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Greg Z's NC12 DX


gregzbobo

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Started this tank in November 2005 with about 15 pounds of dry sand, some live-sand scooped from a LFS, and about 15 pounds of excellent LR.

Current gear:

 

JBJ Nano-Cube 12 Deluxe

MJ-900 replaces stock pump

MP10 on left wall at about 40% reefcrest.

Hydor Nano in right rear blowing left along false wall (removed)

Hydor Flo device on main return

Stealth 50w heater

Aftermarket surface skimmer. (early Nano-cubes didn't come with them, I did the cassette mod for a while then found a much nicer solution online)

Chemi-Pure elite

Purigen

tossed stock ceramic rings, no longer use stock sponges (using pillow stuffing now)

Coralife Digitemp

Nanotuners moonlight fix (now moot as both moonlights seem to have failed)(updated, see below)

Stock JBJ NC12 cabinet stand. (S-stand seems ugly and I like the storage space of the cabinet).

 

Had a Current USA Fission skimmer for a short while. Nearly impossible to tune, and the elbows cracked alot, and it never produced much in the way of skimmate, mostly looked like fairly clean water, so I finally tossed it and used its pump for flow along the back wall until I got my first Hydor nano.

 

 

Upcoming:

 

Nanotuners 3.6 LED conversion kit (arrived and installed AWESOMENESS)

some sort of replacement moonlights (updated 10/17/'09, added CCFL computer case lighting tube, removed with LED kit install)

'fuge conversion of center chamber in rear (probably scrape vinyl off outside of tank rear and fab up a PC bulb for light and add chaeto) Using a StevieT light for now, have chaeto in chamber growing nicely.

Thinking of adding a false floor made of eggcrate for first chamber for better flow through the chemical media.

 

My picture taking skills are abhorrent, I apologize. The second picture came out awfully green for some reason, its whiter in person.

 

Capture_00001.jpg

Taken a while after cycle, same day I added a Purple Firefish. May he rest in peace. Found him dead on a sponge in 1st chamber almost 3 years after I got him, hadn't seen in about 2-3 days, went to clean sponge and there he was.

 

IMG_0165-1.jpg

10/12/'09 FTS.

 

Currently no fish, just a scarlet hermit, a few nass. snails, a trio of cerith snails, a few unknown-name zoa rocks one of which seems to have 3 different color morphs on it, a purplish blue ricordea, a small patch of GSP, a few scattered common looking 'shrooms, and a rock with some green-red mushrooms.

Not sure if the green-red 'shrooms are rics, as they don't seem to have the bulby tentacles my purplish blue ric has, but they are quite fuzzy/bumpy with frilly edges. This tank has an insane amount of amphipods, a large number of bristleworms (the red/grey kind) and a fair ton of copepods. When I kill the pumps to feed the shrooms, I'll sometimes see little red squirmy things floating on the surface of the water, sometimes swimming down a bit, remind me alot of those science class videos of swimming sperm. I've no idea what they are.

Ignore the white rock on the front right, It came out of the sump of my 65g work in progress and I'm hoping to seed it for use in my upcoming JBJ Picotope.

 

Have a slight bubble algae (the elongated sausage looking kind) issue I'm working on, had an emerald crab for a while, but he did nothing but pester my snails so took him back to the LFS. Also have a few tiny patches of red cyano in the left rear, I imagine those will disappear once I mod the back into a 'fuge.

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IMG_0171.jpg

A decent shot of my green/red 'shrooms.

 

IMG_0170.jpg

Shot of my small GSP.

 

IMG_0169.jpg

Pic of my zoas.

 

IMG_0166.jpg

Best pic I took today, oddly of the first coral this tank received.

 

IMG_0167.jpg

The rock those 'shrooms are on was once more to the right, hence this.

 

IMG_0172-1.jpg

FTS with labels.

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Very nice!!!! I love your shrooms, bet your excited about your pico.

