Phishcrazee's Nano Tank Build

[AJ :)]

Loving your tank in so many ways.

[phishcrazee]

Loving your tank is so many ways.

Aww, thanks!

[Badfish]

I really like all the different macro,usually I think too much takes away from a tank and makes it look uncared for. But not yours, great job aquascaping all of it.

[phishcrazee]

I really like all the different macro,usually I think too much takes away from a tank and makes it look uncared for. But not yours, great job aquascaping all of it.

Yes! I know what you mean, and I don't think having a bunch of plants in your tank is a reason it should be messy looking It is getting a bit challenging with some things growing faster than others, some not liking where I put them etc.; very much a work in progress. Need to totally remove the nepthea, as the gracilaria is taking it over from one side and the anemone is annoying it from the other

[phishcrazee]

Time for an update!

Got a little skunk cleaner shrimp for the tank. The kids (and I) like watching him, and I like having them around for the fish if they should need him. He's only about 2", but has already moulted once.......




Not sure what's up with the anemone, but I have to think it's not happy or was not happy, as it has moved 2x in the last month, each time a little further away from the brighter light. At first I thought it was a flow issue and maybe that was part of it. It was hitting the flow square on after the first move, so I thought it liked that better. It's now off to the left side of where it was, next to the glass and between a rock. I moved the LED pendant up further too, as I had it closer when I had the lid on more, so, so far so good. The anemone has been in its spot for ~ a week now, REALLY hoping it stays put this time! Each time it's moved, I've had to re-arrange things so it was either not touching it or so a plant could get light etc. That's really getting old though I did decide to remove the nepthea, as it just seemed PO'd with the anemone's antics, so that is gone now and back into my 75g. The LED's are a new thing for me and even the manufacturer was unsure where exactly the LED should be for a LTA, so will just have to keep playing with it until the anemone settles down and seems "happy" again.



First move. The second move will put it on the other side of the rock to its left. Excuse the microbubbles, another issue I'm working on


The macros seem to be doing well, growing, some slowly, other more quickly, some seem to be just maintaining.

Red gracilaria and c. barbata


Codium. Love the fuzzy soft outer hairs on this. The snails also seem to love it, as you can see this one grazing on some.


Botrocladia (red grapes) and codium. Have also had some clumping valonia at the base of the bot., not sure why, but I did remove them.


The violet dream is looking really nice, wish it was a fast grower, but I'll take what I can get!


More in next post...........

[phishcrazee]

The purple sea rod did not ship well, at least that's what we (GCE and I) thought the issue with it was. A day or so after adding it to the tank, some of its tissue started sloughing off. All in all, it lost approximately 40% of its tissue. It was a 3 day ship from Florida to Iowa and they just do not do well with high nitrates for any length of time, so I'm thinking that was it, as I can barely maintain enough nitrate in this tank to keep the macros growing Luckily, it seems to be making a good come back. I can see tissue re-growing daily from what was left intact, extending over the bare rods that have lost tissue. This is a photosynthetic gorgonian; it does seem to be doing well under the LEDs and liking the current too.

See where the tissue has been lost, bare "rods". Where the tissue survived, growth is occurring, yay!


The Neon toadstool is making a nice recovery after its major fragging. New polyps are starting to come out now along the edge where I trimmed and it seems to be extending its polyps more as time goes on.



The yellow finger gorgonian is maybe my favorite non-plant thing in the tank I think its growing too, so that makes me really happy. I've been adding 1/4 tsp of Reef Nutrition's Phyto Feast 2x a day and it really seems to be thriving on it. This one is a non-photosynthetic gorgonian, so it needs to be fed on a regular basis. I placed a small piece of live rock under it so it could be seen more, as it really is a focal point when you look at the tank.

Here it is with polyps out under actinic type lighting


Here it is with polyps in, reminds me of a giraffe's neck I added a couple frags of some sort of meh zoas, not sure I will keep them in there, but wanted to see how they looked on the plateau there. Looks like some hair algae (which I think grew on the rock before it went "dry") is starting to annoy me, so we'll see.



Thought I would include this, as I know everyone likes a "Please ID this creature" picture

First saw just one of these on one of the snails shell. Then there were 2, now the snails shell is basically covered! At first I was worried it was some sort of snail parasite, but the snail seems oblivious and in good health, despite the shell hitchhikers, in fact I see shell growth......I have a couple ideas of what they are, but anyone want to ID these for me?!

The base looks sponge-like with a small circle of white iridescent hairs at the top of the spongy ball, aligned in a small circle, with a small hole inside the hair circle going into the spongey material.




Finally, a full tank shot of what the tank looks like right now. You can see where the anemone is now too. Added a blue mushroom to the tree-like rock.

I've been having issues with microbubbles from time to time. It seems to be worst right after a water change or when I change the carbon......REALLY hate them! Right now they seem to be at a minimum.......any suggestions are appreciated! Everything I've found about them online really doesn't point to any one thing and there doesn't seem to be any surefire solutions.

[redemer123]

your tank is awesome, and if im not mistaken that is a type of sponge on the snails shell. pretty funny

[thefishgirl]

Your tank is looking fantastic!! I love it!!!

[phishcrazee]

your tank is awesome, and if im not mistaken that is a type of sponge on the snails shell. pretty funny

Your tank is looking fantastic!! I love it!!!

THANK YOU! I'm loving it more and more as it matures I have some blue ochtode and dragon' s tongue (macros) coming this week that I hope will add some more color, excited!

[phishcrazee]

Trying to upload a few pictures to Photobucket this morning, but Photobucket is not cooperating Have been working on finalizing the tank stock list, organizing a bit, but I'll have to wait to post pictures of much of it until Photobucket decides I can upload something

Our local reef club recently purchased PAR meters for all the regions and I was able to borrow my local regions meter to see what sort of PAR I'm getting in the 29g tank. I had uploaded this previously, so I can share the results here. For reference, the 150w LED fixture is ~3" from the waters surface and the tank in approximately 20" from top to bottom. The readings were a little less than what I was hoping for, but not awful either. I may have to save up my $ for an upgrade soon The numbers have a range because I measured with the powerhead operating, so each ripple of water changes the way the light penetrates the water column.