Absolutely right. I cringe when I hear of people buying tank water from the LFS to help "cycle" their new tank. If your live rock is cycled and just pulled out of one tank and immediately placed into the new tank, it should be completely fine and not require any cycling. I've tested this theory multiple times with my own tanks.

I need to do a writeup one day dispelling all the wuju juju that us reefer's seem to do out of sheer habit and misguided haplessness, haha.

Top down time!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...dbec7739b10b4f

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...09e411ad3f10d2

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...b0cb1c014ee425

Quick picture updates:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...0ac5f3fbc4df92

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...659b47fab1c7e6

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...0d9287fb9e3ec0


Some good news, a few of the Palys have started to sprout babies. At some point, I intend to upgrade the lighting to get better colors out of the corals (the rendition leaves a lot to be desired, IMO) -- but in the meantime, the fixture has been surprisingly effective at keeping the corals well-nourished.

Shy guy:

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...16&oe=553CF797

Nice dendros do they have polyps out under lights ? I've held off getting some thinking they're drawn in when the tank is lit.

Lots of dendros will extend their polyps during the day. Might take some training or small food partials in the water but most of the dendros I've seen are open even during daylight.

My dendros are always out. Its rare to see it closed up, day or night.

Mine are the opposite of suncorals in that they are open 90% of the time, if not more.

http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/...ps16373f2d.jpg

Proof! :biggrin:

Just taken at 6:35pm.

Bangin news! I'm always feeding.

Here's how you do a water change on a nano :D

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...b3b951b128107d

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...cdfba8acf734b3

Ten minutes later, everything looks exactly like it did before the W/C.

Lmfao! ! Good one.

I hope you've got a valved bulkhead in the bottom rear of that tank. Be the quickest water change ever lol.

Skimmers are for chumps. Real men drain the entire tank. Then they walk away without looking back.

So 100% water changes?! :P

I would if there were no fish :(

Some quick updates and pictures.

• Corals are looking fabulous.
• Fish are looking great, but the organization of the cardinals seems to have broken down. They no longer bunch together tightly. Minor aggression, but no ripped fins. Very stable pecking order.
• The minor nuisance algae growth from setup has seemed to ground to a complete halt.
• I've been hand feeding the corals a TON of food. I've also been dumping a cube of cyclopeeze in every two days or so. The animals go wild for it.
• I'm more or less convinced that bare bottom is the key to easy maintenance while supporting dense stocking and overfeeding.
• 90% water changes rock. I wish it was practical to do this with my bigger system.

So far, the fish list looks like this:

• 4 - Ringtail Cardinals
• 1 - Royal Gramma
• 1 - Swalesi Basslet
• 1 - Jaguar Goby
• 1 - Molly Miller

I'm thinking I wouldn't mind putting in a single Bangai Cardinal and a pair of Ocellaris Clowns.

Onto the pictures:

Ultra Acan after feeding :D

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...3125ea1a80f1d4


Utter Chaos and company

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...f7df36e4e5c3d2


Added some Rock Flower Anemones

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...e3ebe7c4b76c43

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...ded2403aa5ab95


Finally got a picture of the Royal Gramma

https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...df&oe=5539699C


I also noticed a couple tiny Aiptasia, so rather than uproote the rocks and manually extract them, I decided to add a Molly Miller to deal with them. Bonus points for eating nuisance algae and being super cute.

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...b2&oe=553AC2FC

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...b7&oe=553EB6AC


And finally, some updated full tank shots

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...76&oe=553969B5

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...6a&oe=5522BEBF

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...a7274f59c4c0d5

Lookin awesome

Can we see that water change in slow motion that was too fast I blinked lol :)

Great pics Albert

Cute fish. Any more Molly Millers available and price for one please.

Thanks,

Anthony

None left :(


I just looked at this thread on a friend's monitor... Colors were way off, lol... Friggin Instagram.

thats ballsy :razz:

I think he refills before he walks away though :biggrin:

thanks, now my monitor has tea on it :razz: LOL!

Got some mugshots today :D

Molly Miller

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...64&oe=552A8041


Swalesi Basslet

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...d8bc1764f63124


Jaguar Goby

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...10&oe=556AEA91


And lastly, here's what you can do in a barebottom tank with impunity - Drop a whole cube of Cyclopeeze in followed by some Mysis for good measure:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...87ba02f8aefe32


Thanks for looking!

Nice little tank, looks great!

great fish selection , man I wish you were still working at gold's. We dont get cool fish anymore :cry:

Looking good. Nice pics on the wee fish

Nice nano!

Nice. I want one of those Swalesi !

Updates

• Added a pair of Curious Worm Gobies. They were almost food for the cardinals. Almost. I don't have a picture of them (yet), but they look like this:

http://www.nano-reef.com/uploads/gal...2501_49503.jpg

• Added a couple Porcelain Crabs.
• Added a Dwarf Yellow Boxer Shrimp.
• I tried to add an Anemone Shrimp, but the Molly Miller wouldn't stop harassing it. No large surprise there as they look more or less like a big Mysid. Ah well, such is life.

I'm just going to leave these here:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...51ec55e0549628

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...d2c7c008b2a28e

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...8f555a9e814e9a

O____________O

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...df12b01204e2f3

Got a pic of the Curious Worm Goby :D :D :D

https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...31&oe=5536EDC5

I want to throw one of these in there...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...b1dbbf61c70418

Added a Borneman Anemone (pic sux, I'll get a better one tomorrow):

https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...3a&oe=552745AD

Also added a bunch of hitchhiker Porcelain Crabs and Pistol Shrimps! We'll see if they survive, heh.

Tomorrow is water change day!

Go to bed

How often do you change your water?

Once a week. But I'll do one off schedule in a pinch if anything looks funny. It's not come up so far, but I've always felt nanos should be operated on by ear in addition to habit.

Albert, great tank- love the huge water changes. Any worries about some of the cyclopeeze getting in the rock and missed during water changes/bottom siphoning? I'd like to feed like this but it seems that even with a bare bottom I can still miss a lot of organics in the rock- even with basting once or twice a week. Seems to always be crap in there ( like christy said- never seems to stop shedding).
Greg

Ahhh I don't really concern myself with that. Brittle stars and bristleworms are your friends in this respect. My rocks don't shed, so yah.