furia Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 I finally started the nano-reef. I purchased 27 lbs of live rock from Premium Aquatics for my 18 gallon tank. I live about an hour away from the PR warehouse so I was able to go there and pick some nano sized rock. I got almost all Marshal Island bits. The rock is very nice and appears to be fully cured. The folks at PR were great. I started round one of aqua-scaping on the evening of December 28th. I placed a few of the larger pieces on the bottom of the tank. When the structure was about half done I added 20 lbs of live sand (Arag-alive West Caribbean Reef). I purchased two 20 lb bags. After putting in the first bag I decided I did not need the extra 20 lbs. I then piled up the rest of the rock. I thought I would reevaluate the structure when the water cleared. ed... Link to comment
furia Posted January 1, 2005 Author Share Posted January 1, 2005 I could not believe how clear the water was the next morning! For those of you who witnessed me whining about my cloudy new tank syndrome... All it took was a day of cured live rock! ed... Link to comment
DarkMazda Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Hows the quality of the nano live rock? Link to comment
furia Posted January 1, 2005 Author Share Posted January 1, 2005 Here are some pic's of the live rock from PR. So far everything looks good! Nice algae and lots of hitchhikers. ed... Link to comment
furia Posted January 1, 2005 Author Share Posted January 1, 2005 Friday I decided to re-aquascape. I was disappointed with my low rubble pile. The Via Aqua's are very cool tanks but, I think, the aqua scape needs some height to bring out the best of the tank. I started using epoxy/putty to aid in building up the reef. I wasn't having very good luck with the putty so I just kept rearranging until I got a reasonably stable free standing structure. I think it came out ok. There are a couple of caves and some nice (small) arches. I appear to have good water flow. Here is a before and after pic. I also decided to go with a black background and to center the Remora. I like the functionality of the Remora's skimmer box. I am not to happy with the stock mounting. It is very unstable. As a solution I took one of the clips that come with MaxiJets (the ones that allow you to hang the maxijet from the rim of the tank). I took this clip hung it inside the tank with the suction cup reversed (facing the inside of the tank). I then just stuck the suction cup to the skimmer box. The box is now very stable. I am going to start with timed lighting. Considering the quality of the rock, is two hours a day enough? When should I expect an NH3 spike? It has been 4 days and nothing yet! ed... Via Aqua 18 gal Stock lighting 72 watts (1 x 36 watt 12K white,) (1 x 36 watt 7k actinic) 27 lbs Marshal Island LR 20 lbs live sand Ebo Jager 100w heater AquaC Remora (MaxiJet) with skimmer box 2 x MaxiJet 600 Natural wave wavemaker Link to comment
greatreef16 Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Looks nice, but I think the aquascape needs to be more vertical, w/ holes and arches and stuff. But thats just IMO. Link to comment
DarkMazda Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 i like the new scaping! That rock is lookin great as well! i ordered 12 lbs of nano lr from Pr (8lbs marshall, 4lbs fiji) but now im not sure if that will be enough for a standard 10g I cant believe u havent recieved any minicycle yet. The curing process of premium aquatics must be exceptional! As far as lighting goes, i put my lights on for 7 hours but thats because i have 2 damsels in my tank already... Link to comment
furia Posted January 1, 2005 Author Share Posted January 1, 2005 Yeah, I would like a little more height also. I just can't seem to swing it with the current rock. If I had another shot, I would have bought two larger pieces. There are a number of arches. They are small but there. Here is a shot that shows some of the arches. ed... Link to comment
smokez01 Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 nice set up so far!@! my dielemma with my LR was that it was suposudly 12 lbs at the LFS, and if u check out my tank it looks like ~10?? comparing others peoples "12" lbs looks like 5 to mine, which is strange, so i ordered 15 more from jeff's, so now i have ~27 lbs of LR, the 15 is still curing. i am unsure whether i should upgrade to a 20 gallon high or a 15 gallon high, if i do a 20 gallon high im afraid ill need to buy more lr once again and another powerhead or two, sorry to get off topic but, once agin, i like your beging, it looks very very clear, and those curves are starting to grow on me, im starting to like those more than the standard block edges Link to comment
Tater Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Really nice, I like the fact that it isn't an actual Nano Cube but still is the Nano Cube size. Looks great! By the way, I also live near the Premium Aquatics warehouse. I haven't gotten the chance to go there myself yet, but I have heard many reccommend it. I now plan on purchasing my LR there from looking at both the pics and prices. Check your PM box. Link to comment
Pili4444 Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 I think you should make 2 piles so its more of a vally. That way you would have more hight with the same amount of rock b/c your taking all the rock from the middle and moving it to the sides. just my 2 cents. Link to comment
crunk Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 well, if you really wanted you could go back to premium aquatics and buy one big piece of live rock no matter the weight Link to comment
crunk Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 oh yeah, nice tank, i love the via aquas and i like the look of your rock Link to comment
Shorty5198 Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Looks like its off to a good start. keep it up. Link to comment
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