Ritter's errrrrr...Jaiden's nano contest entry.

I started a 10 gallon reef tank for my son's science fair project and the teacher ended up scrapping that idea for us so I figured we might as well enter it in the nano contest. This will be Jaiden's first saltwater tank and he will be doing all the work, stocking, planning, etc. Of course I'll be there for moral support. He decided on the blue background and the rock and shells for the tank. Nothing added was already live. We used dry sand and the rock was from my sump but boiled as part of the science project. So far this is what we got.

Well done Jaiden! Look forward to seeing grow!

Cool! You've got a great hookup on some cool frags in the house too!

Nice looking setup, we got some serious competition now.

Looks Great Jaiden, always remember ... whatever your dad says , do the exact opposite .




now to figure out how to keep water in mine, this evap is killing me. Hopefully the LED's will cut it down some

oh , and welcome to the contest

The cycle is done and the clean up crew has been added. We added 10 various hermits and 10 snails. Still working out the lighting situation. I bought a lamp for one of the par38 bulbs but the lamp took a odd bulb so it wouldn't work with the par38. We'll be back at the store to get another one soon. Right now the light is just clamped on the side and isn't providing much spread. It looks really nice though. Jaiden has decided on a Randall's Goby and pistol shrimp pair and a clownfish pair. As far as corals we won't be adding any until the fish and inverts and all set and we might start adding a few corals after that. He is interested in frogspawn and zoanthids. He said he didn't want any sps. He said he didn't like the green corals either, they look like algae but the frogspawn he liked because it flows.


Edit: The first fish he picked out was a Chalk Bass but I wasn't sure about them or not. Anyone have any experience with them and compatibility to other fish? I know Tobacco basslets and Lantern bass are aggressive but I'm not sure about the chalks.

Gabe
I'm thinking about fragging a long finger from my green slimer and maybe taking the frogspawn out completely, if I do would you want it for your Son's tank?The Frogspawn is now eight heads and it is getting close to to many corals, I'm afraid its gonna kill them, its already killed part of that starlet coral that came on my rocks and getting close to the Hydnophora and monti. I have a single head of tricolor Frogspawn I can put in its place.

Sure Donnie. If you get rid of the frogspawn let me know. I'll buy it back from you. He doesn't want any sps right now so I'll pass on the slimer. Mine's looking a lot better now that it's under the leds.

Just got the tank occupants in today. I placed an order from Vividaquariums.com. We ended up getting 2 true percula clownfish, 1 Randall's Goby, 1 red banded pistol shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp and 1 chalk bass. Not sure if the chalk bass was a good idea or not but that's the fish he wanted and I read they were pretty peaceful. It looks more pissed than peaceful in the bag so we will see how it goes. It's literally jumping out of the water while still in the bag so I'm hoping it settles down in the tank.

Best of all I got me a Strawberry Shortcake Acro for my tank.

the chalk bass should be ok, i had one in the past and it was a cool fish. didnt cause any problems with anyone. now post them pics

Very cool! :-D

Can't wait to see pics.

Everything looks good in the tank except the cleaner shrimp didn't make it. The chalk bass has been hiding but everything else is acting normal. I got the lighting figured out for the tank so I hope to start adding a few test corals in the next week or 2.

That is too stinkin cool! :-)

Too bad about the cleaner shrimp. I'm digging the light setup!

Nice goby , I almost went that route on my par bulb but went to office depot and got a drafting lamp to hold it.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/687894/Realspace-Clamp-On-Task-Lamp-29/



took some tightening of the hinges, but it works now

Well one of the clowns died for unknown reasons and the goby decided to hang ten on the carpet. I haven't noticed any fighting between the fish so I don't know if it was chased out or if it just decided on an attempt to seek adventure elsewhere. That leaves us down to one clown and the chalk bass. We added a couple of corals to the tank.



One head of frogspawn.


One duncan head.


No tank in my house would be complete without a green sinularia frag. I also made a tiny toadstool frag just to see if it takes off.


I also added a blastomussa frag (1 head), some various zoanthids, superman mushrooms, and a trial piece of pink birdsnest (maybe 1x1.5 inch).

Looking good! I like that worm colony on the liverock, thats cool.

June update.

Duncan is growing new heads fast.


Blasto frag. Looks better in the nano than my 75.


Added some Xenia yesterday.

Looks like a winner to me already!

Lookin good

Video of me feeding the dendro. The white balance is a little off in the video. The dendro looks way more yellow and red in person and it's in a dark corner. It's looks all lit up but it's really not.

I was hoping to see the babies on the other side! :-)

Glad it's looking good. That thing eats like a horse. lol

matt_longview wrote:I was hoping to see the babies on the other side! :-)

That's what I forgot! I'll get shots of them next time.

Ok, now for the anemone.

Videos are cool Gabe, everything looks great!