So I recently ordered a 24 gallon JBJ from Drs Foster and Smith. I got it out of the box and set it up on the stand and everything with no problems, until I turned on the lights to make sure they worked. But I recieved the joy of getting a faulty bulb. Luckily the Drs were nice enough to send me out a replacement bulb. So after recieving the new bulb, I bought 15lbs live rock and 20lbs of live sand. After filling the tank and getting that set up, I figure out the "moonlights" dont work and neither do the 2 cooling fans. So another call to the Drs and they are sending me out a new hood to replace the defective one.


Luckily all this faulty equipment hasnt cost me any extra money, its just a real pain when things dont work the way they are supposed to.

So for now i have the tank cycling with the live sand and live rock with the hood propped open to help cool it down (the water temp is anywhere from 80-82) and I'll be installing the replacement hood when it gets here.

I agree... waiting sucks! But luckily you ordered from the good DrF&S!!! They will take amazing care of you if a problem comes up!

I look forward to watching the progress of your tank!!!

So I went to the lfs today and picked up 6 more lbs of rock ( 21lbs total in the tank). Heres a few pictures of my tank, its been up and running for 4 days now.

Now that's some great customer service!

I'm totally new to this stuff as well but usually the general rule of thumb for LR is 1.5lbs/gallon. You might want to get 15lbs or so more.

What are you doing with your chambers?
Have any pictures?

Keep us updated!

edit: you posted your addition to your LR and pictures before I could get my word in!

Yeah they definately have great customer service. The two times I've called them they've given me no hassle whatsoever with replacement parts or anything. Besides that they have great deals.

I havent decided what I'm going to do with the chambers yet. I've heard read alot of mixed feelings about the bioballs and ceramic rings, for now I'm going to leave them in and see if they cause me any problems down the road.

I'll take more pictures when something a little more exciting is happening. It's hard to see, but in the picture of the side of the tank there are a lot of tunnels and caves.

Once again i'm new to this so hopefully someone else can confirm or back this up, but I've heard that bioballs and ceramic rings are pretty much storage areas for large amounts of nitrites and/or nitrates (not good if you let sit in your tank). Unless you were to clean them every time you did a water change (recommended once a week, 10%-15%) I would advise against them. I think the easier way to do this may be to use a fabric called filter floss you can find at walmart and some other places (once again, I need backup from more experienced ppls lol). Instead of cleaning bioballs each water change you could just simply replace the "filter floss." Supposedly it's super cheap so you can get it in large amounts and only use around a handful at a time.

Can someone help me out on this? As i'm not 100% sure about waht I've said, but more like75%. Trying to help!

No, you're 100%

The floss is in the fabric section (at Wal-Mart) in a light green bag - 100% polyester with no flame retardants. In our RSM (Red Sea MAX) it goes in the chamber where water cascades into the rear section. There's a sponge at the bottom of the section that keeps the floss from getting to the pumps. The floss traps crap and gets replaced every 2-3 days. I thought 2-3 days was excessive, but by that point in time it starts to restrict flow enough to cause water level in the rear section to start to drop.

The point of this is to get that crap out of the tank rather than let it accumolate on permanent media where it will break down and contribute to nitrates.

Good luck with your tank - sounds like you're off to a good start.

-hank

Sounds like everyone is highly against the bioballs and ceramic rings, so I think I'll take them out. But the thing I'm worried about is if my tank is going to have enough biological filtration with only 21lbs of rock. I don't really want to add anymore rock because I think it looks pretty full as is.

Also, the filter floss. Wouldnt that be just adding another mechanical filtration, which is already covered by the sponges in chamer 1?

Do you have pictures of your tank with 21lbs of rock? I would put at least 24lbs total since you have a 24g. You can break them to make shapes so things can fit better as well. Sponges aren't that great of a thing either as they act just like the bioballs in a way where they accumulate a bunch of gunk and crap you'd probably rather not acting as a filter. I've seen sponges replaced by chemi-pure or something on those lines or filter floss etc. Look around at other people who have 24gNC's and see what they've replaced the stock bioballs and sponges with to get an idea.

Yeah, the links that I posted earlier is 21lbs. So basically what I've gathered from everything--sponges suck, bioballs suck and ceramic rings suck. Just about all the filtration the NC came with is a trap for something it seems like.

Excellent pieces of rock!

haha. well thanks. I did the best I could on the aquascaping. Hope it looks good, I like it anyways.

Alright, so I expected to get some algae build up while my tank is cycling (its been about a week now) but I guess I didnt expect to get it so soon. Its covering a couple big pieces of my live rock and theres seems to be some on the live sand as well. I guess my question is: Is this normal? I have a feeling its perfectly fine and expected, but since this is my first SW tank I want to make sure its not something bad. ( I think its Dinoflagellates but thats just my guess, its brown and some of it has bubbles) If you need a picture of it, I'll upload one.

