Nano Reef Project - Going Marine!

Sleepy · 02-03-2015 12:03pm

This weekend's update: I replaced the Eheim pickup with a Fluval Sea CP2 1600lph wave-maker to improve the water flow and added a Dwarf Yellow Tip Hermit Crab (Clibanarius) who seems to be getting on fine so far.

Sleepy · 10-03-2015 10:33pm

4 weeks in and all doing well aside from a film of dust(?) on the water's surface.

I've got both the powerhead and the filter's output pointing upwards. I've tried skimming the surface with both a fishnet full of filter floss and an old pair of Mrs Sleepy's tights but nothing seems to be shifting it.

I've ordered a new 600lph impeller for the filter after reading that the juwel pumps can be upgraded that way which, on paper will increase the filters flow by 50%.

I can try increasing my water changes but aside from that, can anyone else make any suggestions? Or any answer as to what all the dust is?

Jen Pigs Fly · 11-03-2015 12:33am

Sleepy wrote: »

4 weeks in and all doing well aside from a film of dust(?) on the water's surface.

I've got both the powerhead and the filter's output pointing upwards. I've tried skimming the surface with both a fishnet full of filter floss and an old pair of Mrs Sleepy's tights but nothing seems to be shifting it.

I've ordered a new 600lph impeller for the filter after reading that the juwel pumps can be upgraded that way which, on paper will increase the filters flow by 50%.

I can try increasing my water changes but aside from that, can anyone else make any suggestions? Or any answer as to what all the dust is?

Is the entire top of the water churning? If there's still dust there there's definitely not enough flow. The entire top should be moving quickly and no still spots at all at the surface. My tank has waves practically from the amount of water movement.

Sleepy · 11-03-2015 8:21pm

I have movement across the entire surface but only actually "churning" in front of the powerheads.

The powerheads are individually rated at 1600 and 400 which total to over 20 times the tanks volume which is AFAIK the ideal?

Jen Pigs Fly · 11-03-2015 9:45pm

Sleepy wrote: »

I have movement across the entire surface but only actually "churning" in front of the powerheads.

The powerheads are individually rated at 1600 and 400 which total to over 20 times the tanks volume which is AFAIK the ideal?

I'd pop a second 1600lph power head in there.
Just to give the top of the water a lot of movement, the fish will love it too it will really emulate the constant ocean movement, will help add oxygen and let co2 out and will keep them fit!

I had a 2foot nano years ago for a sun coral (like and anemone) and a sea Apple (highly toxic invertebrate also similar to an anemone) and had 2500lph power head in the 60l. Corals loved it

él statutorio · 11-03-2015 9:56pm

xxxJennyxxx wrote: »

I'd pop a second 1600lph power head in there.
Just to give the top of the water a lot of movement, the fish will love it too it will really emulate the constant ocean movement, will help add oxygen and let co2 out and will keep them fit!

I had a 2foot nano years ago for a sun coral (like and anemone) and a sea Apple (highly toxic invertebrate also similar to an anemone) and had 2500lph power head in the 60l. Corals loved it

You can never have too many powerheads!

Just spotted this thread am following with interest.

I've kept marines for about 7 years (having kept various trops and coldwaters for the previous 14 years).

I've just gotten back into the hobby after having to sell my two reef tanks last year (moved countries) and I've just recently set up a new 8 gallon nano reef of my own, (pics available on request).

From looking at this one the only thing I'd probably do differently is I'd have added more live rock (I'd double what you have in there). It gives you a bit more wiggle room as regards water quality IMHO.

Sleepy · 12-03-2015 10:52am

If I doubled the live rock I'd have no room for water! I've got about 11kilos in a 96 litre tank which, allowing for displacement of about 26litres for sand and rock, is about 1k per 6.5 litres or so which I'd have thought was on the high side? I'd have thought that any benefits of increasing the rock would be off-set by the reduction in water volume?

8 gallons sounds tiny! Would love to see the pics

Will look into getting another powerhead too...

él statutorio · 12-03-2015 8:21pm

One poor pic attached

Jen Pigs Fly · 12-03-2015 10:29pm

él statutorio wrote: »

One poor pic attached

It's cute! The colt and xenia corals look great

él statutorio · 13-03-2015 12:02am

xxxJennyxxx wrote: »

It's cute! The colt and xenia corals look great

The pulsing xenia is growing like a weed it has to be said.

I think the other one is a kenya leather (loads of frags coming off it too), tbh I'm not well up on coral names as I never really had much of a lighting system to bother keeping anything nice before.

