davinaster Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 My 4 year old daughter has been planning her own nano-tank for several weeks now. She knows that it needs to be bigger than mine so that she can have clownfish, and she wants me to give her frags Today we went to our LFS (Denny's Pet World in Kirkland, WA) to pretend to look at tanks for her nano ! The nanos they kept in the fish department were being sold for $100/each - that's the 11 & 15 gal Via Aquas w/ lights and equipment, LS, LR, critters, 2 clownfish per tank, and 2 mushrooms in one of them! They need work, but I defy any one of you nano addicts to resist a deal like that. So I bought them both, one for her, and one for my 2 1/2 year old son. Torrey is beyond ecstactic, and when I said, "You finally got your Nemos!" she replied, "Clownfish, Mommy." lol But, of course, they are named Nemo and Marlin Eli simply said, "Nano, nano, nano - my fishy!" :love: But we all know who these tanks are really for, don't we :angel: 15 gallon with ocellaris 11 gallon with tomato clowns Link to comment
Cesar Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 That's cute davinaster my son is also thrilled with his tank *cough* (my tank) *cough*. He has gotten so much into it that he will sit there with me and stare. I really like your 2 nanos. I really like Clownfish myself so those Tomato's are looking awsome. Link to comment
msn711 Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 Wow! I can't belive you've gotten the kids hooked at such an early age. That's incredible. Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 14, 2005 Author Share Posted January 14, 2005 I can't believe how hardy these little systems are! They took forever to pack up at the store, and as I was looking at those rocks sitting there in the cooler, I could see all of the die-off in my mind's eye killing those poor little fishies. I wouldn't choose to put fish into a tank with LR that had been sitting out of water for even just a couple of hours, like these were - but part of what's making this interesting is that up to this point, I didn't make any of the choices. Anyhow, today we tested the water quality, and here are the results: Torrey's tank (15 gallon w/ ocellaris): ammonia: 0 nitrites: 0 nitrates: 5-10 Eli's tank (11 gallon w/ tomato clowns): ammonia: 0.25 nitrites: 0 nitrates: 5 High fives to the little reefers!! Link to comment
reefsrule Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 its easy to believe thier hooked, remember NEMO Link to comment
jenniebutterfly Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 yeah my son (3 yr old, 4 in april) wants me to turn his mini bow 5 into a reeftank, i told him when i get some frags i would. he knows all the names of the corals and fish i have, he is very interested. but watch the tanks very carefully! when my son was almost three he said his fish were thirsty, i explained to him that they weren't. well about 3 hours later i was putting clothes away in his room and saw a thick brown film (about 4 inches high) in his tank and floating on top was a hi-c box. he fed his mono and puffer a full can of small pelets and a box of hi-c. the puffer did not make it, but somehow the mono did. he was a little skitish after that, but he survived till his tank got to hot while i was on vacation. but watch your little ones, and keep all food out of their reach Link to comment
brianemone Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 now we just need to set up some kindof propaganda system in the schools my wife wont let me buy my unborn child a tank, darn it, he would love it, he kicks any time my wife is around something cool (fish related) like the time we went to someones house that had bred cinimon clowns he got real excited Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 15, 2005 Author Share Posted January 15, 2005 jennie -- You've got a really good point - the two new ones tanks are uncovered for the time being. Are we to assume that fish don't like Hi-C brianemone -- lol! She might not let you get one for him now, but putting Torrey in front of our 29 gal freshwater was one of the only ways I could put her down for the first year of her life You might want to gently suggest that right around week 6, but don't tell your wife I said so... Link to comment
c3po Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 My 18 mth old son loves to watch the tank, partly because he sees dad contantly looking at it. I guess he figures he must be missing out on something ;P. Tanks look great! Sounds like you got a pretty good deal. A tip... get a small can of marine grade enamel and thinners/wax-grease remover. Paint the backs of the tanks.... Link to comment
Sushi Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 nice mommy! watch out for those open top tanks though! (small children + open top tanks + household items = something bad eventually)... so keep an eye out! Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 c3po -- I love the idea of painting the back! One of them came with a background, but it was ugly and I couldn't get it back on, so I let Torrey cut it into a million pieces (one of her favorite activities lol) However, esthetic improvement to the second two nanos in my life is low on my list of priorities right now uchiha -- You are so right. I'm out of town right now (husband and father-in-law are home with the kids :teehee: ), but I'm going to get some plexi tomorrow. Link to comment
