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.

[brandeewyne]

-muahaha- .. it is with great honor that i play even a small role in the creation of this nano!! i can't wait to watch it grow, amy .. it's going to be gorgeous!

i know how difficult the past few months have been on you and Jon and think this little corner of ocean is going to bring you both vast amounts of joy and comfort. your reef is far from gone .. rather, it's been gifted to tanks across the state to continue growing (as well as right there with you!)

in my eyes, my friend, this tank is already a winner for you and yours .. no matter how you frag it!

[HappyCoral]

Are you going automatic with the feeding, if NPS? I think some really nice Scleronepthyias are in order. Maybe some Dendronepthyias also.

[BK's Reef]

nice tank it looks kinda like mine lol

[Sir Patrick]

I am so glad you are keeping a salt tank running!!

That 17 gallon is pretty sweet!

[kileysmama]

Thanks, all. The reefing community is always so supportive.

Jon and I did some surfing and chatting tonight, and although I'd dearly love to pursue a full nps (azooxanthellate) reef, it's just not in the cards for us. The monetary investment in feeds alone are staggering. Add in equipment and automation needed to feed the corals and inverts correctly and we're way beyond our comfort zone. It's a bummer. So, no dendronepthia or scleronepthia for us, Christian!

I'm envisioning a mixed reef that features some nps lps corals, such as sun corals, dendros, etc. I can do so much that will make a serious impact with so little in this tank, it's super encouraging. It's been a while since I aquascaped a nano, but I'm up to the challenge!

The other thing we've been discussing is possibly having Jon build another tank this size, but adding a partition to one of the short ends. That would effectively make this tank an all in one with an overflow to help deal with surface scum. We could also position most of the equipment in that area as well.

[Hindered]

I really like this tank's shape and how clean it looks! The clowns look really nice too! Good luck with all the NPS, I'll follow this one [:

[kileysmama]

A bit of shopping today at the lfs (read: work, lol), and a lucky snag from another reefer brings me to this update.

I added:
3 head red/green blasto merletti frag
green pinwheel palys
Scroll coral frag
frogspawn frag
palthyoa grandis frag
feather duster
brittle star

AND!!!!

vortech mp10

I'll have to go through and assign values, take pics of my receipt later this week to see where I stand as far as $ go. I'm thinking that although I am a manager at an lfs, I should use the normal retail amt, not my discounted amt in the totals.

New pic or three, still being rearranged daily at this point!

Jon getting the vortech situated


Left side


Right side

[mhowe9]

Looks good Amy! I am glad that you are keeping a tank.

[kileysmama]

A few more pictures and one more tiny addition. I have plans to remove a few things, and hopefully replace them with others. I'm over my livestock $ limit here already. Amazing how that happens so fast! Too bad my store isn't a sponsor, I'd have a much better bottom line, lol!