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TG's 40L nano adventure: Attack of the Possum Wrasse


tunagirll

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Howdy :)

 

This is my first time setting up a marine tank myself from scratch, should be an adventure. I've had a nano marine tank before, but it was set up for me by my LFS - lovely gents! I have extensive experience designing and setting up scaped and planted FW tanks, so I feel excited trying a new medium.

 

FTS Oct 2017

 

IMG_1443.thumb.JPG.ee8fb3c23b18e796d1e6ea5b0b136cf2.JPG

 

 

Specs:

 

Fireaqua 35cm cube tank with back filter and plates

Tunze return pump ~ 700L

Tunze DOC skimmer 9001

Aquaone Thermosafe 50W heater

Tunze Nanostream 6040 stream pump with controller

Zetlight LED Nano 11W

 

Mixed bag of carbon and phosguard

Real reef rock - 4kg

Caribsea #2 sand - 4kg

 

Livestock:

1 x Ocellaris Clownfish "Ezio II"

1 x Possum Wrasse "Princess"

2 x Trochus snails

1 x Zombie snail

1 x Hermit crab "Crabby"

1 x Porcelain Anemone Crab "Citizen Snips"

 

Elegance coral

Acan lord

Super Ultra acan

Lavender rainbow acan

Red and gold acan

Green acan

WA Orange eyed metallic green chalice

Crocea clam

NT zoa rock lavender

Darth Maul zoas 

God of War zoas 

Superman zoas 

Yellow zoas (wild)

Palythoa

Blastomussa

Blue Gonipora

Gold tip torch

 

Feeding and maintenance:

Monthly - replace carbon and phosguard

Weekly - 40% water change with natural sea water followed by 1 drop each Coral Vitaliser and Amino acid

Every second day - 1/10 scoop Vitalis Soft Coral food, 1/6 cube mix 70% Mysis 30% Daphnia. 

Daily - Top up, glass clean

 

 

________________________

 

The tank has been set up with all the above equipment. The Fireaqua kit comes with a generous number of sponges and filter media - which I removed from the tank as I have a skimmer and bag going in, instead.

I decided to build the hardscape as one or two solid pieces outside the tank to make it easier to put together, without risking scratching the tank. I marked out on cardboard the interior 'maximum' size I wanted for the hardscape, about 33 x 26cm. The edge protectors made handy freestanding height markers, of 27cm maximum height for the hardscape. I also marked lines at each third to help composition.

IMG_0909.jpg

 

IMG_0913.jpg

 

IMG_0914.jpg

 

Looking forward to getting this done, and hopefully with some constructive chat about the design as I go.
Also I am new, so hello :)

  • Like 3
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14 minutes ago, tunagirll said:

Howdy :)

 

This is my first time setting up a marine tank myself from scratch, should be an adventure. I've had a nano marine tank before, but it was set up for me by my LFS - lovely gents! I have extensive experience designing and setting up scaped and planted FW tanks, so I feel excited trying a new medium.

 

Specs:

 

Fireaqua 35cm cube tank with back filter and plates

Tunze return pump ~ 700L

Tunze DOC skimmer 9001

Aquaone Thermosafe 50W heater

Tunze Nanostream 6040 stream pump with controller

Zetlight LED Nano 11W

 

Mixed bag of carbon and phosguard

Real reef rock - 4kg so far

Watercrete cement

 

________________________

 

The tank has been set up with all the above equipment. The Fireaqua kit comes with a generous number of sponges and filter media - which I removed from the tank as I have a skimmer and bag going in, instead.

I decided to build the hardscape as one or two solid pieces outside the tank to make it easier to put together, without risking scratching the tank. I marked out on cardboard the interior 'maximum' size I wanted for the hardscape, about 33 x 26cm. The edge protectors made handy freestanding height markers, of 27cm maximum height for the hardscape. I also marked lines at each third to help composition.

IMG_0909.jpg

 

IMG_0913.jpg

 

IMG_0914.jpg

 

Looking forward to getting this done, and hopefully with some constructive chat about the design as I go.
Also I am new, so hello :)

:welcome: 

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I ran out of cement alarmingly quickly :D So last piece fixed for today, and the rest needs to wait for tomorrow and a trip to the shop!

 

IMG_0918.jpg

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7 hours ago, GregEmmitte said:

That's awesome. Did you use actual concrete?

No, it's a product designed for cementing underwater; fish friendly. 

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I like the fact you've used a bunch of really small rockwork to build exactly what you want. I just throw some big rocks together and hope it all works out haha. 

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4 hours ago, gogeta said:

I like the fact you've used a bunch of really small rockwork to build exactly what you want. I just throw some big rocks together and hope it all works out haha. 

 

To be honest it's the same but extra fiddly it seems, still hoping it all works out :D

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Making progress - arch is now complete.... leaving it to dry overnight then filling it out and adding places to cement frags.

