9 gal nano reef build

[Ausfish]

Hi, first of all, this is my first post on aa so hi all!!

I have been keeping freshwater fish and cichlids for years and will start a separate thread on my 55g Malawi in due time 

About a month ago I set up one of my spare tanks as a 9 gal nano reef. This is the current stock:

1 black/white clown
1 lawnmower blennie
1 banded shrimp
3 snails

I am still taking it slow so I only have 4 or 5 different colored mushrooms in there, they are doing very well though!

To the tank:

3kg live rock
Wet/dry filter, 250l/h. I'm thinking of replacing it with a eheim canister that is not in use. Alternatively I was thinking about a HOB fuge, that I'd have to buy though. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

1 300l/h power head

Lighting came with 1 compact 11w bulb, I took the lid apart and added another fixture and ballast, now I have 2 blue/white bulbs in there, 22w for the 9g. It's on a timer set on 8hrs/day.

I have a good current in the tank and the everything is doing well. The little bit of hair algae that grew during the cycling is now the blennie's prime food source! 

I will post some pics if I can work out how very soon.

1 things that seem a bit odd though: the blennie usually sits on rocks and looks cheeky, if he doesn't do that he takes care of my algae. When the lights go off he goes to the top of the tank though and sits on the power head with his tail sticking out of the water. Is that normal?


Thanks for your answers, dom

 

[Ausfish]

Those are taken with my iPhone so excuse the quality. I'll get my slr out soon and post a FTS 

 

[Ausfish]

Seems like there's a tiny bit of red hair algae growing since yesterday, any thoughts on how to battle that or does this come with a new tank anyway? Cheers

 

[Ausfish]

Anybody?

 

[mandarinlove]

What kind of water are you using, tap water?

 

[Ausfish]

Bottled spring water to top it off and purchased salt water from the lfs. About 25% pwc weekly

 

[Ausfish]

Oh yeah, salinity is 1,025 and ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are 0. Light is on a timer for 8 hours a day

 

[mandarinlove]

I would avoid any type of water other than RO/DI water. The HOB fuge would be a great idea for that type of tank. A new tank is always going to go through some algae blooms even if you are doing everything perfect. I don't know much about canister filters I have never used them. Make sure you have water movement on the top of the water to help with the Oxygen in the tank as well. What is the temperature of the tank?

 

[kaiofcanada]

wow...you set this up in one month? how did you cycle your tank so fast?

I am just setting up my 10g. Very excited. Mixed water two days ago and picking out some base rock and live rock today

 

[Mr. Crabs]

The spring water may have quite a bit of phosphates/silicates in it that lead to an algae bloom. It's completely normal to have the cycle of the tank cause a "cycle" of algae as well. It goes away over time. If you don't have an RO/DI system, you might want to buy DISTILLED water at the grocery store over Spring Water to top off.

 

[Ausfish]

I may have made myself misunderstood, I put my first coral and the clean up crew in a month ago, but only after it was cycled!!

Thanks for all the answers! I will be sure to buy distilled water instead of spring water from now on. Unfortunately I can't get a hold of ro water and my tank is too small to justify my own unit.

My blenny and the snails are working day and night to keep the algae in check. This morning I had a bit of a scare since the only thing I could find in my tank was my shrimp's skeleton. I haven't found the rest yet but I didn't really have time to look either. Work sucks!

I searched all over for my blenny and he was "half out" of the tank! It's a closed unit but there is a small opening where the power head pumps water on to the wet/dry that sits on top of the tank. When he saw me he gave me a funny look and jumped back in. I'll make sure to seal that opening somehow tonight!

The temp in my tank is 26C.

What kind of light would you recommend for a aquaclear?

Cheers dom

 

[mandarinlove]

If you are talking about a refugium, this is a good light to use if you can think about HOW to use it.

Amazon.com: JBJ Nano Glo LED Refugium Light: Electronics

 

[Ausfish]

Some good news: I came home from work and my peppermint shrimp was waiting for me! I fed them some NLS marine micro pellets and both fish and the shrimp happily chased them through the current!

