audifeesh's 15 gallon nano

I've made a post over in the noob section - but i see everyone else's tank journals in here, so i suppose I'll post some of my stuff over here.

the stocking list, aquascape, etc is constantly changing at this point - but I'll try to put up some FTS's to kinda chronologically build up to the tank's current look.

here we gooooooo
first scape/just getting it filled

scape # 2 after adding the CuC

more rock, moved smaller pieces into the sump for rubble (in place of bio balls)

added my scooter, odd (more on him later) and some other schtuff
and then here we are today!


stealing from my other post, the stocking is as follows
scooter blenny - his name is odd notion, odd for short
3x Turbos
3x Astrea
7 or 8 Nassarius
1 Emerald Crab
3 brittle stars *accidentally lol* they range in size from 1 inch to 4 inches
lots of feather dusters
a few bristle worms - none seem to be of the coral eating variety, all love mysis and snail poop though lol.
and one of those little white starfish - haven't seen him for a little while, but my girlfriend has affectionately named him "goliath"

and for coral stocking i have
a zoa/baby gsp colony (two types of zoas, blue and a green)
a larger gsp colony which has opened up nicely
a larger yellow finger leather
some pink xenia
something that looks like xenia, but bigger and this one has green in it
orange mushrooms
a two-head frogspawn frag
and a small cluster of zoas that are green, blue, and orange respectively in concentric circles. they're beautiful and one of my favorites

and the hardware setup is
-15gal acrylic tank (its a sea clear that I believe is from a fish store display rack)
-Sea life systems wet/dry with skimmer - I don't know what model, and It didn't come with pumps or really anything but the basics. I did sown research on the brand and did my best to mimic their setup out of the box.. I just got a killer deal on it, and knew enough that I should snatch it up while i could. If nothing else I can sell off parts of it for some spare change later.
-Maxijet 1200 on the skimmer
-Lifeguard 2200 return (i estimate just under 500gph @ the current lift for max flow)
-Rio+90 for one powerhead in tank (85gph)
-Hydor Koralia nano (245gph i think)
-Hydor pico evo-mag (i forget which model, but it's a smaller one... right at or under 100gph i believe)
-some misc base rock
-more live rock (around 25lbs in the sump and display)
-about 20lbs of live sand
-10gal fuge with a DSB, chaeto, and another 5 lbs of rock
-4x 36" 39W T5HO, 2 actinic, 1 10k, 1 14k i think lol
-LED grow bulb on fuge
-more that im sure I'm forgetting




this is my first salt tank, so be gentle. I test before I do anything - when i think i should wait a day, i wait two. I've been taking my time trying to do this right and so far have only had one big "oops"

that being my mistaken ID of "hair algae".... which turned out to by bryopsis.
but my turbos and emerald crab are WELL fed and are CONSTANTLY eating.

the scooter was on the verge of death when i rescued him from a petco tank containing two tangs and a nasty little CBS. He didnt appear to have been eating much if at all, and the guy I know there gave him to me for 7 bucks. He's been constantly munching on pods and sifting sand (my pod population - according to my glass - is actually growing) and he eats frozen mysis when it crosses his path. He's getting nice and plump, and no longer shows ridges down his sides or has the sharp taper to his tail. i expect him to be good and fat in another week or two he was my only impulse buy so far, but I don't regret it one single bit.

questions, comments, criticisms are all VERY welcome. I'm still learning, so lay into me - i'm thick skinned lol

Fuge sand bed is about 3-3.5 inches. My display varies from .5-1.5 depending on where my snails and the scooter have been sifting around.

I was so happy when I got him home and put some nysis in his bag... He went straight for it, ate it all, and kept it down. That was one of the biggest reliefs ever. I watch my pods like a hawk though, and I'm prepared to dose weekly should the population drop

dlyon101 said:

I'm just starting up my tank and waiting for it to cycle. I'm kind of new to this as well so I'm trying to be very patient just like you. I have been reading a lot about pods lately. Are these copepods that you have? Did these just start growing from your live rock or did you add them to the tank somehow. What would you dose to increase your pod population? I don't even have any livestock at this point so I'm not in a big rush. I'm just curious how yours came about and how you know they are increasing.

Click to expand...

Trust me, I haven't been as patient as I should have - and it's cost me a lot of extra money to keep up with it. The longer you wait the smoother and cheaper things will be.

