Intarsiabox's 2012 Nano Contest Entry

[reefwars]

sounds like its off to a great start, ill be following along for sure , you cleaned up that old tank pretty darn good i gotta say looks brand new now

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by reefwars

sounds like its off to a great start, ill be following along for sure , you cleaned up that old tank pretty darn good i gotta say looks brand new now

It has some minor scratches and smudges I can't get rid of mostly on the back and sides but the tank was really only dusty and didn't take much to clean up. The heater was another story as I've been using it off and on for 5 years, I hope it still works and doesn't blow up (old Stealth heater). I only used the tank as a low light dwarf seahorse tank before so it didn't have much ever grow on the glass.

I also bought a 50/50 bulb for the light fixture, it is only a 15W T8 so I'll have to see if it is actually capable of growing anything and not just sustaining. I'm going to add reflective tape to the inside to increase the amount of light being directed to the tank as I doubt the white plastic there now is really effective.

[Boxboy]

Looking good.. Glad your able to reuse that tank. very good cleaning job!

[Enigma]

I think the t8 would be enough for a lot of softies. You can always move them close to the top, too. NPS would be a challenge, but they would work as well.

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by Enigma

I think the t8 would be enough for a lot of softies. You can always move them close to the top, too. NPS would be a challenge, but they would work as well.

I have some pom-pom xenia that I may put a frag of into the tank, also lots of anthalia but it's too invasive (in my sump right now from a previous ill conceived tank). I'll see if I can find anything more colorful in soft corals, maybe some zoas that do well under lower light conditions. Between work, 2 dogs, fish tank, wife and 2 young girls who are into all sorts of activities I'm thinking NPS is out of the picture for me, although I love the looks of a lot of them and hope Denny goes through with his NPS plan as I would like to see a nano NPS tank!

[Boxboy]

Aggreed NPS is alot of work, but pretty dang cool looking.
Just do lots of bright pastel colors and you will be happy im sure

or set up a auto feeder for a nps tank.

[Enigma]

There are a lot of gorgeous mushrooms out there that do well in lower light. I just picked up a rock that has really lovely purple and teal mushrooms on it. I'm not sure what they are. I have a couple of rhodactis mushrooms with amazing colours (one is bright green, the other is green and orange) that I got from Snappy several months ago.

I can't keep Xenia. It melts on me. I do love it, though. Kenya trees and lots of leathers do well under lower light. You could do a softy tank, and just run lots of carbon.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

I'm thinking NPS is out of the picture for me, although I love the looks of a lot of them and hope Denny goes through with his NPS plan as I would like to see a nano NPS tank!

ill be doing it for sure , i almost am ready to give my journal a rehaul update lol i have all my nps corals ordered and the sump is almost finished,been talking with alot of azoox keeers both here and RC, im determined to make this work


loving your build so far bud keep up the good work

[intarsiabox]

Actually the 10g wasn't my first choice. I had originally wanted an AIO tank and found an 8g model at Petsmart for $100. I took it home and found that the tank was acrylic and was already scuffed up around the top and a few scratches here and there. That's when I decided that I may as well use my 10g if it's going to have scratches anyway, mind you a 10g tank is only $15 brand new at Petsmart. So I returned the AIO and got a new HOB filter, nano powerhead and a 50/50 bulb for half the price of the AIO. I'll admit that I still like the looks of the AIO's better but I'm not sure if this tank will remain set up at the end of the contest or if I'll just put all the livestock into my main tank. I was thinking of drilling the tank and using a sump but then I'd need to build a stand and buy all new plumbing parts as well as a glass cutting hole saw and since I have a 2.5g pail for water changes I figure with 25% weekly water changes is it worth the hastle of a sump on a tank that will likely have no fish in it.