Retro Nano 5 Gallon update new pics

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
What kind of algae is that bloom on your sandbed?? I have what appears to be identical... It's been a battle. Dyno maybe??
 
I think it may be Cyanobacteria as the tank is cycling since its a new setup so to speak, even though the rocks was from a cycled tank the sand was not.
 
Nice set up!! How long have been set it up?! And very nice long tentacle anemone, well thats what it looks !! Heheh!! Very good work have you done!!
 
Zeroblake, thank you for the kind words...


The little stainless steel tank has been set up for just a little over a month now. The tank itself is fifty plus years old and was in my parents attic.

The live rock I used for the tank was from a larger tank I took down, so it helped cycle this little five gallon tank in no time at all.
The Ocellaris (sp?) Clownfish was also In the bigger tank and was hosted in that tank by a Rose tipped anemone that I transferred to my sixty gallon reef tank. The Long Tentacled anemone is from my LFS and in his tank was greener in color but in this tank has turned a pinkish color and has green tips and has grown bigger than it was in the LFS.

I'd have to attribute the tanks success thus far to, #1. The clean up crew, that being a red legged hermit crab, an emerald crab, a tiger or some call them bumblebee snail, a conch snail, and also a turbo snail. #2, the transfer of the established live rock and water from my 60 gallon reef, and lastly #2 to strict regiment of 20% water changes every week. Of course the basics of adequate filtration, in this case a back pack power filter with sacks of Pure-Chem Elite activated carbon, and Purigen for organic pollution removal as well as phosphates and nitrate removal. And also adequate water movement with the power head you see in the picture.

Here's a You Tube link to a video I have on it's initial set up...

http://youtu.be/OuTKMwbRhuw
 
Zeroblake, thank you for the kind words...

The little stainless steel tank has been set up for just a little over a month now. The tank itself is fifty plus years old and was in my parents attic.

The live rock I used for the tank was from a larger tank I took down, so it helped cycle this little five gallon tank in no time at all.
The Ocellaris (sp?) Clownfish was also In the bigger tank and was hosted in that tank by a Rose tipped anemone that I transferred to my sixty gallon reef tank. The Long Tentacled anemone is from my LFS and in his tank was greener in color but in this tank has turned a pinkish color and has green tips and has grown bigger than it was in the LFS.

I'd have to attribute the tanks success thus far to, #1. The clean up crew, that being a red legged hermit crab, an emerald crab, a tiger or some call them bumblebee snail, a conch snail, and also a turbo snail. #2, the transfer of the established live rock and water from my 60 gallon reef, and lastly #2 to strict regiment of 20% water changes every week. Of course the basics of adequate filtration, in this case a back pack power filter with sacks of Pure-Chem Elite activated carbon, and Purigen for organic pollution removal as well as phosphates and nitrate removal. And also adequate water movement with the power head you see in the picture.

Here's a You Tube link to a video I have on it's initial set up...

http://youtu.be/OuTKMwbRhuw

Hey buddy I'm back!! :)

I want to ask you some thing, I never used pure-chem elite and purigen I'm working in a 30 gallons project and i want to have the highest water quality for the reef project that I have in mind.

My tank is a Micro Nuvo 30 gallons and the filtration system is good, but I going to make some changes adding a small refugium, Skimmer and a media reactor but I don't know what to use in this one, GFO , Media pellets or just carbon media, I'm looking for some info about it.

That's why I want to ask to persons with experience like you Buddy.

Thank you very much!!
 
Sorry, I've not used either the GFO, nor media reactors that you've mentioned. My Odyssea 60 gallon tank has been very successful a little after one and half years since setup. I am using a deep sand sugar size aragonite in it, which took about a year to get to the point where it denitrifies. That is completely turns an ammonia to nitrites, to nitrates' that convert to nitrogen gas that escapes to atmosphere. I have a small in tank protein skimmer in the tank. I am using the stock overhead filtration system it came with and have sacks of chem-pure elite, purigen, and phos-sorb sandwiched in between sheet type media.

I am blessed in that I live in an area where I just use tap water, that being deep well water that naturally has high pH (8.2), and high alkalinity (8-11 dkh), and is disinfected by ozone (no chlorine or chloramines.)

