10G Nano reef!

[cobra1713]

Alright well here is my ten gallon nano tank.

lighting is a current PC fixture 2X65 watt 10,000K and actinic bulb

20lbs Live Rock, 25Lbs Live sand

Im not gonna try and ID any names and sound stupid so if you guys could ID them for me i would really appreciate it, this goes for live stock and corals.

Live Stock
two Snails
three dwarf hermit crabs
true percula clown

Croals
Pictured below dont know all the right names.

Montipora cap, the only one im sure of its name! just cant spell the last part.

 

[cobra1713]

green star polyp?

sydney the clown fish (girl friend named her (even though i realize its prob still a male since it was never paired)

awesome tiny starfish i have a bunch of, are they bad? lol

the snails!

the tank

more of the tank

well thats it folks, sorry about horrible photography, but tell me what ya'll thinks, my first reef tank and its going strong so far, i am recieving my CA,ALK and MG test kits and supplements in mail soon so i can start getting the levels correct really soon. along with a koralia nano for added waterflow on the left side of the tank

 

[manhorsedog]

you should think about setting the rock up different, maybe higher. that way you can clean the tank better cause its dirty inside and out.

flow, you have 0. not good.

honeslty not trying to be a jerk but there is so much going on i dont want to explain it all. You need to do a lot of research fast or your going to loose everything.

 

[cobra1713]

explain then please,

the powerhead is in the mail!

the outside of the tank is filthy! but as far as inside the only par that is dirty is mostly the back otherwise i can reach almost all of it with my magnet cleaner as it is.

so if you knokw so much more than me please do explain because apperently all my reasearch i have done isnt good enough for you cus guess what i have done research and none of it has shown i am doing anything that bad, besides having low waterflow, which i am correcting!

 

[Nano Chris]

Nice setup!

 

[manhorsedog]

start here http://www.vividaquariums.com/beginnershome.asp

then http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...something-cycling-breaking-new-reef-tank.html

this http://www.melevsreef.com/overview.htm

to be honest i will always be a novice in saltwater but its easy to see you need some help, i am not the person to give you the step by step just trying to save you money and time

 

[cobra1713]

well first off if you think any of those threads have the start of useful information to a reef tank i would hate to see yours!, there is much more complicated level to keeping a reef tank and i would hate to get into a flamming fight with you, im sure i have done way more research on this topic if that is the kind of research you are using lol! trust me my tank will be fine! you act as if i have corals in freshwater or something lol the tank is fine! there are some MINOR problems which i am in the process of repairing but nothing detrimental to a tank, if you know so much about reef lets see your perfect nano tank?

does anyone else agree that my tank is headed for a certain reef Armageddon?

 

[manhorsedog]

ok thought it over i will try to be more helpful.

this is what i would do
take the two pieces of rock on the bottom left and move them to the top right for a more open feel
take the monticap break in half and glue to side of rock midway up (for shelf appearance)
i would axe the filter you have and get one of these http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewitem.aspx?idproduct=TA2111&productid=TA2111&channelid=FROOG
and do weekly water changes of 2 gallons (really important)

just try to keep things simple and consistent, sorry if i came of wrong before i didnt mean to.

 

[VCReefer26]

great start! i would set up the rock different also. other than that you are on the right track!

 

[cobra1713]

yea i am curing another 10LBs of LR and when thats done im gonna re-do the aquascaping.

i already do biweekly 2 gallon waterchanges.

the filter has no media it is just for flow until i get my powerheads.

and yea im just saying i have done plenty of research and the tank is very healthy so i didnt see were you were coming from sorry if i was a little hasty with my replies too.

 

[manhorsedog]

wow i almost want to take my post back
and to say this post http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...something-cycling-breaking-new-reef-tank.html has no good info is upserd .


next time you say "well thats it folks, sorry about horrible photography, but tell me what ya'll thinks" you should add that you dont take constructive criticism well.

hope your tank works out

 

[crazedpuffer]

Looking good, just so you know, your clown should be a female by now, since unpaired clowns go from genderless-->male-->female

 

[cobra1713]

those threads all just say how to cycle a tank, thats not really a hard thing, its usefull to a person that doesnt know how to cycle a tank but they dont really have much to do with a reef tank specifically is all i was saying, that same info applies to a FOWLR tank, its good starter info but i was sating its not the threads on specific care of SPS corals, or lighting needs of corals or stuff like that. and i do take criticism well if its good. if i think the critiscm holds value and isnt just a person saying my tank is horrible without any real information.

anybody feel free to destroy my design flaws if you can back up your claims and tell me exactly how i should fix them not just saying "your tank sucks" and its gonna fail.

sorry....anyway

hey crazed (im presuming your the same crazedpuffer from TPF, i doubt there would be two crazed puffers lol)

i was under the impression they stayed male if they didnt pair, well thats good i can tell her she is actually a female then lol

 

[MTV]

Yeah, clown will eventually turn female if left by herself in there.

I can ID most of your coral, starting from top to bottom:
Zoanthids,
Zoanthids,
Ricordea sp.
Monti,
Looks like a gorgonia of some sort, quite difficult to tell from that photo though,
Fluffy corallimorph,
Superman morph,
What looks like a frag of a Pink Bird's nest or Stylophora sp.
Star polyps Pachyclavularia sp.
Button polyps, not sure of the species or even if that ID is correct, but its a start.

