pics of my nano (11.29.04)

dragon79

New Member
This is what I have going on so far, it's not much, but it's a start. Not bad for almost 5 work days of running it. I had the water tested today and it's all good, no nitrite, no ammonia, and the salinity was perfect. The LR, LS, and that medicine added in "Bio-Spira" helped tremendously so I didn't have to wait so long to start my "decorations" I'll post more pics when I get a few more things up in the future. I realize this is all high risk, but I'm taking a chance, and also learning from all of this. So far so good, we'll see what happens, and I'll be sure to let everybody know my personal experience with my current setup. Thanks.







 

Sugar Magnolia

New Member
Re: pics of my nano (09.29.04)

dragon79 said:
I realize this is all high risk, but I'm taking a chance, and also learning from all of this.
After only 5 days you have all those animals in the tank? Yes...it is very high risk, and you are risking the lives of those animals.

Did you use fully cured LR?
 

incysor

New Member
First I think the tank looks nice. I like the aquascaping, and I think the featherduster is beautiful.

Second, I gotta go with SM here. Putting animals in a tank after only 5 days, even if you're using additives and cured LR isn't very responsible. The fact that you said you know you're running a risk shows that you know this already. And like SM pointed out, you might pay monetarily for rushing things, but your animals are gonna pay with their lives. Patience grasshopper. :wink:

I totally understand the desire to stick something in the tank once you've got water in it, but it's gonna frustrate you worse if you end up fighting algae blooms, animals kicking the bucket, etc... Look around on here, there's one poor guy who's system crashed and he basically had to start over. That's a hard way to learn a lesson.

B
 

djconn

New Member
Nice looking setup so far. The rock looks great. It has to be fully cured if your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates) are all at zero. What kind of sand did you use?

I agree with everyone though in that this is a very big risk. Interesting to see how it progresses. :huh:
 

dragon79

New Member
dont take me wrong...

i agree with you guys, but what has me and my brother when we first went into doing this was what the lady at the aquarium store said about the bio-spira. She said she wouldn't sell me a fish or anything live until it was put in, and she basicallly swore by it saying anything I would put in would die, but with using the product "bio-spira" it would make the my nano, tank safe for life overnight. The stuff is very potent, and smells like something fierce, but apparently it's doing it's job. As for the type of live sand, I have Aragonite Live Sand. We'll see what happens, I'll keep you posted with my "experimentation" . Wish me luck :)
 

mikeguerrero

Active Member
Live Sand....

As with most of us, starting a nano reef tank is exciting and full of great expectations. The desire to add specimens once the water is in is addicting. Yes there are great risks in getting going too fast but times have changed in the reefing world since I began my first reef tank back in 1991.

I had been out of the reefing for 5 years and stepped back in to my local LFS and fell in love with the Nano cube 1st generation. I could hardly believe that I could up and start my reef tank just after 1 day of set up.

I had never heard of live sand being sold in bags and took it home and was impressed on how quickly my setup happened in just 1 day. I also purchased 13 pounds of live cured rock.

The next day I started adding my specimens and was happy to see everthing flourishing. Had I bypassed the nitrogen cycle? No, but I was clearly ahead in days of waiting the traditional 30 days.

I didn't add bio-spira because my LFS said the live sand was enough good bacteria to get started. And he was right, the only problem I had was that my live rock wasn't all cured because I had cloudy water for at least 20 days until on day 21 it went crystal clear.

I did not purchase any corals because my lighting was only 24 watts. I was only allowed to purchase star polyps, mushrooms polyps, and pulsating Xenias. I was also the owner of one agressive Maroon Clown named Evil Nemo. (He was taken back after he started aquascapping my tank for me without permission).

Well, in defense to Dragon79, he has added bio-spira and his live rock is especially cured since his tank is so much clearer than mine at the time. His zero ammonia and nitrite is such an indication that the bio spira is working to control any such ammonia spike.

Thus his live sand and live rock should create the equilibrium that he requires to keep a healty reef tank. He should by no means add anything else for at least a good 2 weeks. Because he needs to wait for the diatom bloom and the hairy algae to pass.

He also needs to see the birth of his copepods further showing the completion of the nitrogen cycle.

Dragon79, make sure you don't overfeed your fish and make sure your lights are set on a timer for no more than 8 hours time. Remember to top off your water with bottled water. And make sure you watch the breathing of your Nemo for signs of stress. Also make water changes every Sunday just 20 percent change, so that your calcium stays high and you control the Nitrate.

