# My Nano Reef



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

Hello, I began reefing in 2004 and here are some details of what I have done, and the mistakes I have made. Hopefully this information can help someone out and make their lives a lot easier!

It all started as a 10 Gallon reef in Dec of '04, my parents had a 10G that used to house gold fish years ago and so I decided since I already had the tank what more could I need to make a nano reef, boy was I surprised. Here is the very first FTS from Dec of '04:









Things I had to pickup in addition to the tank:
- Maxi-Jet 200 Power Head
- Penguin Mini HOB filter w/biowheel
- Bag of crushed coral for substrate
- Bag of salt mix
- 15 lbs uncured live rock
- 50/50 15 watt compact florescent
- Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test kit
- Thermometer
- Hydrometer
- 50 watt all-glass-aquarium heater

At this point I realized how expensive this hobby could be, and I hadn't even bought any livestock yet!

Here is a closeup of the uncured live rock: 









I bought uncured as I was going to use it to begin the cycling of the tank. In retrospect this was a huge mistake, the uncured rock introduced so many pests/algae into the tank that I would spend the next few years battling them all.

Once my water quality was looking good (about 6 weeks), I bought my first fish, a blue damsel, code named "Jerry" (Jan 2005):









It was nice to have some movement in the tank after more than a month of just looking at water circulating and checking water quality 10 times a day (I know you've all been there).

In retrospect I wouldn't of got this fish as they are incredibly aggressive and as such this prevented me from getting any other fish until Jerry passed away almost 4 years later. How did I know it was aggressive without ever buying another fish? Everything I put in that tank little Jerry would attack, snails, shrimp, everything!

Now that I had a fish and the tank was cycled I started to feel the urge to buy more and more livestock, this led me to my next mistake (Jan 2005):









That's right, a flame scallop. Now this guy was really cool, he would constantly be "walking" around the tank and it was really fun watching him to see where he would go next. Little did I know this was due to a lack of food.

This is the point where I discovered Wet Web Media, which I only wish I had found earlier. After doing some reading I unfortunately found out that buying that flame scallop was big no-no as they are almost impossible to keep in captivity...Needless to say it didn't last very long, even with me target feeding it multiple times a day in hopes of keeping it around.

After many a late night reading Wet Web Media I discovered that I should probably get this crazy contraption known as a Protein Skimmer in order to help keep my tank clean and healthy. There were only a few nano sized skimmers on the market and none of them got very good reviews, so it seamed like what most people were doing was jury rigging their skimmers to work on their nano's, or custom building their own.

I attempted to custom build my own out of a coke bottle, but it ended in disaster with water everywhere, so I scratched that idea (thank goodness I never took pics of that disaster).

Now I have no idea how I thought this would work, but at the time it was a genius idea. This is what I came up with (Jan 2005):









That is a Dolphin DP-560, rated at 560 gph, that's right, for a 10 gallon nano...

And what did this monstrosity of a pump feed you ask? Now this is hard for me to share due to the level of embarrassment, but here it is (Jan 2005):









That is the Red Sea Berlin venturi skimmer...rated for a 100 Gallon+ tank! As you could imagine the amount of flow this thing (more so the pump than skimmer) was putting back into my 10 Gallon was enough to blow everything around, not only that but it was dropping so many micro bubbles into the tank I knew it wasn't ideal. As a result that setup lasted a few days and then was packed away for a rainy day.

After all this drama with the flame scallop, and then the protein skimmer I decided to get something known to be easy for the beginner, mushrooms! I found these little gem's and added them to my little eco-system (Feb 2005):









To this day they still grace my tank with their presence, I hope to always have them, kind of a sentimental thing now.

At this point things were starting to look up for the tank as it was maturing nicely, almost a year later here is a FTS (Oct 2005):









In this picture you can see the blue damsel, a skunk cleaner, the mushroom coral, a bubble coral (love them!), and all the weird and wonderful algae that has matured with my uncured live rock. Also I upgraded those tiny 15 watt 50/50 compact florescent bulbs to a Coralife 96 Watt 50/50 PC fixture.

I love how bubble coral looks and how they move in the current, here is a close up shot showing some detail (Oct 2005):









A year later after the infamous Berlin Skimmer of 2005, I found the perfect solution to my skimming problems, straight from Germany, a Sander Piccolo (Jan 2006):









I placed it in the back of an old Aqua Clear HOB filter and it worked perfectly!

This ends the adventure of the 10 Gallon nano as it apparently sprung a leak somewhere, not bad enough to make a huge mess, but enough to realize it was leaking. You all know what this meant...time to upgrade!


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

*...and so begins the 20 Gallon Nano*

The leak in the 10 Gallon was unfortunate, but I overcame the grief by promptly purchasing a 20 Gallon replacement, I know, poor me .

