sammy33 Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 Well it's been a while since I have had a reef aquarium. About 14 years ago I took down my last reef tank which was a monstrous, overwhelming 180+ gallon system. Beatiful... but a ton of work to maintain. I had a few nano reefs along the way and ultimately enjoyed them more than the big reef tanks I have owned. Here we go again! Plan is to use premix salt and rodi from the LFS so no rodi filter mishaps in the house. 🤮 I have a 6g Aqueon rimless cube from a previous setup that I am using for this build. I decided to paint the back of the tank black for a background. The rest of the stuff: Hygger 30w clip-on marine led Seachem Tidal 55 filter Nicrew 50w heater Fzone ATO (360P) 6lbs Caribsea sand 5lbs Caribsea "life rock" Official set up date was 12/19/23 so only a couple weeks into the cycle now. I don't think I will keep any fish in this tank stocking it with corals and inverts only. Any stocking ideas? Here is the fish room vibe I have going so far. 3 Quote Link to comment
sammy33 Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 I decided to order some actual live rock from one of the aquaculture farms in Florida. I got 15 lbs of the premium nano live rock and 10lbs of the wild sand from U.S. Live Rock. I asked for as much macro algae as possible. Pic from their website... Some of this will go in the 6g and also in an extra 10g tank that I have for another build I am working on. 1 Quote Link to comment
Woodini Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Off to a great start! I’m curious about your sand and liverock order, I’m considering that route. also the fish tank room is the place to be! Gotta have the stool on wheels and height adjustable 😆 👍🏽 1 Quote Link to comment
sammy33 Posted January 7 Author Share Posted January 7 Diatoms are starting to show in the 6g. Feels good to see some signs of life and the cycle doing its thing. First critters will likely be a couple of astrea snails and a couple of blue leg hermits. I am thinking I am going to leave this tank as is using the live rock I ordered for my 10g build instead. I really like the cave scape here and the potential the arch holds for coral placement. A coral banded shrimp is on my short list of critters. 😉 1 Quote Link to comment
sammy33 Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 Decided to go ahead and get some critters for this nano. I grabbed a couple each of blue leg hermits and nassarius snails from my LFS (Atlanta Aquarium). Looks like I actually ended up with a blue leg and a mexican red leg. With plenty of diatoms to munch the hermits have basically cleaned up the one corner and are working on the other patches. The nassa snails buried in the sand after a brief cruise around their new home. 🐌 3 Quote Link to comment
sammy33 Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 I added a few corals to the 6g nano reef. I really like the swaying flowing action of Euphyllia but have not kept many in the past. I chose a Green Splatter Hammer, a Rainbow Hammer and a Golden Eye Frogspawn. I also got a free JF Dayglo Favites frag all from the LFS. The aquarium is doing well overall. I am getting some diatoms that are waning. As long as I keep my weekly water changes going I think they will clear up soon. More inverts are the next additions. 🦀 2 Quote Link to comment
sammy33 Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Stomatella Spawning Passing by my tank, I noticed my aquarium was crazy cloudy like microbubbles?!? After closer inspection I realized that my Stomatella snails were spawning. Tons of eggs/gametes in the water (free coral food). 🐌 Might have a bunch more stomas soon! Here is a quick video: stomatella-spawn.mp4 1 Quote Link to comment
sammy33 Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 More Euphyllia! I grabbed this Purple Tip Green Hammer from my LFS this past weekend. It looks like it is starting to split so maybe two heads on this one soon. 2 Quote Link to comment
colormegone Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 That's a sweet piece! 1 Quote Link to comment
Bluelobstor Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 On 2/10/2024 at 11:19 PM, sammy33 said: I added a few corals to the 6g nano reef. I really like the swaying flowing action of Euphyllia but have not kept many in the past. I chose a Green Splatter Hammer, a Rainbow Hammer and a Golden Eye Frogspawn. I also got a free JF Dayglo Favites frag all from the LFS. The aquarium is doing well overall. I am getting some diatoms that are waning. As long as I keep my weekly water changes going I think they will clear up soon. More inverts are the next additions. 🦀 Looking good I love Euphyllias! I hope they do well for you and I'm loving the rockscape. The cave is awesome 1 Quote Link to comment
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