24G Nano Cube DX Startup, Setup, Manual for newbies, in the works

[sammydee]

Hey SH, just read your entire thread. I got a bit confused about your fish history though.

Can I ask:

 

What fish have you added total?

What fish do you have now?

 

Thanks,

Sam

[steelhealr]

Fish inhabitants:

1) Originally ocellaris; I think it's turned out to be a true perc

2) Sixline wrasse

3) Banggai cardinalfish

4) Yashia haze goby

5) Common firefish

 

Fish losses (KIA):

1) Common firefish

2) Green clown goby

3) Yellow striped clingfish

 

SH

[sammydee]

Thanks! Just trying to decide what to put in my 20L:

 

What inverts and fish for a 20L?

 

Sam

[steelhealr]

It seems after tons of research, I may have found the right animal to help out with a rare and pervasive red macroalgae in my tank. Check out the pix below. What do you think? I am going to post this on the other thread I have on it, so, I apologize in advance if you click on it. SH

 

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER

 

[steelhealr]

New addition photos:

 

 

 

 

 

SH

[Sea_Of_Treachery]

5 fish in a 24g! what kind of blenny is that? he looks neat

Edited December 7, 2005 by Clarkii3

[steelhealr]

It's a tailspot...ecsensius stigmatura. Outside of having lost two peppermint shrimp and suffering a nitrate spike, my tank is doing well. My yellow fiji leather is reopening but I appear to have lost my gorgonian (all occurred prior to the addition of the tailspot). I believe my sixline was the culprit. SH

[gjones]

How high was you nitrate spike?

[steelhealr]

It was somewhere under 20....I'm guessing 15-20. It was the heaviest 'orange hue' that I ever had since starting up my tank. I had added two peppermint shrimp, reasonably sized, to see if they would take care of the aiptasia I had in the tank. Not long after adding them, the sixline started to harass them...follow them, bump them, etc. They then disappeared. My skunk cleaner has never been touched.

 

Following the disappearance of both peppermint shrimp, my Yellow Fiji and gorgonian closed. I will comment that the longspine urchin, added to see if it would control the macro in my tank, was added at the same time. So, the spike either occurred from the shrimp, most likely, and I hope NOT..from the urchin. My nitrates have been coming down with water changes and my leather is open again. I may have lost the gorgonian tho'. Hence, I resorted to using Joe's Juice against the aiptasia.

 

In retrospect, adding the peppermints may not have been wise considering that I have a sixline wrasse. I was hoping that since the skunk cleaner was in there and left alone, that, there wouldn't be a problem. Anyway, now that the peps are gone, the real question will be if there is a contributing component from the urchin, who appears to be a constant forager. We'll see. My nitrates are approaching their comfortable zone of 10ppm. All my other corals enjoyed the brief rise (dirty water), ie, got huge.

 

Unfortunately, my sun corals will suffer because they are the first to get cut back on feeding wise. I'm losing a few polyps, but, I'm concentrating my feeding on a few in the hopes to preserve them. My initial frag came with over 20 heads...you can imagine how difficult it is to feed 20 heads, 3X a week and expect your water conditions to remain pristine....NOT. SH

[limulus]

SH,

I've been away from the forum a while. The tank looks great! Sorry for your losses. When I feed my sun coral, my peppermint shrimp comes out like a little bandit, cleans up the mess and even steals from the sun coral.

Edited December 8, 2005 by limulus

[Eric Lundgren]

Thanks for all the great info!! My wife just ordered my nanocube 24 deluxe and I am jazzed about getting in. One question. I read almost this entire post today and my head is swimming (no pun intended) Could you put up a quick refresh of the major steps please? Something lie:

1) test for leaks

2) add substrate and live rocks

3) test an wait for ...

 

 

etc.

[steelhealr]

Whew...will do my best:

1) Wash the tank out ...can use vinegar. Do your DYI's if needed

2) Test with FW..all pumps, heaters, etc. Remove bioballs,ceramics. Can leave in one sponge for cycling

3) Empty, level tank, sturdy stand, space behind for access, GFCI outlet

4) Mix SW in tank, adjust to s.g. Add filter media

5) Empty 1/3rd out...add base LR...fill some LS around....finish aquascape and sand

6) settle, cycle, water tests, turkey baste off the rocks

7) Water tests, s.g. tests, topoff, don't add livestock until ammonia, nitrite 0 and you've brought your nitrates down by doing a 25% first water change and subsequent 10% water changes. Aim for below 10ppm.

