Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread

[Kevin McG]

Very cool Marc!

My wife was asking me just the other day if I could set her up a small nano with some small fish and such for the kitchen. I am going to show her this tonight she will love a sun coral display nano

[Alaska_Phil]

Originally posted by Kevin McG
Very cool Marc!

My wife was asking me just the other day if I could set her up a small nano with some small fish and such for the kitchen. I am going to show her this tonight she will love a sun coral display nano

That's a cool idea! Arn't some grogorians non-photoscopic too?

Phil

[melev]

Originally posted by Kevin McG
Very cool Marc!

My wife was asking me just the other day if I could set her up a small nano with some small fish and such for the kitchen. I am going to show her this tonight she will love a sun coral display nano

The thing about this type of tank is that you need to do weekly water changes to keep the water clean. I'm blessed with it being tied into a huge reef, with a skimmer, heaters, calcium reactor, etc. If you made a cute little tank like this that held 4 gallons, I would truly change 2g every week. Maybe make 5 or 10 gallons of saltwater, and keep it stored in sealed jugs in a nearby area so the temperature stays near what the tank is.

Another thing that is an absolute must: top off. You have to top off twice a day to maintain salinity in a tiny tank. You could make the tank with a small ATO section in the back to replenish as needed, and top that off with more water every couple of days.

That being said, I think it would be a great addition. This is the tank I used to keep Casper in on my kitchen counter. The hardest part was topping off and maintaining consistent temperature. Water quality was easy with water changes.

A clown goby would be cute, or maybe that tiny pistol shrimp & Yasha Goby pair. They are each 1" long and thus perfect candidates for a tiny kitchen tank.

[melev]

Originally posted by Alaska_Phil
That's a cool idea! Arn't some grogorians non-photoscopic too?

Phil

Yes, some are non-photosynthetic.

[Alaska_Phil]

Originally posted by melev

Another thing that is an absolute must: top off. You have to top off twice a day to maintain salinity in a tiny tank. You could make the tank with a small ATO section in the back to replenish as needed, and top that off with more water every couple of days.

I'll second that Marc. My 20 long takes almost 1/2 gal a day in top off to keep the salinity constant. I try to add it in two doses, one in the morning before I leave for work, and the other in the evening. I've set up a jug I can put on top of the tank to slowly drip the top-off water in over a couple hours.

Phil

[melev]

Exactly. With Casper's tank, I poured in a (red beer) cup of RO/DI water every morning and every evening. However, if I'm not here for some reason, asking someone else to do that consistently is tough. Odds are they won't do it, or do it all at once right before you get back, and livestock suffers.

[Lunchbucket]

Dang I've always wanted a sun coral just never bought any. I'd love to have a baby from yours

Lunchbucket

[melev]

Just wanted to do a follow up on that brown stuff I scraped off. Spock was eating it, so I assumed it was okay. She turned very very dark after that, which was alarming. The yellow area on her forehead area turned almost black, and her orange lips were very very dark as well. The fish was almost black, compared to her normal coloration, and stayed that way for at least 2 mins.

I quickly changed out the carbon with 3 cups of new in a Phosban Reactor, hooked it up and made sure it was working. I came back around to the front of the tank and she was back to normal. Now I know carbon is good, but there was no way it fixed the water with the mere 1/4 gallon that passed through it in the time it took for me to check on her.

That stuff must have been pretty vile. Glad she's okay. I've almost collected enough water to start mixing up 55g of saltwater.

[jnarowe]

had to get out of my thread and take a break...evil brown stuff? yeah, that's how I feel about it too! I should take a picture of my valonia fuge. It looks like there are hundreds of snailsyet none are moving...

[melev]

That is why I wanted to siphon it out. It wasn't coming off in sheets though. It broke up into tiny specks, and while I did have the pumps off, it just didn't seem practical nor plausible to siphon it out.

So I cranked up the equipment again and hope that my skimmer will pull it out quickly. I'll take a full tank shot as things are looking good again.

[melev]

So here are a few pictures of the tank as of this evening.



And from a slight angle.






Looking in through the end of the tank.




And looking at it from the reflection on the front glass.


Another reflection shot from the opposite end of the tank.

[melev]

Here's a picture of the blue tipped acro from the end of the tank, as well as the A. granulosa behind it.



And from that spot, I could almost see my blue tort fraglet. Bad picture, but it looks pretty darn good! I need to stop that frilly mushroom in its tracks though.



And finally here's a blue polyped monti I got at CRASE. Still looks good, although the rock around it looks kind of ugly.

[jnarowe]

The blue polyped montis are tough IMO. I had one larger than a dinner plate and it was fabulous. It grew nicely and then one day started to STN. I fragged and dipped, fragged and dipped, and ended up with just a small piece I sent home with Steve Weast. He kept it in good shape and brought it back about a month ago. It is doing OK, but nowhere near its former glory.

[gman0526]

Great pictures Marc The tank looks great as always, I see you added the school of Anthias. What's your experience with them so far?

[melev]

I added 8 Lyretail Anthias five months ago. 7 females, 1 male. And for the past four months, I still see all but one. I think I lost one during the first month, but it is still nice to have 7 in the tank.

And yes, there are still 9 Chromis in my reef.

[gman0526]

Do they behave like a harem or are just pretty much all over the tank? There's the male but does he "claim" all the females?

[mokeyz]

Marc, (speaking of carbon) I just bought and received the Simplicity Chemical Reactor as per your recommendation in the most recent podcast. I will set it up tomorrow and let you all know what I think. I am going to try ChemiPure Elite in it first. I have recently had a breakout of brown slime ( I assume it is some kind of cyanobacteria). Placing a new bag of carbon in the return portion of my sump and cutting back on light and feeding have helped but the stuff is still there. I am hoping that the Reactor will be even more effective.

Marlene

[melev]

gman - they don't school but overall they seem to get along. And as it gets closer to the evening, they are out and about in anticipation of dinner.

mokeyz - very cool. I'd love to hear what you think of it. It looks like a very nice gizmo. I can't believe you ordered yours before I got around to getting mine!

[ReefMeister2]

[violation]

[melev]

That looks really good. Thanks for inclusion on the bio page.

Power tools, acrylic shavings flying into the audience.... I don't know if I'm Shamu, Tim the Toolman, or Gallagher.

[CW from the OC]

Maybe Marc can take some pics of Ali's store! LOL!

[jnarowe]

I love the woodwork around your tank CW. Very nice.

[poppin_fresh]

well Marc, I did it again... I came home with another CBB. I couldn't resist, its a juvenile and its was very active. It has a stupid amount of aiptasia to eat in my 180 if it desires.

I shall call him Melev 2.0!

[CW from the OC]

Originally posted by jnarowe
I love the woodwork around your tank CW. Very nice.

Thanks Jonathon!

[Kentanner11]

Does reef ca st have a forum ?