Jadette's 7.5g ADA Cube Update

jadette · 04/13/2008, 02:37 PM

For some reason, I can't update my old thread... So here's a new thread on my updates:
Well... Here's the update...

Changed my setup a bit. Initially wanted to keep my equipment to a minimum to preserve that 'clean' look, but running my tank with just a canister filter and the lily pipes just didn't cut it.

I was hoping to get away with not using a heater, but the temp swing with my MHs went from 81 F in the evenings to 74 F in the mornings. Figured 7 degrees was too big of a swing to keep some of my corals happy, so I went with an in-line heater. Temp swing is only 2 degrees now. Also put an in-line UV sterilizer to my outflow so now I have a trail of equipment from my canister (which I upgraded to a larger Eheim Ecco) to my tank (but not IN my tank at least!).

And then I did a stupid thing and bought one of those LE SPS frag packs that required more flow than what my canister was putting out. Had to throw in a Koralia nano to keep the SPS corals alive. Too bad I can't do the in-line thing with that!

Here's my yasha with his buddy pistol shrimp! They've built quite an extensive tunnel network underneath the main rock in my tank.

"My" picasso clown. He's on loan while my brother finds him a mate in his 90g reef. I've grown so attached to him the last couple of weeks and might throw the "I have no idea what you're talking about him being yours" speech when my brother reclaims him.

A front shot of my tank before I stocked it.

A close up of some of the SPS corals on top. ORA birdsnest, garf bonsai, green horrida, green table acro, and a tricolor nana in the back. Working on better PE. Having SPSs in a nano is hard! So much easier to please them in my old 55g reef.

The smushies on my sandbed. I had some zoa eating nudis I recently got rid of so my zoos look terrible now, but they're slowly opening up again. The blood red mushrooms, the first corals I had in my tank, grew so big so fast that I had to give away the largest ones to my brother. My superman shroom looks so unhappy in this photo. He's normally not shriveled up like that.

jadette · 04/13/2008, 02:39 PM

Some random macro shots of my tank. Bear with me here. New to this macro lens, so these are really crappy photos. Hopefully my skills will improve.

Will try to update more frequently...

hdesai123 · 04/14/2008, 08:45 AM

Your corals are looking good.....How about a full tank shot?

jadette · 04/15/2008, 12:05 AM

I was hoping to take a full-tank shot this weekend after my cleaning out my lily pipes (major pain, btw!), but since you asked, I'll go ahead and post what it looks like today. My tank is going through a transition right now. I got rid of just about all my SPS frags and decided to go with a predominantly LPS tank. I'm also nursing a couple of heads of hammer coral for my brother in my tank so it looks a bit crowded at the moment.
I'm going to rearrange everything and clean out my pipes/glass this weekend so it should look a lot more organized soon. I'll post updates after this weekend.

Full tank shot:

My little micromussa/war coral frags that I'm going to find a decent spot for soon:

-Shirley

hdesai123 · 04/15/2008, 12:44 AM

Its looking great even without cleaning. Keep it up.

CamBarr · 04/15/2008, 01:19 AM

cool tank

mrk1260 · 04/15/2008, 09:46 AM

If you don't mind me asking. Can you post pictures of your filtration? I have a 5 gallon ada tank, and want to change the filtration. I see you are using the glass tubes from the ada, how do they work and what type of filtration are you using? I'm really interested and would really appreciate you posting some pictures and info on your tank. And btw, the tank looks beautiful, really clean.

jadette · 04/15/2008, 06:26 PM

Thanks everyone for the compliments!

mrk1260 -

I'm using a eheim canister filter with purigen and chemi-pure elite along with the fine and coarse filter pads. I started with an Eheim Classic 2213 and upgraded to an Eheim Ecco 2236. Once I get rid of all my SPS corals (still have the tricolor nana and two birdsnests left), I'm hoping the Ecco 2236 will provide enough flow to keep my LPS corals happy without the use of the Koralia nano. The tank looked so much 'cleaner' before I added the powerhead, so now I'm trying to simplify my coral choices to minimize the equipment I'll need to keep them all happy.

