Current FTS: 10/5/09


Hello all, this is my first tank and was setup 10/25/09, and was bought used from a local reefer. I kept everything, and put in new sw to start a new cycle, although it isn't much of a cycle since the liverock and sand wasn't out of the old tank water. The tank had been up for about a year before I purchased and moved it.

Tank: JBJ 12gDX-nano cube.

Current Equipment:
Tank: jbj-nano cube dx12g, jbj tank stand
Light: MH 70w-Viper clamp on
Flow: MJ900 & K-Nano
Heater: Hydor 50w, thinking of putting the stealth back in there because it keeps a much more stable temp.
Rock: Tonga rock, not sure of how many lbs due to the person "didn't know," however it looks like a suitable ammount.
Sand: Fiji pink sand.
Back Chambers:
Chamber 1-Sponges, have filter floss and chemi pure elite on the way.
Chamber 2-Activated Carbon and Stealth heater, have a new 50w Hydor heater on the way, will take carbon out
Chamber 3-Maxi-Jet 900 ultility pump.

Extras that came with the deal:
-Coralife power center
-Random food, test kits, and treatments.
-Test kits: API: Ph, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate; Alk, Ca, Phosphate
-Turkey Baster
-Phosphate reactor: Don't know if I will set this up.... Its sitting in a draw atm.
-Coralife Digital Therm.

Current Livestock:
Fish and Inverts:
-Bristle Star: Have seen two of them at night.
-Astreia Star: These stars are all over, have not decided if I want to get rid of them all yet.
-Snails: Don't know what kind but there small and have a good amount of them.
Corals:
-Purple Mushroom
-Green zoa? It appeared about 4 days into the tank.

Plans for live stock:
Fish and Inverts:
-Ocellaris Clownfish
-Yellow Watchman Goby
-Pistol Shrimp
-3 Sexy Shrimp

CUC:
-10 Dwarf Ceriths
-3 Nassarius
-3 Small-Medium Nerites

Corals:

Currently have these waiting in a friends tank
-Yuma Ricordea, Florida Ricordea, Zoa's, Purple Mushrooms, Frogspawn
Future Coral Plans:
-Some LPS
-Green Star Polyps
-Ricordea's
-Zoa's
-Mushroom's

Current Cost: 350
-Initial deal with everything listed above: 200
-Water + gas cans: 40
-Upgrades and micellaneous stuff ordered from marinedepot: 110


Other Pictures:
Back Chambers-

Day 1 of tank, and first scape-

Current scape and 2 weeks into tank setup: Lots of algae growth-

Top Shot-

So how does everyone think my stocking plans are? To much perhaps? Also I have a jbj wavemaker, should I get two powerheads for that, if so which kinds, or should I just put one kora nano power head in. I have a hydro flo comming in that will be hooked up as well. Thanks!

Lots of views, any comments? I have done a little research and was thinking of getting two controlable K-nano's and hooking them up to my jbj ocean pulse wavemaker. Also, with the CUC im getting, will I have to feed any of the snails, like nass snails? My param's are: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate 10. I have alot of brown algae going on. Im thinking its the end of my cycle, however I am going to wait another week and a half to do a water change and order the cuc(due to money). Would that be okay? Looking forward to any comments and advice anyone might have to offer since this is my first tank.

U can get the CUC now and get them going....

You only need one powerhead... K nano should do it and the hydroflo for the other...

Other than that, your looking good!!!

Hey all, another quick question I have after reading a post in the beginner forum. I ordered chemipure elite and filterfloss to put in chamber one which should be comming in tommorow. I currently have the jbj sponges in chamber 1 and activated carbon in chamber 2. Heres the problem, I did do a thourgh cleaning of the sponges and activated carbon before I re-setup my tank almost 3 weeks ago. Will I need to worry about anything when taking these out? My plan was to take them out right before an hour or so before I do my first 20% water change next weekend. Should I do this and put the chemipure elite and floss in after, or should I do both the same time I do my water change? Looking forward to some answers.

-Another update: I've decided to make chamber 2 a fuge unless and going to buy one of those 5w lights from inTank. I was also hoping one of the inTank media racks will work in my cube, I asked on there forum, because I will put floss/chemipure elite/purigen in chamber 2. At the momment I plan on not putting a skimmer in and keeping things simple.
-Recently I've noticed one of the zoas I have growing from the lr stays semi-closed compared to how it usually is. I will keep watching this as it has only happened for 2 days.

Did the person you bought the setup from tell you how old the bulb was in the fixture? If that bulb is over 8-12 months old, its due for replacement. Just an FYI.

No he did not but im guessing he didn't, I figured I would need to replace the bulb soon.

Still sounds like a fantastic deal to me. Nice one bro!

Definitely.

Hey all, when I woke up today and looked in the back I found a couple pods in the 1st chamber above the sponge. Any idea how this could have happened?

Dig the aquascape, good work.

