bennerkla's 5.5 AGA Nano Reef Diary (Lots of PICS!!!)

[bennerkla]

banditfl- great idea!!! I'm going to go try to find one right now. Thanks.

Sugar Magnolia- Thanks for hoping for me. I haven't tried them yet, I'm scared to. The turbos have been doing a great job, almost all the HA on the main rock is gone, and as long as it doesn't grow, I'll be able to try some corals soon once I know it's not coming back. I did a 1 gallon WC today so that'll help it out.

We'll have to wait and see!

 

[bennerkla]

Update 7-19-05

Hey guys. Today I decided to make some changes. You remember my moonlights I got, that I was so hot on before? Well, I decided I'd rather have 2 small bulbs on opposite ends rather than 6 bulbs all clumped together. That tubing of the moonlights were a pain to try to mount anyway. So my friend Doug from Central Ohio Reef Aquarist hooked up two of these bulbs with flexible tubing that I could position on the left and right sides of my canopy. I'm excited for this because it won't give an overpowering glow, yet provide evenly spaced moonlighting over my tank. Doug also built me a 90 degree acrylic elbow piece that I'm going to put my float switch on. I'm going to try to find a film canister to act as a snail guard. I'm hoping to pick this stuff up today, and when I do I'll post pictures.

My hair algae is NOT coming back on my main rocks, and my nitrates are now closer to 2.5 than 12.5. This means that hopefully I'll put my 2 sexy shrimp and cleaner shrimp in soon!!

Cya guys,

Ben

 

[bennerkla]

One of my turbos isn't doing his job....

He loves the flow that he gets right there. That area is so clean I'd eat dinner off of it. I put him on the rock to eat the algae, and he just goes right back up there. Kind of cool, I hate to admit that this snail has a great personality, but he does! The other one is doing a great job at cleaning the rocks. Turns out the whiteness is just the base rock, I need coraline ASAP.

I'm going on a college visit for the next 2 days, I'll post Friday when I have my new moonlights and snail guard. Until then, take care.

Cya,

Ben

 

[weimluv1]

OK wow! Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve been readin this post for almost an hour! Namely because Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve been thinking about starting a 5.5g nano. Very informative. Thank you.

NICE tank!

A few things if I can add from some experience with hair algae.

1. Nassarius snails are purely scavengers, and Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m fairly certain they wonââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t touch anything except detritus and leftovers from feeding. This probably explains why you never see them, since youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢re not feeding anything. They will do a good job of cleaning up left over food and such, and stirring the sand, but cerith snails eat hair algae AND stir the sand bed up. SO I would get more of those, although, they are VERY slow. Nerite snails Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve had good luck with, although you donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t hear much about them. Very underestimated, IMO. They are a KNOWN grazer of all types of algae, including cyano (red slime). I think you should get 5 Nerite snails and 5 cerith snails, along with your turbos. Once the algae in your tank gets under control, add some of the snails to your 75g.

2. The pictures I see of youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢re chaeto in your ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“fuge, itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s huge! Chaeto will definitely grow faster if you cut that beast in half and give it room to grow. If it has no room to grow, it will not compete with your other algae in the tank. Cut it into a fourth and keep the Ã"šÃ‚¼ of it, trust me it will grow faster. Chaetomorpha normally isnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t confined into small areas; like most of us put it in. It needs lots of flow (which you have already), and lots of room.

3. About exchanging your 75g tank water for your nano water. I think I read somewhere in your post youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve only done a few water changes in that tank a year. Fine for a fish only tank with live rock, not so much if you have a nano coral tank. I think you should keep up with the fresh saltwater changes.

Thatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s about all I have for advice.

Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m really glad I caught this thread, it will help me out immensely with my nano setup!

 

[Buckeye ME]

In the future if you need inverts I highly recommend Phishybusiness. I got my cleaning crew there for my 15g and the prices compare to the best you will find anywhere online...and it's right in Columbus (Worthington technically). I got my liverock there too. Good stuff.

 

[bennerkla]

weimluv1- Thanks for the comments! I hate to throw this chaeto away, so I have some of it on eBay right now and posted in the reefcentral forums. If anyone in the Columbus area wants this stuff, it's free + shipping.

I ordered yesterday 7 ceriths and 1 astrea for $7.50. I think I will have this under control, I just want to make sure it doesn't keep growing back. Thanks for the advice on the chaeto, that really helps.

Keep coming back here, just to look at page 1 compared to page 10-12 is a riot! So much has changed, I'm sure yours will too.

Buckeye ME- GO BUCKS Ginn is going to be soo sick this year so will Troy Smith. Anyway, don't you have to have an appointement for phishy business or something? If so, I can't find a phone number on his website. Any info?

Thanks.

That's about all for today, I'll post back tomorrow.

Cya,

Ben

 

[Buckeye ME]

There should be a number on the website, I think it's in the bottom left corner. If you email him you can usually set up a time to go on a Saturday afternoon, that's the only time he does walk-ins, but you have to call for directions.

PS - It's my final year so I have tickets to almost every game. All the home, at PSU and Michigan, and definitely plan on the bowl trip (Rose Bowl would be nice). I might go to Indiana too, heard it's easy to scalp cheap tickets there.

 

[bennerkla]

Cool, I'll go to Phishy sometime soon. I'm getting corals sometime next week/weekend so I'm excited.

I was wondering, could I put reflection sheets inside my canopy, covering all the wood? Would that work? If so, where could I buy some?

