The Mancave Nano Peninsula

[nanofordad]

Good to know re AFR.

I want to start dosing in my 16g nano, but I know I'm not one for testing daily. We barely test at all...and only water change monthly at 10-20%.

My torch definitely not friends with anyone...so its alone in one corner. We have added an elegance as well...alone in the other corner. Hammer and frogspawn seem to get along better on their own island.

 

[Kongar]

Well, today I decided that there are some noob mistakes that need correcting in my tank. 1) there are corals that have to go. Namely the mushrooms and the leptastrea. Both are weeds and they will eventually take over the tank. 2) In order to do that, I have to put in new rock. Once an encrusting coral takes over all your rock, there really isn't much of an option. So I ordered new rock and I'm going to redo the aquascape. I'll pick off the corals I want to keep and dump the rest of the rock. Wish me luck!

 

[Kongar]

This was a big weekend. As mentioned earlier this week, some poor decisions had caught up with me, and it was time to fix them.

First up - two corals in particular were taking over my tank and killing everything. First up was a freebie mushroom I got when I set the tank up. They had multiplied to over 20, their stings were aggressive, and they had wandered off their isolated rock and started showing up everywhere. 2nd was the darn leptastrea. Never again. That stuff was the fastest grower in the tank, and had a wicked sting. It killed an acro, had surrounded three more, and had killed off about 1/2 of their growth. Impossible to remove from the rocks, and it was growing right over the other dead corals skeletons.

2nd - Placement issues and poor rockwork. There just wasn't much room in my tank for corals. My scape went "up" and not "wide" - and that made huge areas unsuitable for corals.

So, as you can see from the video, I ripped ALL the rocks out, bought 1/2 as much (pound wise) in shelf rock, and redid the aquascape. Now I've got full use of the bottom area, and much more room for corals to grow upwards.

3rd - I changed out my MP10 for an Icecap Gyre 2k. I wouldn't say there was anytyhing wrong with the MP10, it worked fine. But the outside magnet didn't fit, and wasn't wet side for mounting on the back. The Icecap could, so ya... I think it looks 100% better, and the flow is better for a nano. (The MP10 had a habit of sucking things into it - like my torch).

4th - I pulled the Seneye reef monitor out. It doesn't give great readings unless it's squeaky clean, and I'm tired of pulling it out and cleaning it. I'm not paying for slides anymore if all I'm effectively getting is temp monitoring and problem alerts. I had trouble installing an inkbird (can't find the MAC address), so I'll fix that tomorrow. But that should give temp monitoring. And I'm thinking either that, or the Icecap will send a notification if I lose power (need to test that). That gets me what I need for alerts.

So there's significantly less corals in here now than before. I grabbed whatever little pieces of my acros were left (and didn't have leptastrea on it) and I'm hoping these itty bitty frags don't die. It was either this butchering, or they'd be dead from coral warfare so what the heck... I'm a bit of a sucker for LPS, so I put my four tentacle babies front and center at the bottom. Then the acros and whatnot up higher and on the other side away from the stings.

Elegance has gotten big

Torch is now 7 heads

Hammer is cool colors - he is however real aggressive. Sends out long sweepers of death. Should get along with the Frogspawn.

Frogspawn is still kind of mad today, probably going to take some adjustment time. But he's getting big as well - just can't see it here.

On the other side we've got what remains of my acros. First up is a tenius that only recently started doing good. Untouched by the warfare, but I couldn't get more than this off the rockwork.

Three acros remain, but two were ravaged by leptasrea. Color sucks and only got little pieces off the rock that weren't infested. One used to be bright neon yellow, and the other had a cool green/red transition. Both ugly crap brown now.

Bad picture of the second green/red acro hiding behind the acan, but I got enough where it should make it.

Then we've got the acro that wasn't involved in any warfare, and came off with it's frag plug. Color stinks here - it looks brown/black - but it's really a dark blueberry color. The tips are just a bit green. It's one of my favorites, and while a slow grower, I'm looking forward to it getting big.

The green millie is to the right of it along with a cool colored acan that simply just won't grow. I can't figure this one out. I'm trying more light and flow to see how it responds.

This *was* a cool echinata acan (I think that's the type it was called), it had teal, orange, black, and red colors and was growing good. Then my elegance coral killed it. It's not 100% dead, but it's close. I'm hoping to save it, but the coraline growing on the skeleton doesn't give me a lot of hope. (The other side has a bit more flesh on it so we'll see)

Lastly a better picture of what was a rainbow acan once upon a time, now it's just red and blue. I think I gave it too much PAR, and it forever changed color.

