MY HUSBAND GAVE ME CRABS! (12g jbj nc dx)

[Youngrvt]

Don't know that I can really post things that people would enjoy reading, but here goes.

HISTORY: I had a 10g and 55g saltwater tanks as a child. Pretty much just fish only tanks. Back then it seemed 10g saltwater tanks were unheard of, but ours worked great! Now skip some years (just a few). I had a 90 gallon tall tank that was a pita (pain in the ass). I wanted to do more with the tank but didn't because even cleaning the tank meant taking off my shirt and bra and then proceeding to drown. I sold the whole entire thing on craigslist for $400.00. It went fast! then a few days later I missed the pita tank and went out to get a more managable tank. I purchased the 12 gallon JBJ nano cube dx. I have been in love ever since. I am hooked on looking at it, messing with it, and reading about saltwater stuff.
My 12g jbj nc started at the end of november 2012.

SPECS:

Tank: 12g JBJ Nano-Cube DX with stand. Stand $101.69, Tank $168.88

Lighting: Ecoxotic Panorama Pros 1 12k/Actinic, 1 Actinic/Magenta ~$250.00 (2) 60x60mm cooling fans. Debating on adding one more Ecoxotic light but not sure of the color I want yet?

Filtration:Chamber 1: Filter floss in bottom with sponge in top. Chamber 2: Ceramic rings in bottom, Chemi-Pure Elite in middle $12.66, and bio balls in top. Chamber 3 the stock pump. Want to add chaeto and jbj nano glo light.

Water movement: Stock pump in the third chamber is 166gph Submersible with directional flow nozzle and Hydro Koralia Nano 240gph. Want to upgrade the submersible pump to possibly the Maxi-Jet 900. with a hydro-flo nozzle.

Heater: 50watt Marina ~$16.00

 

Frag rack- holds 3 frags $6.00

Controller:don't have this now, but wouldn't mind having the Reefkeeper lite. Not sure why I really need it though.

Live rock and Sand: I have it, bought the live stuff. Sand $21.59. Rocks 6.06 lbs at $6.00 per lb. Also got rocks when purchasing corals.

CHEMICALS AND TESTS:

Saltwater: Kent reef salt $17.99

Saltwater test: saltwater test master $34.19. Hydrometer $12.14. Floating thermometer $2.15. Stability $5.99. Calcium test API $11.99.

Fish food/ ect.: Fish flakes Omega one marine flakes $4.99, Fish net $1.99. Marine Snow- $21.97. New life Spectrum small fish formula $16.00 4.95oz.

LIVESTOCK:

Fish:
1 Misbar Ocellaris Clownfish $23.00
1 Black Ice Ocellaris Clownfish $60.00

1 Spotted Mandarin Dragonet $28.76 little sick fish.

Invertebrates / Clean-up crew:
2 Blue leg hermit crabs $1.79 that my husband gave me. lol
Many Micro Brittle Starfish- free
Many Asternia Starfish- free
Many bristle worms- free
6 Nassarius snails
1 Turbo snail
2 Stomatella snails-free
1 Rock Anemone
many brown flat worms- free and hope to be rid of these guys soon!!!

CORAL:

Soft:
Kenya tree with kenya tree babies
Cabbage leather coral brown
Colt
Anthelia ($50.00 total for Kenya, cabbage, colt, Anthelia, and rock anemone).
1 Green Mushroom
1 Red Mushroom
Radioactive Dragoneye zoa ~ $10.00
Eagle eyes zoa $10.00
Green Star Polyps $10.00
Micro Blue Clove Polyps $10.00
Frogspawn - trade

Maintenance:
Weekly water changes of about 2 gallons.
Feed fish once daily Omega one Marine flakes, and new life spectrum small fish.
Feed coral every other day Marine snow half a cap full with back pump off for 1 hr. and Koralia still on.
don't top off very often.
Clean glass daily or every other day.

now for some Pics

90Gallon RIP


new 12g JBJ nano cube dx







2 little mushrooms








Anthelia

Micro brittle star fish, one of many.

The manjo Anemone is gone now thanks to the lemon juice injections!

[buddythelion]

Lol at the title!

 

Looks like things are going great. You should open a photobucket account so that you can just paste image links for us to see vs having us open the attachments.

[Scorched]

Great start.

 

Personally... I wouldnt keep track of every little reef purchase. While it is good to know, it also will show the huge amount of money spent, and I would just rather not know and enjoy it.

 

If I told my wife I spent $50 here, $80 there, $130 for this new piece of equipment I would be sleeping on the couch.

[rkum19]

Me too I hate getting crabs!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . Ohh wait are you referring to your reef tank. LOL!!!!

