CherylMcKay's 2012 Nano Contest Entry

[CherylMcKay]

So, the first livestock order is in. I have ordered a maroon clown goby, a green clown goby and 6 narcissus snails.

They should be here next week.... Pictures to follow.

I also ordered the ATO for it as well. I am getting there!

[CherylMcKay]

Here is the required full tank shot with the rock and the sand.



and another a little closer

[CherylMcKay]

Well, holidays are great. When we head back to Whitehorse, we have a full day of shopping in Vancouver. I have decided to look at some more livestock for this Nano.

I haven't decided what as I don't know what I will be able to get. I will enjoy being able to see the livestock, in the LFS and make choices based on how healthy the look.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by CherylMcKay

Well, holidays are great. When we head back to Whitehorse, we have a full day of shopping in Vancouver. I have decided to look at some more livestock for this Nano.

I haven't decided what as I don't know what I will be able to get. I will enjoy being able to see the livestock, in the LFS and make choices based on how healthy the look.

Glad your holidays are going well, have fun looking and shopping at the LFS there

[CherylMcKay]

So, update time. I haven't seen the green clown goby since I have been back from holidays so I think he is gone.... Lost some snails as well. The tank was overfeed and full of algae, which I expected. A few water changes later it is starting to clear up, Nitrates are dropping, ammonia is gone and algae growth has slowed.

I had found a little HOB skimmer before I left in Jan and put it on but really didn't have time to get it dialed in properly. It is working well now and it seems to be steadily pulling crap out of the water. You can see the ATO pump up front and the live rock back section is the actual sump with live rock , heater, skimmer and pump.


I moved some livestock from home as I am fixing the big tank at home. A couple of snails and one Orange mushroom. The ones I had in there orginally seem to be doing okay. I haven't seen my Green Star Polyps since I have been back but it doesn't look like they are total dead, just hiding. Hopefully the water changes will start affecting them soon.


I have put in my coral order today, and they will all go in this tank for now. Once they start to grow then I will look at moving some to the 150 Gallon at home. I forgot how expensive shipping is... and I really need to either travel to Calgary more or find a cheaper way to do it. I have ordered:

Blue Ridge-Heliopora Coerulea x2
Branching Green Hammer
3 diffrent Zoa frags
Sulawesi Living Lava

They were all listed as novice-intermediate so i figured it was a good place to start.

Here is the fts and one with the stand and everything.

[CherylMcKay]

I would like to start by saying I had lots of fun doing this. I realize that I either need to get much more verbose or start getting a little more high tech with my builds.

All contestants have beautiful tanks and your pictures amazing me. You all set a high bar for me (and everyother noob) to strive for. Now on with the entry:

So the coral for my tank arrived a few weeks ago and I have been waiting to take pictures for a couple of reasons. It showed up really cold, and I wasn't sure if it was going to make it. I acclimatized it for most of a day and so far so good. The other issue I found last week was that my refractometer was off by about 10 points. So my salinity was quite low.

The coral is hanging on and I am hoping with some stability and time they will do okay. Of course the mushrooms are fine... they are so resilient.


Zoa's & Hammer:

The Zoa's were open in the first week, but 2 of them now have closed up over the week I brought the salinity back up to 1.026 from about 1.016. I am waiting to see if they start opening again. If not, I will take them home and put them in the 75 gallon to see if that is a better fit for them. The hammer started out really retracted, and seems much better now. I have more hope for it then I did the first week.
I think the other coral is still holding it's own but I am not sure as I have never seen any live coral of these types to verify it's health. Pictures of healthy coral on line are great but .... judging the inbetween is hard.
Sulawesi Living Lava-20130315.
It is really hard to get a picture of the color right. It is a dark dusky rose color with some yellow threaded through. I can see where a little bit of the flesh has pulled back from one corner, so I am assuming it is still alive.

The Blue Ridge-Heliopora Coerulea - 20130315
It is a nice brown color, the picture is really yellow, but I don't see the little polyps that I see in pictures on the website. Hopefully it will purple up a bit and I will start seeing polyps.

I have a black clown and a misbar orange clown. They are both rescues that couldn't go in the tank at home. I will eventually like to re-home these two and change out the live stock I have in this tank to some small gobies or look at having this as a shrimp tank in the future.


I think I have progressed pass the beginner stages of having just a filter on my tanks and my plumbing prowress has increased but I still haven't jumped into alot of equipment on this tank. It has the skimmer, an ato and Cheato in the back... that is it, no reactors or other dosing automation. I will continure to do water changes every 8 days or so. Dosing will be my next step but I will make that decision if I find I need to but I really need to keep this simple so if I am away, my co-workers can maintain it.

I had fun with this contest, I will definately do one again. Good luck everyone.

[The Grizz]

Glad to see you hung in there Cheryl, I find the nanos are a harder tank to maintain since water volume is so small and when things go wrong it doesnt take much to have major issues. Coral look like they will survive due to the care you took to acclimate them, nice job

[CherylMcKay]

Originally Posted by pinkreef

is the sump located behind the wall and connected to the nano?

The sump is in the stand below. The return pipe is at the back