Cirrus' 20L At Work Nano Tank Diary

[cirrus]

Just a quick bit about me...I've been a fishkeeper since 1986 as a fish kid, started saltwater in college which culminated in a maintenance service in the late 90s/early 00s where I specialized in reef aquaria primarily and live rock layouts for other companies. Apparently I'm decent at placing things... I'm never happy with it, but people paid me a lot then, so why not? In recent years I've moved a lot, got married, had a kid and now have a job with a lot of free time during the day. Sooo... oh and hubby wanted me to take the 20L and "do something with it" so here we are. There's also a 90 gallon at the house that will be getting revamped into... something... at the end of 2010. We also live in a town with no LFS, only Petsmart and *****, so I'll be relying on online purchases for the most part, something I'm nervous about but all the LFS (even in neighboring large cities) have gone down the tubes something fierce in the past 10 years. And yes, I've thought about opening a shop to combat this horrific injustice... but that would require time outside of work.

The Tank
Right now I've just put water and some aragamax select in it. I've got a penguin tiny filter (no biowheel, just a filter cartridge) on it to help clean things up, but I'm probably going to swap it out at some point. There's a BakPak in storage at the house I think, but I'm not really thrilled with it from the last time I used it, so that's going to be something to look at later on. I have loads of time and access to RO here at work, so water changes are not an issue.
The main issue right now is... I thought I had some nice PCs (lights) in storage, but apparently I sold them and only have my MH light >< It's a 150W if I recall and luckily my office is always cold, so I guess it'll be fine *shifty.* We shall see. I'm trying to do this all on a strict budget and see where that gets me (gotta save money for cruise and tank redo at the end of the year). Everything will be done in stages in theory, but I might speed things up faster if I get bored or extra money.
Lighting
MH with 150W lamp and LED moonlights
Filtration/Equipment
Penguin for now, no biowheel...
Maybe a HOB refugium later on *shrug
Skimmer... BakPak until I decide what I want... suggestions on something small welcome
Live Rock
Contemplating doing about 25 pounds Caribbean... I've always been a Fiji girl, but change is good, right? I want something more branching and lighter weight but not a fortune cost wise.
Corals
No real idea just yet. I like soft corals best (mushrooms and polyps - boring, I know ), but with my lighting I'm really checking all things out. Encrusting corals have always been a favorite, but I may try to do more "peaceful" species. Motion would be appreciated by my assistant that shares this space with me ><
...
Fish/Inverts/Other
Six Line Wrasse
Maybe Catalinas pending temp... or Pink Skunk...or...
Cleaner Shrimp
CUC of some sort
Advice/Suggestions
I guess my issue is I've been around the block in the fish world, so I'm looking for something kinda fun, a bit different (or basic but done in a neat way) and want some ideas on how to do a "cheap" nano, but with my MH... since I'd rather not pay for lighting if I don't have to. Sure I could drop a ton of money on this thing, but where's the fun in that? I don't want a heavy bioload, but was thinking about using this as a grow out tank maybe for something. Not spectacular, I know, but I'm not worried about spectacular. Just something good, nice to look at in my semi-private office, and I can enjoy doting on.
Day One

Super Awesome, Right? *headdesk*

 

[cirrus]

Day Five

Still waiting on live rock I ordered last week. *sigh* Went with Premium Fiji thanks to a random bonus from work woot! Also ordered a Koralia Nano Powerhead which should come on Friday. Other than that, empty tank

 

[nissan577]

i would have gotten a koralia 1 or 2 for amazing flow. the nano is really a narrow flow it doesnt go wide like the others. really nice btw

 

[cirrus]

Well, after entirely too much drama with the rock, it came on Friday. I'm not thrilled, but it worked out fine and I have rock (that's not as nice as I'd hoped). Lesson(s) learned.

nissan: thanks for the comment! It might end up in my powerhead graveyard, but for $18 I thought I'd give it a try. It comes today and might end up in the other tank or a box, we shall see

 

[cirrus]

Time for an update.

