Nano Cube 12G DX (BB with 70W MH)

Here are some shots of my 12G DX Nano Cube.

Details:

* Starboard bare-bottom

* Replaced the return pump with a MiniJet 606

* Rio 90 in the left/intake chamber, powered by a chase timer for wave effects

* Live rock rubble in the left/intake chamber

* Live rock and Chaeto in the middle chamber

* Polyfilter, Purigen and Rowaphos

* 70W MH retro'd into the stock hood, with Aqualine 20k HQI

* 7W 6500k as a fuge light

My hood mod to fit in a 70W MH is documented here.

Here's the view from the front:

From the left:

From the right:

Neon GSP:

White with bright green polyp Montipora Digitata:

2 new (2 week old) frags: yellow/purple Acropora Jacquelineae and a red Acropora Millepora:

Group shot of the 3 frags (the 2 above) and a Tyree Limited Edition Steve Elias Stag:

Red with orange polyp Montipora Capricornis:

Blue Crocea:

Top-down shot, through my feeding ring with one of my Onyx Percs with the Crocea at the bottom:

Another top-down shot, with the Onyx pair:

Your Onyx Percs are expecting papa to be feed them by the looks of things. lol

Great work as always.

Very nice man! , that bare bottom rocks

Thanks!

This was my first bare bottom tank, and I have to say it's pretty amazing the "crap" that comes off the rocks and critters.

It's so easy for me to vacuum clean the tank as part of the weekly water change. I collect at least 1-2 table-spoon of "crap" every week!

i like it you tank is great lookin

Tyree Limited Edition Steve Elias Stag

Whats so limited edition about it? or did the name justify a higher price you paid?

I'm sure it's the name

But then again, I didn't pay anymore for that than the other frags, and it's a nice color, so it's all good

any specific reason you decided to go BB? By the way I really like your tank, awesome looking clowns. Your clam looks great too. Any heating problems with the MH so close to the water?

I didn't even noticed the tank was BB utill I read MoonDark's post, I thought you had black sand.lol

Originally posted by Divided Sky

any specific reason you decided to go BB? By the way I really like your tank, awesome looking clowns. Your clam looks great too. Any heating problems with the MH so close to the water?

I decided to try BB because I read alot of about how you can't get a DSB in a nano (there isn't enough surface area). Like alot of stuff you stumble across, it turned out really great for me! I keep the tank nice and clean, and now allows me to have higher flow (for the SPS).

The MH being that close does heat up the water. The "normal" cooling methods (cooling the hood) doesn't help the water temp. And the design of the Nano Cube severely limits air flow , and consequently evaporative cooling. I experimented with a few ideas, but finally found a method to cool the water plus provide more oxygen exchange than a stock NC would provide. The details are in my MH thread (it's a long read ) linked in my signature.

Originally posted by obarrera

I didn't even noticed the tank was BB utill I read MoonDark's post, I thought you had black sand.lol

Heh, yeah.

I had black sand in my first reef tank (the OG 12G Nano Cube).

But the rock kept releasing "crap" and within a month the black sand was mixed with white specks. Black is nice, but really hard to keep clean.

My next tank (16G bow) was "white" sand. I missed the black coloration (I find black really brings out the colors), and struggled with cyano for a period.

For this tank, I figured I'd go bare bottom but use black starboard. That way I fixed the "dirtying" of the black sand and the potential problem of "uncleaned" sand.

Now, if I could only stop the coralline growing all over the starboard

When Coralline takes off, it starts to seriously become a pain.

Here are 3 photos, taken on 4/11, 4/28 and 5/5.

17 days later...

1 week later...

I mag-clean the glass every day.

If I skip a day or two, small patches start to grow.

wow, your coraline has started to become a pest. I like to keep the back of my tank really clean, so it maintains the depth-type look.

I use Oceanic (which is pretty good for Ca).

I was hoping the MH would retard the Coralline growth, but no such luck

I re-aquascaped today, to get abit more light to the lower levels.

Here are some new frags I picked up yesterday.

A frag of Leng Sye. It's a green monti cap, with purple rim and white/gold polyps.

