CherylMcKay's 2012 Nano Contest Entry

[CherylMcKay]

Originally Posted by CherylMcKay

So I have decide on some of the live stock. I want 2 green clown gobies and i was looking at a fire fish as well.

I am also getting a coral list together but I haven't full decide yet, so I will keep that info to myself still.

Monday, I will do another full tank shot with the rock.

So the livestock arrived and unfortunately, the maroon clown goby, didn't handle the shipping and was DOA. The Green clown after a slow acclimatization and a weekend with nobody peering at him, looks good and healthy. Shy but what's a girl gonna do about that.



I have also added 6 Nassarius, 2 cerith, 2 turbos and 2 margaritas. If they get through the algae quick enough, I will take them home. Works great having the 2 tanks.

I have decided on replacement livestock so the list now is:
1- firefish
1- tailspot blennie
1- yellow headed jaw fish.

I figure that will fill it up with as many fish as I need, then I just have to look at some more easy corals.

[CherylMcKay]

So, I haven't changed alot in this tank for a while. I removed some rock as I was looking for my Green Clown Goby. I hadn't seen him in a few days and still have been unable to find him. I am assuming he didn't make it.

I decided I liked it better with fewer rocks and the big rock was under enough sand that I didn't want to disturb it. I have rescued a couple of tanks recently and therefore inherited 2 more clown fish.

I have had the little perc in there for a few weeks and it was living nicely with the goby. this morning i added the black perc as I don't want to introduce her to the 150 Gallon at home.
I am watching them today to make sure the littler one is not super stressed and they are getting along before I decide to leave the black one. The little one has started to twitch on it's side (like the good little subserviant one) but I don't know it's age and they both lived alone long enough it could be 2 females.... waiting to see the dynamic.

The Macro Algae is growing well. It was just a little stub left on a rock from the 150 G and now that it is not being eaten on a regular basis, it is looking really good. I may transplant some for home.

The green star polyps are enjoying this tank as well and are always fully extended and are spreading over the rock i placed them on.
I purchase the green hairy mushroom and the orange one for my big tank but found I didn't have enough rock to show them well enough and decided to split them up. I move one of each to the nano at work. The Green one was the size of a nickle when I put him in this tank and now it is bigger than a toonie. The orange one has probably grown 1/4 inch since I put it in as well.


I am updating now as I am going on holidays on the 3rd for 3 weeks and wanted to get my submissions in. I also wanted to preserver the tank before it is being cared for by my co-workers. My boss has taken enough of an interest that I think it will be okay... He actually tested the salinity when I was off sick a few weeks ago... I was impressed.

Sorry for the crappy pictures, I just use my ipod and I can't seem to get clear ones of the fish and they always look grainy.

[CherylMcKay]

Well, holidays are great. When we head back to Whitehorse, we have a full day of shopping in Vancouver. I have decided to look at some more livestock for this Nano.

I haven't decided what as I don't know what I will be able to get. I will enjoy being able to see the livestock, in the LFS and make choices based on how healthy the look.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by CherylMcKay

Well, holidays are great. When we head back to Whitehorse, we have a full day of shopping in Vancouver. I have decided to look at some more livestock for this Nano.

I haven't decided what as I don't know what I will be able to get. I will enjoy being able to see the livestock, in the LFS and make choices based on how healthy the look.

Glad your holidays are going well, have fun looking and shopping at the LFS there

[CherylMcKay]

So, update time. I haven't seen the green clown goby since I have been back from holidays so I think he is gone.... Lost some snails as well. The tank was overfeed and full of algae, which I expected. A few water changes later it is starting to clear up, Nitrates are dropping, ammonia is gone and algae growth has slowed.

I had found a little HOB skimmer before I left in Jan and put it on but really didn't have time to get it dialed in properly. It is working well now and it seems to be steadily pulling crap out of the water. You can see the ATO pump up front and the live rock back section is the actual sump with live rock , heater, skimmer and pump.


I moved some livestock from home as I am fixing the big tank at home. A couple of snails and one Orange mushroom. The ones I had in there orginally seem to be doing okay. I haven't seen my Green Star Polyps since I have been back but it doesn't look like they are total dead, just hiding. Hopefully the water changes will start affecting them soon.


I have put in my coral order today, and they will all go in this tank for now. Once they start to grow then I will look at moving some to the 150 Gallon at home. I forgot how expensive shipping is... and I really need to either travel to Calgary more or find a cheaper way to do it. I have ordered:

Blue Ridge-Heliopora Coerulea x2
Branching Green Hammer
3 diffrent Zoa frags
Sulawesi Living Lava

They were all listed as novice-intermediate so i figured it was a good place to start.

Here is the fts and one with the stand and everything.

[CherylMcKay]

I would like to start by saying I had lots of fun doing this. I realize that I either need to get much more verbose or start getting a little more high tech with my builds.

All contestants have beautiful tanks and your pictures amazing me. You all set a high bar for me (and everyother noob) to strive for. Now on with the entry:

So the coral for my tank arrived a few weeks ago and I have been waiting to take pictures for a couple of reasons. It showed up really cold, and I wasn't sure if it was going to make it. I acclimatized it for most of a day and so far so good. The other issue I found last week was that my refractometer was off by about 10 points. So my salinity was quite low.

The coral is hanging on and I am hoping with some stability and time they will do okay. Of course the mushrooms are fine... they are so resilient.


Zoa's & Hammer:

The Zoa's were open in the first week, but 2 of them now have closed up over the week I brought the salinity back up to 1.026 from about 1.016. I am waiting to see if they start opening again. If not, I will take them home and put them in the 75 gallon to see if that is a better fit for them. The hammer started out really retracted, and seems much better now. I have more hope for it then I did the first week.
I think the other coral is still holding it's own but I am not sure as I have never seen any live coral of these types to verify it's health. Pictures of healthy coral on line are great but .... judging the inbetween is hard.
Sulawesi Living Lava-20130315.
It is really hard to get a picture of the color right. It is a dark dusky rose color with some yellow threaded through. I can see where a little bit of the flesh has pulled back from one corner, so I am assuming it is still alive.

The Blue Ridge-Heliopora Coerulea - 20130315
It is a nice brown color, the picture is really yellow, but I don't see the little polyps that I see in pictures on the website. Hopefully it will purple up a bit and I will start seeing polyps.

I have a black clown and a misbar orange clown. They are both rescues that couldn't go in the tank at home. I will eventually like to re-home these two and change out the live stock I have in this tank to some small gobies or look at having this as a shrimp tank in the future.


I think I have progressed pass the beginner stages of having just a filter on my tanks and my plumbing prowress has increased but I still haven't jumped into alot of equipment on this tank. It has the skimmer, an ato and Cheato in the back... that is it, no reactors or other dosing automation. I will continure to do water changes every 8 days or so. Dosing will be my next step but I will make that decision if I find I need to but I really need to keep this simple so if I am away, my co-workers can maintain it.

I had fun with this contest, I will definately do one again. Good luck everyone.

[The Grizz]

Glad to see you hung in there Cheryl, I find the nanos are a harder tank to maintain since water volume is so small and when things go wrong it doesnt take much to have major issues. Coral look like they will survive due to the care you took to acclimate them, nice job

[pinkreef]

is the sump located behind the wall and connected to the nano?

[fishoholic]

Awesome I'm glad to see you hung in there too Nanos can be a pain in the butt, but on the plus side its much easier to do water changes on them

[CherylMcKay]

Originally Posted by pinkreef

is the sump located behind the wall and connected to the nano?

The sump is in the stand below. The return pipe is at the back