JamesWebb

Similar but skinnier. Good, bad or indifferent if it is a bristle worm?

I got a small clown and three small snails today. I'll get some pictures up soon. I also saw what looks like a little red centipede looking thing, almost pink colored. Anyone know what it is?

Could my flow be too high for the clown with just the stock pump? He seems to be constantly fighting the current in the tank.

I'm supposed to be going to a little kid birthday party for one of the kids my gf nannies for but I'm going to try to talk her out of it so we can come meet yall

I'd ditch the xenia altogether. It's a weed, IMO.

Go with zoas or rics.

that seems like the common thought, but i like it and the movement that it brings to the tank. Once I get some other stuff in there I may remove it, or just make sure to keep it held back to the small location it's on, if that becomes impossible i'll just take it out.

I saw this guy while at RCA cool ray, hope he is mellowed out for ya

Very cool rock although you will not be able to keep the side glass clean with it up against it like that. Nice start though!!!

I said when I started that I didn't want any rock touching the side of the tank. Once I got the rock and started laying it out this way looks the best. I originally had it leaning against the back with a cave area between the bottom and the back but it took up too much room in the front of the tank. Once the system is established im going to pull the rock out from under the right side (of the picture) and the small pieces in the very front. It should open the aquascape up nicely and still have plenty of LR for filtration.

I got my new rock in and got things where I want them. I am actually moving the Xenia down further on the large rock but had to wait until I got my glue for it so that will be done today.

Question: At this point should I be looking at adding any inverabrates to the tank to help it out? Im thinking cleaning crew type organisms that I keep reading about in other build threads. If so, any recomendations?

I think that youll find that quite a few folks will have free frags of starter corals if youre interested. I've got some small pieces of capnella (kenya tree) that you're welcome to if you want to try different things.

That would be awesome, I was looking at getting some for sure because I like the flow of it in the tank. I'll have to get ahold of you to try and pick some up once I get my new piece of rock and get it all set up the way it will stay.

Looks like a good start. I would probably hold on to the heater just in case. My tanks typically use a lot of heater in the winter and absolutely none in the summer.

+1 I had a nano tank (12 gallon) and the heater didn't turn on until October but ran off and on until February. This was in a house away from windows, however, I don't run my heat very often in the house. The small body of water changes temp really fast so the heater is def good insurance. Give it a 6-8 degree sudden drop in a couple of hours and consider your corals nuked.

Also, have you read up at all about cycling your tank? Did you buy live rock? Add any bacteria starter doses?

I think the main difference from starting a predator tank versus a coral tank is the cycling of the system. With the predator tank, its just fish. So, as long as your salinity and temperature are correct, you're solid. Then all you have to do is have the appropriate filtering devices in place to remove the biological load and add some water changes, and you're good to go.

With a coral system (particularly a nano) you have live rock and water changes as your main combatants against your biological load. Even if the live rock has already been cured and good to go, either way you would have to wait to finish your cycle before adding corals and fish, unless you dose some kind of bacteria head-start stuff (e.g. Dr. Tim's).

I may have missed that you've already cycled your tank (typically 1-3 months) but if you haven't yet, expect a cycle to be hitting you soon if you just set up your tank. You'll probably get a ammonia spike and higher levels of nitrites/nitrates and phosphates while your system is balancing out, which usually results in some type of algae growth or cyano. The conditions in your tank may be detrimental to the inhabitants of your tank which is why you usually leave the tank empty with just the liverock and sand until the cycle is complete.

The main reason I mention any of this is to prepare you in case you start noticing algal growth and your corals looking really ticked off.. then you may have an answer as to why. Also, seems like you're still shopping around for that perfect piece of liverock to be the centerpiece of your tank. When you add the new large piece of liverock to your system, it will cause another cycle in your tank. To avoid that, most people aim to have all their liverock in their system at the start and allow it all to cycle first, before putting anything in the tank.

These were the same stepping stones that I tripped on when I first started and wanted to share in case it helps. This hobby is such a rewarding one that I don't want anybody new starting out with a frustrating experience and be turned off by the whole thing. If you have any questions, ask away as you'll get some pretty good responses from the club. If you already know everything I said above, then ignore and maybe it'll help someone else who is reading your post. Good luck!

-Ty

Thanks guys, I will hold onto the heater just in case I end up needing it.

