Thor's NaNu Nano 18 Cube

I think so too OFK. I just may do it, although I've heard others complain that it loses its beauty quickly from all the detritus, etc. I think I will give it a try and see what happens.

So one of my buddies out here here has kindly offered up a Setosa and perhaps a Jedi Mind Trick frag for my tank. He is also going to help me find a few friends to donate some varieties of BN. Should be perfect, since I don't know how long this tank will be up, to have a few fast growers and on the more forgiving side of the SPS spectrum. I also saw a purple IRA stylo at an LFS that I may just "have" to have.

I love donated frags!

First things first, gotta get this cycle finished, rock transferred to the tank and get a few fish and let things stabilize. Who knows, maybe by end of the month or early June?

Sorry, no new pictures. Nothing exciting yet

 

Wow, love the new digs! Way to go Matt.

Okay, so it just happens when the site was down I actually made a lot of progress. I guess I couldn't waste time on 3Reef so I actually got stuff done. Go figure. Time to get you up to date!

Been dreading setting up the RODI, and honestly I put it off. Cramped quarters, and I thought I was going to have to drill into a drain line, blah, blah, blah. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. So RODI is up and running in the laundry closet, and water storage is currently under my big tank stand. I had one small leak with the water storage so I had to drain it a few times until I got it squared away, but all is well now. Not exciting, but important. I apologize in advance for the quality of the pics. All of them are crappy cell phone pics.





I filled her up and the leak test went with flying colors. Here she is bare bottom (which I immediately hated as I suspected I might):


I added salt, and nailed the salinity on my first shot. More luck than skill. I think this is just a cool pic of the salt mixing:



I mentioned the bare bottom previously. So I fixed it, the next day. I also had a media bag over the return to help clean out some of the dust from putting in the sand/messing around in the tank:


And, finally, here she is under room lighting, not the best pic.


Params are good:
SG: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5ppm
Phosphates: .01

I got my Dr. Tim's One and Only in the mail today so I am ready for fish! Going to a few LFS tomorrow to see what I can rummage up. Other than that, I'm just focused on dialing in the equipment. I just turned on the skimmer today, wide open, to help get it broken in. The only casualty was my ATO. It was a Tunze Osmulater, but it refused to work. It would read level, and then kick on the pump again. And again, and again. Nothing I tried worked and I think the water movement was messing with the sensor. So, I pitched it and ordered a different unit which is on its way. In the meantime, daily manual top-offs will work just fine.

So FINALLY, I'm getting somewhere. Have a great weekend!

 

Boy I absolutely loved my Tunze Doc 9002. Great idea on the sand, I used to like the BB look, now it seems like very few tanks can pull off BB and look nice. The tank is coming along nicely, I am excited for you.

 

the pictures didn't show up for me

 

Hmmmm. Did they show up as a broken link or are they not uploading? I will get back on later tonight to see if I can fix 'em!

 

Oh yeah! I may or may not have two fish and a zos frag acclimating right now.

 

A few pics of the new livestock. First, I planned on getting a plain old ORA tank bred Occy clown. And then I saw this guy:



It's a naked clown, and honestly my decision was more about health than looks. She was just more active and engaged than the other clowns and I decided it was worth the extra bling. Additionally, she did not seem to care one hoot about the other fish in the tank and I hope that translates once she is settled in her new home. All that being said, she is pretty . In typical Clown fashion she swam right out, explored the tank, and made herself at home. She ate a few times which is always good.

I picked up a standard Zoa frag as well, opened right up.


The last purchase is one that may be a bit more controversial. I consider it a calculated challenge. This LFS has had a Hector's Goby for about a month. She has been eating all types of prepared foods, which is often not the case with these guys. As many of you probably know, there is very much a hit or miss track record with these fish despite often being labeled as an "easy" fish by many sites. However, considering she is eating prepared foods, including nori, I think she was worth the risk despite me not having a fully established tank with algae growing in it. Only time will tell. Her getting enough algae in her diet is my main focus so I will be trying varying types of algae based foods in addition to a typical marine diet.

I was not able to get a picture because in typical fashion for this fish, she immediately dove for a cave at the bottom of my rock work. I did see her sneak out a few times, and as what is I hope is a good sign she came out for a feeding of Rod's tonight, and did in fact eat. I will be keeping a close eye on her over the next few days, and if she does not show signs of getting comfy in her new environs and doing the typical hovering, I will be sure to get her back to the LFS where she was happy.

I figure, why not dive right into a challenge, right? She is gorgeous, you will just have to take my word for it for now . I may add one more fish in a month or so, but we will just have to see how everything goes.

Happy Saturday!

 

Boy I had no idea Hector's Goby were such a challenge. The naked clown is pretty cool actually.

Happy Saturday back at you.

 

Honestly Corailline, from what I have found in my research it is very mixed regarding the difficulty of the Hectors. Some say they are easy, some have found them rather challenging. A few posters I have found compared them to a Mandarin fish, although I feel that those opinions are on the extreme end of the spectrum. We will see how this one does with good care. It may just be a simple as each individual fish varies significantly in their ability to adapt to aquarium life and would explain for the wide variance in opinion.

Ask me again in a few weeks and I may have a completely different answer though .

 

It is good to be back in the game again though rather than sitting on the bench watching everyone else play!