Nano-Cube DX12

[Michaelor]

All,

 

I have been lurking on this website and in the forums for well over a year afraid to take the plunge into a reef tank. Let me first off thank all of the regulars that help everyone on the board because this community has given me the confidence to take on what I have started.

 

At a block party, I was speaking to a neighbor telling him that I wanted to get a small reef tank for my home office and it turns out that he had a NC DX12 and also lurks on Nano-Reef.com. I never knew that he had one and he has not spent as much time with it as he thought and was ready to part ways with. Long story short he offered it to me for FREE and I got all of his equipment! (I live in a great neighborhood).

 

I have taken the tank (the transfer to my home office went off without any problems) and I would like to get some advice on how to get this tank back on its feet as it has been neglected. He did say that he kept up with the water changes every couple of weeks; but that he has watched most of his coral perish. The only coral that I can see in the tank are some very small (looks like in trouble) Pulsing Xenia.

 

The tank has a Maxi-jet 900 pump, a Koralia 1 powerhead, and a spinning return head.

 

The first chamber has filterfloss in it on top of an egg crate platform (he took the idea off of these forums)and nothing under it.

 

The second chamber has chaeto with the back plastic cut away and a Nanocustoms fuge light attached to the glass (this light has been on all the time since he installed it).

 

The final chamber has another egg crate platform and fiberfloss on top over the heater and pump (he mentioned that he was getting chaeto in the tank and wanted to stop it from clogging up the pump).

 

The lighting in the hood is the Nanocustoms 4.24 kit that he installed. The current lights are 2x True 50/50 and 2x Actinic Blue bulbs. The lights currently run in “twilight” mode (just the Actinic) from 7am to 7pm and the 50/50s come on from 9am to 5pm.

 

There is about 12 pounds of liverock in the tank and a live sand bed.

 

The water conditions on the tank are as follows:

 

Temp – 81

Salinity – 1.024

PH – 8.2

Nitrates -0.0

Ammonia 0.0

Nitrites 0.0

 

Current livestock (I think that this is my first problem):

 

Bicolor Blenny

False Percula Clownfish

Banded Coral Shrimp

Fire Shrimp

1 x Nassirus snail

4-5 hermit crabs (not sure if I am counting the same one twice)

I cannot see any other CuC

 

I did a 20% water change once I got it in the house and I will continue this weekly, but I tried not to disrupt the current conditions because I wanted to take some pictures so you guys could see what I am working with (sorry for the quality I will get better ones soon).

 

 

 

 

I don’t want to add (or even subtract) anything from the tank until I can get a handle on why the corals died and to see if I can get it back on the right track.

 

So now to my questions:

 

1. You will see in the pictures what I believe is an outbreak of Cyanobacteria. What should I do right now to cure that? I know the causes of Cyano (thanks to this forum) and I am ready to prevent it from coming back, just not sure what to do to get rid of such an outbreak. Lighting changes, temp stop feeding, ect? The LFS suggested that I turn off the lights for a few days.

 

2. The Pulsing Xenia look like they are in trouble and I am not sure what the issue is. Because the water conditions seem ok I am puzzled as to why the coral died (and the Xenia is looking so poor) I know that the bulbs in the hood have not been changed in about 12 months and I am planning on changing them very soon. Is this why the coral died?

 

3. Should I add anything to chamber one? I have read a number of ideas on things to add to that chamber and would like any suggestions.

 

4. Anything else that I should be doing right now?

 

 

Thanks in advance for your help and I hope to one day have a tank that will be able to stand close to some of the examples that you guys have running.

[latteslave]

I am sure you are going to love the tank! I would start by saying - do the things you know are wrong (get new lights for the tank, Water changes, new filter floss and such.) Does your LFS do full water testing? I would have them check Kh and Phosphates as well. Check the All In One forums and you will get some good ideals on the back chambers as well as any other mods to the tank.

 

i am sure you will get plenty of answers from much more experienced reefers...

 

HAVE FUN!