 

IMG_0933.JPG

 

The hole in the top of the arch, so some light gets to the bottom. Thinking of putting a little green star polyp island in the middle.

 

IMG_0935.JPG

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And into the tank for test fit, flow and to make sure my old equipment actually works :)

 

I'm planning to stock a shrimp/goby pair, so next is building some ideal real estate for them in the middle of the tank. 

 

And one clownfish for the top half of the tank. My only concern right now is I only have about 3-4kg of rock in the tank and will have an inch of sand/rubble mix on the bottom. I'd like some more rock for bio filter but it might ruin the look. Decisions. 

 

One of the stores has a bumble bee squat lobster which would be a temptation to add, but there is very little information around on keeping one. 

IMG_0945.JPG

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Test run was perfect. 

 

I rinsed some Caribsea #2 and loaded a healthy inch of sand, scattered with rock rubble. The rockwork is firmly seated on the tank base so it can't be shifted later. I also made a little burrow tunnel from a spare piece of flat reef rock and raised it with some cement sides. It's been buried in the middle of the tank just under the sand. Hopefully it will be a likely base for future shrimp operations - and I can always put a frag or two on top. 

 

A quick trip to my LFS for fresh sea water and the tank is now loaded. 

 

Finally loaded ammonia at 1.5ppm from my eternal cache - 1 litre of 45g/L solution. Enough for about 8000 of your American gallons :) For this tank, 1mL only required. 

 

IMG_0956.JPG

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Nitrites started showing up today :D Looking forward to seeing nitrates building up soon!

 

Skimmer has a little material, I'm dumping it back into the tank each day.

I also added a large handful of cured rock from my LFS to help seed the tank.

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RayWhisperer

As far as the squat lobster goes. They are usually found as a comensal with other inverts. Sometimes a basket star, a gorgonian, etc. however, they don't seem to need them. They generally do ok in aquariums. Just make sure it gets some meaty foods every once in a while.

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1 hour ago, RayWhisperer said:

As far as the squat lobster goes. They are usually found as a comensal with other inverts. Sometimes a basket star, a gorgonian, etc. however, they don't seem to need them. They generally do ok in aquariums. Just make sure it gets some meaty foods every once in a while.

Thanks Ray - I'll call the shop and see how that lobster is going in captivity. They are fairly rare and expensive, so I don't want to put it in the tank if it's not going to cope.

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Since this is not your first SW tank you probably already this but to be sure, don't add anything unless ammonia and nitirite are zero. 

 

Ask the LFS to hold onto the squat lobster if your tank isn't ready. Surely they will understand.

 

Scape looks good. I'm also a fan of the smashing/breaking up rocks and putting them back together exactly however I want. Sure does require a lot of glue and putty though.

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8 minutes ago, samnaz said:

Since this is not your first SW tank you probably already this but to be sure, don't add anything unless ammonia and nitirite are zero. 

 

Ask the LFS to hold onto the squat lobster if your tank isn't ready. Surely they will understand.

 

Scape looks good. I'm also a fan of the smashing/breaking up rocks and putting them back together exactly however I want. Sure does require a lot of glue and putty though.

Thanks for the words - this is the first time I've actually cycled a SW tank myself, so I had to do a fair bit of checking to see if the nitrogen cycle went similarly to the FW tank cycle. It seems it does, but the nitrates are also dealt with in a SW tank, converting to nitrogen gas?

 

I'm pretty sure the lobster will be long sold by the time I am ready to stock. 2-3 more weeks of cycling, then CUC, then a couple more weeks, then the shrimp/goby pair (whenever I can get a pair, that is!), then a few more weeks, and so on. The most info I have on the bumblebee squat lobster is that it might need some coral around to be happy, so I'd need to have the tank well stable and corals stabilised as well first. No point pulling the trigger early.

...and there might be the fact I am tempted to look at a Valentini puffer or Leopard toby.

 

BUMBLE BEE SQUAT LOBSTER (Galathea pilosa)-500x500.jpeg

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Nitrites and nitrates continue to build Nitrite at about 2ppm and nitrates at 5ppm. I fed the tank another 1ppm ammonia as it was nearly gone. No algae yet thanks to no lights and using pure ammonia. 

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Nothing new to report - nitrite at 2ppm and nitrates at 60ppm. Put in another 1ppm ammonia, that will be the last maintenance dose. Time to let the nitrite work through.

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1 minute ago, gogeta said:

That's moving along well!! Nice work. 

I cheated a bit with some live rock :) I don't think it's quite ready, but this 24 hr test should show where I'm at.

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I'm no nano expert literally started my first nano 3 months ago. But have had bigger tanks. I swear the nano's cycle super quick. I started with all dead rock and a tiny piece of live rock. A cube of frozen shrimp to start cycle and I was done in 3 weeks. Last time I did that with a bigger tank took me nearly 3 months 

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