New nano reef diary

SF, gorgeous fish! Need more money for corals? Get yourself a weekend job at a LFS, lol. I work just a few hours every Sunday (and compared to my M-F 9-5 it's hardly work) and get the benefit of a large discount on everything and some good trades on livestock. I got the leather for a song - I traded in my brown zoas, asked $0.25 per polyp (~$20) and then asked for a price on the leather. 'How about an even trade, no paperwork?' says my boss. 'Yippee!' says I. Same with the o-s goby - he was an even trade for two huge Crypts from my FW tank. Last week I brought in three stalks of Xenia and I'm waiting to see what the new SW manager will trade me/give me a discount on. I have a few things in mind, I might even ask him if he can order a small sun coral.
 
LOL needs a second job o ya!
3months5cp.jpg


Here is a 3 month old tank pic. You can see the small frag of pink toadstool at the far right which has doubled in 2 weeks.
The anthelia is on the middle rock at right and is quite pretty and turning more yellow than the green it was. There are small polyps on the sand as well which I'll let grow and trade up.
The acropora tricolor at top, tiny frag, has extended polyps and so I'll watch it and see. The staghorn acro.I had died, I used crazy glue to glue it to a rock and it didn't take kindly to the glue, however the tricolor acro was unaffected...dunno why.
I also have froggy-spawn at center. And the brown, green polyps at left have bounced back and are doing well. I almost gave up on those!

I can prolly send you anthelia in the next month or so if you'd like :)
 
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Right on! Looks good SF :)

There's a great marine-only LFS not far from my home that has been shut down for the past couple months, they reopened today. Everything was on sale, lots of new stock, so of course I had to go shopping :D

I finally got some cyclopeeze, and picked up a small zoanthid frag and an amazing neon green candycane frag. I can't get a pic of the candycane that shows its colour, it's phenomenally green. I also lucked out and found some chaeto - they gave me a little for free, I can't wait to see if it grows and starts using up the NO3 and PO4 - I'd love it if I could quit using PO4 adsorbing resin constantly.

Levels in the tank are getting closer to where they should be - Mg is now at 1250ppm, Ca around 350.

I've moved the GSP up and leaned the rock onto the glass. I decided that if this stuff is going to spread like wildfire, I'd rather it be onto the back glass where it will look cool and can be peeled off neatly, than on the rocks and over the other corals.

Here's a FTS from this afternoon:
FTS01Oct.jpg


And a shot of the candycane and new green/yellow zoas:
CCzoas.jpg
 
It's really coming along nicely. I've got some chaeto in my fuge and honestly I've had no detectable NO3/PO4 levels since. As a bonus it grows fairly fast so I just take some down to my LFS and get store credit. I don't really get much for it, but enough for a few supplies which is always a good thing :dance2:
 
I love my pistol shrimp, but he drives me crazy sometimes! I came home tonight to find NO chaeto in the display... he'd dragged it all behind the rocks to use as building material. I pulled some out, but most of it is long gone, likely serving as rebar in a sand tunnel under the rocks. And to think - while he was stealing my precious macro, I was thinking of him at work, picking out some nice shells and rubble to give him (I love watching him drag it away to reinforce his little caves)
*Sigh*. Ah well, even if he takes all the chaeto, it's an excuse to go back to the store next weekend and see if they have more - heck, if I grab another frag while I'm there, what's the harm? ;)
 
Well that was quick! The chaeto is gone - I watched the goby eat the last little bit this afternoon, I'm wondering if he just snatched it because it was floating by, or if he's the one who dragged it into the tunnel and made it all disappear.

I feel like I'm losing my mind - I came home at lunch and noticed that the cabinet underneath the stand is starting to bow slightly (not the piece of wood under the stand, but the top of the cabinet it sits on). I'll be getting a new stand this weekend. I've been investigating getting a larger stand and tank and setting the 14g up as a sump, but all the plumbing seems really complicated and I doubt I'll find a 30g or smaller that's pre-drilled with an overflow, and the $$ seems to add up quickly... there is also the light issue - if I get another tank that's more than 20" long, I'll need to get new lights and, quite possibly, sign some divorce papers! j/k, but honestly my poor husband has had about enough of us needing to buy new things for the fish.
I'm guessing we'll end up getting a 20" or 24" stand and setting everything up the way it is now - I just figured the idea of something larger (either tank size or water volume) was worth entertaining since we're going to have to rip the tank apart to move it onto a new stand.
 
Its better a hang on back refugium for any tank under 30 gallons, I'm thinking.
Rigging a sump takes know how and I'm not going to spend any more time fiddling with things only to go to work and come home to a flood.
I think the hang on back refugiums are more of an answer and your chaeto will be safe lol. :)
but a sump is nice of course to hide stuff in...
 
I have to agree - I need to replace the stand as quickly as possible, and plumbing a sump isn't a simple, easy to learn thing. I'm going to stick with what I know for now...

Here's the plan:
I think I'm going to invest in a slightly larger tank, probably a 25g (I believe they're either 12" x 24" x 18"H or 12" x 24" x 20"H). Big Al's often has tank/glass top/stand kits on sale, so I'm hoping they've got something 24" long in the store right now. I drew up a little diagram so I could see what the light would look like on a longer tank, it's not too bad. I want to keep the sides clear for cleaning, so I'm not really worried about the sides being a bit dark - heck, maybe it'll cut down on the algae growth!

Here's my art, no laughing:
25g.jpg
 
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