Yes, sounds normal. I had my tank cycling for several months while I was waiting for a chiller and saw all sorts of diatomaceous growth on the sand bed, glass, then the typical green hairy algae on the rock and some macro algae. As soon as I dumped 2 turbo snails and 6 hermits as my CUC, they went right to work.

Also is that pump that you have set up right now for airation the same pump you are/will be using for your chiller? I had my pump sitting in my display for a few month, felt it was unsightly and found a way to squeeze it into the rear chambers. Just a thought. Tank looks much better with all that out of the way.

Yeah I figured once I got my CUC in the algae would disappear. Yeah I'm using that pump for aeration and a bit of water movement because it rotates 60 degrees. Believe me I would much rather not have that sitting right in the middle of everything, but I can't seem to find anywhere else to put it. I tried it up against the back of the tank on the black plastic, but the suction cups don't want to stick to it. I've been thinking of maybe getting some epoxy and gluing the suction cups to the back but i'm not sure what i want to do with it yet.

So, my tank has been cycling for almost 2 weeks now and I am getting a ton of algae growth on my live rock and sand bed. I assume its pretty normal and not just because my tank is running extremely hot (83-85 degrees, mostly due to a faulty hood, so that temp should be coming down after I install the new one.)

Here's what it looks like after a couple of weeks.
Front

Right Side

Left Side

Top

In my tank the water coming into the back chambers goes through the filter floss first. Floss sits on top of the sponge which keeps it out of the rest of the chambers and the pumps.

Floss gets pulled out every day or two or three when it starts to fill with crap. It surprises me how much stuff collects in a short time. Buy the cheap stuff at Wal-mart. A big bag was under $3. (Make sure you get the 100% polyester fill w/out flame retardant - it's in a light green bag in the fabrics.)

If the floss remained long, it too would become a nitrate factory.

Make sense?

Nice 'scape BTW, but IMO would look better with more rock.

-hank

Thanks for the tip. I went and got some a week or so ago, just forgot to update it. I figured $3 was alot better than getting a new sponge all the time. Yeah I think your right though, a bit more rock would look better but maybe I'll add that in the future. I'm on a bit of a budget so I'm doing what I can while trying not to sacrifice quality.

Tank Updates
Ammonia dropped to 0 so now we'll see what happens with the nitrite/nitrate levels. PH went up from 7.8 to 8.2. So we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks.




That much algae growth is normal right? It's not just due to excessive heat.

Yup. Nope.

(Normal == what our tank did.)

-hank

So for the last 5 days or so my water paramters have been:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Ph: 8.2
Nitrite: 0 ppm


I'll probably do a water change and let the tank run a few more days and test my water again.

I know I've seen a lot of people adding different things for the CUC for this tank but...does anyone have suggestions?

Installed the new hood today. Fans and moonlights work, finally. Also did a 5 gallon water change. I'm going to let it run for a few days and then check my water paramters again to make sure they're in line. Then go to the lfs and pick up my CUC.


Anyone have suggestions on that?

I added my clean up crew today.

5 reef hermits
2 scarlet reef hermits
4 margarite snails
3 nass snails
1 emerald crab


I'll get pictures when they're done acclimating.

Alrighty. It's been a couple of months now and I've been neglecting my thread. Lets see whats new with the cube.

Mods: Not much under this section. Took out the stock pump and replaced it with a Maxi Jet 1200 and I took out the Powersweep and replaced it with a Koralia nano pump. Took out the stock sponge in the first chamber and cut it in half. The top half is filter floss which gets changed every 2 days and I switch the halves of the sponges out once a week. In the second chamber I have Chemi pure elite and purigen along with the stock sponge that gets rinsed out every water change.

Livestock: along with the CUC stated about, I added a skunk cleaner shrimp, percula clown. royal gramma, and 2 large turbo snails, and 1 smaller turbo.

Coral: green mushrooms, zoa colony, frogspawn, brain coral----and I did have a leather coral but it did not make it.

Problems: Temperature runs a bit high--usually between 80-82 but has gotten up to 84 before. Still have a bit of diatom algae on the sand that doesnt seem to want to go away. Any suggestions on how to get rid of it would be great.

Pics:

Frogspawn


Brain


Mushrooms


Zoa Colony


FTS: really blurry and with a lot more algae on the sand then there has been lately

I've found that I need to open the lid on my 24DX when the lights are on, or the temperature starts running a bit high.

As far as the algae, how often are you feeding? I've been fighting this "gunk" on my sand as well. I feed every other day. Some might say that's too much, and every third day would be better. I just try and keep the amount I give every other day down to a minimum. You might also try taking out the sponge in chamber 2. My filter set up is: Chamber 1: Filter floss -> Chemi-pure -> Filter floss -> sponge. Nothing else. Those sponges are generally not good. I'm looking at removing the one I still have.