I don't have a good photo of my equipment since everything is tucked under my desk and zip-tied together for now until i find a cabinet to house everything. Basically, I have the glass lily pipe intake go straight into my canister filter. The output of the canister filter goes through the in-line heater and then the in-line UV sterilizer and then to my outflow pipe.

The UV sterilizer + chemi-pure elite + purigen made a huge difference in water clarity for me.

I also do daily water changes (16 oz) and bi-weekly (1 gallon) water changes.

I got my lily pipes from ebay (search for "flo lily pipe") for $50, but the intake tube is a little too long for me (can't put live rock or corals in that corner), so I placed an order for these:

http://www.calaqualabs.com/Graphics/Nano_icon.jpg

...which are perfect for a nano (especially your 5g ADA). I should be getting them in later this week. It's always good to have an extra set of glass tubes anyways!

And since I hate posting without a pic, here's one of my hubby's planted tank.

Saltwater_Dog · 04/15/2008, 06:30 PM

Very nice Nano...Makes me want to build one everytime I see an awsome one like yours.....

jadette · 04/24/2008, 12:19 AM

Thanks Saltwater_Dog for the kind words.

Thinned out my tank a bit this week but getting rid of all my zoos and placing them in my 4-year old son's new nano-reef (same cube, but it's basically a FOWRL tank right now).

Here's a front tank shot with clean pipes and sand.

A closer look at my sun corals...surprisingly, they're open like that regardless if my lights are on or off...

Unfortunately, my B&W clown jumped out one night last week so it's just my yasha goby/pistol pair in my tank at the moment. I just placed an order for an eviota and trimma goby at Liveaquaria.com so that "void" should be filled soon.

I'm also picking up an order of yumas from bluezooaquatics.com tomorrow. That should be it for awhile. Just going to wait for things to grow out after that.

jadette · 04/28/2008, 11:12 PM

Got my liveaquaria order last Friday and am sad to report that my eviota was DOA. My pair of trimma gobies didn't look that hot either when I got them, but I think they just might pull through. They just started to come out of hiding today (4th day in tank). They're so tiny! I'm just so surprised that they can actually swim around with all the flow I have in my tank ( ~400 gph in a 7.5g).

Here's a shot of my trimma cana resting on top of a rock.

So small and so cute...I feel like a can fit a school of 20 in my tank! (not that I would....but it is very tempting!)

I also managed to score some pink ricordia yumas from a local reefer. He sold me 4 decent sized yumas for $5 total! It's these great deals that I run across every now and then that really make me enjoy my tank.

Also picked up 7 heads of green goblin acans from the same reefer.

I would have to say though, that the pride and joy of my tank has been the war coral that I picked up at fragglereef. Miguel sold it to me for a great price b/c it had been 'damaged' and was going through the healing process. Well, in the 3 weeks that I have owned it, it has colored up nicely and has grown over 6 new heads.

Corals have been thriving in my tank and I don't think I've had a fatality since I lost one during the acclimation process of the SPS frag pack that I purchased... But this low mortality rate has a lot to do with the fact that I've given away all of my high maintenance SPS corals and am now just sticking with primarily LPS corals that just seem to thrive in my tank.

I'm dying to put a baby RBTA in my tank even though every little brain cell I have is telling me that I shouldn't.

reefer1024 · 04/29/2008, 01:50 AM

Awesome tank. I love cubes and your layout and livestock choices are perfect. Trimma cana are my favorite fish. Unlike other trimmas i have had they are always out in the open perching on rock or coral. When they get used to u they will come out and beg for food whenever u look in your tank. If u need any help getting them to eat just shoot me a PM, I have a few tricks.

illybang · 04/29/2008, 05:02 AM

what a beautiful setup. that is seriously a great looking tank you got there.

