Tanya's NC12 Nano cube

[SPARTAN VI]

So my girlfriend decided that she can take on the responsibility of her own nano. Jumped on craigslist and other classifieds and found this NC12 DX plus stand and other hardware for $80.

 

Here it is empty in my living room.

 

 

Just a day later, I went to my LFS, Fish USA & Pets (Glendora, CA) and Marc hooked me up with about 6lbs of Fiji live rock. Totally in love with her live rock as the rock in my 24g is essentially 3 huge boulders. Wasn't going to head out to my girlfriend's house for another 2 days, so I needed to keep the live rock "alive." Performed a PWC on my 24g, but used that water to fill an empty 3g pico, threw in an airstone and flipped on some lights for good measure.

 

 

Exactly one week to this Friday, I came down to Hermosa Beach, CA where my lovely lady resides and setup the tank. The following morning, we weren't perfectly happy with the aquascaping. Felt the rock didn't fill enough vertical space. So we drove to her LFS, Aquatic Fantasy (Redondo Beach, CA) and bought just under a pound of their Fiji live rock (and rubble) to cap the top of our cave structure. The rock we found was AWESOME, it has a clam shell embedded to the side of it.

 

The cave structure itself isn't quite visible in the photos, so I drew up a small diagram. Really jealous of the aquascaping we came up with here.

 

 

As the tank is being placed in a small study/lounge area, people are more likely to see it from the left side when seated. So I feel by setting up the lr near the center and the 4-way cave does a good job of this. Added an interesting piece of rubble to the left side for good measure.

 

 

From the left:

 

Now today, diatoms are in full swing and we're seeing all sorts of life.

 

 

Feather dusters/tube worms:

 

Sponges:

 

Are the white branch-like things also a type of sponge? I have something similar in my NC24, but they looked more like veins/arteries and grew into my rock. This stuff seems to be branching off of the rock.

 

In about a week we'll be adding the CUC. We're both really excited! Other than that, we're planning on pairing a ORA b&w clownfish and a true perc. Aquatic Fantasy had a half a dozen or so beautiful ORA clowns. She hasn't decided if she wants a third and final occupant. Maybe a goby/shrimp combo.

 

11/7/2009 - 11/8/2009

 

Rotated the rocks per MGDMirage's recommendation.

 

Performed a 2-3 gallon PWC, then added a black & white clown yesterday. Here are some pics with her point & shoot:

 

 

 

Little dude seems shy and finicky with feeding. Enticed him with garlic guard to get him to eat 2 pieces of brine. Nibbles on flakes more than brine, but spits it back out. LFS said they usually feed their specimens mysis soaked in garlic guard, so may try mysis if he doesn't eat tomorrow.

 

FTS as of 11/20:

 

 

There's Oreo!

 

 

FTS as of 12/5, lights just turned on so goni isn't out yet:

 

Clowns:

 

Mushroom and Citrus:

That frag on the bottom left was a zoa frag that has been recovering from brown slime disease and a ricordea that's on for the ride. Opening up for the first time in months.

 

Catalina goby made an appearance, probably not happy with it being 72F:

 

Snowflake polyps, fragged from my tank back home:

[SPARTAN VI]

Cycling complete, so we picked up the clean up crew from Aquatic Fantasy. They have a "sale" on small hermits, $1.25/each. Walked out with 3 Turbos, 2 Nassarius, 5 Scarlet hermits, and a MaxiJet-600 to replace the somewhat busted Rio pump. Incredible difference with the MJ-600, made a huge difference in the current. By the end of their first night, the snails had already cleaned one rock and the nassarius guys did a good job turning over the sand.

[latteslave]

Looks great so far - the rock work looks very "clean" and not crowded. The branches are some type of sponge - have them in mine as well. Any plans on upgrading the light?

[SPARTAN VI]

Looks great so far - the rock work looks very "clean" and not crowded. The branches are some type of sponge - have them in mine as well. Any plans on upgrading the light?

 

Thanks for the kind words and ID!

 

Don't know about the lighting yet. They're the 23w CFs correct? Did you upgrade your lights?

[MGDMIRAGE]

Looks good but is the entire front side of the rock shaded? From the left side it looks like the back of the rock gets tons of light.

