Jim13csulb's OG 12g NC Adventure

[jim13csulb]

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT AND MAKE SUGGESTIONS

 

Hey everyone, so I just wanted to create a thread for my very own tank (which this happens to be my first SW). Ive had planted freshwater tanks before and taken care of several of them, and my family used to have a 100+ gallon fish only salt tank, but this is my first personal attempt at keeping a salt water tank.

It all started about six months ago when my girlfriend went out and bough a new jbj nano cube 6g tank for her new dorm room in college, and since then I had been looking into and wanting to start a SW tank. So after a bunch of research and such I really thought that the AIO tanks were really awesome looking and the way I wanted to go, so I checked all over for different prices and sizes, until I stumbled upon a used 12g jbj nano cube on craigslist (supposedly in flawless condition also included 15 pounds of dead rock) for $60. So I drove out to check it out and end up buying it. The tank looked pretty decent but not flawless…. So I started my adventure.

 

I brought it home and got to work. The lights, ballast, and fan worked flawlessly, however three was a slight problem with the pump in the tank. So that was on my list of things I needed to replace. But why stop their, so I figured that id make it as cool as I could thus new filtration design, new pump, nozel, and refugium.

 

 

Intended live stock

 

Option one

-red scooter blenny or similar (mandarin maybe)

-leopard wrasse

 

Or

 

Option 2

-species only small SH tank

-H. erectus or H. barbouri

 

Or

 

Option 3 (this would be awesome but it isn’t too reasonable lol)

-options 1 and 2 combined

 

 

 

 

Filtration

 

When I received the tank it had used 4 large sponges, a bag of carbon, and a bag of ceramics. I threw it all out except for the sponges which are just sitting outside of my house just incase I find a need for them in the future. After checking out the site sponsors I came acround a company called inTank, and ordered up a media basket from them. InTank’s media baskets are designed to fit into the rear chamber of the newer style 12g nano cubes so I knew I would have to modify it to fit. It arrived in no time and once it did I started trying to figure out how to modify it and make it work. Aswell as the media basket I also got purigen, filterfloss, and chemi pure elite.

[jim13csulb]

Media basket mod

 

The media basket was about ¼ of an inch to large to fit into the first chamber of the tank, and if any of you have looked into making something for the chambers you will notice that lower in the chamber there are tabs which make it slightly slimmer than the top portion. Those were going to be hard to work with so instead of trying to make it work, I took out the back chambers. Just took a razor blade and cut the silicone and removed it, and it made it so much easier. From their I simply took a dremel rotory tool and got rid of the one tab that was affecting the fitment of the basket. Once I knew it would fit I took mesurments of the other chambers just incase I ever needed them in the future and put the chambers and back wall back into place using black 100% silicone

 

Refugium

 

I wanted to have a refugium built ito the back of my tank so that I could grow chaeto or some other type of macro algae aswell as to have a home for pods to breed. I had looked into all kinds of ways to make fuges and ways in whcihc I could convert smaller tanks and other things, but it seemed like the easiest way was going to be create my own using egg crate. So with this in mind I went to homedepot and purchased a light difusser for like $10, and it was huge (probably like 5x3) Basically the idea was to creat aretangel that would slide easily in and out of the tank so that I could trim the algae from time to time. After about an hour of work with a band saw, sanding block, and dremel I came up with a design, which was 5 pieces. I then glued everything together with weld on 16 and let it dry. While the basket was drying I masked off the area of the back enamel where the refugium was located so I could cut away the enamel to allow it to be lighted from the back. You can simply cut it with a razor blade and pull it off with your hands.

Now Ive seen several was people liught these refugiums up, but saw a jbj nano-glo and thought it looked super cool. They are al little pricey I got mine for $55 at a local fish store. But It fits perfectly and looks super cool!!!!!!!

[1.0reef]

I think all the options would be a bad idea IMO. I would def replace the pump to, there pretty noisy and don't provide the best flow.