I really wish I would have gotten a 70 watt MH but oh well. I still have a pretty rediculous amount of lighting for my little 5.5 gallon. I'll post more pics later, hopefully new zoos soon! My HA seems to be all gone, way to go turbos!

Cya,

Ben

 

[atram]

Very nice tank I don't think reflective material inside the hood would be neccesary, if you have a reflector it should do the job. I made my reflector out of a piece of aluminum that I bought at Lowes, I shaped it and polished it to a bright shine with aluminum polish. I does a good job of projecting the light down into the tank.

Al

 

[bennerkla]

Thanks. I think I'm going to buy my cleaner shrimp today, could I feed the tank with some slow sinking morsals every couple of days? My old cleaner shrimp loved them, and the Nassarius could finish up the rest. Do you think my refugium would take care of any excess Phosphates caused by the food?

Thanks guys, I'm still at odds whether or not to take out that right rock. I know that I'm going to be getting frags on rocks and I don't know if it'll get to cramped.

 

[atram]

What kind of cleaner shrimp are you getting? Your refugium should be up to the task, just prune your chaeto periodically as it grows and keep an eye on algae build up on your glass. Its a good indicator that the nutrients are getting up there.

 

[bennerkla]

I was going to get a scarlet cleaner, but I'm going to just get a coral today instead.

I received an ViaAqua 180 and a ViaAqua 80 in the mail today, which one should I use??

Thanks.

 

[Cluckr7]

Hey, Very nice tank btw.

First off, what high school do you go to? I went to TW back in the day (couple years ago), now go to OSU.

Second, what LFS do you go to? Phisybusiness isn't actually an LFS, its a run-out-of-home mailorder service, but I hear that Serdar may let you come to his home and buy stuff if you contact him first (don't quote me on that). I hear his livestock is very, very good. He knows his stuff.

Third, this may be irrelevent since you are replacing your moonlights, but those were FishBowl Aquatic Moonlights right? Just an FYI, I've read that you should keep them from the heat because the silicon seals around the shield melt when they get hot. They use very intense (relatively) LEDs (I think like 11000 mcd) at a 60 degree angle. I just made my own moonlights out of the LCLED 30 degree angle moonlights you are going to use, and believe me, the 60 degree is better. My 30 degree LEDS are very good and bright, but are very "spotlight-ish", even over a 24 inch deep tank, and I wish I can go back and do it with 60 degree bulbs. It's a small point, but just my advice from experience. Also, if you are going to scrap the FishBowl moonlights anyway and you are interested in a DIY project to dim the LEDs, and you would be willing to do a little soldering and math ;-) (trust me it's not hard), I could tell you how to make those LEDs dimmer. Just let me know if you're interested in this, so I don't waste energy typing it.

But your tank is very nice and very practical. The gears are cranking in my head, and I think it's inevitable that I get another tank, and it'll probably be a little nano like yours. Props!

 

[bennerkla]

Cluckr7 Thanks for the comments! I go to Granville High School, 25 miles east of Columbus. I go to Aquatic Specialties, in Newark, OH, and he sells very, very high quality stuff! I've bought soo many fish from him, including 2 tangs, and none have ever had ick. Also I recently bought a Gonipora and an Anenome from him, and both are doing terrific. I've looked at Aquarium Adventure and theirs is horrible and overpriced.

I'm looking at Phishy Business to get my inverts for my nano. I'll call him soon.

About the moonlights, I'm hoping that the degree won't matter because I'm aiming them up at my reflector. I HATE the "spotlight" effect and think it is very unnatural. The moonlight that I have now are good, but I'm anal about being "neat", and they don't really fit into the canopy to well. There isn't a way I can permanently install them in my hood. The 2 LED bulbs would look much more "clean" inside my canopy, and wouldn't be so bright that I can't sleep at night. My goal here is to just barely be able to see the livestock at night, so it doesn't keep them up and stress them out.

When I get the LED's installed, I'll see if I want them dimmed or not. I appreciate the offer!

My goal for this tank is to be as clean and "apple computer like" as possible. You know how Apple computers are just so simple and so damn cool looking? That is because less is more, and I'm trying to incorporate that into my fish tank, if that makes any sense.

I will get the LED's sometime this weekend, and I'll post pics with my new powerhead as well. Until then, cya guys!

Ben

 

[bennerkla]

Hey guys. I changed the aquascaping today; I removed the right rock and added some smaller ones, I can easily change them back, so let me know which one you like. I changed because I like the cave and allows more room for corals, I think. Right now I only have the moonlight pictures; I'll upload the regular pictures in a few hours. This new digital camera takes much better pictures. The reason why I didn't get a cleaner shrimp is because I see a lot of dead material from the rocks in the back of the tank. I think I'm going to take all the rocks out and syphin the sand bed one good time.

I'm going to try to get over to dougs house today to get the LED's and snail guard. I'll post later on today with a full tank shot as well.

Cya guys,

Ben

 

[ItsDave]

i like the moon lights. Is that the single leds or the strip?
Dave

 

[bennerkla]

That is the strip. I'm trying to install the 2 singles right now, not having much luck. I'll post pictures of my setup here in a bit!

Cya Dave.

 

[bennerkla]

Hey guys. I went over to my friend Doug's house today to get the LED's, float swith setup, and corals. I completely switched everything around, so let me know what you think!

Old setup this morning...

Now this one....

 

[bennerkla]

 

[ninjafish]

Ben,
Looking good bro. It has been awesome watching the birth of this sweet little tank! Keep it up.

- Chad