I'll try and get a few nicer pics tonight.

The only inhabitants of the tank are a pair of clowns and boxer shrimp.
Plus a few hermits, turbo snails and a narcissus snail.

I'm starting a frag tank also (I might actually start a thread on that)
It's a smaller tank again, maybe only about 10 liters or so.

Jen Pigs Fly · 13-03-2015 4:46pm

él statutorio wrote: »

The pulsing xenia is growing like a weed it has to be said.

I think the other one is a kenya leather (loads of frags coming off it too), tbh I'm not well up on coral names as I never really had much of a lighting system to bother keeping anything nice before.

I'll try and get a few nicer pics tonight.

The only inhabitants of the tank are a pair of clowns and boxer shrimp.
Plus a few hermits, turbo snails and a narcissus snail.

I'm starting a frag tank also (I might actually start a thread on that)
It's a smaller tank again, maybe only about 10 liters or so.

You're right it is a Kenya tree, Colts are slimier looking but very similar!
Looks very well though and the boxer shrimp is a brilliant invert, love how they're always picking around the bottom of the tank.c

Yea I see you have a few frags on plugs, I did fragging for years but glad Im out of that now, fragging leathers is a nightmare! Had a huge toadstool years ago, was around 40cm wide, fragging that was an ordeal. As soon as I even went near with the blade it threw out so much slime I couldn't even grip it, invested in a clamp that a piercer uses to hold onto it after that!

Acros and hard corals were easier but more likely to suffer, ricordea and chalices I never attempted to frag due to their delicacy, hammers, frogspawn and torch corals are simple enough to frag and I found the mother plant recovered quickly.

él statutorio · 13-03-2015 5:16pm

I've always had a soft spot for boxer shrimp. I even had a mated pair at one stage.

Well the frag tank was mostly just a notion I took a few weeks back.

I picked up an old betta tank with glass partitions in it, removed all the partitions, have replaced one with acrylic. I'll stick a little LED light on it and a small pump and I'll be off. I've got the pump driller through the acrylic and I'll separate that pump area into 3 sections for carbon, live rock and something else. The pump area will only be about 5"wide x 5"deep x 10" high. The entire frag tank is only 2 feet long by 10 inches high. I've only spent about $30 on it so far, the plan would be to spend another $50 or so on the LED light and that'll be it. No heater going in either, the LED & the ambient room should be enough (hopefully).

Neither tank is a patch on the 2 200l tanks I had back home but I've got to (re)start somewhere.

This will scratch the itch for the next while anyway.

Sleepy · 15-03-2015 8:39pm

I did a largish water change (20l) after blotting the surface of the water with some tissue paper to clear it up a bit.

Got my first coral too: a small zoanthid frag on a clam of some sort that I got out in Seahorse. I'd assumed that the clam was just a dead shell which someone thought would make a cool thing to stick a coral to but it seems to be opening and closing a bit with the light. :-)

Sleepy · 19-03-2015 11:09pm

Discovered the source of the dust. The live rock frags in the filter Is broke were shedding small pieces.

I used the syphon to give it a hoover while doing today's water change.

Got the new impeller for the Juwel pump and it improves the flow significantly, got a nice swift movement across the surface now. :-)

él statutorio · 20-03-2015 4:04pm

Sleepy wrote: »

Discovered the source of the dust. The live rock frags in the filter Is broke were shedding small pieces.

I used the syphon to give it a hoover while doing today's water change.

Got the new impeller for the Juwel pump and it improves the flow significantly, got a nice swift movement across the surface now. :-)

The dust will settle down eventually, once the live rock bits in there mature they'll help pull some of the dust out. (I'm assuming you didn't smash the live rock into tiny bits)

Sleepy · 20-03-2015 4:17pm

I used a hammer to break it into chunks of varying sizes but I think it's been releasing small pieces from some of the breaks.

I have some polypad in the filter too and plan on changing it over the weekend. I'm hoping the increased flow should help get much more of the dust into the polypad and thinking of adding some filter floss to help clear it too.

él statutorio · 20-03-2015 4:35pm

Sleepy wrote: »

I used a hammer to break it into chunks of varying sizes but I think it's been releasing small pieces from some of the breaks.

I have some polypad in the filter too and plan on changing it over the weekend. I'm hoping the increased flow should help get much more of the dust into the polypad and thinking of adding some filter floss to help clear it too.

A bit of sponge in the filter will probably pill the rest of it out too.

Sleepy · 20-03-2015 5:00pm

Might put one in for the short term... any good way of keeping it from going biological, just a good rinse under the tap every few days?

