Quackenbush's craigslist Nano Cube 24

[quackenbush]

After a 15+ year hiatus from the hobby, I purchased a Nano Cube 24 off craigslist two weeks ago. The unit is mostly stock with an NanoCube 28 Pro LED retrofit. The owner also replaced the stock pump, but I'm not yet sure what the replacement is.

 

The tank is loaded with soft corals and a few LPS in questionable health.

 

Fish:

barnacle blenny - kids named him "Hidey"

blue stripe pipefish - "Stick"

watchman goby - "Goby"

scooter blenny (?) - "Fasty" (The previous owner told me this was an algae blenny, but it's certainly not. LFS thought he might be a scooter blenny, but he does not have a sail fin like I see in pictures. He eats mysis shrimp and bullies Goby and Hidey. If I can trap him in the net, he's gonna go.

 

 

Inverts:

Pistol shrimp (?). I swore I saw his antennae when feeding at the previous owners' place, but I have not seen a sign of him since the move.

several Astrea snails

a few scarlet hermits

two small hairy crabs with green eyes have emerged over time and sit on the least health of the LPS

baby britle stars

baby starfish on the glass (?)

 

Soft corals

several species of polyps

purple-green mushrooms

green hairy mushrooms

xenia

 

LPS:

3 flowerpots

1 red in decent health

1 green that's doing real well

1 green that's not doing very well

hammer coral that struggling

candycane

red-orange brain like coral - small and struggling

 

 

So during the move a ton of detritus got stirred up. Nasty. The previous owner was doing 20% (5 gallon) water changes every two weeks and that was it. Feeding fish every other day. I did a 10 gallon water change with the move. And I removed several bio-balls, two bags of ceramic rings, one carbon bag and the sponge from the second chamber. So far so good.

 

Front of tank:

 

Right side of tank:

 

Left side of tank:

 

Mystery fish (scooter blenny?)

[quackenbush]

Week 1:

Purchased a Tunze 9001 skimmer and placed it in chamber 2. Fits like a glove.

 

Went to the LFS to have my water tested. 5 on Nitrates and 3 on Phosphates. Not bad. Calcium and salinity a little low. (1.022 which is where the previous owner had it at).

 

Traded in a frag of green hair mushrooms as well as 1 large hermit and 3 large astreas. $15 credit. I’ll take it. The inverts were covered with coraline algae and beautiful, but they were simply too big for the tank. Like little bull-dozers.

 

I purchased 10 red-leg "Baha" hermits, 10 “Baha” Cerith snails, 3 small Nass snails, 3 Nerite snails, and an emerald crab. I have not seen the emerald crab since he hit the tank. Then hermits are busy cleaning up detritus and hair algae and doing wonderful. I occasionally see a Nass emerge from the sand at feeding time. I wonder about the Cerith snails as I don’t see them so much at all.

 

I did another water change and was vacuuming the sump when I found an inch and half of detritus build up in the bottom of chamber 2 with some bio-balls mixed in. Eww. Vacuumed all that out. Pulled the 2 big sponges out of chamber 1. Washed one and cut it in half and put it back in. Scraped coralline algae off the glass. Pulled a few smaller pieces of live rock out of the tank. I’m trying to thin things out. It’s crowded. I also added about 3 lbs of sand to the bottom (there’s already about 1-2 inches in the bottom of the tank. The watchman goby likes to reorganize the sand to his liking.

[quackenbush]

Week 2: Had my water tested at LFS. Salinity is up to 1.024. Probably due to water change last week and some evaporation. Calcium is up as well. Nitrates are down to 2.

 

I traded in 3 big frags of polyps to the LFS. $50 store credit. Just trying to thin out the tank. There are a ton of mushrooms and polyps on the back wall that I want to prune once the LPS are stabilized.

 

Tunze 9001 skimmer is working well. Tea like liquid in the skimmer cup.

 

The hairy little crabs have been hanging out on my hammer and brain coral. I was gone over the weekend and my hammer, which was already in poor health, is now a goner. I pulled it. I pulled one of the hairy crabs and flushed him. The other is now hanging out on my candy cane which is also in marginal health. I am going to try and pull the 2nd crab later today.

 

Started feeding my flowerpots with cyclops. Hope they hang in there. One green looks great, the red is OK, and the 2nd green is barely hanging in there.

 

Oh. Lighting. The NanoCube 28 LED pro hood retrofit has five strips of 5*3W LEDs, but three strips have a burnt out bulb and are useless. JBJ sells replacement strips for $65 each but recommends replacing the whole hood for $300+ if the hood is more than 4 years old. This is hardly 50,000 hours worth of lighting. Dave’s Nanobox and Rapid LED both sell retrofits, but I’m not ready to make this plunge. I’m running the Dawn/Dusk lights along with the remaining two strips of 5*3W bulbs. I think that’s enough for the time being, but it’s one of those buyer beware things with craigslist.

[reefernanoman]

Week 2: Had my water tested at LFS. Salinity is up to 1.024. Probably due to water change last week and some evaporation. Calcium is up as well. Nitrates are down to 2.