Longchamp · 04/29/2008, 09:01 AM

Very nice minimalist look you've got going there. I'm jealous.

chelskisw6 · 04/29/2008, 09:52 AM

very very nice!

chelskisw6 · 04/29/2008, 10:52 AM

do you have any pictures of how you hang your MH pendant?

jadette · 04/29/2008, 03:01 PM

chelskisw6 -
I'm hanging the pendant off of the top shelf of my Ikea computer desk. Here's a shot:

I have more info on my initial setup on my first thread, but for some reason, I can't update it.. nor can anyone post on it (it's not locked):
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...7#post11910027

-Shirley

jadette · 04/29/2008, 03:09 PM

reefer1024-

I see that you're from So Cal. Where did you get your trimmas? I searched for them locally for months with no luck before placing my liveaquaria order. Hate to buy fish online when I live in Los Angeles and can find almost everything locally...

But I couldn't find the trimmas or eviotas anywhere!

How many do you have in your 12" cube?

Care to share your special tricks on feeding them? So far, mine are coming out to feed. I'm not doing anything special.

I feed my corals and fish at the same time with a mix of spirulina/brine/mysis cubes soaked in marine snow, zooplanktos-s, garlic guard, and amino acid/vitamin mix.

-Shirley

reefer1024 · 04/29/2008, 03:56 PM

They are very hard to find but if you keep your eyes open the pop up from time to time. I see them at Tongs in Fountain Valley every now and then, and I also got 2 from Coral Oasis in Irvine.

I'm glad yours are eating. Mine refused everything except cyclopeze (however u spell it) for the first weeks. They need something much more substantial or you will see their stomachs start to sink in. Once they got used to going into a feeding frenzy with the cyclopeze I would sneak other foods into the water at the same time i fed the cyclopeze and they would then eat other foods they would normally ignore. Then i just reduced the amount of cyclopeze untill they where eating chopped up shrimp and fish. To avoid polluting the small 2.5 gallon they where in i would us a wooden shishkabob skewer to pick up one piece of shrimp at a time and drop it into the water. After a couple weeks the greedy little fish would associate the skewer with food and as soon as it hit the water they would swim up to it to get the food on the end. So after a month or 2 I had all my trimmas trained to eat food of the end of a skewer. This was a great thing because it meant everything I put into the tank got eaten and nothing would get into the rocks and filter to rot. This was probably one of the most important factors for the success of the worlds most overstocked 2.5 pico.

Dont try this at home kids.

Unfortunately when i moved them to the 12" cube I lost both the trimma canas. One got crushed under a rock and the other refused to eat after the move. The 3 other trimma/eviotas all survived that move and a 2nd move to their current home, a standard 5.5 gallon with a 70 watt sunpod. I now have just the 3 little gobies in my 5.5, but they are doing well and are going on 3 and a half years old. I have been looking for a trimma cana (or any cool 1" goby) pair to add so if u see any let me know, I will do the same for you.

sorry to hijack your thread with my fishes life story. I love your tank, Make sure you keep us posted with updates.

jadette · 04/29/2008, 04:23 PM

reefer1024 -
Oh wow! Do you have a build thread of your 2.5 pico? Please post a link if you do. That is truly one amazing pico.

I'll certainly shoot you a PM if I see any pico gobies around, but I have a feeling your selection in OC is better than my LAX circuit of LFS's.

Here's a snapshot of all of my three gobies out:

Rather a bad photo that emphasizes my ugly purple epoxy more than the fish, but oh well.

That's a gold neon eviota underneath that green monti cap on top.

Jimbo327 · 04/29/2008, 04:34 PM

Hey Jadette,

Nice tank. Yeah, it's hard to make it into an ADA type tank because of the coralline algae and the amount of equipment needed to keep the tank stable...especially in such a small volue of water. How are you dealing with evaporation? I can tell you have an exotic taste with the LPS selection.

jadette · 04/29/2008, 11:05 PM

Jimbo327 -

I top off every morning before I head off to work. Comes out to about 16 oz. Hasn't been too bad. Lately, b/c of the heat, I usually have to top off in the evenings as well since I have a fan blowing over the top to keep my temp down.

