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ZenMastr1968's 10G Nano


ZenMastr1968

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ZenMastr1968

Not a whole lot has changed over the week. I haven't seen more than 1 scarlett for a few days now, but the emerald and the snails are doing wonders. I'll check the parameters again today. Here is a FTS

 

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and one of the more colorful areas right now...

 

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I've got some more test kits on their way, so I can check a wider set of parameters next weekend. I'm also going to get some more snails and maybe a couple of cleaner shrimp the end of next week. There's still quite a bit of cleanup work to do for the CUC.

 

How far can I go with corals with the Orbit 2x40 light that I have???? Opinions?

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Hey Zen - everything is looking good! How'd you get your emerald crab to pose for you like that?! Mine still hides most of the time. Of course you have to decide for yourself, but I now understand why most people recommend scarlet hermits (or none), over everything else. My bluelegs are having a little crab war, even though there is plenty to eat, and according to stocking suggestions, they're not overcrowded. So what I'm saying is go easy on the hermits, and scarlets are the way to go.

Have you found a local reef club yet? If I were you, I'd try to find one (check the club forums at Reef Central) - you should be able to get some nice frags for a fraction of the price that they would cost in the LFS, and no shipping charges! Plus, it's fun to meet people with the same interests!

Best of luck to you, and keep the updates coming!!

Anna :)

 

I must say it's looking good... I started my tank on the same day, using mostly the same light etc..

 

I'm thinking I want more Hermits at this point myself, besides something wavey in the near future.

 

Heres a shot of mine...

post-19575-1144513437_thumb.jpg

 

Where do you get that little Day ticker thingy?

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ZenMastr1968

Looks good. B)

 

I think I'm down to 1 hermit and so with my snail and shrimp purchase next week, I'll get some more electric blue hermits. I really liked the looks of them. Here's what I'm thinking about picking up next week from Blue Zoo:

 

2 cleaner shimp (would like them to mate :D )

 

12 onyx nassarius snails

 

6 cerrith snails

 

3 electric blue hermits

 

Then a fish or two a week or two after that - comments/suggestions??

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Looks good. B)

 

I think I'm down to 1 hermit and so with my snail and shrimp purchase next week, I'll get some more electric blue hermits. I really liked the looks of them. Here's what I'm thinking about picking up next week from Blue Zoo:

 

2 cleaner shimp (would like them to mate :D )

 

12 onyx nassarius snails

 

6 cerrith snails

 

3 electric blue hermits

 

Then a fish or two a week or two after that - comments/suggestions??

 

My first question when I bought this light was what can I GROW under it. The answer was should be able to Grow anything....

 

So, not that there's a lot of room to test the boundries, I plan to take a stab at a few things!!

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No way you have 8g with all that rock.

 

Any way you can move it around more or move some of it out?

 

If you like it, thats cool. But I am definately a "less rock more swim space" kinda guy. Here is my 10g

 

DSC02039_Medium_.JPG

that tank is boring

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ZenMastr1968
My first question when I bought this light was what can I GROW under it. The answer was should be able to Grow anything....

 

So, not that there's a lot of room to test the boundries, I plan to take a stab at a few things!!

 

So you think it is possible to grow just about anything under the 2x40 orbit in a 10 gal?? It does seem fairly bright when the dual daylights are on. And I suppose it isn't traveling that far, with my sand bed, it's maybe only a foot from the light to the very bottom.

 

Anyone else have any opinions on the 2x40 and how adventurous I can get with the corals? Was looking on Blue Zoo and they had some interesting looking Frogspawn and Branching Hammer frags - says they are hardy, beginner, indo-pacific corals. I've seen several types of Zoos and pulsing xenias on other sites as well as at the not so local LFS. Maybe a few leathers, suns, etc. Need to do more research on corals native to Marshall Islands region...but need to start somewhere. Thanks everyone.

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ZenMastr1968

Hi all, I thought I would post an update while I was waiting for this acclimation period to finish.

 

This last Wednesday I found a yellow tipped torch coral hiding in the back of a recommended fish store in RI while on my way back from a conference. The coral wasn't in the best condition, but it was reasonably priced. It was a colony a little smaller than the size of a baseball at one point in time, but the center had died out. Now it is just two small heads on one side and one small head on the other. I don't know if it would be worthwhile to cut the two good sides off and start them over as smaller pieces.... It seems to be doing well though, maybe the flow is a bit too high. It comes out about 3/8ths to 1/2 an inch on each side.

 

Today's project is water change while acclimating about a dozen onyx nass snails, half a dozen certh snails, 3 more electric blue hermits, a pair of cleaner shrimp, and a small false perc clown. They all seem to be doing well - I'm putting the inverts through a 3 hour drip procedure before going in the tank. The clown went through about an hour of drip acclimation before going into the tank. I also appear to have gotten a few hitchhikers a zebra hermit and a couple of teeny tiny brittle stars - one was hiding in an empty nass shell. It looks to be pure white in color.

 

I'll post pictures when the tank is back together and the lights are on.....

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ZenMastr1968

Well trying to get good pictures has turned out to be quite a challange, but I'll keep trying.

