Nano_Steve

Aquatek has a few Harlequin shrimp for sale and I'm actually thinking about buying one and having him clean out my tank. Would anyone be interested in going in on a copay with me and then once each of our tanks is cleaned of stars we can just move him to the other tank?

Maybe have a community Harlequin we can all just pass around?

Just an idea.

-Steve

In terms of cleanup crews I usually got with a 1 snail for every 3 gallons of water rule. But some would say that is too many. I prefer not to have to manually clean my tank all the time and while cycling, your rock is going to get quite filthy during the first couple of months. Afterwards you can always sell any snails you do not want to keep or give them to others who are just beginning their new tanks.

After cycling, you could probably go to a 1 snail per 5-8 gallon rule, but like Gkarshen said about surface area, it's really more based on how many rocks you want. My numbers are coming from my original idea of 2-3 lbs of liverock per gallon for a reeftank.

Gees, and also you have to take into account how many fish and what kind you are going to have, whether you will have fish that will pick at the liverock and help keep it clean like butterflies and wrasses and also any sandsifters like gobies.

I'd suggest getting at least 10 astreas for that setup once you've got some nice liverock in there....and maybe some nassarius....and maybe some....see the problem?

-Steve

Hey Eric,

Glad to see that light is finally getting used! It looks great!

Texas holey rock is fine to use in a sw tank but be prepared for it to cycle before putting any livestock. The rock around here is calcareous so you will have some extra calcium and I've heard that it helps buffer the water also but don't quote me on that. I've also heard of folks having problems with it so you might want to be careful and read up more on it.

As for the bubbler, it isn't going to hurt anything but I prefer not to have small bubbles floating around all the time in the tank, it takes away from the visual imo. I would recommend at least 1lb. of liverock per gallon if you plan on having fish and corals but if you want to do a reef tank then i would go with 2lbs./gallon or more. Also, in such a small volume of water, make sure to do plenty of research on what kind of fish you can have. I would definitely not recommend anything like tangs or groupers in a tank that size but you could certainly have some chromis or clowns or blennies or any other small fish depending on their tank size requirements. Don't overstock your tank, it will just stress out your fish and eventually they will die, I think most of us have learned that the hard way.

I would make a list of fish you would like to keep and maybe post it on here and see what others think would be the best options for your tank! I'd chime in for sure!

It's looking great so far! Good luck!!!

-Steve

I will be taking them out as often as I find them also. Let me know if I should try to keep them alive in my sump if you'd like them.

Thanks for this thread! My gf and I thought they were really neat and I never had any problems in the past but after doing some more research into them this explains alot of problems I had with some montiporas I had in the past. There are series of photos of these things mowing montis down!!!

-Steve

is the ricordia all green or is it brown/green? if it's all green ill take it.

-Steve

If you are using rocks that have not been used in a previous tank then you will need to wait quite awhile (usually a month, sometimes upwards of two months) to let the rock fully 'cure.' If you do this you will also need to get some 'seeding rock' from someone with an established tank and put at least a moderate piece of liverock from an established tank in order to seed the curing rock.

If you want to skip this step and make the wait considerably less (to about a week or two) then wait for someone to sell some liverock from their existing tank. The rock is the most important factor in your new tank imo after water quality. The healthier and more abundant in life the rock is, the more diverse and established your tank will become and it will help to maintain water parameters as bacteria, algae, and microlife begin to thrive.

Patience definitely is a must in this hobby, I've learned that over the years the hard way, and the slower you take to setup your tank and the better planned you make it the better!

Good luck!!!

-Steve

RODI = Reverse Osmosis De-Ionized in otherwords seriously clean water!

LFS = Local Fish Store like River City Aquatics, Aquatek, Amazonia, Aquadome, etc. around town.

I would say to get the liverock and sand and put them into the tank however you would like it to look (aquascaping) and then fill it up with the new saltwater!

-Steve

Firstly, WELCOME!!! There are plenty of folks here with lots of great info and willing to be helpful.

The first suggestion I would make to you is that if you plan on having corals in your tank I would recommend completely draining the tank and filling it with saltwater made from RODI water bought either at an LFS or using an RODI unit. Tap water has alot of trace elements and minerals that can be harmful to corals (and fish sometimes) even after dechlorination.

Second suggestion is to find someone with some live rock and live sand and get that culturing and allow the short cycles to do their thing and get your water levels all evened out.

And definitely good luck! It's always such a great experience to finally dive into saltwater, there is ALOT of info out there to learn and use so get ready for some reading! Haha!

-Steve

Well aside from the obvious problems of your sucky picture taking skills, your crappy camera, and all that algae everywhere I would say they look like soft coral polyps of some type. Do you have any xenia in your tank? I've seen xenia polyps that look pretty similar to those.

-Steve

PS I'm totally joking about the stuff at the beginning

Check River City Aquatics. Last time I was there Jake had some Chaeto as well as Grape and a few other macros. He had a really cool one I had never seen before that looked like green tumbleweed almost like Chaeto but really super thick stems!

-Steve

Sounds great! Lemme know when/where I can pop by to take a look and help you out with your tank's plumbing and we'll go from there!

-Steve

I have a 3/4" ball valve that's been glued into a system, but I could easily cut it out and reglue it since I don't use it anymore.

Jboy, I'm interested in the ones on the right for sure. If you have a small frag of those for sale I'd like some.

