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

[steelhealr]

dbldragons...that light should be fine. As above, mine was a 'Costco find'....27 watts of PC lighting.

 

to life...those sound like bristleworms....they're good detritivores, however, next time you pull those rocks out you'd better put gloves on..they have nasty bristles which can sting and be very annoying.

 

to fish n pets....sponges are very difficult to keep in nano tanks. Although YOU may be good at not exposing them, you have no clue what happened to them in their 6000 mile trip to your lfs. Sponges are complex animals and rely on flow thru microscopic pores with ciliated cells to survive. Any air can block those vital openings. SH

[the life aquatic]

thanks SH, I definitely wore a glove when removing the rubble, I could never reach into the rear chambers bear handed, too many scary things living back there! These white things were fat little guys, not like any bristle worms I've seen... they all grew from, and were attached to the rock...do you still think that's what they are?

[dbldragons]

would it be a good idea in the initial cycle to add and light the Chaeto in the fuge right after the nitrIte spike???? Just wondering if it would make any difference in the nitrAtes afterwards that early.

[fish n' pets]

to fish n pets....sponges are very difficult to keep in nano tanks. Although YOU may be good at not exposing them, you have no clue what happened to them in their 6000 mile trip to your lfs. Sponges are complex animals and rely on flow thru microscopic pores with ciliated cells to survive. Any air can block those vital openings. SH

 

I wasn't planning on getting sponges. I just know that sponges exposed to air need to be removed. So, shouldn't you say to remove sponge hitch hikers?

[steelhealr]

life...dig cam, dig cam. Not sure...featherdusters? copepods? Hard to tell. Bristlworms are sometimes reddish in color. I have a post of one here in my thread somewhere.

 

dbldragons...I"d put the chaeto in after you cycle. Remember, macro can get killed by nitirite and ammonia too. Wait until you've cycled and water changed your tank down to a low nitrate level, then add it.

 

fish n pets...well..if a sponge is small and survives the transfer to the point that it is growing and expanding, then, no, I would leave it be. If it was on the outside of the rock, smells found and dark, I would pic it off prior to putting it in for cycling. I wouldn't buy a live one to put in my tank tho'. SH

[daaaaaan]

Another Question(s)....

 

First off I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for helping everybody out, this is by far the most usefull thread EVER to me..

 

My Tank: 24DX, Maxijet 1200 Pump, and a rotating wave maker to replace the stock nozzle

 

#1.) My water params are perfect (well i have a very lil amount of Nitrates showing, but nothing to be worried about) and I added 2 percs yesterday (acclimated them using the drip method)...at first the clowns just stayed in one spot because they were scared, but then they started to swim around, well at least tried too......I woke up in the morning and the one was laying on the bottom on the sand, gasping for breath! The other one was right above it, and looked very weak too! I quickly shut off the pump because I think the current was just TOO strong for these percs....with in 20 minutes they were back to normal swimming around the tank, and eating happily.....have you had, or heard of the maxijet 1200 being TOO powerfull for our tanks? Well, at least for percs? I am gonna have to put the stock one back in for now......

 

2.) I am having an algae problem (green) that is building up on the glass....no where else....the sand and rock is kept perfectly clean with my crabs (sally, and emerald) and I have around 15-20 snails (3 Turbos, 10 astrea's, and a couple other common ones).....but my glass seems to constantly have a "film" of algae on it....would a UV sterilizer take care of this problem?

 

3.) My cleaner shrimp was acclimated too using the drip method...but it stays the underside of my big LR piece....hasnt moved in 2 days....any thought?

 

 

BTW: I do have a refuge with a light in the back for it (Submersable)....that is filled with LR and Macroalgae....

Thanks for all the help!

Edited March 27, 2006 by daaaaaan

[steelhealr]

daaaaaan...

 

1) no; clowns sometimes have funny swimming habits, but, laying on the substrate is not one of them. Do you have a surface skimmer to agitate the water ...oxygenation?

 

2) no..welcome to nano reefing. A magfloat will. This will be a common chore for you until you have a mature tank and a handle on nutrient import and nutrient export. Eg, I only have to scrape my glass of diatoms once every 2-3 weeks now. UV sterilizers do not belong in nano reefs, IMO.

 

3) scared. I would just be careful that you don't rush your tank..things seem to be moving a bit quickly here.

 

Thanks for the great comments. SH

[daaaaaan]

Im not rushing it, IMO.....tank was cycled very well before I added any livestock.....only the cleanup crew.....

