Me little Nano

[Jonny Googs]

Thought I'd start a thread about the development of my little nano. Its a Cyber Nano 58L, and has been properly running with LR since 25th Feb. The rear chambers have had the bio-balls, ceramic rings and sponge removed and replaced with LR rubble, carbon and Rowaphos.

Progress as of today - hair algae sprang forth yesterday and is spreading fast... Its actually quite pretty :) Also seeing the first growths of what I think is coralline algae.

Full tank shot:
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/1055/fulltank10thmarchvh9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Some life....
The hair algae:
http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/3053/hairalgae10thmarchpf7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The bubble algae:
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/1488/bubblealgae10thmarchqq4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

A nice bristleworm:
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2346/bristleworm10thmarchii0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

What I think is an Aiptasia (also quite pretty for a pest):
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1281/aiptasia10thmarchzg6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Other than this, I've noticed a bunch of snails, including an interesting purple one and some mysid shrimp. There's also something building a white tube on one of the pieces of rock, looks quite interesting anyway...

My water stats are:
pH: 8
Ammonia: <0.25 (which I assuming equals 0 given the other stats, damn Salifert)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2
SG: 1.026

All comments and suggestions welcome! :)

[james141]

Hiya, a couple of things, I would try and create a more open rock structure if you can so you can get more water flowing through it and around it :)

Also I would definatly remove that bubble algae while you still can, you can scrub it off with a tooth brush (out of the rank) then rinse in RO water before putting it back :D

[Jonny Googs]

I think thats my rubbish camera work - the rock pieces form kind of a bridge with big gaps between everything, I just cant take the photo from that direction cos of the bow in the tank :)

I have thought about scrubbing the bubbles off, but I got scared of spreading them further (still dont know what I'm doing to be honest :) ). How bad would it get if I left it a few weeks before getting a mithrax crab?

[james141]

Shouldnt get too bad.

I have scrubbed them off before, as long as you do it out of the tank and rinse in RO it should be ok, mine never came back :)

Is that one of the Orca tanks?

Have you done any mods to it?

[Jonny Googs]

Cool, might give that a try. The rock that they're on has a freaky slug-like thing that I noticed when I had a quick look last night after lights on, guess its some sort of nudibranch or similar. Don't know what colour or anything it was, but it looked a bit hairy... :)

Yes, its an Orca - the only mods I've done are the removal of the standard filter media and replacement with LR, and the addition of the 1000lph Eheim pump in the full tank picture. I'm considering trying to find a mini light to grow macroalgae in one of the chambers.