Surprisingly, I'm not getting that much coralline growth. This is actually making me happy b/c unlike most people in the hobby, I don't like the look of coralline algae on my live rock. When I had my 55 gal reef going, I didn't do a good job with maintenance (water changes every 2-3 months, rarely ever dosed or cleaned off my equip), coralline algae grew everywhere. With this nano, I have been sticking with an aggressive water changing and calc dosing schedule, yet hardly any coralline algae growth.

As for my LPS selection, I originally wanted my tank to have a theme. I was going to only select green corals (gsp, green monti caps, shaving brush plants, etc) and make the tank look like a zen forest... That idea didn't last. I'm now just picking up pieces here and there that I like regardless if it fits into a theme or not!

chelskisw6 · 04/30/2008, 06:57 AM

I was looking on the adgshop.com site, and looking at the tanks, but couldn't figure out which one was yours, is it the 30cm cube garden?

jadette · 04/30/2008, 08:51 AM

Yes, it's the 30 cm cube.
http://www.adgshop.com/30cm_Cube_Garden_p/102-870.htm

jadette · 04/30/2008, 11:15 PM

My brother had a nice fluorescent green yuma that left a little 'foot' on a piece of live rock. Wanted to see how fast it would grow in my nano. It doubled in size in 2 weeks. Proper placement is key for good growth and I failed miserably in that department.

I put it a little too close to something that didn't want to play nice.

04/13/2008, 02:37 PM	#1
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	Jadette's 7.5g ADA Cube Update For some reason, I can't update my old thread... So here's a new thread on my updates: Well... Here's the update... Changed my setup a bit. Initially wanted to keep my equipment to a minimum to preserve that 'clean' look, but running my tank with just a canister filter and the lily pipes just didn't cut it. I was hoping to get away with not using a heater, but the temp swing with my MHs went from 81 F in the evenings to 74 F in the mornings. Figured 7 degrees was too big of a swing to keep some of my corals happy, so I went with an in-line heater. Temp swing is only 2 degrees now. Also put an in-line UV sterilizer to my outflow so now I have a trail of equipment from my canister (which I upgraded to a larger Eheim Ecco) to my tank (but not IN my tank at least!). And then I did a stupid thing and bought one of those LE SPS frag packs that required more flow than what my canister was putting out. Had to throw in a Koralia nano to keep the SPS corals alive. Too bad I can't do the in-line thing with that! Here's my yasha with his buddy pistol shrimp! They've built quite an extensive tunnel network underneath the main rock in my tank. "My" picasso clown. He's on loan while my brother finds him a mate in his 90g reef. I've grown so attached to him the last couple of weeks and might throw the "I have no idea what you're talking about him being yours" speech when my brother reclaims him. A front shot of my tank before I stocked it. A close up of some of the SPS corals on top. ORA birdsnest, garf bonsai, green horrida, green table acro, and a tricolor nana in the back. Working on better PE. Having SPSs in a nano is hard! So much easier to please them in my old 55g reef. The smushies on my sandbed. I had some zoa eating nudis I recently got rid of so my zoos look terrible now, but they're slowly opening up again. The blood red mushrooms, the first corals I had in my tank, grew so big so fast that I had to give away the largest ones to my brother. My superman shroom looks so unhappy in this photo. He's normally not shriveled up like that.

04/15/2008, 01:19 AM	#6
CamBarr Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Irvine, SOCAL Posts: 2,365	cool tank __________________ Cam Barr

04/15/2008, 09:46 AM	#7
mrk1260 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicago, Il. Posts: 228	If you don't mind me asking. Can you post pictures of your filtration? I have a 5 gallon ada tank, and want to change the filtration. I see you are using the glass tubes from the ada, how do they work and what type of filtration are you using? I'm really interested and would really appreciate you posting some pictures and info on your tank. And btw, the tank looks beautiful, really clean. __________________ -mrk1260 Current Tank Info: 75 gallon FOWLR, 1000 gallon shark pond

