New 15G Nano - In the Cook Islands

akau · Nov 29, 2021

Kia orana R2R members,

I have been living on the small tropical island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands for the last 15 years, and will have a 15G tank arriving on the next ship, due this week - it will be my first aquarium since 1996!

an-aerial-view-of-rarotonga-and-its-motuls-or-islets-the-largest-of-picture-id1232847234.jpg

So I spent the last few months researching equipment and have been blown away with not only the new reef keeping technology (especially with lighting) but also how cheap everything is these days.

The 15G tank, AI Prime 16HD and a skimmer were ordered from New Zealand. I will be able to access sand, live rock and coral frags from the surrounding lagoon legally and ethically.

I thought I would document the build on here as it might be interesting for some of you to see how it can be done where there are no aquarium shops, so getting anything in is often delayed by a month or two due to shipping. We had 26 flights a week to Auckland prior to covid, we are down to one a week now...

I'm not planning on dosing with anything at this stage and will only be measuring temperature and salinity.
Water changes are easy as I am out on my boat regularly fishing for tuna and big game fish so grabbing 10G of fresh ocean water once a week won't be much of a hassle.

The area I will be collecting my livestock from is in one of the major passages through the reef (Avaavaroa) and the water quality there has huge changes in salinity and temperature depending on floods, tides and season. This will mean the critters from there will be pretty hardy already.

If Rarotonga sounds familiar, it is famous in marine circles for the Peppermint angelfish, which used to be exported from here by Chip (now retired).

220px-Peppermint_Angelfish_(Paracentropyge_boylei),_Waikiki_Acquarium.JPG

My next post should be once I get all the gear unboxed and set up ready to start adding sand and rock.

Cheers and thanks for reading.

Johnny

ylreefer · Nov 29, 2021

Wow. This is a super exiting post. And table to get your own corals without harming the marine life is next level.

Can't wait to see the outcome.
U have no idea how jealous you have just made a few thousand people lol.

chipchipbro · Nov 29, 2021

wow, that sounds so interesting!
I am following for sure

Cant wait to see how you are going to stock that nano

Edit: What are you doing for living there my friend?

Caruso86 · Nov 29, 2021

Went there almost exactly 3 years ago to the day and can’t wait to go back! By far my favorite place I’ve ever been! Looking forward to your build!

akau · Nov 29, 2021

ylreefer yes I can imagine there would be a few that would envy being able to go for a snorkel and browse for all their reef stock. I will film where I am collecting from when I go to get the live rock and sand.
The area I am collecting from has heaps of fire coral (Millepora) so I need to ensure I don't introduce any of that! Been stung a few times already spearfishing in the area.

chipchipmofo I run a freelance cinematography business but also fish to supply some local eateries. When we have tourists I sometimes get chartered for extreme bluewater spearfishing for wahoo and big pelagics.

Caruso86 It's been nice having the island to ourselves without tourists during covid, we are still yet to have a case here but we open back up to NZ only from Jan 13th 2022

chipchipbro · Nov 30, 2021

Well, I am looking forward seeing how that nano is getting stocked

Exited to see!

NoahLikesFish · Dec 6, 2021

watching.

rishma · Dec 10, 2021

you are living my dream. Swim out and collect animals for the tank. Can’t sit to see it.

akau · Dec 11, 2021

So the hardware finally made it ashore and I have set it up.

Got the BM QQ2 skimmer in but have had to reroute the return hose. No happy yet with how that looks so might use a flexible pipe so less obvious. Have removed the large sponge like filter medium as I will fill that compartment with small bits of live rock.

Next up before getting my sand and live rock will be installing a shelf as I really like the floating reef style and think that it makes the best use of such a small tank.

If there is enough interest, I'll film the collection of the sand and live rock and show the location. As already mentioned, everything is being taken from a small area that has huge and rapid changes in water quality in the hope that these critters will be very hardy.

Here is the location of the collection site

I will be taking my water change water from at least a few miles out (in water almost a mile deep) to ensure it as clear as possible. Water on the reef has viz of between 15m and 50m. In the open ocean ocean it can be closer to 80m

Chrisv. · Dec 11, 2021

Now THIS is a thread that has my interest! Looking forward to seeing your tank develop!

chipchipbro · Dec 11, 2021

My interest in seeing the collection is huuuuge

rishma · Dec 11, 2021

chipchipmofo said:
My interest in seeing the collection is huuuuge

Ditto. So cool

akau · Dec 19, 2021

South west coast of Rarotonga on the 19 December 2021

Not a bad spot to collect my coral sand and water!

Had a look at few different places but found the sand here to be of a consistent grain and colour with only little contamination by ground down black volcanic rock. I took sand from the water's edge as well as a couple of scoops of a the finer and siltier sand beneath to help the tank cycle through faster.

Plenty of Hydroclathrus clathratus around in the shallows.

My salt water was also collected from this site also as it was clear enough and I couldn't be bothered launching the boat just to head out and collect 55L (15G) of ocean water.

Free live sand from Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

Floating reef shelf installed, water in, sand in, everything turned on!

The BM QQ2 skimmer is definitely putting some micro bubbles back into the display tank but I guess that will improve once it is broken in.

I didn't bother connecting the heater as the temp won't drop below 26°C for 5 months now we are in summer.

Measured the salinity and got a nice and salty reading of 1.028, normal for this place.

Call me old school but I really still prefer the warmer 5000K look over the new blues. I think it much more closely represents the light you find in the lagoon shallows and is easier on the eyes. I know the blues are better for SPS etc so will be playing around with the Prime 16HD some more once I get my acroporas etc in.