Yep, its much less cloudy, but until bacteria get settled in the sand and does its diatom bloom, the sand is gonna be a pain. Got my AC 70 today, have mostly modded it up, gotta sand the place on the filter housing where the intake is held in place, had to mod the u-tube so short that it doesn't seat right because of the extension bulge. Also noticed some aiptasias, got a couple with some kalk paste, the rest are awfully tiny, might get a peppermint to try to clean them up once the tank totally cycles.

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what a wonderful looking tank. I really love ya mushies, especially the red with blue spots. I would love to have one of those.

Your zoas are looking good too.

Them both are my fav types to keep in my tank.

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what a wonderful looking tank. I really love ya mushies, especially the red with blue spots. I would love to have one of those.

Your zoas are looking good too.

Them both are my fav types to keep in my tank.

Thanks. Those spotted mushrooms came on that rock on the left, and IIRC it only had like 3-4 heads, I now have about 15-18 heads in the tank. Should start growing a bit better now too, made a few changes that I'd been putting off like more flow, some diff. chemical media, chaeto, that sorta thing.

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I'd read on here about a few folks using CCFL tubes from computers or car neon, and remembered I had a blue "lightning" one laying around from a past PC I'd built, so I dug it out and jammed it between my pc bulbs, dropped its "ballast" next to one of the fans, and spliced it into a 12V wallwart mod I'd done on the hood in the past for separate moonlights.

 

It is quite dim, but I think it looks really nice, puts an awesome actinic or UV glow to a few things in the tank including my green/red mushrooms, and the mouths of some of my zoas. I have the tank right to the left of my PC desk, about 2 feet from my left hand, and its so dim that my monitor washes it out. But dim is kinda what I was looking for, just enough light at night so I can make things out. I'll snap some pics:

 

10-17-20092.jpg

I think the discharge within the CCFL tube is exciting the phosphors in the actinic PC tubes somewhat. Very nice effect.

 

10-17-2009.jpg

Shot of my green/red mushrooms, you can kinda see the glow.

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amazing of how fast they can produce.

I have a rock of a superman mushy ( well it is suppose to be a superman, sames colors but now as bright as the ones i have seen before) having a few heads on it and now i have like 30.

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Made a few additions today to this tank. Bought a neon green trumpet/candy-cane with 3 heads, and a common firefish. The trumpet had a little hair algea on its base skeleton, I picked off all I could, hoping it won't take off and smother the coral. I drip-acclimated them both, the firefish for about an hour then floated him for another 20 to get the temp right, floated the coral 15 minutes. Bought them both at Petco, the firefish had just come in and looked quite happy in the display tank, it was the smallest they had, they had lots of other fish in other tanks, most seemed less than healthy. I don't mind looking there, and buying a coral or two once in a while, and maybe a fish if it looks healthy as this firefish did, I can care for them better than they can, I think the fish will be fine. Heres a pic of each.

 

neon-trumpet_not_open.jpg

 

Trumpet/candy-cane. Not open yet in this pic, but as I post this it seems to be opening up. A steal at $7.50 for the 3 polyp colony.

 

 

firefish_just_added_and_ate.jpg

 

My firefish. Hard to photograph these guys. I originally wanted another purple, or maybe a Helfrichis, but purples are hard to find locally, and the Helfrichis are hard to find and very spendy.

 

Please pardon the chaeto you see, got an inTank underwater light coming my way from stevieT and it'll go in the middle chamber along with the thick chaeto I have and a wad of the thin chaeto I got from Premium Aquatics on friday. The rest of the thin chaeto will stay in the display until my pico cycles, then its goin in the AC70.

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cool! reminds me of my tank a little. im trying to link it to my sig. hmm. keep it up!

Thanks, I'm tryin. Gotta slow down on adding things for a while, I got pretty ill the week before last and missed the whole week of work. Ouch.

