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Fishybadmike’s NC12dx - new pics 12/6!


fishybadmike

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Hi everyone! This is such a great forum with lots of info. and experience to learn from….so I decided to start a thread about my tank. Here goes…

 

I’ve been keeping multiple freshwater tanks for years but this is my first attempt at saltwater. Wish me luck!

 

Got everything from DrsFosterSmith.com. They were having a sale on JBJ 12g Nano Cube DX’s - $170 (stand included).

 

I set the tank up on 2/15:

- Reverse Osmosis water from local grocery store

- Instant Ocean Salt

- 15 lbs. of Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Reef Sand (Aragonite)

- 50W Visi-Therm Stealth Heater in 3rd chamber

- So far I’ve included everything it came with in the rear chambers

 

Added live-rock from PremiumAquatics.com on 2/21:

- 7 lbs. Kaelini Tonga

- 7 lbs. Timora

- 1 piece of Fiji

 

I’ve only tested the water a couple of times using API’s Saltwater test kit and Instant Ocean hydrometer. So far this is what I’ve come up with:

- Ammonia: 0.50 ppm

- Nitrite: 0 ppm

- Nitrate: 0 ppm

- pH: 7.8

- Specific Gravity: 1.020

 

I realize the pH and specific gravity are a bit low. I’m aiming for 8.2 and 1.025. Any suggestions about getting the pH up? I ended up with that low specific gravity by following the directions on the box. My plan is to get it up higher by doing a water change (maybe two) with a higher than normal salt concentration. Maybe that will help with the pH also?

 

I’m running the lights on a 12 hour schedule for now. My lights are 50/50 actinic/10K bulbs so I’m not able to run a dawn/dusk cycle. 12 hours seems long - should I cut back to around 10? The temp holds steady around 79°F during the night and 80°F during the day when the lights are on.

 

Well it looks like I’ve got a few weeks to wait around and figure out my stocking plan while it cycles. Here are some pictures in the meantime…What do you think of the aquascape?

 

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I did a 2-gallon water change today with super-concentrated saltwater. That brought the specific gravity up to 1.024. The pH looks to be about 7.9 - still a little low. Any suggestions on what the best way to fix that would be?

 

I also rearranged the rocks. I like this arrangement much better because there are still plenty of caves for fish to hide but just about every cave is also viewable from outside the tank. There are also plenty of good surfaces to place corals. And this arrangement opened some more sand-space in the front of the tank - eventually I'd like an open-brain to go there.

 

While rearranging I found a dead clam, a sponge, some black gooey things, and a flat barnacle-looking thing. Maybe someone can identify it from the pictures below:

 

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This one has the sponge on the right side and that flat barnacle-looking thing on the left:

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So far nobody has made any comments but I think I still continue to make posts because this is a good way for me to keep a diary of the tank...

 

Tested water again today:

- Ammonia: 0.25 ppm

- Nitrite: 0 - 0.25 ppm

- Nitrate: 0 ppm

- pH: 7.9 - still low, how do I get it up? chemicals?

- Temp. is holding @ 79 and SG is 1.024

 

In the last couple of days, I've had some significant algae growth (fuzzy/hairy brown) on some of the rock surfaces. I decided to add a couple of things to hopefully keep that in check:

- 1 Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crab

- 1 Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crab

- 1 Nerite Snail

- 1 Bumble Bee Snail

The hermit crabs immediately went to work eating the algae. The snails have done quite a bit of exploring. I hope they all survive the cycling process.

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- Ammonia: 0.25 ppm

- Nitrite: 0 - 0.25 ppm

- Nitrate: 0 ppm

 

Since you are in the middle of your cycle you do not need to be doing water changes. This will only prolong your cycle. Adding livestock at this time will be deadly. Algae is part of your cycle and the ammonia produced durring the cycle will kill your CUC. First off get them out of there ASAP. Even if they don't die it would be like you breathing your own urine all day long.

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fishybadmike

Well I tested my water yesterday and I couldn't believe my eyes. According to my tests, my tank had cycled already - only 17 days after adding live sand and 11 days after adding live rock. Just to be sure I tested the water twice yesterday and a third time this morning. I thought that it was going to take a bit longer than that, but from what I hear, the cycle is usually pretty fast if you get some good live rock with lots of life on it. I also swapped out the stock pump for an MJ900. The water flow seemed a bit strong and was disturbing the sand bed so I removed the flat-flare nozzle and it seemed to fix the problem.

 

Here's a summary of my water parameters:

- Ammonia: 0 ppm

- Nitrite: 0 ppm

- Nitrate: 5-10 ppm

- pH: 8.0

- Specific Gravity: 1.025

 

I added some more CUC:

- 2 Nassarius Snails

- 2 Cerith Snails

- 1 Margarita Snail

- 1Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crab

- 1 Emerald Mithrax Crab

- (All previously added CUC are doing just fine)

 

I'm going to monitor the nitrates and see if they disappear by anaerobic processes. If they get any higher I'll be doing a water change or two to reduce nitrate levels.

