Must it be high tech?

miulloj

miulloj

New Member
Starting a nano 15G High does it have to be high tech?

[hr]
Trying a low cost high impact design. 15 Gallon High with a 150 GPM cheapo power filter, cheapo 75w heater, incandescent hood with 2x13W CF bulbs = 120 watts and crushed oyster shell substrate from the feed store with a little black sand. I have a blue Damsel in there to help cycle and he/she is doing fine. I would like to add the following and was wondering if it is too much or if I can even get away with more. Remember, the goal here is low cost, high color/interest, hardiness, compatibility. Does it really have to be high tech and costly?
1 ea. Peppermint Shrimp- Lysmata wurdemanni / 1/2 "
1 ea. ORA-Aquacultured False Percula Clownfish - Amphiprion ocellaris
1 ea. Strawberry Basslets / 2"
1 ea. Domino Damselfish / 1"
1 ea. Rock Anemone / 3" - 4"
1 ea. Mushroom Florida Green Ricordea / per polyp
1 ea. Electric Flame Scallops / 2" - 3"
1 ea. "5 Free"Hermit Brown Leg Crabs
1 ea. Mushroom Florida Emerald Green Ricordea
3 ea. Nassarius Snails - Vibex 1/2"
Anyone have any experience in this apporach? Just getting started.
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
Mr Damsel's friends have arrived!!! He anxiously awaits their introductions and everyone looks good except Mr. Basslett seems a little undernourished. We must attend to that! This pic is just before their arrival with new broad spectrum BlueMax CF spirals. An after pic to post soon once everyone is happily eating for awhile!!!

 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by miulloj
http:///forum/post/2482927
Starting a nano 15G High does it have to be high tech?

[hr]
Trying a low cost high impact design. 15 Gallon High with a 150 GPM cheapo power filter, cheapo 75w heater, incandescent hood with 2x13W CF bulbs = 120 watts and crushed oyster shell substrate from the feed store with a little black sand. I have a blue Damsel in there to help cycle and he/she is doing fine. I would like to add the following and was wondering if it is too much or if I can even get away with more. Remember, the goal here is low cost, high color/interest, hardiness, compatibility. Does it really have to be high tech and costly?
1 ea. Peppermint Shrimp- Lysmata wurdemanni / 1/2 "
1 ea. ORA-Aquacultured False Percula Clownfish - Amphiprion ocellaris
1 ea. Strawberry Basslets / 2"
1 ea. Domino Damselfish / 1"
1 ea. Rock Anemone / 3" - 4"
1 ea. Mushroom Florida Green Ricordea / per polyp
1 ea. Electric Flame Scallops / 2" - 3"
1 ea. "5 Free"Hermit Brown Leg Crabs
1 ea. Mushroom Florida Emerald Green Ricordea
3 ea. Nassarius Snails - Vibex 1/2"
Anyone have any experience in this apporach? Just getting started.
IMO 4 fish in a 15 gal tank is too many. You going to have a heafty bio load in a tank that size with that many fish. Be prepared for frequent mainanence on it. Secondly would be territorial issues, damsels, clowns and basslets all can be very fiesty and you may encounter issues. Personally I wouldnt use fish to cycle your tank, its stressful and harmful to them. Along with your list of inhabitants you need to add in test kits, good ones calcium, alkalinity, pH, nitrates, and amonia to start. Also get a refractometer for measuring your salinity. Elec flame scallops require frequent spot feedings are tend not to do so well in aquariums the amount of food they require and the bioload from that food tend to create issues, especially in small tanks. Your lighting description is confusing you state 2 13watt CF bulbs that doesnt equate to 120Watts of light. I doubt anything photosynthetic would survive in your tank with 26 watts of CF light.
I would also consider adding a power head in the tank for more circulation, nothing to big, a Koralia Nano power head would be fine.
Welcome...
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
Thanks for the info! It's nice to get some feedback. Oh well, better late than never
Everyone is in there. I guess, Lots O Luck rather than LOL!!! Anyway, to clarify (maybe not the water but your confusion) the lighting is now one 18w (75 equiv.) 1100 lumens 5800K CF on the deep shaded side and a 13w (60 equiv.) of the same type on the sunny-sided/shallower (High Rock) end. There is quite a lot of ambient sunlight and I am hoping for the best.
I get your point on the territorial stuff and I see it already with the two damsels as Mr Blue has been there for several weeks (he did really stellar with the cycle, bright blue and eating voraciously throughout) and bullying the other newbies. Too bad the flame scallop is so big and advertised as a great water filterer (I actually fell for it!). It is an experiment and I hope to see good consistent results even though I may not be going with the status quo at this time, but then how else do we learn? Thanks again, and anyone else?
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Originally Posted by miulloj
http:///forum/post/2496543
but then how else do we learn?
Through the trials and tribulations of others