 

On a side note, I'm going to start saving for a ReefKeeper, I may even get two, one for this and one for the pico. Once I go LED, I'll get an ALC for each and program in a nice dawn-dusk ramp-up/down, plus will set it up to help keep my temps more stable. I'm beginning to think the Stealth heater I have in this tank is less stable than it could be, the RK should smooth it out I hope.

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Just a question for you more experienced coral keepers out there, so far in my years in the hobby I've pretty much just kept some of the locally available mushrooms, zoas, and much more recently a ricordea and small GSP, all in this tank. I've never kept any LPS, and for sure no SPS. Currently I still have the stock 48 watts of 50/50 light in this tank (Coralife bulbs). I'm fairly sure this amount of lighting probably isn't enough, or at most the bare minimum to keep it going. Am I correct?

I am awaiting my Nanotuners 3.6 LED kit, hopefully they'll be able to ship it out to me soon, I'm practically CERTAIN thats gonna be enough light.

Thanks in advance.

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bluenassarius

greg,

 

you should be able to keep lps under that light. you might not get the desired coloration on some of the corals but they will survive.

 

sps will not be able to survive under those lights.. not intense enough.

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greg,

 

you should be able to keep lps under that light. you might not get the desired coloration on some of the corals but they will survive.

 

sps will not be able to survive under those lights.. not intense enough.

Thanks for replying:

 

Right, I'm not even going to try any SPS until my nanotuners LED kit arrives, even then I intend to wait a little while to get a feel for it.

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i really love your green candycane. I have a frag has only 1 head amd my other one has 5 on it. I love those.

Cute firefish. I had one until my emeral crab decided to have a meal out it.

This is the first time i have ever heard of Petco selling corals

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks for replying:

 

Right, I'm not even going to try any SPS until my nanotuners LED kit arrives, even then I intend to wait a little while to get a feel for it.

 

Did you get your LED kit? I have a NC12 OG and am considering getting the LED kit too. I'm curious to see how the tank will look. Keep us posted.

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Did you get your LED kit? I have a NC12 OG and am considering getting the LED kit too. I'm curious to see how the tank will look. Keep us posted.

 

Not yet, the guys there have had issues with overseas vendors and as I understand it just recently got a batch of the LED strips, plus they have come up with a way to mount larger fans to the heatsink itself and I opted for them to do that with mine. Hoping it ships within the next week.

 

When I get it, I'll install it and let ya'll know how its working for me, along with some pics of the un-photographable blue LEDs haha.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can't wait to see the LEDs on your tank, I was thinking about a DIY single strip in addition to my PC... I think I'll just save my money for the real deal though.

 

+ you're added to the JBJ thread! thanks for the input, any more ideas just let me know. :D

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Can't wait to see the LEDs on your tank, I was thinking about a DIY single strip in addition to my PC... I think I'll just save my money for the real deal though.

 

+ you're added to the JBJ thread! thanks for the input, any more ideas just let me know. :D

 

thanks!

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Nothing new to report on this setup, other than the fact that my .......... NANOTUNERS LED KIT HAS SHIPPED!

I should get it on December 1, and I might even have enough time before work to install it.

Since the drivers it comes with are simple on/off, and I got all 3 50/50 strips, I'll most likely just plug in the center strip by itself a while to start the light acclimation, as well as move my zoas to the sandbed. I'll also likely cut the photoperiod at least in half. After a while I'll plug in the 2 outer strips together and unplug the center, then eventually plug in all 3.

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Just finished installing it, did a test of it in my kitchen, this thing is BRIGHT, it really dazzles the eyes. I used the fans that came in the kit, they are the standard ones, and seem to flow more air than the stock fans, at least I hope so, they are louder, so more airflow would be a payoff for the noise.

 

The toughest part of the install (not truly difficult, but time consuming and a bit cramped for space) was wiring the drivers and switches and power cords in the ballast box, gutting the hood and installing the heatsink/LED-strips was actually a piece of cake.

