Since you guys have been so helpful, let me ask one more question ...

I want to change the lighting cycle of my coral so that the lights are on when I am near the aquarium (change lighting from "8am to 4pm" to "2pm to 10pm"). Is this ok or will it piss of my coral? Do coral and fish have circadian rhythm issues? Will they get jet-lagged?

Thanks

Read this thread.

DAY 28

I am having a difficult time getting the protein skimmer just the right height to work effectively. It is bubbling a little gunk into the cup every day, but the cup seems to fill up with mostly water. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Now you come here to ask questions after you ignored all the previous advice? Why not ask the LFS you have so much faith in?

Just because I didn't do exactly as some of the forum reefers said doesn't mean that I ignored their advice. I simply chose my own path after receiving advice from many sources. On a side note, if you have been elected forum gestapo and are tasked with running people off, you are going to have to be much more passive aggressive than that. So, now that we have that out of the way, do you have any constructive suggestions?

And, I will ask my LFS tomorrow when I go to get some tank water for my weekly change

More power to you. I was just making sure that you were aware of what was going on and you did your research.

I have never seen Violinist get belligerent on the forums before

Livestock plans for the future?

Day 30 - New LED Lighting

Received the parts for my DIY Led Lighting system last night and was up until the wee hours of the morning soldering. It looks absolutely amazing and produces light equivalent to a 150W metal halide system.

Although it doesn't show how truly beautiful the colors and shimmer are, here is a short video showing the different lighting schemes available using the potentiometers:

~ Aquarium LED Video ~

Below are a FTS using the LEDs and a pic of the how well my lights fit in the hood where the old bulbs were housed. It took me about four hours to complete the project from opening the first box until I was sitting in front of the aquarium enjoying the show.

No I don't. I just wanted to bust your chops!

The tank looks really good!

Day 32

The new LED lighting is amazing. The coral seems to love it ... although, my xenia coral seems to have lost a bit of its color, it looks stronger than before and is doing its grabbing thing a lot more. Also, with the stronger lighting, I added two small SPS at the top of the arch to see how they do

that looks fantastic. love the lights. nice bright white.
tank looks good too.

bzphotog

The question he asked has nothing to do with any of the previous discussions.

Day 35

Parameters all perfect, except for Nitrates which were up @ 10 ... 5 now after the water change. One issue ... my xenia turned almost completely white. I think that maybe the new LEDs were a shock for it so I moved it to the bottom of the aquarium for a while. Do xenia like bright lights? Also, right after I put in the new lights my anemone came back to the front of my arch ... what an odd creature. My torch seems to have doubled in size, my red mushroom has had two babies, and I saw the tiniest little hermit crab about the size of the head of a pin walking around without a shell on a rock.

Two new inhabitants ... a bright red fire shrimp that likes to jump on my hand when I put it into the tank and a gorgeous purple clam that seems to dig his surroundings.

All is well

I had the same problem with my skimmer...
You need to purchase a surface skimmer to go over your inlet, put it all the way up and your water level in your tanks in the back will lower atleast 4-5 inches. Which will let you place your skimmer a little lower and give you the results you need.

Just ask your guy at your LFS for a surface skimmer and he should show you how it works.

love your tank i'm thinking about getting myself a reefer too but just a bit bigger then normal nanos 30gal cube but i'm very impressed with your tank love those clowns too! did the 2nd one get back into ur DT tank? or is there still only 1?

I have been keeping aquariums for about ten years. I cycled my first FW tank, Never cycled the rest until i got my new SW nano. If you move the rock and sand and as much filter floss/material whatever you have, you can almost always put fish in immediately, although admittedly a nano can fluctuate its water params quickly so i would monitor and do a water change if necessary. It does absolutely no good to put it sand/rock/filter material from an established tank with heavy bioload into new tank with absolutely no bioload. It will just die off until it reaches an equilibrium with the current bioload.

Before setting up my 120g FW I ran the two canister filters for the 120g on my 55g tank for two weeks. I overfed to create a large bioload which in turn helped establish the two new canisters. When I got my 120 I filled it with water moved over the already established canisters, dropped in livestock, and voilla! Never saw any type of cycle.

After being out of this hobby since high school I just bought a 12 gallon nano tank today. I look forward to seeing how your tank turns out.

Is your starfish hiding? I don't see it in the newer pics.

I think i see a reflection in the first pic on the bottom left.

Welcome back can't wait to see it.

Fletcher your tank looks fantastic.

Interestingly, I dropped this snail in the tank last week and he immediately dug down into the sand and completely disappeared. I haven't seen him until today when he just popped up and hopped on the glass

There is NO WAY 12 LED lights produce the lumens of a 150W MH. Let's do some math.

LED's (XR-E) whites produce 102 lumens operating at 1A with a forward voltage of 3.7V. This is 3.7 watts. With LEDS's you get about 35 lumens per watt.

