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

[NYReef]

That stinks, I liked that fish very much and was enthralled when you first mentioned it on here. It fascinated me to read about how the yashia haze formed a symbiotic relationship with a shrimp.

[steelhealr]

He was fine until he started to get 'antsy'...started roaming around the tank....then...started going into the sump. Getting stuck and hidden back there is the kiss of death. SH

[truckee99]

Hey SH! Sorry to hear about your yashia. Quick question for you. How often are you using your protein skimmer? Do you notice much of a difference when you use it?

[truckee99]

Oh yeah, quick update on my tank. I added a fuge last weekend with some live rock rubble and come chateo. The setup went great. My nitrates are still at 40 even with bi-weekly water changes. The only things that I have added to my tank other than the LR and Live sand is 4 Nassarius Snails and

3 Astraea Snails (I added them after 4 weeks after setup). My tank is now 10 weeks old. Could my tank still be cycling? I am at a complete loss as to why my nitrates are staying at 40 after 10 weeks.

[steelhealr]

Did you setup the external lighting mod and what light you using? 40 is high in my books...that's a nice orange color and orange makes me nervous. I'd do a few extra water changes. Are you feeding your tank and how much? Some of it, at ten weeks, may still be some breakdown from the live rock from cycling. Fish in there?

 

I rarely use my skimmer. My nitrates are fixed at 0 ppm since my chaeto's growth took off. I dumped a whole cube of mysis in there recently and ...no budge in nitrates at all. I only skim now if I do a lot of work in the tank....have my arms in there and plucking macro out or prune/frag a coral. I'll skim after that to remove anything that went into the water column. Otherwise, just water changes. I have no other magic to explain my recent 0 ppm nitrates except the change in how I illuminate my chaeto and it's ensuing explosive growth. SH

[truckee99]

I am using a Palm light for my fuge. I leave it on for about 12 hours (8pm-8am). Right now I only have one fish (a blue damsel) and I only feed it a small amount of mysis twice a week. I guess I am just going to have some patience and wait for the nitrates to drop. I have already waited 10 weeks, what is a few more. To make things even more fun I am batteling a cayno probelm (due to the high nitrates).

[jimmybeam]

Wow. Took me a couple of days but finally got through this thread from start to finish. Thank-you SH. What an excellent resource.

 

I can't beleive you're living with that crack in your tank. It makes me nervous thinking about it right now. I think you should give us a paypal address where we can all chip in a get you your 30g Oceanic. It might be a little while before you hit the Megamillions. In trade for all the info you've provided I would be more than willing to chip in a couple of bucks as I think everyone who has been following your thread would be. That way we can all learn and be entertained from your '30g Oceanic Cube Startup' thread. How about it everyone...2 bucks each? Who's in?

[NYReef]

Dude, he's a surgeon Edited May 6, 2006 by NYReef

[jimmybeam]

Dude, he's a physician

 

Well there goes that idea. And I was so looking forward to the new thread on the 30g Oceanic.

 

SH, why are you risking the lives of your livestock in a faulty tank?

[steelhealr]

..because people still think doctors are making a lot of money......lol. SH

[NYReef]

The cost of running a practice is high, capitation has limited reimbursement, income is not what it used to be for sure.

Edited May 6, 2006 by NYReef

[TheReefDude]

The cost of running a practice is high, decapitation has limited reimbursement, income is not what it used to be for sure.

 

 

I CAUGHT THAT!!!

 

 

 

[NYReef]

I altered THAT!!!

 

Is that how you did it TheReefDude? Not very hard. Sorry to waste your thread space SH, but TheReefDude thought it would be funny to quote me and edit it, his parents must be proud. Good work little boy, maybe you should hit the kiddie forums, the adults post here.

Edited May 6, 2006 by NYReef

[steelhealr]

No problem. Some humor on this thread is a nice diversion. Yes...medicine and surgery are in crisis. We've lost 2 surgeons in our area in the last six months, both forced out of practice by rising malpractice costs and premiums. Most people don't realize that we can get called to the ER at 2AM and spend several hours there working up a patient for a potential surgical problem and get reimbursed $40. People still think that we make thousands of dollars from doing surgery. By the time my medical malpractice premium gets to me and then Uncle Sam, my take home for doing an appendectomy is under $200, not enough to cover the costs of delivering good care to my patients and less than what my landscaper gets for cutting the lawn. SH

 

"Beauty comes slowly, disaster happens quickly".

SH

 

 

Tank Summary

 

Born on date

April 9, 2005

 

Lighting

JBJ stock lighting, 72watts PC 50/50 actinic

 

Maintenance

-Weekly 10-16% water changes.

-Bimonthly SW and topoff water made with AquaSafe 6 stage RO/DI unit. Water aged and heated.

-Started with Oceanic, tried Tropic Marin, currently using Reef Crystals.

