Cali Kid Corals

New Tank Intro & Looking for Frags near Newark, Ca.

Max Nano Justin

Max Nano Justin

Supporting Member
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Hi Guys!

Just became a member as of today. And wanted to share the beginning of my 1 month old, Red Sea Max Nano Peninsula tank (26 gallons).

LPS and Zoas are my favorite!

I’d love to continue building up my tank with a few DBTC frags if anyone near me has any available. Once my current corals grow out more i'll be more than happy to frag them! I'll keep you guys posted :)


LIVESTOCK
2 Clowns
1 Peppermint Shrimp
CORALS
Pulsing Xenia
Green Star Polyp
Unknown Orange Zoas (Anyone know what strain this is?)

EQUIPMENT
Neptune Apex Jr.
Ecotech Versa Pumps (automated water changes)
BRS Heater System
AI Nero 3
Kraken Lid
Surface Skimmer Baffle (From etsy- Drastically helps keep aquarium silent from the water trickling near the middle of the sump)
Airline tubing (connected to protein skimmer to outside- To help stop low PH cause by excess indoor Co2 levels)
 

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Welcome! I got confused cause there is a @max_nano already haha. Thank you for becoming a supporting member and definitely consider coming to the frag swap.

Sounds like you have a good start so far. Mind if I ask what your experience level is in the hobby before we bombard you with questions? My first is always do you have any herbivores in the tank and did you seed the rock with established media or live rock from another system?
 
Darkxerox said:
Welcome! I got confused cause there is a @max_nano already haha. Thank you for becoming a supporting member and definitely consider coming to the frag swap.

Sounds like you have a good start so far. Mind if I ask what your experience level is in the hobby before we bombard you with questions? My first is always do you have any herbivores in the tank and did you seed the rock with established media or live rock from another system?
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Hi @Darkxerox thanks glad to hear. Mostly I've been in the freshwater planted tank hobby for about 15 years. But for Saltwater, during the start of covid, I had a very small 10 gallon nano for about 2 years with mostly Zoas and a couple of Torches.

I would say I am no expert in this hobby though LOL

As of now I have no herbivores in my tank. Although, I am going to get some clean up crew soon (hermits and snails).
Any suggestions on what else I can stock my tank with?

For my cycling my tank theres Caribsea liferock, Caribsea live sand, and Dr. Tim's Fishless Cycle. All this took a little over 2 weeks to finish cycling with Ammonia and Nitrites at 0.00.
 
Max Nano Justin said:
Hi @Darkxerox thanks glad to hear. Mostly I've been in the freshwater planted tank hobby for about 15 years. But for Saltwater, during the start of covid, I had a very small 10 gallon nano for about 2 years with mostly Zoas and a couple of Torches.

I would say I am no expert in this hobby though LOL

As of now I have no herbivores in my tank. Although, I am going to get some clean up crew soon (hermits and snails).
Any suggestions on what else I can stock my tank with?

For my cycling my tank theres Caribsea liferock, Caribsea live sand, and Dr. Tim's Fishless Cycle. All this took a little over 2 weeks to finish cycling with Ammonia and Nitrites at 0.00.
Click to expand...
I personally love Trochus snails since they can reproduce in some tanks and most importantly can flip themselves over when knocked down. Blue leg hermits are another favorite of mine even though some people are crab haters here ;)

Later on when things are stable, I like tuxedo urchins too. Would probably recommend getting a piece of seasoned live rock from a person locally that has a well-established tank too so you can introduce microcrustaceans etc.. Kenny at High Tide is probably closest to you and has some from his sump that would work (along with live copepods/sand he can sell you from his invert tank). We started @Ayman 's tank this way and he went from dry dead rock to almost zero ugly phase in just a few weeks.
 
Darkxerox said:
I personally love Trochus snails since they can reproduce in some tanks and most importantly can flip themselves over when knocked down. Blue leg hermits are another favorite of mine even though some people are crab haters here ;)

Later on when things are stable, I like tuxedo urchins too. Would probably recommend getting a piece of seasoned live rock from a person locally that has a well-established tank too so you can introduce microcrustaceans etc.. Kenny at High Tide is probably closest to you and has some from his sump that would work (along with live copepods/sand he can sell you from his invert tank). We started @Ayman 's tank this way and he went from dry dead rock to almost zero ugly phase in just a few weeks.
Click to expand...
Bet, I never had Torchus before but I’ll definitely pick up those and the blue hermits next time I swing by Aquatic Collection.

My thought was to try and stay away from live rock, because I’m worried about any pest that might come with it.
Do you think just buying the bagged copepods would work? Or you think I need a bit of live rock?
 
Max Nano Justin said:
Bet, I never had Torchus before but I’ll definitely pick up those and the blue hermits next time I swing by Aquatic Collection.

My thought was to try and stay away from live rock, because I’m worried about any pest that might come with it.
Do you think just buying the bagged copepods would work? Or you think I need a bit of live rock?
Click to expand...
Pests are inevitable to a degree (just dip incoming frags and maybe remove the plugs) you're better off starting with a piece of clean seasoned live rock or you could run into lots of difficulty. The good outweighs the bad. Most of us old school reefers began with at least some truly live rock (wild or donated locally) and never ran into issues like dinoflagellates, crysophyte blooms, or other strange "ugly phase" issues that dry rock users have. Just a small diatom bloom that gets cleared quickly. You'll get all the pods you need from the donor rock and sand. Hit up Kenny at high tide for a new tank rock/sand kit. Way cheaper than shipping pods out.

The blue legs (Clibanarius tricolor) honestly have never killed any of my snails, fish, or other invertebrates. Just buy extra cerith snail shells so they don't bicker among themselves. They do however wipe out my hair and turf algae, which is great. Put an algae covered frag in there from a swap and they find it in a few minutes.
 
I would highly recommend Kenny Live Rock at High Tide, like Thomas said that is how I started my tank and so far it's solid. It feels like you kinda cheating because you are taking established rock from well-established systems LOL.
 
Ayman said:
I would highly recommend Kenny Live Rock at High Tide, like Thomas said that is how I started my tank and so far it's solid. It feels like you kinda cheating because you are taking established rock from well-established systems LOL.
Click to expand...

This is a good way to go too, some of my live rock is from Kenny.
 
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