Here is a FTS after I moved everything over from the 10 Gallon (Dec 2006):









New additions include:
- Maxi-Jet 400 
- Aqua Clear 110 HOB
- Aqua Clear surface skimmer
- Coralife Lunar 2 x 65 Watt PC - I would not recommend this fixture, the lunar bulbs burnt out after a few months due to corrosion by the salt 
- Trumpet Coral
- Fire Shrimp
- Open Brain Coral

With a 100% increase in tank size what completely filled my 10 Gallon barely fills up the 20, boy was I excited .

You can also still see all the red hair algae, at this point it's going on 2 years and I still couldn't shake it. From that picture you can see how sad my bubble coral was, the algae was to overwhelming for it no matter where I moved it, or how much I cleaned it, it didn't make it.

With the added space, came the *need* for more livestock so I added a scavenging serpent star that to this day still takes care of my tank when the lights go out (Dec 2006):









Here is a pic of the open brain and fire shrimp, was able to quickly snap them both together before the shrimp ran off (Dec 2006):









I just had to add some more LR now that I had the space, this time fully cured, and then further cured in buckets of tank water to ensure no issues when being added to the tank (Jan 2007):









Not much happened in 2007 due to me travelling around, and so here is an FTS from a year later (Jan 2008):









I swapped the Maxi-Jet 200 for a Hydor Koralia Nano. I highly recommend these power heads due to their small size and amazing flow pattern. Also you can really see the trumpet corals taking over!

It was 2008 when I found the absolute best algae eaters ever, the Mexican Turbo Snail (Feb 2008):









I bought two for the tank and they ate everything, every bit of algae that came at them was just mowed down. Then when they were finished they just started all over again. My tank had never been so clean.

It was also in 2008 when little Jerry finally decided to pass away after 4 long years of being king of the hill. I promptly found another tenant, a Yellow Wrasse, code named "Frank" (Dec 2008): 









Once again nothing happened with my reef for quite some time due to work, here is the tank almost a year later after a move to a new house (Aug 2009):









Now you can really see how the trumpet coral have taken over!

All was well the tank until about a year later when I came down to feed little Frank when he was no where to be found. Thinking the worst I waited a few days and still was unable to find any sign of him, at this point I had just assumed the CUC had taken care of the carcass. Then one day a few months later I was cleaning up the tank area when what did I find underneath the stand but little Frank, all dried up 

For the past two years (2008, 2009) I had been battling a bad case of aptasia and for the life of me I couldn't get rid of them. Joe's Juice, Aptasia-X, I event bought a peppermint shrimp to try to eat them all! While the chemicals did work at getting rid of them I just couldn't keep up with their growth, even the peppermint shrimp didn't seem to be helping.

Nothing worked and so that is why I stopped buying coral for risk of just having the aptasia invade them, they had taken out my open brain as it had no where to hide.

Again back to Wet Web Media I discovered that sometimes peppermint shrimp aren't really peppermint shrimp and they are infact camel back shrimp that are improperly sold as peppermint shrimp (that is a lot of shrimp for one sentence ).

So this time I went out with knowing the difference and I picked up two real peppermint shrimp, low and behold within about 6 months all of the aptasia were gone!

I also finally decided to pickup another fish to replace Frank the Yellow Wrasse and kept with the yellow theme and got a Yellow Goby, codenamed "Gerald" (April 2010):









Gerald seemed to like sitting on the trumpet coral and that is where he stayed, I don't think I saw him move even once during the short time I had him. Within 4 or so months he disappeared as well without any rhyme or reason.

This brings me to today, no more aptasia, but overrun with trumpet coral! Which has led me to find this forum in the hopes of trading some trumpet coral for something else. Stay tuned for my thread in the BST section!

Rob


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

I think the biggest fascination with aquariums is seeing what the livestock will do next. Here is a picture of some astrea snails I bought a few weeks back, poor guy on the top must be wondering what the heck is going on:


----------



## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

lol that was very entertaining, thanks for sharing your experiences with us.


----------



## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

Thanks for sharing your story! And welcome to the forums!

PM my buddy here Explor3r, I'm sure he'll have something to trade for some frags of your trumpet corals.


----------



## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

That was a great story. I liked the codenames. I guess "the names of the fishies have been altered to protect them from " ... who?


----------



## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

Nice journal....

Surprised you were able to keep such a simple tank for so long.. im always looking to "add something else"


----------



## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

Awesome storyline!

Now I have some idea for mine.


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

I'm glad you all found it enjoyable, it sure brought a smile to my face writing and remember it all. I didn't even realize I so many pictures at the time. 

Part of why I sought out a forum like this was to find someone to trade frags with, I hate the idea of bringing them to an LFS and getting robbed...


----------



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Ha! Love the thread :3 I wish I was still into SW. Someday soon :3


----------



## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

wonderful thread! I have a 10 gallon nano with a planned upgrade to a 25 gallon fully plummed. I may frag my chalice in coming weeks, I would trade some for torch at some point, or some of those charming mushrooms. 

