travoose Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Backstory After lurking for many years and getting into and out of the hobby I have finally decided to start a new tank and document it here. The last tank I had was a ten gallon with HOB filtration while I was in college. Towards the end of my education I ended up taking down the tank because I was unsure of where I would have to move to get a job...fast forward 8 years and I am finally settled and ready to start another tank. The first tank I had consisted of a few mushrooms, a Clownfish, and Yellow Goby and I had no real plan on what to do or what I wanted to do. This time around I have a plan and that plan is to keep it simple. Equipment Tank: -IM Nuvo Fusion 10 Stand: -Custom from a local craft store Light: -AI Prime HD16 Filtration: -15lbs of live rock (from Gulf Live Rock) -13lbs of Pink Fiji live sand -Chamber 1: IM Media Basket with Chemi-Pure Nano Pack and filter floss -Chamber 2: Chaetomorpha -Chamber 3: Heater and return pump Flow: -Stock return pump -MP10 ATO: -Smart ATO Micro Parameters Salinity: 1.025PH: 8.2Ammonia: .25 PPMNitrite: 0 PPMNitrate: 20 PPMTemp: 77.5 F Stock Fish: -Clownfish (Arrived 1/15/17) Inverts: -Various Snails and Hermit Crabs Coral: -Green Star Polyps -Mushrooms -Various Zoanthids -Clove Polyps -Frogspawn -Pulsing Xenia -Candy Cane Current Status Things are humming along. 1 Quote Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Backstory After lurking for many years and getting into and out of the hobby I have finally decided to start a new tank and document it here. The last tank I had was a ten gallon with HOB filtration while I was in college. Towards the end of my education I ended up taking down the tank because I was unsure of where I would have to move to get a job...fast forward 8 years and I am finally settled and ready to start another tank. The first tank I had consisted of a few mushrooms, a Clownfish, and Yellow Goby and I had no real plan on what to do or what I wanted to do. This time around I have a plan and that plan is to keep it simple. I decided to steal some other people's ideas from around here and go with a more natural tank by incorporating planted macro algae and of course I felt I needed to have a few mangroves (2). I would like to get a Blue Reef Chromis and a Clownfish. I also would like to try to have the back wall covered in Green Star Polyps and add a few mushrooms/ricordeas. Current Status I did start to fill the tank today and added the live rock, just need to wait for the water to clear up and I will post pictures. Equipment Coming Soon... Another fusion 10G. Cool. Following. 1 Quote Link to comment
asting Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Nice plan. gsp back wall "lawn" should be easy to accomplish. Let's see that box o rocks. 1 Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted November 14, 2016 Author Share Posted November 14, 2016 A Little Update After a day of letting things settle and getting the MP10 adjusted so not to cause a major sandstorm, I finally have water that has cleared up. I started running filter floss to pick up all the dirt and debris floating around, it seems to have helped. Tonight after work I will go in and try to clean off the settled dirt and debris from the rocks. I snapped a few pictures before I left for work this morning (you'll have to excuse my poor photography skills). A view from the top. A view from the left side of the tank. A view from straight on. I tried to make my aquascape start at the back corner and come out at an angle and the rock I got allowed me to make a little pass-thru in the middle from one side of the tank to the other. I wanted to have things slope away from the back corner almost like it was coming out from a shallow area (where the mangroves are planted) and then dropping into a deeper section. 1 Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted November 23, 2016 Author Share Posted November 23, 2016 About ten days into this process and my water readings are: Salinity: 1.024 PH: 7.9 Ammonia: 0 PPM Nitrite: 0 PPM Nitrate: 30 PPM Temp: 76.6 F Should I continue to leave it run its course or should I do a water change? Any advice is welcome. Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted November 27, 2016 Author Share Posted November 27, 2016 A few minor changes. I'd say I'm good to go as soon as I get my Nitrate down. Should I just do a water change or wait it out to see if it goes down naturally? What do you all think? Salinity: 1.024 PH: 8 Ammonia: 0 PPM Nitrite: 0 PPM Nitrate: 20 PPM Temp: 76.6 F Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted December 1, 2016 Author Share Posted December 1, 2016 The tank is currently holding at... Salinity: 1.023PH: 8Ammonia: 0 PPMNitrite: 0 PPMNitrate: 10 PPMTemp: 76.1 F Still in the waiting period for cycling. I was very worried a few days ago when the Nitrate levels read 30 and then only dropped to 20. Currently the levels are still dropping (down to 10 at the moment), all of my other readings come in a zero. The salinity level and temperature look good as well. I do have some algae on the glass and growing on the rocks. I do have a few questions though, perhaps someone could help me out.. 1. What should I include in my cleanup crew, considering the future livestock I will be adding (Blue Reef Chromis, Clownfish, and Green Star Polyps, and perhaps a few mushrooms)? 2. Should I wait until my Nitrate levels drop to zero before adding the cleanup crew? 3. Should I do a water change and manually remove some of the algae that is growing or should I, again, wait until the Nitrate levels hit zero? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment
