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illumnae

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Posts posted by illumnae

    Beginner office nano tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    The skimmer is starting to produce some very light brown skimmate. Not yet green tea darkness, but it's better than last week!

    Added in some new livestock over the weekend - a pair of clownfish from Coral Farm and 2 peppermint shrimp (for aiptasia control) from LCK201. The pistol shrimp/goby pair have since shifted their cave location...I think they felt threatened by the new livestock.

    Will this tank hold?

    in New to the Marine Aquaria Hobby

    Posted

    After some moderate success setting up an office pico, my wife (who's always been facinated by clownfish) is thinking of converting her current L46 setup into a marine nano. The tank is a 2x1.5x1.5 ft braceless crystal glass tank that comes with an overflow and 1.5ft sump. This would of course be ideal for a nano setup, but my concern is that the glass is only 5mm thick. The tank maker assured me repeatedly that the tank was safe for long term marine use ("people use 12mm for braceless 4x2x2! This one is less than 1/4 the volume, 5mm is more than enough!"), however, I'm a little wary on this as I don't want my tank to explode on me or warp.

    Does anyone know if my tank would be suitable for a marine setup?

    Beginner office nano tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    I need some advice on how to tune a skimmer.

    I installed the Dymax IQ skimmer today in the first compartment of the filter (2nd compartment will be the floss + chemical filtration, 3rd compartment is return pump) using a Gex e-AIR 2000SB air pump. The air pump allows me to control the airflow with a knob (in addition to the valve for fine tuning provided with the skimmer).

    As recommended, I replaced the airstone with a Sander 2 airstone. According to another thread on this forum, the Dymax IQ skimmer works very well with the new airstone.

    However, now I'm a little befuddled. I switch on the air pump to full blast and I get a nice thick white foam building up. However, it seems to be building up too fast! Within seconds I see my collection cup fill up with clear water. If I turn it too low, the foam disappears. What kind of rate of foam build up should I be seeing in my skimmer? I know it takes time to "break in" and start producing brown skimmate, but I need to know the rate of production. It can't be that I have to clear the cup every 5 minutes?

    Beginner office nano tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    Thanks for the ids! The creature has disappeared and I haven't seen it today.

    FTS is below. It's still very bare and ugly and I'm still cycling it. I like the texture of the rocks very much, but it seems a little low...not sure how I can raise it without disturbing the nice overhang cave effect I have going with the rocks. Are there any "tall" looking corals I can add to the top of the rock to make the upper half of the tank look less "empty"? Was thinking of putting a frogspawn coral perhaps on the upper left hand side and some red cauliflower soft coral on the right side.

    Current inhabitants are 1x red hermit crab and 2x trochus snails. Was thinking of adding 1 more crab and 1 more snail.

    Cycling_zpsd5069356.jpg

    Beginner office nano tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    Well I've come into office over the weekend, cleared the freshwater setup out and done some basics - filled the salt water (using H2Ocean Pro+ by D+D) and poured in the live sand (using CaribSea Arag-Alive! Oolite). Decided to go with 10lb of sand instead of the initially planned 5lb (encouragement from Ken @ MadPetz and my wife to have a deeper sand bed).

    After leaving it overnight, the water is still cloudy, and there's alot of foam on the surface of the water - is this normal? I thought the water would have cleared overnight. The foam only appeared after I put in the sand (couldn't wash the sand as it was supposed to be live sand with bacteria).

    Trying to find some time to go get live rocks to put in, but (1) it's hard to scape when the water is cloudy; and (2) I was recommended to go to Coral Farm to get Fiji rock (expensive!!!) but it's such a faraway place that I can't go get it during lunch time - will have to wait till Saturday to do it.

    I will be relying on the live rocks, bacteria from the live sand and Microbe-Lift Nite-Out II to cycle the tank. Hopefully it won't take too long.

    Beginner office nano tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    In relation to the future lighting, how's the Beamworks Double Bright Clip On? It's 9x 1W LED (3 blue 6 white) vs 5x 2W LED for the PAR30 (2 blue 3 white) vs 5x 3W LED for the PAR 38 (5x 14000K or 5x 20000K). There's higher intensity on the PAR bulbs, but given that this is just a 1ft tank with at most soft corals and easy LPS, would I need such intensity? The Beamworks has better spread so can be placed closer to the water too to "increase" intensity.

    Beginner office nano tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    Thanks Jeff :) My office air con is lowered during the night, but when I come in the morning (even Monday morning), the temperature is still low - it is just stuffy. I believe the thermostat is still left on, but the fan/blower is switched off.

    I was thinking of doing 20% water changes every 2 weeks to be realistic, as I do foresee that during busy periods (or periods when I'm on leave), I may not be able to keep up with a weekly water change schedule. That is why I included a small skimmer in the setup, as I read that weekly water changes are required with no skimmer and the time between changes can be extended if there's a skimmer in place. I understand the IQ skimmer is not very highly rated, and that's why I would still do 20% every 2 weeks (vs 10% weekly as recommended when there's no skimmer in place)

    The media basket that comes with my tank has 3 compartments. Perhaps I could use Purigen + CPE + Rowaphos, 1 per compartment? Should I change one of the above to GAC instead?

    Beginner office nano tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    Hi all,

    After lurking around and resisting the urge to start a marine tank for years, I think I'm finally ready to take the plunge for a simple tank for my office. Just wanted to seek some advice on whether my plans are feasible :) I am just intending to keep a simple setup, starting with FOWLR only, but hopefully eventually adding some simple corals. The corals I'm thinking of adding are based on recommendations given by Practical Fishkeeping magazine over the years as nano-friendly and beginner-friendly corals.

    Here's what my plan for the tank is:

    Tank

    Ocean Free Nano Space 2 (27 litres)

    Filtration

    1st compartment: Dymax IQ Skimmer (with limewood airstone replaced)

    2nd compartment: Chemical filtration (Purigen/Chemi-Pure Elite/GAC) - Please recommend

    4-5kg Live rock

    Water

    DD H2Ocean Natural Reef Salt (20%/5 litres wc every 2 weeks)

    Flow

    Stock Ocean Free 200 litres/hour pump in 3rd compartment

    Tunze Universal Pump Mini 300 litres/hour pump in tank for added flow

    Substrate

    Either CaribSea Ocean-Direct Pacific Black 5lb or CaribSea Super Naturals Tahitian Moon 5lb - Please recommend

    Lighting

    Stock LED for now

    Upgrade to PAR30 (3W2B) or Par38 (14000K) before adding corals - Please recommend

    Livestock

    Clownfish (Ocellaris or Percula) - 1 pair

    Red-Legged Hermit Crab - 1

    Trochus Snail - 2

    Cleaner Shrimp - 1

    Corals (future)

    Zoa

    Mushroom

    Torch

    Please recommend others

    And that's the plan! Any and all feedback/advice is greatly appreciated!

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