank is looking great! I think we can at least get away with undersizing our heaters in Phoenix. What is your favorite LFS in Phoenix?! I like AquaTouch and Reef Monsters.

 

 

[teenyreef]

 

Apparently based on this article (section on Rhodactis), they require stronger light and flow than the typical mushroom (Discosoma).

 

 

Thanks! Funny thing about the Dragon's breath is that its care requirements are similar to SPS (high flow, low nutrients). Otherwise, it gets out-competed by more aggressive algae like hair algae or cyano and loses color. I only got it to color back up after getting the tank to recover from month's of neglect.

Thanks! I've been trying low light thinking that higher light was bleaching out the colors. Time to experiment

[J-Ranko]

The tank is looking great! I think we can at least get away with undersizing our heaters in Phoenix. What is your favorite LFS in Phoenix?! I like AquaTouch and Reef Monsters.

 

 

 

I've been to Aquatouch, but my favorite for coral selection is Pet Kona (website) in north Scottsdale. They have a really wide variety of corals, from cheap $15 frags and up (way up, lol). They have planted fresh water stuff, too. I might go check out Reef Monsters this weekend.

[J-Ranko]

So last week I jumped on the drop-off tank bandwagon and got this.

 

 

Transfer is actually all done, just need to post the pics. Since this is a "new" tank, I guess that means a new build thread...

[SaltyBuddha]

Really enjoyed watching your tank grow! Just about to start my first micro tanks and hope to have just as much success with my corals. Do you feed the corals food as well? Use any specific nutrient supplements for them as well?