# 16 gallon setup



## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

This tank was set up about a year ago. It currently houses 2 ocellaris clowns and 1 azure damsel.

Boxing Day 2010: First piece of live rock









A couple weeks later, got a 2nd piece of live rock









The tanks has been running for 7 weeks now, see how tiny the clown was then









New mangroves









Weird things are starting to grow...

















Mangrove grew its first set of leaves









Clowns fooling around

































More live rocks, and an new addition to the tank









I use a 23W CFL for lighting on cloudy days and during the shorter winter days









What is this?









Getting along well, at least for now... 

















On a sunny Saturday morning


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## Cypher (Apr 15, 2006)

Very cool Sun! I like the fuzzy straight type of cheato you have growing on the rocks, looks almost like a grass. Also, that thing you were wondering about is actually a small feather duster - harmless, eats particulate matter in the water column. 

Nice to see the azure out and about - he actually looks better in your tank with all that natural light! Adorable oce pair btw.


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## Syed (Oct 20, 2010)

Love the clowns clowning around lol. 

Also liking the whole planted setting. I personally love freshwater planted tanks so I'm glad to see a Saltwater version of it.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Cypher said:


> Very cool Sun! I like the fuzzy straight type of cheato you have growing on the rocks, looks almost like a grass. Also, that thing you were wondering about is actually a small feather duster - harmless, eats particulate matter in the water column.
> 
> Nice to see the azure out and about - he actually looks better in your tank with all that natural light! Adorable oce pair btw.


Thanks Kyle! Now if only I could figure out how to get the straight chaeto to grow as fast as the curly ones, lol.

Thanks for the ID, I wasn't sure if it was featherduster or aiptasia. This one has tiny feather-like "hairs" and not just tentacles, so I was hoping it was featherduster as well.



syed said:


> Love the clowns clowning around lol.
> 
> Also liking the whole planted setting. I personally love freshwater planted tanks so I'm glad to see a Saltwater version of it.


Thanks! I was actually surprised at how well chaeto grows with just natural sunlight and the occasional supplemental lighting. Too well, actually. I had other kinds of algae growing before, but they seem to have all been crowded out by chaeto. At least that big ball serves as a perfect refuge for pods of all kinds.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

Syed said:


> Love the clowns clowning around lol.
> 
> Also liking the whole planted setting. I personally love freshwater planted tanks so I'm glad to see a Saltwater version of it.


Yeah, I noticed the "saltwater planted" look- don't see it around much, but you did a good job of it! Do you plan on adding more macroalgaes for more diversity on the greenery? or trying to add corals too?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

50seven said:


> Yeah, I noticed the "saltwater planted" look- don't see it around much, but you did a good job of it! Do you plan on adding more macroalgaes for more diversity on the greenery? or trying to add corals too?


Honestly, I'm torn.

Because of the shape and size of this tank, there is a lot of evaporation. The salinity tends to vary between 30 and 35 ppt. Plus, the temperature varies a bit too, between 75F to 78F, up to 80F on warmer days. Not sure if this is okay for corals.

Ideally, I would like to get a bigger setup with a proper sump/refugium where I can put all the chaeto, and enough water for stable parameters.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

solarz said:


> Honestly, I'm torn.
> 
> Because of the shape and size of this tank, there is a lot of evaporation. The salinity tends to vary between 30 and 35 ppt. Plus, the temperature varies a bit too, between 75F to 78F, up to 80F on warmer days. Not sure if this is okay for corals.
> 
> Ideally, I would like to get a bigger setup with a proper sump/refugium where I can put all the chaeto, and enough water for stable parameters.


I can see that would be an issue. I suppose that the amount of macroalgae in the tank helps to stabilize some of the other water parameters, but you're right- a larger water volume will help to stabilize things if you want to get into corals.

Enjoy it for what it is right now I suppose!


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Added 2 cleaner shrimps:




























The tank after a major trim back of chaeto:


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

solarz said:


> Honestly, I'm torn.
> Ideally, I would like to get a bigger setup with a proper sump/refugium where I can put all the chaeto, and enough water for stable parameters.


It will solve many problems.

