5.5 nano picture so far...

[wigglejaggles]

Hey now,

Here is my first nano so far.

I am going with a Polyethylene otherwise known as "starboard" bottom.

about 2 pounds of cured rock in there!

let me know what you think!

take care,
Jared

 

[OrionGirl]

What are your plans for the tank?

I'd probably add more rock--fill it in a bit. More rock = more cover = happier occupants, and will also provide more insurance in terms of bacterial colonization.

 

[wigglejaggles]

livce rock

hey Orion Girl,

I plan on having about 10 pounds in there. I am gonna take it real slow. Its amazing all the life that is on it and the rock is already cured!
some day I hope to get some low light polyps and mushrooms and see how they do. I have a 20 watt power compact 50/50 coralife bulb running 12 hours a day.

The only concern I have is that I amusing a penguin mini without the biowheel and I have been reading some things that mention how carbon can strip away the good trace elements along with the bad.

Am I doing more harm running my tank with the carbon?


take care,
Jared

 

[OrionGirl]

At this point, carbon probably isn't needed. Doesn't mean it's harming the tank, though--especially since you don't have corals in there right now. In reef tanks, I like running carbon--not 24/7, but once a week or so, to remove the chemicals released by fighting corals. In a tank with just LR, you can run it, but plan on doing more frequent water changes to compensate for any trace elements pulled out by the carbon. Most mechanical and chemical filters can reduce the 'good' with the 'bad', so it's a matter of finding a workable balance. Skimmers are the same--they pull out 'good' stuff we put in along with the 'bad' we don't want in our water.

I have some polyps and mushrooms (okay, just one, he was floating around the sump of the 120 reef, so we put him in my 10 to see how he'd do) under less light than that, and they are doing fairly well. The polyps are starting to multiply--they need to be relocated, right now are tucked in the back in a weird spot. The mushroom is attached to 2 empty snails shells, so is very portable--right now it's on top of the rock in the middle of the tank. Doing well--not as happy as the ones under MH, but looks nice.

 

[mogurnda]

Looking nice. Mushrooms should do well there. I moved all of my mushrooms to a 10 gallon with 40 watts of NO light, and they are growing and spreading. Now I'm trying some star polyps and anthelia, to see if they will adapt to lower light.

 

[wigglejaggles]

thanks

thanks for the responses guys,

I'll keep you updated on how things go. I will also show more pictures as it comes along.

take care,
jared

 

[wastememphis]

it looks nice, can you tell us (or me, if nobody else wants to know) a little about your starboard experience, where you bought it/how you cut it maybe?

 

[wigglejaggles]

updated pics

Hey now,

I hope these pics will load ok. The first is of a 2 pound live rock I recently added which has all kinds of life on it! My camera doesn't do it justice, and until my wife has the time to put these pics in html format they have to be real small.Its a great rock!

the second is a full shot of my updated tank.

I have also started dosing B-Ionic every day along with R/O top off.

Memphis- I ordered a slab from www.thecuttingboardcompany.com its pure polyethelyne which is what starboard is. Starboard is what they use for the bottom of boats I believe. If you go to www.reefcentral.com there are tons of threads concerning the use of starboard. Do a search of the user name Bomber. He is the guy who pioneered using starboard! I took the piece over to a friends house and he cut it down for me using an electric saw to fit inside the AGA 5.5 gallon. It will not warp and from what I have read coralline algae grows well on it. The white just looks real nice and clean in my opinion.
Not only does it look clean but its so easy to vacuum up all the junk that falls off the live rock. I shudder to think of all of that dirt being trapped in a sand bed!! I did a one gallon water change and syphoned out all the junk that was on the bottom yesterday.

Ok thats all for now!

take care,
jared

 

[wigglejaggles]

posting pics

hey now

I just checked to see how the pictures turned out. I am not sure why the second one is bigger than the first and only using 26KB. Boy I am not too smart at this digital camera thing yet!

take care,
jared

 

[wastememphis]

(Oh I know of bomber, I'm read there all the time, its very hard and frustrating to try to get a response from anyone, your post gets bumped to the 3rd page in like 25mins) But yeah... bombers post is like 70pages long and I couldn't find anyone who had starboard on a AGA tank with a built in overflow, so I didn't know how I could cut it to fit around it. Did you put any sealant around the sides of the tank??? I was also thinking about spreading some sort of safe glue over it and seeing if i could lay a thin layer of sand on top to make it look a little less plastic, but I dont know I have to research still... I'm waiting to see more people do it.