120 Lt Rock Garden

[Anzus]

I want to share my experience from the very beginning of my journey to build a nano reef. For those who read this, keep in mind that English is not my mother tongue, so I apologize in advance for any future grammar mistakes. 

 

I started in the aquarium world a year ago, and I always loved to go to the marine section of my local pet store,  to admire all those exotic and colorful animals. They always said to me that marine aquariums were extremely difficult and expensive and that my experience was not enough to the challenge, but I like to investigate everything that interests me. Doing so I found that with enough research, resources and an open mind  I could have my own part of the ocean.

 

After approx. 2 months of research, I finally could say I relatively knew what I was doing, what was necessary and what had to be done. Sadly I'm not rich, and I'm studying (meaning I'm not having a constant income)   so having the best equipment ever wasn't an option (unless I waited a year to get enough money ) this can be seen as an inconvenience but is also a challenge.  The solution: I had to research a lot to find the best quality/price relation in every equipment my aquarium needed.

 

So after more research and a lot of budgets, I got this :

 

1 Marine DC Pump DSC-3000 form Jecod

1 Nano 150 Protein Skimmer Devil red by marine sources 

1 tank with a panoramic view of 120 lt

1 tank of standard size of 40 lt (for the sump)

1 heater of 200 watts  

10 kg of aragonite 

1 overflow of cpvc homemade of 3/4 inch

1 thermometer by boyu

1 100ml stability bacteria from seachem 

16.5 kg of live rock 

1 reconditioned  and repainted bedside table 

1 refractometer 

1ph mether 

22 kg Red Sea coral pro salt

1 homemade led lamp with 32 led 

1 wavemaker sw-4 from jecod 

1 sock from marine sources 

 

And that's all if anyone is interested in more details of each equipment I will provide it with pleasure.

 

It took me a lot of time and energy to put everything together and making it work, with a special mention of the overflow which was more difficult than I expected. But now everything is working and that's the reason I'm starting this today, today is the first day of the cycle. I hope soon, being able to introduce the first nonbacterial life form. 

[vegasgundog]

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @Anzus, congratulations on your first nano reef setup! While you wait for the cycle process to complete, what types of coral and fish are you hoping to keep in your new aquarium system? Your english is great! 🙂 

[WV Reefer]

10 hours ago, Anzus said:

I want to share my experience from the very beginning of my journey to build a nano reef. For those who read this, keep in mind that English is not my mother tongue, so I apologize in advance for any future grammar mistakes. 

 

I started in the aquarium world a year ago, and I always loved to go to the marine section of my local pet store,  to admire all those exotic and colorful animals. They always said to me that marine aquariums were extremely difficult and expensive and that my experience was not enough to the challenge, but I like to investigate everything that interests me. Doing so I found that with enough research, resources and an open mind  I could have my own part of the ocean.

 

After approx. 2 months of research, I finally could say I relatively knew what I was doing, what was necessary and what had to be done. Sadly I'm not rich, and I'm studying (meaning I'm not having a constant income)   so having the best equipment ever wasn't an option (unless I waited a year to get enough money ) this can be seen as an inconvenience but is also a challenge.  The solution: I had to research a lot to find the best quality/price relation in every equipment my aquarium needed.

 

So after more research and a lot of budgets, I got this :

 

1 Marine DC Pump DSC-3000 form Jecod

1 Nano 150 Protein Skimmer Devil red by marine sources 

1 tank with a panoramic view of 120 lt

1 tank of standard size of 40 lt (for the sump)

1 heater of 200 watts  

10 kg of aragonite 

1 overflow of cpvc homemade of 3/4 inch

1 thermometer by boyu

1 100ml stability bacteria from seachem 

16.5 kg of live rock 

1 reconditioned  and repainted bedside table 

1 refractometer 

1ph mether 

22 kg Red Sea coral pro salt

1 homemade led lamp with 32 led 

1 wavemaker sw-4 from jecod 

1 sock from marine sources 

 

And that's all if anyone is interested in more details of each equipment I will provide it with pleasure.

 

It took me a lot of time and energy to put everything together and making it work, with a special mention of the overflow which was more difficult than I expected. But now everything is working and that's the reason I'm starting this today, today is the first day of the cycle. I hope soon, being able to introduce the first nonbacterial life form. 

 

Welcome! Your English is better than most of ours!😀 

[Anzus]

11 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Welcome to the community @Anzus, congratulations on your first nano reef setup! While you wait for the cycle process to complete, what types of coral and fish are you hoping to keep in your new aquarium system? Your english is great! 🙂 

Thank you so much! this community is far more kind than I expected. I'm planning to add as the first pluricellular lifeform an emerald crab (Mithraculus sculptus) as part of the cleaning/antialgae crew, after him I'll add some native turbo snails (Turbo fluctuosa) but to be honest I don't know how many I need of them to be effective.  I want a peppermint shrimp to be part of the clean crew but I don't want him to steal food from my future anemone, so  I'm not pretty sure if I will get one. I'm open to suggestion about the cleaning crew, how many of them should I get? would you add another species to be more diverse and effective?  (a brittlestar perhaps?) 

