RULES OF THE AQUARIUM
No Frying
No Grilling
No Poaching

The office joke is "when're we havin’ shrimp on the barbie’?"

Still playing with the camera settings to get pics to look true-to-life
Pics come out a lot darker than real life viewing

Chaeto has doubled in size in just a couple of weeks
(grown from that tiny piece of Chaeto in a previous post)
Getting good growth in the fuge now that the Chaeto can’t escape into the pump chamber
The piece of sponge keeps the Chaeto from getting into the pump chamber
and the eggcrate keeps the Chaeto up close to the light

Tinypic.com has dropped all of my pics.
They must have confused nano-reef pics with porno pics,
so I’m going to need to re-post all of my pictures.
Wait, did I accidentally post my porno on this site ???
I just don’t remember what happened after the chugging that 13th MGD

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...73&goto=newpost

Post them in the NR gallery, or directly to the thread. we promise not to delete them.

Well, in all fairness to tinypic, you did have some interesting reflections going on in some of those pics...

I cant see any of your photos

WHAT - NOT AGAIN

No the pics are there
Have you installed your updates from Microsoft yet this year?

Seriously, tinypic.com dropped all of my pics
and I’ve been slowly re-posting them



jmt's Random TinyPic of the Day!
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...73&goto=newpost

Woooooo hoooooo! For some reason i never seen them like a few minites ago and now i can see them! Dont no why i could not see them before.

Cause before all it came up with was RED X's.

BTW very nice tank!!! LOVE the shrooms!

rick,
great tank

question. i was thinking of putting on a second pump also. you have yours pretty low. wont it get blocked by your aquascaping? what is yoru reasoning for placing it there and not higher up so it wont get blocked.

thanks in advance, keep up great work. i love the led as a fuge light.

Where'd you get your live rock?

embryoguy
I placed the second pump outlet at that location so I could hide it with my rock. I've also found it helps to keep the rock cleaner. I always see a little cloud of dust blow off the rock when the second pump starts up.
Thanks for the kudos on the LED fuge light, it's working great.

FishFreak
I bought my live rock at Aquatic Warehouse in S.D. It's mostly Fiji & Tonga rock. I like to get a small new piece of live rock once in a while just to keep adding to the micro life.

thanks rick!

that makes alot of sense. ill do the same thing thanks.

Lights just came on a few minutes ago, so the corals aren’t fully expanded yet,
that way you can still see most of the live rock.
Growth rate is very good on the soft corals;
Xenia is growing up the side of the tank for the most part, so it’s not over growing rocks.
Mushrooms are out of control, with lots of singles drifting behind the rock work.
SPS corals have good growth.
Hammer & Frogspawn are not showing much growth, but very healthy with good color.




Surface skimmer really keeps the water surface clear

nice work Rick - that's what I'm talking about!

Thanks MadTownMax
How’s that clam of yours doing?

It’s going to be time to remove some xenia soon



The “back side” of xenia

i love your tank...especcialy the skunk clown...and the Xenia is awsome....dont let it take over to much though....i want to set up a new tank now...lol

Nice Rick J G.

Thanks Fishfreak218
I’ve had the skunk clown for over three years now & he’s a big food beggar, but has never used any of my corals for hosting.
With the xenia growing on the back & glass of the tank it’s easy to remove the excess growth with a razor blade.


Thanks Travis
I hope you & yours have not suffered too much from the Katrina disaster.

Rick

Rick, we are all safe. We are on the West side of Louisiana. Infact, we didn't even get a drop of rain from that storm.

you said you have had him for 3 years and he still is small enough to fit in a 6g. i think i just might get one for a new tank which i am planning..the Current Aquapod (12g., nanocube look-a-like)if you want to see its on nanotuners.com

A lot of small fish get larger in our aquariums than they do in the wild.
The trick is just not over feeding.
I feed my clown three or four pieces of food twice a day, Monday thru Friday,
(and I do mean pieces, not pinches)
and no food on weekends & holidays (it’s an office nano).
By the way, I use mini-size slow sinking pellets, never flake food.
Not over feeding cuts down on excess algae growth too.