 

I used some velcro I had around the house to mount the drivers inside the ballast box instead of the included double-sided tape, I may eventually upgrade to buckpucks with dimmers, so I'll just velcro those in the same way.

 

There's really only one thing about the kit that I'd make differently and thats some sort of quick-disconnect plug on the cable that runs from the ballast box to the hood, as it is there's no way to stash the ballast box in the stock stand.

 

Other than that caveat, I'm very pleased with it.

 

I'll post up some pics later, no assembly in-progress pics unfortunately, but will snap a few with the light on over the tank. Just one strip will be running for a while to acclimate, then in a week or so I'll run the outer pair of strips, and a while after that I'll start running all 3.

 

Anyways, I'm outta here for now.

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Installed.

 

IMG_0165-2.jpg

 

More pics to come, I promise.

 

Please pardon the imperfection of the splash-cover, vinegar soaks aren't getting the job done anymore. I'm looking for a replacement, I may need to order direct from JBJ. <sigh>

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Ok, I'm looking for another fish for this tank, I have the firefish already, wanting to get a fish that won't bully him or out-compete for food. I don't want a clown or other damsel. I am considering a 6-line, but not sure if those would be happy in one of these size tanks.

Looking to get something pretty colorful, totally ref-safe, and colorful, I've thought of getting a goby, but not sure.

 

Any ideas? Thanks.

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Ok, I'm looking for another fish for this tank, I have the firefish already, wanting to get a fish that won't bully him or out-compete for food. I don't want a clown or other damsel. I am considering a 6-line, but not sure if those would be happy in one of these size tanks.

Looking to get something pretty colorful, totally ref-safe, and colorful, I've thought of getting a goby, but not sure.

 

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

Skimmed over "lgreen's ultimate guide" and chopped it down to those that I felt were colorful and would fit your tank.

 

-Blue Neon Goby

-Clown Gobies

-Eviota Gobies

-Panda (Clown) Goby

-Redhead Goby

-Trimma Goby

-Yellow Neon Goby

-Citron Goby

-Green Banded Goby

-Atlantic Pygmy/Cherub Angelfish

-Yellow Assessor

-Blue Assessor

-Bicolor Psuedochromis

-Diadem Pseudochromis

-Fridmani (Orchid) Pseudochromis

-Purple Pseudochromis

-Springeri Pseudochromis

-Blackray Shrimp Goby

-Orange Stripe Goby

-Randall’s Shrimp Goby

-Yasha Hasha Goby

-Wheeler’s Shrimp Goby

-Yellow Watchman Goby

-Royal Gramma

-Flame Hawkfish

-Yellowhead/pearly Jawfish

-Possum Wrasse

-Sixline Wrasse (note: some believe 20g+ may be more suitable, if you buy one for a 10g, get it small)

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Skimmed over "lgreen's ultimate guide" and chopped it down to those that I felt were colorful and would fit your tank.

 

-Blue Neon Goby

-Clown Gobies

-Eviota Gobies

-Panda (Clown) Goby

-Redhead Goby

-Trimma Goby

-Yellow Neon Goby

-Citron Goby

-Green Banded Goby

-Atlantic Pygmy/Cherub Angelfish

-Yellow Assessor

-Blue Assessor

-Bicolor Psuedochromis

-Diadem Pseudochromis

-Fridmani (Orchid) Pseudochromis

-Purple Pseudochromis

-Springeri Pseudochromis

-Blackray Shrimp Goby

-Orange Stripe Goby

-Randall's Shrimp Goby

-Yasha Hasha Goby

-Wheeler's Shrimp Goby

-Yellow Watchman Goby

-Royal Gramma

-Flame Hawkfish

-Yellowhead/pearly Jawfish

-Possum Wrasse

-Sixline Wrasse (note: some believe 20g+ may be more suitable, if you buy one for a 10g, get it small)

 

I looked through that list also, just not narrow enough. lol Thanks though!

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