update on my 3 gal office nano

leigh

Active Member
Hey all,
Just wanted to give the general update...it's been up and running for a couple weeks now having been started with some live cc, a couple pieces of live rock from my reef and water from my reef. Never did measure any change in ammonia, nitrate or nitrite...I'm hoping that the use of all live items mostly from the reef eliminated (or minimized) the cycle. I've put 2 snails in it and 3 mushrooms (that are doing great) and a wee bit of caulerpa that is now a heck of a lot of caulerpa. I've harvested twice (once a week--my tang is THRILLED) so the tank is turning almost more into a caulerpa tank than anything. Ever since upping the lighting from the 6 watt eclipse light to the 13 watt pc retrofit I've had a bit of a cyano issue...but i've cut back the light cycle now for a day and i have a feeling that after 2 days of it things will be much better (they're already a bit improved)...so I think the direction for the tank is going to be caulerpa, mushrooms, and snails. i'd still be psyched if i could find a couple sexy shrimp, or i'm still toying with the idea of neon gobies, but for now it's really nice to have a tank that requires no care other than periodic top offs and weekly water change/caulerpa harvesting. i literally spend 5 minutes on it a day, pretty sweet if you ask me :) that, and i'm having a hard time minimizing temp fluctuations between the wacky 40's era ac/heating in the building at work and the excess heat put out by the lights so that has me a lil ancy about adding much livestock. So, that's the update...as always, any input is certainly appreciated. I'll get posting pictures of it one of these days (once the cyano is gone :p )
-leigh
 
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daniel411

Guest
Congat's leigh, and a lfs by you has some sexy shrimp... and yellow neon gobies... just to let you know!
 

tarashane

Member
Leigh,
I want a 3 Gal tank so bad ( to put dwarf seahorses in ), but everyone tells me "NOOO!!!!" because it's too small to take care of. I have a 6 Gal now, and I'm doing just fine. So, I can't wait to see how yours is going! Good Luck! - Tara
 
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daniel411

Guest
Oceans and Seas, in Roseville, just south of 696 on gratiot. Its only about 45 minutes from you.
 

leigh

Active Member
coo daniel, thanks for the tip
tara, i set up the tank actually thinking sea horses (thus all the caulerpa) but the problem I ran up against is that it is very rare for dwarf seahorses (even the captive bred ones) to eat frozen food as the food itself is simply to large for them. I don't have the time/energy to hatch brine perpetually for dwarves, so I decided to hold off on seahorses until i someday when i can set up a larger tank (a 20 high i'm thinking) for medium sized cb seahorses that i can feed frozen to. So far this tank really doesn't seem to be too hard to take care of but i think that is in large part due to the facts that 1) my bioload consists of 2 snails and 2) i have a lot of caulerpa in there which i can only imagine is helping substantially with water quality. personally i find caulerpa attractive and the mix of caulerpa and shrooms i think is purty. but hey, i'm weird like that. that, and i've also only had this tank set up a couple weeks, so who knows the problems i'll start having down the road a bit! but i'll keep you posted :D
 

leigh

Active Member
Oh well...actually in keeping with keeping this tank cheap (ie pilfering stuff from my reef) i'm thinking about just moving 2 peppermint shrimp into it today.
 

tarashane

Member
Hey Leigh -
I know what you're saying about the live food... There is 1 LFS here in town that carries them constantly. (And it's not that far, thank goodness!).. It really does seem a little difficult, but I think I'm ready for a new challenge. Hope your tank is going good! - Tara
 

leigh

Active Member
Tara, thanks, and good luck to you too. I wish my lfs's carried cb ponies--no such luck :( And I did put the 2 peppermint shrimp in this morning (took them out of the flock i had in my invert tank--i have a dozen or so in there) and they seem to be settling in quite well. I seem to have a bit of a noah's arc theme going, 2 snails, 2 shrimp, darn, where'd I leave those unicorns?!? :D
 

killafins

Active Member
The problem with dwarf seahorses is that you have to feed them freshly hatched brine... meaning after a day or two guess what... there going to be too big. Dwarves are probably going to be better for another day when you can afford such time and attention. however, 3 gallons would be a good size for 3 or 4 dwarves.
 
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