10g low-budget diy nano reef

[Nevin]

Thanks Chris! I've seen shrimp gobies and liked them a lot, but never really looked into them for my tank. I notice J&L charges twice as much for a shrimp goby/pistol shrimp pair as they do to buy the fish and shrimp separately. Is it difficult to get them to pair up or something? My daughter wants a clownfish (I like them too)--would it likely get along with the goby in a small tank?

We could talk about the stand when I'm done with mine. I'm not sure it would work, though, as I don't have space to work on something that size (I work on the balcony of our condo) and I work very slowly, grabbing little bits of time wherever I can...

The zoas you gave me are doing fine, but the ones I got from Anthony (picture above) closed up after a few days. Are there any issues with compatibility between different types of zoas (or the mushrooms and moon coral possibly) or is it more likely a problem with the placement and parameters in my tank?

Regards,
Nevin

[tang daddy]

I've bought them seperate because of the same thing was at jl today and picked up another pistol shrimp which makes it the forth one, usually they are not picky. IMO the orange spotted goby with a little purple in them are the easiest to pair up with the pistol. In a small tank they will easily find each other!

If you get a clown get a true perc although the false is ok as well, just make sure not to get a black or maroon as these are very agressive, get quite large and territorial as well.

Zoas are compatible with any other corals and sometimes may stay closed for awhile. There are pests like nudi's,worms and other types that bother and sometimes eat the zoa from inside out. It's a good idea to dip your zoa in fresh warm water for a few minutes before putting it in your tank regardless of the source, trust no one and it's good practise to dip any corals before introducing them into your tank technically speaking from experience. It's usually a dead give away if the zoas are spewing brown stuff and dissapearing 1 at a time that there are pests involved.

As you saw from the last time you were here the stand is built but not finished, I would like to put doors that open on them and seeing that you did a good job thought it was possible. I'm in no rush for that take a year to do it, no worries.

[tang daddy]

also I wanted to add that zoas are the only type that can take a freshwater dip don't try it with any other types of coral!

[Nevin]

Too long without an update, though I've had a few other threads going with specific questions. My purple zoas never did open, and today I took them out--starting to turn brown and fall off, hermits moved in to finish it off. I still don't know why. No visible signs that they were being eaten. Other zoas are still doing okay. Took out the dead digitata frag with the majano on it too--hopefully all the majanos are out now.

I finally got a coralife 50/50 bulb to replace the 6700k. I find it too blue, but it might be better with different coloured corals in the tank. I'll have pics up soon now that I have nicer lighting and nicer rock ready to go in. I just have to move everything onto the new stand and redo the aquascaping first...

Regards,
Nevin

[Nevin]

I've been waiting to update because I have a lot of changes planned, but I decided I should document where it's at now. I bought a Koralia Nano, which has greatly improved circulation--so much so that the sand is migrating toward the back of the tank. Now that the powerhead in the "sump" section is redundant, I am reconsidering the layout. Having a separate "sump" area probably increases evaporation from the water flowing over the divider. The purposes it serves right now are to maintain a constant water level and hide the heater and aquaclear intake.

The stand is essentially finished. Solid oak and oak plywood throughout. I made a matching one for my wife's 20G FW planted, so our living room is looking much better. I still need to caulk the inside, clean up the electrical, etc. No sump for now, though I have some ideas on how to do it. For now I'll just have a standard 5.5G tank inside the stand for mixing and storing saltwater.

Here's the pictures:

Full tank


Right side


Left side


Full tank with new stand


Right side mushrooms and macro


Centre zoas and moon coral


Left side digitata


That's all for now.

Regards,
Nevin

[Nevin]

Just finished a long evening of picking up and cleaning a carload of stuff I picked up from someone who was shutting down his tank. As a result, this 10G tank won't be around much longer. I think I won't be giving away too much to say that the next one will be 20-25 gallons, have a 5.5G refugium/sump, 175W halide lighting and a basic wavemaker. New livestock includes a clownfish, tiny red goby, urchin and a large brittle star.

Perhaps most important of my new acquisitions was a humble hydrometer. While the old one was consistent, it reads about .005 lower than the new one, so it seems my SG has been around 1.030 from the start! I hope this explains why I have not been very successful with corals.

So, at present I'm left with 3 tanks running (my 10G, 5.5G with new livestock in bathroom, 25G with new LR in bedroom) while I gradually adjust the salinity. The new rock has some caulerpa here and there--will I regret it if I introduce this into my tank?

Regards,
Nevin

[Keri]

Originally Posted by Nevin

. The new rock has some caulerpa here and there--will I regret it if I introduce this into my tank?

Maybe...but the urchin may take care of it for you. If you're worried I'd scrub that rock...but me'n caulerpa aren't friends

[Nevin]

I'll try this again... I posted here last night and my thread was bumped up but the new posting isn't there!

[stuff deleted--previous post finally showed up]

[Nevin]

A cute picture of my urchin. Usually it drags around macroalgae, shells or the odd snail... Today it twice picked up a rock covered with zoas.



I'll be mostly updating my new (and much more exciting) build thread, here:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=41733

When that build is complete, this one will be taken down.

Regards,
Nevin

[superduperwesman]

Originally Posted by Nevin

I've been waiting to update because I have a lot of changes planned, but I decided I should document where it's at now. I bought a Koralia Nano, which has greatly improved circulation--so much so that the sand is migrating toward the back of the tank. Now that the powerhead in the "sump" section is redundant, I am reconsidering the layout. Having a separate "sump" area probably increases evaporation from the water flowing over the divider. The purposes it serves right now are to maintain a constant water level and hide the heater and aquaclear intake.

The stand is essentially finished. Solid oak and oak plywood throughout. I made a matching one for my wife's 20G FW planted, so our living room is looking much better. I still need to caulk the inside, clean up the electrical, etc. No sump for now, though I have some ideas on how to do it. For now I'll just have a standard 5.5G tank inside the stand for mixing and storing saltwater.

Here's the pictures:

Full tank with new stand



That's all for now.

Regards,
Nevin

Yeah BABY door

I still haven't got to the last page but looking good so far... continuing...