Scott's Aquariums

I inherited an interest in aquariums from my father who dabbled with marine aquariums and with freshwater tropicals the whole time I was growing up. When I was stationed in Hawaii (1985-1986) I actively continued my interest by packing a marine 30 gallon, a freshwater 20 gallon and two frequently used 10 gallon hospital tanks into my military dorm room, along with my roommate. I loved my Potter's Angel, Domino Damsels, fast moving Starfish, Moorish Idol, beautiful marble veil angelfish and red finned shark. When I moved to Japan I planned to go back to Hawaii and pick up my fish, but a calamity occured before I could get them. I kept some of the old gear, but did not get back into the hobby for many years. Other interests caught my attention.

For Christmas, 2001, my wife bought me a Marineland Eclipse System 12 and some accessories, correctly sensing that I might be interested in getting a nano-reef going. So here is what I have now:

Marineland Eclipse System 12, Biowheel removed
VisiTherm 75w submersible heater

replaced with a Ebo-Jager 100w submersible heater

replaced with a Micro-Jet 404 powerhead

one Favia brain coral, photos below
lots of purple calcerous algae
some hair algae
six bristleworms, removed with a turkey baster
a lot of leafy macro algae
a jade-leaf macro algae, calcerous?
a mystery feathery algae
some bubble algae
two tiny feather dusters
three button polyps, which have vanish (Cherub snacks?)
a rock with green striped mushrooms
a rock with a few button polyps, some red mushrooms, and a few green star polyps
a rock with a lot of lovely reddish brown soft coral that has a single tube stalk from the rock then branches into 8 feathery arms that retract at night
a Fire Shrimp named Rocky
a rock with some pulsing Xenia

First set up of the Marineland Eclipse 12 with a mix of salt water from Marine Scene and my own mix of tap water, treated with de-chlorinators, and Instant Ocean. I also set up the old 20 gallon tank as a freshwater de-chlorination plant to refill the evaporated water in my Eclipse and possibly a second tank I will set up later.

I dropped in a few pounds of live sand and 20 pounds of live Fiji rock from Marine Scene. The amount of detrius on the rock was a little alarming, but I gather patience is needed at this stage. My wife's Eclipse system 6 freshwater has taken off. She stocked it with a school of 7 Neon Tetras, 2 Redtail Sharks, a Cory Cat, 2 Guppies, 2 Zebra Danios, 2 Leopard Danios, and several plants all from Fox Mill Pets.

Erci's Freshwater Eclipse System 6:

Water quality finally got nice enough, and algae bloom bad enough that I went out and started getting my cleanup crew. Six hermit crabs; two blue leg, two scarlet leg, two burgundy. They all seem to have handled the move ok and they are feasting on far too much available algae. Drilled some vent holes in my hood for cooling the CSL retrofit lighting, but it is still too warm, so the lid remains off when the light is on.
I chose Eclipse because I wanted the reef in the center of the room.


Are those copepods in the lower left corner? Woo hoo.


If you can identify this algae, please send me an email.


If you can identify this algae, please send me an email.


Favia Brain Coral (Moonstone) I think, came on the rock.



If you can identify this macro algae, please send me an email.

The water finally feels right, and it tests out great too! Yippea. Picked up 10 margarita snails and my first fish: an Cherubfish (aka: Atlantic Pygmy Angelfish). We are calling him Sundance. I finally found out what all the little white things are - they are copepods... I did not think they were visible to the naked eye, but they are.

Erci has guppy fry, at least two of them have survived, and perhaps there are more. They are very good at hiding and they do come out for food.

Sundance, our Cherubfish (Atlantic Pygmy Angel)

Sundance seems a little lonely, and I could not find either blue leg crab so I went out and got a pair of True Percula Clowns (captive bred in Puerto Rico): Fric and Frac, and four more blue legged hermit crabs to trim the hair algae. Guess who turned up to greet the new blue legs, but both the missing blue legs - so now there are 6 of them. Clowns seem to settle right in, with Sundance stressing only a little.

Frac and Fric, a pair of true percula clowns.


Margarita Snails are helpful:



Is this a cacerous algae, it looks like a Jade Plant leaf, growing fast... perhaps it is a Halemidae (Avrainvillea asarifolia).

Got a surprise for my birthday, my great friends Angelica Linville and Stacey Brown took me to Marine Scene to buy me a coral, and helped me pick out a couple more and a fire shrimp. Ended up taking home a green striped mushroom, a sweet little variety rock with buttons, stars, and mushrooms, some cool soft coral, and the fire shrip.

Today I finally found The Reef Tank in Burke, VA with a lovely selection of captive propogated corals. I bought some pale lavender pulsing Xenia that I hope will do very well. The owner was very nice and emphasized his store's focus on corals over fish and on captive propogation. My kind of place, just wish it were closer. Erci and I also found Super Petz in Annandale - which is NOT part of a chain. Very nice warehouse of dry goods and lots of fish. Their nice corals are all display only though, what a shame. Vienna Aquarium has nice freshwater fish and some good marine life as well. Erci got herself a new 15 gallon AGA tall square tank and stand from Centreville Aquarium that she plans to move all her tropical freshwater fish to once she has it set up.

Author: Scott Nolan, (How to send me email)
Last updated: April 22nd, 2002