[Youngrvt]

 

Pics today 1-11-13.

[slickwill613]

Wow, so my new goal is to get my old lady to do my tank maintenance topless. Might have to get her drunk first.

 

Me too I hate getting crabs!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . Ohh wait are you referring to your reef tank. LOL!!!!

Just paint yourself with clear nail polish and it'll kill those crabs.... Just take my word for it.

[Youngrvt]

Lol at the title!

 

Looks like things are going great. You should open a photobucket account so that you can just paste image links for us to see vs having us open the attachments.

 

Just opened one, Thanks

[Lodie]

Whoo-wheee! Those are some big corals! I wish I could find some locally that are bigger than a frag plug. Looking good!

[gena]

Looks fantastic!!!! It's really taken on a great shape...artistic!

 

Sorry about the crabs

[Youngrvt]

Whoo-wheee! Those are some big corals! I wish I could find some locally that are bigger than a frag plug. Looking good!

 

Thanks! I got the larger ones from a local guy who has the best huge tank I have ever seen. He gave me a great price too. I think the key is to find local people and trade or purchase from them.

[scribbles]

New tank looks amazing, missing top when working on the old tank is epic.

[Youngrvt]

Possibly going to trade my new frags that I made for a frog spawn tomorrow. I know it has sweeper tentacles. Question is Here do I place it in my tank?? Perhaps it will be good to help control the growth of the Anthelia or something?

[Youngrvt]

Got my frogspawn coral today! Thanks Dyami Will post pics soon. I also went to the local fish store Fish n stuff. I purchased the Chemi-pure elite and took out my carbon. I also purchased a Ca2+ test kit. I tested the calcium and got 520mg/l. I think that is high but i did a mini water(1/2g) change today. not sure if it will cause problems or not. Perhaps it is good?

[eitallent]

The large corals look really great and elegant. I am impatiently waiting for mine to grow.

[Youngrvt]

The large corals look really great and elegant. I am impatiently waiting for mine to grow.

Thanks! I'm impatient also, I have started the habit.

[Sea_Of_Treachery]

looking good, i feel like theres too much "brown" the frogspawn should break things up a bit. Youll be fragging soon

[Youngrvt]

looking good, i feel like theres too much "brown" the frogspawn should break things up a bit. Youll be fragging soon

I started with two frags the other day. One of my colt and one of my Kenya tree. The kenya tree is easy peas to frag. I agree definitely need more color. Love the looks of the frogspawn, just not sure about it because it is so close to the other corals.

 

New tank looks amazing, missing top when working on the old tank is epic.

Thanks

 

Looks fantastic!!!! It's really taken on a great shape...artistic!

 

Sorry about the crabs

It is getting better ever day, new things growing.

[Sea_Of_Treachery]

I started with two frags the other day. One of my colt and one of my Kenya tree. The kenya tree is easy peas to frag. I agree definitely need more color. Love the looks of the frogspawn, just not sure about it because it is so close to the other corals.

 

Thanks

 

It is getting better ever day, new things growing.

 

just watch and see how everything reacts, you might have to move some corals around. those leathers are massive lol. Frogspawns are definitely one of my favorites.

[Youngrvt]

Lights out. Looking at my tank. so many bugs, yuck! pulled a pretty long bristle worm out probably 2 inches and a thick sucker. But on a worse note I believe I have a pod that may be eating my zoa. I'm not completely sure yet, but this sucker is huge and comes out straight to the zoa every night. Definitely a pod too, not a nunibranch. He is the size of of those huge black ants, not the small ones. Crazy what is in this aquarium. It makes me a bit leery to stick my hands in the tank. If anyone knows what will eat these pods let me know, I'm over run with them.

[Sub]

Do you still take your bra off to clean the tank?! Pics or it didn't happen. That paints quite a nice visual picture, lol! Anyway, wow that tank does look hard to clean.

 

The new tank looks nice, I bet its quite flowy in there.. I agree you should cut back a bit and frag them up and trade or sell them for new corals with some color and more balance. Anyway, looks good as it is.

[Youngrvt]

Ecoxotic Panarama Pro modification to my JBJ nano cube 12gallon. My husband did a wonderful job! Here is my how to guide. Since it was difficult to find one that explained it, we just figured it out on our own. Overall it was pretty easy.

What is needed: 1 1/2 hours time, screw driver, drill, scissors/ utility knife, small drill bit (smaller than screws used to mount it), 12 volt AC to DC adapter, soldering iron if wanted, electrical tape, and of course the new lights you want put in. In my case the Panarama pro 1- 12k/Actinic, 1 - Actinic/magenta, one power supply, 3 way splitter, and 2 dimmers.

