JustFin's 10G Nano Journal

[JustFin]

[I've been keeping a little online journal for my new nano online, but figured I would post what I have so far here on RC to get some feedback. To view the journal in its original format, just click my little red house. ]


The 10 Gallon Nano Journal
"Official" start date
7-2-05
My tank has officially been running for about 2 1/2 weeks, but now it finally feels started because today I bought the last of my liverock. And I even have my first invertebrate sighting- a small feather duster worm. I know I know, they are so common and no big deal right. Well it was a big deal for me. I must truely be a nerd to get so excited over a worm of all things, but I'm sure many reef keepers can identify the feeling of spotting those first signs of life after starting their systems up.

I'd like to say I have meticulously planned out my new 10G nano, but I would be lieing. I have been planning and doing my research... but the plan was for a much larger tank like a 50G or a 75G with a sump/refugium & a closed loop system. But NOT part of the plan was losing my job at Verizon (lousy bastards!!!) This of course took the wind out of my sails, because as much as I love my tanks, they are a luxury. So on the back burner went all my plans. I now have a new job, but my budget is much tighter. And every time I would try to put money aside for my reef tank, the money would end up being used for more pressing needs.

Finally the saltwater fever was so strong I couldn't take it any longer. I used $60 to buy a 10G glass tank, a bag of aragonite, 2 small packs of Oceanic salt, & 10 gallons of distilled water. I rinsed the sand, mixed the saltwater and started up an Aquaclear filter I already had for water movement. Later that afternoon, I bought 5lbs. of liverock rubble off of ebay for $20. I knew this wouldn't be enough liverock, but I didn't have any more $ to spare, and I wanted to get the cycle started in the tank as soon as possible.

The liverock rubble came 2 days later and went immediately into the tank. I didn't take pictures because there wasn't much to see being just rubble after all. But I was pretty pleased with the amount and color of the coraline algae on the rocks and there were a decent number of baseball-sized pieces.

Now 2 weeks later I just bought 5 larger rocks from my local fish store, bringing my total up to between 10-12lbs. This seems about right for now since I will be adding small pieces of liverock with coral frags. And aesthetically I don't like tanks packed with rock that seem to leave little room for the fish to swim around the tank. I also purchased 2 Microjet 404's for added water movement. I'm hoping this is enough since I don't plan to keep hard corals which need much more flow.

This weekend I will clean the rocks of any loose decaying matter again and try to come up with an aquascape that I feel I can live with for a little while. Wish me luck!

 

[JustFin]

Aquascaping
7-4-05
Well here it is! If you don't like it, well.... TOUGH! I arranged and rearranged these rocks 4 times before I finally came up with something I liked. I first tried making two islands with the rock on either side with a valley in the middle in an attempt to hide the microjets. But you could still see them behind the rock. And the flow wasn't as efficient and I might end up trapping detritus in the back corners. With this current design I atleast hide the aquaclear intake tube somewhat. I wanted to avoid it looking like just a pile of rocks, so hopefully that shelf of rock just right of center breaks it up somewhat.

Now I have to sit back and wait for the liverock to cycle. I'm doing 20% (2gal.) water changes every week to keep the ammonia/nitrite spikes from getting too severe so hopefully more life in the rock is saved. Also, after buying those small packs of Oceanic salt to get things going I have switched to Instant Ocean salt for the water changes because it is more convenient to find & because I have heard too many negative things about Oceanic salt on various reef message boards.

Now I'm off to barbecue and have a couple cold ones, so have a happy 4th of July!

 

[JustFin]

Sightings
7-12-05
My first small creatures are showing up and I'm having fun looking through my magnifying glass and trying to figure out what each new little thing is. Copepods were easy enough to identify. I spotted some very very small "snowflake" creatures on the front glass. A quick search on the reef message boards identified them as hydroids, a stage in the developement of jellyfish. My camera couldn't get a clear shot of them so I borrowed some images I found in my searches.

Hydroids! Not pictures of mine, but this is what they look like.

I can also see what look like amphipods scurring around when the lights are off, but without a moonlight it is hard to see. And I saw a roundish flat creature only a couple millimeters across slowly moving across the LR. As yet I'm not sure if it was a flatworm or a chiton. The best investment we have bought for the tank so far has to be the magnifying glass. It seems like everytime we look closely at the tank we see some new form of life.

 

[coker98]

sounds great i remember when i set up my first 10 gallon and stuff start to show up on the glass and on the rock and i was even more excited when i found that i had brown zoos on my only piece of rock.