HTH

Matt

Yeah, I too leave the lid of mine propped open and the feeding lid up as well. I also have a small fan that sits on top of it that blows across the lid, it seems to help a bit.

I feed every other day too. Just as much as they can eat in a few minutes and I take a fish net and get out the rest of it. Maybe I'll start trying every third day, who knows if it'll help.

So do you have nothing set up in chamber 2 at all?

Right. Chamber 2 is empty. It's waiting for a Sapphire Skimmer...and waiting
...and waiting
...and waiting.


Matt

haha. Are those supposed to be able to fit in the chamber?

On another point, I'm pretty sure one of my margarita snails was trying to reproduce, as it was squirting out "white stuff" today.

Yes. They'll be sold by nanotuners eventually. See it here.

Check your fans - I found they exchange the heat better when one blows in and one bows out... Looking nice though - really great aquascaping!

Hopefully that works as good as it sounds. But being from nanotuners I'm sure its going to be good.

Guess I'll have to start saving up some money for that investment. haha.


Is there something I can read upon to switch the fans like that. I think your right. They probably would exchange the heat alot better.


Thanks for the compliment.

Just open the hood and remove the blade of one fan, turn it over and put the hood back on. That's all I did and I am hopeless with mods!

Well then next time I'm feeling frisky I just might have to tackle that. Haha.

How much did it bring your temp down?

It was running at 29-32 (84-89) degrees in english money. Now running at 26...(79)

Oh wow. Seems like it made a significant difference.

I think it worked because as well as blowing cold air in it was taking hot air out...

So how are they positioned stock?---are they both blowing cold air in or are they both blowing hot air out?








How did you end up switching them? Was it as easy as removing the plastic cover and just flipping one the other way?

Mine were both blowing in...

Okay, thats what I thought they would be.







On another note, I'm pretty sure I say a bay snail crawling around on the glass today. It was very tiny, about the size of a pinhead and white.


And, I think my frogspawn is growing another head (hopefully) because when its retracted at night I can see what looks like a bubble coming out of it.

New camera and I'm excited about it.

Canon Powershot SD790is. From what I've seen in the last 5 minutes of playing with it it takes great pictures. Even has a special "aquarium" setting and a digital macro setting.

Pictures tonight after work.

Couple of quick pics under the moonlights.

Frospawn


Brain

Have a few more pictures with the daylights on. Not that I think anyone is really following this. But whatever. haha.



Also, I'm going to start battling what I found out today was actually cyano, that should be fun. Any suggestions on what to do?

Today I saw a couple of baby snails roaming around along the glass.

Oh and my emerald crab molted for the 2nd time.

Well, I think I really am talking to myself here.

Shrimp molted for the 3rd time last night, didn't feel like getting a picture of it though.

My clownfish is a little butt head. S/He must think they own the tank or something. Every time I put my hand in the tank to do something he nips at me every minute or so.

So did you get your chiller online? What brand and size did you choose and are you happy w/it? I have a 29 gal nano that if I run the MH lights for more than four hours the temp increases to 84 deg or more...

Afraid I would boil any corals and figure I need a chiller first....

Well I actually don't have a chiller, just use fans to keep the temperature in check when it starts to get warm. Usually it's between 80-82. I usually leave the hood propped open and the feeding lid up to help with the heat as well.


Try pointing a fan that blows across the top of the water, that should help with the heating. Chiller's are pretty expensive, so if I were you I'd exhaust all the other options before I made the investment.

I have a Peppermint Shrimp that'll come and climb up my finger and try to nibble on it.

Looking good...I have the same issue with my clownfish as well...Funny at first but gets really anoying when you have to move stuff around or clean...

Haha. Yeah my cleaner shrimp will do the same thing, feels kind of funny.


Yeah thats definately true, first it's kind of funny and cute but the other day when I was trying to move my koralia nano around to different spots to get the best flow along the sand bed he kept nipping at me and it actually got really annoying and I think he managed to pull a couple of hairs out in the process, or at least thats what it felt like.

So today is my birthday (happy birthday to me) and my girlfriend was loving enough to get me a gift certificate to the lfs. So here's what I was thinking:

bubble coral (just really like the way it looks)
possibly candy cane coral (don't know though, I already have a lot of green in my tank)
always wanted some pumping xenia (but last time I was there I didnt see any)
more zoas (just to get some different colors and what not in there)
or maybe another fish


But the major contemplation is that I'm going on vacation in December for 21 days, and someone else is going to have to look over my tank. Since I dont have any other reef friends, this might not work out so well. So, I could either buy something now and worry about it later or I could just wait till after vacation. Any thoughts?