[jim13csulb]

I gotta figure out just what will be good in it, luckily i have a while while my tank cycles to figure that out. And about the pump, i have swapped it out, with differnt kind which heats up less and isnt as loud. I just havent gotten to posting that part of the build yet, since te pump and nozel stuff is still sitting in the box on my shelf lol

[jim13csulb]

Today, all of the silicone has dried and cured for the appropriate amount of time, so today im off to get live sand and some live rock Im pretty excited. Once its up and running ill post a new picture

[jim13csulb]

Just wanted to get this updated a bit, unfortunately i got busy yesterday and hadn't had time to post a pic of the tank with the additions of the rock and sand ....such

 

this is the basic scape so far, I used about 3 quarters of a bag of caribisea bahammas oolite live sand, the smaller rock on the left is actually a dead eco-frendly rock from (primoreefs.com). The one on the right is just a piece of live rock I picked up at my LFS. Now i bought the LR based upon its shape and size, but I didnt really see any coralline algae so I picked up 3 smaller peices of LR that had a large amount of growth from a very well established tank.

 

What do you guys think of the scape so far? any suggestions? And how about any stocking ideas!

[JoelRHale]

Scape looks good, you have a lot of routes you can go with stocking, what kind of things are you wanting in your livestock? Is there a fish that's a must have?

[jim13csulb]

Thanks for the compliment on the scape.

 

as for the stocking, I no real must haves but 3 things in which i would rlly like but i dont think those three are a good choice, just super cool. red scooter blenny, leopard wrasse, either H.erectus or H. barbouri SH

 

I have a fuge and starting to develop a good amount of pods in the tank and everything seems to be coming along. What I could get would be limited to size not skill since I have the time and knowledge to take care of most.

 

The only things that I do not wanna put in are clowns (unless naked or midnight clowns), neon or blue tail damsels, dotty backs sandsifting goby, or dwarf lion. Our other tanks have these in there

 

But any ideas, hopefully something unique?

[jim13csulb]

First Water Test

 

Did my first test this morning to get a idea as of where I stand. The tanks been up for 3 days now, and so far my

ph 8.4

nitrate 20ppm

nitrite .25ppm

ammonia 0

[JoelRHale]

A trained seahorse tank with gorgs would be pretty cool IMO.

[jim13csulb]

That what I was thinking, I thought it would be really nice, and super unique. Im pretty close with my LFS and my girlfirend just started working there and basically they can get me just about any kind I wanted, and they already eat frozen so thats good what kind of SH did you raise? just wondering but do you have a link or a pic so I can check out the tank?

[1.0reef]

A blenny or some cardinals would be cool.A small angler or scorpion can work. shrimp fish, http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquariu...=1&count=24 - some more choices.

[jim13csulb]

Thanks 6 gallon nano reef 101,

 

that would be pretty simple and nice looking, Anglers are cool too, i saw one at my LFS and they were so ugly that it was so cool. not to mention that they are like pacman when they try and eat lol.

[JoelRHale]

I've not actually kept SH before, I've thought about it but I wanted sps in my system which require high flow and my understand of SH is they require a lower fow environment. I also know hermits can nip at them and that overall it was just a different kind of system than I wanted.

[jim13csulb]

-JoelRHale

 

Yeah ive read that aswell so I actually replaced my pump with a low flow pump, and added a hydor rotating nozzle. So my tank has much less flow than a normal reef tank. I heard that a good flow for a SH tank was between 6-8 gph * volume of the tank.

 

Im not too pleased about the limit of coral for the system but i figure that having unique SH tank would be awesome and outway the lack of large amounts of unique coral

[JoelRHale]

What I would do or a seahorse tank would be a mated pair, some awesome gorgs (I've seen some sweet red ones), and some really nice types of macro.

 

I'm not sure what inverts are sh safe but some interesting supporting cast would be really neat too.

[jim13csulb]

Yeah exactly what I plan to do,

 

I got in touch with reefcleaners and they put together a SH safe cuc so now i just gotta order it up

[jim13csulb]

I GOT SOME HITCHHIKERS!

 

Its been 2 days since I put in my coralline covered rock into my tank, and I have a few hitchhikers. First off I found that I have a small snail so that was pretty cool. I have also found a peice of coral which Im pretty sure is a button polyp, and the coolest hitch hiker that I found was a brittle star fish. Its not very large, slightly larger than a quarter, but its there.

