10g Nano - My first SW tank
- Thread starter mtfish
- Start date
PhilOlsen
Has been struck by the ban stick
That a great looking tank, and you attention to detail is awesome in order to keep a tank that small. I would recommend adding a refugium to add some volume and help with the parameters and adding a skimmer to remove organic waste and help fighting the algae as well.
32Bit_Fish
Member
Mt,
Nice job on the tank. I am just curious.. How many days have you waited before adding the live stock in your tank? about 1.5 weeks, right?
The reason I'm asking this is because the reef experts always advice new comers to be patient and wait at least a couple of months before adding any live stocks.
It seems that you've added live stock to your tank pretty quickly and I didn't see any live stock death at this point. So I'm kinda confused about why people advice us to have a such prolong waiting period. :read:
Nice job on the tank. I am just curious.. How many days have you waited before adding the live stock in your tank? about 1.5 weeks, right?
The reason I'm asking this is because the reef experts always advice new comers to be patient and wait at least a couple of months before adding any live stocks.
It seems that you've added live stock to your tank pretty quickly and I didn't see any live stock death at this point. So I'm kinda confused about why people advice us to have a such prolong waiting period. :read:
mtfish
Member
First, Thanks. It's always nice to get some feedback.
Second, Patience is the key to success. You do need to take i tslow and realize there are limits. In my case yes I did get some snails and inverts after about 1.5 weeks, which was alot sooner than I had planned. The reason for that was that because of the small amount of live rock the cycle was pretty quick and it stablized pretty quick. I wouldn't suggest adding as much as I did right away. I did stager it by a few days from the snails to the shrimp and crab but it all was still pretty quick. My biggest suggestion is don't push the number of fish you have. Personally I prefer fewer fish anyway.
The biggest factor in my success up to this point has got to be the frequent water changes. For the most part I do them weekly, but every now and then it slips to 1.5-2 weeks but never longer.
I should also point out that I have had some deaths but I feel that all but 1 seem to be from factors other than poisioning from nitrates. I lost 1 firefish due to the fact fish need water ( he jumped out of the tank). I lost the emerald crab to starvation. I lost 1 blue legged hermit to the other blue legged hermit and also one cerith snail to the same blue legged hermit. (see a pattern there? I'd avoid the blue legged hermits it I could do it again, scarlets are much safer IMO) I lost the peppermint shrimp for a unknown reason which I can only speculate was nitrate posioning, or starvation. But I haven't lost any corals other than a mushroom that wouldn't attach and blew away never to be seen again...
Well I can't remember if I answered your question or not, so let me know if you need anything clarified
Oh, and here are the pictures I promised last week...
The latest coral addition Trumpet Coral Caulastrea curvata...
New Skunk Cleaner Shrimp Lysmata amboinensis...
Unknown Hitchhiker Snail (Whelk?) (middle of picture, salt & pepper shell looking thing)
Full Tank Shot
Cup Close Up
Green Polyps Close Up
Second, Patience is the key to success. You do need to take i tslow and realize there are limits. In my case yes I did get some snails and inverts after about 1.5 weeks, which was alot sooner than I had planned. The reason for that was that because of the small amount of live rock the cycle was pretty quick and it stablized pretty quick. I wouldn't suggest adding as much as I did right away. I did stager it by a few days from the snails to the shrimp and crab but it all was still pretty quick. My biggest suggestion is don't push the number of fish you have. Personally I prefer fewer fish anyway.
The biggest factor in my success up to this point has got to be the frequent water changes. For the most part I do them weekly, but every now and then it slips to 1.5-2 weeks but never longer.
I should also point out that I have had some deaths but I feel that all but 1 seem to be from factors other than poisioning from nitrates. I lost 1 firefish due to the fact fish need water ( he jumped out of the tank). I lost the emerald crab to starvation. I lost 1 blue legged hermit to the other blue legged hermit and also one cerith snail to the same blue legged hermit. (see a pattern there? I'd avoid the blue legged hermits it I could do it again, scarlets are much safer IMO) I lost the peppermint shrimp for a unknown reason which I can only speculate was nitrate posioning, or starvation. But I haven't lost any corals other than a mushroom that wouldn't attach and blew away never to be seen again...
Well I can't remember if I answered your question or not, so let me know if you need anything clarified
Oh, and here are the pictures I promised last week... The latest coral addition Trumpet Coral Caulastrea curvata...