04/15/2008, 06:30 PM	#9
Saltwater_Dog Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Grand Isle, Louisiana Posts: 375	Very nice Nano...Makes me want to build one everytime I see an awsome one like yours..... __________________ GO TIGERS!!!!! Current Tank Info: 100 gal, 160 lbs Live Rock, 120 lbs Live Sand, Octopus HOB Skimmer, PC Lighting, 2-Koralia 3's, 2-Max Jett 900's, Filter Guys Ocean Wave + RO/DI 75gpd

04/29/2008, 04:34 PM	#21
Jimbo327 Registered Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,363	Hey Jadette, Nice tank. Yeah, it's hard to make it into an ADA type tank because of the coralline algae and the amount of equipment needed to keep the tank stable...especially in such a small volue of water. How are you dealing with evaporation? I can tell you have an exotic taste with the LPS selection. __________________ "If sometimes you feel little, useless, offended or depressed or get that loser feeling, always remember that you were once the fastest and most victorious sperm out of hundreds of millions..." Current Tank Info: 6gal JBJ NanoCube, DIY LED Mod, 1/15 JBJ Chiller, Tunze Osmolator, Homemade Kalkwasser Chamber

04/13/2008, 02:39 PM	#2
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	Some random macro shots of my tank. Bear with me here. New to this macro lens, so these are really crappy photos. Hopefully my skills will improve. Will try to update more frequently...

04/14/2008, 08:45 AM	#3
hdesai123 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Lansdale, PA Posts: 146	Your corals are looking good.....How about a full tank shot?

04/15/2008, 12:05 AM	#4
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	I was hoping to take a full-tank shot this weekend after my cleaning out my lily pipes (major pain, btw!), but since you asked, I'll go ahead and post what it looks like today. My tank is going through a transition right now. I got rid of just about all my SPS frags and decided to go with a predominantly LPS tank. I'm also nursing a couple of heads of hammer coral for my brother in my tank so it looks a bit crowded at the moment. I'm going to rearrange everything and clean out my pipes/glass this weekend so it should look a lot more organized soon. I'll post updates after this weekend. Full tank shot: My little micromussa/war coral frags that I'm going to find a decent spot for soon: -Shirley

04/15/2008, 12:44 AM	#5
hdesai123 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Lansdale, PA Posts: 146	Its looking great even without cleaning. Keep it up.

04/15/2008, 06:26 PM	#8
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	Thanks everyone for the compliments! mrk1260 - I'm using a eheim canister filter with purigen and chemi-pure elite along with the fine and coarse filter pads. I started with an Eheim Classic 2213 and upgraded to an Eheim Ecco 2236. Once I get rid of all my SPS corals (still have the tricolor nana and two birdsnests left), I'm hoping the Ecco 2236 will provide enough flow to keep my LPS corals happy without the use of the Koralia nano. The tank looked so much 'cleaner' before I added the powerhead, so now I'm trying to simplify my coral choices to minimize the equipment I'll need to keep them all happy. I don't have a good photo of my equipment since everything is tucked under my desk and zip-tied together for now until i find a cabinet to house everything. Basically, I have the glass lily pipe intake go straight into my canister filter. The output of the canister filter goes through the in-line heater and then the in-line UV sterilizer and then to my outflow pipe. The UV sterilizer + chemi-pure elite + purigen made a huge difference in water clarity for me. I also do daily water changes (16 oz) and bi-weekly (1 gallon) water changes. I got my lily pipes from ebay (search for "flo lily pipe") for $50, but the intake tube is a little too long for me (can't put live rock or corals in that corner), so I placed an order for these: http://www.calaqualabs.com/Graphics/Nano_icon.jpg ...which are perfect for a nano (especially your 5g ADA). I should be getting them in later this week. It's always good to have an extra set of glass tubes anyways! And since I hate posting without a pic, here's one of my hubby's planted tank.

