5.5 Gallon nano!

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alexmir

Guest
Well the wife and i decided that a non-photosynthetic tank wasnt a good idea right now, because the tank would take up so much more time to take care of than my normal reef tank. And with all of the cost that would go into it i dont even know if it would be a success and i could lose hunderds of dollars worth of coral.
SO.......I got to set up the tiny nano again. This time no fish, it will be strictly inverts. It has been cycling and curing for 2 weeks now, and all readings are perfect! (took water from DT, bought cured LR so not cycle, i just waited a week to make sure.)
So, i have 3 sexy shrimp, a bumblebee shrimp, and a porcelain crab on their way, and will be here in the morning!!! I can wait. I have some rics, nice zoa frags, and various low light coral frags that will be going in here. I will get some pics up in a little bit, and will get a pic of the shipment that is coming in. I am really excited about the bumblebee shrimp, because no store in houston has ever had one, and i have never seen one talked about on here. So stand by for pics............
 
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alexmir

Guest
heres a few
The lights are 13 watt power compacts, they have a white and an actinic bulb in each light. Their hang on and theres 2 of them.
The filter is a little hang on filter for a 10 gallon and theres one small porer head and a small stealth heater in the tank. I am workking on getting a smaller power head.
I am trying to find a way to put a small fuge in, or hang on the tank. I had made a custom one, but it took up too much room in the tank. I CANT WAIT FOR MY ORDER TOMORROW!!!

 
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alexmir

Guest
Thanks, theres a good amount of holes between the rocks, you just cant tell in the pic. Theres a nice little over hang part too. About 6lbs of rock in here so far. Cant wait to move ofer the frags, and for my order to come tomorrow! I am also thinking i may want a pom pom crab, but i am a little worried that it might fight with the sexy shrimp or the little bumblebee shrimp. WIll just have to see.
I almost ordered a little black and yellow squat lobster, but i coudnt find enough information on them. It looked cool though. I am going to hook up with one of my local reefer friends and get some baby brittle starfish! hopefully lots! I want this tank FULL of little inverts
 
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alexmir

Guest
oolictic sand. Its not live because i dont think buying live sand makes much of a difference, then i just took some oolictic sand from my fuge that is live, and put it in there.

(i love the oolictic sand, its much finer, and all of the grains are the same size, no chunks! )
 
blazin2k6

blazin2k6

Active Member
WOW LOOKS SWEEEEEET. Looks like enough light too. Oh hold on. You said 13 watts. and 5.5 gallon tank. That isnt even 3 watts a gallon :( Maybe you should get a 24 watt light ? That would be awesome. Would be about 4 watts a gallon. And i think it would help maybe with the growth of the zoas as well :) Excellent looking rockwork btw. And how do you keep your powerhead from blowing that fine sand all over ? i Remember when i had a 10 gallon like that and an extra powerhead it would blow everything everywhere, i had to take it out. And where are your frags ? They should be in there already.

Cant wait to see this Bumblebee shrimp and black&yellow squat lobster. Sounds like some awesome specimens. Bout to go google em now. With your bumblebee shrimp you need some bumblebee zoanthids. HAHA. Well just stopping by since i seen you had a new thread. hey i just got some awesome acan lords today and posted some pics on my jbj nano thread :) Check em out. Gonna feed em like crazy and hopefully they grow fast and i can start to frag em. Only 5 heads now. But i think within a month i'll have 8 . HAHAH. well sorry im steady talking.
 
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alexmir

Guest
Theres 2 of the 13 watt lights. So that is 26 watt
i might have said i only had one, dont know, but there are two!

I have the powerhead aiming up, and on half power, so that theres a gentle current flowing, took a while to get it from blowing the sand around. I am excited about the bumble bee shrimp. I skipped on the squat lobster though, i couldnt find enough info on them. Awesome little guy though. I will get pics of the shrimps and crab tomorrow morning, and will be adding the zoas, rics, and other coral over the weekend
 
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alexmir

Guest
Well the shipment came in(i went to my work (fedex)and picked it up at 7:00 i was so excited!!)

Well there was loads of drama in the shipment, meaning a sexy shrimp died, the porcelain crab had a LOT of babies in the bag, and the little bumblebee shrimp has stolen my heart from the sexy shrimp. HE IS ADORABLE, only like half an inch long, he is the cutest shrimp i have ever seen.

I am not exactly sure what i will do with the porcelain crab babies, i may try to keep them in a seperate container for a week or two and see if i can keep any alive? mabye give them a little phyto plankton and see if any make it. I might as well, i would hate to flush them.
Enjoy the pics of my bumblebee


 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Bumble bee shrimp are cool. Did you know they are also called striped harlequin shrimp and will feed on startfish, although they do not require them like regular harlequin?
 
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alexmir

Guest
yeah, i did a whole lot of reading on them before i decided to get one. There are a few different species of bumblebee shrimp, and in one of the articles i read there is only one of the species that eats starfish, but none of them are specifically starfish,like harlequins. IT sure is cute!
 
coral keeper

coral keeper

Active Member
Can you take a few pictures of the baby porcelain crabs? Porcelain crabs are filter feeders, so they need phytoplankton to survive.
 
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alexmir

Guest
I will try and get a pic of the baby porcelain crabs, their REALLY small though, about like a grain of sand, mabye slightly larger with a long string n each of them. Heres some more pics of the tank for now.
 
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alexmir

Guest
The baby porcelain crabs are WAY too small to get a good pic of them. I transfered them over to a cup, and i will see if anything happens.
 
coral keeper

coral keeper

Active Member
Don't put them in a cup! They will most likely die in the cup. Put them in the 5 gallon tank. Put some sponge over the intake of all the pumps and put the baby's in the 5 gallon and let them live in the rock, just feed the tank every other day with phyto.
 
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alexmir

Guest
Well i added some coral yesterday, the tank is looking really nice! Another sexy shrimp died through the night. I guess they dont ship well, so in trying to beat the high cost of sexy shrimp in the stores, i ended u ppaying 60$ for one sexy shrimp, a porcelain crab, and the very cool bumblebee shrimp. I wont be ordering sensitive inverts off line anymore............
Pics of the full tank to come
 
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