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First Tank!


NanoCubeN00b

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NanoCubeN00b

Greetings fellow reefers!

I just started my first tank back in april, and quite honestly, I didn't read alot on the subject before I started.

I was talking about starting a saltwater aquarium to a friend and he kindly lent me is 12g JBJ Nanocube. I wanted something really simple at first: gravel, a damsel or 2 and fake corals. However, I stumble opon this site during the first days and it totally changed the direction I'm taking with the tank. Thanks to this forum, which has been my #1 resource of information so far, I'll have to buy the tank off my friend, I must keep this little peace of ocean that I'm shaping!

 

I now have:

 

Live stock:

- 1 Azure Damsel

- 1 Bangai Cardinal

- 1 Fire shrimp

- 9 hermit crabs

- 3 bristle stars (they hitchiked with my chaeto and zoans)

- 3 turbos mexican snails

- various hitchiker worms

- 1 zohanthid colony

 

Filtration:

- About 12 pounds of liverock

- Deep Sand Bed

- Biocube protein skimmer (fits in the jbj back chamber)

 

Flow:

- Stock Pump

- 240 gph Koralia powerhead

- Biocube protein skimmer

 

Lights: stock

 

 

So here is the evolution so far :

 

1. Read about live rock, got one.

5956514431_d86a32a476_z.jpg

 

2. Read about aquascaping and checking what other have done more deeply: bought more rocks, broke the first one in pieces.

5957074384_a918045d03_z.jpg

 

3. Added livestock. Life starting to pop out of the rocks

5956514571_3f30c96b6c_z.jpg

5956514717_77ac28bffa_z.jpg

 

4. Current stage

5957074630_a2c1cc3de0_z.jpg

 

So that's enough for tonight, I'll post more updates on the evolution of my tank. Comments, tips and feedback are more than welcome! I have a couple of questions too but i'll post in the proper forums.

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NanoCubeN00b
I like the look that those marine plants give to your tank.

 

What kind of coral plans do you have?

 

I really like the look of those plants too, I think the brown plants are sargassum and i also have neomeris annulata, but its growing way slower than the sarg.

 

For corals, i'm not sure yet. I'm going to do some reseach this week and I'll post my plan. For now, I have some zoanthids (which I think i'll place somewhere else in my tank). I was thinking about a moon brain and some pulsing xenia, but not sure yet...

 

how many inches is your sand bed?

 

It's 1.5 inches, is this enough in your opinion? I'm trying to keep it clean, i'm fighting with hair algae...

Should I stir it every once in a while, or my CUC will take care of that well enough?

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im not expert on Sand beds but ive heard from NewYorkSteelo on youtube that you should never disturb the sandbed, bacteria and things will grow in it and keep it clean , atleast mine does, my sand bed is 3 1/2 inches

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Looking good so far! How long did you cycle for? Or did you get cured live rock so basically instant cycle? Just curious because it seems so soon to have fish.

 

I also just started my 10G nano reef, my first SW tank too :) I'll follow along, nice to see progress on a tank about the same age as mine.

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NanoCubeN00b
nice tank! I thought DSB are 4-6 inch?

 

I read alot of different opinions on that matter, alot of people do not recommend dsb for nanos, but i like the looks of it and the added filtration, so I decided to go with 1.5 inches, more than that would have taken too much space in a small tank plus more chances for nitrogen traps. But right now its alot of maintenance, I have been removing films of diatoms and hair algea over it every week. Since I've added my zoanthid colony, I slowly changed my lighting time from 6hours a day to 9 hours, i'm aiming for 10-12 h. I think that's where I got the algea problem, didn't have that problem at 6 hours a day....

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NanoCubeN00b
Looking good so far! How long did you cycle for? Or did you get cured live rock so basically instant cycle? Just curious because it seems so soon to have fish.

.

Thanks! Here is a quick timeline of my tank's history:

 

-Week 1: added my water and dsb and left it alone with pumps on all the time and lights on for 8 hours a day

-Week 2: added 9 pounds of cured LR and let it cycle for a month and a half. After that, my parameters good. -1 month, 2 weeks: I added LR, redid the scaping. Added my CUC.

-2 months : Added the damsel

-2 months 2 weeks: Added the bengai

-3 months 1 week: Added the zoanthids and the fire shrimp

 

So far everything is going well :happy: , at least I think!

I'll follow your tank too, can't wait to see what our tanks will look like in the future!

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