Nanoreefnewbie 2012 nano contest entry
 

Well thought I would start a journal also

My goal is too make a creative beautiful nano aquarium learn as much as I can not have fun alone the way( first tank in salt water should be intreasting lol:mrgreen )

My plans are too use hardy corals ect make it colorful and alive with fish and other inhabitants

Equipment

17.5 gallon rimless tank
Marineland led lights
Marineland hob filter ( 30 gallon rating)
Fluval water heater( 250 watt??lol )
Kydor power head/wave maker(750 gph)

Live stock

40 lbs rock(39lbs dead 1 lb too seed with)
30lbs live fine sand
As for fish ect no clue same with corals ect

Srry for crappy spelling gunna do all this off a tablet I just got spelling will improve hahahaha

Some more pics of equipment...

a post has been made in all the contest forumns regarding contest rules via the timeline, everyone should read this post as there seems to be some confusion.

If you still have the chance, get an aquaclear 70 (atleast), mod it to a HOB refugium and put in some chaeto. Works WONDERFUL!!!! Brought my 10+ppm nitrate to 0 in just 2 days (mine is a 20 gallon with aquaclear 110).

Whoa, that's a LOT of rocks haha.

So not enough filtration..? can I make this ones mini refugium..? Chaeto?

Yea it is but I want a beautiful aquascape and I'm hoping the rock and sand would be my main filtration..

Not to be rash, but can almost guaruntee you wont fit 40lbs of rock 'beautifully' into a 17.5g tank!

You do have enough filtration but mini refug will help you with the nitrate. The fluval won't be of much use in saltwater. I used a 20gallon aqueon for chemi pure elite and purigen. Ofcourse it is not mandatory or anything, just helps :D

I think it looks great here is a pic of tank with rock and cycling just fine...alittle crowded but it all fits lol..

The fluval heater is keeping up nice 77 degrees and holding...and yeah I'm following nitrates and ammonia and nitrites and ph lol every second day

Well alittle update is I've decided too do a diy protein skimmer and a 10 % water change too start too control algea and ugly brown tank syndrome..also this Friday will be when I add my clean up crew too also help control algea...:lol: super excited how my first reef tank is coming...

It fits pretty well. A crowded at k can be gorgeous . . . Just dig through Reef_Geeks threads to see pics of his.

Thank you it took abit not a few different land scaping ideas and wholla finally ended up with it and I fit all 40 lbs in yay lol
I just thought good natural filtration should be good and id got tons of room for corals caverns for fish undecided on that aspect
His pics all pretty beautiful I only wish lol maybe :biggrin:

Damn you, autocorrect.

That should read "a crowded tank can be gorgeous . . ."

It just takes care and time for everything to fill in. You'll get there. :) And, I quite like you scape. You squeezed all that rock in very nicely, and there is interest in the placement.

Great work with the rocks :D

Now put in atleast two powerheads to brush water through all those rocks :D

Thank you I thought it fit in well

I've got a 750 gph powered is that still not enough:cry: lol

I hate auto correct too lol my tablet is the worst for it:biggrin:

Just added my first batch of clean up crew is been added tonight
I got 1 peppermint shrimp,1 blue knuckle crab, 5 turbo snails, 3 scarlet hermit crab:biggrin:...ive also been working on a diy skimmer ill get some pics posted asap

Well finally got some pics of my diy skimmer been putting in 10 hrs days ať work...srry for my late posts lol...i used a old gravel vac some tube for the drainage air line na pump and finally a Wood air Stone 5 mins later and 5. Dollars i built my own nano skimmer...also ill add some pics of tank now cycled out clean crew hard ať work now for corals and fish choices hummmmmmm......:biggrin:

good job on the diy skimmer. make sure to post some pics of the skimate also ;)

Nice skimmer! Let's hope it gets all gross and disgusting like the one I just cleaned. *blech*

In my experience, nano skimmers are more like wasting money (I already did :( ) and its better to get a HOB fuge with chaeto. Works like a charm :D

Thank you..what do you mean by skimate ?? Srry lol
:biggrin:

4 days running and its already getting a yellow and brown..collect 50 ml of yellow water easylol:lol:

Awesome that sux too bad you waste your cash bud..5 bucks not stuff lying around works great..well spent cash in my mind...im not getting all fancy with my first reff

The gunk that your skimmer collects.

Yah DIYs are always awesome. Just make sure you don't spend anything on a commercial skimmer for your tank unless you are up for something like reef octopus which will cost you around $150+ :P

I bought an AC110, got a light, put in some chaeto and that crazy algae is keeping my tank at undetectable nitrate! BINGO!

Try doing that :D

OH crappy jus dumped that...umm yea sure will its gross yellow definitely works:wink:

BTW I am pretty sure your skimate is watery (wet skimmate) and that can SERIOUSLY suck up your saltwater. So if you see that your level is low, not all might be due to evaporation and you might actually be lowering your salinity when adding freshwater for top-off while most of them are not due to evaporation. So always check your salinity before adding top-off.

Yea maybe:twised:

OH thank you holding 1.024 and trying to lower some more...

Why are you trying to lower it? If anything, I'd say it should be higher.

srry dam spelling check reff lol i think everyone knows i meant reef lol

Why lower?! Keep it between 1.024-1.026

Jus too 1.023...and ive seen a few whick looking reefs ať 1.023 :biggrin:..ill counter ask now why have it higher??

Because 1.026 is ideal for reefs but fishes can be kept in practically anything :P (I have kept mine for weeks without knowing that my salinity was at 1.031). You can keep softies in almost anything like 1.021, which is ideal for fish only systems (not the delicate ones like ricordia ofcourse) but for pretty corals, you should aim at something 1.024 to 1.026.

Its within in ball park..ill ask the same why have it higher...its all preference right...If I noticed fish friends arnt liking the lower sality ill Raise accordingly...