I have over a dozen fish, about a dozen soft corals, and over a dozen invertebrates all thriving in the tank. I limit my water changes to 5-10 % every 2-3 weeks depending on test results for nitrate levels mainly. I don't test for phosphates, if I see any signs of excess algae then I replace the phos-sorb. I only add dkh buffer as needed (rarely), magnesium 2 x week, and Kent reef essential trace elements weekly. I rarely have to add calcium, but when dips below 400, I add Brightwell Calc-Ion.
 
Here's some pics of the B60 ...

ForumRunner_20130526_053156.jpg



ForumRunner_20130526_053029.jpg



ForumRunner_20130526_053101.jpg



ForumRunner_20130526_052805.jpg



ForumRunner_20130526_052837.jpg
 

Attachments

  • ForumRunner_20130526_053129.jpg
    ForumRunner_20130526_053129.jpg
    60.8 KB · Views: 133
Sorry, some pics posted upside down...

Hey buddy thank you very much for the info.

You're lucky guy having that type of water to use for your tanks, where I live the water is clean but not like that I use a Ro/Di system as my primary filtration for the water for my tanks.

I've been interesting in use the puri-chem and the other in my main tank to have a better quality of water to keep healthy and happy my anemones, and more now that my clownfish finally hosted the anemone, that's cool I've never thought to see it in my own tank, I wait almost month and a half to my clown hosted.

I'm gonna try to buy it and use it and see the difference with that, another thing do i have to use carbon media as to keep without smelling the water or the purigen helps to prevent that??

Thank you buddy for your help and support. Have a great Holliday !!

Nice pictures by the way!! I like the your main tank'
 
Thanks, the Purigen really helps...

Here's a newer pic of the tank

Hello again!!

Today I found a Fish Store that sell singles bags of purigen , also phos guard and I bought both.
In the next filter maintenance I'll add the purigen and see how this media works in my tank.

Nice picture!' Do you have a Carpet anemone??
 
Thanks, no Carpet Anemone though. In the 60 gallon are two small Rose Tipped Anemones, and an Atlantic Purple Tipped Anemone, and in the 5 gallon Nano is a Long Tentacled Anemone. But the large colony of Electric Green Fuzzy Mushroom Corals does kinda look like a Carpet Anemone.

...hope the Purigen, and Phos-Zorb work out well for you.
 
New photo here, added a Green Striped Mushroom and there are even some volunteer Brown Zoanthids popping up!




image-2385880583.jpg
 
Hello again!!

Heh buddy i will like to ask you about what i need to do to move some corals from my main display with out start a cycle again.

As a read your post from the beginning you just took live sand and some live rocks from your main display and added to the new tank! Right.

Did you added something else any chemical or something to avoid any spike of ammo or any level of the water chemistry ??

Tanks for your help , have a good night!
 
The live sand was brand new in a bag the name, Caribsea Ocean Direct Live Sand Aragonite Fine Oolite, same as I seeded my 60 gallon tank with.

Here's a couple of pis, one of the bag another the washing process I used...

img_2514521_0_c98509af97ca761c81102c4bda967f3b.jpg


img_2514521_1_de0f32a2dc94d85c07661b4360df1316.jpg


And yes, the live rock was directly from the 60 gallon tank and already cycled. After adding it with the sand I waited until all the tests came back as 0,0,0 for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I then added the Clownfish, Sea Anemone, Red Legged Hermit, Emerald Crab, and two snails, a Turbo and Tiger all at once after I was sure everything was safe.

The tank has been up going on two months now and I do a one gallon water change every other week. More often if I see the nitrates rising.

As far as anything else, lighting is critical and I have two small Odyssea Compact flourescent lamps, one actinic blue and one 12000k white both rated at 24 watts. Anemones need bright lights and so far so good with the lighting. Also the Long Tentacled Anemone will move around as it sees fit to take advantage of the lighting.
In this picture I just took with the tank lights being on for just an hour see how it is elongating itself to take it light. As the day wears on it will open further, and flatten out...

img_2514521_2_353566256958ab4d8a8a33f30518bc98.jpg


I also have a small Hang On Back power filter in which I have a small bag of Chemi-Pure Elite carbon, and Purigen. These handle the phosphate and nitrate removal. I'll change the bags if I note a rise in nitrates not taken care of by a water change, or any sign of hair algae.

The brown algae and Cyanobacteria have almost completely cycled now in the Nano tank...
 
Back
Top Bottom