Time to hire the clean up crew

Finally the aquarium has started to go into its cycle of algae which usually happens for all new aquariums.

First algae usually are brown (Diatoms) then green algae to coralline algae.



As I was seeding my aquarium with a pod population from a fellow reefer, I got some extra bonus of snails which has slowly removing the brown algae from the rocks.



Another starting package I added was mysid shrimp, about colony of 10 of them which was very hard to take a photo of.




Hopefully by tomorrow I be added the first real livestock into my aquarium so keep in tune.....

Looking for these guys to move in

Livestock planning is very important as certain things cannot go with each other but also as a long term goal of how you want your aquarium to be stocked.

Coral wise I have decided to mix it around with some hard and easy corals to cover the tank.
Here is a picture of how I’m planning to place my corals with their needs in mind.



Livestock is big thing for me as I love the idea of fish or inverts to breed in a home aquarium, so most livestock will be paired up. Some of the creatures I be listing might not go in as it depends on if I can even find them or if they have enough space with the other livestock.

Fish
Pair of Mandarin Dragonets
Pair of Blue Lined Pipefish or Pair of Orange spotted File fish
Pair of Royal Grammas or Pair of Orchid Dotty backs
Possible school of Gold Lined Cardinals

Inverts
Pair of Harlequin Shrimp or Pair of Emperor Shrimp
Pair of Blood shrimp or Pair of Red Line Cleaner Shrimps
Harem of Sexy Shrimp
One or Two Clams

The Substrate Experiment

A few days ago I decided to start a small experiment with my substrate. I always found that plain sand never looked natural so I decided to try something different, this time I added a clay mixture called bentonite which is used in koi keeping for its minerals. It gave me 2 days of hell with the water being quiet murky but a filter sock soon took care of that. The result looked great but you aren’t really able to play with the substrate due to clouds of fine clay when you disturbed it. Time will tell if this was a good experiment or not. I’m hoping that it won’t give me hassles in the long term but instead a buffing ability with its minerals and calcium.

Today the finishing touches were added with small pieces of coral rubble and rock were added around the main structure to get that wear down feel.

I hope you like to change



Before



After

The start of a long journey

Welcome to my blog on my bedroom aquarium.

I was in aquarium for at least 5 years now and out of that 3 year with salt water aquariums though last year I did put a stop into aquariums as I need to sort other things in my life first. After 1 year of taking a break and some bugging from a friend I start up again but I hoped to have this nano survive and growth out compared to the rest of my tanks. I love nano tank as they always fun to find things and the detail is well need as everything can be seen.

Now about my little aquarium

Display System

Strike up Date: 01/03/2010
Display Tank: 40cm x 40cm x 40cm
Display Lighting: Evilc66's Par 38 - 21w Cree Lamp (to do a review)
Stand: Metal Stand made by a friend
Hood: No hood (I hate hoods)
Sump: 10L Food container temporary
Refugium: None

Support systems

System Water: Natural salt water
Display Water circulation: None ATM (Future plans - Vortech mp10)
Return Pump: 1000lph Power head
Skimmer: No Skimmer
Evaporation Top Up: Auto top up to be setup

Here some pictures of the system.