As far as the pods go, one day I just saw some on my glass and rocks. They've been increasing in number in those places ever since. They come on the rocks, in clumps of macro algae (like the chaetomorpha in my refugium) and in bottle/bags. You can buy them at reef shops and online, people usually use them to seed a new tank but it isn't necessary.

well i had a huge update typed up and ready to go and that messed up lol.

so here's my quick update

stocking list is now as follows

Coral (almost all doing very well and growing steadily!)
~4 large stems of pink xenia - growing like weeds
~3 types of zoa - green, blue, and the green/blue/orange/yellow, growing well
~2 types of mushroom, the orange has sprouted a new head, the watermelon is doing wonderfully
~2 types of GSP, one has much smaller/thinner polyps than the other and is growing with the zoas, idk if maybe thats why it's smaller, but it is spreading and more open than ever. seems to be doing great. the larger colony is spreading like wildfire.
~my anthelia has about 9 new heads and is doing great. it's pink with bright green
~the yellow finger leather is finally fully extended and has some new growth from the branches, none that i can see on the base yet.
~a large colony of purple and green galaxea that has just been wonderful from day one. full extension, loves blowing around in the current, and has sprouted about 10 new heads and is showing great skeletal growth
~my pink/green tip frogspawn is doing great also, the larger head has totally split into two mouths, and the base has been showing good growth too. no new head sprouts yet, but i can see what looks to be new tentacles growing off the bottom of the smaller head... so maybe that's a new head growing also?
~and last but not least I got a small colony of clove polyps that are white with bright green centers. these seem to be back and forth, can't quite figure out why they don't seem to consistently open up... right now only about half the heads are open, and i've never seen it open up completely. it's also not tightly packed - and i think maybe the parent colony dropped some heads that sprouted on this rock? if anyone has advice on caring for this little guy outside of good water, light tank feedings with phytofeast, plenty of light, and medium flow please let me know. it's a beautiful coral and i'd really like it to do well. I'm considering moving it up in the water column for more flow and more light.

fish
~my scooter blenny is now a total fiend for mysis and spirulina. he eats quickly and actively seeks out prepared food. he still sifts pods out of the sand, but he is still growing and fattening up nicely from the skeleton he was when i got him (probably near death) from petco poor little guy.
~I got a juvi mocha clown recently. He is absolutely WONDERFUL. such an active and fun little guy. he eats pellets, mysis, flake, and really just about anything. he hasn't decided to host anything yet but there's still time and I'm reworking my scape to allow room for a torch coral so maybe he'll like that one. I almost lost him when i first got him - he decided to take a trip down the overflow and ended up in the trickle box of my sump. i was out of town and he was in there no less than a full 24hrs.... but he recovered quickly after going back in the display and is an adhd little crack-head now.

inverts
-lots of starfish. those little white ones and brittles. they're kinda all over the place, i think i have 3 brittles (by accident, all very small). they eat left over shrimp when feeding and sift up the sand
-lots of snails. i have turbos nassarius and astrea. i have more nassarius now than when i started.... so i guess they're making babies. lol fine by me, they have plenty to eat.
-bristle worms. no problems from these yet, so they'll stay until they become a problem or get too big for comfort.
-my emerald crab.... haven't seen this one for a WHILE... no idea
-two peppermint shrimp that i added a few days ago. these guys are doing great. already coming out into view in the display - coming out during the day - and eating aiptasia. THANK GOD
-two sexy shrimp. I LOVE THESE THINGS. they're so much fun to watch, and have taken up a couple residences in my galaxea and my larger GSP colony.

that's about it as far as i know.... I've had some light cyano and GHA problems - but i also took off my skimmer and my fuge to trade out the remote fuge and small skimmer for a single system that will have more water, more space, the pump and new skimmer on the outside, and a tray for two fluidized reactors. should be way more efficient, great for isolating things i find in my tank that i don't want there, adding more rock, tons of chaeto, and housing all the hardware. I'm pretty excited.

the new skimmer is a CSS 120. got it for a STEAL along with a whole setup i got of craigslist the other week. landed a 40something gal, stand, eclipse hood, the skimmer, a koralia powerhead, a fluval aquaclear 110, tons of rock, sand, a CBS (which i gave to the LFS), all the buckets, scrapers, hoses, etc etc etc for 70 bucks... can't argue with that. also go to see everything up and running and tear it down myself, so i know that it all works and works properly.

pictures coming soon, gotta do some cleaning and more algae removal. manual removal and lighter feeding has all but totally eliminated my algae problems and helped my params - so once the skimmer and new fuge/sump are up and running i should be set for a spotless display (i hope.)

i should have that done and cycling on its own next week sometime.

thanks again for all the help aquaria! feedback, comments, criticisms, etc are all welcome.

Thanks, I liked it too since it was really modular... But that also made it unstable. My scape has evolved to give more room to accommodate all the livestock and it will continue to change. Gotta make room for either a torch or bubble, and then I want atleas one type of brain since they're slow growers and maybe if the setup permits some of the hardier sps down the line in the really high flow areas (which I have left open)

pictures for everyone new pictures coming tomorrow - a lot of stuff was closed up after my weekly algae scrub/wc/vacuum (battling some cyano, it's getting much better now though - takes a few days for it to really start to regain strength whereas it used to pop back up practically overnight.)

FTS - note that the bluer pictures are with all lights on, and is just a white balance problem i had with the camera (not used to nikons/DSLR's in general). I kinda like how it looks though




Mocha Clown named Guinness, he has a misbar but it makes us love him even more!





Corals






There's a Sexy Shrimp hiding in this one







and our Scooter Blenny rescue named Odd Notion