These clowns are beautiful together

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## ozi (Aug 23, 2007)

I suggest you move your rocks around until you end up with a more spread-out rock-scape. You want to do that to avoid the so called dead-zones that occur when there is little or no water flow in some areas of the tank. The way you have your rocks now, you encourage no flow through them, which causes dead-spots and perfect traps for detritus, which increase your nutrients levels and hence the cyano.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ozi said:


> I suggest you move your rocks around until you end up with a more spread-out rock-scape. You want to do that to avoid the so called dead-zones that occur when there is little or no water flow in some areas of the tank. The way you have your rocks now, you encourage no flow through them, which causes dead-spots and perfect traps for detritus, which increase your nutrients levels and hence the cyano.


Actually, I don't use any kind of mechanical filtration, so it really doesn't matter whether the detritus gets trapped in rocks or floats around in water. 

I've had BGA before, when I had only 2 pieces of live rock. You can see the beginning of it in the Feb 13, 2011 pic. It lasted for a long while, even after I got chaeto to reduce nitrates. However, eventually it disappeared on its own.

The current bout of cyano happened when I added the extra live rocks and got a small nitrate spike. The nitrates are back to 0, but the cyano remains. I think it will disappear on its own as well.


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## ozi (Aug 23, 2007)

If things were only that simple, we would all have tons of live rock and no sort of other filtration what-so-ever. But if you skim the net for successful saltwater setups you will notice that they all have their rock-scape pretty aired out and spread apart, not clustered together in a big pile.
I believe in your case it's even more important since you don't have other filtration (except biological). Also the surface doesn't seem to be sufficiently agitated, which causes poorly oxygened water, coupled with low flow through the rockscape, resulting in inefficient biological filtration (which is probably done more by the algae than the rock in your case). 
Obviously you will do what you want with your own tank.  I was only providing a friendly suggestion.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ozi said:


> If things were only that simple, we would all have tons of live rock and no sort of other filtration what-so-ever. But if you skim the net for successful saltwater setups you will notice that they all have their rock-scape pretty aired out and spread apart, not clustered together in a big pile.
> I believe in your case it's even more important since you don't have other filtration (except biological). Also the surface doesn't seem to be sufficiently agitated, which causes poorly oxygened water, coupled with low flow through the rockscape, resulting in inefficient biological filtration (which is probably done more by the algae than the rock in your case).
> Obviously you will do what you want with your own tank.  I was only providing a friendly suggestion.


No no, I understand and I appreciate the suggestions. 

However, from my personal observations, things are a bit different.

For example, my water pH is 8.8+, and I don't add any kind of additives to the water. Researching on the net, I found that the most likely scenario is CO2 depletion, courtesy of my chaeto. This means that the water must be pretty saturated in oxygen, so I'm not really worried in that regard. If anything, I could wish there was more CO2 in the tank so I'd get a normal pH reading...

I've tried lowering the water level to increase surface agitation, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. If the chaeto growth is being limited by CO2, then it's possible that anything sort of CO2 injection isn't going to change the pH.

I also think that due to the small size of the tank, the koralia powerhead should be sufficient to create water movement throughout the tank. I believe it's rated for 240 gph. Add that to the 160 gph from the HOB, I would have a turnover rate of 400 gph with ~15 gallons of water (maybe less even).

The reason I don't use any mechanical filtration is that I found it trapped way more sand than debris.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Some updates:

I had gotten tired of having chaeto in my tank, so I bought an AC 110 and is using that as a chaeto refugium. I keep playing around with the rock work, I think I might have too much rock for this tank.


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## Syed (Oct 20, 2010)

Nice clowns. Have they laid eggs yet?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Syed said:


> Nice clowns. Have they laid eggs yet?


Nah, I don't think they're old enough for that yet. They're not fully grown yet.


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## lichengjohn (Mar 14, 2012)

Great set up with some naturely system. Realy like your deep sand bed and mangrove looks cool!!! Havent seen this plant in Toronto, where did you buy this?? Hope to get it Lol


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

Awesome macro tank!
If you want to trade a bit of your cool grass-like macro for a pretty big chunk of botryocladia, let me know next time you're coming downtown.


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