Just a point that nobody has mentioned, your lights will be OK for most of your corals, but are hugely inadequate for the monti and stylo. At the minimum you should be looking at T5HO for those corals. In the mean time, move them as close to the lights as is physically possible, and place an order for new lights. Otherwise, hand them on to someone who can look after them as they will brown out and die without enough light.

The little starfish are most likely coralline algae predators, I know someone who had them and they breed like mad. Eventually they eat coral as well.

Also, what are you doing for filtration? I would recommend replacing the one you have with a HOB protein skimmer to make it a little easier to maintain the tank.

Other than that, this is a pretty little tank! It shows a lot of promise and its nice to see someone who has done plenty of research. It will be particularly nice when you get some flow happening in there as well!

 

[Reef Ruler]

IMO it wasnt that responible or smart to jump ahead and get all of those corals without even a powerhead...just that alone suggests that enough research wasnt done because almost anything I read when just starting out stressed how important it was to have good flow throughout the tank and eliminate dead spots.

 

[cobra1713]

the powerhead was delayed on mail order and the one i had in the tank took a $hit!

and i wasnt planning on getting that many corals to start but an acquaintance of mines was getting rid of his tank so i took what i could and bought his LR which had a few of the corals attached.

thanks MTV for the ID's i had thought thats what they were but didnt want to look stupid, i am looking for a good price on a CPR bakpak 2 and a used t5 unit but unless i can find one really cheap i am just gonna sell the monti and birdsnest, cus i would rather just stick with the softies and maybe the lower light LPS and SPS then have to upgrade lighting unless i can find a good used unit.

filtration right now is just very frequent small water changes, im changeing about 1 to 2 gallons every 4 days and will decrease that once i get a skimmer on it.

i had someone else say i can add a harlequin shrimp to munch on the starfish? but then would have to supplement feeding and prob return the shrimp once all the stars are gone?

but thanks for the advice on the lighting with the monti cap, when i finish curing my live rock i will re-arrange my rock and try and get them closer to the light.

 

[xility]

Tank is looking good. Everything seems to be happy and open. Your fish looks really clean and healthy. Some nice, unique zoanthids, too!

The snails you have are nassarius snails. They are a great clean up crew for extra food, but they don't eat algae. I would add a few nerite or cerith snails to eat some of the brown algae on the glass and sand. When you get more flow, it should help too.

I also wouldn't worry about the little stars. At that size, they just eat algae. Mine didn't start eating corals until they got about 1/2" in size. They are kinda cute, imo. In a 10 gallon, the harlequin shrimp won't have enough food unless you have LOTS of little stars.

I would remove that little soft coral growing right under the monti cap. When it grows, and fast, it will sting your cap.

When you do your rock work, try not to lean the rock against the glass. It is much easier to clean the tank and it will leave open space for your fish to swim. It also makes it less likely the rock will crack or scratch the glass.

 

[phenom5]

I can ID most of your coral, starting from top to bottom:
Zoanthids,
Zoanthids,
Ricordea sp.
Monti,
Looks like a gorgonia of some sort, quite difficult to tell from that photo though,
Fluffy corallimorph,
Superman morph,
What looks like a frag of a Pink Bird's nest or Stylophora sp.
Star polyps Pachyclavularia sp.
Button polyps, not sure of the species or even if that ID is correct, but its a start.

I agree with most of your ID's except...

The first mushroom, my first thought was Discoma, but looking at it again I'm thinking maybe Yuma.

The gorgonia looks more like some sort of softie to me...hard to tell.

And the birdsnest/ stylo looks more like a montipora digitata.

i am looking for a good price on a CPR bakpak 2 and a used t5 unit but unless i can find one really cheap i am just gonna sell the monti and birdsnest, cus i would rather just stick with the softies and maybe the lower light LPS and SPS then have to upgrade lighting unless i can find a good used unit.

Well, montipora are probably the most tolerent to lower light out of any SPS. The key to a decent T5 setup are the individual parabolic reflector. You could get away with the Nova Extreme probably, but anything less then that and I'd be very careful about SPS. I'd say it goes like this...Nova Extreme < TEK < ATI or Icecap SLR setup. Anything with a single, flat reflector is about the same as PC's. And a good quality T5 setup doesn't come cheap...new or used unfortunately. And your tank does not have anywhere near enough water movement for SPS as it is...I know you've got a powerhead on the way. Not trying to completely bag on your tank, just giving you my thoughts. Your definitly off to a good start.

wow i almost want to take my post back
and to say this post http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...-reef-tank.html has no good info is upserd .

I don't see anything wrong with that post...it may not be relevent, the the info is sound.

 

[MTV]

my first thought was Discoma, but looking at it again I'm thinking maybe Yuma.

Yeah I'm pretty sure its a yuma, I've got a few in my tank and we tend not to get florida's here (in Aus).

The gorgonia looks more like some sort of softie to me...hard to tell.

Emphasis on 'hard to tell', I was thinking gorg purely based on the shape of the polyps, but who knows.

You might be right on that digitata as well.

 

[cobra1713]

Thanks for the ID's, if i get a chance i am gonna mess around with a couple other lens configurations and see if i can get some better shots, biggest thing would be tank the time and actually clean the outside of the glass lol,

but yea i doubt i will move up to T5 lighting unless i get a good deal so i will watch this monti and at the first sign that it isnt growing well i will find a better home for it, i know a guy that prob has the perfect tank for it.

with the new ID's are there any other info i should know, none of them are like NPS or anything right? or need special supplement levels.