FrankieFish
New Member
Hi all, and I have to say, I am SO thankful for finding this forum. It has already answered quite a few questions.
I have kept aquariums for about 15 years, and started in on SW tanks about 4 years ago. I have kept a 90g and a 125g successfully (FOWLR)
A move out of the country and 2 rental houses later, we are finally back in our family home.
I'm going to keep it smaller scaled this time. That's what I tell my husband anyway.... Keeping a nano ANYTHING is new to me, I am from Texas and bigger IS better! :win:
My goals for this tank are to keep ricordia and simple corals. Anything my stock lighting will allow me to have, really. I am not prepared to add to the tank yet, I want to get a feel for what this little AIO is capable of.
I would like to aim for 3 fish (non diggers because of the DSB), MAYBE sexy shrimp and CUC. I want to be creative with my CUC, as this greatly increases diversity and educational opportunities with my home schooled son.
I like the DSB, (again, fun to look at) I have about 30 lbs of 'live' arogonite sand in there, I will measure that precisely, once the excess sand I had to take out dries a bit. /bonk Nothing like a 6" DSB, right? I grossly misjudged how much sand needed to be in there. It's still a wee deep around the edges, but I haven't smoothed everything out yet, these photos are from day 3, after adding additional 13 lbs of LR yesterday.
***
My questions involve the DSB and aquascaping and eventually livestock. 20 lbs of LR looks like ALOT of rock! Im going to have to be creative. Should I leave much of the sand bed exposed, or is it ok to spread the rocks out and arrange them loosely to protect the DSB? Alternately, how high should I go up the back? I know I could keep stuff that has higher light requirements, but just getting started in nanos, I want to keep some forgiving animals in there for starters.
I am suprised at having so many options, even with this tiny little biosphere. I am looking forward to hearing your suggestions!
This is what I have..
BioCube 14
Coralife 24w 10,000K
Coralife 24w Actinic
Moonlights
~1 lb rubble replaced bioballs
~20 lbs live rock
~30 lbs live sand (can take some out still)
The tank only holds about 10g of water, I'm guessing around 8g with all the sand and LR in. I will measure it when I do a complete water change before adding livestock. With such a small amount of water, 2 gallons makes a big difference in dosing. Don't mind the stuff on the surface, nothing was running while the sand was stirred up, and the rocks are still covered in sediment.
Actinics
10,000K
I have kept aquariums for about 15 years, and started in on SW tanks about 4 years ago. I have kept a 90g and a 125g successfully (FOWLR)
A move out of the country and 2 rental houses later, we are finally back in our family home.
I'm going to keep it smaller scaled this time. That's what I tell my husband anyway.... Keeping a nano ANYTHING is new to me, I am from Texas and bigger IS better! :win:
My goals for this tank are to keep ricordia and simple corals. Anything my stock lighting will allow me to have, really. I am not prepared to add to the tank yet, I want to get a feel for what this little AIO is capable of.
I would like to aim for 3 fish (non diggers because of the DSB), MAYBE sexy shrimp and CUC. I want to be creative with my CUC, as this greatly increases diversity and educational opportunities with my home schooled son.
I like the DSB, (again, fun to look at) I have about 30 lbs of 'live' arogonite sand in there, I will measure that precisely, once the excess sand I had to take out dries a bit. /bonk Nothing like a 6" DSB, right? I grossly misjudged how much sand needed to be in there. It's still a wee deep around the edges, but I haven't smoothed everything out yet, these photos are from day 3, after adding additional 13 lbs of LR yesterday.
***
My questions involve the DSB and aquascaping and eventually livestock. 20 lbs of LR looks like ALOT of rock! Im going to have to be creative. Should I leave much of the sand bed exposed, or is it ok to spread the rocks out and arrange them loosely to protect the DSB? Alternately, how high should I go up the back? I know I could keep stuff that has higher light requirements, but just getting started in nanos, I want to keep some forgiving animals in there for starters.
I am suprised at having so many options, even with this tiny little biosphere. I am looking forward to hearing your suggestions!
This is what I have..
BioCube 14
Coralife 24w 10,000K
Coralife 24w Actinic
Moonlights
~1 lb rubble replaced bioballs
~20 lbs live rock
~30 lbs live sand (can take some out still)
The tank only holds about 10g of water, I'm guessing around 8g with all the sand and LR in. I will measure it when I do a complete water change before adding livestock. With such a small amount of water, 2 gallons makes a big difference in dosing. Don't mind the stuff on the surface, nothing was running while the sand was stirred up, and the rocks are still covered in sediment.
Actinics
10,000K