Larger Pic
It doesn't look like much, but the coralline is starting to take off in places and overall it looks to be doing well.
Right now I have a 1.5" small TR Maroon Clown. He seems to have some odd swimming issue, but he eats fine, gets around fine and has lived for 2 weeks now without missing a beat. Leave it to me to find one with issues for this small tank. *sigh* If he grows out, I'll move him onward but for now he's in there. Also added a small handful of dwarf hermits and astrea snails to help clean, but I need to just break down and do an online order... the pickings are slim here in town, no doubt. Maybe a trip out of town this weekend... we shall see.
The levels are all looking good. Nitrates dropped back down to 0 over the weekend so now I'm going to have to decide what to do from here. I'm still undecided on a protein skimmer and I think my MH might be too much... maybe *shifty*. Will check out options and hopefully make a plan this week if work doesn't get in the way.
On the powerhead front... I have the Nano in the tank now and with the clownfish's swimming issue it seems to be working well. I bought a 2 and an Evo4 (both in the home tank) and am pretty sure I'll either add a 2 to this tank (since I want 2-3 more Evo4's for the home tank) or another nano... It will depend on what I go with on the protein skimmer as I don't think I'm going to go with high flow corals.
Other than that, thanks for reading and I'll drop in later. Hopefully there will be some corals or something to report on

 

[ecbuddy123]

nice! im going to do a 20 long but i have never done saltwater, i was going to buy a nano cube or those premade tanks but then i thought wats the point, i want to learn how to make the system and i thnk i wont run a skimmer, but urs is looking cool! you thinking of doing a sump or Refruqium (i always murder that word!

) but yeah, want to see your tank, since i too am low on money (yay to allowance!)
Thanks super cool though

 

[cirrus]

OK, another update now that the diatom bloom has subsided for the most part. I'm sure everyone can imagine what that looks like for themselves... right?
So today's pic:

I swapped out the MH with some PCs (FOUND THEM), but after having them up for a week, I'm not loving it. I bought 2 $5 zoa frags last weekend that seem to be liking them, so I'm just going to wait and see for now. Stupid lighting... *sigh*
My iPhone isn't so good at taking these pics with the PCs on though...so that's not really diatoms on the left side, just shadowing for the most part. Might have to bring the Nikon in if I want decent pics now. Grrr.
So I've been seriously stuck on what to do with this tank. I went ahead and converted the home tank back to salt and have been having a blast with it and kind of neglecting this one ideawise. After some seriously debate, I've decided to go with a nano marine planted tank. It should be something different for me and that's what I was hoping for. I'll still stick with some nice zoas/leathers/softies I think to fill in the main part. I still have the "handicapped" maroon clown that's doing great and added a group of snails (mostly Cerith) and some blue legs for clean up issues. They've done a nice job. The first batch of macros is ordered and should be here next week. I'm thinking a clown goby maybe later on if I find one I like.
ecbuddy: I'm not planning a sump or a refugium. No sump since I don't have the ability to put one below/beside the tank due to it sitting on a massive slate topped lab table. No refugium, since well, the whole thing will be one large fuge. I change about 2 gallons a week and still just run the Penguin filter with no bio wheel. I have some mangroves at home that I can put in the back of the power filter with chaeto if I want later.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 10
pH: 8.2
SG: 1.022
Need to test Calcium levels
I'm eyeing some protein skimmers, have an old free BakPak as an option (found that too!), but it might need to be rigged up to work right since a 20L is a hair short for it. It's also bulkier in the tank than I'd like, so I'm sitting on it for now. A Remora Nano or Tunze seem to be catching my eye, but that defeats the purpose of trying to do this inexpensively I suppose. *cough*
Also added a large(r) old Zoo Med Power Sweep that (of course) no longer sweeps to counter the Koralia Nano for more flow.
BTW, the Totoka rock from Saltwaterfish.com is epic awesomeness (its what we put in the 100 gallon at home... not running that one on a tight budget apparently

) in case anyone's debating rock.

 

[cirrus]

Happened to have my DSLR in the car and thought I'd play with it during lunch... the lighting in my office is awful and I'm still not happy about these PCs. The two frags seem to love it, so I'll just sit on it for now.
FTS

Note the bubbling BakPak (turned out to be one of the knockoffs...) on the left. That space is too vertically challenged to even try that skimmer, so I'm running it as a potential refugium. Plants come on Wednesday I think, so I'll see then what I want to do with it. For now I have no desire to get a skimmer on this tank, so I'll just wait.
One of the frags that came out well with the camera. No idea what "color" it is and was very orange under the MH I bought it from... Again, must work on lighting, but not now. In person, the outside is a gold/mustard color, then steel blue, then bright orange in the middle.

The other frag... camera had fits taking it. Red with dark blue centers.

Anyone that cares to ID, have at it. Otherwise, I like calling them zoas *shifty*

 

[ecbuddy123]

ok i got another piece of live rock and two test, Ph, and Nitrite also got it tested at my not so lfs, and the guy said the water paremeters where good so far, which is why i added the other piece of live rock, and i think thats it for live rock for a while and might buy a large piece of base rock to go on the empty corner or see what happens, im going to test later today and give you guys some pics and also a pic of how the test came out

 

[ecbuddy123]

hey how much live or base rock do you have in your tank?