I do have just under 5 pounds of live rock currently in the system and did use a bacterial starter, Start Smart Complete which I have been using as directed. My plan to help with the addition of the new piece of live rock is to make sure that it is cured as much as possible before I place it into the system thus hopefully limiting the decay occuring on the rock and the spike in nitrogen rich compounds. I am however waiting to place the fish in the tank until I am sure that the tank is completley established. To be honest the frags I have in there now are there to give me something to watch while I'm tweaking the system and hopefully will be the start of the tank with many more to come.

I really like the nano tanks. Have you thought about which clown species you want to put in there? I would recommend going with an Ocellaris or True Percula, as they do not get as large as the Tomato, Clarkii or Maroon. You would be able to keep them longer before they outgrow the tank. Just something to consider.

I have thought about it and am planning on an ocellaris for many reasons, first of all the size and cost plus I honestly think they look the coolest.

Background:

While at Aquatek during their customer appreciation weekend to look at some things I needed for my freshwater tank, I broke down and bought an Innnovative Marine 8g nuvo cube with the idea of doing a single anem with a clown fish. I have done a large fish only salt water tank before but knew nothing of reef style tanks. Thought it would be a great idea, bounced it off the guy from IM and a few employees of Aquatek they said 'for sure that would work great'. LOL well after spending some money and then doing the necessary, but preliminary, research I learned that sure as hell wasn't going to happen. I went to Fishy Business and learned a lot more then onto the forums at reef2reef to learn more. Decided I wanted to do coral tank with a few corals and add a small clown. I also realized that once I get this set up I will be wanting to move to a larger reef tank, my end goal has been explain in other threads so I won't add it here.

Equipment:

IM 8g nuvo cube, comes with filter element, pump, and LED lighting fixutre with a two stage (blue/white) built in system

Basic Thermometer (lol)

I have a heater that I purchased but after using watching the water temp realized I wont need so I'll take it back

5 pounds live rock fragments purchased at Fishy Business

crushed coral substrate

Livestock:

Xenia Frag from display tank at River City

eagle eye zoa frag

Plans:

I'm waiting on a 4-5 pound piece of live rock that will fit the tank astetics I am going for then I will use some of the existing small fragments of rock to fill it out. I want a lot of movement in the tank from corals and a bed of zoas near the base of the live rock. I want to do a single clown fish and keep it in the nano until it grows to large and move it to a soon to be set up larger reef set up.

I am all for feedback and advice. I know very little and am doing the best I can to learn everyday. If you think something will help me out, or you think I'm dumb and my plan is fail from the get go let me know. Worst case I will start a larger tank now and use this cute little cube as a beta tank in my office.

Here are a few pictures. I will get one of the zoa tomorrow when my lights come on. that reminds me I am running the lights 10 hours for the blue and 8 hours for the white inside the blue time, so the blue comes on for an hour then the white comes on then goes off 8 hours later and the blue stays on for another hour.

Welcome to Austin!

Welcome to the club! I'd love to hear about the saltwater tanks you've had set up in the past. I have a few nanos myself and I'm really enjoying them.

I had a large fish only (250-300 gallon) tank with 250 pounds of live rock about 10 years ago. My dad purchased it and had no idea how to take care of it, I did the best I could but when I went to college he had to dismantle it and sell it off. We didn't have the best luck with it and the more I learn now, the more I realize how lucky we were to have the succes we did. It was a very basic set up compaired to what I learn about now and we had some pretty crazy fish in it. I'm looking at buying a house in the next year and as soon as I find the right place and buy it the first thing I will do is make a 400+ gallon in wall predator tank with sharks and rays. Sticking with my nano reef and 55 gallon african cichilid tank for now due to the fact that I rent and don't want to move a huge tank.

Welcome!

Where abouts in North ATX?

I live off Braker between 35 and mopac.

just read through this thread and I am super impressed with your tank man. It looks amazing and I hope everything gets settled soon and you can relax and enjoy your work.

Just getting started in the reef hobby, I have had large salt water tanks in the past as well as many fresh water tanks but excited to learn as much as possible about reef tanks. Currently have an 8 gallon nuvo cube by IM set up and running with a xenia and a zoa. Starting out slow with the goal of getting this tank running solid with a few corals and a small clown then working on getting a large predator tank set up. I'm a full time independent personal trainer, so if there is interest I will do a thread on training/nutrition/bodybuilding and share my knowlege with yall who are teaching me so much about reefing.