I felt quite excited reading your experiances. It is exciting, especially when you get your feet wet. My original tank was a 5 gallon, but it, like yours, sprung a leak. My leak occured in its early life, but the tank crashed when I moved it to the 10. rescue action saved all but my pulsating xenia. Still in the 10, but when I move to teh 25 I wilL Have it up and running long before then.


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

Ciddian said:


> Ha! Love the thread :3 I wish I was still into SW. Someday soon :3


Thanks! I like your signature about the wee turtles. I've had my RES, Marge, ever since I won her back in elementary school when she was our class pet!



Sunstar said:


> wonderful thread! I have a 10 gallon nano with a planned upgrade to a 25 gallon fully plummed. I may frag my chalice in coming weeks, I would trade some for torch at some point, or some of those charming mushrooms.
> 
> I felt quite excited reading your experiances. It is exciting, especially when you get your feet wet. My original tank was a 5 gallon, but it, like yours, sprung a leak. My leak occured in its early life, but the tank crashed when I moved it to the 10. rescue action saved all but my pulsating xenia. Still in the 10, but when I move to teh 25 I wilL Have it up and running long before then.


The jump from 10 to 20 for me was huge! I guess technically it is a 100% size increase, I loved all the extra room to play around with.


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

After reading some threads on this forum I was led to Sea U Marine up in Markham and wow do they have some good prices compared to the big box competition...

Picked up some small additions to my CUC that I've never been able to get before; beginning with the bee-you-ti-full Electric Blue Legged Hermit Crab:









I got two of these guys and oddly enough they are very timid compared to the standard Blue Legged Hermit Crabs, I love how the colour of their legs just pop given the contrast between black and blue.

To help with stirring up the sand bed I got two of these guys:









The Astrea snail was just along for the ride, the real focus is on the Cerith snail. It's amazing how their small little sticky pad (or whatever it's called) is able to move such a long shell around. One of them keeps buryng itself in the sand bed and so I only hope it's still going strong!

Next are some Trochus snails that were *supposed* to be the heavyweight in the CUC:









Can you see it hiding behind that Astrea snail? Again I got two of them (I like getting doubles ) and while they are cool to watch when they fall on their backs since they do this little swinging motion to right themselves, I don't think they've actually eaten any algae 

There was a forth addition, a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, codenamed Marcus...however he didn't make it. After nearly two weeks I thought he was going strong (was very little), and then today he just slowly walked out from behind the rock work and fell down. I thought maybe he was trying to molt and was just having a hard time, but then when I saw the hermit crabs going at him I knew it was the end. After making dinner and looking at the tank there was no sign he was ever around...and so is the circle of life...


----------



## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I thinkI have one of those....Trochous snails. 

I SO want one of those electric blue hermits. they're STUNNING. I have about 7 hermit craabs m ost have upgraded shells. bottom of my tank is littered with shell home potentials. big ones, small ones....all shapes and sizes. shame about your skunk cleaner. but at least the hermits did their job. I had a hermit on one of the snails today eating the algae off its back. Needless to say the snail was trying to shake the crab off, but the crab continued with his nomming and totally cleaned the shell off. they are SO worth it.


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

Does your Trochus actually eat algae 

The Electric Blue Hermit Crabs, herein referred to as EBHC's don't appear to be eating much algae either, could I of got some dud's of a CUC?

Regardless they are cool to watch and don't fight with my other HC's so I won't complain *too* much...


----------



## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

Hermits will eat more then just algae, they cleanup alot of other wastes....

I find Astrea snails to be my algae eaters... slow, but they will clean a rock like no other


----------



## sinner (Sep 25, 2010)

rrobbiiee said:


> Does your Trochus actually eat algae
> 
> The Electric Blue Hermit Crabs, herein referred to as EBHC's don't appear to be eating much algae either, could I of got some dud's of a CUC?
> 
> Regardless they are cool to watch and don't fight with my other HC's so I won't complain *too* much...


im not sure what my Trochus's eat but man they are FAST for a snail.


----------



## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

could you provide some price info on your CUC from SUM?


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

PACMAN said:


> could you provide some price info on your CUC from SUM?


Everything was $1.50 each, seems to be their flat rate for standard CUC...


----------



## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

rrobbiiee said:


> Everything was $1.50 each, seems to be their flat rate for standard CUC...


that's pretty darn good to me!
I will have to take a trip down there sometime soon!


----------



## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

at b ig als back in october I got 3 hermits for 1.99 so I got 6 then I got my snails including the big one also for 1.99


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

Sunstar said:


> at b ig als back in october I got 3 hermits for 1.99 so I got 6 then I got my snails including the big one also for 1.99


$1.99 for three BLHC's? That is pretty good!


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

I don't know how this guy made it this far without me finding him:









I really hate these guys, one of the joys of uncured live rock


----------



## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Looks like a bristle worm...what's wrong with that?


----------



## rrobbiiee (Dec 4, 2010)

The big ones like that are really aggressive in my tank. I've seen them eat hermit crabs, snails, shrimp...Who knows what else!


----------