JLynn Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 About the cleanup crew, I would only get one or two CUC members, if I were you. I know that people will say you can/should get 1 snail per gallon, but the fact of the matter is that in the long run, one gallon of water is not going to produce enough algae for those snails to eat. I mean you could literally be intentionally growing diatoms and stuff and it still wouldn't be enough to sustain a large population in the long run. If you stock a large clean up crew, what will end up happening is most of them will die, and then their decomposing bodies will foul up your water with even more nutrients you don't want. If for some reason one or two CUC members isn't enough for you, you can always add a couple more later. But I doubt that you would need to. On that note, there are three snails I would recommend to you: the Banded Trochus Snail, the Astraea Turbo Snail (Than from Tidal Gardens has a video lauding these snails' algae munching prowess), or a Bumblebee Snail. Both of the first two are excellent algae munchers, well suited to aquarium life (one problem to look out for with snails is that lots of places will sell snails from temperate waters to be put in tropical reef tanks - naturally, they will all die in our tanks because they aren't meant to be in warm water - so be sure to do your research and make sure that the specimens you are getting are collected from tropical waters). The really nice thing about the Bumblebee Snail is that it is very small, so it gets into little crevices in the rockwork nicely, it is an omnivore, so it will eat both algae and any meaty foods that your fish don't gobble up, and it is a rather pretty snail. So that would probably be my top pick for you. And, no. The nitrates don't need to be 0. 10 ppm is just fine. Just be sure to drip acclimate your CUC nice and slow, because inverts are much more sensitive to changes in water parameters than fish are. 1 Quote Link to comment
Sea_Of_Treachery Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 1. Some snails, hermits if you wish. I prefer cerith and astreas. Don't add too many at first, id say 2 of each. They tend to die off early if there's not enough of a food source. Chromis are schooling fish so i personally wouldn't do one in a tank this size. 2. Yes, then follow with your w/c. 3. Wait. This is the KEY to success. Good luck! Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted December 7, 2016 Author Share Posted December 7, 2016 My parameters are holding steady. The only odd ball that will not seem to drop is the nitrate level, stuck around 10ppm. I decided to go ahead and order a few snails and a crab (listed below), they should arrive on Friday. -Bumble Bee Snails (2) -Banded Trochus Snail (1) -Astraea Turbo Snail (1) -Cerith Snail (2) -Electric Blue Hermit (1) -Feather Dusther (1) Quote Link to comment
asting Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 How are your nitrates going down? do you have Chaeto? Those nitrates can't just disappear- they're getting locked in something. To reduce you need to do a water change or remove whatever they're locked in. Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted December 13, 2016 Author Share Posted December 13, 2016 Parameters Salinity: 1.024PH: 8.0Ammonia: 0 PPMNitrite: 0 PPMNitrate: 20 PPM...Worries me!Temp: 76.6 F Current Status I had to remove one of my Mangroves, I do not think these are going to live, perhaps my tank is not established enough to produce enough waste for the Mangroves to survive. My Nitrate has jumped up to about 20 PPM as well. I just did a water change two days ago (my first one). I am not sure what is holding in the Nitrates. Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted December 18, 2016 Author Share Posted December 18, 2016 Parameters Salinity: 1.024PH: 8.2Ammonia: 0 PPMNitrite: 0 PPMNitrate: 10 PPM...Dropped. Temp: 76.6 F Current Status Did a water change this afternoon and the Nitrate level dropped back down to 10ppm. Also added a light to my middle chamber to keep the macro algae happy. Question: What is the suggestion for the lighting schedule for the middle chamber? Always on? Mirror the display lights? Opposite display lights? Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted December 23, 2016 Author Share Posted December 23, 2016 Parameters Salinity: 1.024PH: 8.2Ammonia: 0 PPMNitrite: 0 PPMNitrate: 10 PPM Temp: 76.6 F Current Status Same parameters as before. Looking at adding a Clownfish tomorrow as an early Christmas gift. Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted December 24, 2016 Author Share Posted December 24, 2016 Just added a Pajama Cardinal, Peppermint Shrimp, and Feather Duster as an early Christmas gift from my wife. I decided to go with the Pajama Cardinal instead of the Clownfish after looking at the tank the Clowns were in and seeing a few that were not looking so hot, I did not want to invite any of that into my tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted December 28, 2016 Author Share Posted December 28, 2016 Question Time: In my tank (IM Nuvo 10) the water in the rear chambers gets a film on top of it, nothing is breaking the surface tension and it looks disgusting and some how I cannot imagine that that is a good thing (trapping in waste/not allowing for the water/gas releases). Should I run an air pump into that and allow it to bubble to break that film up? If so, how long do I have the air pump on...24/7, a few hours at a time? Just looking for general advice on this one. PS: The shrimp, fish, and new feather duster are all doing well. Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted January 2, 2017 Author Share Posted January 2, 2017 Question Time Part Two: Besides my above question (I'd still like some advice on that situation), my Pajama Cardinal does not seem to be liking the pellet food I feed it. The fish spit out three different pellets this morning, should I try something else? Brine shrimp perhaps? Any advice would be awesome! Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted January 6, 2017 Author Share Posted January 6, 2017 Bump...solely for help from anyone????? Quote Link to comment
Bowen1022 Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Hey travoose could you post up a photo of the back chamber? you might just have too much water in there because this never happened when I had mine set up. The water level in the second chamber should be higher than the last (return) chamber. If it is how it should be I have no idea why you're getting the film and you could run the air pump on a timer for a few minutes throughout the day. I wouldn't put an air stone on it just because you would have to replace it and all you need is a bit of agitation. Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted January 6, 2017 Author Share Posted January 6, 2017 Bowen1022, thank you for the help. I have attached a picture of what the rear three chambers look like. The one on the farthest side is the in-take and contains mechanical filtration, the one in the middle contains chaet (needs cleaned up), the one on the right contains the heater and return pump. Quote Link to comment
Bowen1022 Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Yep just how I thought lol. Ok so the water level in the very middle chamber (the one with your chaeto) should be higher than the one all the way to the right (Pump chamber). There is a little glass baffle separating the two chambers and the water level in the pump chamber should be about an inch below this glass baffle. It should look something like this (Sorry to post a photo on your thread I will delete it if you want!) See how the water level is lower in the pump chamber? It doesnt have to be that much lower just about an inch should work (if its too low it will be noisy) Also make sure to put your ATO sensor in the return chamber or else it wont fill Quote Link to comment
Jonboy21 Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Question Time Part Two: Besides my above question (I'd still like some advice on that situation), my Pajama Cardinal does not seem to be liking the pellet food I feed it. The fish spit out three different pellets this morning, should I try something else? Brine shrimp perhaps? Any advice would be awesome! Try something different. If you didn't like something you'd wanna eat something different simples. There are loads of different types of food. Mix it up, try flake, frozen I do different every couple of days Quote Link to comment
jtwisconsin Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 I would also recommend lowering the water level in the center chamber. For your Cardinal, maybe try switching to flake instead. I had fish that never liked pellets, but I haven't had a fish yet that didn't love Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef flakes. It is commonly found, and even my local Petco has it. http://www.marinedepot.com/Ocean_Nutrition_Prime_Reef_Flake_2.5_oz._Saltwater_Flake_Fish_Food-Ocean_Nutrition-ON2153-FIFDDRFLSW-vi.html?utm_source=mdcsegooglebase2&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=mdcsegooglebase2&utm_content=ON2153&gclid=CNmP9PKhsNECFUcbaQodVaEABQ Quote Link to comment
travoose Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 Thank you all for the help, it is much appreciated it. I am such a rookie at all of this. I adjusted the water level in the rear chambers as suggested (see picture). I also picked up some Brine Shrimp on Friday night and the Cardinal really seemed to enjoy that, I will also be trying the flake food that jtwisconsin suggested. As I was doing a water change last night I was able to grab a few pictures (I know they are not the best lighting, still trying to figure out how to take better pictures). Quote Link to comment
Bowen1022 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Perfect! Thinks look happy, that feather duster is giant Quote Link to comment
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