our 28g Nano MH tank

Discussion in 'Show Off Your Fish Tanks!' started by schackmel, Mar 12, 2011.

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  1. schackmel

    schackmel Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2008
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    3,153
    Location:
    St. Louis
    As many of you know, we have been having some very bad luck in the hobby over the past year :cry:. A blown seam in a 135g tank, replaced by a new 125g tank that cracked after a heater failure that killed almost everything. The week that our last tank cracked, we had a big order of frags being shipped to us (was on hold for a month due to the weather) so we decided to start up a 28g nano 14k mh tank to act as a temporary holding tank then to be converted to a qt tank.

    Basics........... we have 30lb of sand and probably about 30-40 lbs of live rock (taken from our various other tanks) We have the 2 standard pumps that came with the tank hooked up to a wave maker, and 3 koralia nano pumps. We are running phosguard, carbon and purigen along with a uv sterilizer and a large hunk of cheato.

    The livestock consists of 2 greenbar gobies, 2 barnacle blennies, yellow watchman goby, a small yellow strip gobie, a blue clown gobie and a yellow assessor. There is also a mated pair of fire shrimp in the tank.

    We had an outbreak of bryopsis that we are currently treating by raising the magnesium level and with the addition of lettuce nudibranchs (per Curt they are not really nudibranch but I am horrible with scientific names ::)) who really have the outbreak under control.

    Coral wise.......we have a few LPS corals (blasto, hammer, coral and various chalices) but mainly SPS tank with a variety of acros, montis and a really nice litho (the only coral that survived the big tank crash!)

    Well tonight we were looking at the tank and saw that the litho is in the process of spawning right now (we just added the 3rd pump and it must have made it very happy)
    I noticed today that all the mouths became inflammed and had white bubbles in each mouth.
    This picture was taken this morning when it was starting............
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    Now there are these orange bubbles that have formed tonight. Bubbles are not the right word for it, as you can see something in there..........
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    this coral has had a hard life but is thriving. I first saw it at Curts store back in the summer, however knew we could not have it because tank 1 was down. So in October when the new tank was up, that piece was still there! The day I was going to buy it somebody else came in and got it :-[. So three months later the guy brings back this brownish coral that was this coral that I had wanted. It did not do well in his tank. So of course we got it and placed it in tank #2 (125) Couple months later.......... the heater we had on a controller nuked the tank to 98.8 overnight killing everything. This coral survived but had browned up horrible. (this tank cracked due to the heater which was in the overflow somehow.......thus tank 2)

    Well, while the coral has not completly recolored up, as you can see it is doing very well and is spawning tonight!

    Now that I have rambled on ::) (as you all know i can) I will just post pictures of the corals and the tank!

    some whole tank shots
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    the left side of the tank is still has the bryopsis

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    you can see our porcelin crab hiding under this piece

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    our fish!
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  3. bvb-etf-luva

    bvb-etf-luva Banned

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    really nice tank man looks great!
     
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  4. link248

    link248 Ritteri Anemone

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    very nice
     
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  5. Zoanthids21

    Zoanthids21 McKoscker’s Flasher Wrasse

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    Charlotte, NC
    Nice!

    What brand 14k are you running? looks white to me..
     
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  6. schackmel

    schackmel Giant Squid

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    yeah it is the standard bulb that came with it so I am assuming it is the JBJ version, and it does appear very white to me also! I am used to the 14k pheonix on my other tank which is more of a soothing blue......however at this point we are trying to maximize growth rates and will color them up later under the bluer bulbs, probably a 20k.

    The other thing I am not used to with this tank is that there are no actenic lights, just the MH and the led moonlights. I miss the actenics for coloring!
     
  7. Sadie

    Sadie Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Jan 12, 2011
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    Location:
    New England
    Your tanks looks so nice!! I had a 12 gal Aquapod and it was literally falling apart so I got the JBJ 12 gal NanoCube and it doesn't have actenics either. I really miss them. It's either moon lights or all three (moonlights, actenics and daylights)
     
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  9. Zoanthids21

    Zoanthids21 McKoscker’s Flasher Wrasse

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    Yeah, i just switched out a 10k for a 14k pheonix holy shapow! WhATA DIFFFERENCE!!!!! I love it, and i supplement 96w of T5HO Actnic. I have a 29g biocube.
     
  10. Corailline

    Corailline Super Moderator

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    It is a dry heat, yeah right !
    The tank and the corals look great. Interesting about the spawning event. I wonder if the increased flow influenced it. Good PE on the acropora and great color on the LPS. Wonderful fire shrimp and little fishes.
     
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  11. JBL

    JBL Sea Dragon

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    Long Island, NY
    Awsome tank man!!!! My 28 JBJ just houses my naked clown, royal gramma, and Bob the Mantis. Believe it or not, the Mantis ate 3 green BTA the tha clown was hosting. :(
     
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  12. Tropical Addict

    Tropical Addict Bubble Tip Anemone

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    So Cal
    Your tank looks great! I like the variety of colors you have in there. :)
     
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