 

[JustFin]

i was even more excited when i found that i had brown zoos on my only piece of rock.

heh, yeah, amazing how much more interesting something can be when it is a surprise and free

I wouldn't give brown zoos a second glance in my LFS when there are green, oranges, etc. to buy. But if I had some come in on my LR I would automatically think they were so cool

 

[JustFin]

Let there be lights!
7-17-05
This weekend I ordered my lights! I had to go for power compact flourescent lighting. Everyone on the message boards recommend metal halides, but if I could afford a MH fixture then I could also afford a tank bigger than 10G. Besides, I have no urge to try the more light demanding corals at this time. The zoos, mushrooms, etc. that I have planned for will be just fine under PC's. I had a limit of $100 and right now I just don't have the time to go DIY. After much research I thought the best I could get would be the Coralife 96W Powerquad that was on sale at hellolights.com for $88. But, I did some last minute research before ordering and found out that the 20" Current USA Satellite was on sale at Big Al's for $89. This fixture has two 40W lamps, so it is less watts per gallon than the Coralife would have given me. But the Satellite unit can run each bulb independantly, so you can create dusk/dawn lighting by having the actinic bulb come on shortly before and turn off after the "daylight" bulb. And it also has a built in led "lunar" light, for nightime viewing. These added features made it an easy choice and I can't wait until it arrives. At the moment the tank is lit by an incandescent hood that came with the tank, but I'm using 2 screw-in flourescent light bulbs instead.

All of my "bugs" are multiplying and the 2 hydroids I spotted last week have increased to 60+ on the front glass. I've read that they aren't harmful unless you have baby fish or seahorses, so I'm letting them go for now. My sand and some of the lighter pieces of LR are looking slightly dirty. I'm not sure if this is just detritus build-up or the beginnings of the diatom bloom. I blew it clean as much as possible with a turkey baster so it could be filtered out by the Aquaclear foam pad. With todays water change I replaced the pad with a new one so it doesn't start
contributing to nitrate levels. I also replaced the carbon bag, and I will be trying to change both of these out every 2-3 weeks.

 

[JustFin]

When its good to be a zero
7-23-05
I've tested for ammonia & nitrite and both are reading zero. Time for some corals! I'm picking up 2 frags from a local reefer tomorrow for just $5 each. I'm getting a green hairy mushroom which I've read can make good surrogate hosts for clownfish instead of a hard to keep anemone. Hopefully this will give it plenty of time to get adjusted and established before I add an ocellaris clown in 6 to 8 weeks. The other coral is a pink pulsing xenia. My wife likes xenia everytime we see it at the LFS, and I want her to feel involved in the tank. Plus the pink should add some nice color. I've heard xenia can get out of control, but it seems that is in the tanks of SPS keepers. I'm hoping it won't be able to dominate a tank full of other aggressive softies.

FTS with the new Satellite fixture- both bulbs on & just actinics.

My lights arrived in the middle of the week. Very cool, especially the lunar light. I first set them up using the mounting arms that hold them about 3-4" above the rim of the aquarium. My wife didn't like the look of it, so we purchased a glass canopy and now the lights are sitting on the rim above the glass. This would be fine except the glass has a black rubber hinge that is right in the middle, and I wonder how much of my light it is blocking. I've tried centering the hinge so it is between the two bulbs, but it is still bugging me. I haven't run the lights all day yet, but I will be today to see how much the water temp rises after 8-10 hours of use.

 

[JustFin]

Gettin acclimated
7-24-05
I've learned 2 things this morning.
#1- My wife enjoys saying "hairy mushroom" way too much.
#2- This hobby would be so much easier if I had a friend or family member to learn from. It is one thing to do your research by reading reefkeeping books, magazines, & message boards, but it is another thing entirely to do something in real life that you have only read about. This was my first time trying to acclimate corals, and the whole time I had a mantra in my head, "I hope I'm doing this right. I hope I'm doing this right."

Green/brown mushroom- the green bubble isn't algae but some kind of marble the frag was attached to.

2 pink pom pom xenia looking rather brown & slimy in the bucket.

I used the technique I had seen of using airline tubing to siphon water into the bucket. The tubing had 2 knots tied in it to slow the flow to a trickle/drip. The problem was I didn't know how fast it should be dripping. I started slow, but then the water in the buckets seem to be getting too cold compared to the tank. So I increased the flow hoping that way the water in the bucket would be closer in temp to the main tank. Every now and then I would scoop out roughly 2 cups of water and discard it. When I estimated I had siphoned roughly a gallon into each bucket,
I decided to add the corals.
The whole process lasted about 2 hours.