 

I also threw in 6 empty shells for the hermit crabs today and already 2 of them have swapped shells!

 

P.S.: The purpose of the mid-cycle water change (on 2/24) was purely to increase the specific gravity of the water. I figured dumping undissolved salt into the water would be a bad idea...using super-concentrated salt water during a water change seemed like a much better idea. Knowing the total volume of water in the tank and the volume of what I was changing out, I was able to calculate the necessary concentration of the salt in the new water to bring the specific gravity to the desired level.

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fishybadmike

I've noticed air bubbles accumulating in the sand-bed against the glass. Any idea what this could be from? Pics below:

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I found an Aiptasia today. AHH! I guess that means I'll be getting a peppermint shrimp sometime soon. There are tiny white bug things all over the glass and sand-bed. Am I correct to call those pods?

 

Here's a new FTS and a few other random pics of the life inside the cube:

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  • 2 weeks later...
fishybadmike

So a lot has happened since I last posted. I left the tank unattended for 9 days and came back to quite a bit of hair-like algae growth on the glass. I've also found quite a few round white growths on the glass that are very hard to scrape off.

 

I added a Peppermint Shrimp on 3/17 to take care of the aiptasia I found. The aiptasia was gone the next morning. Last night the shrimp molted! Should I just leave the old exoskeleton in there?

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I also added the last couple members of my CUC the same day as the shrimp. That brings my total to:

- 2 Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crabs

- 1 Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crab

- 1 Margarita Snail

- 4 Nassarius Snails

- 2 Cerithium Snails

- 1 Nerite Snail

- 1 Bumble Bee Snail - haven't seen him in over a week

- 1 Emerald Mithrax Crab

 

On 3/18, I added my first fish - a clownfish! He was sold to me as a percula but he came from a mixed tank of ocellaris and percula. They were all young enough that I couldn't tell hardly any difference between the two species so I just picked the one I wanted and the store owner told me it was a percula. What do you guys think?:

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This tank is so cool! I haven't even gotten into corals yet and the CUC (especially the zebra hermit and emerald crab), shrimp, and clownfish are so entertaining! I have no idea why I waited this long to get into saltwater. LOL

 

I know how much I love pictures of other people's tanks so I'll leave you with some...

New FTS, emerald crab is right in the center:

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Close-up of emerald crab:

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And a few more random shots showing off my rock:

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fishybadmike

So I guess that not a lot of replies from other members must mean that I'm doing something right and don't need a lot of correction? Hopefully that's the case. :huh:

 

I forgot to mention that I upgraded my return pump to a MJ900. At first, the flow coming out of the flat nozzle was too strong and disturbing my sand-bed quite a bit so I just removed the nozzle and that seemed to fix everything. I'm pretty sure the flow is too high for any inhabitants to try and go backwards up the return pipe.

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ChuckleBerry
So I guess that not a lot of replies from other members must mean that I'm doing something right and don't need a lot of correction? Hopefully that's the case. :huh:

 

I forgot to mention that I upgraded my return pump to a MJ900. At first, the flow coming out of the flat nozzle was too strong and disturbing my sand-bed quite a bit so I just removed the nozzle and that seemed to fix everything. I'm pretty sure the flow is too high for any inhabitants to try and go backwards up the return pipe.

I just got a 12 NC DX also and am in the process of cycling. I also havent got any replies on my posts. Oh well. Neway your tank looks awesome. Cant wait to see it progress.

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fishybadmike
Very nice start. So what do you plan as far as any coral in the tank? good looking Occy.

 

I'm making a 1.5 hour trip on Saturday to several LFS. I plan to pick up a green frogspawn with pink tips and a xenia that have been on hold for me. I was worried about the xenia growing out of control but I heard that they pretty much only grow towards the light so if you place it up high next to a wall it will have no choice but to grow up your wall which will make it easy to remove excess growth. I'm also going to see what they have as far as mushrooms and zoas. I'd like to get quite a bit of zoas in a variety of colors.

 

Eventually I want to get some ricordia, a neon green candy cane, GSP, some finger leather, maybe a toadstool, and possibly a yellow fiji leather. If my stock lighting can support it, I'm consdering an open brain - but I want to wait on that until I see that my other corals doing well. Any concerns about my coral selection?

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fishybadmike

So a lot has happened since I last updated on here! I'll break it into sections by date.

 

3/22:

I made a 1.5 hour drive (3 hours round trip) to the best SW fish store I have in the area. Since it was such a long drive, I decided to make it worth it and purchased 5 corals and a fish! I hope I don't get a lot of criticism for introducing a lot of new corals into a young tank but when you live so far away from any good fish stores, you have to make the drive worth it by purchasing at least a few. I've been testing the water frequently and ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all at 0. pH is abotu 8.0-8.2. All new corals and fish are looking very healthy.