New Skunk Cleaner Shrimp Lysmata amboinensis...
Unknown Hitchhiker Snail (Whelk?) (middle of picture, salt & pepper shell looking thing)
Full Tank Shot
Cup Close Up
Green Polyps Close Up
32Bit_Fish
Member
MTFISH,
I appreciate the clarification and such beautiful pics of the corals.
BTW, how much w/c do you do each?
Plz allow me to ask you an off topic question. How would you pick a healthy clown fish from a LFS tank? The ones in my LFS were all ill looking and they have white spots on their bodies.
I am planning to have a pair of true or false percular clown fish in my 20g and wonder if I will be able to distinguish the healthy n the sick ones.
I know quarantee newly purchased live stocks specially fish is mandatory. But I do not have an extra tank for quarantee. So I would have to try to pick the right one and keep my fingers acrossed hoping the fish is disease free.
I appreciate the clarification and such beautiful pics of the corals.
BTW, how much w/c do you do each?
Plz allow me to ask you an off topic question. How would you pick a healthy clown fish from a LFS tank? The ones in my LFS were all ill looking and they have white spots on their bodies.
I am planning to have a pair of true or false percular clown fish in my 20g and wonder if I will be able to distinguish the healthy n the sick ones.
I know quarantee newly purchased live stocks specially fish is mandatory. But I do not have an extra tank for quarantee. So I would have to try to pick the right one and keep my fingers acrossed hoping the fish is disease free.
mtfish
Member
Thanks everyone, I'm finally figuring out how to take some decent pics
First JFK_Jr : The camera is a simple Kodak Easyshare LS743. It's actually a pretty basic camera. I use a tripod and it also has a 'macro' mode for close shot then I clean the glass inside and out then start taking picutres. I do fool with the cameras exposure compensation a bit but other than that I don't do much.
32Bit_Fish: When I do a water change it is 30-40% I use RO water and Oceanic or Reef Crystals salt.
As far as picking out live stock I have two suggestions, 1) Patience: wait to buy healthy livestock don't buy marginal looking live stock. 2) Ask the LFS to hold them for you for a few days to make sure they are healthy, a good LFS would be willing to do that for you, they should be holding them fora few days anyway to make sure they are healthy.
As far as telling what is a good fish, I'd just watch the fish in the tank for a while. If anyone seems to be acting odd then there may be trouble. If they is a dead fish in the tank, then in my opinion, NO NO NO NO buying any of those fish! Who knows why that fish has died.
Anyway again patience is the key. You will be 100 times happier if you wait and buy healthy fish than if you buy unhealthy fish now.
Well I have to get to work so I better be off, feel free to ask any other questions.
First JFK_Jr : The camera is a simple Kodak Easyshare LS743. It's actually a pretty basic camera. I use a tripod and it also has a 'macro' mode for close shot then I clean the glass inside and out then start taking picutres. I do fool with the cameras exposure compensation a bit but other than that I don't do much.
32Bit_Fish: When I do a water change it is 30-40% I use RO water and Oceanic or Reef Crystals salt.
As far as picking out live stock I have two suggestions, 1) Patience: wait to buy healthy livestock don't buy marginal looking live stock. 2) Ask the LFS to hold them for you for a few days to make sure they are healthy, a good LFS would be willing to do that for you, they should be holding them fora few days anyway to make sure they are healthy.
As far as telling what is a good fish, I'd just watch the fish in the tank for a while. If anyone seems to be acting odd then there may be trouble. If they is a dead fish in the tank, then in my opinion, NO NO NO NO buying any of those fish! Who knows why that fish has died.
Anyway again patience is the key. You will be 100 times happier if you wait and buy healthy fish than if you buy unhealthy fish now.
Well I have to get to work so I better be off, feel free to ask any other questions.
Thanks. One thing I've learned that it is very hard to aquascape in a 10g tank
You've done a GREAT job. How much LR did you use total?
I am in my 3rd month in a 10g tank just like yours. I was lucky enough to have the owner of LFS as a friend and he took a personal interest in my small tank and I was up and running very quickly. (don't tell anyone but I had peppermint shrimp (3x) on day 3, coral banded on day 9, purple lobster on day 17 and a Fire shrimp (cleaner) on day 21.)
