9to5 Tybee Island Caribbean style tank

[kimdawg]

FINAL FULL TANK SHOT

 

There are shots at the bottom from different times in the contest.

Here is a tank shot of my tank in early May.  It shows all of the growth in the tank, but the tank had not been cleaned in a couple of weeks.

 

 

December tank shot. 12-24-21

 

 

ENTRY PHOTO---No longer using the containers.  SeaBass said with glass thickness  it would be in range without them.

 

TANK INFO

Upaqua nano L series 9.6 gallon tank

Hydor Koralia pump

Aqua Knight light changed to Chinese Black Box

REASON FOR STARTING CONTEST

       This tank began life after the old school janky tank grew up.  I basically just added its contents in here and let it run wild.  The uglier the zoas were the faster they grew.  I love Nano Reef contests because they give me a reason to start over and fall in love with my tank again.  I dumped the tank pictured above in my 75 gallon wild child'  This was a zero budget tank for equipment, sand, rock, and clean up crew.  My birthday is Christmas day and I will take all of my gift money to buy anything live I want for it.

 

PLANNED LIVESTOCK CHOICE

I want my tank to focus mainly on the Caribbean look.  I plan to include Rock Flower Anemones, Ricordea, Gorgonians, red Macroalgae, and of few colorful Zoanthids.

I have been going bare bottom in the last few tanks, but this one will have sand to create a more natural habitat for the inverts.  I have a clownfish in there now, but I could move him to the larger tank.  I know I want a porcelian crab and maybe a cleaner shrimp. Also thinking about adding a barnacle blenny.

 

LOOKING BACK

Looking back through my thread, I see a lot of changes.  I am glad I did not have to use the boxes after Seabass said I was within the requirements without them.

I was not planning on fighting a major algae bloom, bubble algae, or hair algae.  I had issues with all three, but I think the tank and I both survived them.

I had to remove one of the gorgs, a bunch of riccs, tons of red macro algae, several frags of zoas, and 4 rock flower anemones.  They grew too big and multiplied very quickly.

 

I think this tank has been my most successful contest tank.  The gorgs, red macro, and porcelian crabs were all things that I had never had in a tank.  I never got a barnacle blenny because I added a second clown to the tank and a cleaner shrimp.

I do not think I will change anything about this tank.  It is very stable and full of life.  I can change the water and dose it by myself and it keeps me entertained at night while I use my lympha press machine.

 

MEETING TANK EXPECTATIONS.

I wanted to be able to overcome any pests that were encountered.  I think I successfully met that goal.

I wanted to run a clean sand bed and it not be covered in frags.  This was made difficult because the RFA decided they wanted to be sand anemones. I like them on the sand and they even are trying to breed there.  She just released her eggs to early I think.  I think I achieved the look of a Caribbean tank.  I had success with all of the things I tried and ended up fragging or moving some of them to my 75 gallon wild child tank.  I have learned how to dose two part and test on this tank.

 

The following is some of pictures taken throughout the contest.  They sum up what the tank means to me.  I have this tank on a weird light schedule.  It comes on a 5pm and goes 0ff at 5 am.  after midnight is when I do my arm treatment and these are the things I see every night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

I love it! Such a clean look and it gets the job done. Good luck in the contest.

[kimdawg]

57 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

I love it! Such a clean look and it gets the job done. Good luck in the contest.

Thank you,  I really like the idea of a shelf in the aquarium to divide things up.  I am just trying to decide if I want to put sand on the bottom section now.

[Murphs_Reef]

Dude update your tag from "9 to 5", to "9to5" so it groups with the others 👍🏼

[kimdawg]

8 hours ago, Murphych said:

Dude update your tag from "9 to 5", to "9to5" so it groups with the others 👍🏼

Ha Ha!  I'm a dudette but I fixed it.

[Murphs_Reef]

14 hours ago, kimdawg said:

Ha Ha!  I'm a dudette but I fixed it.

