Dakar's - Nano Build - 10g SPS Nano project log

Just some quick updated pics....

http://www.captivereefing.com/weblog...246547f831.jpg

The Monti Cap showing tremendous growth (last pic above was 45 days ago)
http://www.captivereefing.com/weblog...246c02ef3b.jpg

A newer addition (moved from the 180g)
http://www.captivereefing.com/weblog...247e74d300.jpg

And the lastest addition, a small frag of Pink Fox Coral
http://www.captivereefing.com/weblog...2472c2c802.jpg

And the final design for the sump and refuge
http://www.captivereefing.com/weblog...2475c7d120.jpg

Fedex just showed up with some belated Valentine's Day prizes from Angel via YourReef.com :)

Blue Monitpora Danae
Pink Millipora
and I *think* the other is a Red or Orange Monti Cap. (tough to tell right now, and she won't let me see the invoice)

Angel takes such good care of me :D :D :D

Acclimating now....may be able to get some pics late this evening.

right on!!! you better get some pics up!!!!

Ask and thou shalt receive...

Not quite fully polyped out but I couldn't wait to share... LOL

The Danae sure is hard to get a good pic of, the bright blue polyps under the 14K halide might have something to do with it... really sharp critter.. The millipora is a little slow to polyp out, a little upset that she got handled and glued to a plug yet.
Now what I originally though was a capricornis frag... Bah! Must have taken offense to being mis-ID'd and polyped out as soon as he hit the tank.... Montipora Mollis! (aka Morning Star) Talk about treasures 8)

Enough rambling...

Very nice frags Dakar,Let that pink Mille get blasted by your halide.IME,aquacultured A.millepora is one of the hardiest Acro's i've kept.They definately like strong light too.
Those Monti's are way cool,I have a frag that looks very similiar to your"Morning Star".
From what I've heard,these 2 Monti's aren't the fast growers like your M.caps and M.digitata are.With the growth your getting already,I'm sure they'll grow nice for you.

Thanks David... But the Mollis and Danae can take all the time they want to grow...provided they stay healthy. Day 3+ now and they are showing no signs of being stressed at all. The Milli is right in a focal point of that little halide so she should be happy. They are really cool to look at. Think I'm becoming a monti *****, because I want more, more, MORE of them.

A dozen or so more critters like this and I'll be a happy camper. Coral sitting a bunch of frags for a buddy while he's moving house, so I added a small piece of Galaxia to the tank as well.... sure hope a piece of that doesn't 'fall off' and start a new colony before he's set back up :p

Ok now I'm worried! I don't have a cool sump or great lighting I have a simple set up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by butterfly_babe4200

Ok now I'm worried! I don't have a cool sump or great lighting I have a simple set up.

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This was pretty much a creation from the junk pile, more like a collection of parts from a few people's junk pile they were willing to let me rummage though.
The whole setup, and keeping SPS in a 10g is 100% experimental!

A nano or any tank for that matter can be as simple or as complicated as they owner wants it to be, I went simple and cheap, so far just lucky the whole thing hasn't crashed.

So keep plugging away! The whole idea behind this is to spark some ideas and HAVING FUN!

For a number of reasons I changed out the 10g for a 25g tall. For all the efforts involved the bare bottom would have worked out well, however the need for more nutrient export was more than the little fuge could handle and required too frequent water changes to keep nitrates below 10ppm.

Micro bubbles were driving me completely crazy, it wasn't the skimmer's fault, it was a simple matter of water moving through the sump/refuge too quickly for any air to have a chance to escape. No wanting to sacrifice any flow to make it go away the easiest control was to add more water, the higher the level of water in the sump the less microbubbles hit the display, but allowed no room for a power outage. So the larger tank was needed.

Since the sump was completely exposed running a lit macro fuge was going to be a bit unsightly, so enter the 25g tall and cabinet, a deep sandbed to help with nutrient export and I can light up the refuge for macros to support further exportation.

I drilled the 25 in the same fashion as the 10g was, built a glass horizontal overflow... for all intents and purposes the tank is set up the same as it started. The return pump is now pushing against an extra 10" or so head pressure so the flow is around 450gph through the sump, no more microbubbles in the display! To compensate for the increased water volume I added 2 Seio 620's, on you can see pictured on the right and the other is in the lower left hand corner (yeah the cord needs some camouflage). All said and done turnover is around 1700gph though the 25g display, so long as the lower powerhead stays where I want it no sandstorms!

The LFS where I grabbed the new sand from was hosed up that day or something, grabbed two 30lb bags of the larger particle (1-2mm type) aragonite sand and a bag a Agri-Live of the same type. Turns out they were mislabeled, ended up with a bag of fine and a bag of course sand... no biggy, the fine on the bottom and the course on top (with the supposed live stuff mixed in we'll see how that works out). 70 lbs of sand gave me a good 5" sandbed. Now I can add a couple of smaller fish again, yellow headed jawfish and bring my yellow watchman over to the nano.

Lighting.... anyone that knows how I do things.... 70w halide over a 25g = NO-WAY! While it's *okay* for the moment, plenty of light is penetrating the depths, but I'm building a new suspended fixture for her that will support a 250w Iwasaki and a pair of overdriven 24" 460nm T5's That should turn on the sun for them.

The little air driven skimmer got a new limewood airstone yesterday as well, and is still happily chugging along, I'm truly impressed with it's performance thus far.

I'll get some updated pics of the whole deal here shortly. But this will give you an idea of how little it's changed.

Well I finally got off my duff long enough to downsize the canopy that was on our 29g planted tank to fit the 25 tall... and setup a 250w Iwasaki metal halide (6500K) over her. Now she's got growing power! The saki lights up the tank like crazy. looks nice and crisp but not overly blindingly bright, courtesy of the Advance H37 ballast, the halide burns closer to 7600K so there is no yellowing of the light. Next week I'll get around to adding the T5's for actinic lighting.

Pics to follow tommorow.