 

The back of the rock work has a great slope too perfect for coral growth what would it look like backwards i wonder

 

Or can the top rock move back a little to unshade the other rocks?

[SPARTAN VI]

Looks good but is the entire front side of the rock shaded? From the left side it looks like the back of the rock gets tons of light.

 

The back of the rock work has a great slope too perfect for coral growth what would it look like backwards i wonder

 

Or can the top rock move back a little to unshade the other rocks?

 

Good point & observation, you're absolutely right. I have a triangle formation of lr on the bottom, the one in the back has an ugly side (where it was hammered off the rock) so I have that side rotated to face the right where no one will see it. Would hate to bring the uglier rock up to the front.

 

I think my best bet would be to rotate the flat middle piece 180 degrees and set the top rock on it again. From the photos it seems that would shift the shade to the back and hopefully create the slope up front that you describe. We'd really prefer to have the clam shell visible from the front.

 

What do you think?

[SPARTAN VI]

Rotated the rocks per MGDMirage's recommendation.

 

Performed a 2-3 gallon PWC, then added a black & white clown yesterday. Here are some pics with her point & shoot:

 

 

 

Little dude seems shy and finicky with feeding. Enticed him with garlic guard to get him to eat 2 pieces of brine. Nibbles on flakes more than brine, but spits it back out. LFS said they usually feed their specimens mysis soaked in garlic guard, so may try mysis if he doesn't eat tomorrow.

[nanoreefnate]

Your rockworks lookin a lot better!

clown looks awesome too!

[SPARTAN VI]

Thank you! He's really beautiful. Wish I had gotten one of these instead of two A. Occelaris in my own 24g.

 

The clown we got yesterday looked lonely, so we added a Catalina Goby this afternoon. I'd take pictures, but I can't FIND the little feller. Do these gobies typically burrow? Checked the overflow already.

[nanoreefnate]

Thank you! He's really beautiful. Wish I had gotten one of these instead of two A. Occelaris in my own 24g.

 

The clown we got yesterday looked lonely, so we added a Catalina Goby this afternoon. I'd take pictures, but I can't FIND the little feller. Do these gobies typically burrow? Checked the overflow already.

Catalina Goby?!?!?

you meant the COLDWATER species?!?!?!

oh jebus. who sold this to you? im going to bash on their store when you tell me.

these gobies are a temperate water species and will not live long in a tropical temperature.

i hope you didnt spend too much on it...

[SPARTAN VI]

Catalina Goby?!?!?

you meant the COLDWATER species?!?!?!

oh jebus. who sold this to you? im going to bash on their store when you tell me.

these gobies are a temperate water species and will not live long in a tropical temperature.

i hope you didnt spend too much on it...

 

Holy #### you're right. Impulse buys are always bad. I'm reading they like 60-70F, and ours is between 72-75F.

 

They go for $30 at our LFS, Aquatic Fantasy, but we got $25 off for being regular patrons. You think if I dial the heater in at 72F he'd be alright? I'd see what I can do about retrieving him and returning him to the LFS, but the dude is nigh impossible to find right now.

[nanoreefnate]

Holy #### you're right. Impulse buys are always bad. I'm reading 60-70F for them, and ours is between 72-75F.

 

They go for $30 at our LFS, Aquatic Fantasy, but we got $25 off for being regular patrons. You think if I dial the heater in at 72F he'd be alright? I'd see what I can do about retrieving him and returning him to the LFS, but the dude is nigh impossible to find right now.

i think that 75 would be fine for right now. thats taking into consideration you have another tropical fish in there

[SPARTAN VI]

i think that 75 would be fine for right now. thats taking into consideration you have another tropical fish in there

 

Thanks Nate. Truly a gorgeous specimen, but very irresponsible of me for not Google-ing them, like was I about to at the LFS, before I spent $5 on em. Wondered why I never seen them on e-tailers.

[asting]

$5 isn't bad at all, they're typically closer to $20.

Also, they have been known to survive tropical temps, but have a decreased lifespan.

And 75 is a tad chilly for a reef tank.

