Regi's 8g nano build exstravaganza !!!!

[reginanmc]

In the words of Timon (Lion King) "IT STARTS"

Tonight I started to build my tank. It's an 8 gallon Oceanic. It's currently being set up at my house, but it's final resting place will be my office. I won't add any fish until it moves to my office. But I will be adding corals and inverts as soon as the tank is ready...I've already laid claim on some button polyps from my husbands tank

Today the tank got water, salt, and sand. One of our local reef stores is getting a shipment of live rock in on Wednesday, so I'll add live rock in a few days.

Here are a pic....not much to look at yet:



I'll post a pic w/ sand tomorrow..after the water settles.

[dobejazz]

Congrats !! Looks like a cute little tank

[Sndwave80]

Keep us posted. Looks nice

[reginanmc]

Day 2:

Last night I added an approximately 2" sand bed. Tonight, I purchased some rubble rock and put it in the overflow chamber to replace the "bio balls" the tank came with. While getting the rubble, Danyen (my husband) found a small piece LR that was pretty cool looking, so we got that too. I also threw a few other pieces of rubble in the tank while it cycles.

Tomorrow I'm going to get the LR for the tank....I'm very nervous about buying LR.....I don't know why, I just am, it's like I'm feeling pressure (self created pressure) to find the "perfect" LR.

Here is another pic:


It's a funny view....almost double vision.

[reginanmc]

We have live rock people

It's 8lbs, so far we have found 2 hitchhikers, one was a worm (i caught it and got rid of it) and a feather duster.....which is happily living in the front of the tank.

[Kyuss]

cool tank! I love nano all in ones

[Loverotties]

Thats neat! how much light does it have?

[reginanmc]

Lights: Two power compacts, one 18watt 10,000k florescent and one 18watt actinic. And an LED moon light.

oh and we found a great use for the "bio balls" the tank came with, our cat LOVES playing with them. Put I can tell you, they are not fun to step on. note to self....turn lights on in the hallway when stumbling around in the middle of the night.

[reginanmc]

Ammonia has been at 0 for about 4 days
Nitrite is at .25, been there for about 6 days
Nitrate is at 0

I'm going to scrub the rock tomorrow, and let it cook for another few days. Then maybe Sunday I'll test again and possibly do a 100% water change.

then it will be time to add a coral

This patients thing sucks

[dobejazz]

Originally Posted by reginanmc

This patients thing sucks

[reginanmc]

Alright, sorry no recent updates........I fell victin to Strep Throat last week and was down for the count. I wasn't however to sick to continue testing my water. I'm happy to report that last Friday my tank was officially CYCLED

So ver the weekend as i started to feel better, I did my 100% water change and added a few inhabitants:

3 Astrea snails
1 left handed hermit (I hijacked him from my husbands tank )
Candy Cane with 12 heads
1 hitchhiking starfish
1 nassarius Snail

I was SO excited when i found the starfish. However after doing some research about said starfish I found that it is NOT a good starfish, it's an Asterina (Figi) Starfish, known to eat corals.......zoas, greenstar polyp etc... When i found this out, I went to dispose of the pest and it had already disappeared into my eco-system. I'm keeping an eye out and will get rid of it as soon as it resurfaces.

My current wish list includes:

Inverts:
1-2 blue leg Hermits
1-2 Scarlet Hermits
1 sexy shrimp
1 scarlet shrimp

Corals:
Ricordia
mushrooms
Zoas
green star polyp ( i want to put this on that top shelf piece, so it looks like grass)
I would really like some Pulsing Xenia (silver tip) or some Kenya Tree......i'm just not sure how it will do in this small tank.

I'm really trying to think through where I want each coral to go, you know, be strategic about placement so as to make it pleasing to the eye....not just a bunch of corals thrown in a tank. Because of this, I will be moving slow at adding coral.

Let me know if you think any of the above inhabitants wouldn't live well together.

Well that's about it for today, sorry no pics (I know posts are boring without them) I'm going to get some pictures today and post them in the next day or two.

Thanks for reading,

Regi

[seasalt dreams]

Originally Posted by reginanmc

Day 2:

Tonight, I purchased some rubble rock and put it in the overflow chamber to replace the "bio balls" the tank came with.

Bad Idea, I did the same and it crashed my tank only weeks later. My nitrates spiked to over 60ppm, and it turned out the rock rubble was the cause. They act the same as bio-balls. I have since removed the rock rubble and done a couple large water changes and all has stabilized.

[reginanmc]

Yeah....I've been reading around on another forum at fuge mods........i decided a few days ago that I'm going to go that way, so i can try to avoid a possible nitrate spike.

[seasalt dreams]

I learned the hard way

[reginanmc]

OK, the nano build starts tomorrow. Since the annoucment of the build I have not done and mods or made and additions to my tank.....i thought it was a more fair that way, since i'm one of teh people that fall into the started my tank early catagory. All I have done is my water changes. This weekend I'll post my tank current stats, inhabitants and anticipated mods.

This is my first SW tank, I'm very excited to part of a build-off :-)


Peace,
Regi