My first 10G nano

[hongkongguy]

Hi everyone, this is my first saltwater tank and i have deciddd to do a journal about it’s setup and progress. I have been really inspired by some of the nano tank journals from the other and i hope that i would get some help and advices as i ho along this dangerous journey 😅.  

 

Tank is 18inch long and 8 inches deep (-the back filter). I have a 50W LED programmable 4 channel light. A mini chiller and a 200W heater. A programmable wave-maker and a nano protein skimmer (hasn’t been tured on yet). I also added a small 2w pump near the bottom at the back to help with some dead spots. But my return pump is a bit weak and i may upgrade is soon. 

8lb of cured live rock and so rubbled at the back filter really helped to kick start  the cycle. 

Para:

temp 78-79

salinity 1.023

ammonia 0

nitrate ~15ppm

 

i hav added a atrea snail and i am getting a peppmint shrimp to help deal with the glass anemones that have hitchhiked from the live rocks.  After that i will slowly add some stocks .    

[hongkongguy]

Addded a ppermint shrimp and overnight all the aiptasia are gone !! 

I also added some macroalgae and now the water para are :

NH3=0

NO3=10

PH was 7.8 last night but then i switched on my prtein skimmer and this morning is at 8.0. Still a bit lower than my prefered 8.2 I will probably slowly buffer it up a bit with bicarbonate. Here are some update photos. 😁.   

I will add a anemone, a pistol shrimp amd a goby in the next couple of days if everything goes according to plan. 🤞 

[hongkongguy]

Just red that biocarbonate may not change the PH much but the alkalinity. I haven’t tested my alkalinity yet. Will buy a kit tonight to test it. But how od i rise the PH then? With kalkwasser? Can anyone help me with that? Thx 

[hongkongguy]

Checked pH again last night and it is  ~8.1 which is getting better and my KH is at 10. I haven’t started dosing anything yet hopefully it would stablize soon. I have added a anemone, a candy strip pistol shrimp and a randalli shrimp goby. The shrimp burrowed ubder the big rock almost immediately and the anemone wondered around the smalled rock until settling at the back side if it 😞  (that’s where i found it this morning). However my biggest concern is with the goby, it hasn’t pair d up with my pistol shrimp yet and it is just hiding at the back side of the tank and not really showing much interest to the food i tried to offfer him. To make things worse, my peppermint shrimp is bully him everytine i tried to feed him and would just snatch the food away 😢.    Anyone with this experience on acclimating goby? I am think of getting a skunk or a fire shrimp to balance the aggression of the peppermint shrimp.  But haven’t decided on which one yet. 

 

Has anyone used agara might ocean calcium? This is the nearest thing to kalkwasser i could find from my LFS. The shop keeper said it would also increase the pH and KH a bit. 

[Daniel91]

Wait - I am confused. Did you add two pistol shrimps?

 

Why are you trying to raise PH? If your other parameters are stable, it is not worth chasing. Keep it consistent like the rest and there is no need to raise it.

[hongkongguy]

Just one pistol and unfortunately, the first goby didn’t make it pass the furst night😞. Maybe unhealthy one in the LFS.  But i added an orange spot goby a week later and they are paired up now 😊. See attached video. Very inyeresting to watch them operating to build the burrow 👍. 

 

As to the parameters, yes, you are right, I shouldn’t really try to change it when everything elses seem to be normal.  I had a bit of a hugh level of phospate and some brown algae was growing on the rocks last week.  I added another snail and also phos-absorb (api) and now it seems to be better.  Ph is at 8.05 and phosphate droppingto beloe 0.4. No3 is ~2.   My nem is getting better.  I have also added 3 sexy shrimps and one cleaner shrimp. And they are all doing fine. 😊

 

ps: video is too big so i attached a photo of the pair for now 😁

[hongkongguy]

I having been doing some research on the types of corals that i can add to this tank and so far, i have only come up with maybe a mini- carpet on the back and some red botton in the front of the small rock. You think They are they ok and what else could i add to the big rock?  Thanks for your comments. 🙏😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

I think the reason your first goby didn't pair up with the pistol shrimp is because it's a two-spot goby. They need specialized care and are quite difficult to keep. Wait on getting the mini maxi nem until your tank matures a little longer. You can actually start off with basic corals such as softies and mushrooms besides zoas. 