-check s.g. every 1-3 days. Daily topoff with 1 liter pure water

-parameter checks 1X per week, more frequent if tank looks problematic

 

Tank Supplements

 

None except for B-Ionic or Kent CB Two Part for calcium/buffering.

 

Live Rock

Initial 20lbs from Premiumaquatics.com, mixture Kaelini, Marshall Islands, Fiji; 3lbs live rock rubble

 

Additions: 2.5lbs Solomon Islands, 1lb Marshall Islands

 

Substrate

 

20lbs lbs CaribSea Aragalive Aragonite sand

3lbs live find sand from existing tank

 

Average Parameters

 

pH: 8.1-8.2

ammonia: 0

nitrite: 0

nitrates: 0 ppm

 

kH: 7-9

Ca2+: 380-390 ppm

P: 0 ppm

Mg2+: 1450ppm

 

s.g. 1.026

temp: 81.5-82.7 by Coralife digital temp probe

 

Chambers

 

Chamber 1: Stock pump, Chemipure, SeaGel, Purigen, Algone, filter floss changed 2X/week

Chamber 2: lr rubble, chaetomorpha, external fuge light mod with 27Watts PC light 6700K; Coralife digital temp probe and Pinpoint pH probe

Chamber 3: MJ1200 PH, Ebo Jager 100W heater, Hydor Flo

 

Modifications

 

1) Additional Maxijet 1200 PH, total 590 gph, 25X turnover

2) Stock pump in chamber one with bulkheadless outflow

3) Chamber 2 refugium with light

4) NanoBob surface skimmer over intake grate

5) Hydor Flo wavemaking nozzle on stock outflow

 

Livestock

 

1) Initial cleanup crew:

-5 nassarius

-5 astrea

-2 blue legged hermtis

-2 red legged hermits

-2 emerald crabs

-1 skunk cleaner

Losses: 3 margaritas, 3 cerith, 3 astrea, 2 emeralds, one skunk cleaner, 2 red legs, one blue leg

Original survivors: 2-3 nassarius, 2-3 astrea, one blue legged hermit

Replacements: skunk cleaner, 2 trochus, 3 astrea, one scarlet hermit, black longspine urchin

 

2) Current fish

-Sixline wrasse

-true percula

-Randall's banded pistol shrimp (yashia haze recently died)

-Banggai cardinalfish

Losses: green clown goby, yellow-striped clingfish, 2 common firefish, tailspot blenny, yashia haze

 

Added Corals

 

Softies/Leathers

-sinularia flexibis (spaghetti finger leather)

-sarcophyton elegans (yellow Fiji leather)

-tubipora musica (organ pipe)

 

Zoanthids

-green, orange (firecracker), green/pink

 

Corallimorphs

-ricordea florida: orange, blue, green

-actinodiscus: red, fluorescent green, blue

 

LPS

-fungia sp (orange plate coral)

-caulastrea curvata(trumpet coral)

-favites (green closed brain)

-acanthastrea echinata (rainbow acan)

-euphyllia ancora (hammer coral)

-tubastrea aurea (orange cup corals)

-nemanzophyllia (fox coral)

 

Gorgonians

-pterogorgia sp (purple sea whip)

 

Losses: purple sea whip, orange cup coral, orange and green/orange zoanthids, tubipora musica, fox coral

 

Feeding

 

-Cyclopeeze, baby brine shrimp, alternating for corals 1-2X per week

-frozen mysid, Ocean Nutrition II flake, Nutrafin slow sinking pellet, Hikari enriched brine shrimp for fish every other day

-very occasional small piece of seaweed (nori) for the urchin

 

Tank Losses/Insults

 

First 6 months

 

1) Green clown goby disappeared after acclimation

2) Severe cyanobacteria infestation; eradicated with E-M tabs

3) Large open brain died, disintegrated, contaminated tank

4) Yellow striped clingfish died after two weeks

5) Common firefish trapped in cassette mod, drowns

6) Sea star, fromia indica, disintegrates after 48 hours and contaminates tank, 30% zoos close down and some lose their color permanently

7) Hawaiian feather duster drops its crown, disappears and reappears 2 weeks later

8) Various invert losses/deaths/stolen shells

9) Halimeda fails under submersible halogen fuge light; chaeto survives

10) Discovery of a hairline fissure and the JBJ NC 24G cracking debacle unfolds

 

Second 6 months

 

1) Feather duster drops it crown several more times then disappears forever

2) Red macroalgae comes in as a hitchhiker on added LR and becomes pervasive

3) Orange cup coral makes nitrate control extremely difficult

4) Replacement common firefish keeps hidden, disappears, shows up in the rear sump 2 weeks later emaciated and dies

5) Tailspot blenny acclimates well but slowly beccomes emaciated and dies

6) Unknown 'toxin' sweeps thru the tank tanking down my zoos, fox, purple gorgonian, tubipora. Etiology may have been the death of the gorgonian (first to go). Nitrates were 10ppm average.