MH lights produce about 40 lumens per watt with a decent reflector. So a 150W MH will yield about 6000 lumens.

Your 12-up LED array is 12*3.7 watts for a grand total of 45 watts (rounded up) and your getting MAYBE 1200 lumens. I say maybe since you can't measure the blue wavelength in lumens like you can the white.

You need 5X more LEDs to make your claim. OR I need to be schooled on the PAR equivalent of LED versus MH lighting. I will do some research but I think you need to also. Can you provide a link to your equivalent claim?

http://www.mge.com/home/appliances/lighting/comparison.htm

Taking into account reflectors ... MH and HO T5 seem pretty good.
http://www.eternaleds.com/Are_LED_Bulbs_Br...Bulbs_a/222.htm

I was referring to PAR value as lumens is basically irrelevant to the coral equation. If you want more info, search the Lighting forum as I don't have the time, nor the inclination, to repost it all here

This thread is like an angst magnet for some reason.

Glad to see your tank is doing well! Those tonga nas snails are lazy pigs. Always hiding till it's dinner time.

So is adding a clam after the first month of the tank safe?......

Fletcher, a few questions re lighting: What current are you driving the LEDs at? How many white/royal blue do you have? And what drivers are you using?

Great tank man, you basically just proved most of the people here wrong. I received the same BS for adding things two weeks after starting my tank and am glad to see that another person as well as me has achieved success from a very minimal cycle. Keep goin man lovin the tank and dont let anyone put you down

I think we have all determined that the OP is determined to break all the conventional wisdom and rules.

Just watch the thread and see how it turns out.

At one time keeping any corals in ANY tank was outlandish and considered foolish.
Now people are keeping SPS in 12 or 3 gallon tanks.

My take on this is that using quality cured live rock from a local store allows you to essentially transfer rock from a cycled tank just like a tank move. Where this can go wrong is that you have no control and typically little information about how long it has been curing, if newer shipments have recently been added, etc.

Most of the additions have been relatively hardy and have been in the tank for less than a month. A few of the additions would do better in a more mature aquarium, so we'll just have to hope and wait to see if they will last.

Many of us (even more experience keepers) run into issues down the road. It is often dealing with these hurdles where experience and hardy livestock helps. Death of sensitive livestock during these times can sometimes even crash a nano system.

I'm writing this, not to slam the OP, but because it is posted in a beginners forum. I want other beginners to realize that the time line and stocking list are not ideal examples to follow. Even if the tank matures without the loss of livestock.

Quickly stocking a tank isn't really breaking new ground as there are numerous examples of similar time lines. There are always exceptions to the rule and I would guess that this tank will be fine (with a few losses here and there). It's a nice tank which looks good, and I wish the OP the best of luck.

Thanks Billdemart! And yes pictures to come for sure!

Fletcher, tank still looking great!

6 white
6 royal blue
2 x 1000mA buckpucks with adjustable pots (both running at ~ 50%)
2 x 24v 1.1A power supplies from Fry's



Yeah ... he took a lap around the tank and resubmerged under the sand

I love your tank, it is beautiful. How is your starfish? I’m a newbie, and I really want to get Fromia star in the near future. I’d like to find someone who has had some success with a starfish. I figure if your (Super Newbie ) star bit the dust, then I shouldn’t even attempt it. Love all the pics and I hope you get your free frags!

I chickened out with the starfish. He got a rubbery arm so I went to my LFS and they suggested that I bring him back. I saw him today when I went to get water for my weekly change. Everything else seems to be flourishing ... my lps corals are growing like crazy ... but the starfish didn't seem to adapt well and I didn't want to kill him. However, I had him before I got the new lights ... I don't know if that would have made a difference but everything else in my tank really likes the increased light. Interestingly, I have two little white hitchhiker stars (each about the size of the head of a pin) that must have snuck in on a rock that seem to be doing just fine.

Thanks for the info! I guess I’m going to pass on a star.
Doesn’t appear too many people have much luck with them, according to everything I just read on the forum. Sucks though…they are so cool! Thanks again!

"the first two days, my clowns (tank bred) wouldn't go anywhere near the anemone. So I printed out a picture from the internet of two clowns in an anemone and taped it to the tank ... within an hour both clown fish were in the anemone and brushing it like a couple of crack heads :-)"

lol! too funny!
Best of luck to you and your speedy-hopeful-success! Looks great!

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE

Everything in the tank is fine. However, I notice that their tends to be more gunk floating on the top of my water than on other tanks that I have observed. I also noticed that on tanks similar to mine, those with a rear chamber, the water in the rear chamber is lower than the water in the tank thus allowing the tank water to spill into the rear chamber filtering system.