Azcummins, definitely let me know. I've got all the tools needed for plumbing jobs and everything else so we can take a look at your setup sometime this week.

Hey all,

My tank is finally stable for the past 2 weeks and I'm interested in starting to put some softies into my tank. I'm interested in any and all zoanthids and ricordias at this time. Let me know if you have any frags for sale or trade for some woodworking, plumbing, or electrical work on your tank!

Thanks, Steve

I'd recommend changing your White Balance and also using a lower ISO to get crisper images. If you use a lower ISO in manual I think it might take it out of image stabilizer though and you might want to use a tripod in that case. Try using 80 ISO and see if you like the difference and change the White Balance to an outdoor setting since the lights on our tanks are so bright!

Great shots!

-Steve

Aquatek had a bunch last time I went there on Thursday. They're selling them for $10 each which isn't too bad a price. I'm sold on Aiptasia X though, if you get a chance to try that stuff out it works miracles imo.

-Steve

I've tried alot of natural controls like peppermint shrimp and kalkwasser injections and in my experience a product called Aiptasia X works the best, hands down. You can pick it up for about $15 but over the life of a tank it will definitely pay for itself in getting rid of these things...I hate aiptasia...

-Steve

I have an Aquamedic Starlight 250w HQI Metal Halide I will sell for $175 if you're interested. I think it has an Ushio 20k bulb in it right now that was only used for maybe a month. It works fine the last time I plugged it in and the nice thing about these is the ballast is built in so you don't have to worry about a super big ballast in the back of your tank, it's all just one big pendant. And if you want, I have a 5lb bag of blue sand that hasn't been opened yet that I will throw in for free if you want it.

-Steve

Oh, btw, the light measures exactly 24" wide.

I don't know if you'd be interested, but I have a 5 lbs. bag of Ultra Reef Marine Sand. It isn't live sand and it is blue in color. I bought it out of novelty thinking I would use it for a blue tank but if you need it you can have it.

-Steve

Oh, I didn't see the second page of this discussion...

Wow, you guys make a newcomer feel really really welcome with your snide remarks and condescending attitudes. I'd expect this sort of thing from trolls on lesser boards, but from moderators and dues paying members? This is quite sad. This thread is supposed to be a blog, I would have imagined anyone who read the title would have understood that immediately, but if you guys think it is a better idea to alienate and condescend then I think each of you sorely misunderstands the importance of an online community for saltwater aquariums.

Letting folks know of a concern in a proper and understanding way is one thing, but when you begin to question the intelligence and experience of others is just outright upsetting. I had heard things about people in this club being a bit prickish but I really wanted to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. GKarshen and caferacermike, you guys have sabotaged my blog and, frankly, have ticked me off a bit. Again, things I would expect from trolls, not folks of higher standing in a forum, let alone an online community that has irl meetings every so often.

If you don't like my methodologies that I use for my tank then get over it and go be a'holes somewhere else. I would rather not be bothered by folks who only wish to bash the way I do things and ideas that I am trying out for myself. Nowhere in this post before you started to chime in did I ONCE condescend anyone.

Again, this was meant to be a blog for my tank and to share the growth with the community, but you two have made my decision for me and I guess I will keep the progress to myself and hand-write these things down for my own records. You have stripped this community of one more good hearted reef keeper excited about being a part of the new community and as higher members of the forum you both should be ashamed.

-Steve

Yep, I will have pictures soon of my Auto Top Off system. I'm using an old square aquarium of mine that will hold about 3 gallons to use as my reservoir and a float switch I made for my 2.5 that I'm no longer using.

Just a question, is there a place on this website where I can set up a blog? I sort of wanted this thread to be a blog and not so much a discussion.

Thanks, Steve

Hmm, helpful. But since this is my tank and I'm going off of my own experience of keeping nanos for over 7 years I think I will try to get my levels to where I have stated them. Nanos work completely differently than larger systems and vice-versa, I'm sure 400 is fine for a larger system but due to HUGE fluctuations in short periods of time in such a small water volume, I need some room for error, hence the higher numbers. Besides, the worst that happens with higher Calcium levels is white growth without color for a short period of time.

My kH on the other hand needs to be dealt with before anything else happens. Having 10 kH is not acceptable for such a small water volume and my pH is a bit low as well, but it should be fine when I get my kH to the levels I'd like them (around 50).

-Steve

Well at 400ppm my Calcium level is rather low for the amount of SPS I plan on having in this tank. I would like to get it up to 600-700ppm before I even put my first coral in, that way there is no shock after the initial acclimation of the corals into the tank. I've had TERRIBLE experiences in the past trying to raise my Calcium AFTER I added sps and this time I am going to do it right and get my water levels to where I want them BEFORE I add anything.

Thanks for the suggestions though! Every piece of information is helpful, it's just in this case I am going off of my own experience and trying something different so as not to end up with the devastating results of before.

-Steve

Added 7mL each of DT's Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium liquid solutions this morning to begin the dosing regimen. The cyanobacteria is beginning to get a bit out of control and if it continues for another 2 days then I will decrease the photo period from 12 hours to 10 hours and monitor any change. I think a good idea at this point will be to get a few snails in there and see about getting a blenny. Snails for sure, blenny a big maybe since I already have a fish and it's assuredly aggressive when mature.

-Steve

Here is some of my handy work. Now with the new tools I received for christmas I am able to do larger projects but this is a general idea.

-Steve