Fish's 2gal starfire cube. Pictures inside.

[ninjafish]

Update:

I have made an improvement in the auto-topoff dosing rate for my tank. The system is now set to add 0.75ml every 3.3 minutes - 24/7. The result is that fresh water is added at almost the exact rate that it evaporates. I turned it a little lower so that there is no chance of overflowing over time and the result is that I need to top up the level a tiny bit every few days. I am estimating that if I were to leave the tank for a week, it would only lose as much water as I used to lose in a day . I am sure that my livestock is enjoying the new, rock-solid salinity levels - and I know that I'm enjoying the freedom from constant topoffs. I will take a picture of the installed setup but the pump is sitting on top of a 8 liter bucket that can hold 24 days' worth of topoff water.

I will continue to monitor the level to see how much my evaporation rate is affected by rainy or super hot days ect, but so far, things are looking awesome! I want to thank the members of the board who first suggested the idea of an ATO. It took me a while to come up with a solution, but it has made things waaaay better.

Cheers,

 

- Chad

[dukester48]

followed this thread on reefcentral and here. You do great work.

[i have crabs]

That is one of the most impresive tanks I have seen yet. I have a yellow clown goby as well and they are great fish.

[ninjafish]

Thanks guys! As I said on RC, this past weekend was the longest amount of time that I have been away from the tank (4 days). I was pretty nervous when I got back to work but to my delight, the water level was only a little bit higher than where I normally keep it. I fine tuned the dosing pump so that it only strokes 15 times per hour now and that should keep the water level at the exact spot. To give you an idea, I would say that over the 4 days, my level went up by 1.5 ounces. Without the ATO, the level would have dropped over 40 ounces and the increase in salinity may have been fatal to some of my livestock. The dosing pump sits on top of a small bucket that holds over 20 days' worth of ro/di topoff water.

This is my schedule for tank maintenance:

 

First day back at work - clean glass and do 15% water change

Each day during the week - feed tank with small amount of "reef chili"

Last work day of the week - clean the glass

Weekend (2-4 days) - Stay home and don't worry about a thing!

 

I removed the goby from the tank because I didn't want to be going back to work to feed it on days off. The anemone crab and sexy shrimp have no problem at all scrounging up food when I'm not around. I have 3 pairs or spawning stomatella snails and pods in the chaeto fuge which contribute a certain amount of live food to the system. I hope to put together a video soon which I can post to the net for everyone to see.

Cheers,

 

- Chad

[Travis]

Why don't you just set up an auto feeder for the goby?

 

I can't wait for h video

[ninjafish]

Travis,

Ya, I thought about that. In fact, I even have a dry hopper version feeder but I couldn't get it to deliver only a single goby-sized portion and was worried about it polluting the tank. When I bring the tank home from work I will throw a ycg back into it for sure.

On a seperate note, what is everyone's opinion on a blue leg hermit (medium to large) in this tank. I have cerith and stomatella snails in there - would they be safe?

TIA.

 

- Chad

[mushroom head]

I would not get a hermit becasue they can nock over stuff.And they could kill the snails for there shells but im not to sure.

[burnah]

i would rather get 1000 snails than 1 hermit... these small MFers knock over stuff and introduce much higher bioload IMO

[Travis]

I love my 3 Hermits. I have 2 Red Foots and one Scarlet Hermit. They realy don't realy bother anything, and I like thefact thattheyknock over stuff because it shows the weaknesses in the rock work and then I can improve on the structural integraty.

 

I think he will make a wnderful addition to your tank. Just be sure to have a few extra empty shells lieing around for him to change into as he grows. They only reason why they would kill a snail is if there was no otehr option. Just keep empty shells in the tank at all times

[Travis]

BTW, Fish, have you seen my new tank? click the link in my signature to see

[ninjafish]

Thanks for the advice guys. The snails are all way smaller than the hermit so I don't think that he would be interested in their shells, I was just worried about him killing them for food. I got rid of my pepermint shrimp because I caught it plucking at a stomatella. The reason I want to put the hermit in is for some added diversity to look at. Also my two year old son loves it. My entire rockwork is made up of three pieces and a hermit wouldn't be able to knock any of it over. The corals are all glued down too except for a piece of gsp and a ricordia so they should be ok.

Travis,

I did check out your tank earlier and really like your second example of aquascaping. Some newer pictures would be sweet.

 

- Chad

[mushroom head]

How are the sexy shrimp?Im thinking of setting up a 8inch cube like yours or something and have 2-3 sexy shrimp.

[ninjafish]

I lost one sexy shrimp early on. It just kinda rolled over on its back and got sicker and sicker - I attributed it to a salinity fluctuation before I set up the ATO. The remaining shrimp are doing awesome and have taken up residence in my frogspawn frag. They are the best shrimp ever for a nano and I am thinking about getting two more.

 

- Chad

[mushroom head]

Very cool!Now i want to get 3 or 4 of then.

[tam]

Your tank looks better everytime I look at it. Maybe you should hire me to sit there and look at your tank, lol by the by where did you get your dosing pump from and how much?

[ninjafish]

Spyda,

Thanks man. I got the pump from ebay and in my answer to The Empiricist earlier, I gave some search tips that might help you find one.

I just added a darker green monti digitata frag and a tiny piece of gorgonian to the tank. And, I just realized that I forgot my video camera again X)

 

- Chad

[ninjafish]

Here is a small clip that I made of the tank. I am sorry that the quality is so bad. The website that hosts it compressed the heck out of the file . When I find a better site I will do another.

 

http://www.studioonline.com/playvideos.asp...E100F246CF2BEB8

 

Tell me what you think!

 

- Chad

[ninjafish]

Anyone?

[The Speez]

breathtaking....

[Travis]

Looks sweet man, but I mess the goby

[Casabubu]

Youve got some serious camera skills! Jk! Tank looks great!

[ninjafish]

Haha, no Oscar in my future eh? I think I am going to take another shot at it because the tank is now lit with a 20k bulb and looks way better! I bought two of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW

 

And yes, I miss the fish too. I am seriously considering adding another goby now that the ATO is working. I just don't want to have to come in to feed it on days off. Call me lazy...

I'll let you know.

 

- Chad

[Carinya]

I've never fed my fish every single day. Call me mean. But I've had some very long-lived fish. If you are really concernce, you could try hatching some brine and leaving a tablespoon or so in the tank over the weekend. I'm sure the goby would love it.

 

Anyway, I liked the video clip. Really gives a nice idea of scale, placement, etc. Thanks for posting it.

 

C

[ninjafish]

That is a great idea. How long will brine live in the tank? Until they are eaten? I think you might be on to something...

And thanks.

 

- Chad

[ninjafish]

Update:

 

Here is a list of my current inhabitants:

 

zoanthids (six of my best colors)

button polyp

colt

pulsing xenia (two kinds)

devils's hand

gorgonia

candycane

frogspawn

green monti digitata

purple monti digitata

orange monti caps

purple monti caps

pink bird's nest

riccordia (green and orange)

mushrooms (1 green, 1 blue, 1 red and 1 fuzzy)

green star polyp

2 sexy shrimp (2 more planned)

1 nerite snail

4 cerith

6 stomatella

 

 

I have found that the birds nest look much better in the tank than the montipora because its thinner branches are more purportional to such a small tank.