It's also a simple noob coral, but I really dig the setosa. The bright red is cool and contrasts the abundance of green in my tank. So I broke it up and put it in the middle as a barrier between the LPS and the acros. If it gets stung and killed, no worries, it's a fast enough grower.

So, the tank doesn't look as good as it once did. It's taken a big step backwards towards a bubble gum frag tank. But, I'm much happier with this new rockwork, and I think it'll grow in much more pleasing to the eye. I'm also fairly sure this arrangement is more manageable, and I won't end up with a single invasive coral. Instead I hope to maintain a true mixed reef in this teeny box.

Thanks for visiting!
Kongar

 

[Kongar]

Been over a year since I’ve updated with pictures. To be honest, it hasn’t gone so great. But I guess that’s part of the journey.

Last update was about changing out my rocks. I was worried about that, but it really went 100% fine. What really upset my tank was changing my lights! One of my ai primes broke. So I figured I’d upgrade, and bought an ati t5 fixture. I’m running blues and coral plus. Blues to start and end, coral plus for the main photo period.

The spread and coverage - *chef’s kiss. My corals loved it. Then the problems started. The first sign of trouble was that algae started breaking out hardcore. Then all (or most) of the coraline algae died out - it all turned white. And then, dinos. Again. Like REALLY bad. I’ve struggled before with dinos in this tank. This was THE worst it’s ever been. Really made me want to throw in the towel. Very depressing. Lesson learned - changing lights is a big deal.

That brown snot killed so many corals this time. I lost my torch, almost all of my setosas, a bunch of acros that *were* doing good, and like all my snails. But I learned before - disturbances cause outbreaks, don’t be rash.

So I kept everything the same, concentrating on good water quality, and just relied on manual removal. It took a very long time - but after about 6 months, it appears the dino and subsequent cyano outbreaks have stopped (they tend to alternatively flare up, back and forth, weaker each time until they are wiped out). Did I ever mention I hate dinos? Worst part of the hobby.

So now we’re in the “new tank ugly stage” again. On a 3 year old tank. Because I changed the lights…. Sigh

Of course ugly stage is hair algae. But this tank has always had a stubborn bubble algae problem too. I’ve tried everything in the world to get rid of it, but nothing works. So I just rip off what I can during water changes and I’ve decided that it’s just part of my tank. I’m convinced this is the inevitable result of an aio nano. All you lucky peeps with sumps and refugiums-or algae scrubbers get to grow your algae elsewhere. For me, my display tank is the refugium.

FTS - look at all that algae /shame

Hammer and froggy lived and are growing strong

Elegance and trumpet coral did ok. Dinos stressed them out but are on the mend. That one chunk of setosa is all I have left. I know it’s weak because the algae is winning the war on the edges. The green acro to the left loves that spot and is finally growing fast. Added a piece of green slimer frag next to it (gotta start replacing the losses) as well as a red digi.

This black widow oddly enough is doing fantastic. The colors are popping like never before, and has made a full recovery from near death. Tbh can’t believe this coral is alive. Look at the old pics - it was all skeleton before.

Added a Cali tort. I love the look of stags. It’s doing ok - the hair algae is bothering it. The funny little pastel acan with unique colors continues to just exist. Not growing, not dying. Can’t figure this guy out. He’s cool as heck, but I can’t get him to grow.

Spend $$$ on expensive acros-kill them all. Except this one. Blueberry something or other from battlecorals. Slowest grower in the world but it is growing. There’s some stn / stress on the bottom left from dinos and algae. I’m hoping he’ll recover now that the dinos have gone away.

My little workhorse. Love this guy. Whatever white you see on the rocks is his doing.

I refuse to use any chemicals anymore, so me and this urchin are all I have for algae removal. To help us out, I added a starry blenny a couple of weeks ago. He’s still settling in so I don’t have a picture, but he spends his entire day pecking at the hair algae, that can’t be a bad thing.

I’m sticking with 50% water changes every two weeks. I clean up detritus when I do that water change. Nitrates are always around 2. Phosphates at 0.1. I feed 2-3 times a week. A chunk of rods about the size of a dime twice a week, and some pellets like every third feeding.

Nanos are hard. I wish I had a sump and a bigger display which could handle some tangs. Maybe someday!