Back In the game after 5 years!

[djhuma]

This will be my first thread I've ever started for setting up a tank. As you probably already know there's nothing crazy or complicated about setting up one of these "All-In-One" tanks so it might be a bit boring but maybe useful for some. This is not a guide but more like a log of my new tank. You can follow if you would like. Although I've been in the hobby before Im not so pro so critquing and suggestions are very welcome. Im very rusty.

 

After 5 years of breaking down my 20G Tall I decided to make a "small" comeback. Downgraded to a 12 Gallon Nanocube DX. I have to say these tanks are interesting. Limited but interesting.

 

Ordered my tank and stand on Ebay received it on Tuesday the 24th. Was it cheap? Did I get ripped off? I doubt it and probably. I did my share of shopping and comparing prices so I believe it was decent. Nothing's cheap in this hobby unless it's free because it all adds up. FAST! Especially when setting up.

 

 

 

Here's a pic of the tank and stand

Under the hood with moon lights on only. Beware, when setting up a timer for the pcs, the moonlights will go off as well since they are all wired to the same ballast. There IS a switch for the moonlights on top of the hood but I have no idea what JBJ was thinking when building this part of the hood. You CANNOT set the moonlights and pcs on separate timers!

All the chambers

All the media that were in the chambers which I will not be using except the carbon and 1 sponge

Chambers 1 and 2 where I think I'll be keeping 1 sponge, carbon, and LRR in Chamber 1 and more LRR in Chamber 2 during the cycle. It will change afterwards (Still debating)

Chamber 3 which I replaced the stock pump with a Maxi-Jet 900 for more flow. I heard the stock pump is very weak and produces too much heat

Maxi-Jet 900 and the surface skimmer. The suface skimmer had me a bit confused because it does not connect or attach to anything. I later learned that It will just be sucked in the overflow and will stay in place once the tank is up and running with water

Rear of the tank. As you can see there's no room for a HOB Skimmer or HOB Refugium.

Trying out Reef Crystals by Instant Ocean saltmix this time around. I use to use just the regular Instant Ocean saltmix but heard good things about this mix.

Cheapo digital thermometer. It does the job if you're wondering

15 LB CRYSTAL REEF PURE WHITE ARAGONITE AQUARIUM LIVE REEF SAND from ebay. Wanted to try something different this time around. This stuff looks like sugar. Super white! Not so fine but fine enough. They shorted me 1.11lbs but were very apologetic and kindly refunded me 25% which was $6.25. Fine with me because 15lbs was enough sand for the tank.

Here's the ad: http://www.ebay.com/itm/160832409408?ssPag...984.m1439.l2649

I didn't try the vinegar test by the way but it looks legit though.

 

[djhuma]

I mixed my salt the day before and let it mix for 24 hours as most would recommend. Had to purchase 3 X 5 gallon jugs at the LFS ($11.99 a piece!) and RO/DI water ($.57 per gallon). I used an 18 gallon tub, the digital thermometer, and found use for the NC's stock pump to circulate and assist in mixing the salt. I guessed that I would only need 9 gallons of RO/DI water when the LR and LS went in the tank. So 9 gallons I poured into the tub then turned on the pump.

Added about 4 cups of the Reef Crystals saltmix (1/2 cup per gallon) to start off with. I always added less salt then instructed in the past.

Mixed with my hand because I can

 

I didn't use a heater because well I LIVE IN TEXAS! Thermometer read 80.8 with no heater and it felt cool in my room. Anyone ever have to use a chiller when mixing their salt?

Salinity reading at 1.023 but may be different after 24 hours of mixing and yes Im using a hydrometer by Instant Ocean. It works fine for me. I will maybe purchase a refractometer when I keep the more advanced corals.

[djhuma]

Got 13.3 lbs of cured Fiji/tokota (mainly Fiji) LR and LRR the next day from a super LFS. 2 minutes from the house Unfortunately, they like to r*** you at $6.99/lbs so you do the math. Ouch! It was very convenient though and they let me pick out the pieces myself. Most of their piece were the size of my tank so I was kind of limited but I managed to find some smaller pieces. Took 20 minutes because Im picky.

 

 

 

After 24 hours of mixing salt (Salinity was a bit higher 1.024 and temp was still at roughly 80 degrees) and purchasing the LR I felt I was ready to setup the tank. So here we go. First I added the sand.

 

 

 

The ebay company I purchased the sand from recommended a different technique from how I use to add the saltwater to the tank. I use to use the dinner plate technique to keep the sand from clouding up the water. They instructed to used the plastic bags that were holding the sand as well. It worked well. They provided a video guide in the ebay ad

Then they said to use the dinner plate. Not sure if it was even needed.

 

 

I forgot to add earlier that I ordered the salt, maxi-jet, thermometer, hydrometer, and heaters 1 week prior to setting up the tank. Oh yeah, I also purchase a cheap API test kit on ebay to test for ammonia, PH, nitrite, and nitrate during the cycle.