On Friday have your water tested again, that would be one week of the tank maturing and the levels of Ammonia and Nitrite should be next to zero if your colonization of bacteria is stable.

I'm curious to see if you have any fall out on specimens becuase I never used the bio spira but I did use all the other elements and added things just like you and had success.

Good luck, ps remember that your janitor crew, should also help in breaking down uneaten food and in some cases control bad algae...

Mike
 
heh I waited three months before putting anything in, i had only did about a month of research on tank keeping, I didnt use live sand, that was dumb but I didn't know, well its been about 8 months now, I lost three fish over the process, one one because it was eaten, the other two because of iggnorance and stupidity error, one of my first fish though is still in there, and their was one clown I had the whole time who became too aggressive so I gave him to the LFS, know I still only have a couple corals and just two fish, my experiment became a sucess and I "hope" ypurs does to because I can see adding a fish already, but not corals or any inverts for that matter, although what is the ?anemone? on the top of the rock, very nice looking hope you dont lose that one, anyways good luck
 

dragon79

New Member
check this out...

First, check this.... my top coral started shooting out goo and shriveling up. He's done this about 10 times now. If you look good, you'll see the cloudy slime it shot out.




Second, here's an updated pic of the tank, before this happened.




What do you think guys? It's as it suddenly start to spazz out out of nowhere. Every 5 minutes or so it likes to squirt again. As of now, I even see a snail near it poking at it with it's tentacle....
 

FishinInTheDark

New Member
Looks like some tissue recession around the skeleton too. Besides an immature tank, what sort of lighting do you have? Hopefully it will pull through.
 

dragon79

New Member
update

okay, i checked on it before I went to bed, and also in the morning and it looked much better. It was all spread out like it was again, instead of all bunched together. I guess it had major diahhrhea or something. When I get home from work today I'll check up on it again to make sure it's cool.

djconn: yes it 's a torch.

FishinInTheDark: The lighting is the stock 48 watts it comes with. To modify it, it's kinda involved, but I believe mike has done it. In time I may...
 

incysor

New Member
It was likely just excreting waste. Many of the corals, anemones etc... Have one hole that they ingest and excrete from. Torches mouths are generally a hole somewhat in the center of the tentacles.

B
 

Sugar Magnolia

New Member
My torch did that occasionally too. You can offer that torch some food...small pieces of cut up raw seafood. Just place it on it's tentacles near the center and it will draw the food in towards it's mouth. Cool to watch!
 

dragon79

New Member
update on tank

My tank is in it's diatom stage. I'm in two weeks of having my tank setup. It's getting a lot better being I got a bi-color blenny who is non-stop eating the ugly diatoms. I've done my water changes, and so far so good. My original fish Nemo still kicking alive and strong, but the purple dotty and sixline I had, died. Interesting nevertheless seeing who's a stronger survivor. I wonder if the blenny can live though this, as I am already confident Nemo is cool. I am going to do another water test for my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and salinity test after my next water change as I'm rather curious to what the levels are now.

My speculation for the deaths:

1.) purple dotty...he had a mysterious fungus that appeared on his body toward the back, didn't look like spots like ick...but nevertheless by the third day, dotty died.

2.) sixline lived one night and one full day. He seemed a bit stressed and shy, I couldn't even get a pic of him. Sure enough I found him dead when I got back from work yesterday.

I did pick up a electric blue hermit crab my g/f likes. (she hasn't noticed that sixline died though, I'll have to break it to her later)

That's the latest, I'll post pics in another 2 weeks
 

mikeguerrero

Active Member
This post might be a good one for Incysor to speculate on the causes of death. His insight might be very informative. See if you can flag him over here to check out your situation.

Like you said the other night, your tank is in it's beginning stages so stability of water is still an issue, maybe overcrowding? I'm not sure? Sounds like some type of fungus, becuase you said they never hit against the rock, typical of an ick problem.

