treesprite August 24, 2007 Share August 24, 2007 I have to put this damsel somewhere that I had to remove from the tank, and so I was thinking of creating a new home for it at work, in my office. I'm not a DIY person so I need help - I have no clue what I'm doing. I am cost, time, and convenience driven. I don't need a grand display or anything fancy, just a home for a single fish - Mr. Damsel - and some non-fish creatures in a 10gallon tank (I wanted to use 5.5 but evap is too high in my office). 10 gal tank w/glass top, back is painted black. Lighting: Well, I think all I need to do is supplement natural sunlight with an actinic flo. I have a wall-length window in my office with awesome sunlight - my plants grow like mad weeds on the window ledge. I would put the tank by the window and can drop/adjust the blinds if I get algae from all the light. I will put in it: Mr. Damsel Live rock Shallow SB Macros Some snails Crabs - hermits, emerald Something in the coral realm that will be ok in the stated lighting. I can section off an end for a little sump and all that. I'm not investing in buying a nano skimmer, but am wondering if it would be of any use to cut a couple inches off the height of the old airstone-driven skimmer and put it in there?? I'm noting how Jason's flow is set up with the holes in the dividing wall, which is very cool. My office is always cold - I only need to worry about keeping the tank warm, not cooling it off. This tank is going to have no attention on weekends. The damsel will be fine without me sticking food in the tank for 2 days. I'm not sure about corals needing to be fed. Any thoughts? Help? Anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak August 26, 2007 Share August 26, 2007 Have fun with it. You don't have to go nuts like me, there's plenty of cheap lighting to be found in the club, contact steveoutlaw, he has a light I was going to buy for the 5.5 gal that would work great in your case. As long as you're sure that the tank won't get to hot by the window, keeping it warm won't be a problem. Grab one of the awesome little hydor 50 watt heaters (petco and petsmart carry them). I don't think going a day or two with out feeding the damsel will be any big deal, but if you're really worried about it two a $10 battery powered auto feeder on your tank, they're not very highly reliable, but if you only need it for two days, one should do the trick just fine. If you have any questions on how I did my tank feel free to ask. Mushrooms would be a fine and simple coral, so would kenya tree, both in my little 2.5 gal expirement have been very tolerant with low light (NO 9 watt T5) and salinity swings due to evap. Also for craps and giggles consider a clown goby for your tank, cheap as all get out and fun too. Just make sure they're accepting prepared food before you get one. Also get all your equipment used for this tank, you can find any number of members with used powerheads, hob filters, lighitng, heaters, etc. As for feeding corals, just stick to exclusively light feeding corals and you should be fine. BEST OF LUCK!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite August 26, 2007 Author Share August 26, 2007 Thanks, Jason. I have 2 PenPlax heaters here. I don't know the watts. The long heater goes the whole height of the 10g-+. The FW tank in my office is between 70 and 75 in summer and without a heater in cold weather drops into the 60s. I'm going to put a dot on the tank for water level, just to make sure I keep up with topping off. THere's a water purifier at work, so I have a decent water source there. I was wondering if I could get away without using a HOB filter. I've got one around already, though if I really should need to use it. I was kind of thinking to maybe do what you did with your tank with the little sump at the end. I really like the way you put the flow broken up coming through that wall. That's where I was thinking of putting the cheesy airstone skimmer, but don't know if cutting 3" off of it would render it completely useless (as opposed to partially useless). If I do use a HOB, what should I put in it? I was thinking the damsel would kill a goby. Now that I've seen how truly aggressive it was with the dottyback, I think it was the damsel that killed the other damsels and not the clown. I'm afraid to put any other fish with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zotzer August 26, 2007 Share August 26, 2007 Alright darlin....time for "true confessions", and maybe a little accidental advice tossed in. I have set up a SW tank once before yesterday. It was more than four years ago, and was indeed a (gasp) "Nemo" tank for my then 3 year old godson. My brother and his wife were in on it, so it's not like I sprung it on them. LOL Anyway, Nemo has been happy as a clam for all this time in a 10g with a biowheel running on it, sand, a crab, a snail or two, and some alien-looking plastic decorative domains. We cycled the tank with "Dory" (I know, I know...bad LFS advice), a yellow-tailed damsel who only kicked it about 6 months ago. Well, when we finally introduced Nemo, Dory was indeed a bit of a bully. The clown wouldn't come out of his little psychedelic hut *at all*....so, back off to the LFS for a solution. I bought a little mesh enclosure that fit in the tank, and we put Dory in the equivalent of a week-long timeout. They got along swimmingly after that (pun intended). I think if you put the little goby in first, before it becomes the damsel's home, you have a chance. Otherwise...as for your office-nano, don't worry about getting too complicated. It's eacy to set up a cool-looking, but basic fish home....that is, if you don't want to get all fancy and extravagant with corals and stuff. Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite August 27, 2007 Author Share August 27, 2007 (edited) Well, I had taken the damsel out of the tank, re-arranged all the rock, put the dottyback into the tank and waited a bit, put the damsel back in the tank, and there goes the dottyback's tail. This is a very aggressive fish. I'm not sure what the typical demeanor is for blue & gold damsels, if it's generally worse than other damsels or if I just happen to have one with that kind of a personality. bad pic, but here's the monster Edited August 27, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Reef Nuby August 27, 2007 Share August 27, 2007 nasty little buggers those damsels. ive just rescently started with a reef tank, and damsels are attractive and cheap fish. weve had our little piece of "ocean paradice" for about 5 months now. we started with a blue devil, two chromas, and a tiny thumbnail sized yellow tail. though all the books and threads i read siad " damsels will NOT tollerate other damsels", the fine pet care professional (in all of his maybe 16 years of wisdom) that i so rudely interupted his phone call to his budy to purchase some fish, siad "iduno. oh! um wait! im sure they will be fine in your tank, cause we keep them together here whenever they come in." and sure enough, they were all in the same tank. the next two days my wife called me at work with the play by play of how the blue devil killed the chromas (which one was a stunning shade of green and the other a lovely pale rose color) and then pestered the small yellow tail. so i decided to force it to play nice. i stopped by the local pet store and bought to larger yellow tails and placed them with a false lemon peal angle in the tank that night (please dont gasp, i did drip aclimate all three first ) and the new fish drove our blue devil out of his favorate rock. but within two weeks it killed the two large yellow tails, the angle btw was attacked nor did it seam to care about the fights to the death of the other fish. we now have that ornary little devil (which we call luci short for lucifer) and ironically the tiny yellow tail who coexist on opposite sides of the tank, and they dont bother any of our other tank mates. on a side note: we did get two percula clowns (tank raised...who have yet to host our sebae), and the smaller one (im told it is the male) doesnt take any crap from luci, and they rarely bother bumping into each other. so, if you consider a fish tankmate, another clown may be the way to go. we also have a manderine goby that never has had a conflict with our damsels or any other fish we hav. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bk_market August 30, 2007 Share August 30, 2007 i used to have a yellow tail damsel in my 45g. It is crazy chasing everything being aggressive and all. Lucky for me one day i wake up and he jump out. I was actually happy that day :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite August 30, 2007 Author Share August 30, 2007 i used to have a yellow tail damsel in my 45g. It is crazy chasing everything being aggressive and all. Lucky for me one day i wake up and he jump out. I was actually happy that day :D Awww poor fish! OR Lucky NEW fish! The more aggressive damsels I've heard do fine with triggers if the triggers aren't huge but are bigger than the damsel. I would have loved to have a jewelled or velvet damsel because they are beautiful fish, but they are true beasts. If anyone DOES know of a little fish that can go with a mean damsel in a 10g, let me know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bk_market August 31, 2007 Share August 31, 2007 maybe u can go with a 6line wrasse. those r pretty mean too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite August 31, 2007 Author Share August 31, 2007 maybe u can go with a 6line wrasse. those r pretty mean too but would itr be ok in a tank that small with a damsel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 11, 2007 Author Share September 11, 2007 I think the plan now is to convert the office 16g from FW to SW. There are no fish in it because I gave them away to get smaller ones that I haven't gone to get yet... tank is running with nothing but plants in it. I decided to use this tank so that I can have a DSB - the tank is 18.5" high, so with a DSB I'll still have a couple more inches than with the 10g I was going to use. The reason I originally was NOT going to use it is because of that height, but the DSB will take up some of it. I saw a DIY somewhere for a closed fuge in a fluval using such a light so that macros could be kept inside. I'll have to find that website again to see if it says where he got the light for it, but I don't recall it mentioning where he got it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak September 12, 2007 Share September 12, 2007 It wasn't a fluval... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 12, 2007 Author Share September 12, 2007 there is probably more than one site out there with a diy for doing it.... I can't remember where I saw it, and doing a search has led me to nothing except a guy asking whether or not it was possible; I wish I could remember where I saw it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak September 13, 2007 Share September 13, 2007 You saw it on nano reef, and it was an EHIME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 13, 2007 Author Share September 13, 2007 I'm pretty sure that's not where I saw it something about it, but do you by any chance have a link to the exact page? I looked there and some other places and can't find anything about using a canister filter for a fuge. Now, someone had said they thought it was too small, but I don't think it's any smaller than a HOT fuge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 13, 2007 Author Share September 13, 2007 Looks like I may be putting just liverock rubble in the fluval - take out the baskets unless someone sees a reason to leave them. Do you think there any benefit to cutting off the intake tube to take water closer to the surface rather than deep down? I was messing with that airstone skimmer that I had stuck in the closet. I took off the narrow tube that is outside of the skimmer body, switched the stiff plactic tubing for regular airline tubing... the thing works much better than it did, so I will put that in a sectioned off end of the tank - better than no skimmer, and it's a fairly small tank for it. I'll put some macros in that section too (and the heater). I guess the section will be about 5". I want to use culerpa for macros because that end is going to be visible (chaeto is not aesthetically appealing!). Since taking off that "paper" backgroupd, there is a LOT of light in the tank even across the room from the window (BIG window). There is so much natural sunlight that I would probably never turn on daylight spectrum bulbs, so I think I can get away with sticking an actinic in the hood that is already in the tank. If it doesn't work out, I have a 20" PC fixture and a glass cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akbuuur September 14, 2007 Share September 14, 2007 I had macros in my 20 and personally didnt like it in my fuge i had the proper lighting and all... i would go with a buncha rubble like you just said -that works well in my opinion. and id also go with a maxijet in there such as a 900. For lighting id go with a PC fixture since you dont plan on any harder corals? Good luck! and keep us posted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak September 14, 2007 Share September 14, 2007 Looks like I may be putting just liverock rubble in the fluval - take out the baskets unless someone sees a reason to leave them. Do you think there any benefit to cutting off the intake tube to take water closer to the surface rather than deep down? I was messing with that airstone skimmer that I had stuck in the closet. I took off the narrow tube that is outside of the skimmer body, switched the stiff plactic tubing for regular airline tubing... the thing works much better than it did, so I will put that in a sectioned off end of the tank - better than no skimmer, and it's a fairly small tank for it. I'll put some macros in that section too (and the heater). I guess the section will be about 5". I want to use culerpa for macros because that end is going to be visible (chaeto is not aesthetically appealing!). Since taking off that "paper" backgroupd, there is a LOT of light in the tank even across the room from the window (BIG window). There is so much natural sunlight that I would probably never turn on daylight spectrum bulbs, so I think I can get away with sticking an actinic in the hood that is already in the tank. If it doesn't work out, I have a 20" PC fixture and a glass cover. You could very very easily make a surface skimmer with some pvc and a dremel, H-E-double hocky sticks if you'll come get it I'll make it for you just for fun. In black or white. I could also show you my cheap and easy nano. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 14, 2007 Author Share September 14, 2007 nothing you build is easy for most people Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 14, 2007 Author Share September 14, 2007 The FW plants are gone.... NOW I can drain this thing and get started. Too bad I have to take it home to just to clean it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 15, 2007 Author Share September 15, 2007 (edited) I discovered that the silcone on the 16g is really worn, so I stripped it out and need to replace it, so if I'm going to use that tank it's going to take me a little while longer. I was hoping to set up within the next few days, but that's not going to happen. Edited September 15, 2007 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak September 17, 2007 Share September 17, 2007 Cheap you still might be, but you've skipped the quick and easy at this point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 17, 2007 Author Share September 17, 2007 that's for sure. I thought Friday that I would have the tank set up by today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite September 18, 2007 Author Share September 18, 2007 I'm hoping to be set up by Thursday - the silicone should be cured before then. I'm using the LR, sand, and caulerpa that I already have, so there won't be any cycling to do. I will be using a PC fixture, and there's a lot of natural sunlight unless it's cloudy outside. I need to have corals to put in this thing now (and my regular tank). Do you have any suggestions? Anyone got some they don't need? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 September 24, 2007 Share September 24, 2007 (edited) Nevermind. Edited September 24, 2007 by txaggies07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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