New nano not-reef

[Guest Larry-T]

When I saw someone talking about putting $1,500 into a 10 gal tank I just shook my head. I don't think a gold card is the minimum entry for getting into saltwater tanks.

 

I'm going to start a small marine tank using an Eclipse 6 with no special lights or other add-ons. I am counting on weekly partial water changes and proper selection of livestock to have a successful tank.

 

I'll be putting weekly (I hope) reports and possibly photos up here to show how it's going.

 

<<** Larry **>>

[GaryL]

if you havn't already read THIS by anthony calfo check it out, kinda makes me wanna do a nano. i think i would try a incandesent hood with a pc bulb that has the mogul part. i use a 10k to light my fuge on my 29g. HTH

 

Gary

[Guest Larry-T]

Gary,

 

I could not get to that post. Can you give me a summary or cut/paste the salient portion?

 

I've just set up the tank and I'm picking up some sand and live rock rubble next week. After that, I have a few frags in my small in-tank refugium, some macroalgae, and snails I can add. After that, I'll look into some other critters.

 

<<** Larry **>>

[GaryL]

here it is copied from RC

 

a post from Anthony Calfo

 

 

happy to do so... thanks for asking

 

11 gall Via

two 18Watt PCs (one daylight and one 50/50) - bulbs are changed every 6 months like clockwork

no filtration (edit: no man-made filtration such as sponge, skimmer, etc.)

weekly water change of nearly 100%

supplementing with Vita-Chem and Selcon to foods

small amounts of DTs phyto for filter feeder

very little other supplements

 

one fish: Pseudochromid pylei fed 3-5 times daily in tiny amounts (Cylop-eeze and Boyd vitamin enriched foods, plus various frozen meats... mysids, minced krill, DTs oyster eggs)

 

Of the inverts, only the Duncanopsammia in the tank is target fed... all others get food incidentally.

 

sessile inverts:

red epizoanthids

Duncamopsammia axifuga

Blue Cespitularia

Sansibia

Xenia sp.

Paraminabea

Montipora (orange plating)

Acropora sp.

Acropora sp. from Stuber via Knop

Acropora valida

Sarcophyton green-polyped

two asst corallimorphs

Zoanthus red

Un ID soft coral... perhaps Paralemnalia

Dampia

Palythoa grandis - green

calcareous sponge sp.

Ochtodes macroalgae (purple/blue cluster skewered in top right of tank)

unidentified Mussid

 

before doing weekly water change, I frag or prune aggressively as needed and push the divisions to a 20 gallon long settling tank before they make it out to the fishroom for longer growout.

 

I do not actively sell or trade corals (happy to do so, just no time as of late or in near future to push production high enough with my ambitious book projects), but I will donate excess frags when available to hobby clubs and conferences I visit to help boost their raffles/auctions

 

best regards, Anthony

 

HTH

 

Gary

[Guest Larry-T]

That's an interesting article. Looking at his stock list, he's a level above what I intend to do with this nano, but we seem to be in general agreement, except that he's using more lights and some livestock that requires it.

 

I'm sticking with the lighting that came with the eclipse 6 and allowing the built-in pump to provide current and also keep the temperature stable. I'm going to start off without any filter media, so in that respect I agree with him. I also intend to do major water changes weekly, since that's probably the best way to keep a small system stable.

 

I will not be putting in any Xenia or any corals that require high light.

 

 

Best wishes;

<<** Larry **>>

[GaryL]

i thought could be that alot of corals don't always require "alot" of light. so if you had an over abundance of xenia maybe you could experiment with it.

 

i have a 3g seahorse tank with a cutting of culearpa (sp.?) it does not grow well at all in my 150g fuge with a par 38 and some no flourescence but my cheato and some cool bushy red algae does really well in my 150g. the culearpa does really good in the seahorse tank as well as the red bushy stuff with only an incandescent light in it.

 

just a thought i had, maybe ill try it too as i have a few 5g lying around.

[Guest Larry-T]

A short update:

 

I had a problem recently with the 25 watt Marineland heater overheating the tank to close to 90F. I opened the top and let it cool down and have been adjusting the temp and it seems to be stabilized around 79F at this time. The tree corals are still trying to decide whether or not to open up, but the zooanthids I put in are looking fine.

 

I recently saw a "critter" briefly that looks quite interesting. I first thought it was just another amphipod, but this one is a little over a centimeter long and was digging a tunnel. I also saw that one of the rocks appears to have excavation taking place. Today I saw two of these little fellows carrying sand in their front claws and dumping it outside. When I saw one in profile it had the classic "praying mantis" shape to its front claws. So I may have a couple of young mantis shrimp, or something similar. It should be interesting to see what happens.

 

See you all at the meeting;

 

<<** Larry **>>