7) Change of tank lights bleaches out 2 brains, remaining zoos and stresses the Fiji. All recover.

8) Switching to an external fuge light drives chaeto growth crazy and now consistently keeps nitrates at 0 ppm

9) Yashia haze continually jumps into the rear sumps, eventually is found dead behind the surface skimmer.

 

Nasty Visitors

 

I had them all:

• valonia (bubble algae)
  
• aiptasia
  
• cyanobacteria
  
• hair algae (always stayed small, never spread)
  

Regrets or things I would have done differently

1. Love the NC, but, would have gone with a 30G Oceanic and metal halide in retrospect
   
2. Wish I had made a greater effort to improve lighting on the refugium early on
   
3. Out of my control but wish I never added the additional LR that carried in the macroalgae hitchhiker
   
4. Adding a sea star. No nano tank should have one
   
5. When changing your lights, reduce the lighting interval and/or change one bulb at a time. Avoid bleaching and decimating your corals
    
   Final Thoughts After One Year and Myths Debunked
   

• The single greatest mistakes you can make are stocking your tank early with corals and fish immediately after cycling
  
• Consistent weekly water changes are the key to nano tank survival. You don't have to protein skim if you choose not to, or, can't afford a skimmer
  
• There is no better piece of advice than that given by an experienced successful nano reefer
  
• NEVER EVER dose your tank with anything except for calcium. NEVER EVER dose your tank unless you are testing the additive that you are dosing with and make SURE you have the correct test kit
  
• Using anything other than pure water, well, you might as well throw your money down the drain
  
• Crashes happen even with experienced nano reefers
  
• "Can jump" means just that
  
• You CAN achieve 0 ppm nitrates. 10ppm is not bad
  
• Attention to detail and observing your tank may prevent a crash
  

Summary Photos

 

Initial aquascape during cycling:

 

 

First frags:

 

 

 

 

 

Cyano outbreak:

 

 

Tank at it's peak:

 

 

Macroalgae invades:

 

 

The 'Plague' comes:

 

 

Aftermath:

 

[PirateFish52]

Steel,

 

Congrats on the one year anniversary for your tank. Looks awesome.

 

I have a question that I haven't been able to find an answer to anywhere on this site.

 

One of my clown fish has developed a "bubble eye." What causes this?

 

Is there anything I can do about this?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Piratefish

[steelhealr]

This only thing I can think of is if the perc has Brooklynella which I've read affects percs. It's a bacterail infection and typically eye bulging is bacterial. Research it out. I've never had to treat it. SH

[debbeach13]

Congrats Steelhealr. One year huh seems like just yesterday

I may have missed it but are you getting a different tank?

[steelhealr]

Hey Debbeach..welcome back.How is your tank coming along? Not at the moment. I still have the replacement JBJ in my basement...never used it out of fear that THAT tank has worse markings on the glass. The basement if unfinished and was thinking of making that a prop tank someday. I'd still love to try a 30G Oceanic with a metal halide. We'll see. But...if I add another tank to the house right now, I'll come home from work and find the doors locked and my clothes strewn all over the lawn. ROFLMAO (just kidding.....or am I, lolol ) SH

[bdare]

Hey SH,

 

I have a question for you about your 1 year write up... In your "First 6 Months Losses", you state your firefish got caught in the cassette mod. That's sad and all, but how did a fish drown?

 

 

...for those of you with your finger on the flame trigger... this is just a joke

[steelhealr]

Drowning is suffocation underwater. If the force of the water kept the fish's opercula clamped shut and prevented it from getting oxygen from circulation of water over it's gills...it could suffocate from hypoxia. SH

[italy]

Just got done reading your guide. Awesom thread. I learned alot out of it. My Aquapod 24G should be here this aturday, along with Illuming 70w MH kit. I signed up this moring to join the community. I have had SW tanks before, but being that they were too big, I lacked the high cost of maintainign them.

[steelhealr]

Well alrighty then.....welcome aboard. Aquapod really isn't too different from the 24G and with your marine background, you should be good to go. My only recommendation is to do a thorough water leak test and ESPECIALLY temps. I ran my test for almost a week tweeking things. Good luck. SH

[chicube]

Thanks for all the great info you have posted here. I have been lurking around for the last few months and have read through your whole thread a couple of times. I have a 24G nano cube thats been running for about two months. So far so good. You inspired me to add a fuge light after seeing the great results you had with it. Since mine is a little different I was thinking about posting some pictures on the project but I'm not sure about the appropriate place.

[steelhealr]

You can add a few here if you'd like. WTG. SH

[steelhealr]

Added a new zoo frag today yesterday:

 

 

SH