Flipperfin
New member
Hello everyone! I'm Filip, a Danish medstudent currently slaughtering my limited wallet for this newfound hobby
I recently started off with the aquarium hobby (6 months ago with a freshwater nano), and oh my what a passion this has sparked
My little FW nano is now pretty much where I want it to be, and i simply cannot curb my desire for a reef tank addition anymore!
Heres a pic of my first fw tank for those interested
So i persuaded my GF and I've gone ahead and started my first saltwater tank, a 12g long that fits into a piece of furniture, which I hope one day can be home to some fish, softies, mushrooms and perhaps a few easy lps.
Heres a shot of the tank from right after the initial setup:
To set it up I used live sand, around 12 pounds of LR, where 3 pounds of it was taken from an established tank. I bought 20 gals of saltwater from a LFS that tapped it from their coral frag tank, and I used this to start up with (salt for mixing has not arrived yet..).
For equipment i bought a tunze 9001 skimmer (have not started it up yet), 100w heater, 250 gph powerhead, and micmol air 22W led light and an auto aqua ATO unit. I intend to use RO/DI water from another LFS that has given me a good price. There is no sump.
I have bought an API drop testset. The cycle began 2,5 weeks ago and the last 1,5 weeks the tests have shown the following:
ammonia 0-0,25 ppm (hard to tell, depending on light etc)
nitrites 0
nitrates 20-40 ppm
There is a lot of animal life blooming on the rock that came from an established tank.. What i first feared was an aptasia outbreak turned out to be lots of small feather worms that are now reaching bigger sizes,.. thank god!
Also theres quite a bit of colonista snails (25-40 pieces), which seem to be thriving.
To my astonishment I have not seen any diatoms or algae bloom yet?? Not sure why - maybe the collonistas are just that efficient? Ive slowly increased the light the past 1,5 weeks.
The only growth I've seen is some small red hairs with the thickness of beard stubble... tried to take a picture below, perhaps someone might be able to ID despite the bad photo:
And also there are small hair threads that kinda look like dust?
So, what do you guys think? I would love to add some additional CUC soon, perhaps a cleaner shrimp, and 1-2 other snails and hermits.. But then again I dont want to do it too soon, and not sure if they would just starve since theres no visible algae?.. I guess some WC could also help reduce nitrates?
I recently started off with the aquarium hobby (6 months ago with a freshwater nano), and oh my what a passion this has sparked
My little FW nano is now pretty much where I want it to be, and i simply cannot curb my desire for a reef tank addition anymore!
Heres a pic of my first fw tank for those interested
So i persuaded my GF and I've gone ahead and started my first saltwater tank, a 12g long that fits into a piece of furniture, which I hope one day can be home to some fish, softies, mushrooms and perhaps a few easy lps.
Heres a shot of the tank from right after the initial setup:
To set it up I used live sand, around 12 pounds of LR, where 3 pounds of it was taken from an established tank. I bought 20 gals of saltwater from a LFS that tapped it from their coral frag tank, and I used this to start up with (salt for mixing has not arrived yet..).
For equipment i bought a tunze 9001 skimmer (have not started it up yet), 100w heater, 250 gph powerhead, and micmol air 22W led light and an auto aqua ATO unit. I intend to use RO/DI water from another LFS that has given me a good price. There is no sump.
I have bought an API drop testset. The cycle began 2,5 weeks ago and the last 1,5 weeks the tests have shown the following:
ammonia 0-0,25 ppm (hard to tell, depending on light etc)
nitrites 0
nitrates 20-40 ppm
There is a lot of animal life blooming on the rock that came from an established tank.. What i first feared was an aptasia outbreak turned out to be lots of small feather worms that are now reaching bigger sizes,.. thank god!
Also theres quite a bit of colonista snails (25-40 pieces), which seem to be thriving. To my astonishment I have not seen any diatoms or algae bloom yet?? Not sure why - maybe the collonistas are just that efficient? Ive slowly increased the light the past 1,5 weeks.
The only growth I've seen is some small red hairs with the thickness of beard stubble... tried to take a picture below, perhaps someone might be able to ID despite the bad photo:
And also there are small hair threads that kinda look like dust?
So, what do you guys think? I would love to add some additional CUC soon, perhaps a cleaner shrimp, and 1-2 other snails and hermits.. But then again I dont want to do it too soon, and not sure if they would just starve since theres no visible algae?.. I guess some WC could also help reduce nitrates?
