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Unread 02/11/2011, 05:36 PM   #1
kactusficus
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February 2011 nTOTM - A French 10G nano tank (Kactusficus)

Hi Everyone,

Many thanks to all the persons who voted for me
And many thanks for Reef Central for being here with its fabulous community and share of knowledge!



This year begins with 2 girls winning the nTOTM in a row, that's refreshing after all these years of almost exclusive male representation throughout the hobby!

So here's my presentation: my name is Sabine, I'm almost 36 years, I work as a photographer and a journalist for the aquarium hobby and underwater matters. I'm French, living in the Southern coast, the French Riviera

I've been in the hobby for 5 years now, I have a 100G tank besides my 10G nano.

Nano reefing has always been of big interest for me, as I really love all the small critters of the reef, the macro fauna...
I never get enough of diving for such subjects, so I naturally began a nano tank as soon as possible! I had to convince my husband to get a second tank at home... 2 years ago, it became a reality!

The tank itself is an ArcTank from Arcadia, 10G with dimensions: L30Xl25XH30 centimeters.

A recent image of the whole tank (I'll add some more during the weekend)



back in the early days...

April 2009




The tank has been originally set up to be a grown tank for my banggai cardinalfish breeding... That's how I convinced my husband to let me have the second tank... Now I have a bigger refugium for this purpose, but the nano remained, just for the pleasure of having nano animals!

June/July 2009







Gear & Technics

an Hydor Nano Korallia pump (900 lph - 237 gph) runs the waterflow, along with a small hang-on filter (I've just changed my Millenium 1000 from Aquarium Systems for a Hydor Bravo. The Aquarium System was a well built product, but I wanted a little more flow.)
The filter is garnished with a little pocket of Matrix media from Seachem, and some floss that I change on every water change.

As the aquarium is very small, I wanted a very limited technic, to keep it very simple.
I favor very regular water change to more technics. I change 3 liters (0,8G) every 3 to 4 days. Changes are made alternatively with Instant Ocean and Red Sea Coral pro salt, to avoid some too high calcium and magnesium parameters.

Other maintenance:
Bio Kit Nano Reef set from Prodibio: bacteria, iodine, strontium, amino acid and coral food, all in single dose which has to be added once every 2 week in the tank.
While the "non additive week", I add some more Amino acids and some more Iodine.

I feed with live brine shrimp nauplius + lobster eggs, artemia and mysis (all frozen Ocean Nutrition) in the morning.
Late afternoon, I give a light meal of nano pellets (Ocean Nutrition, Elos and Fauna Marin)

The light is a DIY fixture with 3 X 24W fluocompact tubes, one full blue and 2 half blue /half white.
The cycle is:
from 9:30am to 10:30am: blue tube only
from 10:30am to 8:30pm: all the 3 lamps
from 8:30pm to 9:30pm: blue tube only
The fixture includes 2 fans, and is made as a full lid for the tnak, to avoid the jumps from the little gobies...

Additional gear is a 50W Rena Smart Heater, an AquaWind 2 fans fixture from Tunze coupled to a thermostat for summer days, and a auto water level device.

12 lbs of live stones are used, and I set a 3 cm bottom of Seachem Gray Coast sand.

I like a lot of different animals, so it's very hard to not crowd too much the tank... but it works that way for the last 2 years, so i'm fine with this!

more to come, with a lot of pics!


cheers,
sabine


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Colours Patterns Shapes Behaviors... OMG I'm mad about the Reef!

Current Tank Info: fish and LPS lover, but still improving the display

Last edited by Agu; 02/11/2011 at 08:17 PM.
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Unread 02/11/2011, 06:20 PM   #2
kactusficus
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Hi!!

an we go on!...



Fish stock

1 Gobiodon okinawae (Yellow coral goby), 1,5 year in the tank





1 Elacatinus multifasciatus (Greenbanded goby), new addition

(photo soon)

1 Stonogobiops Yasha (Yasha Prawn Goby) and its 2 Alpheus randalli (red banded pistol shrimps), 2 year in the tank



1 Stonogobiops nematodes (Filament finned prawn goby), added last september



1 Doryrhamphus excisus (Bluestripe Pipefish), more than 1 year in the tank.





I bought a supposed pair, but the one that are left now killed his mate... I realised they were 2 males actually...