If Chris is selling the Current Aquapod, it must be a good tank setup.
A 12-gallon tank should be large enough for a pair of clowns.

Rick

Very nice Rick J G! I love to xenia on the wall. I wanted to try something similar, but I only have the pink pulsing xenia which isn't as nice as the white pom pom variety you have.

never seen xenia on the side like that. Its awesome. I wanted some but just didnt know where to place it so it would look good. How did you attach it? and train it like ivy on that side of the tank. does it just sprout and spread all over that wall???

Levon15
It’s very easy to get xenia to attach to almost anything. Just put the xenia next to the edge of the tank or rock where you want the xenia to grow onto (The closer, the better & touching is the best). After that you just sit back & wait for the xenia to grow. If your xenia is happy they grow like weeds. Keep the alkalinity up and they should do fine. If they are not pumping start doing water changes and test your water. Xenias are the canaries of reef tanks, if they are not happy something is out of whack with your water chemistry.


This picture shows my nc6 when it was setup on 6/5/05 and you can see the xenia frag in the bottom left corner. If you compare the xenia to the picture I posted on 9/11/05 you will get an idea just how fast it grows

Rick

Rick you are amazing. That growth on Xenia is sock!

I am specially impressed because I CANNOT KEPP XENIAS ALIVE!!!!

Great tank!

oogie

I know how you feel, I can't get zoas to live in my tanks.
They just slowly waste away, because I don't feed my corals.

Rick

lol

sigh.. I love xenia

UPDATE 10/29/05



Powder blue Sarcophytum (Toadstool)



Red Monti Cap & Neon Green Hammer



Frogspawn, Clear w/ blue & green tips



Frogspawn, Green w/ pink tips



Turbinaria



Thin Branch Staghorn, Brown w/ white tips

Beautiful spread of corals. I do love Xenia but it grew so much in my big tank that that it became a pest so I removed it all.

What types of (and how many) clean up crew do you have in there now? The rocks look so neat and tidy.

Best regards

Ann

Oh my... that is crazy (the mushrooms) look like the same ones I have, just I have about 1/3 of that...

What do you dose (anything?) did you frag them?

I try to keep the xenia limited to the sides & back of the tank so I can remove easily.
It’s really hard to get them off of the rock work with out taking the rock completely out of the tank.
My cleanup crew is down to two blue leg hermit crabs & two astrea snails.
(hermits are down from eight, because the banded coral shrimp likes to snack on hermits)

I don’t dose with anything on this tank, just a gallon or so water change every couple of weeks.
The srooms frag themselves and float around to the right side of the tank, were the water flow is the lowest.

Hey how does the clip that holds the bulb lights mounted down?
Why do you have a sponge in you sump? aren't they bad?

Recap of Nano-Cube 6 info
Setup 6/05 as office display tank

Lighting:
2.27, (1) 50/50 ACT/10K, (1) 50/50 blue/10K + 1.18 (1) 50/50 blue/10K = 72 watts
10 hour daylight cycle

Coral List:
Thin branch Staghorn, Brown w/ white tip
Red Monti Cap
Yellow rim Turbinaria
Frogspawn, green w/ pink tips (Euphyllia)
Frogspawn, clear w/ blue & green tips (Euphyllia)
Neon green tip Hammer (Euphyllia)
Blue polyp Sarcophytum
White pulsing Xenia
Red Mushrooms
Green star polyps

Livestock List:
(1) Skunk Clown
(1) Banded Coral Shrimp
(2) Blue leg hermit crabs
(2) Astrea snails

Live rock:
Fuji rock & Tonga rock

Back Chamber Setup:
Chamber 1 – 50 watt heater (set @ 80), live rock rubble
Chamber 2 – Chaeto fuge w/ + 48LED fuge Lighting, runs on night cycle
Chamber 3 – (2) Rio 90 pumps, small mesh bag with (1) tablespoon of Seachem PhosGuard & (4) tablespoons of virgin activated carbon (changed weekly)

