My New 15g Nano

[walnuts24]

So after several months of struggling to maintain my 65, I decided to downgrade after Sandy left me with no power. After 6 days of no power the 65 looked more like a barren desert than a reef tank. The only survivors were my two clowns, which have also survived numerous noob mistakes and a terrible transfer from my original biocube, and some mushrooms and zoas.

Don't get me wrong, I love the look and the dimensions of my old 65. The ability to keep dwarf angels and larger wrasses was rewarding, however, moving from an AIO to a tank with a sump, skimmer, large pump, and fuge was difficult to say the least. 3 gallon water changes became 10 gallon water changes, top off was 8 gallons a week instead of 2, maintaining a sump was a huge task in itself.

I have since downgraded to a 15 that I had on hand and I love it. I have hooked up an ATO and am running a HOB filter. I have a 24" 2 bulb T5 that is soon to be upgraded to an LED. I do 5 gallon water changes every two weeks. Without anymore BS here is the tank.

 

[walnuts24]

Tank Pics

 

[walnuts24]

 

[walnuts24]

I have never tried SPS and the Monti was doing well until I went away for a weekend and came home to my torch sitting on top of it. The other SPS frag I picked up from someone on MR for cheap and is still surviving, but I cannot seem to get it to grow. I hope when I upgrade my lights to LED it will help greatly.

My Livestock is as follows:
2 Ocellaris Clowns
1 RBTA
1 Cleaner Shrimp
CUC

 

[MikeC]

Tank is looking great man keep up the good work

 

[walnuts24]

I recently bought an ATO from another member on MR and set it up. It has definitely made life so much easier especiallly with a nano and not having to stir up the water/top off every day.

Then at the beginning of this week I was reading all these negative things about ATO going bad from one of duke62's thread and was wondering "Why don't people like ATOs?".

Last night I was sitting with my girlfriend watching a movie and I heard the sound of water pouring onto the floor. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? I initially thought a seem burst because sometimes I get a little too close with my scraper but went into the room to find it coming over the top with the ATO on. I got one of those JBJ ATO with the float and a snail happened to attach itself to the float making the ATO think the tank needed water.

Luckily my salinity wasn't greatly affected and there was no harm in the system. I am going to do a 5 gallon WC today. Now it is a peace of mind thing with me. If that happened while I was sleeping I could have 30 gallons of water all over my floor. Is there anything I can do to prevent snails from getting on that float?

 

[House of Laughter]

I recently bought an ATO from another member on MR and set it up. It has definitely made life so much easier especiallly with a nano and not having to stir up the water/top off every day.

Then at the beginning of this week I was reading all these negative things about ATO going bad from one of duke62's thread and was wondering "Why don't people like ATOs?".

Last night I was sitting with my girlfriend watching a movie and I heard the sound of water pouring onto the floor. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? I initially thought a seem burst because sometimes I get a little too close with my scraper but went into the room to find it coming over the top with the ATO on. I got one of those JBJ ATO with the float and a snail happened to attach itself to the float making the ATO think the tank needed water.

Luckily my salinity wasn't greatly affected and there was no harm in the system. I am going to do a 5 gallon WC today. Now it is a peace of mind thing with me. If that happened while I was sleeping I could have 30 gallons of water all over my floor. Is there anything I can do to prevent snails from getting on that float?

make a snail guard - also, I recommend a smaller reservoir than 30g.

FWIW

House

 

[walnuts24]

Put my hand in my tank to place a new piece of Hammer coral and my cleaner shrimp has gotten tired of not cleaning (since my clowns are not amused by his actions) and decided to clean my hand.

 

[lnevo]

Looks like your hands got a bad case of ich...you should try a hypo treatment

 

[walnuts24]

UPDATE:

Everything has been going pretty well with the tank. Some issues since my last post have been:

I found a nudi that was eating some of my zoas (they were cheap so I didn't care that much). Got the nudi out and flushed it and I am now waiting to add anything to make sure there is no more nudis/eggs left.

My ATO had another incident since I still don't have a snail guard. Led to my only SPS piece bleaching out. I can see the polyps coming back now but they are just straight brown.

I prepaid for an ugrade to LED's from Aquarium Village and have been holding off on buying new bulbs with the hope that they would get in soon. In doing this I let them go too long and the lack of light made my anemone move. I quickly changed the bulbs and it seems happy again.

I am picking up my LED's from Aquarium Village Thursday or Friday and I will give a full review when I pick them up. They are their new Aquasun 36 x 3w fully programmable modules. The units are 20 inches long by 8 inches wide. It is definitely overkill for a small 15gallon, but it helps me if I ever upgrade to a 30 or 40 breeder. The reason I went with this model from Aquarium Village is the 3 year warantee that they are offering. Rich told me that the unit will be fully covered for 3 years and if the bulbs burn out or I have any problems I can bring it there no questions asked.

I will post a review when I get the lights.

Pics to follow.

 

[walnuts24]

My tank is also being taken over by PODS. I mean they are all over the place. On the walls, in my rocks, on my substrate. I know I shouldn't complain, but I am so suprised that with only a cheap Biowheel HOB as filtration that there is so many.

 

[walnuts24]

 

[walnuts24]

 

[walnuts24]

Another couple of things. For some reason my Torch and Hammer Corals are doing pretty well but my elegance coral and plate coral are doing terrible. I think it may be lighting, so I am hoping the LEDs help but I am on the verge of giving the elegance away for someone to try and rehab it.

And can anyone ID the thing in the following picture? It kind of looks like a snail with a really screwed up shell.

 

[walnuts24]

 

[greenlawns]

Walnuts24 you will be very happy with the LEDs from aquarium village. I have 2 18 inch on my 57 for last to months and i have had a good growth rate in my corals. They guys at aquarium village stand by all there products and they are a pleasure to tell with.

 

[walnuts24]

Can anyone ID that thing in the picture?

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Maybe a limpet? That's what came to mind for me right away at least, but I absolutely could be wrong.

http://www.google.com/search?q=limp...PG0QHS3YH4Bg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAA&biw=1683&bih=953

 

[walnuts24]

Upgraded to LED and so far so good. I still need to raise my lights off my tank as 136 watts is definitely too much for my 15G but I am happy with the results.

I am running them at 30% max power and ramping them up and down from 9 am to 10 pm.

I also got some SPS from Carlos (Macropora) and they are doing very well so far with the light.

 

[walnuts24]