Well there it is, next stop is to go pick my pieces of live rock, hermit crabs and snails. I can't do any testing so will just be winging it and hope that the tank stabilises quickly as it should already have all the bacteria it needs in there.

Time will tell!

Sink_or_Swim · Dec 19, 2021

This is so cool! Definitely following your progress.

chipchipbro · Dec 20, 2021

wow thats awwsome!

I really enjoy reading this and I must admit that I am a bit jealous!

Enjoy this place and the nature.

akau · Dec 29, 2021

Managed to get out into the passage last weekend and collect some live rock to get into the tank.

The live rock is what is left of the the fire coral branches that get broken off by turtles and wave action, then end up falling down the steep sand bank into the passage. These were collected from 4-6m down and checked carefully to ensure no fire coral still on there - from what I hear it takes over everything.

There's some rough footage from that day here:
Sorry for the lazy lack of editing.

The pieces, especially the big one, were picked with construction of the floating reef in mind. What I wanted to do though was find a piece I could mount under the shelf to make more of a scene under the ledge. I find that there is always a lot of life there and in such a small tank you want to make the most of every surface as possible, it seems a waste to have it hidden.

The live rock went into the tank 3 days after the live sand. There was already a small amount of mess accumulating in the skimmer and brown algae growing in the tank at that stage. With the water and sand already full of life, this was not a surprise.
I also added a tiny bit of fish food and some crabs to help everything start kicking along.

Day 4 (Live rock added less than an hour earlier) FRONT

Left on right side views

The left over and small fragments of live rock were put in one of the rear chambers to act as extra filtration and provide habitat for the hundreds of hitchhiking copepods.

The coralline on the some of the smaller pieces was already at 100% coverage. Purples and even some orange.
The main rock on the bottom of the scape had a harness at the top made of cable ties that simply slides over the shelf.

Meaning the whole scape can be deconstructed in a matter of minutes if need be.

I am aware that the main piece is a tiny bit too large for the glass cleaner so it can't make it between the rock on the sides, I am not too worried as I can easily do that bit with my finger and it is worth it to make the most of such little space in the tank.

There were a few hitch hikers, including a few squat lobsters.

So will let sit like this for a few days then think about adding some small fish and keep an eye out for some frags of opportunity on our next snorkel.

The salinity is still 1.028. No idea about temperature or nitrites etc as I don't have any testers here. Will see if I can find a suitable thermometer at the pharmacy this week. Will do a 15L water change tomorrow but so far it is looking really clean and the skimmer is conditioned and pulling out a little. The microbubbles have pretty much gone.

I don't think the cycle process will be an issue as everything going into the tank is already mature, and as already mentioned, the changes in water quality from the collection area are huge so everything should be pretty hardy.

chipchipbro · Dec 29, 2021

well, this is just awesome!
For me you are living a dream of many reefers and I like how nice you are to the ocean and the nature.
I am looking forward what fish you are going to add.. do you have anything specific in mind already?

MaxTremors · Dec 29, 2021

akau said:
Managed to get out into the passage last weekend and collect some live rock to get into the tank.

The live rock is what is left of the the fire coral branches that get broken off by turtles and wave action, then end up falling down the steep sand bank into the passage. These were collected from 4-6m down and checked carefully to ensure no fire coral still on there - from what I hear it takes over everything.

There's some rough footage from that day here:
Sorry for the lazy lack of editing.

The pieces, especially the big one, were picked with construction of the floating reef in mind. What I wanted to do though was find a piece I could mount under the shelf to make more of a scene under the ledge. I find that there is always a lot of life there and in such a small tank you want to make the most of every surface as possible, it seems a waste to have it hidden.

The live rock went into the tank 3 days after the live sand. There was already a small amount of mess accumulating in the skimmer and brown algae growing in the tank at that stage. With the water and sand already full of life, this was not a surprise.
I also added a tiny bit of fish food and some crabs to help everything start kicking along.

Day 4 (Live rock added less than an hour earlier) FRONT

Left on right side views

The left over and small fragments of live rock were put in one of the rear chambers to act as extra filtration and provide habitat for the hundreds of hitchhiking copepods.

The coralline on the some of the smaller pieces was already at 100% coverage. Purples and even some orange.
The main rock on the bottom of the scape had a harness at the top made of cable ties that simply slides over the shelf.

Meaning the whole scape can be deconstructed in a matter of minutes if need be.

I am aware that the main piece is a tiny bit too large for the glass cleaner so it can't make it between the rock on the sides, I am not too worried as I can easily do that bit with my finger and it is worth it to make the most of such little space in the tank.

There were a few hitch hikers, including a few squat lobsters.

So will let sit like this for a few days then think about adding some small fish and keep an eye out for some frags of opportunity on our next snorkel.

The salinity is still 1.028. No idea about temperature or nitrites etc as I don't have any testers here. Will see if I can find a suitable thermometer at the pharmacy this week. Will do a 15L water change tomorrow but so far it is looking really clean and the skimmer is conditioned and pulling out a little. The microbubbles have pretty much gone.

I don't think the cycle process will be an issue as everything going into the tank is already mature, and as already mentioned, the changes in water quality from the collection area are huge so everything should be pretty hardy.

Man, I miss live rock from the South Pacific. As great as the live rock from the gulf of Mexico is that we get here in the US, it’s nowhere near as nice looking as the stuff we used to get from the south pacific. Will definitely be jealously following.