[iPhone]

[djhuma]

Thank you IPhone! I've been a member on here since '04 but I guess after years of not using the mods reset my account Glad to be back!

[Jneighbors]

Welcome back to the hobby and I'm interested to see how your new "money pit" come along lol. But I would suggest getting rid of the bio-balls, add chemi pure elite and there is also a website called media baskets that you should check out. I think you should also invest into a R/O unit because water adds up quick!

[djhuma]

I had to dig up some tubing from a pile of some old equipment to pump the water to the tank using the stock pump.

 

 

 

Unfortunately the stock pump wasn't strong enough to pump the saltwater from the tub up to the tank. How sad is that? Had to swap pumps and used the MJ 900.

 

Finally, the water is being added to the tank.

 

 

 

 

At this point you can see and hear the 1st chamber starting to fill through the small hole right before the overflow

Finally the tank is full. It took approx. 1 minute. There was still about 1 gallon of saltwater left so I only used 8 gallons. It's officially the Nanocube 8 Gallon Deluxe

Then I removed the dinner plate

Then I removed the bags. One of the bags still had sand stuck inside it so when I took it out it clouded up the tank a bit

Shot of the sand bed. There are air pockets all through out the sand. That's a first. Still has air pockets today.

Tested the salinity again and it was aroud 1.024.

Finally adding the LR. The water started clouding up so much I couldn't do the aquascaping so I kind of just stack the rocks as best I could. So much for the dinner plate and plastic bags technique. It got clouded up anyway.

 

 

Then I added the surface skimmer. The overflow sucked it right in and kept it in the position I wanted it in

The water started to clear up fast afte about 10 minutes the LR was more visible

 

 

 

The end result after 24 hours later.

 

Moonlights

 

I added a large piece of dead base fiji rock from my old tank which has been dry for about 5 years haha. It has been soaking in RO/DI water for 3 days and cleaned thoroughly. I wanted to seed it and plus I felt that It wasnt enough rock. Now it looks like there's too much rock. Im happy with the scaping but I forgot to leave room for future additions. Oh well, I will figure it out later. The LR I bought was kind of a dissapointment because there was about 2% coraline algae. It's definitely live. I've seen some critters but no color under the lights. Now it's time to cycle! Im very excited to be back in the hobby. I've missed it very much.

[djhuma]

Thanks Jneighbors. It's good to be back. I am definitely not using the bio-balls. Just 1 of the 3 sponges, carbon, and LRR in the first chamber and LRR in the second chamber for now

 

Still very indecisive on how to setup the 3 back chambers. I have looked at the media basket here:

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Nano-Cube-12-...sket-NC12MR.htm

 

Not sure if I need it though. I probably will If I dont use that area for a skimmer and if I use chemi-pure elite and keep using the carbon media. I concur about investing in the RO/DI unit. That will be something to purchase in the near future.

Thanks again for the tip.

[djhuma]

Day 2

First test and ammonia was actually present. Nitrates are crazy high.

 

Finally seeing some critters from the live rock. Tube worms, feather dusters, brittle stars, copepods, tiny snails, amphipods, and bristleworms.

 

Was only able to snap this bristleworm. There are some large ones. This one was about 2 inches long

 

No idea how this fellow hitchiked and survived. The LR was out for about 2 hours but covered with wet newspaper of course. I thought I felt something pinch me when aquascaping Going to give this guy away. Not a fan of emerald crabs. They nip at corals sometimes. He's tiny. About 1/2".

 

[uaiu]

6.99 a lbs is a lot? consider yourself lucky! The three stores near me sell for 6.50$, 9.99$ and a whopping 12.50$ a lbs . I had my LFS calibrate my hydrometer to their refractometer as a temporary solution.

[21093r53]

cool

[Smity]

Great start. Ill be watching this one :-)

 

Very nice rock and great job on the scape.

[djhuma]

@uaiu Wow, I feel a bit better. $12.50/lbs is just ridiculous. Id probably pay it if it were covered in bright colors of coraline algae. Im sorry to hear that. I had no idea you can calibrate a hydrometer. Might have to do that because for some reason my salinity dropped after 5 days. Not suppose to happen.

 

@21093r53 Thanks

 

@Smity! Thanks! I appreciate it. The rock could've been better quality but it's probably better I get to watch the coraline algae grow. What matters most of course is the rock having the critters.

[uaiu]

With mine they just tested water with their refract, then tested the same water with my hydrometer. Mine was .0005 off, not too bad.

[djhuma]

Oooh I see. I'll probably just get a refracto. They are only $20 on ebay Thanks for the info!

[djhuma]

Day 6 Testing. Ammonia and Nitrates dropped a bit. PH and Nitrite still the same. Salinity has dropped down to 1.021. No clue how. Had to top off with saltwater but has not raised the salinity yet.

 

 

It's been consistently 103+ degrees in Fort Worth, Texas so my tank has been hitting 84 degrees. Today was 108 degrees. Im dying over here. Anyways, I had to run a clip on fan to bring down the temp down.

Also starting to see some diatom already. Seems a bit soon but maybe Im wrong.