 

 

[banasophia]

Hello and welcome to NR! Congrats on your first saltwater tank, looks like you’re off to a good start. Hard to tell for sure from the picture, but looks to me like your first goby may have been a twinspot rather than a Randall’s shrimp goby, and I think the twinspots are very difficult to keep, so that could be why the first little guy didn’t make it. Glad your new one paired up with your shrimp. 🙂

 

 

[banasophia]

3 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I think the reason your first goby didn't pair up with the pistol shrimp is because it's a two-spot goby. They need specialized care and are quite difficult to keep. Wait on getting the mini maxi nem until your tank matures a little longer. You can actually start off with basic corals such as softies and mushrooms besides zoas. 

 

 

🙂

[banasophia]

Agree too there are lots of corals you can start out with... mushrooms, softies, and some LPS corals are great beginner corals that are hardy and do well in a newer tank. Be sure to research everything before you buy it at your local fish store to be sure you get fish and corals that are suited to your tank. 

[hongkongguy]

Yes, you are totally right! I read in an arricle that the two spots are difficult to keep. So that’s probably why.  I will look up some more on softies and LPS and i would add them slowly. Will try to take and upload some better photos this Week. But is my Phosphate at 0.4 still very high? I suspect my carbon (which is a brand from LFS) might be leaking phosphate into the water. So right now i hav replaced it with purigen and i plan on getting Seagel to use in the future. Would you recomment it or i should use chemi pure blue? Chemipure blue is very expensive in my LFS  though 😅

[hongkongguy]

A couple of recent photos. A bit of algae on the glass and sand bed. 😅. I think i will get some green star polyps and red and green button polyps and place them on the back wall and on the front of the small rock in the tank. 😁

[dferrari13]

On 8/29/2018 at 9:29 PM, hongkongguy said:

Checked pH again last night and it is  ~8.1 which is getting better and my KH is at 10. I haven’t started dosing anything yet hopefully it would stablize soon. I have added a anemone, a candy strip pistol shrimp and a randalli shrimp goby. The shrimp burrowed ubder the big rock almost immediately and the anemone wondered around the smalled rock until settling at the back side if it 😞  (that’s where i found it this morning). However my biggest concern is with the goby, it hasn’t pair d up with my pistol shrimp yet and it is just hiding at the back side of the tank and not really showing much interest to the food i tried to offfer him. To make things worse, my peppermint shrimp is bully him everytine i tried to feed him and would just snatch the food away 😢.    Anyone with this experience on acclimating goby? I am think of getting a skunk or a fire shrimp to balance the aggression of the peppermint shrimp.  But haven’t decided on which one yet. 

 

Has anyone used agara might ocean calcium? This is the nearest thing to kalkwasser i could find from my LFS. The shop keeper said it would also increase the pH and KH a bit. 

Adding kalkwasser to your auto top off is an easy way to maintain calcium alkalinity and pH. Slowly dosing it over time in the ATO helps maintain levels.

Nice tank...good start

[Daniel91]

The algae on glass is an easy fix most of the time - mag float or another algae scraper.

 

Sandbed - giving it a good vacuuming during your weekly water changes really makes a difference.

 

In all, it’s “new tank syndrome” - we all get it. Should pass with regular maintance and a good clean up crew.

 

I would look into a kryptonite trumpet and some blastos - give a great POP and pretty beginner friendly.

[hongkongguy]

Thank for the tip dferrari13!  It’s a very good suggestion on the trumpet, Danel, thx. I will check out if the stores have that in a reasonable price range.  It’s kind of strange that the LFS here in hk either have some coral priced very cheap😁 or they are unaffordablly expensive 😢.  I will scrub the glass and vaccum the sand bed this weekend 👍. 

[Daniel91]

I am unaware of prices in HK but for me anything above $10 USD/trumpet head is too much.

 

You might even have luck with local co-reefers 

[hongkongguy]

Oh some of them are selling at crazy prices. Over 50us$ for a green star polyps. It’s a good idea to see if i can source from local co-reefers. Thx. I will take a look at the LFS maybe tonight 😁

[Daniel91]

Haha! GSP grows like pest, many of my LFS sells it for 10usd if not for free!

[hongkongguy]

So if i keep the GSP growing at the back wall, would i be able to trim it down when it starts to outgrow everything? Or i should avoid it altogether?  Thx 

[dferrari13]

Hard to trim back...I regret placing it on my main rock....if you do add it to your tank, make a small island on the sand bed to keep it isolated.

[hongkongguy]

Thx, dferrari. I will do that. I bought very small frags of gsp and green button yesterday (10us$ each). How long does it usually take until they open back up again after introducing into the new tank? I checked this morning (before the light come on) they still looked kind of dull and grayish, not open up at all. Checked my PO4 is at 0.3 and pH at 8.04. 

[hongkongguy]

Both gsp and the small green button corals are opening 😊.  They are my first corals. Super excited! 😁. Hope they will do well in my tank 😊