Just Your Basic 12 Gal Nano Journal

[jbh]

I thought it would be helpful to start a journal documenting my first saltwater tank. With my moderately addictive personality, I hope that this will both help me maintain my interest and serve as a good place for constructive criticism from the community.

 

Tank Specs:

- JBJ NannoCube 12 Gal

- 1st chamber: In Tank media basket (filter floss, activated charcoal)

- 2nd chamber: refugium with chaetomorpha, light with Innovative Marine Magnetic Refugium Light

- 3rd chamber: heater, Syncra Silent 1.0 Pump (251 GPH)

- LampCraft Sea Star LED light with 2 rows white/blue and all blue

- 3/16" Polycarbonate top

- 1" sandbed

- 16lbs liverock

 

Critters

- 1 ocellaris clownfish (5 years old, came with the tank)

- 1 goby (not sure of exact species)

- 1 scarlet skunk shrimp

- 1 hermit crab

- 2 turbo snails

- 5 nassarius snails

- 1 cybex snail

 

Corals

- Just a couple of polyps so far, still on plugs. I'm meeting with a local reefer (from this site) to pick up a few more frags.

 

I took this tank over from a friend, and it was in a pretty bad state. High nitrates, ammonia, way to salty, covered in algae, and with a lethargic clown.

 

Here is how it sits today, after relocating it, adding some more live rock, many water changes to keep the fish happy while the new rock cycled, and the first couple soft corals getting acclimated.

 

 

 

[silvertoe]

Look forward to seeing where you take this.

[jbh]

Quick tank update.

 

Water parameters have settled down.

 

Salinity .025

Ammonia 0

Nitrate 0

Calcium 320 (little low)

Alkalinity 10.9

Magnesium 1200

 

Picked up a few more frags. Some zoas, gsp, a toadstool, duncan, and a free frogspawn frag that is recovering from falling over in the frag tank.

 

I am trying to bring the calcium up with calcium chloride. It is on a slow drip, and temporarily working as my ato.

 

Also, I have been dealing with a thin film algae on the glass and rocks. After cleaning glass, it resettles and is visible on the glass within a few hours. I plan to stay on top of cleaning the glass, turkey basting the tocks, and cutting out the mysis shrimp feeding for a few days.

 

Here are a couple pictures from today.

 

 

 

 

[connorp]

If you post a pic of the goby, someone could probably identify him for you. Looking good though!

[jbh]

I believe he is a high fin red banded goby... in his cave.

 

[jbh]

Quick update on the tank. Everything is doing pretty good. I had an issue with low salinity. Turns out one of the LFS salt water is mixed to something like 32ppt. That combined with not calibrating my refractometer correctly put my salinity at 30ppt for about a week. I've been letting evaporation bring it back up slowly by adding salt water when I top off. The toadstool was the most pissed about the ordeal. Everything g else is doing well. I will be mixing my own saltwater from here on out. Also picked up some refractometer calibration fluid.

 

Picked up an acan from the LFS. Not sure the exact variety.

 

I added a sicce nano stream powerhead. Returned the maxijet, and picked up a sicce syncra 1.0 for the main pump. Much quieter and seems to flow better.

 

New heater.

 

New gravity fed ato (a bit unsightly) but was cheap.

 

Word on the street is I may have an AI Prime HD under the tree...

 

Most recent issue i have had, aside from finding aptasia in my live rock, is the death of my small to mid size snails. I have lost 3 cerinth snails, and one trochus snail. I suspect the hermit crab. Unless the dip in salinity could have been the culprit. Although my two turbo snails are just fine. I tossed in a couple empty shells, but the hermit did not aprove of them. Any thoughts on this?

 

 

 

 

[TFish77]

Looking good so far!

 

Please tell me you plan to get a candy cane pistol shrimp to go with that high fin?!?!?

[jbh]

51 minutes ago, TFish77 said:

Looking good so far!

 

Please tell me you plan to get a candy cane pistol shrimp to go with that high fin?!?!?

I would love to. But from what I have read, they need more water than my 12 gal nano, so it is jot in the current plan. Unless I am misinformed.

[Andreww]

A pistol shrimp is fine in your tank...if you want your sand moved around and dumped over your corals and hear clicking noises coming from your tank.

I had a hard time catching mine after all the above started to get on my nerves:) but they’re cool creatures otherwise.

[jbh]

It seems everyone has their opinion on just about every livestock option.

 

The goal of this tank is ease of maintenance, and will need to be able to go 2 weeks with only feeding a couple times a year when we are out of town.