 

The new snails and shrimp have made short work of all the alge on the front of the tank and have moved on. I noticed the clown was having a bit of a time swimming in the tank as well as the coral seeming to be overpowered by the current from the HOB, so I went in search of a replacement impeller for the AC70. I found one for an AC50 and with it in place and on it's lowest setting, seems to have given everyone a break from the flow. The fish is swimming around more places, the coral seems to be not whipped around as much, and the shrimp are moving all over the tank.

 

Can anyone put a number on "moderate flow"? Everwhere I read, torch corals need moderate flow - any ideas??? :unsure:

 

Thanks.

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ZenMastr1968

Here are a couple of better shots I was able to get last night - they're of the torch coral...

 

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This one I used some special setting on the camera that I think gives it an interesting look. :P

 

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I think I still need to work on the flow some. The AC50 impeller was doing a better job than the standard one. The coral was out about an inch from it's skeleton, but when I turned off all the pumps and HOB for a feeding test - everything crawled out of the woodwork to see what was going on, the clown started investigating other parts of the tank, etc... He had been primarily hiding in the upper corners since I put him in there. I tried an experiment after the battery died on the camera with the standard AC70 impeller. I noticed that the AC50 one had only 4 blades which were smaller in general. So I took a look at the AC70 one and it has 6 blades - of which I broke 3 off and left a triangle shaped fin pattern. I figured 3 blades would have less force than the 6 and so put that one back in the HOB. I appears to be running lower than it was, but not quite as low as with the 4 bladed AC50 impeller. Next I will try to shave down the 3 fins themselves, try to make them identical, and much smaller so there is less surface area. I'm hoping to achive a nice slow flow from the HOB so everything will be comfortable and still have enough flow. I'll post more results as I find them.

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ZenMastr1968

Well the flow debate raged on.....

 

Over the last couple of days I tried modifying one of the stock AC70 impellers trying to get what seemed like the right flow. I cut it down some more and made some other changes to it Thursday night and that was the last time I saw the small clown....he didn't seem to be doing too well in the first place.

 

Since then I've done a lot of reading on NR and on the RC site about flow, clowns, etc... and then yesterday afternoon decided to visit the better of the not so local LFS to see if they had anything new, talk to them about their tanks, and just see what I could pick up informationwise. It turned out to be a productive visit. They had gotten in a very large batch of fish mid week and had a lot to choose from which had been given a few days to acclimate themselves. They had some very nice looking smaller black false O clowns, but price was on my mind and didn't want to spend that much on another fish that might "disappear" in another week. So I picked up a pair of small O clowns instead, picked their brain about flow, food, etc... and finally found the cyclopeeze that I have been looking for elsewhere for a week. Also picked up some DT's to try to perk up the torch a bit.

 

So when I got home I decided to revamp the tank a bit - I decided the center was getting hit too much and what I was trying to accomplish with the 606s and locline wasn't helping enough. I tore the tank mostly apart, replaced the spray bars with just one of the spray heads pretty much directly attached to each 606, and then added the surface skimmer attachment to the AC70. After attaching the surface skimmer to the AC70 I noticed that the flow was just too low and kind of messed up by the modded impeller so I went back to the AC50 one. That worked much better. I also reworked the rock a bit - tried to condense it a bit, but when was finished.....hated it :angry: .....so back to the drawing board. Around 1 am I finally came up with a design that still had some of the caves and holes from before, but was overall smaller looking and also gave more room in the center front of the tank.

 

This morning when I awoke, the torch was out over an inch, the pair of clowns were playing like school children in the front of the tank, and one of the shrimp had sluffed.... :happydance: I think I have finally got the tank going in the right direction.

 

Here's a new FTS

 

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Here are a closeup of the torch coral

 

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and a couple of the clowns

 

post-19254-1145724474_thumb.jpg post-19254-1145724518_thumb.jpg

 

and shot of a busy electric blue hermit

 

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and finally one of the shrimps....

 

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SO, how is it looking now????? :D

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ZenMastr1968

Well, as in some other things in life, I declared victory a bit too soon.... The pair of clowns appeared to have marine ick a couple of days after introducing them to the tank. They have since disappeared and I have yet to find them. I'll look more closely when I do my weekly water change Friday night or Saturday. I'll have to run more water tests tonight and from what I've read wait at least a month before putting any other fish in the tank. When I do, I'll most definately have to employ a QT tank!

 

Other than that, things seem to be going pretty well. The torch seems happy, the shrimp are around cleaning, the hermits are scavenging, and the snails are making short work of the algae about the tank. I'm probably going to focus more on corals for the time being and look for some nano sized offerings either locally or abroad. I've seen some pulsing xenias at the not so local LFS and a number of nice things on PacificEast Aquaculture that I will be looking into.

 

Will post more as things develop....

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ZenMastr1968
Where did you buy that powerhead with the black tubing? Im looking for something similar to that.

 

Are you looking at the early pictures or the ones from a week or so ago? I just have 2 mini-jet 606s with some loc-line parts for nozzles. I have a side of the tank shot I can post which gives you a better view of the current setup....

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