Sorry 😱

[seabass]

If you haven't already, put a dab of silicone on the bottom of the display cases to affix them to your tank (as they need to be part of the tank as opposed to just sitting in it).  It will be easy to clean off should you decide to remove them after the contest.

[kimdawg]

He put silicone on them because I didn't want them to possible move and my rocks break the bottom of the tank.

[kimdawg]

Here is the full tank shot.  It has a long way to go.  I moved rock into it from my other tank and added some new rock from reef cleaners.  It has already started with the diatoms on the new rocks.  I plan to glue rocks to the display cases so the bricks won't show.  I think I will add a thin layer of sand on the bottom section since I will be adding RFA in there.  It is a jumble of rocks right now, but I guess I will figure out a scape in time.

  

[kimdawg]

I "may have"  just added some pretty flowers to my tank yesterday.  They are all open and have not moved any yet.  They are super tiny but look very colorful.

[kimdawg]

My tank is brown and cloudy right now, and I don't like the look of the long brick wall.  I am thinking about stacking them on top of each other.  It would be easy to pop them out and resilicone them and stack them on the left side.  I have a metallic branching gsp that has taken over my 75 gallon tank.  If I peel it off I think I could glue it to the front of the stack and keep it just on that section.  If I am going to do it it seems better to rescape it now.

[seabass]

15 hours ago, kimdawg said:

I don't like the look of the long brick wall.

Your tank's outer dimensions are: 17.75″ x 10.7″ x 11.9″.  Assuming 5mm glass, the inner dimensions would be: 17.36" x 10.31" x 11.70".  Plug that into the tank volume calculator and you get 9.07 gallons for the tank itself.

 

So if your external filter holds less than 0.43 gallons, you wouldn't need either box; although you might want to rename the thread.   Remember that I'll accept anything up to 9.50 total gallons.

 

You could determine the filter's volume by adding consecutive cups of water to the filter until it can't hold any more.  Since 0.43 gallons equals 6.88 cups, if the filter fills up before you add 6¾ cups of water, then your tank and filter will qualify without any modifications.

[kimdawg]

On 10/26/2021 at 7:50 AM, seabass said:

Your tank's outer dimensions are: 17.75″ x 10.7″ x 11.9″.  Assuming 5mm glass, the inner dimensions would be: 17.36" x 10.31" x 11.70".  Plug that into the tank volume calculator and you get 9.07 gallons for the tank itself.

 

So if your external filter holds less than 0.43 gallons, you wouldn't need either box; although you might want to rename the thread.   Remember that I'll accept anything up to 9.50 total gallons.

 

You could determine the filter's volume by adding consecutive cups of water to the filter until it can't hold any more.  Since 0.43 gallons equals 6.88 cups, if the filter fills up before you add 6¾ cups of water, then your tank and filter will qualify without any modifications.

Thank you seabass,  My filter just barely holds 5 cups of water.  I think I will take out the bricks, rename the thread and be much happier with my tank.  I appreciate the time you take to keep us all happy and in line with the rules.

[kimdawg]

Ok, I got rid of the brick containers today.  My tank was very green cloudy looking.  I changed 80 % of the water and tried to clean the rocks as well.  I added two rocks out of the 75 tank to get a little height in the rock.  It is still blue hazy now but looks much better. I have filter floss in the small HOB filter so I hope I can get a better picture tomorrow.

 

If any one has suggestions for clearing hazy water please let me know.

[seabass]

I suppose it depends on why the water is hazy.  Are we assuming a bacterial bloom, or just a disruption of sand and detritus?

 

Bacteria blooms can last several days and floss won't help on its own.  They will usually clear up by themselves, but you'll want to maintain good aeration, as these blooms can consume a good deal of oxygen.

 

A UV sterilizer will get rid of a bacterial bloom.  Protein skimmers can also help (I won't disqualify anybody for temporary use of equipment to deal with a problem).  Some people have also had luck with a water clarifier like CaribSea Bio-Magnet along with filter floss.

 

You might even try some activated carbon in your filter.