 

I traded in 3 big frags of polyps to the LFS. $50 store credit. Just trying to thin out the tank. There are a ton of mushrooms and polyps on the back wall that I want to prune once the LPS are stabilized.

 

Tunze 9001 skimmer is working well. Tea like liquid in the skimmer cup.

 

The hairy little crabs have been hanging out on my hammer and brain coral. I was gone over the weekend and my hammer, which was already in poor health, is now a goner. I pulled it. I pulled one of the hairy crabs and flushed him. The other is now hanging out on my candy cane which is also in marginal health. I am going to try and pull the 2nd crab later today.

 

Started feeding my flowerpots with cyclops. Hope they hang in there. One green looks great, the red is OK, and the 2nd green is barely hanging in there.

 

Oh. Lighting. The NanoCube 28 LED pro hood retrofit has five strips of 5*3W LEDs, but three strips have a burnt out bulb and are useless. JBJ sells replacement strips for $65 each but recommends replacing the whole hood for $300+ if the hood is more than 4 years old. This is hardly 50,000 hours worth of lighting. Dave’s Nanobox and Rapid LED both sell retrofits, but I’m not ready to make this plunge. I’m running the Dawn/Dusk lights along with the remaining two strips of 5*3W bulbs. I think that’s enough for the time being, but it’s one of those buyer beware things with craigslist.

Nice softie tank.

[quackenbush]

Nice softie tank.

 

 

Thanks!

[quackenbush]

Week 3:

 

The second hairy crab was hanging out on my candy cane so I pulled him.

 

After 2 weeks of not seeing the emerald crab since I brought him home, I finally had a sighting. The next morning he was upside down dead in the middle of the tank.

 

Did a 5% water change and found 2 hermits in my sump (chamber 3) along with several empty shells. I can't imagine how long they were in there. The shells were covered in bleached white coraline algae.

 

One green gonipora is flourishing. The red has taken a step back due to over-handling. There is a second green goni that has never been healthy that is starting to look better but has some dead spots that I might try to delicately scrub clean.

[quackenbush]

Week 4:

• Ordered some low noise fans off ebay to discover they are 12v instead of 24v once I got the hood apart. Seller will refund. Pulled the LED lights out and moved one of the two remaining CW light strips to a more spread location. Crap. The second light strip went out a couple hours after I moved it.
• Added extra live rock rubble to chamber 3. Not sure this is going to be worth it, but why not.
• The Candycane is doing real well as is the center green gonipora. I think I'm going to lose the green right gonipora. Still pulling for the red one.

 

Week 5:

• Received Salifert All-in-One additive, filterfloss, and Salifert Nitrate test kit from marine depot.
• Nitrates at 5ppm
• Pulled a polyp covered rock out and pruned the purplish-green mushrooms.
• 4 gallon water change
• Installed Hydor FLO rotating water deflector. I like it a lot. I'm going to consider more flow from the pump. Sicce Syncra Silent 1.0 possibly
• I'm going to break this tank down and prune most of the purplish-green mushrooms, clean the sand, and rescape. I'm thinking eggcrate bottom and 3 inches of sand. Sell or give away the candycane and the 3 gonipora. See if I can find the supposed pistol shrimp living in there. Pull the mystery fish (possibly a scooter blenny) - the tank bully. I want to make this tank mine.
• I want to add a refugium in chamber one after the filter floss. Pull the live rock rubble out of chamber 3. Continue to run skimmer in chamber 2.
• Top of my wishlist - AI Prime lighting.

 

[quackenbush]

Week 6: Last Thursday I broke the tank down and did a mass renovation. I sold the 3 gonipora and the candy cane to the LFS and brought home 15 gallons of water. Put all the live rock and live stock into a storage bin with a heater. I then scraped a lot of mushrooms off the back wall and scraped coraline algae off of the sides. Then I began siphoning up the sand to flush it out with the water change. Filthy. Full of detritus. I stuck my hand in at one point and pulled out a huge bristle worm. I promptly threw it back in. Ewww.

 

After several rinses of the sand, I put 2 sheets of egg crate light diffuser on the bottom and began re-scaping. I pulled the big bristle work and the mystery fish out of the tank. Everything else went back in. Well, except for the mushrooms. I pruned every single one I found. I know they will grow back. Only loss was a snail or two. And I found out for sure that there really was a shrimp in the tank!

 

Two days later, on saturday, I bought seven lbs of sand from the LFS. Plus a new heater. The old heater power cord is getting pinched by the hood and has some exposed wires. I added about 5 lbs of sand to the tank.

 

With the mystery fish gone, Goby shows himself much more and is now eating twice a day. Hidey, the barnacle blenny, never found his old hiding place and just sits on the bottom.

 

Week 7: Bought a Ocellaris Clown pair and a Royal Gramma from the LFS. So far we've named the Royal G "Prince George" and the clown pair are Harry and Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. Harry and Lloyd swim around like they are looking for a way out. George hangs out in the shaded spot and has several hiding places. He's pretty shy so far. Everyone's eating well.