Goonie0 Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 Hey everyone, I'm new to nano-reefing and have been lurking on the forums. I used to have a 20g hex FO tank back in high school, and have been itching to get back into the saltwater madness ever since =) Now that I've more or less settled here in the Bay Area (I live in Fremont, but work in the city), I decided to start up again. My fiance is already complaining that I'm spending too much time with the tank instead of her...! So I started my JBJ NC 12G DX on 8/21. I swapped out the stock pump for a Maxi-Jet 900, added a Hydor Flo rotating deflector, removed 2 of the stock sponges and bio balls and replaced with a Poly Filter, added an Oceanic Biocube Protein Skimmer, and added a Theo 25 watt Heater. I have ~17 lbs of live rock in tank (including rubble in 2nd chamber of sump) and ~17 lbs of live sand (Nature's Ocean Reef Sand and Reef Substrate). My current sump setup is the following (from top to bottom): Chamber 1 - Heater and protein skimmer Chamber 2 - Ceramic rings - Live rock rubble Chamber 3 - Poly Filter - Stock sponge (to prop up Poly Filter) - Maxi-Jet 900 As for livestock, so far my tank includes: Fish: 1 Green Chromis Inverts: 3 Blue Legged Hermits 2 Scarlet Hermits 5 Astrea Snails 1 Hitch hiker Rock Crab (that I'll be removing soon) that came with my ~17lbs of live rock 'Many' small starfish. Corals: 1 colony that hitch hiked on the live rock. I think it's a Pagoda Hat. So far, seems to be doing good! I'm a little past a month into my cycle, but my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels haven't yet reached zero. From 9/16 - 9/22 I was dosing a capful of SeaChem Stability each day to help seed bacteria. My most recent readings were: Ammonia: .25 Nitrite: .1 Nitrate: 0 SG: ~1.024 Temp: fluctuates between 82-84F pH: ~8.2 I'm hoping the cycle finishes soon! Here is a recent photo: You can see more pictures of my tank at http://gallery.me.com/antonyo#100117 Okay, that's probably enough for today. Looking forward to updating this thread with additional developments soon! -Tony Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted September 30, 2009 Author Share Posted September 30, 2009 When we purchased our live rock a month ago, we noticed that we also had a Rock Crab. Unfortunately, fellow Nano-Reefers told me that Rock Crabs are bad for reef aquariums, since they'll likely start eating corals. So I decided to catch and remove the crab. The crab is very shy; it rarely comes out of the rock, and when it does, if it senses any movement it will run for safety within the rock right away. So I decided to build a trap yesterday. I took a small soda bottle, cut out the middle portion, and inverted the top to create a funnel. Then I placed a tasty piece of shrimp in the bottom of the bottle. Well, this morning as I was about to leave for work, I saw the crab checking out the bottle, and warily grabbing at the sides. It worked it's way into the bottle a few times, but each time it backed out before dropping to the bottom. Finally the smell of the shrimp probably proved too irresistible, and it slowly lowered itself to the bottom of the funnel, but after quickly grabbing the piece of shrimp, discovered it could no longer get out =) Hopefully he'll still be in the trap after I get home! A rare moment when I was able to take a picture of the Rock Crab: Rock Crab... caught. *Update* A few more photos... "Red Lobster" the hitch hiker Rock Crab Made a little temporary home for him Link to comment
MGDMIRAGE Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 haha awesome trap! nice work! Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted October 2, 2009 Author Share Posted October 2, 2009 I'm at Day 42, have a full CUC in my tank along with 1 Green Chromis that are doing great, and yet up through today my ammonia level has not moved either up or down from ~.20, even after I added a Poly Filter, SeaChem SeaGel, and semi-regular dosings of SeaChem Stability, along with 3 waters changes (4g, 2g, 1g). Nitrites seem to stay around .05, and my Nitrates are around 0 or 2.5. I really think that my tank may already be cycled. I think the d@mn Red Sea test kits I'm using for Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates are giving me bad information. After becoming suspicious, I searched the posts and it looks like other reefers have had issues with Red Sea's Master Reef Test Kit. Anyway, just ordered the API test kits online and am returning the Red Sea ones for a refund. Going to take a cupful of water to my LFS and see whether they can run some tests for me. Man, I wish I would've known earlier! Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted October 3, 2009 Author Share Posted October 3, 2009 My suspicions were correct... took some water to my LFS and had them use an API test kit for Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates... and all were 0 =) Looks like my tank is ready for some additions! Walked away from the store (Aquarium Showroom in San Jose. Chris over there is a great help.) with a few items: 10 more Blue Leg Hermits (my original 5 were reduced to 1-2 due to infighting and Emerald and maybe Rock Crab eating them) 2 Nassarius Snails. These guys are very interesting, lots of fun to watch. Immediately know where food is. Rose Bubble Tip Anemone. I've always wanted a BTA =) Was impossible to remove it from the rock it attached to at the LFS, so they had to hack off pieces of the rock to make it fit my tank. It has since moved to one of my rocks in my tank. Close up of Rose Bubble Tip Anemone In