merc + brad's 15 gallon nano

[mercedes]

hi all,

we've been meaning to post to member's showcase for a while, but didn't get around to it until now. brad + i had been reading up on coral keeping + saltwater aquariums prior to brad showing up @ my door on my birthday w/ a 10 gallon basic tank, powerhead, heater, sand + salt. it is, by far, the best birthday present ever! i know this sound super cliche, but we definitely learn and/or discover something new everyday!

10 gallon initial setup w/ standard aquarium hood light at a little over 1 week:

upgrade to 15 gallon w/ t5 ho x2 lights @ 1 month: (10 gallon spung a leak!)

upgrade to t5 ho x4 @ 3 months:

here's a full tank shot @ 8 months:

that's all for now, but i'll be sure to post pix of our all coral soon.

 

[Red C Aquarium]

i like the black sand

hi all,

we've been meaning to post to member's showcase for a while, but didn't get around to it until now. brad + i had been reading up on coral keeping + saltwater aquariums prior to brad showing up @ my door on my birthday w/ a 10 gallon basic tank, powerhead, heater, sand + salt. it is, by far, the best birthday present ever! i know this sound super cliche, but we definitely learn and/or discover something new everyday!

10 gallon initial setup w/ standard aquarium hood light at a little over 1 week:

upgrade to 15 gallon w/ t5 ho x2 lights @ 1 month: (10 gallon spung a leak!)

upgrade to t5 ho x4 @ 3 months:

here's a full tank shot @ 8 months:

that's all for now, but i'll be sure to post pix of our all coral soon.

 

[Maxx]

Beautiful tank Mercedes....

What all do you guys have in it critter wise?

What kind of equipment are you guys using to maintain the tank?

I like the fact that the tank is so colorful and its not a monster sized tank.

Nick

 

[mercedes]

Beautiful tank Mercedes....

What all do you guys have in it critter wise?

What kind of equipment are you guys using to maintain the tank?

I like the fact that the tank is so colorful and its not a monster sized tank.

Nick

thanks maxx!

right now we've got:
- 1 peppermint shrimp
- 1 fire shrimp
- 1 starry eyed blenny (kazoo)
- 1 yellow clown (chuck)
- 1 pom pom crab (stewie)
- 1 purple reef lobster
- 3 scarlet hermit
- 2 blue legged hermits (banished to the 'fuge)
- ceriths + nerites + astreas + turbos

as far as maintenance goes, we run:
- 3 koralia nano powerheads
- hob octopus skimmer
- diy 2 gallon hob 'fuge...
we didn't get a chance to take pix of the finished product, but here is our concept mark-up (hob skimmer on the right) + leak test pix
<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_KenlB-OS6RA/SeP8h-Oi6EI/AAAAAAAAKAs/O2nzVcfEcjw/s400/image001.jpg">
<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_KenlB-OS6RA/SeP8hxvkZ_I/AAAAAAAAKAk/vD1jGdS2tts/s400/img103.jpg">

 

[jag3534]

Wow, that looks so nice! I love your rock-scaping, thats a neat way of doing it! And you sure can pack a color punch into the smaller area, wow!!! Very nice!

 

[mercedes]

Wow, that looks so nice! I love your rock-scaping, thats a neat way of doing it! And you sure can pack a color punch into the smaller area, wow!!! Very nice!

thanks for the kudos jag!

we actually rearranged everything last week so the coral isn't as condensed. i'll be posting pix shortly.

 

[mercedes]

we picked up a bunch of new frags last week from ARSA + had to make room. here's the new aquascape...

left:

right:

center:

 

[mercedes]

some macro shots w/ our d40:

chuck (yellow clown goby) + kazoo (starry eyed blenny) = bff!

green bubble ric:

silver pom pom xenia:

chubby little plate:

ORA spongode monti:

scarlet vs astrea:

chuck's solo:

kazoo + zoos:

 

[mercedes]

pink chalice:

tubs:

 

[nata]

Very nice tank. Beautiful corals with great coloring,popping against the black sand! Nice aquascaping...You can be very proud !!!Love it!!!

 

[Workaholic]

WOW! nice job on the tank. almost hard to beleive that its still such a young tank, it looks great.

Tom

 

[Skimmy]

Yep, looks awesome! love your black sand.
which octo hob did you get for the tank??

 

[jag3534]

That looks so stinkin good!! I'm kinda jealous right now! :lol: You guys do some good work, and those clams are gorgeous! What are they?

 

[mercedes]

Yep, looks awesome! love your black sand.
which octo hob did you get for the tank??

thanks! brad (braddo) actually bought the hob skimmer from you...i think? it's a 3 chamber hob octopus w/ mods. either that or you helped him w/ the mods. in any case, do let us know if you have any further mod suggestions for it, as we need to get it to skim more of the grime off the top of the water.

 

[mercedes]

That looks so stinkin good!! I'm kinda jealous right now! :lol: You guys do some good work, and those clams are gorgeous! What are they?

thanks for the props jag! the clams are both maximas. one from the shark reef in silverdale + the other, prettier one, is from QT in the international district. andy of QT is supposed to be getting a ton of clams in this week @ really great prices! if we had more room i'd get a bigger one, but sadly, we just don't have the real estate. def check him out! he's been really good to us.

 

[braddo]

One more picture for the day. I was looking at the tank and noticed our frog spawn was a bit contracted and not happy looking. After looking closer I saw this.

Looks like one of our rics thought he could find a better home than the place we put him.

 

[Chichas01]

What did you use for your substrate? I'm thinking I'm going to to a dark substrate as well in my new tank.

 

[braddo]

We started out with SeaChem Gray Coast calcite but that wasn't black enough for Mercedes so we switched out to CaribSea Tahitian Moon.

 

[spllbnd2]

What type of bulbs are you using in the 4 bulb fixture? I am diggin the color of the lighting on your tank, very cool and not overly blue.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[braddo]

In the full tank shots you see those are the stock bulbs, two blue and two 10k. Recently we switched out one of the blues for an actinic to get more flourescence which shifted the overall color balance a little closer to 10k.