Way too many fish IMO. It's not to late to return them to your Local Fish Store. It will be cramped for them and will be difficult to maintain water quality which will lead to an eye sore with elevated nutrients that feed nusiance algaes.
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
Originally Posted by earlybird
http:///forum/post/2496548
Through the trials and tribulations of others

Way too many fish IMO. It's not to late to return them to your Local Fish Store. It will be cramped for them and will be difficult to maintain water quality which will lead to an eye sore with elevated nutrients that feed nusiance algaes.

Oops, mail order ( very nice quality ). The local fish stores do a very poor job overall with aquaria and doubly poor with SW.
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by miulloj
http:///forum/post/2496587
Oops, mail order ( very nice quality ). The local fish stores do a very poor job overall with aquaria and doubly poor with SW.
Your lighting is, sorry to say insufficient for corals. I am curious where you got the comparsons to wattage? Was this somthing posted on the packaging? What brand of lighting is it? And the ambient sunlight you are getting will only bring problems. Not saying your corals wont benifit from it, but the natural sun will create more algea than you will know what to do with it will be more of a pain than its worth, IMO.
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
I'm not exactly sure what you are asking but all CF lighting wattages have "replacement" wattage comparisons on the packaging. It refers to the lumens. This might help shed some light on the subject CFligtingFAQ. Above, you are correct as I mis-stated the K factor. These bulbs are actually rated about 5300K not quite like daylight @ 5750K. I like how they cast a more blue color to them, however, all artificial lighting has spikes on a spectrograph and lulls where they are deficient compared to the more even output across like sunlight but then I digress. I am not interested in sharing all the techy stuff here as there is plenty of that to go around on this and similar sites.
Back in the day (some 25+ years ago) with my new Ecology degree in hand and a decade of FWF keeping I designed a stock 55 gal tank with 4 grolux tubes in shop lights drilled for vented cooling like a house is with soffits nowadays. They fit nicely right on the glass top. I grew lots of algae in this SW setup on the back glass only and liked the look along with the knowledge that nitrification was being stabilized some by the absorption of the final Nitrates. This was well before you would find anyone doing so in the literature much let alone in the hobby (remember there were only paper publications back then and no anecdotal 'research' you see all over the web). This system performed pretty well with minimal efforts other than cleaning the front glass and regular water changes (25%/3-4wks). Uh oh ... I digress again (darn it .... I'm a technology consultant ... go figure).
So I thought I would reintroduce this into the nanocraze I discovered when on my very own I thought to try a small tank as efficiently and cost effective as possible. I had no idea what a "nano" was as far SW fish tanks go because I have been keeping freshwater fish off and on for 35+ years. I didn't really do any research until after the initial design, setup and drop in of Mr. Blue. It was then that I was looking for fish to buy that I discovered all this 'stuff'. Wow ... who wulduh guessed? So anyway I hope you all will stay interested and follow along my little path here with me from time to time as you have recently and we'll see where it goes, OK?
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by miulloj
http:///forum/post/2496813
I'm not exactly sure what you are asking but all CF lighting wattages have "replacement" wattage comparisons on the packaging. It refers to the lumens. This might help shed some light on the subject CFligtingFAQ. Above, you are correct as I mis-stated the K factor. These bulbs are actually rated about 5300K not quite like daylight @ 5750K. I like how they cast a more blue color to them, however, all artificial lighting has spikes on a spectrograph and lulls where they are deficient compared to the more even output across like sunlight but then I digress. I am not interested in sharing all the techy stuff here as there is plenty of that to go around on this and similar sites.
Back in the day (some 25+ years ago) with my new Ecology degree in hand and a decade of FWF keeping I designed a stock 55 gal tank with 4 grolux tubes in shop lights drilled for vented cooling like a house is with soffits nowadays. They fit nicely right on the glass top. I grew lots of algae in this SW setup on the back glass only and liked the look along with the knowledge that nitrification was being stabilized some by the absorption of the final Nitrates. This was well before you would find anyone doing so in the literature much let alone in the hobby (remember there were only paper publications back then and no anecdotal 'research' you see all over the web). This system performed pretty well with minimal efforts other than cleaning the front glass and regular water changes (25%/3-4wks). Uh oh ... I digress again (darn it .... I'm a technology consultant ... go figure).
So I thought I would reintroduce this into the nanocraze I discovered when on my very own I thought to try a small tank as efficiently and cost effective as possible. I had no idea what a "nano" was as far SW fish tanks go because I have been keeping freshwater fish off and on for 35+ years. I didn't really do any research until after the initial design, setup and drop in of Mr. Blue. It was then that I was looking for fish to buy that I discovered all this 'stuff'. Wow ... who wulduh guessed? So anyway I hope you all will stay interested and follow along my little path here with me from time to time as you have recently and we'll see where it goes, OK?

