New nano reef diary

More pics

The new goby is doing extremely well - he's already acting like he owns the place, and the shrimp is so much more active out in the open now that he has a seeing-eye fish ;) The goby is sifting the sand as well as taking the food I give him.

In installed the Remora today, I can't believe the size of the Maxi-Jet 1200, it's huge! I took off the Prizm and also the AquaClear PH; there's more flow with the Remora and I couldn't stand looking at more equipment than this.

The tiny zoanthid frag was getting sand all over it from the pistol's digging so I relocated it, and the mushrooms and large zoa frag needed some support so I placed rubble in the sand beneath the rock to hold them up.

Full tank shot right after the switch:
Aug23.jpg


The goby:
o_sgoby.jpg


The pistol digging a new cave, goby standing watch:
o_sgobyshrimp.jpg
 
hey i just started a nano tank 12G and i got live rock dont know nothing about it but im going to try and see if i can do it but i could use a little help and all the info i can get lol
 
It seems like in saltwater the more the merrier. I added a red anthias male. Shocking pink to my mix today and its brought out all the characters in my tank. My lawnmower blenny was a bit shy. Sat on the powerhead alot or blended into the rock so you couldn't know he was there. Today they are all out and out about. Security in numbers maybe?
And wouldn't you know it, my camera batteries are dead...!!
I almost bought a green watchman goby and a pistol shrimp, but fell for the beautiul anthias. I can't resist a pretty face. He has amazing blue eyes too. All is well in the salty world eh Blinky?
and then there was light...somewhere in canada poste somewhere....!!!!
 
Thanks wbfg, I'm pretty pleased with the tank so far, as soon as it's got a few more corals in it I think it's going to look real nice :)
SF, all's very well in the tank today, how's yours coming? I clicked on your sig, saw the pic of the LR - looking good, can't wait to see it with some corals :)

Not much is going on, here's the latest:
The pistol's digging up a storm - he seemed happy enough with his caves for ages, now he's renovating for his new roommate, LOL. The goby is sifting sand, bouncing around on his belly and peeking out of holes all over the tank, he's hilarious :D

The Remora started to produce foam after just 12 hours on the tank, but it's not really pulling any skimmate yet. I can already see its potential, and it looks like a much better product than my Prizm though, to its credit, the Prizm had started to pull some pretty nasty gunk out in the last two weeks. I like the acrylic construction (rather than the plastic some other skimmers are made of), it seems like a very solid piece of equipment.

The Xenia is splitting, and my pink/purple/brown Zoas are multiplying like little rabbits! The green/dark red ones that I fragged out of the middle of the others a while back are starting to grow, I can't wait to see the entire piece of rock they're on covered, they're really pretty.

I'm considering getting a sun coral, but a little nervous about adding something that requires spot feeding - I'll definitely wait a while for the Remora to really 'kick in' and check all the levels regularly to make sure the new goby isn't pushing the bioload before adding something else that needs to be fed.

I hesitate to say it, but it looks like the little bit of cyano I was dealing with is on its way out. I've been keeping things as clean as possible, using PhosGuard, and the pistol is stirring up the sand a lot - with everything combined, it seems to be nearly all gone. The only algae I really see now is, ironically, on the snails! They're all growing lovely little hair algae sweaters, lol. Last week I gave a few of them a little scrub with a soft toothbrush, but the ones I missed are looking pretty hairy :D

Chaeto for the fuge is on its way, hopefully the pod population will increase once it's growing - the wrasse has completely cleaned out the tank, and there are just a few pods in the rubble inside the fuge ATM.
 
Hey blinky, you tank is amazing. Could you post your parameters?

How is the emerald crab behaving (if you still have it)? What do you have in the tank now? I know your first goby died, but I saw that you got a new one, did he pair up with the pistol shrimp? What about the watchman goby, is he doing fine? I love those, I think that'll be my first fish in my tank, would those pair with the pistol shrimp? how many loses have you had?
Sorry If I'm bombing you with questions


Keep posting, I really enjoy reading your journal.
 
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Thanks so much for the compliment! :D
If you read through, you'll find all the answers to your questions ;) In short:
The EC is gone, he matured into a polyp-eating nightmare. The new goby paired with the pistol minutes after I put him in the tank, he's a real cutie. I didn't get a watchman, I got the orange-spot instead. Watchmans will pair with pistols, but from what I understand there's never a guarantee that any given two will pair - you can sometimes find them sold as a pair. I've only had the one loss, the sick goby.
All my parameters are listed in my sig link - test results, tank size, lighting and other equipment etc.

Update:
Tonight I brought a small rock with five ricordia polyps home from work, it's the same kind as the single polyp I had a while back (EC ate it). Very pale pink/green, quite subtle and pretty IMO :)
 
Tonight I rearranged some of the rock a little - the pistol's digging is causing the rocks that weren't resting on the glass to become unstable, so I made sure the two large base rocks were touching the bottom and then fit the others in. Since everything shifted when I moved the bottom rock on the right side, I moved some of the corals around as well. I placed some smaller rocks beside most of them - I'll let them grow onto the rocks, then frag them that way. I have a few friends looking for frags, hopefully this will make it easy. I tried to make sure the rocks were far enough from the glass that cleaning with the Mag-Float will be easier, and put some more rubble beneath the purple mushroom rock to elevate it (the pistol keeps burying it). The general shape is the same, just taller and not as close to the right and left hand sides. I'll post pics when the dust settles.

The Remora is AMAZING, at least compared to my Prizm. It's pulling all sorts of gunk after less than a week :D
 
Another pic : )

As promised, for any truly dedicated readers who are still following along, here's a pic of the tank after the (I hope final) renovations...

Aug_29Small.jpg


I'm actually happier with the layout now, I think it looks pretty nice and it's certainly easier to clean with the magnet.
The Xenia has really started to take off - the piece that just attached to a new rock has started to branch, and at the same time has leaned over and attached again. The other (left side) piece is splitting into four or five pieces - this stuff loves to grow, holy cow!
The GSP is taking hold too. I placed it in higher current so I won't have to constantly 'baste' it to remove the dust, it seems happy today.
Some of the new rics have what looks like multiple mouths, I'm wondering if that means it's going to split? I was speaking to a manager at work today who noticed they were gone from the tank, he called them 'washed out little things', but my husband really likes them and so do I, so I don't mind if they're pale in comparison to some brightly coloured corals. They look greyish in the picture, but they're actually a gorgeous pale pink with mint green highlights. One of my coworkers said that under my lighting they'd probably really 'green up', probably because the MH bulbs at work are fairly old and these guys were quite far down in the tank. I guess we'll see! :)
 
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