First remove the lid, and start taking out all the screws.


Remove the light bulbs, take out more screws, remove metal sheet thing. All you have left is shown below.
Then remove the circuit board by unpluging everything.

Next were the wires that come into the hood there is 2 plastic grommets used to hold the wires into place. Use your scissors / utility knife to cut the top tap on each of the wire grommets. Shown below.

This takes a bit of work, be careful not to break your hood.

Using a pink screw driver might help.


Once those are off, then you can cut some wires and pull it out. see below:


The only wires you should leave is the black and red ones on the fans, also leave the switch on top the hood. It will be the switch for your fans and not night lights now. The night lights had to go for the way we changed the hood, but may add them back some time later.



To pull the wires out the holes you will have to cut the wires to the cf lights. Since the cf sockets are larger than the hole the wire holes go through. The two wires that go through the holes are also connected together and will have to be cut to remove them as well.

You are then left with what is pictured above.
Use your 12V AC to DC converter. The only one we could find was variable voltage. We just set it on 12 volts.

Here is a better pic.

Here is how it gets hooked up.

Cut the plugs off the end of the fan wires, and cut the end off the power adapter also, strip some insulation off leaving all the ends exposed. Place the power adapter wires through the hood holes and tie a not in the wire so it can't be pulled out. You can also use the rubber grommet to help hold the wire.
Then twist the two black wires from the fan together, then twist that with the negative wire from the adapter.
Next twist the 2 red fan wires together and attach them to one side of the switch. The positive side of the adapter then should be attached to the other side of the switch. You could just tape these with electrical tape or liquid electrical tape. My husband used solder then electrical tape. Solder is also optional.
Here is a pic of that finished.

Don't forget to plug it in and make sure it works.
Now that that is done, take your metal sheet thing and mark your holes with a marker where you will need screws placed. Then take a drill and place a hole in it that is slightly smaller than the screws that came with your ecoxotic lights.

After the holes are made wait to screw in the lights, unlike what we did. Because you have to screw in the metal sheet to the hood before screwing lights to the metal sheet. You won't be able to get to the holes in the metal sheet if you have the lights attached first. When screwing on the lights we used the rubber spacer between the light and metal sheet for air movement. Seen below. There is a gap in the metal sheet on the left hand side that lends it self to the wires going through it very nicely. The old wires also went through this gap.



Next take both dimmers and run them through the back of the hood and connect them to the lights. Also using the other rubber grommet in the hole. Attach the dimmers to the three way splitter then to the power supply. Plug in and see the light. Or should I say see spots. Since it is so bright. almost done.





You can put the clear plastic cover back on minding the rubber gasket, using the screws.

Attach your hood back on the aquarium then plug in and enjoy.




I was messing with the lights, dimming and changing the color ratio, playing around, not sure what pics are what. The coral is still ticked off from having the lights off for 1 1/2 hours.




All white I think


All blue/magenta

My camera doesn't do it justice, the clownfish even glow if I want them too.




Any Questions, might be able to help. I love the new lights.

[Youngrvt]

Do you still take your bra off to clean the tank?! Pics or it didn't happen. That paints quite a nice visual picture, lol! Anyway, wow that tank does look hard to clean.

 

The new tank looks nice, I bet its quite flowy in there.. I agree you should cut back a bit and frag them up and trade or sell them for new corals with some color and more balance. Anyway, looks good as it is.

 

Sorry no pics. Not that my husband didn't want to take them, no way I was going to let him.

 

Definitely am going to change things up a bit. My kenya tree seemed to be away from the back of the tank, causing a shadow. It made my rock anemone stretch out to get light. I went to change one thing. Then, well then a lot of cursing! My rocks fell over and couldn't get them how they were. About 2 hours of making the coral unhappy, and I'm still not thrilled with the results. I even resulted in taking a hammer to 2 of the rocks. Ehh. O well. My dear husband said it will look good again. I hope so.

[Youngrvt]

My attempt to redo my rock (aquascape) since the one rock fell. :/

 

 

 

 

I think a few are still ticked off but for the most part doing okay. When I was at Walmart today I picked up a heater for just 15 dollars. It is just one that isn't even adjustable, but it will work great for mixing saltwater. Since at this time I mix it at room temp, figured it might be better to mix at the correct temp and put in aquarium at correct temp.

[MeepNand]

Those led strips are known to have heat problems inside hoods. Make sure you run a fan or two in there.

[Youngrvt]

Those led strips are known to have heat problems inside hoods. Make sure you run a fan or two in there.

Thanks! I have the stock fans still going. Hope that will be enough.