04/24/2008, 12:19 AM	#10
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	Thanks Saltwater_Dog for the kind words. Thinned out my tank a bit this week but getting rid of all my zoos and placing them in my 4-year old son's new nano-reef (same cube, but it's basically a FOWRL tank right now). Here's a front tank shot with clean pipes and sand. A closer look at my sun corals...surprisingly, they're open like that regardless if my lights are on or off... Unfortunately, my B&W clown jumped out one night last week so it's just my yasha goby/pistol pair in my tank at the moment. I just placed an order for an eviota and trimma goby at Liveaquaria.com so that "void" should be filled soon. I'm also picking up an order of yumas from bluezooaquatics.com tomorrow. That should be it for awhile. Just going to wait for things to grow out after that.

04/28/2008, 11:12 PM	#11
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	Got my liveaquaria order last Friday and am sad to report that my eviota was DOA. My pair of trimma gobies didn't look that hot either when I got them, but I think they just might pull through. They just started to come out of hiding today (4th day in tank). They're so tiny! I'm just so surprised that they can actually swim around with all the flow I have in my tank ( ~400 gph in a 7.5g). Here's a shot of my trimma cana resting on top of a rock. So small and so cute...I feel like a can fit a school of 20 in my tank! (not that I would....but it is very tempting!) I also managed to score some pink ricordia yumas from a local reefer. He sold me 4 decent sized yumas for $5 total! It's these great deals that I run across every now and then that really make me enjoy my tank. Also picked up 7 heads of green goblin acans from the same reefer. I would have to say though, that the pride and joy of my tank has been the war coral that I picked up at fragglereef. Miguel sold it to me for a great price b/c it had been 'damaged' and was going through the healing process. Well, in the 3 weeks that I have owned it, it has colored up nicely and has grown over 6 new heads. Corals have been thriving in my tank and I don't think I've had a fatality since I lost one during the acclimation process of the SPS frag pack that I purchased... But this low mortality rate has a lot to do with the fact that I've given away all of my high maintenance SPS corals and am now just sticking with primarily LPS corals that just seem to thrive in my tank. I'm dying to put a baby RBTA in my tank even though every little brain cell I have is telling me that I shouldn't.

04/29/2008, 01:50 AM	#12
reefer1024 Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Lake Elsinore Posts: 940	Awesome tank. I love cubes and your layout and livestock choices are perfect. Trimma cana are my favorite fish. Unlike other trimmas i have had they are always out in the open perching on rock or coral. When they get used to u they will come out and beg for food whenever u look in your tank. If u need any help getting them to eat just shoot me a PM, I have a few tricks.

04/29/2008, 05:02 AM	#13
illybang Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Vista, CA. Posts: 31	what a beautiful setup. that is seriously a great looking tank you got there.

04/29/2008, 09:01 AM	#14
Longchamp Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: baltimore Posts: 341	Very nice minimalist look you've got going there. I'm jealous.

04/29/2008, 09:52 AM	#15
chelskisw6 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: London, England Posts: 357	very very nice!

04/29/2008, 10:52 AM	#16
chelskisw6 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: London, England Posts: 357	do you have any pictures of how you hang your MH pendant?

04/29/2008, 03:01 PM	#17
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	chelskisw6 - I'm hanging the pendant off of the top shelf of my Ikea computer desk. Here's a shot: I have more info on my initial setup on my first thread, but for some reason, I can't update it.. nor can anyone post on it (it's not locked): http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...7#post11910027 -Shirley

04/29/2008, 03:09 PM	#18
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	reefer1024- I see that you're from So Cal. Where did you get your trimmas? I searched for them locally for months with no luck before placing my liveaquaria order. Hate to buy fish online when I live in Los Angeles and can find almost everything locally... But I couldn't find the trimmas or eviotas anywhere! How many do you have in your 12" cube? Care to share your special tricks on feeding them? So far, mine are coming out to feed. I'm not doing anything special. I feed my corals and fish at the same time with a mix of spirulina/brine/mysis cubes soaked in marine snow, zooplanktos-s, garlic guard, and amino acid/vitamin mix. -Shirley