I also have a couple of tank bred Synchiropus splendidus (Mandarinfish), less than 1" long each. I got them one month ago, but they just live in the nano for a couple of month, until they get a little bigger and could live safely in the bigger tank... They already make the parade every night, they are soooo cute!



I used to have 2 Eviota pellucida (Pellucida pygmy goby) and 2 Trimma cana (Candycane pygmy goby) from the beginning of the tank, but they died one after the other after 15 to 18 month in the tank, according to their natural lifespan... I really enjoyed these pygmy gobies, I'll get some more when the 2 mandarin will be moved to the big tank.





... more to come!


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Colours Patterns Shapes Behaviors... OMG I'm mad about the Reef!

Current Tank Info: fish and LPS lover, but still improving the display
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Unread 02/11/2011, 06:21 PM   #3
kactusficus
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... me again!!

Moving Invert stock

2 Lysmata wurdemanni (Peppermint shrimp)
2 Alpheus randalli pistol shrimps



1 Neopetrolisthes oshimai (Porcelain crab)



2 Hymenocera picta (Arlequin shrimps), fed with asterina live starfish and pieces of frozen seastars I collect while snorkeling in summertime I freeze myself.



1 Thor amboinensis (sexy shrimps). Each time I add a group, they all get preyed by the pistol shrimps (along with all the sand snails I used to try to add). This single one shrimp managed to stay alive... Clever than the others, I guess!
Some dwarf blue leg hermits, some Nerita snails, some small trochus snails.


more pics and details to come!


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Colours Patterns Shapes Behaviors... OMG I'm mad about the Reef!

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Unread 02/11/2011, 06:22 PM   #4
kactusficus
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Corals and other fixed Inverts

(Im a big LPS and gorgonian fan!)
1 light blue Trachyphyllia geoffroyi (very big for the nano tank, but he's stocked here until I can sell the blue powder tang of the other tank, who's attacking a lot the open brains and elegance corals!)



1 blue Catalaphyllia jardinei, pink tips.



Red Blastomussa wellsi with green hearts



Grey and Pink Micromussa dimidiata





Pink and green Goniastrea aspera



3 Acanthastrea lordhowensis "Aussie Acan", red and grey, purple and green, green and red.






... 2d part of the coral images right after this!


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Current Tank Info: fish and LPS lover, but still improving the display
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Unread 02/11/2011, 06:23 PM   #5
kactusficus
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and this is the end of the details (at last!!)

Various zoanthids, rhodactis, discosoma and ricordeas









Pink Seriatopora hystrix
Blue, White and Yellow Caulastrea furcata
Galaxea fascicularis
A small Sarcophyton erhenbergi

(gorgonians)
Gorgonia ventalina purple seafan



Muricea pinnata yellow seafan




(featherdusters)
1 purple and brown Sabellastarte indica



2 pink Bispira guinensis



I 'll be back with more photos during the weekend!

Thanks for reading all this!!

I'll add more pics within the weekend!


cheers,
sabine


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Current Tank Info: fish and LPS lover, but still improving the display
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Unread 02/11/2011, 07:31 PM   #6
Carrera75
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Great little nano and amazing pictures. What camera/lens do you use?


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Unread 02/11/2011, 07:58 PM   #7
justjosh
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Wow awesome little setup! Congrats and keep the awesome pics coming!!


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Unread 02/11/2011, 08:20 PM   #8
Agu
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Congratulations and great pics....


(btw, I fixed the link on the first pic )


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Unread 02/12/2011, 12:34 AM   #9
Tahoe Reefer
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amazing pictures and inverts in your nano. Nice work!


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Unread 02/12/2011, 05:38 AM   #10
lilopop11
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Nice Setup and great picture ...
where have you been btw ?


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Unread 02/12/2011, 11:08 AM   #11
aquadonkey
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Wow! I enjoyed reading through this and looking at your pictures - I can't believe how much you have in there! It's great to see a set up like this that works
Your tank looks rimless - have you ever had any problems with fish jumping out??