[kimdawg]

The water has been cloudy for over a week.  I changed about 80% of the water yesterday and the picture is from this afternoon.

 

Before the water change the water was greener.  This is almost 80% fresh mixed saltwater and it is already very cloudy.  I rinsed the rocks with saltwater and cleaned the glass during the change.  Does anyone have any suggestions.  Do you think I should add carbon Seabass?

[seabass]

Sounds like a bacterial bloom.

14 hours ago, seabass said:

Bacteria blooms can last several days...  They will usually clear up by themselves, but you'll want to maintain good aeration, as these blooms can consume a good deal of oxygen.

 

A UV sterilizer will get rid of a bacterial bloom.  Protein skimmers can also help (I won't disqualify anybody for temporary use of equipment to deal with a problem).  Some people have also had luck with a water clarifier like CaribSea Bio-Magnet along with filter floss.

Make sure that flow is good or add an air stone to help keep oxygen levels up.

 

5 minutes ago, kimdawg said:

The water has been cloudy for over a week...  Do you think I should add carbon Seabass?

You could try, but I wouldn't expect it to get rid of a bacterial bloom.

 

Just in case, have you checked for ammonia?

[kimdawg]

I have the small hang on back and a small hydor korali pump in there.  I can add another pump for a while to boost movement.  I will have to check and see if I have a current ammonia test.  All of the rock was out of my bigger tank so I didn't expect to get any ammonia.  I have not started a completely fresh new tank in over 30 years.  I change tanks but always use rock from an older tank.  I have never had a tank get cloudy like this so I don't have any idea what to do for it.  I did add RFA from Saltcritters and a clean up crew from Reef Cleaners after I started the tank.  I added stuff from each of these orders to the 75 gal. tank and it isn't cloudy at all, but it does have a skimmer and fuge on it.

[seabass]

I probably wouldn't worry it too much.  A bloom can take a few days to several weeks to clear on its own.  But (unless you have a protein skimmer or UV sterilizer) I might just wait it out.

[kimdawg]

I can not even see the rocks in my tank now.  Does anyone have a suggestion for a cheap uv light?  I looked online and they kept saying it could kill your fish.  The water looks like lake water it is a brown slightly tinted green color.  I have a limited budget to spend but  I can't stand not being able to see in the tank.  I'm sure it can't be good for the coral either.

 

[Maas101]

A UV filter will not kill your fish, I've used one of these in the past and it cleared the water in a couple of days 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Pond-Solutions-Aquarium-Internal/dp/B00RZWGRA8/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=ICTOFEBYBQ23&dchild=1&keywords=uv+aquarium+filter&qid=1635720300&s=pet-supplies&sprefix=uv%2Cpets%2C157&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE5V0Q5RVRZQkg5NzMmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5MTI1ODlDVEhKNzYwVUIzTyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUExMDMyMTc4MUhVQ1lXNE9WMDY4MyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Edited October 31, 2021 by Maas101
Spelling D'oh!

[kimdawg]

I just ordered a small 3 watt UV.  It is less than 3 inches long and will go in my tiny filter.  I will wrap something black around the filter to protect the fish and my eyes.  My tank sits within two feet of me and I am here most of the day.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

I've been dealing with a bacterial bloom in my tank for several weeks now. Very irritating as nothing seems to help. Currently I'm just keeping up with water changes (not to clear the water but keep water parameters in check), but I'm curious to see your solution to this; good luck!

 

[kimdawg]

I have had it over a week.  When I changed 80% of the water it was back within 15 hours.  I can not see any of the rock in my tank right now.  The UV comes in Wed. so I will let you know the results in a week.

[ef4life]

I’ve had bacterial bloom in 2 of my tanks again. My biocube and my large system. I had to get a 36w jabeo to clear up the big tank. 2x a day filter sock changes because of the slime was super annoying. I bought a $50 one from petco for the biocube 29g “the green killing machine” it works ok, but it’s not serviceable at all, but both tanks are now in the clear again, so hopefully your uv does the same in a few days