Pete's 10g hodge-podge nano story

[P.Kelly]

This tank started as something I was planning on taking to work. It was setup on the kitchen counter while I was waiting for approval to bring a disaster waiting to happen into the workplace. That was August 12, 2007. I just got approval this last week and now my wife isn't so please with the idea, so I'm going to be setting up another nano for work.



Over the course of a few days I acquired all the hardware for this tank and stocked it with some nice live rock from my main display tank during a reorganization. You can see my much neglected 92 gallon thread here.

Here are the dry goods I have running (he same as what I started with):

• Thermometer - 1.99
• Coralife Light Timer - Free
• 10g Glass Tank - $14.00 (used)
• Aqua Clear 20 Hang on Back Filter - 26.93
• JBJ Submariner 5w UV Sterilizer - 64.64
• Eheim Jager 50w heater - 22.62
• Current 80w PC 20" light - 50.00 (used)

For a grand total of $180.18 in dry goods.

I then added coral from my main display, and small acquisitions here and there. I was planning on just using this tank as a quarantine for coral frags until I brought it to work. Anyway, the approval didn't come and I kept waiting and people started to tell me that they really liked the way the tank looked, so I figured what the heck, I'll get a fish for it while I wait.

Over the course of the last month I've added the following livestock. I don't plan on adding anything else, but who knows:

• Yellow Watchman Goby - 15.07
• Yellow Clown Goby - 4.99
• A pair of Neon Cleaner Gobies - $20.00
• Emerald Crab - free
• Two turbo snails - free
• Three blue hermit crabs - free
• Stomatella snails - free
• Tiny serpent star
• Peppermint Shrimp - 6.00

For a grand total of $36.06 in livestock. My camera is a Canon PowerShot A620 and I can't seem to figure out how to get decent pictures, of anything, especially small livestock.

Now, on to the coral. I've taken pictures of most everything in the tank, although the quality of my pictures are a bit questionable. Generally speaking from the top left to the bottom right:
[list=1][*]Pink Pulsing Xena - fragged from my 92g[*]Candy Cane - $5.00[*]Kenya Tree - free (who pays for this stuff?)[*]Unknown (Pagoda?) - $20 in raffle tickets[*]Blue Snowflake Polyps - $18.00[*]Turquoise Zoas - $10.00[*]Yellow Polyps - Traded for[*]Frogspawn - free[*]Pipe Organ - ???[*]Purple Mushroom Rock - moved from my 92g[*]Pagoda Rock - Moved from my 92g[*]Green Centered Clove Polyps - $6.00[*]Red Zoas - Moved from my 92g[*]Ricordia - Moved from my 92g[*]Pavona - Fragged from my 92g[*]Toadstool - $5.00[*]Featherduster Worm - $12.00[*]Pink Palys - $10.00[*]Spotted Mushrooms - Traded for[*]Pipe Organ - $5.00[*]Zoa Rock - $7.00[*]Hairy Mushroom - Traded for[/list=1]

[buttons buster]

Nice set-up pete.

[buttons buster]

I like your diagram pointing to all of the corals.

[FOSELONE]

wow...nice little tank...

[P.Kelly]

Thanks! I saw someone else do the diagram before for a FTS, so I gave it a shot tonight. I think it turned out pretty good.

Here are a couple of pictures that didn't turn out as sucky as the rest I took tonight:


5. Blue Snowflake Polyps


8. Frogspawn


17. Featherduster Worm


18. Pink Palys


19. Spotted Mushrooms


22. Hairy Mushroom

[P.Kelly]

11. Pagoda Rock


12. Green Centered Clove Polyps


13. Red Zoanthids


14. Ricordia


14. Ricordia


16. Toadstool

[spleify]

Looks awesome, also looks like you're work missed out, and you lucked out. Great job. I love when the wife makes you keep stuff. Mine is funny, she complains about the tank all the time, and harps on me about spending money, but I catch her looking at the tank almost as much as I do.

[Nuuze]

Looking good Pete!

[airinhere]

Looking good man! And I really like how you did the labeling all your corals in the tank. Came out very nice.

[shiveley]

umm, Pete, to answer your question about "who buys" kenya coral ...well, I do...and I bought it from you!

I have to say, I really like your labeled pic...never seen that done before, but damn nice. good job!

[Bri Guy]

Very nice, those "pink palys" look like goochters. But who cares about the name, they look good.

You know you picked the right wife when they tell you its ok to leave that reef on the kitchen counter.

[P.Kelly]

Originally posted by shiveley
umm, Pete, to answer your question about "who buys" kenya coral ...well, I do...and I bought it from you!

Yes, and I bought mine the first time around too. But, you and I, and everyone else with Kenya Trees will never buy them again, because once you have Kenya Trees, you will always have Kenya Trees. They're nice, but grow like weeds. I have to prune them back about every two months.