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to be done with this cycle. Diatoms, algae, cyano breakouts are just unsightly.

[BennJabb]

Nice tank, I just started mine up yesterday. How did you get the water to clear up so fast?

[ward827]

Day 6 Testing. Ammonia and Nitrates dropped a bit. PH and Nitrite still the same. Salinity has dropped down to 1.021. No clue how. Had to top off with saltwater but has not raised the salinity yet.

 

 

It's been consistently 103+ degrees in Fort Worth, Texas so my tank has been hitting 84 degrees. Today was 108 degrees. Im dying over here. Anyways, I had to run a clip on fan to bring down the temp down.

Also starting to see some diatom already. Seems a bit soon but maybe Im wrong.

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to be done with this cycle. Diatoms, algae, cyano breakouts are just unsightly.

 

I'm in DFW as well! Yes, the heat is a bit of a problem. So far 84º is as high as my tank has gone. Drops back down to 80º at night. W-

[djhuma]

Nice tank, I just started mine up yesterday. How did you get the water to clear up so fast?

 

Thanks Bennjabb. What kind of tank did you set up? Let me get a sneak peak if you can I guess I got lucky getting the tank to clear up so fast. Maybe it has to do with the kind of sand I got on ebay. It's not super fine but just right. Or maybe it was the technique I used when I added the water to the sand. Could be the carbon media and 1 sponge Im using that came with the tank. Or the surface skimmer, and upgraded maxi jet 900. Whatever it was it really did clear up nicely. My tank is very clear right now at day 6. Just having a crazy diatom outbreak right now. Very unsightly, Ill post up pics in a bit.

 

@Ward827 That's awesome! Are you ready for this week's temp? 103+ all week Are you on DFWMAS forum? Where are you located?

[djhuma]

Day 6 and man my LR and LS is looking terrible. My hitchiker emerald crab is on a mission eating the algae. Diatom breakout is everywhere. Daytime tank's temps in this weather have reached 85 before I started up the fan again. Who know's how hot it would've gotten without the fan. Brought it back down to 79 before shutting it off since night time has started.

 

 

 

 

 

Also, Im seeing bubbles forming and floating to the top from the LR and LS. From my research, I heard this could be from the algae creating O2 or the bacteria converting the nitrates into nitrogen gas? If its the bacteria converting the nitrates into nitrogen gas then it means its towards the end of the cycle. This can't be because it's only day 6 of the cycle but I've heard some people have cycled in a week or 2. I just tested my water yesterday and no signs of even nitrite yet. I'll have to test tomorrow.

 

 

You can see the bubbles on the sand bed

You can also see the hair like algae on the sand bed. This hair algae is also on my LR.

 

Also, just ordered the Oceanic Skimmer off of ebay just in case my tank has a nitrate problem because I know I will have a overstocked tank . Id fork up more money for a better skimmer but this is the only skimmer I could find that would fit in the first chamber. I've never tried a wooden airstone skimmer and not a fan of it from what I've heard but I really dont have a choice. From reviews I've seen a 50/50 on ratings. I guess I'll have to see.

 

I also purchase a Hydor Rotating Water Deflector to change up the water flow into the display. Along with some Chemi-pure Elite to control any phosphates, nitrates, ammonia, or nitrite and a submersible 10W light for Chamber 2 which I am converting into a refugium with Chaeto after the cycle is done. All were purchased here: www.mediabaskets.com. It should be shipped here by the end of this week.

[Jneighbors]

Turning out very nice and I'm amazed of how clear your water is right now. I'm in the middle of setting up my 34g solana that has been up and running for about a month now and my diatom breakout hit about a week ago and it's making me wanna but a baby in the oven lol, but I bought dry rock from BRS and I've already purchased a clean up crew and thy are working their a$$ off but hopefully it will die down soon. Can't wait to see this tank mature though.

[1.0reef]

Awesome scape, I got a 12 gallon nano cube too

[djhuma]

@Jneighbors Thanks! I love the clarity of the water as well. Sounds like your tank is coming along nicely. Yes, that's my next step is to get a clean up crew. Just gotta wait for cycle to be over. Im right behind you

 

@6 gallon Thanks! Great to be in NC 12 club Do you have a thread or a pic? Any tips?

[Chino]

Found the pw and username to my old account. Will be using this account from now on. Took weeks to find out the pw. Whew... Anyways, Day 8 and the hair algae is out of control. It's crazy on the sand bed. Never had hair algae on my sand bed in my previous tank. Tested the water and all params look good. Ammonia is almost at 0 still no sign of nitrite and nitrates are down to 10 or under. Not sure what part of the cycle this tank is in but I have a good feeling it's still cycling. Has to be. Only 8 days in. Anyone ever cycled this fast?

 

 

 

 

Im wondering if it's time for a clean up crew yet. Diamtoms and hair algae is driving me nuts. Patience I guess.

[Smity]

Wow djhuma/Chino... 2004?

 

Your ammonia looks good I would put a order in @ reefcleaners. You used live rock so you should be safe on a spike.