 

funny story actually, the lfs bagged up the rocks with a tiny bit of water, but the starfish's hole wasnt covered and came running out lol so I quickly went back into the store and asked them to put water into the bag in hope that it wouldnt die before i got it home.

 

pretty exciting find

[jim13csulb]

UPDATE 10/2/2011

 

My tank has been up and running now for not to long, but long enought that my tank has just finished up my cycle. It has really come along.

 

First news is My New Additions

I picked up one large and two small snails from a LFS in my area and love them! well except the big one, he is push and bumps into everything, and poops everywhere

 

I also identified the coral that came on my rock. The LFS says its a magicians polyp I like it lol

 

And I have my first fish I got a red scooter blenny from a local store, and they had it eating frozen mysis. I havent even had him a day yet, but when i tried to feed him this am he didnt eat any, but he hasnt started really eating any of the pods in the tank either. so i think he needs a bit more time.

 

PODS! Before I added my scooter I had noticed pods in my tank, but not enough to really allow him to munch on them or sustain a population so i bought some tigger pods. I added 1/3 of the bottle into my refugium, 1/3 to the display, and 1/3 into my pod farm.

 

I also noticed a few amphipods in the tank. They are really active and fun to watch.

 

 

POD FARM

 

Ive looked online at different ways to maintain a healthy population and it seemed to be with a tank and refugium as small as mine that i had to breed them in another tank and then add them each week. So Ive set up 3 mason jars full of salt water added enough phytofeast to tint the water green and added pods, and hopefully in about 2 weeks we shall know if this is working

 

LIGHTING UPGRADE

 

Currently my tank is running with the stock lighting, and I have no idea how long that bulb has been in place. So i figured that I should replace it. While looking at different bulbs I came acrossed ecoxotic panorama pro LED module. These look pretty neat as they come in numerous colors and color combos. my LFS didnt have any of the pro modules so I havent bought one yet, but this wednesday they are supposed to get more into stock. (http://www.ecoxotic.com/aquarium-led-lights/panorama-modules/panorama-pro-module.html) check out they link they are pretty cool.

Im just trying to figure out which one I should get. As of right now Im looking at getting the white/ blue combo which i feel is a must, but the purple looks cool aswell. I plan to pick up at least one of these modules and replace the lighting in my hood this week, so once I do that Ill make sure to post about how it is and if its worth it or not.

[jim13csulb]

Update 10/11/11

 

hey everyone, so im super excited, my red scooter blenny is totally trained on mysis shrimp it took a few days but now he will just eat them up and knows when hes gunna be fed there are still a number of pods left in the tank from the refugium, im surprised he hasnt wiped out the entire population.

 

AS far as my pod farm is going they seem to be multiplying and doing there thing, so starting next week i plan to start adding them to the tank one week at a time.

 

There still isnt any coral in the tank, just live rock and sand and such, but tonight im headed to the LFS and am planning to pick up some coral, maybe some candycane coral or something, we shall see.

[jim13csulb]

I HAVE PICTURES AND A NEW LIGHT!!!!!!

 

But first here are the pictures of my new corals. My girlfriend works at the LFS and Im really friendly with the owners and his son and daughter so I always get killer deals, but I got th$25

Candy cane, 2 heads

purple mushroom, 1.5 in wide

i believe its an acahn? idk correct me if im worng

and a colony of polyps

 

In the pic they look small but thats because i took this picture yesterday when i just put them in, when I left for work today the candycane and mushroom were huge!

 

NEXT

 

I upgraded the light in my tank, I ordered a Ecoxotic panarama pro LED moodule light and the transformer for it. The one I bought has a combo of 12000K white light and 445 blue. It was super easy to install, I simply opened the lid, removed the splash guard, then removed both the ballast and the light fixture. Then in place of where the fixture was I used double sided tape to easily mount the module in place and then put the splash guard back on. Doing it this way allowed me to also keep my fans while not having to much modification.

Stock light

 

New light

 

unfortunately these were taken with my camera phone, i plan to take better pictures soon when i do i will post them

 

installation picture

[iball1804]

UPDATE?!