Photo Journal - Urbanek's 28g Nano-Cube

[Chuck H.]

Brad,

 

Tank is still looking great Man! I couldn't help but read you constructed an acrylic top for your tank...can you take a picture of that and how long has it been up? It hasn't absorbed too much of your light I take it? Also, what bulbs are you running in your NEP and any particular order/combination? My red (ish) corals seem to be going pale on me and I think my light choice may be too "white" or intense for them. I went with the UVL bulbs from Nanotuners and have, from Front to Back:

 

454

Aquasun

454

Indigo Sun

Super Actinic

Actinic White

 

I'm not sure if I want to go back to stock bulbs with 4 blue and 2 10k or shell out some more money for the short UVLs, maybe another 454 or Super Actinic. Anyway, your thoughts are appreciated.

 

Chuck

[urbaneks]

Chuck,

You can see a couple pics of the lid for the tank here. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

 

As for the bulbs, I replaced my bulbs with the stock replacements so I'm running 3 blues and 3 whites. At one point I saw a tank that I really liked and it had the following bulb configuration. 4x UVL 454, 2x UVL Indigo Sun. I can't comment on the growth but I liked the color.

 

Thanks for checking the thread out. Good go hear from you.

 

Brad

[Nano-Chachita-tank]

Wow your tank looks great Props, i wish my tank look like yours

hey question do you does your tank at all ? and if so what ? just wondering because i am new to this hobby and are having problems with my corals not opening

[urbaneks]

Wow your tank looks great Props, i wish my tank look like yours

hey question do you does your tank at all ? and if so what ? just wondering because i am new to this hobby and are having problems with my corals not opening

 

I'm not sure I understand your question. Can you rephrase?

Thanks,

Brad

[c-stone]

Wow your tank looks great Props, i wish my tank look like yours

hey question do you does your tank at all ? and if so what ? just wondering because i am new to this hobby and are having problems with my corals not opening

 

 

I'm not sure I understand your question. Can you rephrase?

Thanks,

Brad

 

 

I think he meant to say. "dose"

[urbaneks]

Wow your tank looks great Props, i wish my tank look like yours

hey question do you dose your tank at all ? and if so what ? just wondering because i am new to this hobby and are having problems with my corals not opening

 

I do dose my tank. I use Sea Lab Calcium #28 tabs. With my current corals, I have to add 1 tab every other day to keep my calcium between 420-450.

 

I also use a marine buffer with magnesium to keep my alkalinity between 8.0 and 8.3. My tank requires 1/4 to 1/2 tsp per day.

[snookman03]

AWESOME tank, just got a 28 HQI and I will be filling it with water and rock tonight, I hope it comes out half as nice as yours, great job Urbaneks

[urbaneks]

AWESOME tank, just got a 28 HQI and I will be filling it with water and rock tonight, I hope it comes out half as nice as yours, great job Urbaneks

 

Snookman,

Thanks for the view and comment on the tank. Glad to see another Nano Cube here on Nano Reef. Please holler if you have questions during your setup. Best of luck.

[spanko]

This is a beautiful shot, well done.

 

 

Your bubble tip is really,......................um.............bubbly!

[urbaneks]

This is a beautiful shot, well done.

 

 

Thanks!!

[snookman03]

Thanks alot, Your tank is AWESOME, the variety and the layout is outstanding.

[acura_rob]

Thanks for the quick shipping on the media rack. I've been looking at your tank and i know you have a power head behind your rock work, do you just have the cord hanging out the back wall because I don'e see it? Thanks

[urbaneks]

Rob,

The cord does just come right out of the tank. It exits the tank just to the right of the overflow. The way I have my powerheads setup is both return pumps (maxijet 1200) run 24x7. The display powerhead (maxijet 900) is hooked up to the wave maker and runs 60 sec on then 60 off. Hope this helps.

Brad

[urbaneks]

I just rearranged the library and like the way the tree looks next to the tank. Here is a full room shot.

 

[Mini-Dude]

I LLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV your tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[urbaneks]

I LLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV your tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Thank you many times over.

[SlowGoing]

Good evening, Urbanek!

 

I just purchased my second tank two minutes ago because of this thread. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

I've currently got a 29G Biocube that has stock lighting and your 28G just makes me drool. I purchased the Dr. Foster's and Smiths sale of the 28G Nano HQI with a free stand. Have any suggestions as I start this new journey?

[urbaneks]

SlowGoing - Thanks for the very nice compliment. I'm pretty excited that my tank might make someone else buy the same tank. I think that a lot of people look down on the NC or BC because they are not ELOS but in my opinion the tank is what you make it into. While the tank setup is good as is, I think you will want to make a few upgrades over time. Below is an excerpt I took from my tank of the month profile here on nano-reef.com. If you want to read the entire profile you can see it here. Thanks again for the view, feel free to PM me directly if you have any questions.

 

 

I started my stock Nano Cube up on November 19th, 2009. Over the last year I have made four upgrades that I consider a must on any Nano Cube. First was the upgrade to the stock media basket, the basket that comes with the tank is undersized which leads to constant particles floating around the tank. I chose to upgrade to a Pure Nano Media Basket. The second upgrade was from power compact lighting to my Current Nova Extreme Pro. Living in Arizona, temperature is a major concern and I did not want the extra noise and energy usage that comes with a chiller. Because of the temperature concerns, I went with T5 lighting over Metal Halide and have been very satisfied with the decision. I'm able to keep the corals that I want while maintaining stable tank temperatures without a chiller. The third upgrade was to change the stock Accela return pumps with stronger Maxi-jet 1200's. The change in flow and filtration makes this a great upgrade for very little money. The last upgrade that I consider a must is an auto top-off unit. The amount of time saved along with the flexibility of leaving town for a few days is well worth the $100 for this upgrade.

