The long hours spent in the lab at my work place inspired the creation of a simple reef to soothe the soul...

Due to the nature of my R&D work environment, this plague was added only hours after setup
to reduce glass tapping and fish probing experiments by my coworkers!

Last updated 10 October, 2003

What's new?
10-10-03
WOW!  It's been an entire year since my last update...  Guess my 'sick' work schedule took a priority over keeping up with the site (and tank)!  I did let the nano slip, but things are getting better now.  I have a feeling that the tiger tale cuke died at some point, and noone was happy for a long time.  More recently I left for the weekend knowing that the clown, who doesn't like the power head and keeps dropping sand in it till it stalls, had suceeded so only the HOB remained.  When I came back in on Monday, that one had also stopped and the water didn't smell so good.  The only unfortunate casualty was a 4-line wrasse that's been in my care for close to 3 years.
I have on several occasions put in small, and transferred later to my 120g, several animals that aren't suited for a nano once grown.  I'll probably just stick with keepers now.  Even after almost 3 years, I still have to do weekly siphons to remove green matting algae!  I'm sure it's due to a combination of no skimmer and flake food (convenient).
10-24-02
All has been well.  It seems the clownfish has reached puberty, and since in nature it's territory would be about the size of this tank, she's not allowing any other fish to inhabit.  (I tried a purple firefish, but pulled it out after 2 days due to harassment.  It's happier in the big tank at home anyways :c).
8-21-02
July had a few probs...  The blenny disappeared :c( not sure what happened.  Thought I had removed the aggressor, but perhaps the still young clown acted up?  Also, the gramma's health started to deteriorate (perhaps from the said clown?), so it was pulled from the tank.  I never saw any hostility amongst the fish, but in such a small system maybe it doesn't have to get physical.  So the clown is the only fish at this time.
7-1-02
Added a small cleaner shrimp, as I missed having a "critter" that people keep asking, "Is that the kind we eat?"
6-6-02
This little reef was the featured aquarium in the June issue of Advanced Aquarist online magizine!
I finally added an automatic top-off to this system!  Dripping wasn't accurate enough over the weekend, and this chore is definitely the biggest PITA.  I used the smallest float switch I could find (laying around lol), and made a small bracket which got glued to the plastic rim of the tank.  I then used the wheel off a broken IV pump and installed it on my own 10 rpm AC motor to create a small peristaltic pump.  The float is wired in series with the pump, which only draws 3w of power.  I kept the same 1/2 gal reservoir, which lasts about 5 days, and still add the water into the HOB filter.  The flow rate is about 1 drop every 2 seconds.  When I was guestimating a drip rate, I would set it at 1 drop every 10 seconds.
6-1-02
A friend (Todd) gave me the Barnacle Blenny from his nano as a parting gift when he moved out of state.  Cool little guy!  The fish has taken up residence in a small hole right in the center of the rock...
4-30-02
Traded in the CB shrimp, and added a Royal Gramma.  The shrimp had grown too large for this tank and was definitely harassing the fish!
3-15-02
All is going well!  Thinking about trading in the CBshrimp, as I think it's intimidating size didn't help with the mortality rate of the other fish...   I'm still doing 1gal weekly water changes, and go through about 8 drops per minute of top off water (LOL!).  I have increased B-ionic dosage to 3 ml/day.
2-1-02
The bryopsis and hair algae have disappeared, but there is still a little green matting stuff every few days on the sand.  I had tried to keep the temp in the 76-77F range, but this was still too much for the Catalina Goby, who got stressed after 2 months, got sick, and died.  In the process, the firefish also succumbed to disease, leaving the GS Clown as the only fish.  Iam waiting a couple months deciding to add any more fish.
11-14-01
I finally got around to building a new canopy that holds 2 32w PC lamps.  Besides the increased light output, I widened the window that the light enters the tank from about 3" to 5",  which greatly increased the distribution of light.  Also started dosing B-Ionic, as the aragamite wasn't cutting it to supply the higher Ca and alk demand.
9-25-01
A friend of mine (Kevin M or ReeferMac on the BB's) had a beautiful 6" Rose E.Quad that cloned, so I traded for it with the intention of swapping out the 16" one in my larger reef.  However, that anemone is anchored 8" into the rock, so I would have to tear half the right side apart to get him out... NOT!   Reluctantly,  I decided to put the new one in the nano, at least for the time being.  I traded in the Oscellaris clown I have kept for about 2 years on a Gold Stripe Maroon, who took to the anemone within a day.
As the tank passes the  8 month mark, there is now a dark green algae forming on some of the sand and rock,  which siphons out easily enough.  Still have patches of hair and bryopsis here and there which I tweezer about 1x per week.

Set-up
The tank is an All-Glass Minibow 7 gallon.  The back glass panel is painted flat black as with my larger reef.

I used about 10 lbs. of Fiji live rock, the largest piece being 6 lbs.   About 5 lbs. of mixed LS cover the bottom.

The 14" strip light was originally retrofitted with a 32w CSL SmartLite Retro, but now has a DIY canopy with 2x32w PC lamps (one smartlamp, 1 10kK).   If I had tons of cash to spend on this tank, I would be getting a 70w HQI MH lamp, but the PC will cost less than half as much just in lamp replacement!  The color is perfect with this combination!

I usually run a small amount of carbon and a course filter sponge to help keep the water clear and reduce any chemical warfare.

Circulation is via an Aquaclear 200 HOB and a Minijet plumbed to a spray bar behind the rock. I just put this pump on a simple timer which runs it 30sec on, 25sec off.

Like my larger reef, I was concerned with maintaining an "uncluttered" appearance inside the tank, so I fabricated a low voltage DC panel heater (powered via a temperature controller) which is fastened to the entire exterior back wall of the tank.  Although hidden, a drawback to this system is the thermal mass of the back glass.  Once the target temperature is reached, the heater shuts off, but the warmed glass continues to transfer heat the water, slowly raising the tank  up to 1.5 degrees F, for a total temp. swing of about 2 deg.  Temp normally kept at 78 F.

I perform at least a 1 gallon water change per week, and top off ~8oz/day of evaporation with Aragamite saturated RO/DI water.   I recently had to increase the dosage of  ESV B-Ionic to 2-3ml/day.

That's about it.  Total cost was about $200 (not including livestock).  The simplicity of this tank makes it a welcome addition to my "reef away from home"!
 

Right end view	Left end view

Occupants*