 

But Yes I believe I have good oxygenation between my Surface Skimmer, and my Wave Maker head that I put on instead of the factory head.....

 

And thanks, that is what I figured about the algae, that I will just have to scrape it.....

[the life aquatic]

Hey,

 

1) Daaaaaan: Where did you get those clowns? I will be ordering two percs this week. I am planning on buying two non-tank raised perculas from Live Aquaria, but I am a bit worried as I have read that some of these distributors actually buy fish from catchers that use all sorts of harmful chemicals to catch the fish, including cyanide. SH~ have you read about this? Can either of you vouch for Live Aquaria.com?

 

2) SH: Since adding the MJ 1200, my tank has been having heat issues if I leave it on for too long. Also, I can't seem to position it in such a way that it won't disturb my frogspawn. Would I be better of using the 1200 to replace the stock pump and only have one powerhead? I like the idea of having two but I just can't seem to make it work. Any suggestions? You can see the 1200 in the lower left corner of the tank in these pics (link below, scroll down)~

 

tank shots

 

3) I found out what those white things were in my rear middle chamber... I took a few of them to the LFS and found out they are sponges. They had me worried cuz I had never seen them before, so I ripped most of them off. Better safe than sorry.

 

Finally, thanks SH - I got the idea of doing an "atoll - c - shaped" aquascape from this post!

Edited March 28, 2006 by the life aquatic

[daaaaaan]

LFS....Elmers in Monroeville, PA

[PirateFish52]

Steel,

 

I am looking to find out a couple of things about mushrooms.

 

I just got a live rock with a few mushrooms on it. This would qualify as my first coral. My water paramaters are all within the acceptable levels. zero nitrite zero ammonia etc.

 

Bioload isn't that bad. Small cleanup crew, 2 clowns, a firefish, and 1 green chromis. All fish are alive and well.

 

Calcium is up to where it should be, and kH is finally down (it went down after my first water change)

 

The mushrooms open up, but not necessarily all the way. At night, they close up a bit and are about 85% open during the day.

 

I am thinking that it is either placement, water flow, or that they are hungry maybe. 2 of them detached themselves from the rock after having the rock in my tank for about a week. They are not dead though, as they moved to another place in the tank. Is this common?

 

I think I have a lot of water flow in the tank. I have the stock 24 gallon NC pump and an aqua clear 50 with a wavemaker on it inside the living area of the tank. Total water flow is 510 gph. Maybe moving the mushroom/rock to a quieter part of the tank would help?

 

As for food, there seems to be a lot of different types of coral food out there. I am planning on taking it very slow and getting into more mushrooms, polyps, and maybe some zoos over time. What type of food should I be looking into? Kent ChromaPlex Phytoplankton? Invert Smorgasboard? I don't want to buy the wrong food. Any suggestions would help.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Pirate

[bdare]

I'll look to find the article, but I was just reading yesterday that shrooms actually consume some of the disolved orgaincs from the water. If you are skimming too heavily this could also contribute to their behavior...

 

Regards,

 

Ben

[steelhealr]

klife: I trust liveaquaria. They have fitted out almost my entire tank with regards to livestock. They backed up their guarantee on 2 occasions for me.

 

With regards to the heat issue, it's funny how things vary between tanks. I've had 3 PH's going at one point without a heat issue. What is your temp running? And...why don't you get the powerhead out of your main tank and put both of them in the sumps? That would get rid of the direct high flow on your corals and make your tank aesthetically more appealing. A single PH would give you 10X flow....not bad but not great.....you could be fine with it except for those corals that require high flow (gorgonians eg).

 

Piratefish....mushrooms can close up at night. That is not abnormal. I've never seen any of my mushrooms actually eat anythign but I have tried to spot feed them in the past without any observation of eating.

 

Mushrooms prefer lower lighting and don't prefer high flow. Try moving them around and see how they fair. They can cause 'turf wars' if too close to other corals.

 

I haven't been impressed with 'dead' phyto plankton....i.e., E.S.V.'s freeze dried or whatever plankton or any of Kent's dead bottled stuff. DT's marinesnow and Coralplankton (live bottled) are probably best. I feed my corals babybrine, cyclopeeze, mysis, brine, occasional squid.

 

SH

Edited March 29, 2006 by steelhealr

[nuj]

Hi SH,

 

Can you please describe the water flow in your internal sump.where it is entering (lower part or upper part) from chamber to chamber.Does the water from the main going to 1st chamber only come from overflow on top or there some water going in from below? I plan to DIY an internal overflow sump and need some ideas. Anything you want to improve in your internal sump? Do you have this buble trap (see figure below) in your sump.

