Softie Nano Tank

Landers · Jul 9, 2021

So I’ve done an update on my current 28g tank but I am going to college mid August and I am only allowed to have 10 gallons maximum in my dorm. Since I’m also taking my two gallon jellyfish tank, that means I have to downsize my reef tank to eight gallons which is pretty significant difference. I feel like all my animals should be fine in that size except I’m concerned about my pajama cardinal. She’s about 1.5 inches and it would be a temporary tank but I don’t want her to be stressed. I still need to decide

The tank I bought is the JBJ Rimless Desktop 8g and it should be getting here any day now. I’m also looking at Eheim’s Jager TruTemp 50W heater and the Hydor Koralia 240 powerhead for it. I have a protein skimmer in my current tank, but I’ve decided against having one on the 8g because I only have softies and I’ve seen my toadstool open up more when there’s more nutrients in the water. The tank comes with a light, but I want to check on the quality of it before I use it instead of my current light. I’m also planning on building another lid for this tank because the lid it comes with has a huge opening along the back.

Landers · Jul 16, 2021

So I have good news and bad news. Bad news is I found my tailspot dried up in front of my tank yesterday morning. First fish I’ve ever lost that way. I’m super confused about it because I had my pretty darn secure lid on and I’m pretty upset because he was my favorite fish out of the three. I was also super excited to show him off to my future college friends.

Anyways the good news is my JBJ 8g tank came in last Sunday and it looks great. And no cracks or missing pieces like some reviews said theirs had. Still don’t know about my pajama cardinal in it but honestly I really want to keep him since I’m down to only two fish now but we’ll see.

I’m planning on setting it up after my week long trip to the Galapagos that I’m leaving for a week from today. I’ve wanted to go there since I was pretty young because I’ve always had an interest in conservation and wildlife. I recently got scuba certified so I’m hoping to see some really cool animals in the Pacific.

I might post some pictures here of that trip if I get some good ones. I’ll also post pictures of my 8g once I get that set up.

Landers · Aug 8, 2021

The day has finally come. I’m setting up my new 8g tank. So far I just have equipment and sand in. I’ll probably put more sand in soon but here it is right now:

James_O · Aug 8, 2021

Awesome!

So are you going to keep both setup? Or just keep the new 8g and transfer everything over?

Landers · Aug 8, 2021

James_O said:
So are you going to keep both setup? Or just keep the new 8g and transfer everything over?

I am transferring everything over (except I’ll take my pajama cardinal back to my LFS if I decide the 8g is too small for a couple years) and leaving my 28g at home. My parents are taking it over and putting predator fish because they don’t know how to keep coral

Landers · Aug 8, 2021

However when I get my own place down the road I want to take my 28g back and possibly make it a seahorse tank. My parents are planning on getting a bigger tank at some point so I’d be able to get mine back from them.

James_O · Aug 8, 2021

Landers said:
However when I get my own place down the road I want to take my 28g back and possibly make it a seahorse tank. My parents are planning on getting a bigger tank at some point so I’d be able to get mine back from them.

A seahorse tank would be sick man!

I have a 29g tank, which is pretty close to yours. It’s a good size for a nano.

Landers · Aug 16, 2022

Alright it's been a whole year of college since I last posted so it's time for an update. I brought all my animals to college second semester in the 8g except my pistol shrimp. I thought I brought the rock he was under but turns out I left him in the only rock I kept in my 28g. I left the tank running for my parents to use (which thankfully they never did), and he survived for three months by himself. It was quite a shock to see him during spring break after months of not seeing him and eventually thinking he was dead. But anyways long story short my corals did not like the 8g. I honestly don't know anything about the quality of the JBJ light that came with the tank and at one point the filter stopped working and it took at least a week or so to get it replaced since it was a very specific kind so I'm sure those were factors. Also water changes were not prioritized in my busy college schedule. I ended up putting everything back in my 28g during spring break and had my mom feeding the fish and topping off the ATO water like she did first semester. My nephthea ended up dying after being moved back to the 28g. I feel like part of the reason for it was there always seemed to be hair algae wrapped tightly around its "arms." In my constant attempts to remove them carefully, I'm sure I stressed it out even more. I also bought a finger coral in December but it has finally passed away. Basically I found aiptasia on its base (I should dip my corals I know) and I made a salt slurry. I got too much on the bottom of the coral and it's been dying ever since. Good news is I definitely killed the aiptasia and avoided that headache.

But now for the present. I bought two crabs (an emerald and a sally lightfoot) two months ago. The SL crab is very happy and has molted, but I found either the body or the shell of my emerald about a month ago and haven't seen him since. I know they usually hide after molting but do they hide this long?? I saw my SL crab immediately after finding his shell. On the other hand, after losing two out of five corals (the cabbage split in two), I became very against putting them back into the 8g. They're happy in the 28g so that's where they'll stay. But I realized I could split up my animals and just take my fish and shrimp to college 2-3 weeks after move-in so that's the plan. I decided to leave my crabs (crab?), snails, and feather duster in my 28g as well and have my mom feed the tank weekly with Rod's food so the coral won't just have to live on the light and my crabs can get some meat occasionally. I'm in the process of finishing the screen lid for my 8g that I should be done with this week (I'll send pictures) BUT the most exciting news I have is that I'm planning on getting a barnacle blenny for the 8g in a few weeks. I have changed up the aquascape in the 8g and am including barnacles. Right now I have one of my 28g rocks in my 8g to establish it but I plan on putting it back before I add my fish, or maybe I should leave it? I haven't decided yet. I want my pajama cardinal to have as much swimming space as possible... Also, I was also going to add a small CUC of some snails and a hermit or something to the 8g but as of right now the sand and rocks are very clean.

Landers · Aug 16, 2022

Here’s the picture of my finger coral that has gone to coral reef heaven:

Here’s my two crabs:

And this is what I decided for the 8g aquascape (although I may add the arch rock from my 28g on top):

Landers · May 9, 2023

Another year, another update. I took my fish to college in the 8g and left everything else in the 28g. Then I went and bought some hermits, some snails, and I got that barnacle blenny. He’s very small, fast, and fun to watch. He didn’t take up residence in the barnacles like I wanted him to, but instead found a little hole in the live rock to poke his head out of. Unfortunately, back at home I lost another coral. My toadstool was moving across the live rock and started growing upside down, which started making it very unhappy. To try and save it, I cut it off and glued it back where it originally was, but it kept shrinking until it was gone. On the other hand, the second semester of college I made the mistake of leaving my fish at home for several weeks and telling my mom to go from feeding the tank Rod’s food every week to every day. Eventually I took my fish to school and she went back to once a week, but the damage was already done. Hair algae was growing like crazy everywhere. Of course, my corals were not fans and my devils hand shed some arms (I didn’t even know they did that). I’ve been doing water changes and manual removal of the algae as much as I can and I think things are slowly starting to turn around. My cabbage is looking as big and happy as ever and my devils hand is recovering from his amputations.