04/29/2008, 03:56 PM	#19
reefer1024 Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Lake Elsinore Posts: 940	They are very hard to find but if you keep your eyes open the pop up from time to time. I see them at Tongs in Fountain Valley every now and then, and I also got 2 from Coral Oasis in Irvine. I'm glad yours are eating. Mine refused everything except cyclopeze (however u spell it) for the first weeks. They need something much more substantial or you will see their stomachs start to sink in. Once they got used to going into a feeding frenzy with the cyclopeze I would sneak other foods into the water at the same time i fed the cyclopeze and they would then eat other foods they would normally ignore. Then i just reduced the amount of cyclopeze untill they where eating chopped up shrimp and fish. To avoid polluting the small 2.5 gallon they where in i would us a wooden shishkabob skewer to pick up one piece of shrimp at a time and drop it into the water. After a couple weeks the greedy little fish would associate the skewer with food and as soon as it hit the water they would swim up to it to get the food on the end. So after a month or 2 I had all my trimmas trained to eat food of the end of a skewer. This was a great thing because it meant everything I put into the tank got eaten and nothing would get into the rocks and filter to rot. This was probably one of the most important factors for the success of the worlds most overstocked 2.5 pico. Dont try this at home kids. Unfortunately when i moved them to the 12" cube I lost both the trimma canas. One got crushed under a rock and the other refused to eat after the move. The 3 other trimma/eviotas all survived that move and a 2nd move to their current home, a standard 5.5 gallon with a 70 watt sunpod. I now have just the 3 little gobies in my 5.5, but they are doing well and are going on 3 and a half years old. I have been looking for a trimma cana (or any cool 1" goby) pair to add so if u see any let me know, I will do the same for you. sorry to hijack your thread with my fishes life story. I love your tank, Make sure you keep us posted with updates.

04/29/2008, 04:23 PM	#20
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	reefer1024 - Oh wow! Do you have a build thread of your 2.5 pico? Please post a link if you do. That is truly one amazing pico. I'll certainly shoot you a PM if I see any pico gobies around, but I have a feeling your selection in OC is better than my LAX circuit of LFS's. Here's a snapshot of all of my three gobies out: Rather a bad photo that emphasizes my ugly purple epoxy more than the fish, but oh well. That's a gold neon eviota underneath that green monti cap on top.

04/29/2008, 11:05 PM	#22
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	Jimbo327 - I top off every morning before I head off to work. Comes out to about 16 oz. Hasn't been too bad. Lately, b/c of the heat, I usually have to top off in the evenings as well since I have a fan blowing over the top to keep my temp down. Surprisingly, I'm not getting that much coralline growth. This is actually making me happy b/c unlike most people in the hobby, I don't like the look of coralline algae on my live rock. When I had my 55 gal reef going, I didn't do a good job with maintenance (water changes every 2-3 months, rarely ever dosed or cleaned off my equip), coralline algae grew everywhere. With this nano, I have been sticking with an aggressive water changing and calc dosing schedule, yet hardly any coralline algae growth. As for my LPS selection, I originally wanted my tank to have a theme. I was going to only select green corals (gsp, green monti caps, shaving brush plants, etc) and make the tank look like a zen forest... That idea didn't last. I'm now just picking up pieces here and there that I like regardless if it fits into a theme or not!

04/30/2008, 06:57 AM	#23
chelskisw6 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: London, England Posts: 357	I was looking on the adgshop.com site, and looking at the tanks, but couldn't figure out which one was yours, is it the 30cm cube garden?

04/30/2008, 08:51 AM	#24
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	Yes, it's the 30 cm cube. http://www.adgshop.com/30cm_Cube_Garden_p/102-870.htm

04/30/2008, 11:15 PM	#25
jadette Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 783	My brother had a nice fluorescent green yuma that left a little 'foot' on a piece of live rock. Wanted to see how fast it would grow in my nano. It doubled in size in 2 weeks. Proper placement is key for good growth and I failed miserably in that department. I put it a little too close to something that didn't want to play nice.