él statutorio · 20-03-2015 5:34pm

Sleepy wrote: »

Might put one in for the short term... any good way of keeping it from going biological, just a good rinse under the tap every few days?

I'd put one in for a week or so just til the dust clears and then toss it afterwards.

Sleepy · 20-03-2015 5:37pm

I have the sponges that came in the box so will just give one of those a long, thorough rinse out and see how it goes.

Sleepy · 23-03-2015 10:49am

Visited Gavin out in Newlands on Saturday and picked up another hermit crab since they're cheap, clean the sand and are great to watch in the tank. He was kind enough to throw in a few extra shells as well. Our first hermit appears to have gone missing from his shell but I've read that they sometimes burrow into the sand to molt so not getting too worrried yet.

I had been having some problems maintaining a consistent 26 degrees as the room the tank is in changes temperature quite a lot (poorly insulated, single glazed window), I changed out the heater for one from another of my tanks which has a thermostat control as opposed to the "higher - lower" juwel filter which came with the tank and the tank has been holding a consistnen 26 degrees since Friday night.

Did another water change yesterday and I think the pump upgrade is working, water seems much clearer and the polypad in the filter was caked in gunge. Have a fine filter sponge in there now too and will leave it in until the end of the week. Took out the bag of charcoal as it'd been in there a month and AFAIK, that's about the useful life span for them and I have some Poly-Filter in the chamber which is seemingly better as it removes Phospates etc. as well as providing mechanical filtration.

Haven't seen the Watchman Goby since doing the water change yesterday which has me a little worried. He doesn't appear to be in his usual hidey hole but when we first introduced him to the tank he hid for about 3 days so I'm hoping he just got spooked by something. I know they burrow occasionally anyway so trying not to get too worried.

él statutorio · 23-03-2015 5:46pm

The Goby should turn up. Any more pics?

Sleepy · 24-03-2015 1:55pm

Will put some up later. I think I gave my Zoanthid a shock with the temperature swings I was having last week, it's looking a little worse for wear and some of the polyps aren't opening up much (or at all). I've rectified the problem so I'm hopeful it will recover.

Did as full a set of tests as I could last night (I need to pick up the Magnesium/Calcium Testkits at the weekend as the JBL Testlab I have doesn't include them) and all was fine except for a 0.5 in Nitrite which I've attributed to the filter sponge I'd added to help remove the dust. As the water has been clearing up nicely with the impeller upgrade, I removed the sponge and added in some more Polyfilter instead.

Will put up some new pics tonight.

Sleepy · 26-03-2015 11:45am

It's payday so I've just ordered a refractometer and suspect I'll be adding to the tank this weekend

Sleepy · 27-03-2015 10:17am

Still no sign of the watchman. I even attached my phone to a net to take a video of the back of the live rock and still no sign of him!

Here's a crap shot of how the tank currently looks:

And a close up of the coral (a Zoanthid, if anyone can identify it in more detail I'd appreciated it)

Jen Pigs Fly · 28-03-2015 8:45pm

Looking good, I'd move the Zoas up a bit they're not liking the placement! (Unless the sand was disturbed a few mins before)

Sleepy · 30-03-2015 2:22pm

The zoanthids seems a little better since I took those pics I'm beginning to think the goby is a loss as my salinity was a little too high, there'd been some temperature swings and I can't find any trace of him so I'm guessing the clean up crew did their thing...

As predicted I ended up dropping a few quid at the weekend while getting my water and picked up a Banggai Cardinal and the guys in Newlands did me a great deal on a Coral frag, I've no idea what it's called but it's a beautiful nuclear green soft coral that James fragged in-store. Got some Salifert KH + pH Buffer to help boost coral growth too. It's amazing the difference the addition of two new things can make to the overall appearance of the tank.

Will update with some new pics later in the week as I'm off to the UK for work for a couple of days.

Kettlebelljim · 30-03-2015 11:24pm

Looks great! Really enjoying this thread.

Sleepy · 31-03-2015 9:17am

It's awful quality but my other half sent me a pic of the Bangai and the new coral to show me it opening up a bit. The pic doesn't do the colouration justice at all, it's a pale "nuclear waste" green under the actinic lighting...

Anyone able to identify it? Was so excited to be offered it I forgot to ask what it's called!

Kettlebelljim · 02-04-2015 8:29am

[quote.

Anyone able to identify it? Was so excited to be offered it I forgot to ask what it's called [/quote]

Looks like a green nephthea. I think my father in law has one similar.

Nano Reef Project - Going Marine!

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