10g low-budget diy nano reef

[Nevin]

I don't like the 6700k light either, but have chosen to spend my money on other things so far. I had planned on just getting a 50/50 bulb, but I'm a little worried that the corals will have less usable light. My understanding is that the actinic light is not very useful to corals and is mainly just for viewing, no? Perhaps just a 10000k without actinic would be better?

Regards,
Nevin

[Nevin]

I picked up some more zoas and mushrooms, as well as some digitata, from Seahorse Fanatic (Thanks!), so time to update photos.

I'm not too happy with the overall look of things. At this point it's more of a frag tank than a display. But it's a good learning experience and I think it could look quite nice once I grow out the frags and get a few nicer pieces of rock.

Everything seems to be doing well. The digitata are a little pale, probably from moving to a new home with less light, but getting some color back at the tips.

Full tank:



New zoas (I like these a lot!):



Mushroom collection:



That's all for now. Any advice welcome as always...

Regards,
Nevin

[Nevin]

Added 5 more blue legged hermits today as the first five have been earning their keep so far. I also bought a couple pounds of nice Tonga rock so I can hide some of the uglier pieces I'm using now. The rock is smelly enough that I thought I'd best cure--at least for a week or two--even for this small quantity. I thought some here might get a kick out of my large-scale, high-tech rock curing operation:



My moon coral and zoas got some minced scallop today, which they seemed to like. I bought some frozen brine shrimp to feed them once in a while--they need to beef up considerably to fill this tank.

Regards,
Nevin

[Nevin]

A couple more pics of progress on the stand.

The base and doors (second door is for another stand) after staining:



The top after gluing:



The top is built like a tray to hide the base of the aquarium and catch small spills. I'll silicone the inside of the tray and of the base, in case it has a sump in it someday.

Perhaps it doesn't make sense to build custom stands for my small, cheap tanks. There is room for expansion, though. The two stands could easily be two pedestals to support a 48" 50G tank, with a small sump in one and electrical in the other.

Everything is oak. I'll note here for my own future reference that I'm finishing with Minwax "red oak" and Circa 1850 antique paste varnish.

Regards,
Nevin

[tang daddy]

Nevin looks good so far!

Fish wise go with a few gobies you could put a bangai but long term they do get big, on the other hand gobies stay relatively small varying on species. I especially like the shrimp gobies they hide in a hole in the sand and you can get a pistol shrimp for a partner. They go hand in hand and have a good partnership, the shrimp relies on the fish to keep a lookout it does this by using it's antenae and rests it on the fish like the blind use a stick to feel. If the fish senses danger it whips it's tail and dorsal fin the shrimp retreats into the hole. The shrimp in turn is the builder it digs tunnels in the rock and sand. Currently I have 8 different gobies in my tank, as you can see I'm a big fan of them and have three pistol shrimp 1 of them has paired up together the other two are still looking for their mate as my tank is big it may take awhile for them to find eachother. They prefer to have sand but with alot of flow in my tank barebottom is the way to go. This is no problem for the pair the shrimp has made a tunnel in one of the rock structure and is quite the busybody as it collects pieces of rock shells and other bits and pieces to place at the door step so no one can go in. When it decides to take a break from it's daily mining th shrimp simply moves some of the rubble and chills with the orange striped goby. I can't wait for the red wheeler goby to pair up with a new blue pistol I picked up a few weeks ago.

Anyhow I won't bore you with the love fiasco happening in my tank just thought I would share a little of my happiness.

I didn't know you were somewhat of a carpenter kudos on the tank stand maybe we could do a trade you help me ramp up my stand and make it more eye freindly and I could help you out with some livestock ie corals good tips and whatever else let me know cheers Chris.

[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