kileysmama's 17 gal rimless nano

[kileysmama]

It's been a crazy year here at our house. My husband is off work on medical disability, and we finally made the difficult decision to take down our big reef. With a 205 gallon display, and around 600 gallons total volume at one time, I had a hard time even imagining a nano at that point. I didn't plan on keeping any salt at all, initially.

We sold off livestock piece by piece, and fragged out all the colonies for the Lansing swap. I planned to take everything leftover to the lfs and break down the 205 at that point. Jon also ended up building some glass frag tanks to sell at the swap. I had offered to house Brandee's black & white clowns at the swap so she didn't have to worry about them not being in a tank. She and her dad, Hugh, overheard me joking to Jon, "Well, if the frag tanks don't sell, I guess I can set up a nano!" At the end of the swap, they gave me the last four clowns and told me to put them in my new nano. LOL, at that point, how was I supposed to argue?

So I saved one of each of the favorite corals I had left, and brought the rest to the lfs as planned. The first two nights, everything went back into the 205. I had it running with just the closed loop though, and was a bit concerned about water quality with fish in there since all the rock was down in the sump no longer connected to that tank. Thus, my nano build began.

I'm glad I had the presence of mind to do this part after a few adult beverages!


This is the tank that Jon built. It's 17 gallons, dimensions are 28x12x12.


I used rock, sand and water from the 205. Right now, the tank is only running with a 15 watt heater, a small no name power head, and an old pc fixture that we used two tanks ago for frags. It's woefully small for this application, but better than nothing!




Plans for equipment on this tank include a Tunze Nano Skimmer 9002, a Tunze 6015 powerhead, and an as yet undetermined light. Jon's thinking LED's. We are also considering turning this into a nonphotosynthetic tank. As of right now, the current coral stock is as follows.

thick purple gorgonian frag
pink gorgonian frag
blue chalice frag
green eyed chalice frag
yellow rim zoa frag
orange rim zoa frag
purple death paly frag
small maze brain frag
tiny purple rhodactis mushroom
tiny green rhodactis mushroom
tiny green with orange spots mushroom
rust metallic mushroom
purple birdsnest frag
orange monti digi frag
green pavona frag
faded out flower petal cap frag
green sinularia frag
toadstool leather frag
half dead green fungia plate that is sprouting babies

The only fish right now are the four clowns. I'm helping a co-worker set up her first sw tank, and she's taking two of the clowns in a week or so. I'm still pretty up in the air about a final stocking plan. Right now I'm just appreciating the fact that I still have a tank.




EDIT - Adding livestock list/costs

Acro frag $5
Acro frag $5
Milli frag $5
thick purple gorgonian frag $20
frogspawn (1 head) $19.99
scroll coral $12.99
blasto merletti $14.99
neon caulastrea (1 tiny bailout polyp) $9.99
Acan echinata frag $5
Acan Echinata frag $5
Acan lord frag $5
Acan lord frag $5
Favia frag $5
Favia frag $5
Favia frag $5
Bubble coral bailout polyp $10
orange rim zoa frag $3
purple death paly frag $15
yellow center zoas $18
radioactive dragon eye zoas $15
Palythoa grandis $14.99
clove polyp frag $5
small maze brain frag $12.50
tiny purple rhodactis mushroom $10
tiny green rhodactis mushroom $10
tiny green with orange spots mushroom $10 (mia right now, let loose of it's rock)
rust metallic mushroom $10
tiny pink mushroom $10
red/blue spots mushroom $5
purple birdsnest frag $20
orange monti digi frag $10
green pavona frag $40
faded out flower petal cap frag $30
green sinularia frag $25
half dead green fungia plate that is sprouting babies $40
feather duster $14.99
tiny yellow cucumber with macro algae $16.99

Everything listed in pink is definitely going to the lfs or be listed for sale

Current total $ 433.33 (not including items listed in pink)

Guess I'm over.