Hey all, got some updates:

-Did some serious purchasing today for upgrades that should be the last for awhile(except replacing the bulbp and pH probe) heres a list of whats on the way;
*Marine Depot Aquarium Refractometer
*Coralife Blue Lunar light
*Koralia Nano
*JBJ ato
*Seltz l20 pump for the ato, and some airline tubbing
*Ordered my CUC from reefcleaner.org but won't ship until after the holidays .
..but it will consist of 10 dwarf cerith, 3 nassarius vibex, 4 florida cerith, and 3 nerite snaills(small-
medium).

My tank has been up for a month this sunday and I'm sure my cycle was less than a week if that. When the cuc gets here it will be much over due. Reguardless, im going to do a 20% wc next sunday to get the nitrates down for the cuc. When I do this wc I will change out the pump to a MJ-900, take the sponges and actived carbon out of ch1-ch2 and put Filter floss and chemipure elite in chamber 1(I will make chamber 2 into a fuge sometime soon using an intake light), put in the k-nano, new heater, and install the ato. I took a homedepot bucket cut a whole in the top middle for airline tubing to fit through. Hopefully 2-3 days after that my cuc will arrive.

Had a few questions for you guys.
-My tank has tons of vermitds, I was thinking of keeping them in until I see them annoying my corals I put in. Would it be okay just to pluck them off with forceps? If not what is the recommend way.
-2 weeks after I add my cuc I plan to make sure my params are looking good and then adding the coral, my friend has been holding for me, into my tank. It will be frogspawn that will go in the top left. Some mushrooms, zoas, rics, and a yuma. Do you all think adding these will be okay? After adding the coral I plan to get 5 sexies, probably a month after I add the corals.

Things have been going pretty smooth for me so far in this hobby and hopefully they will stay the same. Reading John Tullock's Natural Reef Aqariums has helped tons with help from this website also.






Thanks! It took me awhile to get it how I like over the first week.

Thought id give it a update on whats been going on recently with the tank. First, all my upgrades came in last week along with a CUC. Got a moon light rigged to the top, need another one though. Got the jbj ato and k-nano installed. Also got a refractometer, finally, and discovered my salinity levels have been around 1.023. I am working on slowly raising it up to 1.026 and keeping it there. I've ordered salt today, D-D H20cean Mag. Pro, to mix my own salt from now on because my calc levels are pretty low. As for my CUC I put in 10 dwarf ceriths, 3 nerites, 3 nass's(I want another because there so awesome!). I plan to move the corals back into the tank in a week or two.

A couple of days ago when looking in the tank at night I noticed through a small hole about 7 zoas growing on the back of one of the rocks against the back wall. They for some reason only open at night and they are growing bright green under the moon light. Also found a pseudocorynactis in the tank which could explain why a zoa right above it stopped opening. I will try to get some new pictures of the tank up for you all soon. Thanks for following!

The JBJ 12 D was my first reef tank too.

I really liked it. I sold it when I had to move from San Diego.

Yours looks really good. Keep it up.

Thanks.

Well, it appears a couple of the snails have been dieing. It could be the 1 week shipping incident finally took its toll or my salinity levels are messed up. My refrac is saying my sal levels are 1.021-1.022, yet the hydrometer is reading 1.025-1.026. I will go test my refrac on a friends tank who has the same refrac as I do. Reguardless, I wont be able to correct the salt levels until saturday-sunday at the earliest due to my new salt not comming in until friday.

I have a few questions:
-I am having problems fine tunning my ato. At the momment it is giving my salinity a swing of about 1, will I need to get this under control and have no salinity swing or is <= 1 suitable.
-The purple mushroom in the front of my tank has detached halfway from the rock, it has been like this for 2 weeks or so, how should I go about reloacting it to a more suitable spot?
-My moonlight turns on directly after the MH lights turn off, is this okay?

Sorry for all the questions guys, just trying to get the tank under control.

Hey. Hey.I like The rockery. It looks good man.

Thanks man! The tank is really comming along, I need to update this thread with some new pictures. I finally put in the frogspawn, yuma ric, florida ric, extra purple and green mushroom that came with the orginal deal. They all look like there doing good and have been fully opening up. This weekend I will finally add my first fish, which will be a false perc. Thanks for the comments again!

Nice looking 12! Try tweaking the ATO sensors so that it fills without a swing in salinity like that. With mine, I adjusted my 24g sensors so that there was about an inch in between the lowest point and the highest point. With the 12 you'll probably need even less room between them.

Speaking of the mushroom, mine did that underneath MH, they don't like bright light.

Good luck!

Sorry I forgot to update on the questions I have had. First thanks for the complements! The problem I have with the ATO atm is that the pump is to strong, however it gives me a .001 swing or less, hopefully this shouldn't be to bad(Others have advised it shouldn't). With the mushroom, It reattached a day after readjusting the flow from the k-nano. They are realitively low in the tank so I don't think light intensity is a problem. I figured if light intensity would be a problem they probably would not open up and bleech. Anyways, thanks again for the help and complements!