14G Bowfront Nano Reef

[lil sumpin]

That looks like a happy blenny! Glad to see she has friends now. I'm a big fan of PNS stuffs even though that stuff smells like a basket of rotten eggs in a sauna. I've been using their Pro Bio for months as a form of nutrient management and also as a coral food

 

[kanders87]

That looks like a happy blenny! Glad to see she has friends now. I'm a big fan of PNS stuffs even though that stuff smells like a basket of rotten eggs in a sauna. I've been using their Pro Bio for months as a form of nutrient management and also as a coral food

The smell is absolutely awful, and lingers a little after opening. I like that they’re shelf stable so easy to keep with the rest of my supplies. And a bottle will last me forever! I’ll have to look into the rest of their products, but so far pretty happy with how things are going.

 

[kanders87]

Nice looking clowns!

Thank you! Of course I can’t remember exactly what morph they are, but I’m pretty sure the one was a Frostbite, and the smaller one is a Snowflake. I love the contrast that they provide, and the white one will pop nice one I get corals in there.

 

[kanders87]

Testing and water change day! Everything is going well, no major things to report. 4 gallons changed out, added a dose of LifeSource. Decided to add one more rock in to make an additional swim-through for the fish and to break up the flow from the powerhead a bit. Otherwise, just chugging along.

Glare from the window made it hard to photograph, but I’ll try to get better pics once the water clears up and it gets dark out.

 

[kanders87]

I have some unfortunate news to report… my small snowflake clown died. I was doing some work on the tank a few days ago, and something scared him and he went dashing into the rock work and got stuck! Initially I was just letting him figure out how to get unstuck, but he kept wedging himself deeper until I noticed him not moving. I carefully used my long forceps to dislodge him, but it looked like he had injured his right gills. I’m so upset that this happened. He was so fun to watch swimming with the other clown.

 

[kanders87]

Ended up going this weekend to the LFS and getting a replacement clownfish. No name yet, but Marlin seems glad to have a friend again.

New clown is a Flurry, which appearance-wise looks very nice with the Frostbite. Also picked up two mexican turbos and 5 Nassarius snails. I think 2 turbos might be too much, but we’ll see how they do. I can always take 1 back if needed.

Did a large water change and sand siphoning. Dosed PNS substrate and AquaForest LifeSource. Inhabitants are all doing well at this point. Still need to set up the mini frag tank. I got my AI blade grow in and I’m excited to start playing with it. Hopefully will get that going next weekend. This weekend I plan on replacing my car stereo/head unit (which I’ve never done), so that may take some time. Wish me luck!

 

[AC1211]

Ended up going this weekend to the LFS and getting a replacement clownfish. No name yet, but Marlin seems glad to have a friend again.

New clown is a Flurry, which appearance-wise looks very nice with the Frostbite. Also picked up two mexican turbos and 5 Nassarius snails. I think 2 turbos might be too much, but we’ll see how they do. I can always take 1 back if needed.

Did a large water change and sand siphoning. Dosed PNS substrate and AquaForest LifeSource. Inhabitants are all doing well at this point. Still need to set up the mini frag tank. I got my AI blade grow in and I’m excited to start playing with it. Hopefully will get that going next weekend. This weekend I plan on replacing my car stereo/head unit (which I’ve never done), so that may take some time. Wish me luck!

I think 2 Mexican turbos is too much. I had snails in my 60g of which 1 was a Mexican turbo and I could barely support the Mexican turbo. They eat a lot of algae although they only eat a few types. In a nano, I'd think 1 would be enough but 2 could work. I would monitor it.

Plus make sure you got nassarius vibex. I've had some bad experiences recently getting other nassarius species or even whelks that would even eat my cleaner shrimps.

Overall though, your tank is looking good. Good choice of fish. Neon gobies would've been nice too. Honestly, they are small enough that 1 might still be worth considering.

 

[kanders87]

Morning feeding time! Everyone is still doing fine with the new additions.

You can barely see my fire shrimp on the back of the rocks, just hiding out.

The turbos are going to have to go back. They are just way to big for this tank. Once I get corals in, they’re just going to bulldoze everything. I’ll probably look for trochus instead. I just need something to help a little with the rockwork.

I checked out Melev’s Reef (has a nice write up about nassarius vs whelks) and these are definitely nassarius, though still not 100% which species. But they are also doing well. It’s fun to see their little stalks sticking out of the sand. They dig out in a hurry when it’s feeding time!

Current Stock:
2 clownfish
1 tail spot blenny
1 peppermint shrimp
1 fire shrimp
1 porcelain crab
2 mexican turbos (will be getting returned)
5 nassarius snails

 

[kanders87]

It’s been a minute since I’ve updated. Made a couple tweaks… my return pump was getting really loud for some reason. I took it apart multiple times, cleaned it, tried vaseline on the propeller shaft, and nothing helped so I ended up ordering a IM Mighty Jet. I love that thing. The feed mode is a life saver. I would often forget to turn my old pump back on after feeding (sometimes for a few hours or more), and this has solved that headache plus is much quieter.

I order some coral from the @AquaSD live sale, and got the mini frag tank all set up. I love watching the torch blow around in the current. I dipped with Red Sea DipX, which seemed to do a good job. Didn’t get a ton of critters, but after inspecting the corals, didn’t notice anything either.

And for my final update this round, I opted to swap out my sand. I couldn’t stand the tiny grain sizes of the Ocean Direct sand anymore. It was just blowing around too much, while still having fish waste laying on the sandbed. I pulled probably 85% of the OD out, and dispersed the remainder across the bottom of the tank (which was mostly like a dusting of sand). I topped it with some rinsed Fiji Pink…which is my absolute favorite sand. I think it looks so much better, though again I’ll have to try for some better pictures later.

So that’s about it for now. Just keeping up with water changes at this point. Hating the green coralline algae, but what are you gunna do?

Any input on a 1-man CUC for the frag tank? Some of the plugs have started sprouting small bits of algae, and I’d like to be proactive about it if possible.

Hope everyone’s having a good week!