[urbaneks]

Powerhead Maintenance Procedure

 

I had someone ask me about cleaning the powerheads so I thought I would post it here in case the info will help anyone else.

 

Materials needed to clean your powerheads

-- small bucket

-- tooth brush

-- small portion of an old algae pad

-- long piece of tubing that will fit down the larger tubing hooked to your powerheads

 

1) Unplug the powerhead

2) Slowly wiggle the 90 degree bend that connects to the tank returns until it is free from the tank

3) Using the power cord and the freed tubing, pull the powerhead out of the rear chamber

4) If the powerhead appears to be stuck, rotate it 1/4 turn and pull again, continue to rotate until it's free. (there is a small lip at the bottom of the chambers that the powerhead gets stuck on.

5) Place the powerhead and tubing in a bucket and take to a sink for cleaning.

6) Clean the tubing - Remove the tube from the powerhead and clean by sticking a small piece of algae cleaning pad in the tube. Use the smaller tubing to push the algae bad through the tubing and out the other side.

7) Clean the magnetic wheel - Remove the bottom of the power head and pull the magnetic wheel from the powerhead. Clean this unit with warm water and an algae pad.

8) Clean the housing where the magnetic wheel fits into. Use a small toothbrush to clean down inside of the powerhead.

9) Clean the rest of the powerhead - Use warm water and the algae pad to clean the rest of the powerhead.

10) Reassemble powerhead, tubing and connect back to tank. Plug back in and you are good.

[Mini-Dude]

Good Lord! I cant stop looking at all the pics!

[SlowGoing]

I had someone ask me about cleaning the powerheads so I thought I would post it here in case the info will help anyone else.

 

Materials needed to clean your powerheads

-- small bucket

-- tooth brush

-- small portion of an old algae pad

-- long piece of tubing that will fit down the larger tubing hooked to your powerheads

 

1) Unplug the powerhead

2) Slowly wiggle the 90 degree bend that connects to the tank returns until it is free from the tank

3) Using the power cord and the freed tubing, pull the powerhead out of the rear chamber

4) If the powerhead appears to be stuck, rotate it 1/4 turn and pull again, continue to rotate until it's free. (there is a small lip at the bottom of the chambers that the powerhead gets stuck on.

5) Place the powerhead and tubing in a bucket and take to a sink for cleaning.

6) Clean the tubing - Remove the tube from the powerhead and clean by sticking a small piece of algae cleaning pad in the tube. Use the smaller tubing to push the algae bad through the tubing and out the other side.

7) Clean the magnetic wheel - Remove the bottom of the power head and pull the magnetic wheel from the powerhead. Clean this unit with warm water and an algae pad.

8) Clean the housing where the magnetic wheel fits into. Use a small toothbrush to clean down inside of the powerhead.

9) Clean the rest of the powerhead - Use warm water and the algae pad to clean the rest of the powerhead.

10) Reassemble powerhead, tubing and connect back to tank. Plug back in and you are good.

 

 

Really great information here. Saturday, I had to go through that fun for the first time on my power heads. Definitely helped with bringing the flow back to standard.

 

Thank you again for the guidance, Brad. I am really looking forward to starting new and learning something different. I don't think if I made a second BC that I would be nearly as excited. Learning new things is always a win!

 

-Jeremy

[urbaneks]

Media Basket Maintenance

 

I've had a few people ask me how I stock my media basket as well as how often I replace my media. Here is a brief summary along with a couple photos.

 

I stock my basket with filter floss on the top, chemi-pure elite in the middle and phoslock on the bottom. I replace my filter floss once per week, my phos lock once every 1.5 to 2 months and my chemi-pure every 3 months. See below for a look at my basket at the time of a media change.

 

 

Here is a shot of the top of my media basket right after I replaced my filter floss. I replace it every Thursday after my water change.

 

 

Here is a shot of the top of my media basket half way through the week. This is what it looks like prior to me rinsing it. I rinse the floss every Monday.

 

[urbaneks]

Really great information here. Saturday, I had to go through that fun for the first time on my power heads. Definitely helped with bringing the flow back to standard.

 

Thank you again for the guidance, Brad. I am really looking forward to starting new and learning something different. I don't think if I made a second BC that I would be nearly as excited. Learning new things is always a win!

 

-Jeremy

 

SlowGoing - I'm glad that the info was helpful for you. As always, let me know if I can help in anyway, feel free to PM as well.

[acura_rob]

I was looking at your ATO and im wondering what kind of tubing do you have down in your ro water. Its a clear long tube and there's one connecting the tubing from the pump into the tank? Thanks.

[urbaneks]

I was looking at your ATO and im wondering what kind of tubing do you have down in your ro water. Its a clear long tube and there's one connecting the tubing from the pump into the tank? Thanks.

 

The clear tubing is rigid tubing from my LFS. The soft tubing that connects to it is just air line tubing, also available at most LFS. Both items are also avail at Petco, Petsmart if that is an option for you.