 

I got a small yellow watchman goby. I swear he was only 1.5" when I got him but he's already looking like he is closer to 2" now. He is VERY outgoing - I haven't seen him hide in a cave yet. Every couple days he'll dig out a little crater in the sand and he often loves to perch on his favorite candy-cane coral.

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I got a xenia that began pulsing almost immediately after I put it in the tank. I've heard that they tend to grow mostly upwards across the rock towards the light so I placed it up high to try discouraging it from overgrowing the tank. It has already shown significant growth. The YWG is perched on his favorite 14-headed candy-cane in this pic:

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14-headed candy-cane:

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Green frogspawn with pink/purple tips. I could only see one mouth when I got it but just a couple days ago I found a second mouth right next to the first - I guess that means it's getting ready to split into a 2nd head.post-34422-1206764002_thumb.jpg

 

A 30+ polyp green zoa rock. There's a clam attached to the rock. A couple pictures with different camera settings:

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Lastly, I got a fist-sized zoa rock. It has 100+ polyps of what appear to be "whammin' watermelon". There are also about 10 polyps of another green variety (green dragon eyes?) on there as well. It came with 2 larger clams as well as a few smaller ones. One of the large ones has seen broken off. Also, this rock as well as the candy-cane came with a few small hitch-hiker starfish. You can see one of the starfish legs in the upper left of the picture below. So far I've counted 4 starfish but it's hard to tell cuz they hide a lot.

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3/24:

Picked up a 2-headed candy-cane from a LFS and another margarita snail to work on the algae. The candy cane was pretty bland looking under the store's lighting but the center turned a bright flourescent green under my lighting. In this photo, I think it's secreting something stringy in response to being placed next to another candy-cane. It has since been rearranged and they appear to be used to each other now.

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3/28:

Got another zoa frag and an astrea snail from the same LFS as above. The zoas looked plain brown under the store's lighting but since they were labeled as "Fire from the Sky", I figured they'd color up nicely under my lights - they have!

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About two days after introducing my clownfish, it began hosting the back wall near the upper left corner. To discourage that, I placed my glass magnet cleaner up there. It worked. And as of about an hour ago, it looks like he is going to start hosting the frogspawn! I'm so excited!

 

I'll leave everyone with a current FTS:

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fishybadmike

In the last few days, I have noticed an unusual brown, film-like algae growing on one of my rocks. I have no idea what it is, but it doesn't look like something that is very good for my system...

 

Does anybody know what this is and if it is good or bad? Should I do anything to discourage it's growth or eliminate it?

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Looking good, but I really liked your original aquascaping....lots of great places to put corals. Have any side shots of your most current scaping? I would love to see. (I'm kinda an aquascaping junkie...I think I have done it like 4 or 5 times in 2month time span)

 

great job, nice corals!

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lakshwadeep
In the last few days, I have noticed an unusual brown, film-like algae growing on one of my rocks. I have no idea what it is, but it doesn't look like something that is very good for my system...

 

Does anybody know what this is and if it is good or bad? Should I do anything to discourage it's growth or eliminate it?

 

You have red slime algae (cyanobacteria). It comes from having excess nutrients in your tank.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bluegralgae.htm

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fishybadmike
You have red slime algae (cyanobacteria). It comes from having excess nutrients in your tank.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bluegralgae.htm

 

Thanks for the info! For now I'm putting the tank in darkness for a couple of days without food. So far it appears to be working really well at getting rid of the red slime. I'll still need to get to the underlying problem that caused it though. I was only feeding about 1/2 of a prime-reef flake each day. Maybe even that little amount was too much? The fish were eating most of the food and the emerald crab, shrimp, hermits, and nassarius snails were getting any leftovers that floated to the bottom. I'll probably cut it back to about 1/2 a prime-reef flake every other day. I've also heard that flake food can contribute to the problem so I may try some frozen stuff.

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fishybadmike
Looking good, but I really liked your original aquascaping....lots of great places to put corals. Have any side shots of your most current scaping? I would love to see. (I'm kinda an aquascaping junkie...I think I have done it like 4 or 5 times in 2month time span)

 

great job, nice corals!

 

Thanks. Ya it took me a while to find an aquascaping I liked. With 12 pieces of rock there was almost no limit. The most recent side shots I have of my current scaping are in post #8. There's also a few in post #3 when it was only slightly different. I think the current scape gives some good surfaces for coral placement at varying heights but at the same time also provides some caves and tunnels for the inhabitants to hide if they want to. I've got a whole plan lined out for exactly what corals I plan on getting and where I'm going to place them. :D

 

 

I took a couple of night-time shots under the blue LED's a few nights ago. I think they turned out pretty cool...

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fishybadmike

I got 5 new ricordias in the mail: 2 flourescent greens, 1 green and purple, 1 flourescent orange, and one blue. They are all about 0.5-0.75" in diameter. They are sitting in the sand for now until I decide where to glue them down. I also got a scarlet reef hermit in the mail as well. He seems very shy - I haven't seen him since I put him in the tank. I also picked up a red mushroom from a LFS. It's almost 2 inches diameter.

 

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