Any tips from you 12g Nano-cubers!?!

[tah532]

I have a 12gallon nano-cube arriving tomorrow by mail and would love to hear any and all tips on others who set up a similar tank e.g. the stock filter on it, the light and hood, livestock, and your favorite beginner corals. All responses very much appreciated!

[Puffy]

i'm tagin along..got the same tank yesterday..ain't going to set it up till a long time though I'm just going to put like shrooms and maybe something else in it idk and one purple Firefish for the stock and a clean up crew

[quandary_23]

The filter is not that good for a reef, will help in producing nitrates sooner or later. So take all the dio balls, sponges, can leave carbon if you want and replace it all with LR rubble. The pump is kinda noisy and about 105gph, will suffice if you watch your placement of corals. ALot of people suggest the maxi jet 606 I think. Some even change nozzles to the wide v-shape or even install another pump on opp side or bottom to have a counter current. I havn't changed mine though, keeping to ricordea, polyps, zoos, mushrooms, kenya, open brain, hammer coral, candy cane, frogspawn, maybe a leather. If you add and/or replace the stock lighting then you can do acro's and other high light demanding corals with the 32 watt or higher retro kits. I am not a big acro fan yet, so stock lighting is fine for me.

I 2" live sand bed is, mine is 2.5". If you got the chance to read the annual aquarium fish reef magazine there is a good article in there why 2" is more than enough. I did 15.5 lbs live rock in the tank and 2.5lbs in the filter, and about 17-18 lbs of live sand.

There has been all kinds of crazy mos like the led project, lees skimmer add on(have to cut your hood though), lights is very popular and easy to do.

As of now why my tank recycles, I have 4 dwarf hermits, 4 snails, blue knuckle crab. I will start ordering more corals at the end of the month from http://www.roesmarineworld.com/new9for99.htm

for their 11 for 99 ricordea deal. After all coral is in, I will appease my wife and add 1 false percula clown fish (NEMO) along with a fire shrimp, pistol shrimp. Wait a month and add a yellow watchman goby to buddy up with the pistol shrimp

I might and mean might add a neon goby, just because they only max out at 2" or so, but we will see if that is too much bioload. Well, that is my plan. Have fun with yours...