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59K views 232 replies 39 participants last post by  Plugger999 
#1 ·
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 :biggrin:

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.
 
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#4 ·
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. :arg:

Here is another pic:


It's a funny view....almost double vision.
 
#12 ·
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.
 
#6 ·
cool tank! I love nano all in ones :)
 
#8 ·
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. :doh: note to self....turn lights on in the hallway when stumbling around in the middle of the night.
 
#9 ·
Todays water tests

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 :thumbup:

This patients thing sucks
 
#11 ·
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 :ac15:

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 :D )
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
 
#15 ·
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
 
#17 ·
That will be nice and tidy. Keep posting the pictures!! :beer:
 
#21 ·
They ate!!!! ........... my candy cane's ate!!!!! They haven't been looking very happy and i was begining to worry. I know I know it takes an atomic bomb to kill off a Candy Cane, but they just weren't getting puffy and happy.

This morning, i looked in the tank when i woke up and they had their tenticles out....begging for food, so i target fed them. The bunch has 10 heads (i said 12 earlier...i was wrong) and 5 of them ate.

While i was at it i fed a couple of my buttons too.....they were very excited.

Don't say it....pictures....i know, I tried with my camera the other day, but it's too dark in that room of the house, i'll pull out my husbands camera tonight and take some good photo's........hopefully my candies will be puffy and happy :)
 
#23 ·
Oh yeah...did any one mention that we need pictures!!! :blob:
 
#24 ·
PICTURES!!!!!!

One of my blue leggs:



My Candy....a left handed jumped in for his 15min of fame:



Some buttons, I fragged them so there in a few different spots in the tank....i need to move this bunch, they aren't that happy......they're in a bit of shade:



And last ......some xenia...not silver tip like i wanted but still pretty:



Full tank isn't much to look at yet......perhaps I'll buy some more fraggs this weekend and then post a whole tank shot.
 
#28 ·
these are clove polyps, same family as xenia though.
I'm with Andy on this one......I think they are the pom pom xenia, they don't have the "smooth" fingers and the green center that the clove polyp has.
 
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