 

This is the main reason I chose a cleaner shrimp over the pistol shrimp. That, and I was under the impression that they can cause some havoc in a smaller tank. And are territorial.

 

The long term plan is to upgrade to something in the 40 gal range in a few years. Then I will definitely want the goby/pistol shrimp pair.

[TFish77]

One of the coolest things you can put in a nano in my opinion. They will kick some sand up but its really not that bad. Just make sure you put your rock in before your sand or I would not recommend getting one. Other than that they are amazing. 

 

 

[jbh]

That is pretty awesome. The pistol shrimp is creeping it's way up my want list for the nano.

 

I've got my eye on a couple of zoas, a Goniastrea or Leptastrea, or another acan.

 

I want to let the tank settle for a few weeks before adding anything else. Also need to let the account settle..  it is way to easy to put money into this thing...

[jbh]

Quick tank update.

 

Finished making my tank cover with 1/8" mesh screen from BRS. Screen is glued to 3/8" polycarbonate with acrylic glue. Back section pver sump is separate, and is drilled and tapped for my gravity fed ATO.

 

Also picked up a frag from the LFS that I would like help identifying. I believe it is an acan, but not sure the exact variety.

 

Photos:

 

 

[jbh]

It has been a wild three weeks on the reef...

 

Left the tank for a week, and my ato failed. Almost burnt up a pump, and had high-ish salinity when I got home. High salinity seems to have precipitated out some calcium, so now have small white deposits on back plexiglass and rocks.

 

Once I got the salinity back in check, ato failed again and dumped a bunch of water in. Thankfully, I was home, so no major issues. Needless to say, I ordered a proper ato and pump. Just need to sort out a reservoir.

 

In other news, the hermit crab got evicted. Kill count was at 3 nassarius snails, and one trochus snail. Last straw was when he attacked a new snail within minutes of adding to the tank. He didn't like any of the shells I got for him. So back to the LFS he went...

 

Scored a couple more zoas and one birds nest just to see how it will do. Haven't killed it yet. Hopefully the new ato will help with water parameter stability.

 

The new AI Prime HD is awesome. Working my way up in power slowly.

 

Started feeding corals reef chili yesterday. Plan on feeding 2 to 3 times a week. Still have zero nitrates. Alk hovers around 9 to 10 dkh. PH is 8.3 pretty consistently. Cal around 400. Haven't tested mag in a while. I have reduced my fuge lighting to 10 hrs night schedule to try to allow for some nitrates. Corals look happy, so going to change slow, and only one thing at a time.

 

Photos:

 

 

 

 

 

[Andreww]

Everything looks good.

That is a coral in the Favites species. Keep it away from the other corals ...my favia which is similar extends sweepers at night so you gotta watch yours not to sting other corals.

[jbh]

It has been a trying couple of months on this little reef, but there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

I had been dealing with a blue green algae / cyano infestation that took a strong hold on my tank. To the point that I thought I was going to have to write everything off as a loss, and start over, which is kind of what I did, and what I didn't do. I'll explain...

 

So, thinking I was in a losing battle I transferred my tank to a 10 gal breeder that I made into a DIY AIO tank on the cheap, and steilized my nanocube 12, got some new live rock, and started a fresh cycle.

 

So, for the past 1.5 months, I have been running 2 tanks. Working to beat the cyano in one, and cruising through a cycle on the other.

 

I'm happy to report that I beat the cyano I the 10g breeder, and finally have green film algae growing again, full polyp extension all around, and happy fish (honestly, they weren't affected by the cyano)

 

In the nanocube, my cycle finished a week or so ago. Just did a large water change and sand cleaning to get the leftover gunk from ghost feeding the tank during the cycle. I transferred the watchman goby today, and he is already eating and settling in. I plan to add a randalls pistol shrimp in another week and a half or so, since I have much more sand real estate with the new aquascape. The clown will come over after another week or two.

 

Currently have no cuc, since lights just came on. Once I get some algae, I'll place an order with reefcleaners for chaeto, pods, and snails. Going to stay hermit crab-less, since the pistol shrimp should provide plenty of entertainment. 

 

Once I am happy with the stability of the new tanks parameters, I'll bring my coral over. Although, they are going to go through a QT tank, and dip process to try and keep things as fresh and clean in the new tank as possible.

 

I'd like to thank those that helped me through my cyano issues. Would not have cone through it with so few losses without all of your input.

 

Here is a FTS of the new aquascape, stand, and temp light (AI prime is still over the 10g breeder) The small rock on the sand, and a couple of scoops of sand will be used to setup a QT tank.

 

 

 

Since this is a reboot, I'm going to start a new journal.