In my tank, the tank water is at exactly the same level as the water in the rear chamber (see pic #1 below). My LFS said this was because there are two sets of holes, one in the middle of the rear chamber and one in the bottom, that are allowing the water levels to equalize (see pic #2 below). They suggested that I find a way to close the bottom two holes and that should, in turn, cause the water level in the rear chamber to drop. The resulting drop in water level should also allow my protein skimmer to work correctly.

My questions are:

1. Do you agree with the LFS assessment?

2. Do you have any suggestions regarding how I can safely fill in or cover those holes so that the water level in the rear chamber will drop?

3. Is there a way to make the water level in the rear chamber drop without filling in or covering the holes?

Thanks in advance



See holes below powerhead ... there is another set of holes down by the thermometer.

Hey there,
I have this http://www.jbjnanocubes.com/contents/en-us...ce-skimmer.html in my 12g jbj dx and it takes care of the gunk floating on your water.
Regarding the water levels in the back, after buying the surface skimmer I suggest you take some water out. I have my rear water level on par with the second divider (between the middle and the third or right chamber where the return pump comes up.) It's a good indication of topping off the tank due to evaporation.
I would take a pic of my tank right now but my ballast broke and order isn't coming in till the 11th of march. I have it in sunlight currently. Hope I semi-answered your question.

edit: you kinda need those holes because that's our only type of primitive sump. Here's a simple diagram of it
so sealing the bottom would be somewhat of a bad idea.

edit2: I just saw the holes they were talking about...yes might want to seal that up. mine doesn't have it.

If you have too much water in the front it will fill the back.

The only other reason in my experience with my 14 gallon bio-cube where the back filled is when I blocked the top intake with filter floss. You need to make sure everything is flowing correctly and nothing is slowing down the flow.

Remove the skimmer, and anything else you modified and see if the rear level drops. If it does, slowly put things back in to see what is causing it to rise.

If that doesn't work, your pump might be failing. Feel the output and see if it feels the same as when you put it in.

Clean the sponge and check the bottom flow to see if anything is blocking it (where the sponge is).

No, I wouldn't take the LFS advice on this. If all of the above fails try removing more water until the water level in the back goes down.

Nice build. Whar skimmer are you running ?

AquaEuroUSA Nano Protein Skimmer

DAY 41

Having a slight personality conflict. My blenny keeps nipping at my clam such that the clam barely opens now. I think that I may have to return him to the store for his own safety ... bummer. Other than that, my reef is happy ...

Blennies will do that. Introduce some nori on a clip to distract it. Crocea also prefer to attach to rock rather than sit in sand.

What type of anemone is that under the rock, btw? Sebae or Ritteri? Looks a little sickly.


--bubbles

Caught the blenny using the DIY water bottle trap ... he is back at the LFS now. Clam is open for the first time in three days and peace has returned to my reef

DAY 47

All is well, parameters are perfect. Coral is growing like crazy ... well, at least it seems like it is to me, but I have no experience. Anemone is still on the back of my arch which means I never get to see my clown fish. With the blenny back at the LFS, my coral and clam are much happier but the tank seems a little empty. Accordingly, I am going to get one more fish ... any suggestions? I want something friendly that won't attack my coral and clam, preferably small so it doesn't have too big of a bio load. Also, I have a little grass growing in the right corner ... do I need to worry about that?

I'm pretty sure that's a diatom bloom in the bottom right corner.

SaltyFlip was right on - the surface skimmer attachment will not only take care of the oil on the surface, it also adjusts the water hieght. Basically it will suction to the back wall and bring the water level in the display up while decresing the water level in the back chambers.

DAY 55

Not much new to report. Parameters are all right on the money. My pink xenias are growing like weeds ... you can actually see the increase in stock height on a daily basis. Anemone moved back to the front after I adjusted my powerhead flow this week ... which means I get to see my clown fish again.

Question: After reading the responses to my question re rear chamber water level (thanks), can someone recommend a surface skimmer that will work on an aquarium with a lid like I have?

Thanks

It should have came with one (mine did and we have the exact same tank). But here is the one JBJ makes for this tank.

JBJ Nano Cube Modular Surface Skimmer

DAY 57

I awoke this morning to find my beautiful fire shrimp semi-transparent and dead hanging off the live rock in my tank ... or did I? Just as my 5 year old daughter started to cry over the loss of her favorite tank inhabitant, out he runs from under the arch a bit skinnier and brighter but A-OK. He must have molted last night and we were grieving over his remaining husk pictured below

Congratulations on the non-death! Regarding your question about adding additional fish, have you considered the bicolor pseudochromis? Cheap, friendly, nano-safe, beautiful...what's not to like?

Roysoto: Are you sure you've thoroughly researched that fish? Pseudochromis in general are very aggressive fish, and the bicolor is not an exception. This kind of advice is even more problematic in the beginners forum...