Pav's 15G...just beginning

[sr71pav]

It feels good to finally really have this project underway. Now that I have LR, I figure it's time to begin posting some pictures. Hopefully these will be the first of many.

 

Here's my first FTS/ Nothing too exciting yet. The rockwork does have several places to swim through or little ledges here and there. All comments/criticism are welcome.

 

 

So far, this has been my most interesting little hitchiker. I'm going with red micro feather duster for now. Picture didn't come out so well, butit's only like half a centimeter in size anyway. Still got to work on some of the photography skills.

 

[Tigahboy]

Great start. Let's start a 15g club! haha.

[reef n ale]

Look's great Pav! I like the rock work.

 

You going to work on moving that powerhead somehow? It might look better more "out of the way".

 

Rob

[sr71pav]

There's actually two powerheads there. I'm only planning on keeping one of them. The second one is there just to keep things moving around while it's cycling. There's an AC500 fuge on the back, so I figure one powerhead is enough. Depending on how much flow I allow through the fuge, one might even be overkill.

[reef n ale]

Oh yeah, I see it now.

 

And you can always add one back in if you need it!

 

Rob

[NEVER SATISFIED REFFER]

i'd get a seio 620 and hide it in the rock work! Looks good, I can picture it with lots of nice zoo frags.

[sr71pav]

I should probably post some specs of the tank. Nothing too complicated really.

 

15G AGA tank

glass lid

96W 50/50 Coralife powerquad

15 lbs LR (nano rock from Premium Aquatics)

12-15 lbs Aragonite

AC500 fuge

2 MJ400 PH (at the moment, probably reduce to 1 once the tank is cycled)

 

I have yet to add the moonlight. Haven't really had to pressing a reason as yet. Also, I'll be getting some LS to help seed the aragonite with in the next week or so.

[nUgZ]

You would get better light penetration without the glass lid.

[sr71pav]

I have two issues with removing the lid. First, the light is basically sitting on it right now, so I'd have to figure out another way of mounting it. Second, I'd like to have a fish or two potentially (I really like the 6 line wrasse) and wouldn't want them jumping out.

[NEVER SATISFIED REFFER]

doesn't the legs of that light fit onto the edge of the tank???? I thought they did.

 

also u really need a good 20x water flow. which would be at least 300 gal/hr.

 

and with this setup, I don't think heat is going to be an issue, but having a lid sure holds the heat in.

[sr71pav]

I think I came up half an inch short on fitting to the edge, but I might be able to rig something up (hooray for engineering!). But that still leaves the concern about fish jumping out.

 

If I have to have both powerheads in there, I'll probably have them on opposite walls and offset a bit vertically. The interference of the turbulence should be pretty good.

 

Heat hasn't been an issue for me. I have maybe 1-1.5°F fluctuation throughtout the day. Granted, it's not the summer, either.

[sr71pav]

Couple overnight updates. First, I've removed the glass lid from the tank, at least for the moment. I have the legs sitting on the inside lip of the tank. I'm going to see how well this works, and if evaporation might become a problem.

 

Second, I found my first snail in the tank. It's a little less than 1cm in length. A light pink shell shaped much like an ice cream cone. I tried to get a picture to post, but I don't think they came out well enough to be worth showing.

[NEVER SATISFIED REFFER]

hmmm i hope it isnt a sun dial snail. they eat zoos. hte way u tell for sure is the door that closes when the snail goes inside his shell is cone shaped as well. but you can only see it when the snail is out walking.

[sr71pav]

Just looked what those look like. That's not really it. It looks almost like a pinkish cerith shell (shape-wise). A conch of some sort maybe?

[sr71pav]

I finally got a good picture of the snail.

 

 

Anyone got an idea?

[sr71pav]

Anybody?

[sr71pav]

I'm absolutely shocked at the moment about how fast it appears my tank has cycled. I got Premium Aquatics nano rock, uncured!, about a week and a half ago. Last night I saw the beginning of the diatoms so I decided to test the water today.

 

Amm: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

 

Go figure! When I saw the diatoms I was shocked that I was seeing them already. Now I need to plan out a cleanup crew. If anyone has suggestions, please feel free. I'd like to avoid crabs if possible.

[Pili]

I have never had a problem with scarlet hermits but if you dont want crabs than ok:). I think that a combonation of about 10 nassarius, 3-4 trochus, 5 cerith, 1 margarita, and maybe 3-4 astreas would probably work the best. I like alot of variety and i think best clean up has at least a couple different types. HTH

[sr71pav]

Shouldn't I wait on nassarius until I have fish in there? They're more of a detritus than algae eater, aren't they?

[sr71pav]

Any other thoughts by people? I'd like to get these ordered in the next day or so.

[nUgZ]

The live rock curing will produce a fair amount of detritus. Personally I would go ahead and add a couple. They do a good job stirring up the sand bed.

[sr71pav]

How soon after adding the cleanup crew can I add fish or corals? Does it matter which is added first? I'm just trying to plan ahead a bit here.

[sr71pav]

Amidst all the diatoms, I found a small growth of a macroalgae. Given it's fan shape, I'm temporarily calling it halimeda. I may try to get a picture of it later to see if people agree.

[sr71pav]

Here's the pic of the macro I found. Can someone confirm what type?

 

[sr71pav]

New FTS. I redid a bit of the rockwork. I was concerned with my previous layout that I might not be able to place corals so I could see them as well. This new layout has more promise, I think. Still plenty of holes for fish and such. Still not sure that I'm 100% happy, but that will hopefully come with some experience at this.