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nano reef tank

6K views 41 replies 11 participants last post by  davesbray 
#1 ·
so after having to shut down my 3ft tank and having sold everything except a few fish my missus decides she want to keep the clowns, so shopping we go, and find this at a bargain price, with stand, heater, filter. only thing we need equipment-wise is a suitable bulb that fits, no worries easily found

in place next to the sofa


light in, salty stuff in, all equipment working fine. running some rowaphos and a small amount of LR rubble in the filter for starters


some sand from my old tank, still full of life but rinsed to remove the cyano


bored of looking at an empty tank, so a nice bit of reef skeleton goes in with some mushies and purple stuff on, also 2 cowries and a blue leg hermit hitched a ride



moved a few of the remaining frags over aswell and treated myself to a nice acan frag



went to pick up some rock from a mate this morning, and he pretty much forced a load of corals on me too (bonus) MORE PICS.....
spent a good few hours scaping and attaching corals and frags this afternoon


ricordia rock - at least 10 big green rics


trumpet just starting to open


xenia - nice change from the normal pink


zoa garden (to be) all still closed atm, when all grown out they will cover a good 6-8inch bit of rock


swim-through/cave area


blue mushie rock, about 6 mushies on so far, hoping they will spread ncie and quickly


and finally view from my spot on the sofa.


not everything has opened up yet, i also have a hammer with about 6 decent size heads (hoping my clowns will host this), fair size bit of GSP which i hope will spread over a big rock, some yellow polyps and a couple of gorgonian frags

i also have 2 flourescent green candy-canes, 2 lobo frags and a war coral that need some love, but reef-paste twice a week should beef them up in no time

more pics will come as everything opens up and the clowns will go in after a few days, a 10-20% water change and an acceptable set of params
 
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#3 ·
erm...about 5 days i think. but you have to realise that the rock i got was never out of heated, salted RO water for more than about 2 minutes at a time meaning there should be no cycling process in the tank. when i went to collect it i took a large food-safe container with about 15ltrs of pre-heated water, and the time it was in the car without a heater was only 90mins tops.

also 75% of the corals/frags were from my old tank so were only out of water less than 10 seconds (from one end of the living room to the other) and sand came out of my previous tank, so absolutely no die off.

normally you would need to cycle the tank for a few weeks
 
#5 ·
thanks
just trying to be patient waiting for all the corals to open up. really want to see the hammerhead open up fully, its really vibrant neon green. when i picked it up this morning the person i got it off had only just turned his lights on so nothing was fully open
 
#11 ·
aqua-one horizon 50 (54ltr) come set up for tropicals so had to source a marine-compatable lamp, luckily enough aqua-one make a nice 18w one with marine white and blue tubes that are adequate for coral growth aswell!!
filter's not all that, but reasonable for a tank this size
 
#20 ·
its the standard fitting that came with the tank, and an aqua-one 18w white/blue flurescent double tube thing LINK

I think the nicest looking Reef Ive ever seen! ... Its given me inspiration and expensive ideas, a trip to the LFS tomorrow is needed me thinks!
wow, thanks :2thumb: to be hoenst i havent spent much on it, tanks/stand/lighting cost about £110, came with filter/heater, sand i used from my old tank, rock and a few corals came from a local guy who was tidying his tank a bit (£55 for about 5kgs of rock and 4 nice corals), already had the clowns and slowly built it up with coral as and when i had the odd £20-£30 spare
 
#23 ·
:blush: im a bit OCD about it all ATM, i spend a good while once a week cleaning all the glass with a toothbrush, this is the only glass cleaning i do as i dont like the look of a mag cleaner attached to the glass all the time, plus using a toothbrush means i dont get any small scratches from sand caught in the cleaner. i also take the glass sliders off the top and give them a good clean too. one thing i think makes a nano look 100x better is a very clean look to it, plus the reflection from shiney glass makes it look slightly bigger!! lol
 
#26 ·
with marine you wanna start reasonabley big - 150-200 ltrs is a good starting point. its easier to keep the water levels spot on if you have a bigger tank...marine fish keeping isnt fish keeping at all, not really even coral keeping. you spent all the time and maintanence keeping the water. there is alot to check on a 1/2 weekly basis and it can be expensive especially if you go new with everything. my advice is spend about 6 weeks researching equipment, tanks and lighting, then another 6 weeks researching water quality, live rock and substrates, then when your happy with all of that spend about 6-8 weeks researching livestock, make a wish list of inverts/fish/corals, then double check that your equipment, tank size and lighting is adequate for your wish list, then go shopping

all this is something i wish i had done. i went and got a 60ltr tank first, over stocked it (luckily with no deaths) and after 6 weeks of setting it up i went and upgraded to a 220ltr tank
 
#27 ·
finally found the high-fin goby i've been after since setting this tank up LINK

picked up his missus this morning (thanks to the LFS for not selling her yesterday) and she is currently acclimatising. saw the male for a brief second this morning at lights on, but he's now hiding again, hopefully the addition of the female will make them both more confident. pics will come after xmas when they have both settled
 
#29 ·
so my dad let me borrow

his 25mm extension tube, so i had to have a play...still getting used to the camera so be nice
, and still cant sit still enough really but hope you likey!!























Canon eos 1100d with the 18-55mm kit lens and 25mm extension tube, ISO1600 and varying exposure times
 
#31 ·
both gobies have found each other and are living under the organ pipe



unfortunately i was too slow with the camera to get a pic of both, so heres the male watching some cyclops float past


also the new pompom has found the old one and are both living together
but not really in a place i can get a pic of them
so all are happy and paired up and new livestock seems happy and settled
 
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