I understand but your issue now is you cannot rely on the same types of bulbs you once used in FW tanks for growing algea and plants as you can for corals.
Corals need far more intense lighting where the lumens per watt of the bulb is much higher then the CF you are using. Also color and temperature play a role, in the how your aquarium will look. In FW tanks 5300 to 5700k bulbs do their job and with the right amount of wattage will prob support coral propogation to an extent depending on the depth of the tank and the wattage of the bulb. But a 10k daylight bulb and a 460nm actinic bulb simulate the color and temperature of a coral reef. That said I still believe your lighting is lacking. You are going to need a wattage sufficient enough to keep corals alive if your using CF bulbs your wattage of the bulb not the lumen output equivelant needs to be increased. And although in FW tanks algea is desirable in most cases the type of algea you are going to propogate by using natural sunlight is going to be a nuisance.. Again im am only offering this as help not to flame you for your decisions. THey are ultimatly yours to make..
Good luck.
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
Hmmmm .. stay tuned and I will keep you posted. The spectral analysis on these bulbs is more like daylight than standard CFs. We'll see if they are up to snuff all things combined.
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
Food for thought I have a daylight CF bulb on my refugeum. Its intensity is strong enough to penetrate a couple of inches of water giving macro algea enough light to thrive. However it cannot be used in my main tank for coral propogation it is not intense enough.
Good luck and let us know how things work out.
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
1st significant update. Everyone is eating! It took a quick trip to Panhandle Pets for some frozen blood worms. Phewww. I was worried about the sunken bellied Basslette. Intro and eating ... Phase 1 complete. More later. Over and out ...
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
The morning after. Mr scallop is wedged in the big hole so gonna have to pry him out to feed him. So far so good?


 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
Question: See this "Mushroom corals, also called Corallimorphs or mushroom anemones are very hardy corals, and one of the best for the beginner reef aquarium.
Among one of the best beginner corals, they can even be maintained in aquariums with just sand substrate, live rock, and an airstone for water movement and oxygenation. This is because they will tolerate high levels of nitrate and other organic compounds. They will do even better, and their colors will brighten in an aquarium with low levels of organic compounds. Most mushroom coral prefer indirect light or shade so the VHO fluorescent or metal halide lighting is not required."
There are two are in the tank and on my list of tank occupants. Like with the scallop (as a "great water filterer") is the info and research I did on the net just not to be trusted? That is one of the reasons why I chose what I chose and BTW, luckily so far, everyone has found their place and are getting along very well. More to come!
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
I got a little ich on the fish but treated them naturally and all is super good now with varacious eating, color and activity. THe scallop is being fed by 'pipette' (turkey baster with tube extension).
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by miulloj
http:///forum/post/2500881
I got a little ich on the fish but treated them naturally and all is super good now with varacious eating, color and activity. THe scallop is being fed by 'pipette' (turkey baster with tube extension).

Its recomended that you QT all new incomming fish for potential parsites and or diseses. If treatment is needed the QT is the place for it as reef systems corals and invertabrates do not tolerate hyposalinity or copper based or most any other types of medications. "Reef safe" types of treatments while they appear to be effective, are not. Your natural treatment I suspect is coiencedentally (sp) in time with one of the 3 stages of the ich parasite. I have yet to read of an instance where this type of treatment has warded off the parasite for ever. I hope you will be the first. Good Luck.
 
miulloj

miulloj

New Member
Keeping my eyes open (the shipper insists it was in the tank beforehand). I cannot believe the turnaround but I may have caught it really early. I'm hyper about hypo (I agree so that is why I did not medicate)!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top