jenniebutterfly Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 haha fish do NOT like hi-c. my son still tries to say the fish are thirsty. it is funny. thank goodness he cannot reach the top of my 36 Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 Today Torrey and I did a water change. I let her siphon the old water out. Siphoning is one of her favorite activities, and she's become quite good at it, but letting her start a siphon of nasty nano water involved a lot of mommy-letting-go. Let me tell you all, my little girl is a pro! She started it right up, no water in her mouth, like she's been doing it all her life. Amazing. And then she reminds me that she really is just a little kid. One of her snails died (I'm guessing it wasn't acclimated long enough). She wasn't convinced it was dead and insisted on keeping it in a plastic cup full of water in her room just in case it was "a little bit alive" and woke up. This evening she insisted that it moved and that we put it back in the tank. Well, I couldn't indulge that, so we argued back and forth a little bit. Finally I said, "Honey, look at me." Her answer? "OK, so it's dead. Can I go throw it away now?" Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 24, 2005 Author Share Posted January 24, 2005 I don't really have any more money to spend on these tanks , but Eli desperately needed a cleanup crew. So I went to www.garf.org for ideas and got him 4 margarita snails, 4 cerith snails and 3 red-legged hermit crabs (they didn't have any nerites). I also asked for a couple of empty shells for my own hermit crab. Well, that's what I thought I was getting. But when tossed the "empty" shells in my tank, a blue legged hermit crawled out of one of them! It is now happily cleaning up in Torrey's tank. There's a strange looking pink/white hermit crab in Eli's tank, and I'm simply not sure how many ceriths I got Link to comment
Thunil Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 that is a great idea i bet thje kids will love it, i love the tanks what type are they? they look really nice. well done Link to comment
scentfaerie Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 awsome tank well for now. I am setting up a 12 gallon next week:) Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 24, 2005 Author Share Posted January 24, 2005 Boy - just keeping up with my own tank is a lot of work - not to mention all the money. There is no way I have the time to put as much thought and care into these two as I do my own. My plan for them is to just keep them alive (which I'm defining as keeping the fish alive) while I get things under control. I'm doing regular water changes and feeding the fish, and of course I'm testing (because Torrey wouldn't let me get away with doing otherwise!), but the tanks look terrible! Eli's actually looks like pea soup. I've heard people describe theirs that way, but I'd never seen it before. I just don't have the emotional bandwith to worry as much about "their" tanks as I do about "mine" In the long run, though, they are all going to be just amazing! Link to comment
BKtomodachi Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 Wait.. Jennie... did you have a puffer and a mono in a 5 gallon minibow? lol Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 Here's a pic of the "snails" that Torrey drip acclimated tonight She had one bowl of water up on the table and this bowl on the floor. She used my husband's drip acclimating system - started the siphon, adjusted the drip rate (repeatedly increased it, but never until it was flowing). I missed getting a picture of the setup, but this is the end result: :love: Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 28, 2005 Author Share Posted January 28, 2005 My goal right now is just to keep Torrey and Eli's tanks alive. To accomplish this I'm doing regular water changes and keeping an eye on them. They also both need some more rock, so I bought a few more pounds and reaquasquaped the tanks. I read an old thread started by someone who hated tomato clowns as much as I do, and someone suggested leading with a net before putting my hands in the tank. Sure enough, they left me alone! Here's how Eli's tank looks now: When I was moving stuff around in Torrey's tank, I couldn't see what I was doing, and poor Nemo and Marlin don't have any little tunnels or caves. I'll take care of that the next time my hands are in there. But the big rock I added does have a monster Aiptasia on it for them to host in! Here's how Torrey's tank ended up: Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 30, 2005 Author Share Posted January 30, 2005 Nemo from Torrey's tank: Marlin from Torrey's tank: Tomato clowns from Eli's tank: Link to comment
Newby-Reefer Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 Umm i hate to tell you this now but you should have put the tomatoes in the biger tank. Anyway awsome I love clownfish and yours are looking awsome. Them clowns seem to know where to bite you right where it hurts the most. Keep us posted. Link to comment
davinaster Posted January 31, 2005 Author Share Posted January 31, 2005 Y' know, it never even occured to me to switch the fish when I got them home from the store. I just put everything back where it was. Duh. Besides, the nice 15 gallon is definitely Torrey's tank, and the ocellarises (?) are definitely hers So I know that two tomatoes in an 11 gallon is too much fish, and I'm trying to get rid of them. I hate the little boogers - you aren't kidding about the biting The tank size is how I'm going to rationalize replacing them with a nice firefish or something. My two year old - the "owner" of the tomatoes - will just have to accept it Link to comment
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