[P.Kelly]

So, a few more details for those that are interested.

Flow: with the AquaClear 20 and the JBJ Submariner I'm getting about 200 GPH (100 from the AquaClear and 74-132 from the JBJ, depending on the setting).

Right now I'm running the UV Sterilizer at the slower end to fight possible parasites on the new neon gobies I added. More of a precaution than anything, but it is nice to have the UV.

Temp: The tank maintains itself nicely between 78 and 80 degrees with the 80w PC lighting and Eheim Jager heater. Ambient temps in my house currently ranges from about 68-78 degrees F. As the winter progresses and temperature drops we'll have to see how the 50w heater holds up.

Water Parms: I try to perform water changes weekly, but go as much as two weeks between water changes. I change about 2 gallons each time, and use Reef Crystals. I change water on both my main tank and the nano at the same time, using water from my TheFilterGuys Reef+1 system, mixed in a RubberMaid BRUTE for a few hours with a heater for good measure. My nano evaporates about 1/4 to 1/3 a gallon per day as of late.

Salinity: 35ppt or 1.026
pH: 8.0 to 8.4
dKH: 6 to 9
NH4/NO2/NO3: 0
Phosphate: 0 to 0.01
Ca: 320 to 400

In other news, I have a purple spotted mushroom growing a baby, my turquoise zoas are coming back (they seemed to die off after I bought them), I'm growing some green bubble algae (hence the addition of the emerald crab) and the aiptasia keep coming back (so I bought the peppermint shrimp). The peppermint shrimp came from CRS (Coral Reef Shop), and I had the opportunity to watch a rock with aiptasia put into the holding tank and be attacked viciously by some of the shrimp. Of course, I'm waiting to see mine attack the aiptasia, but all in good time.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to remove bubble algae from rock, minimizing the chance of releasing spores into the tank. I have a pagoda rock with bubble algae growing the in calcareous skeletal remains of some of the polyps.

Signing off for the day, more as it develops.

[InLimbo87]

Tank looks fantastic! Nice work

[P.Kelly]

I had to do a little maintenance on the big tank tonight, and ended up with a new ricordia yuma for my nano. I have a MONSTER pink/orange yuma in my 92g. It has been creating babies for the last few months, and I was able to detach one from the main rock structure.


Tada! This little guy is just larger than a quarter right now. Captive propagated and very much worth the wait. Hopefully it will acclimate in the new tank over the next day or two and resume its growth.


Here is the parent yuma, from my main tank under very yellow light. It is easily 6"+ in diameter when fully extended.

[buttons buster]

Pete hook me up with a yuma.

Pm me.

[StunnaShadez]

cool tank man. keep the pictures coming!

[P.Kelly]

Money to date - $314.24 + 10% for the stuff I can't remember = $345.66.

I can't really complain, all things considered.

Oh, and 350+ views on my thread in 48 hours.

[P.Kelly]

Checked my dKH and Ca last night. 9 and 300 respectively. Keeping the calcium up has been a bit of a struggle in the nano. I dosed 1ml of Seachem Reef Calcium and will test daily until I get it up to the 400ish range.

On another note, my pink toadstools have closed up again. Hopefully they'll be open when I get home today.

Also, I can't seem to find the peppermint shrimp, and the aiptasia doesn't seem to have been touched yet. I hope he's doing okay. I'm sure I'll find him when I pull a few things out for my next nano.

And finally, I picked up a BioCube 14 in trade for a 15g tall and a 20" coralife 96watt PC light last night, so we're off to the races to build another nano for the office finally. I just concerned that it is a little big for my desk, so if anyone has an 8-10g cube I'd be willing to have a quick conversation about trading.

[P.Kelly]

I've had a few tank changes in the last 3 weeks. The pink toadstools were moved out of the nano into my main display, were they opened back up within a few days.

The peppermint shrimp stays out of sight, but my aiptasia problem is well under control.

The pink yuma is opening up nicely, after transport.

Finally, I took the pagoda out, scraped all the bubble algae of and returned it to the tank, where the emerald crab seems to be doing a moderately decent job of keeping it in check.

Oh, and I have a planaria infestation. I'll be trying some flatworm exit this weekend, if I have the chance.

[rcarlson2442]

Pete. Outstanding job! Thanks for the information as well.

[camlov2]

MARS Swap 3/1/08

I picked up a head of frogspawn (Green base/Purple tip) with your name on it. I just wanted to say thanks, after looking at your pictures I can see that it came from a good home.

Brian

[P.Kelly]

Cool, glad you like it. I'm actually just in the process of breaking down this tank. Too many at home to take care of and this was just supposed to be a frag tank. My new frag tank is a 20g.

[P.Kelly]

No updates in a while, because the tank was torn down in favor of a few projects involving more glass and water.