 

[phenom5]

sounds good, i usually shoot for 1 or 2 drops per second with my acclimation...usually go around an 1 1/2 total...but you can never over acclimate.

hairy mushroom.

 

[JustFin]

hairy mushroom.

very funny

my wife called up her sister this morning just to say that her husband has two worms and a hairy mushroom growing on his "rocks"

my sister-in-law recommended I see a doctor to get a shot of antibiotics as soon as possible

if only they were half as funny as they think they are

 

[ItsDave]

hey im in the same boat as you are...i prob should of bought that satelight light fixture but i went with the 96w quad pc light from coralife. it was the only one the had around here locally....im wondering if i can return it....hmmmm. But yeah you should of seen me when i found a majano anemone growing on one of my pieces of live rock...ive had my tank running for about 2 weeks now...and its a 10 gallon too. so ill be reading up on your thread so keep me informed of anything that comes along.
Thanks
Dave

 

[JustFin]

i prob should of bought that satelight light fixture but i went with the 96w quad pc light from coralife.

The quad still has the advantage of 16 watts over the satellite, which could come in handy if you want more light demanding corals. Doing research I found plenty of reefers very pleased with their coralife quad, that's why I almost got one. But I do like being able to just run the actinics.

Feel free to check in on my thread anytime. I'm going to try to be reliable with the updates- good & bad.

 

[JustFin]

Need more!
7-26-05
Well, the pink xenia looked like it was in rough shape after 24 hours in the tank. But both frags are now pulsing away and are looking better each day.

Pic taken by my wife of the larger of the 2 xenia frags.

The mushroom has also opened up and looks nice and cozy in its nook among the rocks.

My not so good pic of the 'shroom. It has a little more of a light green base than this pic shows.

I didn't know this before going to pick it up, but the seller told me the mushroom had drifted from the main colony & was in a spot where it didn't get much light. It looked faded in their tank, and I almost changed my mind about buying it. But it looks much better now in my 10G where it has all the light to itself. The funny part is since the seller described it as a "large" mushroom I was really surprised when it was only about 2" in diameter. If a clown is going to use this 'shroom as an anemone substitute, either this little guy better start growing fast or start making lots of friends.

I was hoping that getting some corals in the tank would ease my impatience. But seeing them in there only makes me want more.
Luckily my wallet keeps me from filling up the tank too fast.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Luckily my wallet keeps me from filling up the tank too fast.

:thumbsup: This is a good thing! The tank is coming along nicely. What I want to know is how did you make that one pic flash with the lighting? Way cool!

 

[JustFin]

What I want to know is how did you make that one pic flash with the lighting? Way cool!

Thanks! The flashing pic came about because of luck. I don't have a tripod for my digital camera. When I'm taking pictures I rest the camera on top of my box of Instant Ocean salt to help steady it. I took a pic with both lights on. Then I switched off the daylight bulb and took another shot with just actinics. When I downloaded the pics to the computer, I realized that the shots matched exactly. Who needs a tripod when you've got a box o' salt? :lol:

I used a program called Animation Shop that comes with the graphics program Paint Shop Pro to make an animated .gif file of the 2 shots shown in sequence. Because they matched up perfectly it looks like the daylight bulb is flashing on/off.

 

[JustFin]

Janitors needed! Love to eat algae a plus!
8-3-05
Been busy setting up a 75G RR Oceanic tank for my mother, so I'm a little late on my weekly update. My mom saw my tank & decided she wanted one of her own. She supplies the money & I supply the work. I'm sure I will be starting a thread for that tank too eventually. But back to my little nano for now.

First the good news is that both xenia and my shroom are still alive. In fact, when I took some fresh pictures and compared them with the old I could really see the difference just a week had made in their appearance.

Before & Now

Unfortunately, with the increased lighting schedule for the corals the nuisance algae has taken off as well. This wasn't helped by a dumb mistake I made. The sump/refugium that came with my mom's 75 had chaeto in it. It needed to be thinned out so I had the bright idea of putting a small clump in the corner of my nano. As soon as I added it, tons of detritus that I didn't realize was inside the clump was swept by the 2 powerheads all over the tank. The next few days I had a lovely bloom of red cyano on the sand & corners of my tank to show for my "bright idea". I removed as much as possible with a turkey baster and did a 3G water change to try to remove the extra nutrients. If I add chaeto again it will only be if I make a DIY 'fuge out of an Aquaclear.

