Hey all. This is my first post and I'm kinda in a panic. Friday I just bought a 24 G JBJ Nano-Cube. I went to pick it up about an hour from my house. We drained the water into 5 gallon jugs, put the 20lbs of live rock in a cooler and covered it with the tank water along with the 3 hermit crabs, turbo snail, and 2 misc snails. No Fish and a few brown looking button polyps.

I set it up at my place that night.

Tested the water at a local Aquatic shop, tested fine.

Sunday I added 10 hermit crabs, 1 Emerald Crab, 2 Sand Sifting Snails, 1 Zoanthid Frag



Today I'm expecting $200 worth of frags, and a Mandarin Goby through Fed-Ex which has already tried to deliver the package and my wife missed them...so now they are driving around town with my fish and frags.

Last night I added a Oceanic In Tank, Protein Skimmer. I don't know if I put it in the right place. Can someone look at the image below and help me out? I put it next to the return pump, should it go in the first chamber on the left, that is now occupied by a huge sponge?



Few more pics.





Thanks,

Kevin B
Shallow_Reef

Mandarin goby was not the smartest idea.... now u MUST go buy some copepods.... that is what they eat and with a new tank you have none....so make sure you go get some or he will most likely die...

Make sure to stay on top of your waterchanges as u have a new tank up and cycling again.... even if it was from a estabilshed tank....
be prepared to possibly lose a few corals....


lastly, research research research before you buy!!!!!!! Good luck!

Like I said, the tank has been up and running for 18 months. All I did was drain the water and move it an hour down the road. Do you think that will cause it to cycle again? Will it be a mini cycle since it's been established?

As for the Mandarin Goby:

The sand is crawling with copepods. I saw them on the edges of the tank and was like what in the heck is that? I noticed the Mandarin ate those before I purchased him. I know I may have to buy more, but he was prob tank raised eating frozen foods. I'll try both and see if I can tell which he's eating.

Has anyone else had success with the Mandarin Goby? Failures?

As for the cycle....we'll see, I've been testing and haven't seen any indicators so far. I hate to loose anything in the tank, so if things start to go, I'll probably water change, and add neutralizers if necessary?

How long does it take for things to go bad?

i wound'nt put mandrine goby in small like ur and i know it sounds like it is established but the only problem is this that the mandrine live of copepods and the other marine bugs as long as u can keep their colony up u'll be ok...u might waan research more about it thou...and i suggest to add a bit of more lr to ur tank aswell...

Good looking setup going so far.

Not to make you panic more, but I think it's a potential risk adding fish to a new tank or a tank that may be about to go through a cycle.

Last year I bought an 3 year established 24 gallon nano cube. I bought the tank, the deep sand bed and the live rock only. Put the water in widemouth jugs along with the live rock, left a little bit of water for the deep sand bed, then transported everything across town driving ultra slow with no sudden stops, turns or whatnot. Got the tank set back up again and let it sit for a few weeks just checking water parameters. About 3 weeks later I STILL went through a massive cycle. Took weeks to normalize. By the time it was done, about 1/2 the coralline in my tank was bleached white. Finally when the cycle ended, I started slowly adding corals and fish.

I would say in your case, since you have stock that is about to arrive, I would consider the following things:
1. Aqualife Complete Water Conditioner and
2. Nitromax Marine Formula to the tank as soon as you can.
3. be ready to get some phosphate sponges or phosphate absorbing filter media just in case.

Just a side note, and I'm sure I'll get angry responses just for this, but I use 1 and 2 above 1-2 times a week and my parameters haven't budged in almost 8 months. All fish and coral growing without problems. I even overfeed most of the time. I think both those producst are lifesavers due to the fact that in using them I have cut my fish and coral losses to almost nil.

Good luck!

Sea Bass,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply! I knew there were neutralizers on the market to combat cycling, even some claiming to have your tank ready the next day after you set it up but didn't know which ones worked and which were hype.

I will take your advice and use what you have suggested as preventative maintenance.

I have also just purchased an in tank rack system for chamber #1 to take the place of the large sponge where I plan to create a mini fuge' with cheato algea grown w/ and underwater light, with filter media on top.

I'm working on replacing the bio-balls with most likely the ceramic cylinders though I'm still open for suggestions if someone can think of a better use of the second chamber, maybe to cultivate the "pod" population for the Goby.

Also no one has answered my question about the skimmer placement in my tank. Since it's over on the left next to the pump....is that a good spot? Seems to be working out fine so far...two days now.

Thanks again,

Kevin B Reefer

Take the bio-balls out and just throw them away... they do little to no good and arent too beneficial... I think you have adequate LR and I like the way you aquascaped it!
I agree with the the phos stuff too... u will go thru a cycle, just hopefully nothing bad enough to kill anything!
I would suggest adding Chaeto immedately... Heck put it in the display for the time being just to "jump start" taking out the nitrates...

How is the coral you got?

Keep doing your water changes and pray for the best!!!!


Again, welcome to NR and the advice here has saved me countless amounts of $ and time!

Cheers

Thanks Reef_Dreamz

I've started taking the bio-balls out thought I've read not to take them out all at once, just a few at a time over a period of days.

I've changed the aquascaping since the images were taken to provide for more hiding places, and greater access to the sand at the bottom for the Goby. I'll see if I can update soon. I added 11 corals and a Goby yesterday so things are completely different.

I'm going to take your advice and will try to pick up some Cheato today.

K

Took some new shots of the set-up tonight since everything has changed again. Now their is major activity and I'm looking for a stopping point but so far haven't found it. Needless to say I stopped looking for things to buy and starting shooting what I've got so far.

Mandarin before white balance. I dusted off my real camera and got serious about shooting. Sometimes for me it's just finding that place to stop and actually see what you have while you have it. Wednesday the 18th of November was an interesting day. Started out with my wife having a car accident with the kids in the backseat, thank god it was minor and no one was injured but I'm still looking at a good clip for damanges, but somehow at the end of the day...it's all okay, mainly because I have other things that could go wrong as well.

I stopped to get food for the mandarin before coming home from work and checking the damage to the vehicle. Eh, everyone was okay, it really was a minor accident, maybe it's not so bad, driving with one headlight. Who really needs to shut the hood all the way?

Apparently I'm looking into cultivating pods, since the LFS doesn't have any on hand. Anyone know a good place to get some live ones online?

If you can't see all the images in the above gallery check them out here!

Cheers,

Kevin B