A frag of Cali Tort (blue obviously ).

A frag of Tub's Birdsnest. The colony I got it from is red with purple polyps, although I am told it will become green with purple polyps under 20k MH (which is my spectrum )

Here are some corals I've had for awhile but had not posted pics before.

Yuma. It's metallic green on a pink base.

Christmas Tree Rock. It has blue, orange, black/white and green dusters.

While I had the camera out, I took some "update" pictures...

The Neon GSP continues to grow (increased by more than 50% in the last month or so).

Montipora Digitata (white/tan with neon green polyps). It has starting growing both at the base and upwards.

No major changes to the Crocea clam. But it has turned on it's side (better for frontal viewing, but harder to take pictures).

It's not often that I can take pictures of the Fugia without the tentacles extended and/or my clowns being all over it. But here are some shots that show off its nice green lines.

The Onyx clowns are doing well. A little bit more black between the female's 2nd and 3rd bar, but no significant change. The male loved to hang out with the Fugia's tentacles, but it looks like the female has taken over.

The Steve Elias Stag is growing very fast, even being so close the MH. The original frag had 1 branch, and has since developed 2 more (1 is on the back side of the photo and not visible).

Some "disappointments" are...

The red/orange Cap hasn't done much. Perhaps minor growth on the outer edge.

The red Mille similarly hasn't done much. Perhaps minor elogation at the tip, and it seems more brown to me. I've moved it further from the light and will see how it develops in the next few weeks. :ermm:

Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the yellow/purple Jac. It turned brown a few days after I first got it, with no sign of re-coloring. I moved it into the shade a few days ago. After moving into the shade, it developed a white patch. I thought it was bleaching, but it now looks like it is creating a new branch. Growth is good I guess, but I'd prefer some color

I think you just need to give the Red Mille more time. All my Mille's love lots of flow and sit on the top of tank right under the lights.

Nice looking tank BTW. Great job. I love the BB, thinking that I will do that on my next tank.

Bob

its looking good man.

looks like your getting some good growth there.

my clowns wont go near my fungia's, ive got one with the same colour tentacles as yours but its got a purple base

Those clowns have hosted in pretty much everything I've put in front of them.

I had a RBTA for about a month before buying them as juvi's. They hosted in the RBTA within a week of arriving. The RBTA was getting too big for that tank so I traded it. The next day, they were hosting in my frogspawn.

They were quite rough on the frogspawn and it started dying, so I took it out. The next day, they were hosting in a torch that I bought a week previously.

When I decided to go SPS primarily, I traded the torch. The next day, they were hosting in that fugia.

I'm getting a custom tank built, and will move all the corals to the new tank. This Nano Cube will be for the clowns only, and at that time (without any other corals) I'll get another RBTA. I don't doubt they'll move over to the RBTA as soon as I take the Fugia out :angel:

I've mentioned a few times (in various threads) about how bare bottom makes it easier to clean. I've referred to the "crud" that I have to vacuum up every week, but have never shown a picture.

Well here it is :x

You should be able to use the Astrea in the background to gauge the amount in the photo. There is also approximately 6-8 times that amount in the "gutters" (the area between my starboard and the sides of the tank), and another 2-3 times that amount in other parts of the tank. It's a mixture of what comes off the rocks as well as the snail & hermit (and perhaps fish) poop. Every so often, shrimp or hermit molt will be in there, and potentially any slime coming off the corals. That is what gets released every week!

Unless there is regimented sandbed maintenance, I can't imagine how a non bare-bottom tank can sustain that amount of crud being released weekly. I have Nas and Ceriths in my tank, and they don't touch this stuff. So this is not from a lack of proper clean up crew

hey art... not stalkin ya now hehe but after todays'chat i was snooping around your threads... would you recommend getting rid of those gutters that collect poopies? hehe... if so how would you go about doing it?

Actually those gutters are GREAT!

Prior to the weekly vacuum, I just use a turkey baster to gently blow the crud into the gutters. Makes it so much easier to vacuum it all up.

That makes me think about doing an epoxy sandbed, don't like the look of BB, so it'd be the best of both words! :