Saltwater:
Natural seawater from Scripps Pier in La Jolla, CA. (sand filtered water supply to Steven Birch Aquarium)
Approx one gallon changed out every week or two.
RO freshwater for evaporation makeup water (one gallon used in 6 month)
No additives used.
Water temps are 80 at night & max out at about 82 during the daylight hours.
Test kits: None used

Notes:
I have been very happy with my mods on the NC6. Most of the mods I have made can be replicated by other nano-reefers on their Nano-Cube tanks if they so desire. The mix of hard & soft corals has worked well and provides a lot of diversity.
I have no major problems to report (like broken glass). The only problems have been a couple of small spots of turf algae that popped up on my live rock and were removed with a razor blade, but have been very slow to grow back. The tank also has a small-scale flatworm infestation, but I just siphon them out at water changes (I like to think of it as nutrient export), because I don’t want to dose the tank.

I have used B-Ionic in my other tanks, but I decided not to dose this tank. I am purposely running a low calcium setup to slow the growth of coralline algae on the back plastic. I like the look of the black background better than a coralline covered background. I also want to slow the growth of the hard corals in my tank. I know it goes against conventional reef tank maintenance principles to run a low calcium setup, but nano-reefs don’t need the fast growth of large reef tanks. My hard corals are all very healthy and growing, but at a slower rate than they would if I dosed with calcium. The xenia & mushrooms are still growing at very fast rate and are removed as needed to keep them from adversely affecting other corals (this is also another great nutrient export).

On a final note, I would like to add my vote for Oogie to win the Open contest. He had the best mods & corals going, but unfortunately he fell prey to the Nano-Cube thin glass syndrome. The prize would help makeup for his losses.

Sincerely,
Rick J G

i like the beer in backround

Product placement at it’s finest.
To bad I don’t get one single from MGD for all the free advertising

One Final Pic 12-10-05

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Man I really like your tank. Got any recent pics of it?



So what you gonna do with your prize?

Nice...

Thanks for the great responses to my NC6.

It’s still up & running and I expect it to be for quite a while.
I made a couple of minor changes, like trading the red shroom rock for a rock with rics & zoos. The red shrooms were spreading everywhere and got completely out of control, just too much of a good thing. I also got rid of the frogspawn on the right side, it went crazy with sweepers from the shrooms growing too close and stung & killed one of the staghorn heads. The remaining staghorns are doing great with good growth. They are very fragile, though and I broke off one of the heads while cleaning the tank a couple of weeks ago and had to epoxy it back onto the rock. The Toadstool was growing to large for the tank, so I chopped it up into four different pieces (talk about an evil smell). I’ve flushed lots of Xenia and still have lots left.

Most of the LEDs fried on my fuge light and I have not bothered to replace them. I made a new behind the tank fuge light, but I just don’t have the space for it the way the tank is setup right now, so I’ve removed the remaining Chaeto until I resolve the fuge light situation.

I’ve been experimenting with feeding the corals with frozen food the last couple of months, but it seems to causing algae growth on the glass, but that could also be the result of removing the Cheato.

Here is a couple of recent pics of my NC6, 4/12/06


Front View


Left Side View (this is the view that most people see first)

Rick

Very nice.

ya.. the tank looks awesome.. i love the Frogspawn and the Clownfish AND the Xenia

which part of glass does algaes grow on?

How are you powering the 12v LEDs?

Thanks!

Eric

Pretty much all of the glass seems to be getting a little algae, but more so on the hard to reach & clean areas like the curved glass and up by the water surface.
Now that I think about it, the bulbs are ten months old (how time flies) and are at replacement age,
that could be causing the problem.


I think I’m using a DC 9.5 volt 300mA AC adaptor for the LEDs. I was trying to run them slightly under powered for longer life, but it didn’t work. I emailed Besthongkong.com, the LED supplier, and they assured me that the new LED modules like the one I used have a built-in regulator, but didn’t offer a replacement. I had any early model from when they were first released.
http://www.besthongkong.com/index.php?cPath=9_20

Congratz rick, you really deserve this