nanocube 2 years old.

[rhunter513]

So here’s my story and journey of my nano tank.

 

Current Equipment:

24 JBJ Nanocube DX – stock lighting

1st chamber - small sponge and carbon

2nd chamber - sapphire aquatics protein skimmer

3rd chamber - mj1200 return pump, heater, JBJ auto top off float sensor

Removed feeding lid to allow for evaporative cooling

 

Maintenance:

Weekly 5g water changes with IO reef crystals – no dosing or adding any extra trace elements

Clean skimmer cup every couple days

Photo period is currently 10 hours – using auto top off for evaporation

 

 

Livestock:

Aprox 20lbs live rock

Bare bottom – no sand

Snails/hermits

Cleaner shrimp

Royal gramma

Corals - various soft, LPS and a few easy SPS

 

 

 

The tank was set up in Jan of 08'. As per the advice of my trusted local reef expert, I started equal 2 part dosing (alk, ca) daily.

 

 

 

 

It did really well and I moved right along with slowly stocking it:

 

 

 

 

About 6 months later, I started to get hair algae. I tried a million different things to get rid of the algae from massive water changes, creative nutrient exports, etc. I even changed out all of my live rock and got rid of the sand and after a month the HA was back. So I finally resorted to chemicals (Algaefix) which didn’t work and killed my leather coral. After that I completely gave up and stopped dosing and pretty much neglected the tank apart from feeding the fish and doing water changes every 2/3 weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

Then one day last Sept I was doing a water change and all the HA let loose and I was able to vacuum out 90% of it. This started a slow process of weekly vacuuming until pretty much all of the HA is gone. This pic was taken 1/16/10

 

 

 

So now I have a tank free of HA. The conclusion I came to with my tank was that it was getting too much and too long of ambient room light. My fix for that is to shade the tank except when the lights are on. I still have not returned to dosing the tank but I am keeping up with weekly 5gal water changes.

[CollegeNano]

Wow, I bet at the time you could have won the Reefcleaners "ugliest tank" award and received some free stuff! Congrats on the positive outcome. I had an algae problem of much smaller proportions and it just disappeared one day and all I did was add phosban, haha.

[rhunter513]

It was an aweful experience that caused me to give up. The time I stopped working on the tank it got worse and worse - I kept the fish alive and I would do water changes here and there. It's almost as if the HA just had to run its course. I was dosing the tank with a two part buffer but I haven't dosed in 4 months and I started shading the tank all day/night when the lights are not on. My photo period is 10 hours. Those are the only things I am doing differently and I guess its working.

 

I've learned the hard way that less it more when it comes to keeping these nanos. The most work we should be doing are regular partial water changes, maintaining SG with fresh water top off - an auto top off is a must if you ask me - and that's it. Keep your hands out and watch your nano grow and mature.

[ringfinger]

Hair algae is a strange thing. People seem to cure it through a variety of different methods. Feeding less, ceasing all dosing, manual removal, turbos, sea hare, fuge, phosphate removal, water changes, etc. It really takes the fun out of reefing when you have a HA case you can't solve. Glad to see you conquered it!

 

Take looks great now! I'm sure your motivation in the hobby is renewed.

[rhunter513]

Yes I am very motivated now. Just bought some new frags yesterday.

 

New pics to follow....

[farkwar]

That did not look like hair algae.

 

It looked more like fur algae.

 

 

Anyway, I rip mine out with long stainless forceps.

I would not have had the patience to wait as long as you did.

Good to know that it paid off for you.

 

Did you know what your levels were when you were dosing?

[FindingBlemo]

What did you use to shade the tank? Because I went from this:

Learned a ton, took some fish back, and now have this minus the BTA:

 

I still have little spots of hair algae, but got an inTank refuge and bought cheato which should be in the mail by now. I think these future nutrient exports will finish it off. I did a bad thing and put my aquarium across the room from a window, so it gets a lot of ambient light, but never direct sunlight.

[rhunter513]

farkwar - I did a ton of manual removal of the HA and it would grow back in a week. It's funny you should ask about my levels, I assume you mean dKh and Ca? They were pretty good I guess - around 11 dkh and 420 Ca. I was daily dosing B-ionic equal parts.

 

Again the two things I attribute to the HA disappearing was stopping the daily dosing and shading the tank. BUT the HA started to disappear before I added the shade and so I can only assume it had a lot more to do the stopping the daily dosing. I have not tested my params and or dosed in 4 months. I test my SG before water changes but that's it. Again less is more.

[rhunter513]

findingblemo - here is a pic of what I use for now to shade my tank. I will need to improve this set-up for spring/summer when there is more ambient light.

 

 

My tank doesn't get direct light either but i think the ambient light plays a big role. Plus ambient light can cause temp fluctuations.

 

I am not a big fan of fuges, (yet I never tried one) they just seem more likely to trap nutients rather than export them. I put my faith in my protein skimmer and minimal filter media. Then again - I really don't know what works. For now "less is more"

[rhunter513]

couple more shot taken with my old not so good camera -

 

FTS

 

 

Looking down

 

 

Side Shot

 

 

The Royal

 

[Hawaii_Bio_Cube]

I think this is my problem too since my tank is in a room with floor to ceiling windows. I'm going to shade the tank most the day and when I'm out of the house.