I just don't get it? Hopefully Incysor comes up with some explanation, he already replied to my earlier cry for coral fighting. He gave me some great advise which I'm going to do tonight....

good luck Dragon,

Mike
 

incysor

New Member
Re: update on tank

dragon79 said:
My tank is in it's diatom stage. I'm in two weeks of having my tank setup. It's getting a lot better being I got a bi-color blenny who is non-stop eating the ugly diatoms. I've done my water changes, and so far so good. My original fish Nemo still kicking alive and strong, but the purple dotty and sixline I had, died. Interesting nevertheless seeing who's a stronger survivor. I wonder if the blenny can live though this, as I am already confident Nemo is cool. I am going to do another water test for my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and salinity test after my next water change as I'm rather curious to what the levels are now.

My speculation for the deaths:

1.) purple dotty...he had a mysterious fungus that appeared on his body toward the back, didn't look like spots like ick...but nevertheless by the third day, dotty died.

2.) sixline lived one night and one full day. He seemed a bit stressed and shy, I couldn't even get a pic of him. Sure enough I found him dead when I got back from work yesterday.

I did pick up a electric blue hermit crab my g/f likes. (she hasn't noticed that sixline died though, I'll have to break it to her later)

That's the latest, I'll post pics in another 2 weeks
How are you acclimating the fish? Dripline? Float and release?

Both of these fish are usually pretty hardy. Did you buy them from the same place? Same time, or different times?

B
 

dragon79

New Member
Re: update on tank

incysor said:
dragon79 said:
My tank is in it's diatom stage. I'm in two weeks of having my tank setup. It's getting a lot better being I got a bi-color blenny who is non-stop eating the ugly diatoms. I've done my water changes, and so far so good. My original fish Nemo still kicking alive and strong, but the purple dotty and sixline I had, died. Interesting nevertheless seeing who's a stronger survivor. I wonder if the blenny can live though this, as I am already confident Nemo is cool. I am going to do another water test for my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and salinity test after my next water change as I'm rather curious to what the levels are now.

My speculation for the deaths:

1.) purple dotty...he had a mysterious fungus that appeared on his body toward the back, didn't look like spots like ick...but nevertheless by the third day, dotty died.

2.) sixline lived one night and one full day. He seemed a bit stressed and shy, I couldn't even get a pic of him. Sure enough I found him dead when I got back from work yesterday.

I did pick up a electric blue hermit crab my g/f likes. (she hasn't noticed that sixline died though, I'll have to break it to her later)

That's the latest, I'll post pics in another 2 weeks
How are you acclimating the fish? Dripline? Float and release?

Both of these fish are usually pretty hardy. Did you buy them from the same place? Same time, or different times?

B
Incysor: I am not sure what dripline is, but I know i float and release. First fish I ever got was a percula clown (tank raised). He was dropped in the first day the tank was setup. Sound crazy right? but i have talked about that in another post when I first started. I used that overnight safe product "bio spira" It appears to have worked for nemo as he has not died. He's lived for two weeks now. My second fish was about 5 days or or 6 days later I think, I got a purple psuedo, and a sexy shrimp. sexy shrimp hid under a rock and that's like the last I ever saw of the shrimp. Purple psuedo lived for 3 days I think. He got like this weird strip of fungus white on near his tail. He never acted funny, he ate normal, had a lot of personality and very entertaining to look at. Fish ate too, even on the last day he lived. I come back home from work and the crabs made mincemeat out of him.

My girl crushed that her purple fish she named "violet" died, I went the next day or two days. ( i forget) and I picked up the bi-color blenny (jar jar) and sixline wrasse. They both floated as I've floated everything in my tank. bi-color acted all crazy and it took him a while to acclimate before I released him into the tank. I was actually worried about him, but he's doing very well. Wrasse seemed calm and laid back. He ate that night, but that night, he layed by the LR. Next day I come in from work and he's in the live rock hiding, I add food and he came out and ate a little bit, and swam around with no signs of problems or no visual problems. So by the next time I see him after work the next day, I find him dead on the side of the live rock. It's like what? It's as if something attacked and killed it. (killer nemo?) haha, just kidding. My friend Adrian thinks he simply died of stress, and that all fish react differently and also being that sixline, dotty weren't tank raised. (BTW: neither is bi-color) If bi-color keeps kicking, then he's beating the odds. All fish were bought from same place. Only thing I have gotten from another place was my latest addition which is simply an electric blue hermit crab. (got him after sixline died). Well that's the latest, help it makes all of this conclusive towards a solution. As for now, I am not going to buy any more fish I told my girlfriend. I told her she needs to be a lil bit patient, and that at least she has nemo and jar jar to look at. Thanks in advance man!
 
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