[Michaelor]

OK, So I have started the clean up. I have a better shot of the Tank:

 

 

I have a question about what is on the back wall of the tank. You can see it on this side shot here:

 

 

I noticed that most of the other tanks don't have growth on the back wall like this. Should I remove the everything growing on the back wall?

 

I also thought that would post some pics of the two shrimp.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

[ajlaman]

I agree. New lights. Only keep the lights up for eight hors. Also, I would just take everything out and do a deep cleaning. Scrub the rocks, scrub the back of the tank. I mean all you have is two shrimp it looks like so I wouldn't be too concerned with losing livestock. Yes, these tank do get algae growth on the back pretty fast, my NC6 has coraline algae all over the back and on return nozzle. I would do a number of small 10% water change every day for the next week too. When you scrub the back, make sure you collect and remove the algae, unless its coraline, because green and red algae will a) decay and pollute your tank creating more algae, or attach to something else and create more algae. Just take it out. Have some salt water out to scrub your rocks in. I wouldn't be afraid to put the shrimp in their own container while you do it either, so long as you get things done fast.

[Needreefunds]

Congrats on the tank.

 

Just a few thoughts for you.

 

Continue with frequent water changes siphoning out as much cyano as you can.

Use a turkey baster to help keep the rock clean. Baster can also be used to suck out cyano.

A small tooth brush is also a useful tool in keeping the back wall clean of GHA and the like.

 

A lights out period of three days has helped me in the fight with cyano more than once. It seems to "gather" into little bunches and then is easily siphoned out via WC's or turkey baster.

 

I would suggest putting the fuge light on a timer and run them on a cycle when the display light are off.

 

If you have not done so yet, give the fuge area a good cleaning.

 

Xenia gets cranky for any number of reasons for me so just because they are a bit upset, I wouldn't use that as a sign of a "major" parameter issue.

 

Astrea snails will help with the fuzz on the back wall also.

 

HTH

 

Oh, and most definitely replace those bulbs

[Michaelor]

Replacement lights on on their way. Going with 2x-10k Daylights and 2x-Actinic Blue. I have a question on the suggestion to reduce the lighting in the tank to 8 hours a day: I like the twilight option with the tank, so should the 8 hours include an hour or so twilight or in addition to the twilight time?

 

Started the scrubbing of the rocks and the back wall. Pulled a ton of Cyano off the rocks and from the sand through siphoning. I will continue the water changes and rock scrubbing over the next couple of weeks as suggested.

 

To clarify, besides the 2 shrimp there are also a Bicolor Blenny, False Percula Clownfish, a few hermit crabs and one Nassirus snail. Is there anything that I need to be concerned about with the fish or crabs/snail as I am going through this process?

 

I know that I need additional CuC, but I think that i am heavy on crabs for a 12G. There are 2 red legs and I think 3 blue legged crabs in the tank and only one Nassirus snail. Should I remove any of the crabs or just add additional snails to the mix?

 

I was thinking of adding the following snailsto the CuC:

 

4 nerite snails

3 nasarrius snails

2 cerith snails

1 turbo snail

 

Thoughts?

[Michaelor]

Question that I have for you guys is about the live sand bed. I noticed when I was doing a WC that the sand bed was only about 1/2 inch to an inch in most places and I think that it should be deeper. Should I add live sand to the tank?

[Nanobuds]

you can if you want, but you dont have to unless you want sand-sifting inhabitants

[latteslave]

Agree on the sand bed. 1/2 is fine, and if you are goinf with the nas - you could increase the sand bed, but I would say keep it at no more than an inch. Truth be told, I have a couple of nas and my sand bed is pretty close to 1/2 - 3/4 inch and it seems to be fine. The pink algae is good (coraline <-- spelling) but the rest, get rid of it and siphon it out. The 8 hours would be a good photo period... Not sure personally about the twighlight option, mine just runs the LED 24/7 and the 50/50 8 hours.

 

Really keep up the water changes - I like the suggestion of at least 10% daily and monitor the parameters...

 

Personally think you're gonna love this tank - I have wanted to do the 4.24 upgrade on mine to add additional lighting.

 

Have fun!

 

B