Racerfreak's T5HO 28g NanoCube Build

[racerfreak]

Well, I have a bunch of things I ordered on the way I also am doing another water change, I want to try and do one every week.

 

My LFS has these two black Australian clowns for 100, I may pick them up and get rid of the two Sergeant Scissortails. The Sergeants seem really aggressive and it is bothering me.

[kennycs1292]

awesome tank, lookin forward to seeing it stocked

[levon15]

Before you spend any money on some more fish I would be sure you get something over the top to keep in the jumpers.

[nick1912]

Tank is coming along, with sharp corners of course!

 

I would go with AeroForce because it won't overflow onto your floor and its queit and it is a recirculating type.

 

Those seargents get huge! I would know, I swam with them in the Bahamas.

 

Green algae on the glass? Must be the algae that everyone gets where you have to use your glass cleaner. I think if you add the skimmer + chemipure elite and maybe macro algae you won't have to worry to much about the algae on the glass. If still grows it will only grow very slow.

 

Keep up the hard work, its becoming rewarding.

[racerfreak]

awesome tank, lookin forward to seeing it stocked

 

Haha... me too

 

Before you spend any money on some more fish I would be sure you get something over the top to keep in the jumpers.

 

Well that's one of the many things I'm planning on before buying more fish, lol.

 

Tank is coming along, with sharp corners of course!

 

I would go with AeroForce because it won't overflow onto your floor and its queit and it is a recirculating type.

 

Those seargents get huge! I would know, I swam with them in the Bahamas.

 

Green algae on the glass? Must be the algae that everyone gets where you have to use your glass cleaner. I think if you add the skimmer + chemipure elite and maybe macro algae you won't have to worry to much about the algae on the glass. If still grows it will only grow very slow.

 

Keep up the hard work, its becoming rewarding.

 

Thanks for the advice, I was leaning towards that more. I think the green algae is good, but now I have brown algae growing. It's small dots and happened since I turned my pumps down. Thanks for the compliment... I figure if I do it right the first time the better off I'll be.

 

 

 

 

Good news; my 12" three prong extension chords finally arrived, so I can cycle my lights. My ATO & pump should be here on Wednesday and I'm hoping my pump for my tank will be here this week

 

[racerfreak]

Another packaged arrived yesterday containing my JBJ ATO, Aqua-Lifter pump, and R2 Moonlight. Tomorrow my pump arrives

 

 

 

 

some MACRO shots of my hermits & a snail:

 

 

[racerfreak]

My MP10 came in Friday & I bought 4 Rics for $30 at one of my LFS The rics are still in bags, but I'm going to put them in the tank tomorrow morning.

 

Also I bagged my fishies and I'm gonna give them to a LFS Monday

 

 

[nick1912]

please post a video of the MP10 in action. It will help me decide if I want one.

[clownfish14]

please post a video of the MP10 in action. It will help me decide if I want one.

 

+1 i want to see it to

[racerfreak]

After finally spending hours learning the complicated system of the MP10, I think I finally understand it. I'm still a little iffy about it, but I think I'm making it out to be more complicated. Also I may move the MP10 an inch higher so I can run it at a higher speed, but there is still an amazing amount of flow at 15%. Also the only time the pump is noise is when it is in short pulse mode.

 

 

please post a video of the MP10 in action. It will help me decide if I want one.

+1 i want to see it to

 

Well due to popular demand here is my first reef movie:

 

 

 

Here are the rics in my tank, I sat them in the tank to adjust to the temp and light and then mixed in some water over 30 min

 

 

 

 

FTS:

 

 

 

 

I bought some fish and corals from bluezooaquatics.com and got free shipping on a saturday after 10% discount, Here is a glimpse of what I ordered:

 

 

 

 

(I also ordered a skimmer, so I should be set for the next couple of months )

[racerfreak]

I got home about an hour ago and noticed that the rics have grown in just one day. I'm surprised but I'm glad they are doing well in my tank. One of them even moved 6", but it may have been the work of the mp10.