8) Cleanup crew goes in after your params are good and you diatoms

 

Feel free to post back. I know I forgot some stuff. Just a guideline. SH

Edited December 8, 2005 by steelhealr

[Eric Lundgren]

Perfect! Thanks again.

Is anyone here running their nanocube "standard" no mods and just the filter media that comes with? If so was it successful? Part of the allure of the cube for me was not having to mod it. I thought everything that was needed was included.

 

Also, I assume many of the mods you speak of will make more sense to me once I actually see the different chambers in person. Can't picture right now where all the different pumps and lights and macroalgae are going.

 

Thanks again for all the time and effort you spent on this!

 

Eric

[Eric Lundgren]

Anyone seen this on Ebay?

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-JBJ-24gal-Nano-cub...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Long link. Item # 7728792045

 

Is there really a newer model with improvments or is this bull? I asked for the PDF file with the cnages listed to be sent to me. As soon as I receive it I will post the contents. This is what my wife ordered me for xmas so I hope its true :-)

Edited December 9, 2005 by Eric Lundgren

[steelhealr]

Yes..the old 24s had thin glass and s$%^*tty packaging. The new ones have thicker glass. Make sure if you get it to get the 2006 model..and..IMO...I'd still buy it at an lfs and not have it shipped. JMO.

 

The tank as is will probably be fine. The missing basic mods would leave out:

1) higher flow

2) no refugium or refugium lighting

3) no wave action

 

However, my tank is stock lighting and is supporting everything I have put in it (not counting nitrate effects when they occurred). SH

[gjones]

I don't know what it is about wrasses and peps. I just bought 2, one is the size of my cleaner, the other is smaller. Not 5 minutes after I put them in, my 4-line took the small one right in front of my eyes. Grabbed it, tore it apart and ate it. $9.00 down the tube. I hope the other on does fine, although my wrasse has been nipping at it.

 

 

EDIT- nevermind my other pep, I just walked back in to check on it, and I saw it's head bouncing across my sandbed with a horde of nassarius chasing after it. $18.00 down the tube! I think peps are just a delacsy to wrasses.

Edited December 11, 2005 by gjones

[steelhealr]

Agreed. I think the skunk is safe since it was in the tank since before the wrasse came in AND it is grown to about the size of the sixline. BTW....I DID find one pep...it is in my sump. Must of either jumped or crawled over the wall. It's safe under the chaeto, but, not sure if it will survive back there unless I drop some food back.

 

Other notes....gorgonian is probably dead.Have not see polyps in almost 2 weeks. SH

[debbeach13]

^

[gjones]

My cleaner was safe, til it molted. My wrasse tore into him yesterday right after it molted. I have no shrimp.

[steelhealr]

It's the law of the land...er...sea in there. Wrasse's like inverts. Anyway:

 

-at least one peppermint survived and is living in the back sump...must have crawled over the wall

-Fiji leather recovered, gorgonian is gone

-I purchased NanoBob's surface skimmer. I"m very impressed. Excellent tooling, professional, is skimming beautifully. It was worth the $40 considering I don't have time to do it myself.

-tailspot is still doing well....seems to be trying to grab some cyclopeeze when I put them in

-the red macroalgae seems 'stabilized'....I try and prune some off the substrate and it seems to stay clear of corallinized areas.

-coralline algae sucks.....it's all over the glass walls and what a PITA scraping those dots off

 

SH

[BMWEATER]

 

First of all I would like to say thank you for all your amazing posts STEELHEALR! I have been reading your thread for almost 3 months now, and today I finally decided to join the nano-reef crowd.

 

 

Michael

[steelhealr]

WTG Michael......welcome aboard......if I can be of any help. let me know. SH

[debbeach13]

 

First of all I would like to say thank you for all your amazing posts STEELHEALR! I have been reading your thread for almost 3 months now, and today I finally decided to join the nano-reef crowd.

Michael

 

Dental floss? Is that the white filter floss?

[BMWEATER]

Deb...Yah its white filter floss, I just didnt know what to call it when I was typing up the post....sorry

[steelhealr]

Updated tank pix:

 

 

 

From the front view, you can see that I need to prune away some mushrooms from my pipe organ (tubipora). I've pruned back the sinularia to avoid contact with the Fiji leather. Except for the recent loss of my gorgonian and nitrate spike, the tank is doing well. Nitrates are 5ppm. However, could curse coralline algae. SH