[SPARTAN VI]

The two are still not eating. Contacted the LFS and said they feed them mysis and supposedly confirmed that the clownfish was eating it. Having my girlfriend pickup mysis tomorrow as I'm not going to be near the tank until Wednesday. We're soaking their food in Garlic Guard, which reeks with garlic when the bottle is opened. Not sure what else to do..

 

11\10

 

Luck today! The clownfish finally gave in and gorged on brine shrimp. Hoorah!

[SPARTAN VI]

A friend of ours is moving for college and parted out his reef. Couldn't find anyone crazy enough to take his goniopora st., which he's had for about a year. So I took it and a tub a Coral Frenzy. FTS as of 11/20:

 

 

There's Oreo!

 

I've since re-aquascaped a bit, move the entire rocky formation straight back, and piling left over lr on the left and right side. Made a bunch of room up front for frags and the like.

[PaulE915]

Dude your girls tank is pretty sweet...what the heck happened to yours?? lol..just giving you a hard time.. I find it funny tho, we will strive to make our gf's happy, even if our tanks suffer...If only i could get my GF Interested in fish porn...as she calls it

[SPARTAN VI]

Dude your girls tank is pretty sweet...what the heck happened to yours?? lol..just giving you a hard time.. I find it funny tho, we will strive to make our gf's happy, even if our tanks suffer...If only i could get my GF Interested in fish porn...as she calls it

 

 

I'm so jealous of her tank. Jokingly asked her if she'd trade her 12g for my 24g.. not a chance in hell! Her fish, her rock, her coral, everything is just awesome. Trying to keep it low maintenance, but that goniopora st. (aka flowerpot) may have shot that in the opposite direction.

[PaulE915]

 

I'm so jealous of her tank. Jokingly asked her if she'd trade her 12g for my 24g.. not a chance in hell! Her fish, her rock, her coral, everything is just awesome. Trying to keep it low maintenance, but that goniopora st. (aka flowerpot) may have shot that in the opposite direction.

 

 

hahah! you should consider taking your boulders out and breaking them up.... just a thought....her tank is sweeeet tho...and that whle goniopora thing sounds like an STD..lol

[SPARTAN VI]

hahah! you should consider taking your boulders out and breaking them up.... just a thought....her tank is sweeeet tho...and that whle goniopora thing sounds like an STD..lol

 

Yeah, I don't know why I didn't listen to people when they first recommended that. I was afraid of "ruining the rock."

 

Right now I have 3 RBTAs, so I'm afraid to move the rock and tear a foot by accident. Definitely need to sell off at least 2 of my RBTAs before I rescape.

[PaulE915]

Yeah, I don't know why I didn't listen to people when they first recommended that. I was afraid of "ruining the rock."

 

Right now I have 3 RBTAs, so I'm afraid to move the rock and tear a foot by accident. Definitely need to sell off at least 2 of my RBTAs before I rescape.

 

cant you try and cause them to relocate by adjusting your flow in their direction? see i you can get at least one boulder out and make it happen!

[SPARTAN VI]

cant you try and cause them to relocate by adjusting your flow in their direction? see i you can get at least one boulder out and make it happen!

 

Indeed, that's something I've considered. I'm waiting for my next pay check for a long overdue Koralia-2. Going to point it through the back to increase flow in the dead zone, but now that you mention it, doing so would also point flow directly at the feet of the two RBTAs I need to move..

[PaulE915]

well there ya go! even more reason to treat yourself to an early Xmas with that koralia...! im actually thinking of buying some frags off some peeps on here...am in the midst of searching now..

[SPARTAN VI]

I got a fist full of frags from local reef club members and paid as much as I would at an LFS for a single overpriced colony. Fragging is the way to go.

 

Anyone know how frequently these CF bulbs need to be replaced? I forgot to ask the previous owner of this tank how long he's had it running. (edit) Looks like 12-14 months

[PaulE915]

I got a fist full of frags from local reef club members and paid as much as I would at an LFS for a single overpriced colony. Fragging is the way to go.

I noticed...this dude im buying some off of right now is selling me some eagle eyes for a fraction of the cost of the ones i had on hold at the LFS..after shipping cost!! those sand baggers at the LFS!!