my aquaone ar620t tall nano reef

[kevinda]

hi i have had my nano reef now for three months and this is what it is currently set up-
13.5 kg liverock
2 wild clowns
2 emerald crabs
4 turban snails
usual hitchhiker c.u.c
leather,zoa's,xenia,gsp,cloves,polyps,mushrooms
im running this tank with rowa,purigen,carbon and floss no skimmer and keeping to a 10% weekly water change routine.
i use the built in trickle filter but have removed hoops,sponges.
2 x korallia 1600 nano's
1 x all pond soloutions wavemaker 3000(300l.p.h)this is really good!
this handles all my circulation
just reading up on here and some people seem to think these tanks are pants and i all i can say is for a starter tank these look and feel ten times the quality of the bioreefs/riverreef efforts and with a few upgrades you can accomplish an amazing reef(ultimate reef cavs)
its still early days for me and im quite happy running mine standard at the moment!
12636

[r60sgr]

Good thread bud and sums this hobby up - it's all about what works for you. We've all had successes and failures! Keep learning that's the key - we'll never know it all! Stewart

[cl0wn]

very nice, little tip, try shutting the curtains in the room until the reflection doesn't show in the glass, seeing you take the picture in the tank makes it hard to focus on the contents. looking forward to seeing some more.

[androo]

I started out with one mate and I liked mine I swapped my lights for a hallide in the end and like you used koralias for movement and bought a tmc skimmer which was pants and like you just water changes did me

[ray]

nice nano mate i have a long way to go yet till i get to this stage keep up the good work.

[kevinda]

good tip with closing curtains,did'nt even cross my mind.
learning something new already lol

[kevinda]

bought 2 emerald crabs last week and finally today they have decided to eat my bubble algae,was getting worried as some never touch the stuff.
also got 4 turban snails these are a lot slower moving around but seem to do a far more thorough job than the blackfoot turbos.
all i need now is my wild clown pair to host my leather rather than the powerhead and i will be one happy chappy!

[ShyTalk]

Get yourself a few cerith snails and maybe a few nassarius snails too, i added some to my nano the other week & they're brilliant at munching detritus and keeping your substrate clean and turned over, good to hear the emerald crabs are getting busy too :-) Seems they're a bit like pepp's, some folk swear by them for getting rid of aips (like me) but others don't touch them.

[kevinda]

how many of each would i need for my size tank?

[kevinda]

:think:my female clown has been acting strange around my zoa's as if its hunting pods could this be the case and if so am i under feeding if its eating pods?

[ShyTalk]

how many of each would i need for my size tank?
I could've sworn i'd replied to you mate, must be going senile...I'm not certain of the size of your tank but there's no rules set in stone, try 5 or 6 of each, but watch out for the ceriths, my nano has a lid, but the other day when it was so hot i had the lid open and one of them was spotted going for a wander...on the outside of the glass! but they're great at keeping the substrate clean, another new critter i added recently is some bumblebee snails, very small, but pretty striped snails and they eat detritus out of rocks, substrate everything, i'd not seen any before but now i have them i'd recommend them.


:think:my female clown has been acting strange around my zoa's as if its hunting pods could this be the case and if so am i under feeding if its eating pods?

Dunno about that, never seen mine do that, the rule of thumb with feeding is put enough in the tank that they can eat in about 2-3 mins, i feed twice a day and give them a really good mixture, frozen, flake, cyclopeeze and a couple of times a week i knock some homemade food together from some frozen seafood (iceland) squid,prawn and mussel with some cyclopeeze, a couple of drops of garlic, a bit of krill, and mince it up with one of those blender magic wand things, the fish go mad for it.

Thing is fish are opportunists and always look hungry, they'd feed until they burst given chance cos in the wild they never know when their next meal will arrive, so if they don't look thin you're probably doing ok, but try a wide and varied diet and use the 2-3 min rule and see how it goes...you can usually tell if you're over feeding as your water quality will drop due to waste food too. If your nitrates rise its a sign of too much waste.

One last thought, my clown doesn't bother with my zoa's but does like to hover round some blue mushrooms i have, i think its trying to host in them?

Hope that help

Gav

[cl0wn]

coming to yours for tea, your fish have a better diet than me. my clowns have hosted allsorts, they change every couple of weeks. one is in a shroom the other is in the toadstool. they have hosted in loads of things.

