My little newbie nano - Serenity 7.4 gallon

[teela]

2 months in!

Current build components:
-Lifegard 7.4
-Pump that the guy selling it gave me
-Intank media basket with some marinepure gems and filter floss
-Water bottle ato thing from Amazon
-Lomini pixie 30 light (used from same guy selling aquarium)
-hygger mini wave maker
-cheap Amazon heater hooked up to an inkbird
-piece of acrylic as a lid that gets wiped down and flipped over a lot to keep it flat-ish and clear.

Current Livestock (this feels like a lot. I should stop buying animals):
Turbo snails x2
Astrea snail x1
Sexy shrimp x2
Green clown goby x1
Candy cane coral x1
Goniopora x1
Duncan coral x1
Hammer coral x1
Mushroom coral x1
Zoas x1
Birdsnest x2
Gorgonian x1
Blasto x1
Montipora x1
Stylocoeniella x1
Hermit crabs x4 (?)
Blue hypnea macro algae - 2 little clumps

Current maintenance:
1-2 gallon water change with nws every weekend. I drop some pellets in every day and do some reef roids once or twice a week.

Jan 10, 2023
So I've started a new tank and I guess it would be nice to track what I've done in a little journal beyond the pen and paper one I use at home.

I bought a lifegard 7.4 used from a local guy on Facebook marketplace. When I said I was planning to use it for salt water and was aiming for corals I ended up also purchasing a light from him.

I'm trying to keep this from getting too expensive but gosh you can just buy a million things for a reef tank can't you.

So far I've put a bag of caribsea aragalive and a few pounds of live rock from a LFS and some natural ocean water from the local oceanography institutes saltwater tap. It's been running since the 7th but as I don't own a test kit yet (should arrive tomorrow) I'm not sure how it's doing. The water does look clear. I'm really excited to get something visible growing in there one of these days.

Another local person from Facebook has graciously offered to share some pulsing xenia when I'm ready, not sure if that's the best first step but I've got time to think about it.

 

[nuxx]

Fun way to start

I went 55 > 125 > 250 > 470 & 150

 

[teela]

Lol. I was just looking at my electric "fireplace"built into the wall under my TV and was thinking that a big tank could fit in that nook....

I'll work on this for a bit first though!

 

[829282610]

I want the 3.74 gallon version. Nice tank, can’t wait to see it progress.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Curious to see what your tank becomes over time!!

 

[His Coral Highness]

The xenia is fast-growing but just look into it a little. Some people avoid it because it can become invasive, which could especially happen in a smaller tank

 

[teela]

The xenia is fast-growing but just look into it a little. Some people avoid it because it can become invasive, which could especially happen in a smaller tank

I have the same concern. Luckily I have plenty of time to think about it. I do like watching it move so it might be worth having to regularly trim it back.

 

[teela]

Got my test kit in. Last night everything was at zero so I thought I'd try throwing in a small hunk of frozen shrimp to see if it would up the ammonia.

It did!

Hoping it starts going down now...

 

[teela]

Hmm .. not much of a drop in ammonia over the last 48 hours but there is some nitrite showing up.

 

[teela]

So.... I used live rock and sand but also was trying to do Dr tims cycling. Turns out Amazon sent me the wrong Dr tims bottle...

The ammonium chloride is correct but instead of the nitrifying fixing bacteria I seem to have received some kind of fish protectant. Which explains why tank has been slower than I thought it would be to cycle. Exchanging wrong product for right, that should jumpstart things.

There's clearly some biological stuff going on and reducing ammonia but it's so slow!

 

[teela]

Say hello to my little friends. Tank is cycled. To celebrate I now have a hermit crab and a couple of snails.

I got some rubble and have been playing with it for scaping. I also cut out some acrylic for a lid to help with evaporation and heat retention and bought one of those little water bottle auto top off doodads from Google. I still need to get a bottle of Evian (purportedly the best match to the screws on the ato).

It's only been an hour or two but animals are active and still alive so that's good!

 

[rhizotron]

Hey that looks like fun!

 

[teela]

Hey that looks like fun!

So far it has been! I can't wait to get some coral.

 

[teela]

I've decided to nerd out a bit and theme my little tank off Firefly. It's basically a spaceship for these guys right? The hermit crabs are reavers. My new goniopora is inara. The cerith snail is river and the astrea is zoe. Can't wait to see how my crew develops.

Buying a goni as my first coral might not be the best plan... But I liked it the most of the cheap corals at the local shop. I also got some macro algae and added in some copepods.

I've also got the little gravity auto top off working and a wave maker going (hygger mini wave maker).

Current plan is to let it be for for a while. Weekly water changes and nothing else (well reef roids for the goni and some food for the hermits) for a month or two. I'm hoping the goni opens up more soon. The crabs bump it now and then, maybe I can find a better spot for her.

I'd like to find a better spot for this spaceship. It's in the kitchen on an old mini-fridge at the moment. It might be nice to have in the living room if I can figure out a better stand and make room.

 

[Nano_Man]

Nice nano

 

[teela]

Welp I think I've got some diatoms... Maybe?

It's not too intense. Hopefully it will clear up with minimal intervention.

Did my weekly water change today.

Also bought a candy cane coral.

It's only been in the tank for a few minutes. Hoping it opens up and starts looking happy.


This guy is still alive but I'm not sure how happy he is.

So far everything is alive so that feels like some success.

 

[Reef.]

You have a lot of sand there? Any particular reason for that?

Cleaning will be harder and it takes up valuable water space.

 

[teela]

You have a lot of sand there? Any particular reason for that?

Cleaning will be harder and it takes up valuable water space.

No reason... Just threw the whole bag in when I bought the sand. How deep should it be?

 

[Reef.]

No reason... Just threw the whole bag in when I bought the sand. How deep should it be?

It really doesn’t need to be that deep, if you don’t have any fish that sleep in the sand etc then just use as much as you think is attractive, less sand as said makes it easier to keep clean and gives more room for the fish, corals and water.
You could at least half the amount of sand and you would still have plenty in there.

 

[teela]

Perhaps I'll play with sand depth next time I do a water change