Since then have added 1-Scooter Blenny, 3 yellow tail damsels (traded them back to LFS due to temperament) 1-Firefish, 1 small star, 1 fire-clam, 1 electric clam, 1 tiny yellow cucumber, and 2 snails (those suckers can REALLY eat too). Also somewhere in my time-line I added 3 branches of FrogSpawn (OUCH!) to the tank.
I just added LR about 2 weeks ago (LFS was out and what he finally DID get in wasn't spectacular). All of this on
20-30g HOB Whisper
Live Sand
Coral Life 27w 50/50
Keep up the good work and keep taking pics. Your tank looks amazing so don't stop now
Allen
mtfish
Member
Thanks BigAl. I always look at it and wish it wash nicer so it's nice to hear that from time to time. I don't remember exactly how much LR I started with maybe 10-12 lbs or so. I knew that I would be adding more rock as I added corals so I tried to keep it sparse to start and now I really have no room what so ever. (I've been eyeing up a 70g drilled tank at my LFS...)
In my opinon the best thing a person can do in a nano tank is to stock very very lightly... I still only have my false perc and a shrimp (+2 hermits, +6 snails) I think the best thing to focus on in a tank this size is corals. Or I suppose inverts are neat too, and they have a smaller bio load than fish. (most of them) Anyway I think thats important because it gives you some leeway (sp?) when it comes to waterchages. Anyway, I don't want to sound preachy because I am far from a guru...
It sounds like you've got off to quick start and I wish you the best of luck. The only advice I can give you is too start saving for a larger tank, I know I'm hooked Thanks again for the kind words!
In other news I should be taking a picture but by the time I get home from work and put the baby to sleep the light is off for the night so maybe this weekend I'll get out the camera and the tripod and take a few pics.
I'm also debating removing the MJ powerhead and replacing it with a closed loop with a SCWD. It's not that I'm unhappy with the MJ with the hydor, it works great for the price, I'm just want to free up a little room and I could put a CL intake in a corner and return in each upper corner and have a little more room in the back right corner, which will be taken over by my xenia if I do.
Oh a little side note, my Xenia has started to explode and grow like mad. I think eventually I'll remove everything that isn't attached into a larger tank and get another type of xenia (white) and just let the tank become 95% xenia with a few patches of Zoanthids. My false perc would love that.
Anyway I better run, I have too much to do... Thanks for reading!
In my opinon the best thing a person can do in a nano tank is to stock very very lightly... I still only have my false perc and a shrimp (+2 hermits, +6 snails) I think the best thing to focus on in a tank this size is corals. Or I suppose inverts are neat too, and they have a smaller bio load than fish. (most of them) Anyway I think thats important because it gives you some leeway (sp?) when it comes to waterchages. Anyway, I don't want to sound preachy because I am far from a guru...
It sounds like you've got off to quick start and I wish you the best of luck. The only advice I can give you is too start saving for a larger tank, I know I'm hooked
Thanks again for the kind words!In other news I should be taking a picture but by the time I get home from work and put the baby to sleep the light is off for the night so maybe this weekend I'll get out the camera and the tripod and take a few pics.
I'm also debating removing the MJ powerhead and replacing it with a closed loop with a SCWD. It's not that I'm unhappy with the MJ with the hydor, it works great for the price, I'm just want to free up a little room and I could put a CL intake in a corner and return in each upper corner and have a little more room in the back right corner, which will be taken over by my xenia if I do.
Oh a little side note, my Xenia has started to explode and grow like mad. I think eventually I'll remove everything that isn't attached into a larger tank and get another type of xenia (white) and just let the tank become 95% xenia with a few patches of Zoanthids. My false perc would love that.
Anyway I better run, I have too much to do... Thanks for reading!
murkywaters
Well-Known Member
looking good!
Excellent reply! I enjoyed your reply!
As for saving as of right now that's not an option. Just not any more room to PUT a larger tank. We are re-designing our next house plans right now to accomodate a Phat tank right. We're looking at something in the 300+ range for the house.
Good luck and can't wait to see more pics!
Allen
As for saving as of right now that's not an option. Just not any more room to PUT a larger tank. We are re-designing our next house plans right now to accomodate a Phat tank right. We're looking at something in the 300+ range for the house.
Good luck and can't wait to see more pics!
Allen