 

Any reason why you did not put any sand bed in your sump? This will help protect some of the infauna from being eaten and serves as a supply also.

 

I saw some good reading material on lighting. please refer to this link. It is suggested that you reduce the photoperiod for at least a week if you replace new bulb else coral may suffer from bleaching, maybe similar to what you exeperienced. Some suggest to bring up the height of the light and slowly bring it to its original location in days which I think is not posible in your nano.

 

link -> http://www.aquarium-design.com/reef/lightingneeds.html

[steelhealr]

Good article. Read it. Thanks...I agree.

 

Back chambers go as follows:

 

1) water enters the oval intake grate and is skimmed (surface) and aerated

 

2) water is then drawn down thru the filter media, part is drawn into chamber 2 and part is returned into the main aquarium via the stock pump in the bottom of chamber 2

 

3) water passes thru chamber 2 where LR rubble biofiltrates and chaeto nutrient exports

 

4) water passes into chamber 3, heated (if even necessary) and returned to the tank

 

As for sand in the back chamber, too hard to perform maintenance on and was not looking to harbor copepods initially, although my chaeto is now packed with them

 

Right now, I am quite happy with the sump the way it is. The improved lighting over the chaeto has made all the difference in the world. The only difference I would do NOW if I knew THEN would be to pre-drill the tannk sump walls with a bulkhead and add my second outflow there instead of the over the wall outflow, which has worked phenomenally well for me. SH

 

SH

Edited March 30, 2006 by steelhealr

[seahorsejl]

steelhealr I just wanted to say thanks for a great thread. I have kept saltwater tanks on and off for 15 years now, all ranging from a 5 gallons to 46 gallons. I decided to jump back into the reef arena with a 24 gallon PC Aquapod, and the advice in this thread has been a big help. Also gave me the great idea of aquascaping my rock in a U-shape

 

I also wanted to cast another glowing praise for LiveAquaria.com. I ordered their Select Nano Live rock, and had requested mostly non-branchy stuff as it was 16lbs worth of rock being put into a 24 gallon tank (I also added two more larger pieces from a LFS weighing 7 pounds). They picked out some wonderful looking pieces. I even got a call two days before shipping saying they would try to meet my request, but if they couldn't, what should they do. Now that is great service. Definitely will be using them again to purchase from.

 

Thanks again!

[PirateFish52]

I highly recommend Liveaquaria.com as well.

 

Very good service. Very prompt and all my fish arrived alive.

 

I got their Algae Attack Replenisher Pack, which I think has worked our very well for my 24 gallon NC.

 

Where I live (outside Cleveland, OH) there are not many good LFS's around. The LFS in my area do not have the assortment that Liveaquaria does. Some had certain snails, but none had the variety LiveAquaria had that I was looking for. Just a thought.

 

As for fish, the 2 clown fish and Firefish are doing very well and seem to be healthy fish.

 

No dead fish, good service, prompt delivery. Overall good customer experience.

Edited March 30, 2006 by PirateFish52

[steelhealr]

Liveaquaria once credited me for a fisht that I had reported was near death on arrival. I saved the fish, but, they had credited me for it. With my next order I reported their error and they left the credit and gave me an additional $25 credit for being honest. Unless I find a good steal locally, I get all my stuff from them. The only thing is that you have to 'bunch' the order to save on shipping and..if you don't act quickly, you can lose an animal and then have to wait weeks/months for it. SH

[the life aquatic]

I think I have solved the powerhead issue (at least for the time being.) I replaced the stock pump with the MJ 1200, and then added the MJ 400 to the same chamber. (Both powerheads are now where the stock pump was.) I used airline tubing and hung it over the rear wall. Since then my temp has been fine... I am at about 75 in the mornings and around 79 at night just before lights out.

 

Thanks for the advice regarding liveaquaria. I went ahead and ordered two true perculas from papau/new guinea... they should be arriving mid-week. I hope they make it through shipping... they should considering that shipping cost as much as the damn fish! I bought some food at the LFS as well. Frozen mysis, brine, and one other (slipped my mind.) I plan to feed mysis mostly, with brine and the third as occasional supplements. Does this sound ok?

[the life aquatic]

one more question:

 

Do you think this daily average temp swing of about 4 degrees is too much? I really have no idea what the temp swings (day-to-night) are like in the ocean.

[bessie]

Hi SteelHair,

 

This post is amazing!!!!

 

You inspired me to become a premium member cause the info here is better than what I can find in the outdated books I've seen!