 

About the main attractions, I'd love to get a pair of clownfish with their respective bubble tip anemone  (entacmea quadricolor). One of the main reasons I decided to begin in marine aquariums is the clownfish: I just love how active and funny the clownfish moves around.  

About the coral, I'm obsessed with reef builders, so stony corals are my favorite by far. LPS or SPS you name it! I would love to care for them all, but especially Acropora, Acropora has a special place in my heart, I know acroporas aren't the easiest of them all, but as I mentioned before I like challenges (with the less harm possible to any other live being of course).

 

 

So I'm planning my first coral to be a star polyp (pachyclavularia), and the second a candy cane (caulastrea furcata) as they are considered easy ( so easy actually that I read pachyclavularia becomes a pest ). I'd like to have the star polyp attached at the bottom glass, I've seen it before and I love how it looks. After the candy cane I'd like to begin the construction of the zoa garden at the bottom. I'd also love to have a tridacna maxima clam but I'm not very sure when to add it nor where. (does it like rocks? or sand? )

 

These are my plans so far, any recommendations of what to add or/and when to do it, are welcome.

Thanks again to let me be part of your community!   

[Anzus]

A photo of it with lights off

[vlangel]

Welcome to nano-reef Anzus.  You are off to a good start.  A reef jar is a great way to start.

[Anzus]

The cycle is finish! And the very polite  people from the Store gave me for free my first coral, a tree from kenia! Lets begin with the pics 

[Anzus]

It took a lot of time to get the overflow from the USA, on the good side all this time my thank has been cicled. 

 I added the first coral in febrary 14th: a Beautiful Kenia tree attached to a montipora. 

A week after that I bought a lot of corals from a store with some inverts: an emerald crab, a peprmint shrimp, frag of acropora,frag of pocillopora, frag of Star polip , a  radioactiv green eye favia and a mint leptoseris.

 

And a week after that I bought a buble tip anemone with the first fish species : a pair of ocellaris clowns! 

 

Today I added 3 fish: a fire goby and two pajama cardinals. 

 

I'm so glad my acuarium la finay functional after 4 months!

E

 

[Dantrasy]

Great work 😃 Your scape suits the shape of the tank.

 

Could you provide a sump pic please? Is the skimmer keeping phos down ok?

[Christopher Marks]

I'm happy to see it all come together @Anzus, congratulations! Please keep us posted on your progress ☺️

[Anzus]

It's been a while! School keept me busy and I couldnt upload anthing.

There has been a lot of changes in the aquarium: 

I bought 5 chromis 

One pajama cardinal died

I bought lots of corals!: 

2Favias ir favites( not sure)

1 green radioactive candy cane 

Lots of zoanthids

Palythoas

1 hammer

2 leptoseris

leptastrea 

1 acantastrea

1 balstomusa

1 decaying Pocillopora

1 white alveopora

1 green goniastrea 

1 red hot chili peper montipora

1 green montipora digitata

1montipora digitata unknown

2  rose bubble tip anemona

1 xenia pom pom

1 Chalice hollywood

2 Star fish orange(echinaster sepositus)

1 orange montipore i think.. not sure

1 meteor shower cyphastrea

3 turbo snails

 

 There has been some casualties, and my zoas are not looking good, Well some of them , they became Brown and the "skirt" shrinked a lot...I made a lot of reseaerch and It does not help

No one seems to know exactly why this happened.. some guess its lighting some others bet for the flow.

Most corals are doing great Except por the pocilliopora and the xenia, i guess its because my nitrate is somewhat high, bc i do have a loot of hair algae.

I am addting 2 ml of nopox, its been 2 weeks más i still doesnt see changes, but i do have more waste at the skimmer, so I belive its working. 

I bought a translicid cool hammer, it looks like An ectoplasmic ghost, but a friend of mine said its bleached... not so sure uno, it looks Fine, it extends a lot and it eats.. i dont see any signs of ilness still i am worried. Perhaps someone versed in euphillia care might be able to help me? 

 

 

[Anzus]

I keep the hammer in a.. DIY cage.. because i have a pepermint shrimp that already are it.. thank god it wasnt so late and the hammer recovered but still pale

[Wonderboy]

Nice setup! Phew, good save on the hammer! Not sure if the it is bleached either, but I agree it looks really nice - I would just make sure it's not getting too much light. Your system has really gone a long way already - very nice additions!

[Anzus]

On 9/5/2019 at 1:49 AM, Wonderboy said:

Nice setup! Phew, good save on the hammer! Not sure if the it is bleached either, but I agree it looks really nice - I would just make sure it's not getting too much light. Your system has really gone a long way already - very nice additions!

Thanks! It is indeed something strong, as I cant stop algae, but the corals look Fine más they grow, Even montipora. The sea Star was a gift, so i hope it doesnt die bc of starvation or water cemistry. 

Its been a while since I performed a complete water test, but i am addting lodine, reef plus , and ocasionally i feed them reef roids