Our Mini Zoa Research Tank: 6.6g Fluval Chi Nano Reef

[gordonj1]

Hi! My name is Jess, and my roommate (Court) and I will be building a 6.6g fluval chi nano reef for the competition.

We are currently conducting research on the phylogeny of zoanthids at the University of Findlay, and we would love to show off some of our nice zoas and palys that we have accumulated over the course of our research. We really enjoy collecting, growing, propagating, and trading these little guys. We have only been researching for 1 year, but we have made much progress. We hope that by entering the competition, we can spread awareness and possibly win a gift card or tank that can help us further our research. We have a small amount of grant money; however, the majority of our zoanthid purchases come out of pocket. Luckily many people have been very generous by donating many frags to us.

We will be using zoanthids and palythoas from our actual research project in this tank.

The plan:

6.6g fluval chi
cascade 10
tetra heater
2x 48 2- mode LED fixtures
lots of branched LR from a previous tank
Black sand

Fish and inverts:

1" percula named scout
randall's goby and shrimp pair Rob and Big
harlequin shrimp Quinny
a few blue hermies and some snails

Inverts and Corals:

Brown Palys 19 polyps at $2ea= $38
Baja Blast zoas 6 polyps @ $5 ea= $30
green no name palys 6 polyps @ $2ea= $12
feather dusters
maxi minis 3 @ $30 ea= $90
purple shrooms 4@ $10 ea= $40
r. florida $20
1" rock flower anemone $10 (my estimate)
toadstool leather $10

TOTAL: $250
$250 left

 

[gordonj1]

here is our official entry photo:



It looks a little rough, just got done cycling, and a nice water change with distilled H2O and some reef crystals

 

[gordonj1]

it looks pretty cloudy right now because I stirred everything up and for some reason reef crystals takes quite a long time to dissolve completely

 

[CindyL]

What a cute tank (cloudiness aside LOL)!! Good luck guys!

 

[revhtree]

Cool little nano!

 

[gordonj1]

What a cute tank (cloudiness aside LOL)!! Good luck guys!

Thank you! We look forward to the competition.

 

[gordonj1]

Thanks!!!

 

[Davesgt]

How are you mixing your reef crystals? Tank looks good so far

it looks pretty cloudy right now because I stirred everything up and for some reason reef crystals takes quite a long time to dissolve completely

 

[gordonj1]

I have a 3g bucket that I add the water to. Then, I add 3 scoops of salt and mix it with my hand for maybe 7 minutes or so and measure the specific gravity with my little hydrometer. nothing fancy. I've never let it sit over night and "oxygenate" because the room temp is too cold and I don't have another heater. Do you think I should?

 

[Davesgt]

I usually like to let mine set over night but in your case id say maybe just let it sit for a 1-2 hrs if you can stirring occasional would help alot. I know temp will go down but adding it back to the tank in slow incremints would help keep things stable. Only reason id let it sit for is to keep granuales of undissolved salt from having bad effects in tank as of burning your zoas/corals and even burning your inverts. Its just a precaution to help plus salinity is normally read more accurately after its dissolved completely.

I have a 3g bucket that I add the water to. Then, I add 3 scoops of salt and mix it with my hand for maybe 7 minutes or so and measure the specific gravity with my little hydrometer. nothing fancy. I've never let it sit over night and "oxygenate" because the room temp is too cold and I don't have another heater. Do you think I should?

 

[Dixie_reefer]

I use a battery operated bubbler to help mix my salt. You can get one at walmart for like 10. I stir the water and salt a little bit and then throw the air stone in there and within 20 minutes its mixed.

 

[gordonj1]

thanks for the info guys!

 

[muntwo]

Thanks for bringing attention to your work! I had no idea any zoanthid research was being done in the Midwest. My lab in Champaign is interested in clownfish neurobiology, but we also focus on evolutionary biology among many other things. If you're ever in Illinois, we'd love to have you over for a visit.Good luck on the tank build. I think we have something similar in mind

 

[gordonj1]

Thanks for bringing attention to your work! I had no idea any zoanthid research was being done in the Midwest. My lab in Champaign is interested in clownfish neurobiology, but we also focus on evolutionary biology among many other things. If you're ever in Illinois, we'd love to have you over for a visit.Good luck on the tank build. I think we have something similar in mind

Thanks! I think we are the only ones in the midwest doing any research on them though I may be wrong. I know much research is being conducted in Japan. There are a few researchers in FL and CA as well. We are more focused on the phylogeny of zoanthids found within the aquarium trade.

The Clownfish research sounds very interesting. Do you have any reference articles you could post links to? What college or institution are you working at if you don't mind me asking? I am graduating in the spring of 2014 and am looking for a graduate school for marine bio.

 

[1.0reef]

Looks good! Although the dimensions of that tank are really not good for any fish. I would stick to the Randalls goby and a small rockdweller (Other goby or small blenny)

 

[muntwo]

We are at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and this is a link to our lab website:
Marine Biology Lab

 

[gordonj1]

We are at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and this is a link to our lab website:
Marine Biology Lab

Wow that is awesome! Thank you!

 

[gordonj1]

Looks good! Although the dimensions of that tank are really not good for any fish. I would stick to the Randalls goby and a small rockdweller (Other goby or small blenny)

Thanks. I have a clown who is about 3/4" right now which I think would be okay. It is hosting a toadstool now and doesn't swim much away from it. I am going to transfer both of them to it.

 

[gordonj1]

UPDATE!

I added all the corals and fish that I was hoping to. Scout is taking to his toadstool very well in the new tank. if he out grows this tank, I will transfer him to my 20g long.

I have a bit of an algae issue which you can probably see from a few of the pictures. Sorry they aren't that great, I took some amazing pictures with Court's DSLR, but I can't find the cord!!! lol So I just took some bad iphone pics.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

The tank is coming along nicely!! Keep us posted of your progress!!