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29g DT, 15g sump/fuge

Current Tank Info: 29g DT, 15g sump, 30 lbs LR, 3" LS, 4x24W T5
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Unread 02/12/2011, 11:17 AM   #12
got2envy
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yay! for girl reefers!

Congrats on a beautiful nano Sabine


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Some people are like Slinkies...
Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.

Current Tank Info: 28g JBJ HQI, 40g Long Mixed Reef
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Unread 02/12/2011, 05:15 PM   #13
sahin
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Beautiful tank! Love the diversity of livestock in this small tank. Well done!


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Unread 02/12/2011, 05:26 PM   #14
laud
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Gorgeous! Everything is so crisp, colorful and clear. Great selection of inhabitants too.


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Current Tank Info: 210, 75 sump/refugium, AquaC EV-240, 3LB's Radium 20k, vho supplement and now a Korallin 1502 CR and a phosban reactor.
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Unread 02/13/2011, 04:05 PM   #15
andrewkw
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carrera75 View Post
Great little nano and amazing pictures. What camera/lens do you use?
I would like to know as well. Really amazing photos.


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Unread 02/13/2011, 04:12 PM   #16
kalosbios
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Thumbs up Nice. . .

Félicitations Sabine,

Wonderfully simple design, very beautiful display--in a word, inspiring!

Merci pour le partage,

Gordon


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Unread 02/13/2011, 11:37 PM   #17
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Very good photography, and awesome nano ! congrats !!


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Unread 02/14/2011, 08:28 AM   #18
kactusficus
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Hi!

Wow, thanks a lot everyone for all your nice comments!!

About the camera gear: I now use the Nikon D700 + 28-85mm Nikkor lens + 105mm microNikkor lens. Back in the beginning of the nano (2009) I was using Nikon D200 + 105mm macro from Sigma + 17-70mm Sigma as well. I love the D700 but it has a certain cost... If you're looking nothing but a very good amateur use, I'll recommand to stick with the D200 or D300 range, it's still some very good gear!

To Aquadonkey: yes, the original aquarium is rimless, but about 6 month after the initial setting I've added my DIY light fixture, with covers enterely the tank, as I'm very scare of jumps with the gobies, of course!
My yasha goby managed to kick his/her mate off the tank though, even if I have only one place where there's less than 1" of free space between the lid and the glass!

The nano, from outside is like this:





Well, I add some more pics, for those who wants to see more

Dwarf blue leg hermit:




I love this pic lol it's not that super interesting, but I love the way the tiny mandarinfish looks all round, with his big belly!




This is my last addition, the green banded goby (Elacatinus multifasciatus)... it's not a beautiful pic, but it's all I can do for the moment! This little Mister Shy has been here for a week now, and for the moment, he lives behind the heater and doesn't want to come out and play with the others!




The porcelain crab, all fans out:




My sexy shrimp, of the blue trachyphyllia cushion( she shares it with the porcelain crab)




ooooh how much I love the soft marshmallow colors of the micromussa!




When I feed the arlequin shrimps:




Thanks again for your interest!

cheers,
sabine


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Colours Patterns Shapes Behaviors... OMG I'm mad about the Reef!

Current Tank Info: fish and LPS lover, but still improving the display
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Unread 02/14/2011, 09:26 AM   #19
Jadams
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Excellent work! Congratulations


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Unread 02/16/2011, 11:43 AM   #20
Henryreef
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Beautiful Tank!


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Unread 02/17/2011, 10:35 PM   #21
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Amazing.. Beautiful.


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Unread 02/25/2011, 01:06 AM   #22
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Such amazing pictures, and a great write-up. Thank you for sharing!


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Unread 03/06/2011, 12:50 PM   #23
FishNutty
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lovely reef! it's so beautiful and lush


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Unread 03/06/2011, 01:08 PM   #24
kactusficus
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Thanks a lot
I'll try to post a new batch of pics very soon!


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Colours Patterns Shapes Behaviors... OMG I'm mad about the Reef!

Current Tank Info: fish and LPS lover, but still improving the display
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Unread 03/08/2011, 10:53 AM   #25
stevie-o
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how do you feed the mandarins? do they eat copepods or frozen food. I really want one


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