 

I have started a 12G stock JBJ Nano. I haven't modified anything, just took out all filter media except sponges.

 

I let it sit with RO water and 15lbs of LR for a few weeks then added clean-up crew-

1 blue-legged hermit

1 red-legged hermit

2 peppermint shrimp

3 emerald crabs

7 astrea snails

2 margarita snails

small crab-looks like a hermit,but has one large claw. (what is he?)

 

I have good coraline growth, and the clean-up crew has done a good job with algae control.

 

Tank is now 8 weeks old and I've tested water with a sea-lab test kit.

 

Ph,alk,ammonia,nitrites nitrates, salt, specific gravity all within normal ranges.

 

temp stays between 74-78 with no heater.

 

Can I put anything interesting in here without modifications? I'd like to have some coral and maybe one or two small fish.

 

Thanks again for the invaluable info.

 

Bessie

[steelhealr]

Life...I'd narrow that temp swing if I were you. Four degrees seems a bit much. You could adjust your heater to narrow the swing. My tank never varies more than 1 degree, 2 rarely.

Percs are pigs. They will eat almost anything. Just be careful you don't fall prey to the 'oh how cute they are thing' and drive your nitrates up by feeding them all the time.

 

Bessie....I really admire you for chomping on the bit and holding back. Personally, I think that 74 temp is great for the margarita's but a tad cool for my liking. Also, 4 degree temp swings daily is a bit much. Like Life above, I'd try and tighten that margin a little.

 

I think you are ready for fish and I recommend fish before corals. Why? Once you add fish, you add waste and you add food. That means nitrates. You need to get a feel for keeping your nitrates stable before corals are introduced. Otherwise, if you plop in your coral, then add fish poop and food....you'll kick yourself in the pants when you come home and find your nitrates at 30 and your coral closed or dead. SH

[the life aquatic]

Hey SH,

 

First off, It just came to my attention that I have been calling you "steelhair," maybe I saw it on another post, or perhaps my eyes have just been playing tricks on me... I've read this entire post and just realized my mistake! Anyway, sorry about that!

 

My two percs arrived today, both look healthy - (dorsal fins are not laid down and they appear hungry - eating the pods off the glass like crazy although I'm waiting until tomorrow to feed.) One has a weird little reddish lump on his lip, but I'll wait a day or two before I begin worrying about it.

 

I think now that I have fish, not being able to leave the hood up, my temp issues should be solved (until summer that is.)

 

I am trying not to freak out about this, but I have noticed a possible crack/scratch on the lower section of the rear left wall. It is definitely on the inside of the glass, about 3 inches long, and a curved line - like the shape of half an egg. No zig-zags, perfect curve. This is NOT a location where I could imagine anything could possibly scratch the glass like this, and I think I would remember if I had done it when setting up the rock. I am pretty sure it's relatively new, and I can't get a picture of it. So, should I go ahead and freak out about this, or just continue to moniter it for any growth? I am truly depressed after finding this... so much money and time, and it has only been two months... I'm just getting started. I don't have the money to buy another tank right now, probably won't for some time. What do you recommend? I know your tank is "cracking." How long has it been since you first noticed, and has the crack grown or gotten worse? BTW, my tank is definitely an '06.

 

Thanks again for all of your help,

 

Brianna

[bessie]

Hi SH

 

Thanks for advice!

 

I fear that I, also, have been calling you SteelHair - so sorry.

I will stick to SH from now on

 

My temps will probably go up with the warm weather here in Maryland due to arrive any time.

Not being independently wealthy is really helping me be patient *sigh*.

I want a clown sooooooo bad!

 

When my water params are stable and my temps are up its off to the LFS.

I'm fortunate that I have several good shops within driving distance.

 

When I figure out how to post a picture from my dig camera on here, I'll send one- don't hold your breath,though, it could take a while. Electronic things and I don't get along- at all.

 

Thank You again - You're a treasure!

 

Bessie

[steelhealr]

Bessie..no problem....not being indepently wealthy will work out better for you than most others. No one can hold out, but, the longer your tank has to mature, the better off you'll be.

 

Life...(sigh)....my heart goes out to you. Since I first noticed my hairline crack, I've never been as comfortable with it as when I first started out. My hairline is not full thickness, has been stable, but, that does NOT mean that I'm safe from a meltdown. You're tank is young and not fully stocked. I'd call or email JBJ and take a pic of the crack and see what they have to say. If you can get your hand in there, see if you can feel a step off with your finger. SH