tank Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 great trap. What a good start. You're on ya way. What else do you plan on getting in there. I will be looking to see what you do next Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted October 22, 2009 Author Share Posted October 22, 2009 *Update* I added quite a few corals to my tank courtesy of NCRC fragswap in Hayward back on 10/10. The new additions are: - Multicolored frogspawn - Blue/Green/Yellow Palythoa - Purple Mushroom - Pink Pocillopora SPS - People Eater Zoa - Green Star Polyp - Green Zoa - Orange Zoa - Red Zoa - Australian Acan Also got myself a Darwin Ocellaris, 2 black trochus snails, and added a Koralia Nano for additional water movement. Turned middle chamber into a chaeto fuge with 12 bulb LED on a reverse light cycle. Only problem now is that I'm experiencing somewhat of a red cyano outbreak. Updated pictures here: http://web.me.com/antonyo/Site/Tonys_Reef_Aquarium.html Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 what a great amount of new additions, made out pretty good. Your tank is looking evewn better since you have updated. That frogspawn is killer. Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 what a great amount of new additions, made out pretty good. Your tank is looking evewn better since you have updated. That frogspawn is killer. Thanks! Yeah, I'm loving the extra colors besides the original brown and green that I had in my tank. The frogspawn is awesome; I'm still surprised how much it extends during the day and retracts at night. The Acan is also a big eater! I've actually fed it bits and pieces of shrimp to each of the polyps, and they eat it right up. Luckily, my RBTA seems to be thriving, but I'm keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get too big. I've been feeding it about a 1/2" piece of Silverside each week, and despite having only the stock PC lighting (48 watts), so far it hasn't showed signs of bleaching. I just wish my Ocellaris would host it! Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 those acans sure do eat like a champ for sure, at least the ones i have does, lol. I feed my acans shrimp pellets with garlic and they love it. I started out with 2 heads on my rainbow acan ( that was about a month to 1 1/2 months ago) and a aweek ago i have 3 more heads with 2 more starting. Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 Happy to report that all of my corals from NCRC frag swap are doing really well. The frogspawn is expanding like crazy during the day, my zoas are producing new heads, the Green Star Polyps are fully extended and have anchored themselves to my the top of my live rock, and even my Rose BTA is opening up finely without any noticeable bleaching. I now have 3 fish, the latest addition being a ~1.25" Ocellaris Clown on 10/31 that seems to be happily paired with my .75" Black Darwin Ocellaris. And the great news is that as of yesterday, the big one is being hosted by my RBTA! I've been waiting for this day... and am super happy that it didn't take half a year like what others have experienced! Updated pictures to come... Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 It's been awhile since I've updated my tank thread here at NCRC. I've pretty much kept the tank as-is adding only some Kenya Trees, Pulsating Xenia, and a cleaner shrimp. The main reason was that I knew I'd be moving from our apartment in Fremont to a place more permanent so I didn't want to fill my tank and have a tough time moving everything later. Well, now that we've finally moved (to Alameda), I'm ready to add more corals to my tank! Overall the tank is doing very well. My GSP, Kenya Trees, Palythoas, and frogspawn have all grown like crazy, enough for me to contribute back into DBTC (and sell some not wanted on DBTC). The corals that seem to be keeping status quo are my Zoas and mushrooms. For some reason they haven't grown much, and my People Eater Zoas disappeared entirely. If anyone has any advice/clues, please do let me know. The above is the most recent picture of my tank after our move. I modified the aquascape a little, primarily to make sure the live rock doesn't touch the side walls and also to isolate as much as possible the fast growing corals (such as GSP and Palythoa). Thankfully the move was a success and I did not lose anything. A good amount of planning goes a long way! Here's also a video: http://vimeo.com/17430854 *** So less than 3 months after my move to Alameda, I found a great deal on a Solana tank on Craigslist and couldn't resist =) I moved everything from my existing Nanocube12g to the Solana about a week and a half ago. Here's the initial results of the new tank. Let me know what you think! -Tony Link to comment
gena Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Very nice tank and video. You really get a feel for a tank by watching a video! Does your anemone host the clowns? I'm so happy to see another NC 12 on here Edit: oops...I see you upgraded to a Solana. Well, that looks nice too Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 Very nice tank and video. You really get a feel for a tank by watching a video! Does your anemone host the clowns? I'm so happy to see another NC 12 on here Edit: oops...I see you upgraded to a Solana. Well, that looks nice too Thanks, Gena =) Yeah, I really enjoyed the NC 12 for the past year and a half, but thought I would upgrade to a slightly bigger tank after buying our new home and making the permanent move. I'm really liking the Solana and my 150w MH light... the shimmering effect is nice. Link to comment
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