[kevinda]

nope she's deffo sticking her nose right in at the zoa's and acting really alert a bit like when a dog *****s it's ears up!
just looking across at tank now and she's hovering over a different bit of liverock nose down as if ready to pounce.

[kevinda]

just realised the site has censored me,it wasn't rude by the way!

[kevinda]

just purchased 3 cerith snails.it will be interesting to see how they get on with keeping my sandbed turned over!
also in a dilema as to what shrimp to buy next,blood shrimp(expensive) or a common cleaner shrimp any opinions welcome.

[kevinda]

just done my weekly water change and given the rear glass a right good clean....it was getting embarrassingly dirty was hoping to leave it natural with algae but couldnt bear to look at it any longer!
no new purchases this week(its really hard to keep out of my l.f.s......but im a compulsive spender so have to try to keep my distance!)

[kevinda]

just had to shell out £54.99 on a bucket of red sea coral pro,so another non coral/fish purchase week.still in need of advice on what else to stock torn between cleaner shrimp/firefish/blennie/goby any imput welcome!

[kevinda]

o.k panic over just had an id of what i thought was a pest anenome turns out it is a rarely seen pseudocorynactis sp.sorry cant get a piccy as they love shaded areas of tank but it is about 1cm big,clear and has clear tentacles with white orbs on the end they are rather nice to look at but a shame i have to crank my neck and do contorsions to see it!

[kevinda]

new coral purchase!
just bought a small duncan colony 8 heads so it will be interesting to see how well these will do in my modest set-up.
first water change done with my new salt(red sea coral pro)and although i used red sea before it was really old batch(white tub)all i can say i can see the difference straight away.most of my corals have been existing and not thriveing now everything is out and opened up so the elevated levels must be helping.

[Cookie]

sorry can't help on the cleaner/blood shrimp apart from my cleaner is the most active member in my tank (not counting fish just swimming) hardly ever see my peppermint or hermits. I need a big tub of salt and my lfs has RSCP at 49.99 so i was going to give it a go aswell, changing from instant ocean.

Si

[kevinda]

you should notice a big difference with the r.s.c.p salt as it has elevated levels of trace elements,mixes well,actually good value compared to cheaper salts in small packs when you do the maths.

[kevinda]

another new addition!
a lawnmower blenny not a hit on the looks but more than makes up for it in pure character.
loves hiding and poking his head through my zoa's!

[kevinda]

well it's been a long while!
lawnmower died...not sure why as all parrams were fine?
i have introduced a 6 line wrasse very cool/chilled out example!
started to use the d+d high sensitivity po4 test kit and are currently running at 0.08 which i'm more than pleased with:14:
tanks been moved into kitchen ready for a front room makeover and an upgrade to a aquamedic percula 90:hurray:
only 18 months old and came with everything except the light......which i just happen to have an aquaone mg600 halide with an upgraded electronic ballast!
was well chuffed as i got this for a good price.................2 days later made redundant:angry:
tanks just sat there at the moment,but is still getting set up as soon as i get my backside into gear and get the decco done!

[r60sgr]

Good to see you back on bud. Got to say though phos reading is still way too high - sorry. Need to get it down to zero. Stewart

[kevinda]

yeah,sort of forgot about this forum!
sorry guys been too busy with other comitments.
i have joined a local reef club and have gained a fair bit more knowledge and a few bargains:smilewinkgrin:
its going to be after easter to set the upgrade up so i have been collecting bits and pieces togther that i will need for it,not sure on if/what powerheads to buy for it?

[cl0wn]

i've got an mp40w on my perc 90. perfect for it.

keep us updated as there are loads of improvements you can make to the percs.

[kevinda]

mp40 would be nice:yesnod:
probally going to have to be a budget one or second hand newave/tunze powerhead with my current situation!
obviously not going to run the bio balls in the rear,most people use the live rock rubble but i'm concerned it will just build up with detrius in there due to flow?
gonna go with an auto top up(tmc) in the middle chamber fed from a 25l jerry can in the cupboard.
lightings going to be an aquaone mg600 150 watt halide with2x24watt blue power compacts(this has electronic ballast upgrade!)
running stock skimmer/pumps
will try and get a phosban 150 for rowa as they are meant to fit in the rear chamber?
gonna need more liverock (how much is in yours?)
substrate
r.o unit