a nano is born (pictures)

[ikinne1]

Oh, and yes, that's an excellent design. I'm sure when it get settled with coral the growth will be magnificent. That is a truly nanoreef, completing everything you hated about Cubes.
XJinn, that design deserved a DIY post. Again, the design is great.

[Xjinn]

chino: i'm not sure if the sponge is the same as the one you are talking about, like i said i got it from premium aquatics and dont know much about it other than its great for my application

if you have a strong inkling it is one and the same, it probably is

update on the tank/mandarin:

surprisingly the microbubble problem has subsided quite a bit, to acceptable levels actually. i guess the skimmer just needed to be "broken in", though i think the water having less organics in it has something to do with it also

there still are microbubbles, and if i wasnt hellbent on skimming away all the mandarin food experiments i would still just run it a few hours a day. they are only a minor aesthetic problem at this point though, not a bubble storm, and not something that i would worry about for my future sps

also i'm looking to get a replacement impeller for the rio 800 so i can make an attempt at a DIY needlewheel, which by reducing flow might allow me to run the skimmer all waking hours of the day without any aesthetic sacrifices. it might also inrease the number of bubbles small enough to flow through regardless of throughput (hence the spare impeller)

the mandarin is now happily eating frozen/dead brine, and i have had some small success in getting her to eat frozen mysid, though she still prefers the brine to a large degree

i'm having a slight algea bloom, and the tank has acquired a slight "cycling smell" (you know what i mean) which i beleive is primarily from the garlic, but also from putting in various foods that just dont get eaten

i'm going to resume food training, particularly mysid/brine mix, but for the moment i'd like to cool it on the bioload, so i'm going to buy some enriched frozen brine today which i know the mandarin will love

because of the algea bloom i'd say i have weeks yet before hard corals go in (i could put some softies in now but i'm not particularly interested in those)

once i get the mandarin mowing on those frozen brine (and maybe a little more excited about mysid) and once the water cleans up a bit, i will be getting ~8 sexy shrimp since they've finally reappeared on liveaquaria

once the tank is ready for those, i will probably also be on the prowl for a male mandarin who will eat food at the store

other than that i need a cucumber, and livestock will be 100% done for the forseable future

now before somebody berates me for talking about a second mandarin, i think we can agree that the reason mandarins are hard to keep is because they dont eat, and that mandarins who eat dont starve

well my mandarin eats... and i will only get another if that one eats... so no problems correct?

[Xjinn]

well i'm not really sure how, but my tank is CRAWLING with pods, even in broad daylight as the mandarin is devouring them

i noticed my mandarin was behaving a little oddly today as he was going up the back of the tank and picking at the glass and particularly the slight hair algrea growing on the silicone seals

i havent clean my glass in a day or two so its got a thin algea layer on it as well as some microbubbles stuck

but i took a closer look.... and it turns out most of the dots on the glass were not microbubbles but pods! (the tiny kind not the big kind, copepods not amphi's i guess)

now i can see them on the glass but of course they are all over the tank, and the mandarin is loving it. there are so many it seems when he goes on a tear he's eating almost 1 per second

so i wiped my glass finally puting all the little buggers into the water column, and an hour later they are almost as dense on the glass again as before!

i am skeptical my tank can keep this up with the mandarin, and must be going through some kind of cycle (i had a mild algea bloom, possibly the reason?)

and although i am skeptical.... i would have been skeptical this could ever happen in the first place with a mandarin about. obviously whatever the conditions are in my tank right now, it is possible for the pods to reproduce FAR faster than the mandarin can eat them, even at 1 pod/sec

so i'm going to start feeding phytoplankton to see if i can keep this good time rolling

so any explanations? is it at all possible that my pod sponge is that effective? i know this seems a far out idea that a small tank can produce enough pods to overwelm a mandarin, but for the moment at least, it seems to have happened. i know 75 gal is the rule of thumb for pod population, but it seems to me that under the right conditions, pod production could easily be orders of magnitude higher than under non-optimal conditions. again this is the only fish in the tank and i think that has a lot to do with it. i notice in my roomates tank the purple psuedochrmois is a veracious rock scavenger, and probly predates all the pods in the tank (as any aggressive feeding rock picker in any tank probably does)

[prettyflywhiteguy]

i'd be amazed but i guess anything's possible, you might've found the way to keep mandarins in nanos... I'd definitely emulate the setup a few times before announcing to the world that you've found a safe way to keep pod populations up for a mandarin in a 15 gallon tank

[Uncle Mushroom]

Xjinn, you may want to add a small valve onto the air inlet of RIO 600 pump. By adjusting the amount of air RIO 600 feeding, you may able to limit a bit of microbubble escaping out from the skimmer chamber.

Or, simply, get a smaller power pump that can feed into your current setup.

[turfgrass]

xjinn, I sent you a pm. Thanks

[Broodingwolf]

I'd really be careful about 2 mandarins in a 10 gallon, I have read many many many stories about mandarins fighting to death in large tanks, like 100 gallon tanks. Apparently they can be quite vicious if they are the same sex. Personally, I wouldn't do it. You obviously are going to do your own thing, but I would caution against it.

[gumbybc]

but if they are a breeding pair, i seriously doubt he would have the fighting.