[racerfreak]

Just some daytime pics

 

 

 

Pics of the ric

 

 

 

 

Pics of my Sea Cow

 

[racerfreak]

more pics coming your way Well friday night I stopped into an LFS for water and a scarlet cleaner shrimp and I couldn't help but buy some more frags. I got 1 red & 2 green mushrooms and 1 more ricordea. Then Saturday morning my box of coral, inverts, and fish arrived and later that day my Skimmer arrived. In the box I got:

 

2x percula clowns

citron goby

blue & gold blenny

dwarf feather duster

holloween hermit crab

blue leg hermit crabs

cerith & nassarius snails

green open brain coral

long tentical plate coral

rock full of yuma (they ended up all being green , but they cam with some polyps on the rock so it worked out)

red montipora capricornis

 

As for a skimmer I went with the CPR Aero Force, I bought a refurbished from manufacturer one for $160 shipped. It looks brandy dandy new, so I have no issues. I have yet to set it up because I am still waiting on doing a water change. My clowns have actually paired and one is darker than the other, so I'm assuming one is female and one is male. The blenny has still not decided on a home but is luckily out and about. The citron goby just perches on the glass of the tank, idk why he does but at least he is always in view. The coral is doing a lot better, especially the monti. It was bone white when i got it into my tank, and is still getting redder as the days go on. I still have to glue my coral down but I've been scared that i might kill my coral.

 

On a side note I build a mesh top for my tank and it was super simple and only cost $30 with everything needed (including tools).

 

 

Friday Night

 

Saturday

 

Fishies

 

FTS

 

My DIY Mesh Top

[urbaneks]

Tank continues to come along. I ended up buying the same light you have. I bought it used from someone here on NR.com. Other than it being louder than the stock hood, I'm very happy with it.

 

I made a top for my tank as well, I'll have to get some photos of it and get it posted on my thread.

[nick1912]

Cool citron goby! Starting to build on that ric garden.

[JMAdams]

Nice tank, love the goby!

[racerfreak]

Tank continues to come along. I ended up buying the same light you have. I bought it used from someone here on NR.com. Other than it being louder than the stock hood, I'm very happy with it.

 

I made a top for my tank as well, I'll have to get some photos of it and get it posted on my thread.

 

I hope you enjoy the light as much as I do, I still can't wait for better bulbs to come out. Look forward to seeing your tank grow too.

 

 

Cool citron goby! Starting to build on that ric garden.

 

In the end I'm hoping for about 20 Rics

 

Nice tank, love the goby!

 

 

I'm glad you guys also like the goby. I keep seeing yellow gobies and they are nice but I have never seen a citron. They always look so awesome in photo's and surprised no one has them. Now I'm really surprised seeing how beautiful a creature they are.

 

Here are some updates, everything seems to be going well. I still would like my red & green Monti to get darker but I'm assuming it'll take time. Also I found out I paid for a red monti and ended up getting a red & green monti by accident, talk about a good surprise

 

 

FTS

 

Side Shot

 

Blenny

 

Open Brain

 

Clowns

[urbaneks]

Great changes made in those new pictures. I like the clowns.

[racerfreak]

thanks urbaneks, It's coming along. I finally got around to doing a water change today... it was long overdue and I'm ashamed it took me this long but I've been busy.

 

I still need to lightly brush off the monti and glue the rics to frags. I'm not liking the yuma rock and deciding to trade the rock at the lfs or swap it for the bottom left rock.

[nick1912]

 Hey did you get your blenny from the LFS or online?

[racerfreak]

I got mine online... for whatever reason the lfs's did not have good stock so I got free shipping so I just bought a bunch of stuff. Bad news, my scarlet shrimp died, probably because I haven't been able to hook up my skimmer. You guys must have the tank almost full to have the pump submerged, I just need to pick up some tubing and then I'm good.

[racerfreak]

Well I managed to get my skimmer hooked up and once again a problem. Luckily this had nothing to do with the CPR Aero Force's quality. It seems that the skimmer makes a water fountain noise from the water level not being high enough. This skimmer is already working great and is the best skimmer I have ever owned. This is actually making me want to sell the NC28 and just get another glass tank. I feel like there is too much flow in a sense from the pumps I put in and I am deciding between fine tuning the tank or going back to a glass tank, or even BC29. I'm just gonna give it some time and see how things go.

[racerfreak]

I'm thinking about switching to a tunze nano skimmer, but worried about filtration.

[nick1912]

So is it the water level you can't keep constant in the back chamber?

 

Without an ato you will always have that problem. I say stick with the aeroforce over a tunze.

[racerfreak]

My problem isn't water level... here they are:

 

1. Too much pump flow (do I stay with one pump or buy two really low powered pumps?)

2. Too many things to plug in

3. Skimmer makes too much noise returning to tank because of my water level height (it's where it needs to be & I don't want to cut the bottom lip off that I think is causing the noise)

4. I can't find a good container for top-off water