Here we go, another Nano Cube - WIP

[dagermain]

First I installed some moonlighting

[dagermain]

...theres a little dead spot at the very front, but overall I'm pretty happy with it

[dagermain]

Covered stock intake with Pond liner...

[dagermain]

and cut new overflow teeth, don't make fun of my dremel skills, I didn't do a great job, but it should function. I have to wait 48hours for the sealant to dry, then I will start testing the waterflow and seeing what other changes I need to make.

[Nanite]

Originally posted by dagermain

and cut new overflow teeth, don't make fun of my dremel skills, I didn't do a great job, but it should function.  I have to wait 48hours for the sealant to dry, then I will start testing the waterflow and seeing what other changes I need to make.

 

As long as it works...thats the main point.

[Acoustic]

dagermain -

 

Listen to this advice very carefully..............Do not put any type of rock or sand into the back chamber. That back chamber will collect ditritus like a mofo. So remember, once a month suck that back section clean. Otherwise you will have nuisance algae forever and you will never know why. I know from experience it is a pain in the a-hole.

[rapier0]

Acoustic is right that back filter part is useless, i tore mine out

best just to run empty.

[DitchPlains]

I have to disagree. Mines running fine with replaced media. No nuisance algae yet. Only have Black Diamond Active Carbon, and Purigen back there as well as rock rubble., oh and half of one filter sponge at the end of tertiary treatment. Seems to work for me, just put a nice powerhead back there, mini or mirco jet to stir water and your golden. If you don't believe me here's my pics.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=28749

Not saying you can't run it on just water changes alone, this is a Nano..lol, but I find its easier with less troublesome particulates, and stray organic matter if you filter. Ok take care nice overflow idea, sorry never got you that pic, been very busy with grad school, work. :nerd:

[Spasticat]

I have rock back there too, and they are growing white crystally gel things on them.

 

I also used the old "suck method" with some tubing from Ace Hardware to get some gunk from the back chambers.

 

My mouth will never be the same. I betrayed it.

[Aquariareview]

No problems with junk in the trunk of the JBJ

I took out all of the foam and junk in the filter chambers.

I placed one bag each of Chemi-Pure* charcoal resin blend, Sea-Chem Purigen* and 1 sheet of polyfilter in the chamber with the pump.

I do a 2 gal a week water change. but during the break in period I was doing a 5 gal a week change

 

I have made a 8 inch wide cut in the back of the hood so I could hang a sea clear 100 skimmer.

 

6 Months.

No algae at all

 

My kudos to JBJ for making this little tank available.

[dagermain]

Yes, I've been reading all the opinions on the back part of the nano cube. To be honest, everyone makes very calid points as to why or why not to put things back there. I'm not sure what to do.

 

Acoustic, how is the detritus getting back there? From the rock and or sand itself? Could a filter right at the overflow stop it from building up back there?

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate your help.

[dagermain]

PS, great looking tank Aquariareview. I just don't think I want a skimmer on this unless I can figure out how to get it completely under the hood...maybe someone will make a custom one.

[john76]

I have the back of mine completely empty. Except for the heater and two powerheads for returns. It's been running fine for a month.

 

Here's a link to mine:

 

My nanocube page

[john76]

Aquariareview...

 

Are you having any problems with microbubbles from the skimmer?

[dagermain]

Ok, I filled with water to watch the new waterflow, and damnit if the back didn't fill up with the front. That bottom vent that is "sealed" shut, was not sealed and was filling the back for me. So I sealed it like I did the top vent, with pond liner.

 

I have taken into consideration all of the comments on the back of the tank area and decided to go with parts of all of your suggestions with my own twist. I bought some egg crate and cut a piece to suspend the bio-balls above what will be my new water line. There was a convenient plastic lip to suspend the eggcrate.

[dagermain]

tomorrow I'm going to look for something to put above the bio balls as a drip plate and I'll have the old style wet/dry...sorta

 

I am then going to use chemi-pure and purigen for mechanical in two of the chamber is the bottom, and might try to incorporate the poly filter somewhere in the first chamber, perhaps between two eggcrates below the bio balls or something like that. You guys have been very helpful and I appreciate it.

