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What part of nano keeping do you find most difficult?

For me it's dealing with coral growth. My 24g aquapod is really jammed pack with rocks and corals... everything is balanced just so. Which means if I need to get to something at the bottom I either can just forget it and leave it or I'm looking at a few hours of frustration as I pull everything out and then try to rebuild it w/o squashing something as most surfaces have coral on them.

For example, at the bottom on one side I have a rock covered with teal green palys, they were neat when I was brand new but now I want more colorful zoas and these thing like to take over... I really need to pull the whole rock out and scrape them off of other rocks, that will mean a tear down of at least 3/4 of my tank because of how things are balanced.

I also have some other zoas that are taking over their neighbors (ones I also like), I should try to frag them/seperate them but I've taken a lets see what happens attitude as it's to hard to get to them.

I have a giant hairy mushroom thing, which was already taking up to much room but I like it so I've left it, this past month it's dropped off about 4 babies... I'm going to have to pull the rock and figure out what to do with it, but it's also one of my main rocks and has other corals on it... so pulling it disrupts 1/2 my tank.

I also have more corals then I probaby should and am losing site of the sand bed quickly LOL
 

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I agree that growth is my biggest problem as well. Unfortunately, it's not really growth of the stuff I want to grow! I had a really nice piece of frogspawn, a nice bright green torch and some cool candy canes. They were all doing well until these bland, brown button polyps took out half and green frilly mushrooms took out the other half. Oh and don't let me forget the GSP's that took over the lower left side of the tank! Basically, I've got a ton of green frilly mushrooms that are a tad boring, an entire corner of GSP that are kind of "eh" and the top full of these lame brown buttons.

Now that I think about it, they also killed off a piece of orange cap, a teal blue favia and a brown and teal platygyra, all of which were doing well until their neighbors invaded their turf. My nano is my office and of course this always seemed to happen on weekends.

Another minor problem is keeping the glass clean. Because it's so small, my rock is pretty close to the glass. That makes it tough to get my ReefGadget into some spots.

One of these days I'm going to tear the whole thing down and either rebuild it or can it - I'm not sure which.
 
I hear you on those brownish ones, I have some sort of pink sort of brown ones that were my first zoas... I took out the bigger rock with them on it (and it's in my refugee 50g) and boxed in the others with a hammer ::evil laugh:: The teals on the other side are going to win though if I don't do something soon. I've managed to keep the gsp on the sand and off the rocks but I saw today that I'm going to have to cut off a piece of that too very soon.
 
Almost forgot, for glass cleaning I use a "nano nimble" (I think that's what he calls them)... anyways a guy on nano-reef.com makes very strong but extremely small glass cleaners, only down side is they don't float (but of course anyone with a nano knows the importance of those long tweezers, they work great at retreaving it if it falls down). I really like it, does a great job even around curves and is so low profile that it doesn't stir up any sand and can fit in the tightest spots.
 

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Cool, thanks for the link. It doesn't have a razor blade type attachment though, does it? I'm spoiled by my ReefGadget and fussing with just the scrubber thing isn't so appealing!
 
Just want to say to Candi that I am sorry I posted something that might hijack the thread. From what I understand JohnS_323 the nimble does a great job on both green and coraline algae. It is made from the highest quality parts. However, it might take months to get one since the guy who makes them is at school, has no place to make them during the winter months, etc. Unless something has changed in his schedule be prepared to wait.

Again, really sorry Candi for posting about the nimble. Let's get this thread back on track. :)
 
:mad: yeah stop hijacking my thread

LOL totally kidding ;D I'm the one who mentioned the nimble, I apprecaite you posting the link since I was to busy to find it when I posted.

Also still fits the topic "what is difficult?" waiting for your nimble LOL

So another thing I find difficult, when a pump comes lose in the back and I have to try and reattach it... WOW that is a tight squeeze, I can't even imagine how a man with larger hands does it!
 
i think the most difficult part for me when i had my nano was fish, is hard to pick what fish to put in your tank, after that was easier to take care of it than my 120g

Gabe
 
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