I made a visit to the LFS today to get some help for the rest of the algae. I purchased 4 Astrea snails & 1 Turbo. Well, when I got home I noticed that one of my Astreas had legs!?

Uh... my 4th astrea snail?

So I now have a hermit crab, but I have no idea what kind. From the picture above, its legs look violet with red bands. Anyone recognize it? After I finally got the snails pried off the walls of the styrofoam container (Geez those things can hold on tight!) I placed them on the largest spots of algae. The turbo is now known as The Turbonator because in no time it mowed through the algae on the right glass panel.

Turbonator & 2 astrea snails.

I still plan on adding some cerith snails for the sandbed. The LFS didn't have any, so that might be part of my first online livestock purchase. Patience always seems to be rewarded in this hobby. So with the algae outbreak, and the new addition of the clean-up crew, I think I will give the tank a few weeks to stabilize before adding anymore inverts or corals.
I recently got a used 29G. So my next step will be to set it up as a quarantine tank so that I can finally get my first fish.

 

[JustFin]

What's new with zoo?
8-24-05
It has been 3 weeks since my last update. Working on the new 75G has taken up most of my hobby time. I was a few days late on my weekly water changes, and I have some lovely spots of cyano to show for my neglect. The Turbonator is also living up to its name, not just by mowing down algae, but also knocking over most of my smaller rocks & the shells my 2 xenia are attached to.

I've never liked the look of the shells the xenia frags came on. So, when I read that xenia tend to move uphill towards the light, I tried placing them next to the sides of larger rocks hoping they would abandon the shells in search of a better spot in the light. It actually seems to be working. Instead of moving just the base like I expected they are also letting their stalk merge into the side of the rock as they abandon the spot on the shell with the ring of superglue.

Xenia "movin' on up"

The reason for this update though is because I picked up my first zoos yesterday! They were called "Deep Forest" zoos by the guy I purchased them from. Not the greatest picture of them below, but the colors are close- Green & brown skirt, blue/violet base, and a peach/pink mouth. I've read of zoo polyps taking quite a long time to open after being relocated, but mine opened fully after less than 24 hours which I'm taking as a really positive sign. There are 7 polyps in all. Hopefully they will be fruitful and multiply.

Awww, aren't they cute!

The last development of significance is that coraline is finally starting to grow on the back glass and filter intake. I don't dose with any supplements and rely on my weekly water changes to keep calcium and trace elements available. So far that seems to be working as far as the coraline is concerned. With no plans to add any hard corals to the tank, I'm fine for now.

I've got purple spots.

Finally, some reference to past updates.
-My hermit is definately the "blue-legged" variety which I've only heard good things about. His legs looked violet when he first arrived but they darkened up to a rich blue and revealed his true identity.
-And remember that green thing in the mushroom picture above that I said wasn't algae and instead was a marble. Well, shows how much I know. 2 weeks ago the mushroom detached from the "green marble". I grabbed it out of the tank and realized that, although it was very firm, it had a little bit of give to it. It felt kind of like a gel capsule like you might take cold medicine as. I held it over the sink and squeezed harder. It popped and green liquid spilled out of it. So it must have been a form of bubble algae, which I have seen before in tank pictures, but never touched. It never occured to me that it would be so hard. Weird.

 

[Cox]

JustFin, I'm a little late on this, but I just read through your post. Hope the 10 gal's coming along OK, I just started one myself about a month ago. I just wanted to comment on your glass cover that you mentioned and the black hinge blocking some of the light. I had the same issue and also didn't like the idea of this blocking the light. You can actually remove this hinge and you will end up with 2 separate pieces. I actually like it better this way anyway, it gives more flexibility compared to having the hinge and the shadow issue is gone. Hope this helps.

 

[JustFin]

You can actually remove this hinge and you will end up with 2 separate pieces. I actually like it better this way anyway, it gives more flexibility compared to having the hinge and the shadow issue is gone. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tip! When I didn't like the shadow I stuck the glass cover in the closet and forgot about it. The light has been sitting over the open top ever since. Of course now the acrylic light cover has a coating of salt/minerals around the outflow of my Aquaclear filter and needs a vinegar soak bad. I just assumed the hinge was siliconed or glued on in someway and didn't even mess with it. I will give it a shot since cleaning glass is a lot easier than cleaning this acrylic cover.

What kind of light are you using over your 10?

 

[Cox]

I'm using the Current USA Orbit 2x40 PC fixture. I'm very happy with it.