[Reefer_Buddha]

bioballs = nitrates. bad idea

[dagermain]

Explain to me how bio ball bacteria produces more nitrate than that in LR? This is my biggest source of confusion.

[petes]

because theres no deep zones void of oxygen where bacteria can break down nitrates into nitrogen and oxygen....

 

gunk builds up and cant get broken down...

 

plus bioballs are TOO good at breaking down ammonia and nitrites that it doesn't allow the liverock and livesand to do it jobs and starves them of beneficial bacteria....

 

thats all

[dagermain]

thank you...may have to reconsider, although I think the drip plate would be good for oxygenation, I may have to leave out the bio balls in favor of something like floss and carbon...*yawn*

[dagermain]

Cut Teeth Across the first 2 chambers and put eggcrate in both and cut a piece out at the bottom so I could lay my heater down (you can see it in the bottom):

 

 

I will put PolyFilter on both eggcrates:

 

 

On top of the Polyfilter I plan to place ChemiPure on one and Purigen on the other, followed by a drip plate above to spread the waterflow across the media:

 

 

I am not putting this in until after the tank cycles completely.

 

 

And finally I bought the stand:

 

 

Great way to hide the cords, this thing has everything plugged in and nary a cord to be seen, just dont open that door...

[just dave]

It's not that bio-balls causes excess nitrates,it's that filtration that just performs nitrification without denitrification will leave you with the end result of nitrate. That is what they were designed to do. The more efficient that filtration the higher the nitrate load CAN be. Trickle filters and wet/dry filters(they are not exactly the same thing) are designed to oxygenate the water in the bio chamber to improve its efficiency and in the US the media of choice is the Bio Ball. But anything placed in that chamber can and will become a potential site for nitrifying bacteria as will anything in the aquarium. Now let us say that you have a form of nitrifying filter on or in your aquarium and you have live rock and live sand and you say that "My rock and sand will still perform nitrification and denitrification as well so what's the problem?"

The problems can be these:

You want nitrification and denitrification occuring in close proximity to each other because you want the denitrifying bacteria to have access to nitrate before undesirable algaes do and this can happen with live rock and live sand beds of sufficient depth and that are undisturbed. This will not happen when another nitrifying filter is in use. Another down side to really efficient nitrifying filters is that they may start to generate increasing levels of nitrate without a increase in tank population.

The bacteria that perform nitrification generate waste products that are used by other bacteria and these bacteria produce ammonia as a waste product. Now this is not a proble for the nitrifying bacteria living in the highly oxygenated bio chamber as they just increase in numbers to handle the new scource of ammonia. This increase in population causes a increase in waste which in turn causes the other bacteria population to increase which generates more ammonia due to increased numbers which in turn causes the nitrifying bacteria to increase in number and...well, you can see where this is going. This is one of the reasons for what used to be called a "trickle filter crash" from the early days of reef keeping and why people use to perform the YT .

YT was a internet abbreviation for Yank Trick when people would yank the bio-media ( bio balls most often) from the filter.

Now having gone through all that, know that in the absence of nitrate many corals will not fare well nor will clams. When people point to a pristine reef in nature and say look how low the nutirent load is. It's not that there is no nutrient imput, there is a lot, it's just that there are a lot of consumers for those nutrients so no excess is evident. That's always been one of the problems in closed systems. More nutrients available then the desirable consumers need so the undesirable ones show up,unchecked. I say unchecked because we will never have the number of herbivores and diversity as does a natural environment.

I,myself, don't worry about nitrates that much as long as my alkalinity is up.

That's more 'n I intended to post and much more 'n you wanted.

[Whitten]

My hats off to ya, for trying to find new ways to do everything.

[hyla]

Great job dager! I might have to try some of these mods. Thanks for the post, and please keep updating on your progress.

[DitchPlains]

No Offense but a lot of these are seriously old pics, I have seen them either on here or on ReefCentral ages ago. The bioballs are nitrate factories, and the skimmer was posted on 10 differnet posts. Just pointing out this thread is redundant.