My 15 gallon tank
- Thread starter rajah
- Start date
Thanks! Here's a little more information about the tank. I try to keep things really simple.
-dose daily with homemade Ca and Alk supplements
-weekly or twice weekly water changes of about 1 gallon
-run carbon and phosban in the HOB filter (but I've been too lazy to change them in months)
-manually add freshwater once or twice week to keep salinity at about 1.026
-feed corals mysis and cyclops about once or twice a week
-fish get fed daily w/pellets and/or meaty foods like shrimp and scallops
I think the most important things I've done have been regular water changes. Whenever anything looks off in the tank, I do a few water changes and that seems to be the solution to most everything. I only measure Ca and Alk if it looks like growth has slowed on some corals or the coralline algae.
The lighting is a DIY fixture I made from parts ordered from Hellolights.com. It has two 75 watt VHOs. The 24 inch bulbs are nice since they light the whole tank evenly. Right now the bulbs are a 10K corallife and a URI Super Actinic. I will try and find some pics of the inside of the hood.
-dose daily with homemade Ca and Alk supplements
-weekly or twice weekly water changes of about 1 gallon
-run carbon and phosban in the HOB filter (but I've been too lazy to change them in months)
-manually add freshwater once or twice week to keep salinity at about 1.026
-feed corals mysis and cyclops about once or twice a week
-fish get fed daily w/pellets and/or meaty foods like shrimp and scallops
I think the most important things I've done have been regular water changes. Whenever anything looks off in the tank, I do a few water changes and that seems to be the solution to most everything. I only measure Ca and Alk if it looks like growth has slowed on some corals or the coralline algae.
The lighting is a DIY fixture I made from parts ordered from Hellolights.com. It has two 75 watt VHOs. The 24 inch bulbs are nice since they light the whole tank evenly. Right now the bulbs are a 10K corallife and a URI Super Actinic. I will try and find some pics of the inside of the hood.
Here are some older pics of the hood from before I painted it black.
Cool little brittle star that I found about six months after setting up the tank.
And here is an older pic before I added some of the corals and fish (thanks Hoosier Daddy and WallyV for the duncans, leather and toadstool). I used to have a lot of Halimeda in the tank, which added some nice color, but lowered by Ca and Alk way too fast. I pulled it all out and it has been much easier to maintain Ca and Alk now.
Cool little brittle star that I found about six months after setting up the tank.
And here is an older pic before I added some of the corals and fish (thanks Hoosier Daddy and WallyV for the duncans, leather and toadstool). I used to have a lot of Halimeda in the tank, which added some nice color, but lowered by Ca and Alk way too fast. I pulled it all out and it has been much easier to maintain Ca and Alk now.
+1 very nice color and it does look like a much larger reef. I have a lot of the same stuff in my 55, but it is all 1" frags at 4-6" spacing. Cant wait till it fills out like that.
Personally I find that in small tanks, soft corals can provide pretty amazing filtration. I have a 5 gallon at work that was running at 10ish ppm nitrates with just rock / 1 fish. After tossing a large xenia in, levels dropped to 0 in a week.
Personally I find that in small tanks, soft corals can provide pretty amazing filtration. I have a 5 gallon at work that was running at 10ish ppm nitrates with just rock / 1 fish. After tossing a large xenia in, levels dropped to 0 in a week.
Thanks!
Yeah, I agree that the soft corals help with keeping down nutrients - the back of the tank has lots of xenia, anthelia and kenya tree frags which grow fast. There is also a ball of chaetomorpha in the back, which might help a little. Nonetheless, I'm still wishing I had more nutrient export because the bioload is so high in this little tank. I'm starting to see a film on the water and microalgae is popping up in places. Might be time to cut back on feeding, or ramp up water changes even more. Nice thing with a tank this small is that 10% water changes only take about 2 minutes.
Yeah, I agree that the soft corals help with keeping down nutrients - the back of the tank has lots of xenia, anthelia and kenya tree frags which grow fast. There is also a ball of chaetomorpha in the back, which might help a little. Nonetheless, I'm still wishing I had more nutrient export because the bioload is so high in this little tank. I'm starting to see a film on the water and microalgae is popping up in places. Might be time to cut back on feeding, or ramp up water changes even more. Nice thing with a tank this small is that 10% water changes only take about 2 minutes.
yeah, it's always hard to predict who comes out on top when things start to sting one another. I recently had a goniopora sting the living crap out of a frogspawn that was probably two or three inches away. I would have guessed the frogspawn to have a stronger sting. Goniopora also stung a toadstool, which didn't open up for about two weeks after (kind of a wussy little coral I guess).
I also think that a chalice I have actually stung the BTA and messed up some of its tentacles. Always some sort of warfare going down in there.
I also think that a chalice I have actually stung the BTA and messed up some of its tentacles. Always some sort of warfare going down in there.
Well, it's been awhile and I'm bored so thought I would get up some updated pics of my tank. It's been through a lot of livestock changes and some cnidarians went to Davey Jones's Locker over the summer when my tank care taker was on vacation. Who needs sps anyway... The fish and several corals now have been with me about a year and a half, at least the hardy corals.
I've also upgraded to a DIY T5 set up that hangs over the tank. Way better than the VHOs I was running. Check it out.
I've also upgraded to a DIY T5 set up that hangs over the tank. Way better than the VHOs I was running. Check it out.