FarmerTy Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Looking great! What made you decide to go barebottom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 Looking great! What made you decide to go barebottom? Thank you! I have been looking at nanos that were bare bottom and I thought they had the "modern" simplistic look. I deciding to take a turn in stocking, going from trying to keep as many species as possible to just keeping a few that I really like. I thought going bare bottom would help showcase corals on or near the bottom of the tank. The background is white and now the floor will be white too (until algae takes over). I just haven't be happy with the overall look of the tank so I've been changing some things up to try and get it looking nicer. These little nanos don't give you much room to work with so you have to make every square inch the best it can be. Thanks for checking out my tank 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 I have a soft spot for nanos... I ran one for 5 years before jumping into the bigger tanks. The fun part is the ease of just redecorating the tank at your leisure so I understand the desire to change things up. It's looking great in there. The towers definitely give it some presence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted December 30, 2014 Author Share Posted December 30, 2014 I have a soft spot for nanos... I ran one for 5 years before jumping into the bigger tanks. The fun part is the ease of just redecorating the tank at your leisure so I understand the desire to change things up. It's looking great in there. The towers definitely give it some presence. That's awesome. Hopefully in 5 years I'll know enough to stop making stupid mistakes. I've been at this tank for a year and I'm still screwing up lol. I will agree with you on redecorating. It's nice! I've already changed the look of the tank a few times in the last month or so. The detritus really builds up on the bottom of the tank in certain areas and I haven't even finished getting rid of all the sand. Because of this I'm even thinking of going back to a very shallow sand bed and using black sand. I'll be able to keep the sand clean since the tank is so small and I think the black will highlight the white on the tank even more. The towers have been my nemesis. I love the way they look as far as using them to give a sense of depth to the tank but placing corals in places where they get enough light, flow, etc. has been a nightmare. I'm thinking of leaving them by and only keeping corals that fit the bill. So far I've done fine with the bullet proof rhodactis and the sides of the towers may just become a carpet of multi-colored shrooms. They have some really pretty morphs out there too. Thanks again for checking out my tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 I like the idea of the black sand. I've always liked the look of black sand in nanos. I've had the same problem with towers. They are great accent pieces but they do limit your coral placement depending on the structure of the tower. My favorite aquascape in my old nano was a horseshoe shape with it slowly sloping higher towards the middle. It had an appearance very similar to a cove and gave me ample room for coral placement and viewability. Don't worry about screwing up. I've been keeping reef tanks for over a decade now and I still screw up all the time. To err is human... forgive yourself NanoReeferKy... I heard it divine. [emoji6] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 I like the idea of the black sand. I've always liked the look of black sand in nanos. I've had the same problem with towers. They are great accent pieces but they do limit your coral placement depending on the structure of the tower. My favorite aquascape in my old nano was a horseshoe shape with it slowly sloping higher towards the middle. It had an appearance very similar to a cove and gave me ample room for coral placement and viewability. Don't worry about screwing up. I've been keeping reef tanks for over a decade now and I still screw up all the time. To err is human... forgive yourself NanoReeferKy... I heard it divine. [emoji6] I shall forgive thyself lol. Ahhh I call the aquascape you describe... wait for it... "the horseshoe." That was actually my original plan but decided to do the collumns instead. I'm thinking I should have done the horseshoe but oh well what's done is done and I will just have to make it work with coral selection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 Picked up a new acan this weekend. It looked really yellow in the store and I hope it stays the same in my tank once it settles in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 I like the idea of the black sand. I've always liked the look of black sand in nanos. I've had the same problem with towers. They are great accent pieces but they do limit your coral placement depending on the structure of the tower. My favorite aquascape in my old nano was a horseshoe shape with it slowly sloping higher towards the middle. It had an appearance very similar to a cove and gave me ample room for coral placement and viewability. Don't worry about screwing up. I've been keeping reef tanks for over a decade now and I still screw up all the time. To err is human... forgive yourself NanoReeferKy... I heard it divine. [emoji6] I shall forgive thyself lol. Ahhh I call the aquascape you describe... wait for it... "the horseshoe." That was actually my original plan but decided to do the collumns instead. I'm thinking I should have done the horseshoe but oh well what's done is done and I will just have to make it work with coral selection.The "horseshoe"... genius! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 6, 2015 Author Share Posted January 6, 2015 Finished mounting the light to make room for probe holders and dosing tube holders. Here is the mount I ordered off amazon and the extension pieces needed to make it fit. It tilts left/right and front/back. I can also swing the entire arm to the side if needed. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WXIFS4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032HHXVM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 Ok so ditched the barebootom look and went back to a shallow sandbed. This time I used indo-pacific black by carib sea. This stuff looks awesome. The grain size is on the larger size which I think is interesting. After putting the sand in the tank the water cleared after about 3 hours. I didn't even rinse the sand. I used a solo cup to carefully lower the sand to the bottom of the tank before dumping it out and spreading it around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Makes the corals really pop, doesn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 That looks great! I kept black sand in my nanos too and always liked it. Just be careful with your glass cleaner though, the sand is attracted to the magnet and will get stuck all over it if you get close to the sand bed. Very annoying. Eventually I would cut a thin piece of magic eraser to put in between the glass and glass cleaner, if that makes sense, and it helped quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Makes the corals really pop, doesn't it? Yes it does. I love it. That looks great! I kept black sand in my nanos too and always liked it. Just be careful with your glass cleaner though, the sand is attracted to the magnet and will get stuck all over it if you get close to the sand bed. Very annoying. Eventually I would cut a thin piece of magic eraser to put in between the glass and glass cleaner, if that makes sense, and it helped quite a bit. Thanks for the tip I'll watch out for that. You put the magic eraser in the tank? You weren't worried they put any chemicals on it? Or did you put the eraser on the dry side to make the magnetism weaker? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Inside the tank, between the glass and magnet. The original doesn't have any chemicals/soap. I'd cut a very thin slice with a razor blade. It cleans the glass really well and helps keep the sand off, and if some sand gets stuck, I could see it better and get it off right away. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Nice. Thanks for the tip. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 More work completed on the tank I had a long 3 day weekend and I made the most of it. First up is a new DIY LED fuge light. The cost of materials came to about $50. Still a little expensive for a fuge light but compared to the $100 IM fuge light I figure it's a steal. Plus I really like the pinkish light given off by "grow lights." I used 2 luxion 3W red LEDs, 1 luxion 3W blue LED, 80 degree lense, Rapid LED heat sink, Luxdrive driver with included potentiometer and a 12V 1A power supply. The light is fully dimable with the attached potentiometer. I wanted to be able to dim or brighten the light to hit the sweet spot on growing chaeto or to just keep me from roasting them. This thing is really bright. I believe this could light a large fuge at full strength but I have not tested this. Unfortunately the light is bleeding through the back wall of the display still so I will have to address that seperately. Light is controlled at the outlet by timer. It would have been nice to have this conected to the Apex LED module but that isn't in the funds right now (maybe later ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 The first day of the weekend was fun getting to work with electronics. The second day was a little more exciting because it will keep me from having to dose everyday. I installed a Jaebo automatic doser. I used the Jaebo doser, acrylic dosing pump shelf, 2 acrylic liquid containers, bubble magnus dosing tube holder and black aquarium air tubing. The shelf and the liquid containers were shipped in from china and they took forever to ship. A little over 2 weeks later they arrived and I couldn't be more happy with them. The containers are marked on the front to monitor liquid changes and they have a hinged lid to make refilling them easy. The shelf is pretty sturdy and I really like the clear acrylic theme I have going. Next I will have to find a clear acrylic freshwater container for the ATO. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Let us know what you think about that Jaebo doser after you've had a chance to break it in. It'll be a nice, cheap dosing alternative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 That's looking pretty slick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Watch the ends of those tubes closely. If you get splashback onto the tip from the water below the tips clog pretty easily. I learned that one the hard way I'm not sure from the picture, but it looks like you are only an inch or so from the water surface? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Let us know what you think about that Jaebo doser after you've had a chance to break it in. It'll be a nice, cheap dosing alternative. So far so good but I'll let you know. It was cheap, $100 on amazon cheap. I'm keeping the levels in the liquid storage low in case the pump goes awol. That's looking pretty slick. Thank you! Watch the ends of those tubes closely. If you get splashback onto the tip from the water below the tips clog pretty easily. I learned that one the hard way I'm not sure from the picture, but it looks like you are only an inch or so from the water surface? Thanks for the info! I didn't think about it clogging up. I'm sure that would cause all sorts of problems. I'll be sure to raise the tubes up a little more. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 I added a new little girl (I believe) to the tank about 2 weeks ago. I have her completely trained to frozen already which really wasn't that large of a task. She is awesome and I love the fish's personality. An employee at RCA told me ghost shrimp will live in the sump for 2 weeks. This is completely wrong, they were dead within days. I bought 12 shrimp from him thinking I could feed the lion 1 - 2 per day and then start switching to frozen. The employee and I had a long conversation about this and he was the one who recomended this plan. Well.... the shrimp died within days and completely nuked the tank. I haven't technically lost any coral all the way but they have looked terrible for 2 weeks and are barely showing signs of recovery. I believe I will lose one polyp of my frogspawn since the skeleton is already showing. The rainbow monti frag I spent $40 on because of it's awesome colors, now is a pale brown/green. It is very frustrating to honestly need advise from someone who appears to be knowledgeable in the industry to only have their advise nuke the tank you have been working over a year on. I understand needing to make a sale but I had already committed to buying the fish, I just needed advise on how to feed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Tank is doing better now and Jake with RCA has been in contact with me in regards to the issue. I'll post up some pictures when I have a chance. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Updates coming to the build thread. First up. I was able to install some cabinets to store the fish supplies .... er .... laundry supplies in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Picked up a couple frags from Vu. He totally hooked it up! Hard to tell on the picture but they do have the green on them. I'm going to give them a week before moving them up. I have been hacking away at rhodactis mushrooms. These corals are the best at propogating. Just cut into halfs or fourths and your good to go. If you don't get a clean cut when removing the foot it will slowly grow into a new mushroom. Awesome. These guys are going to cover the ousides of the columns where the light is really dim. I got to see a couple of Vu's mushrooms while I was there. They are going to be sweet when they are all grown up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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