gerbilbox

My first year of reef keeping had its share lessons and mistakes. I had a detritus problem and the filtration was too inadequate to deal with it, so cleaning was a pain in the mass. I had problems dialing the lighting and flow just right, and as a result coral growth was inconsistent. This first year taught me what I really wanted (I think) out of the hobby, so I decided to start anew. I wanted a smaller tank, a cleaner display area, and built-in rear chambers so I can hide equipment without a sump, grow chaeto to maintain pH, and setup a much better filtration system. PicO Aquariums seems to have some of the best options around for what I wanted so I purchased their Manta Ray 15, which is 8.75g total (roughly 6.5g in the display area). I'm in the minority here and my tank could be easily squished by any of yours, but I like having a nano.

It's an all LED setup: BoostLED PAR30 main light, LED refugium light, and moonlight (although moonlight will be replaced by something more elegant). I'm still working out the flow, but there's great flow in the front provided by the return pump with a Hydor Flo, but the rear is a stagnant. I'm looking into a small powerhead to remedy this, and the MP10 is under consideration. Even though it's rated for 2.5g, my tank has mostly low-to-medium flow corals, so it could be overkill.

It's bare-bottom for easier cleaning, which I'm a little sad about because I love sand-borne invertebrates. I may add sand again once I get a much better feel and control over the detritus. I gave my one clownfish away since it'll be happier in a larger tank, so my tank is fishless / spineless again. I also had to find new homes for some of my corals, but most have made the move.


Front.


Side.


With all my reef books and nautilus shell.


Happy acan.


Fungia, my favorite coral in my tank.


Diaseris.


Zoanthids. They were one of my first corals, and had been shrinking and eventually started closing up over the past year. Since moving them to the new tank they've been doing a lot better, opening up most of the time again and color has improved too. I hope they'll start growing soon.


Duncan. I don't know why I picked it up at a summer frag swap but it has grown on me and I really enjoy its swaying.


Close-up of my big hammer coral. I want this to get huge.


Maxi-mini carpet anemone reaching for the (LED) stars. It's not getting enough light but I'm still acclimating the tank to the LEDs, so I'm hoping it'll be fine once I get the light dialed down in a few weeks. A few months ago it drifted too close to a Maxijet that had a protective grill over its intake. The poor thing didn't get shredded, but it looked like a cat with its head stuck in a cup.


Favia I think, but could be Favites not I'm not familiar with these two genera.


Hammer coral.


More zoanthids.


Montipora of some kind. Not sure if I'll keep it, but it's in my tank for now.


Pacific cleaner shrimp, my favorite motile animal in the tank. It's very active and loves cleaning my hand.


Pair of Collonista snails. I've been seeing them in pairs lately, but not sure if that's how they do the hanky-panky or if they broadcast spawn, but they are definitely doing well in the new tank.


Hydor Flo. I used teflon tape to get it to fit. It provides great flow to the front of the tank, but the back is somewhat stagnant so I need to figure this out.


Rear chambers house Jager 50w, Apex temp probe, grounding probe, filter pad, Chaetomorpha, activated carbon, and GFO.