Eclipse System 12 questions

[mfisher2112]

Ok nano experts, help a brother out here.

I have an eclipse system 12 that I just set up about a week ago.

So far, it is stock.

I painted the back black so I wouldn't have to deal with backdrops.

Right now it has about a 3" sand bad (mostly live sand from my already established 90 gallon), it has about 5 pounds of small rock also from my established system. I took about 8 gallons of water from my main system, and supplemented with new freshly mixed water. I'm running just a small aquaclear 30 power head for water movement and the built in filter.

The tank is stable due to the transfer of water, sand and rock from the main system. No cycle. All params test right on target.

It has been running about 2 weeks, and right now it has some small zoa frags and a few tiny pieces of xenia that split off main colonies from my main system. They seem to be doing well. One small piece of xenia is doing better than expected, as it got crushed by a rock, but when I transfered it to the nano, it perked right up with in a couple of days.

The only inhabitants are some tiny snails that migrated in on the rocks and sand from my main system, one hermit crab and a yellow headed jawfish that threatened to jump out of my 90 by bobbing his head out of the water (which prompted his immediate imprisonment in the closed tank).

What I want to do is upgrade the lighting because I don't like the color I'm getting right now. It's really yellow.

Any thoughts on what I can get for this system? It looks like customsealife used to make a retrofit kit specifically for this little closed tank, but they are long since defunct.

Looking for suggestions.

I am also considering experimenting with a sump and return system on a small scale using a 10 gallon tank just to see if I can do it. Any thoughts on that?

I'm also looking for some sort of tank companion for the jawfish (even though the little bugger has COMPLETELY redecorated the tank, I still like him, and so does my two year old which is MUCH more important! ) Any thoughts there?

This is my first serious attempt at maintaining a tank this size, any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Carlo]

No clue on the lights for you Matt.

How about something like a purple firefish? They are small, pretty and low bio-load. Maybe a neon goby? Not sure on that one as you would probably want a different body style to mix things up. How about a few neon tetras. I bet that would look cool in a nano as there wouldn't be anything in there to eat them. A Longnose hawk could look cool too but not with the tetras (they are yummy!)

I haven't looked at an Eclipe tank before from the standpoint of adding an overflow/return. You don't have much room to work I wouldn't think.

You could do something like, use a dual pump (like the kind for doing automatic water changes - same amount of flow in two different directions) and have it pump water out of the tank into your 10g and back again while keeping the water completely level. You would only need to figure out where to run two small airline tubes this way. I do this on a 44g to "plumb" it back into my system so I don't need to worry about taking care of that system. In the 10 gallon tank you could run a hang on filter, skimmer, reactor, grow cheato or anything else you could fit or use in the 10 gallon. If nothing else you double your water volume which is good.

Hope that helps or might give you a couple of ideas to work with,
Carlo

 

[JohnS_323]

I had 2 purple firefish in my nano for about a year and half and finally pulled them out. Don't get me wrong, they're nice fish and work out well in a nano but man are they boring. I was so sick of looking over at the tank and seeing them just hovering motionless in the water.

They're much better in the 180 where there are other fish that move around.

 

[mfisher2112]

Thanks John. Yeah, I definitely want to keep some movement and interest in the tank. If the alien eyed little redecorator would stop moving my rocks around, he'd be cool. The little one likes to watch him jump out of the rocks and then pop back in.

 

[Carlo]

Interesting John. My firefish swim around as much as anything else in the tank but they aren't swift swimmers which you wouldn't want in a nano (bang into glass) that small. I actually was thinking more for color then anything else.

Given any thought to a little school of neon tetras?

Does the dual pump thing I mentioned seem like it would work for you? It's no overflow/return but would allow more water to be processed and connected to the system pretty easily with a decent turn over rate.

Carlo

 

[twan]

For lighting talk with Chris at http://www.nanotuners.com
They mainly deal with AP and NC and not eclipse but I am sure he can steer you right.

 

[JohnS_323]

I replaced my firefish with a pair of oscellaris clowns and a catalina goby. I like them much better, The clowns are like puppy dogs! They're very active and always "wagging their tails" and begging for food. I'm really happy with them. The catalina goby is strikingly beautiful. It's a cool water fish, so I have to make sure I keep my temps a little lower. Since the tank is in my office, which maintenance feels should double as a meat locker, that should be no problem.

Two other inhabitants that I have and love are my little sexy anenome shrimp. They're really cool. I get to play "Where's Waldo" with them every day. They're always out in the open . . . you just have to try to find them!

Good luck and I'm sure your's will do great. I started mine off the same way and honestly, it's damn near maintenance free. I do top off's very infrequently and water changes even less and everything is always happy. Go figure!

 

[mfisher2112]

Thanks Twan, I'll check that out when I get home.

John, yeah I was thinking about a clown or two. probably going to stay away from the gobies/blennies because of the jaw fish. although I did read that jawfish sometimes do better in small colonies. that could be interesting too.

 

[mynd]

Hello and welcome,

Do you have any pictures? Would love to see the tank

 

[mfisher2112]

Don't have any full shots yet. I want to get some more rock in there. It's looking kinda pathetic right now. LOL!

But if you check this thread, you can see my jawfish and my puffer:

http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=5474.0

Those are the two inhabitants of the tank. That and a couple of tiny hermits and snails. I think I am going to leave the tank with just those two, they seem to get along fine, and with the puffer potentially getting to 4 inches, I don't want to crowd him out. He just came home on Saturday, he's eating well, and swimming around. Every now and then he pokes his nose into the jawfish's burrow and gets a sharp warning to backoff, but other than that, everything seems good.