As far as my fuge goes, I'm torn between an aqua clear 70 and a diy version of a fuge made out of acrylic. Unfortunately ac's are very expensive in Australia and amazon doesn't ship them over here so I'm looking for alternatives. I found some very interesting diy projects of sump-like refugiums that stand behind the tank. The big plus would be the huge increase in water volume. Now I just have to find a good source of acrylic in Sydney and I shall get started

If somebody has plans or CAD drawings of a DIY fuge I'd be eternally grateful!

The light looks really good. I'll see how I can incorporate an led lighting system into my project.

 

[Ausfish]

Hey!

I came up with a quick draft of my fuge idea. I know, I may have to post this in the DIY section to get the right people to comment...

After countless hours spent reading articles and youtube, I feel like this should work!

What are your thoughts? It's going to stand behind the tank, a small powerhead inside the display will pump water in which will gravity feed back into the tank.

What I'm really interested in are your thoughts on your skimmer. an air-stone and a nice snug collection cup should do the trick, at least on paper...


Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[mandarinlove]

You need to make sure that if you have a power outage your "gravity" idea is not going to send all of the water out of your tank and on to the floor. What do you plan on putting in the fuge? What about a light? What about the rate of water flow from the tank to the fuge?

 

[Ausfish]

Thanks for all your replies!

The Filter unit is going to stand just behind the tank. IF the pump fails it won't pump any more water into the filter, no water will "gravity feed" back into the display tank. The only source of problems is if the red mesh gets clogged. then the pump would flood the filter.

I was planning on a deep sand bed and micro-algae. As far as lighting goes, I'll pick one out once I specify the exact dimensions of the system and do a proper CAD drawing. (I have an electrical background so I might just put together a quick LED system, I've always been interested in those) Once I did that I'll know the total Volume of the system, the water flow will be 10-15x the total filter volume per hour.

Do you think the skimmer would work like that? Many nano-reefers tell me you don't need a skimmer on a tank that small so I might just forget about it altogether!?

 

[mandarinlove]

I use a protein skimmer in my 30 gallon and it makes a difference. I can tell you one thing, it will not hurt anything if you have one. The protein skimmer takes all the bad bacteria and prevents it from turning into nitrates in the tank. Having a smaller tank you are doing more frequent water changes so that's why people say you don't need to have one. I use the bio cube protein skimmer, it's cheap and it's effective. I've been using it for two years and my tank is flawless. It sounds like you have a great plan for the refugium, make sure you take pictures in the process of putting it together!

Another thing also, make sure you have some sort of water movement at the top of the tank for oxygen. You never want bubbles in the tank, but water movement at the top of the tank will really help the fish out. If you want to buy a nano koralia pump to help with that you can. Most corals love water movement, not all though.

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.c...pcatid=21970&cmpid=03csems&ref=4624&subref=AA

Make sure you are not overfeeding your fish also, that will cause bad bacteria in the tank. You should be feeding them once every other day and if you are using frozen fish food, make sure you rinse it off to get all the chemicals off before putting it in the tank.

 

[carey]

I've run with and without a skimmer. I can't argue that it's useless or anything but if you keep up on your water changes you won't need one in such a small tank.

I'm running a 4g pico now and as long as I take a few cups of water out every few days and replace- the corals seem to be thriving.

Do you have the tank already? Any pics? And what are you planning on keeping in it?

 

[Ausfish]

There are a couple of pictures on page 1 of this thread. At the moment I have a black/white osc. Clown, a lawnmower blennie, a peppermint shrimp and a few snails. Also 4 kinds of mushrooms to see how they like the lighting. They seem to be doing quite well

I am dreaming of a pair of clowns but I know that that would push a 9 gallon past it's limits. Please correct me if I'm wrong because the child inside me really wants to give my clown a partner!

I will definitely build the fuge in a way to keep all options open. I have a feeling though that before I build the skimmer I have to read a bit more on the theoretical background to give myself a good shot at a successful DIY project. But I guess thats the whole fun of it

 

[carey]

I think your stocked pretty heavily for the 9g. I wish anothe clown would fit but he won't. The blenny will get kinda large, I have one myself.

But theres always an upgrade in the future! LOL