BrackMan's 10gal Nano

[Brack-Man]

Alrighty guys and girls, I never thought I would actually ever start a true saltwater tank... but I did. Its been up and running now for about a week now. I will gladly except all creative criticism

Here it is:

I am currently only running one Powersweep powerhead/and a Marineland 200 HOB for water movement, until I can go get another powerhead, at which time I will then turn my ML 200 into a HOB refugium.
so tell me what you think.

BrackMan

 

[Limi310]

Looks Good! *thumbsups. Those look like really nice pieces of rock. I like the cave effect in the middle and the way you have that piece of Tonga.

 

[Perfectblue]

Looks good. What are your plans for future livestock?

 

[Brack-Man]

I havent really given much thought yet to livestock, since its still got a while to go before its really ready for anything other than cleanup crew

 

[lordroad]

Very nice nano. It's great you've documented the rock at the beginning... looking back after a year, you won't recognize it with all the coralline growth and algaes.

 

[FishGeek]

Looks like a GREAT start Brack-Man!!!! I like that rock work!! *thumbsups

 

[Mushroomman]

Neat little setup

 

[Brack-Man]

Thanks for the compliments . Not much has changed with it so far the only thing I have done to it this weekend is to add a background to the tank... I'll keep everyone posted *thumbsups

 

[ram man]

i like the rock work. nice little cave setup you have going there.

 

[tubbs24]

That is a nice tank you have! I like that piece of live rock on the top-right corner!

 

[Brack-Man]

Well, it seems that my LR came with some pretty interesting hitchhikers, so far I've seen 2 Bittle Stars, and 2 tiny white snails, then last night my wife called me and asked me about the crab in my tank (she is always giving a hard time about buying fish) .. ... Seems my LR came complete with an Emerald Crab, at least that what it looks like to me, but unfortunately I have been unsuccessful in obtaining any decent pics of the little booger, he is content with sitting in a crevice under a piece of LR in the back corner of my tank. Maybe tonight he will come out long enough for me to get pics.

Other updates:
I added my other Zoomeds powersweep 212 and moved the one that was in there around a little so now both powerheads are on the back wall. Going to start building refugium tonight, I think I have everything for it now.

10gal nano with 12.5 lbs of LR
Ammonia= 0 ppm
Nitrites= <.3 ppm
Nitrates= 5 ppm

 

[Limi310]

Sounds like it's all coming along nicely. How cool that you got a free emerald crab and starfish!!!

This is just the beginning...........I see in your future........you are converting one of your many other tanks to SW........lol!!

 

[Brack-Man]

Ok, I got pics of my crab this morning, I had to entice him out of hiding with a shrimp pellet , but if bribes work, then by all means use them

Some updated shots of the whole tank :

 

[big_fish_man]

Super looking tank. A couple anemone, maybe a Clown Fish or a Pom Pom Crab would be cool... Nice work, keep us posted.

 

[TRe]

yea thats an emarld crab!

 

[Brack-Man]

Um, I saw one of these in my tank the other night , it was about a half inch long. Are they good or bad?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

That's a bristleworm. They aren't bad, unless you either get a really big type (most stay small), or a serious overpopulation of them (from overfeeding). They don't hurt fish unless they're one of the really big type, but they can sting you if you touch one with your bare hands. They do clean-up type work and eat excess food, as well as dead things, so they'll keep your tank from getting anything rotting in it.

A lot of people think of them as pests and try to get rid of them. I'm not sure if they cause problems in a reef tank. There's certain fish (wrasses and some others) that eat them, but I think they all get too big for a 10g. My wrasse cleaned out the population pretty quickly, but they weren't hurting anything and I didn't get the wrasse specifically to eat them.

 

[SALTY WATERS]

CAPSLOCK pretty much said it... no worries, and can be benificial!

I have/had (not sure now) approximately 5-10 of them in my tank.

 

[Brack-Man]

Cool, thanks *thumbsups . That takes a load of my mind, seeing as how I'm adding some corals to the tank this weekend, I just wanted to make sure it wasnt going to do any grazing . Thanks again.

 

[Limi310]

I think I have one of those too. I haven't actually seen it in detail because it hides under a rock....but every so often I see it's arm (body) or whatever coming out and checking things out. It's not orange, it's all grey, but it definitely has that bristly appearance.