Guidedbyechoes' Nano Reef Journal

guidedbyechoes

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Hi I've been poking around this side of the forum for a while. I've been wanting a nanoreef for about 12 years now and finally got a break. This will be a tale of triumph and tragedy. One night I was having difficulties sleeping and I decided to check craigslist(a classified website in the states) I came across a complete setup(29 gal us) with 4 fish that had been going for 8 years. It also included a power head and a cansiter filter and the best part 40 pounds of live rock. All for the whopping price of 200 dollars. I did the math and the rock included was about 10 per pound. So that around 400 in rock give or take. It even has some nice figi rock in it. Not sure about all of it.

Anyway I email the guy as soon as I wake up the next morning. He gets back to me saying another guy is coming over to look at it and if he doesn't show or take it its mine. I figure the guy is a moron not to take it or the tank is a mess. Well long story short, the guy doesn't show. The owner emails me back and says I can come that night and pick it up its mine and he doesn't want to worry with it all weekend as he is being to pack for his move to New York.

The fish included a black and white percula, a rare butterfly fish that I would like ID'd, a coral beauty and an engineer goby. They are in great condition. I load up and get home start unpacking everything and prepare to start mixing the salt water. But this is where things start to go downhill. He forgot to include it, as did I. What I thought was the salt was not salt. After I realized this, it was too late and all the stores were closed that sold marine salt. The only thing I could do is fill the tank with some water and try to keep them in bags floating. I had to be at work before the stores opened so I called in a favor from my mom and she got the salt but by that time everything but the goby had ceased to be.

Being that she knew very little about the hobby I had to get her to mix the water for me and acclimatize the goby into the water. She couldn't do it properly because she had to get ready for work. By some miracle he lived. I then promptly returned him to the lfs. In hindsight I wish I could have done that in the first place. As most of the would not fit future plans and I did not care for such a drab colored clown. I far prefer the false clowns. After returning the fish I came home and started placing all of the live rock in. I knew there would be die off so I didnt get any other livestock while I was there which was a wise decision.


After getting it all in and setting up two powerheads (one he included and a cheaper one I had for my freshwater tank)mine started to make noises like a rock was in the impeller, I went to grab it and as soon as I touched the water I got a nice shock. I hit the power and the power strip, unplugged it and binned it. I then notice his rio wasn't doing anything, so I grasped it by the cord this time just in case the other power head wasnt the shocking culprit. I was shocked again. I saw airbubbles coming out of the compartment where the cord met the device and it went in the bin as well. Currently its has two heaters but I'm not sure if they are both working as the water is about 72 degrees.

SO my plans so far will be to get 2 new heaters. One for the main and one for mixing/ backup and 2 new power heads. I also plan to upgrade the lighting(It has a 15 watt t8. I have a power compact illuminare that needs new bulls and will be ready to go.) and scrape out the purple algae thats in there as it doesn't appear to be coraline. I also have to get all the macro algae he had floating around in it out. So after all that fun stuff I am going to let it cycle for a month after I upgrade everything except the lighting before I even think about adding any inverts.

Sorry for the poor grammar and punctuation. It is late or early depending on perspective. No pics of the tank yet, but after being put through all this there is no way I can give up. I'm gonna take it slow, get some test kits, not cut corners and have fun. I have a 55 gallon african cichlid tank to worry with as well. So no danger of rushing to fill it with my first cool pretty fish. Thanks for reading if you made it this far and cheers

Josh
 
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As morbid as it may seem that is the butterfly after it died and I can't figure out what kind it is. I want to get another when I do a tank upgrade. Just wish it would have made it.
 
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It's not very exciting so far. I moved some rock around to let more flow through. I still need to pick up some more power heads but as unsure what rating I should get so far. I have a 30 gal I want to set up as a sump but still would need an overflow box as it would be a huge chore to tear it apart and drill it.
 
Sounds like you've had some bad luck mate. But good on you for having a go, trying to put it right. It sounds like your going in the right direction.

As for what size powerhead you need. You need to aim for 20x turn over pet hour eg a 100L tank would need a 2000lph powerhead to get 20x t/o but better to have more than 1 ph so you get more random flow.

Why not start a journel in the marine chit chat section as it's always active and you'll get tons and tons of advice.

Keep up the good work mate!
 
Forgot to say mate, theirs a new post in the pinned section of reef chit chat. Personal one to one tutoring for newbies. This could be invaluable as the tutor would concentrate on your tank alone and would have a very good idea of your setup and what you hope to achieve.
 
Today I added 2 power heads. The place I went to only had two brands marineland which I have used for all of my freshwater tanks with no issues what so ever and the other is a store brand. If either dies I will replace them. I get 350 gph from the marineland and 250 from the other. Then I also have a canister that puts out 180 gph I'm going to use the canister as a return for my sump. Since space is not a luxury I will be using a decent sized plastic bin. I want to get a skimmer and whatever else besides the heaters that will go in there. The tank is much clearer and pics will follow. I still need to go and get test kits but haven't yet as I am in no hurry to put anything in until. I have the skimmer and upgraded lights.
 
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As morbid as it may seem that is the butterfly after it died and I can't figure out what kind it is. I want to get another when I do a tank upgrade. Just wish it would have made it.

That looks like a sailfin tang to me mate.

Get some pics up of the setup.


I thought it looked quite similar to a Tahitian Butterflyfish. I need to find the cord for my camera as my cell phones ability to take pics are fairly poor.

I did get a test kit set today.

Ph- 8.2
Alk 3.4
N02 0 pp
N03 0 pp
Amonia .25 pp
 
I have picked out the fish I want but it will be a while since 2 brake lines went out on my car and the repairs are not cheap.

I have chosen amphiprion ocellaris, Gramma loreto, Amblygobius rainfordi and finally Pterosynchiropus splendidus.

I am trying to narrow the coral down but that seems to be the hardest part as terms of lighting and flow are ambiguous.
 
Thus far the ones I am quite liking are the lavender mushroom, toadstool leather, frogspawn, zoas, pipe organ, and kenya tree. I have 4 wpg of compact florescent. I also found a guy on local classifed that has a ton of corals I have never heard of before I need to check up on. Probably mostly sps from him but so far I haven't seen too many to warrant dealing with metal halide.
 

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