sstrange Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 It is a nanocube, agralive sandbed, 17lbs LR, stock lighting. I removed all the sponges, bio-balls and bio-beads from the overflow and replace them with LR rubble. I do a one gallon water change once a week. Current inhabitants: 2 ocellaris clowns 1 emerald crab 1 blood shrimp a collection of astrea, nassarius, cerinth snails 6 blue-leg hermits Green star polyps encrusting gorgonian yellow and green polyps a few shrooms one rock with red fan worms that the hermits keep knocking off Link to comment
Looselyhuman Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 Love the rockwork! Link to comment
Chyendra Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 That's the first thing i thought too.... I love the Rocks! It has such a natural feel to it!! Well DONE Link to comment
Acoustic Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 That will make a very nice zooanthid tank! Link to comment
sstrange Posted February 20, 2004 Author Share Posted February 20, 2004 Thanks everyone.. I've always liked a "reef wall" type of layout. Some of the rocks I got were too large and I had to go at them with a hammer and chisel, but I do like the end result. I'll be adding some more frags in the next few weeks Link to comment
bobioden Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 3 weeks?? Did your tank even finish the cycle? Alot of stuff for a new tank. PS- love the rockwork. Link to comment
sstrange Posted February 20, 2004 Author Share Posted February 20, 2004 The nitrates went to 0 within 1 week. The rock I bought was already cycled, so that sped things up a bit, I imagine. I also have an entra powerhead in the tank to increase circulation thru the LR The snails and hermits went in at end of week 1, I put the emerald crab and gorgonian in at end of week 2 and the rest was added at end of week 3... Link to comment
phenom5 Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 you cycle your system...not your rock. that's lots of stuff for a 3 week old tank...hope it works for you, but i can't help but think your headed for disaster, hope you prove me wrong. rock looks sweet by the way.. Link to comment
sstrange Posted February 22, 2004 Author Share Posted February 22, 2004 I hear what you are saying, but this is my first nano, not my first reef... thanks! Link to comment
nanocat Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 Nano cubes can cycle very quickly. Seems like they break a lot of the "rules". Mine is starting the 10th week and has had more than 20 corals (LPS, softies, shrooms) since the 4th week. My frogspawns already need to be fragged, and my sinularia has doubled in size. Just do good water changes, don't dose like a fool and it'll be perfect. I like your rockwork too. Link to comment
GoldStripeMaroon Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 sstrange - I love your aquascaping. May I ask you, if you did NOT have any fish in your cube, no ocellaris, just the basic invert cleanup, how would that change your maintenance? Would you do the gallon water change then every 2-3 weeks, or still once a week? Just curious what your thoughts were? Nanocat- glad to hear you have succes with yours as well. Since you mentioned you kept softies, etc, I just wondered if you were happy with the stock lighting the cube came with, or if you upgraded it? Link to comment
sstrange Posted February 26, 2004 Author Share Posted February 26, 2004 Heya, I would still do water changes once a week... Link to comment
MacnReef Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 Originally posted by phenom5 you cycle your system...not your rock. that's lots of stuff for a 3 week old tank...hope it works for you, but i can't help but think your headed for disaster, hope you prove me wrong. rock looks sweet by the way.. How long have you been in this hobby... Well the above is true for larger systems that have higher bioloads but when you figure he has 2 fish...there really isn't much to cycle. The cycle is called the "Nitrogen Cycle", it is where Amonia is consumed my bacteria called Nitrosomonas which converts it to Nitrite, then the bacteria, Nitrobacter converts to Nitrate. When you only have two fish, you really won't have much of a cycle. Most of your cycle comes from your rock which if already cycled, will have established bacteria present to consume the nitrogen. So what about his tank poses a "disaster"? Mike Link to comment
phenom5 Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Originally posted by MacnReef How long have you been in this hobby... Well the above is true for larger systems that have higher bioloads but when you figure he has 2 fish...there really isn't much to cycle. The cycle is called the "Nitrogen Cycle", it is where Amonia is consumed my bacteria called Nitrosomonas which converts it to Nitrite, then the bacteria, Nitrobacter converts to Nitrate. When you only have two fish, you really won't have much of a cycle. Most of your cycle comes from your rock which if already cycled, will have established bacteria present to consume the nitrogen. So what about his tank poses a "disaster"? Mike i make no claims to know too little or too much...maybe i didn't say what i was trying to say in the best way, and yes i have far more experience with larger tank then i do with nano reefs. however, just because the LR is "cycled", and there's enough bacteria to convert ammonia>nitrite>nitrate it does not mean that the bacteria population is strong enough or mature enough to handle the increase in bioload that quickly. 2 fish isn't that much, but neither is 10g...myself personally, i wouldn't add 7 crab, a shrimp, a "collection" of snails, several corals, and 2 fish in 3 weeks, but its not my tank so it really doesn't matter what I would do.... thanks for the explaination of the nitrogen cycle, never knew how that worked... Link to comment
phenom5 Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 BTW, sstrange, tank looks good, and i was in no way trying to imply that you are wrong, or that your tank will not succeed, based on my experiences i would do things different, thats all. how are things coming? got any updates? Link to comment
Isaka Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 The tank looks good and I hope you have alot of success with it. Here is my input for the other arguement though. Adding things at a rapid pace puts alot of strain on a system because the bacteria needs to increase to keep up with the increased wastes being produced. Basically thats what happens when you DO have a cycle, you have something releasing wastes (usually from things dying on live rock) and your bacterial colonies can't keep up with it and it causes ammonia to spike. So if you add things too fast to a new system your bacteria might not be able to keep up and you run the risk of having a small ammonia spike which could kill something in your tank which would cause even more waste in the water and it could become a avalanche effect. BUT, we all do things differently and this hobby is all about personal preferences and perceptions. Having said all that, I don't think that will happen with this tank. But it is a risk of rushing things in general. Link to comment
MacnReef Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Well, bateria populations are produced when ammonia starts to rise. If the bateria was to over populate, the excess would die. So actually, if you add two fish or 10 fish, if you have the biological media capacity to handle the load, it should NOT matter how many you add at a time. Say you add 2, like above, then your bio filter will produce enough nitrosonomos and nitrobater bacteria to convert the nitrogen, then you add 3 more the next week. You biological filter has to populate more bacteria to handle the new load. Depending on how much surface area your media/liverock has, depends on how much fish or whatever your system can handle. Mike Link to comment
phenom5 Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Say you add 2, like above, then your bio filter will produce enough nitrosonomos and nitrobater bacteria to convert the nitrogen, then you add 3 more the next week. You biological filter has to populate more bacteria to handle the new load. Depending on how much surface area your media/liverock has, depends on how much fish or whatever your system can handle. yes, but along the lines of what Isaka was saying, nitrosonomos and nitrobater bacteria reproduce at a slow rate, slow in terms of bacteria, i believe about 24 hours for the population to double in size...so quickly adding several fish can cause the ammonia to raise at a faster rate then the nitrosonomos and nitrobater can handle, which could lead to problems...the key word there being could...a lot of things could cause problems in a tank... Link to comment
mattjk Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 Originally posted by Hypsophrys Love the rockwork! ditto! Link to comment
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