Fishoholic's 2012 nano contest entry

[fishoholic]

Also noticed this hitchhiker astra starfish. I know some people think of them as pests but I've never had problems with them so I'm leaving him in.



Also noticed that my tank seems to go down to 75 at night (and its not that cold yet) so I'm going to have to figure out some sort of heater soon. Unless.....dwarf seahorse maybe???? Not sure if the tank is big enough for one or not.....also not sure if I can keep such a small tank stable enough for one. I'll have to do some reading.

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

Also noticed that my tank seems to go down to 75 at night (and its not that cold yet) so I'm going to have to figure out some sort of heater soon. Unless.....dwarf seahorse maybe???? Not sure if the tank is big enough for one or not.....also not sure if I can keep such a small tank stable enough for one. I'll have to do some reading.

I don't know if they would work on your set up but you can get heating matts that go under the tank used for reptile tanks.

I had 2 dwarf seahorses awhile back that lived for about 1 1/2 years which I guess is about their life span. I didn't have anything special set up for them, a 10g tank with established LR, some kenya tree coral, fed them brine and selcon (mysis is too big for them to eat) and kept my tank at 75.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

I don't know if they would work on your set up but you can get heating matts that go under the tank used for reptile tanks.

I had 2 dwarf seahorses awhile back that lived for about 1 1/2 years which I guess is about their life span. I didn't have anything special set up for them, a 10g tank with established LR, some kenya tree coral, fed them brine and selcon (mysis is too big for them to eat) and kept my tank at 75.

I had thought about a heating matt but I wasn't sure if it would work or not. I went to PJ pets and looked at the heaters there. I went back and forth between the fluval edge 25w heater and the marina 10w heater. I heard the fulval works well for small tanks but kinda thought 25w would be overkill for my tank since the 15w heater I tried raised the temp to 84. But since I couldn't make up my mind (I've tried the marina 10w on a 3-4g before and it didn't work) I ended up buying both. I figured I'd try the 10w one 1st and if it didn't work then I'd try the 25w one. So far the marina 10w heater is working perfectly. Keeps the tank at 77-78 consistently so far. I've only had it for 2 days but it looks promising so far.

pic's




Sleek design and fits perfectly in the back chamber

[Enigma]

Have a read through this thread on Nano-reef if you're interested in some ponies (it is long, but she's had success in a 3 gallon).

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=301292

Your tank might work.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Enigma

Have a read through this thread on Nano-reef if you're interested in some ponies (it is long, but she's had success in a 3 gallon).

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=301292

Your tank might work.

Thanks for the link, it would be cool to try (maybe one day) but right now I just want to make sure I can keep the tank stable never mind everything else that comes with keeping seahorses. Also I have ball anemones on my rock, which I kinda like and think are pretty, but unfortunately they could kill a seahorse. I was reading about some stuff you can use to treat the rock for hydroids and pest anemones (to make the rock safe for seashores) that is supposed to not effect the beneficial bacteria on the rock, but I don't know where to find it.

I'm also not sure if I could even find any dwarf seahorses to buy so I decided to do a maxi mini/coral tank with anemone crabs, sexy shrimp and Ken's dwarf darwin clownfish.

[fishoholic]

So I thought I'd try to be good and attempt to follow the rules from here on out, but that lasted for a whole 30 sec's, and really who am I kidding, this is me we're talking about

So I took some advice from old blue eyes himself and I'm going to do it my way

Frank Sinatra: My Way
http://youtu.be/Aht9hcDFyVw

have to admit that song still can give me chills it's so good

I've been busy the past few day's I have updates to share but have to wait until the lights go on to take pic's.

[fishoholic]

One update I can share now is that my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all at 0. Not surprising though since I stared with cycled rock from an established system. I also bought the prodibio nano kit and dosed bioptim and biodigest.





In the start up kit they also use stop ammo but AI and Red coral didn't have any, I'm hoping blue world will. They don't open till noon so I have to wait to call and find out.