Cube capacity

coot

coot

New Member
Hey all i am new to the site and new to the saltwater actually all fish. I recently bought a JBJ 24G nano cube and am trying to put togehter my inhabitants. I was wondering if any one can say weather i have to much or not enough any help would be appreciated.
List as follows:
1 each - horseshoe, scarlet reef, red tip hermit, blue-legged hermit, zebra crabs
1 each - banded trochus, turbo, zebra turbo, margarita, bumblebee snails
1 each - peppermint, scarlet skunk, banded coral shrimp
1 each - percula clown, yellow tail damsel, orangeback basslet, bangii cardinal
Plus i will have 20lbs live sand and 30-35lbs live rock
Any opinons on capcity and breed interaction would be great
 
reefiness

reefiness

Active Member
its nice to get a new member but i think that this list needs alot of adjustment
here is what i think you should get
FISH-
2- true percula clowns
1- royal gramma or similar
Inverts-
2- skunk cleaners
2- peppermints or 1 coral banded
Clean up crew-
1- emerald crab
5- scarlets
5- blue legs
5- zebras
10-cerith snails or 10 turbo astrea snails
or something along those lines, but clowns are better kept in pairs and in my experience when having a coralbanded in a small tank(29 in my case) many casualties will occur when adding in peppermints
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
With the seahorse that is too much IMO. Seahorses have an enormous bioload. I had two horses, a clown, and a firefish in my 29 and had trouble keeping my levels down.
Also, I'm not sure if a CB shrimp is a good idea with seahorses. Damsels are way too aggressive to be with seahorses and horseshoe crabs get HUGE, I believe upwards of 10 inches.
 
pclown

pclown

Member
Great call on the fisf reefiness!
I agree with reefiness on the fish, I have a pair Percula Clowns and they are fun to watch and I also have Royal Gramma. They are the only fish I have and seem to get along great! I do love bangii cardinal though and if I was to ever add another fish it would be that one.
Stay away from the Damsels.
I dont like peppermints cause I hear they dont last long but I dont know from experience. I perfer a cleaner shrimp. I agree with reefiness that the coral branded shrimp may be a problem.
I also agree with reefiness on the clean up crew but I wonder if that is a little over kill on so many hermits and snails.
I know I just asked but have you cycled your tank yet, and if not, please dont use fish to do so.
 
coot

coot

New Member
Thanks all. i will be re-thinking my list specially on the clean-up crew. About the whole tank cycle thing As i said i am new to this so i am probably going to sound stupid. the guy at the pet store told me to just do this(havent done it yet) Fill the tank up woith water throw in the sand and the so called cured rock and a couple damsels and it will cycle. but already from some of what i read this is not right. So any more help would really be great and it spare some fish lives
 
jacksdad

jacksdad

Member
Originally Posted by Coot
Thanks all. i will be re-thinking my list specially on the clean-up crew. About the whole tank cycle thing As i said i am new to this so i am probably going to sound stupid. the guy at the pet store told me to just do this(havent done it yet) Fill the tank up woith water throw in the sand and the so called cured rock and a couple damsels and it will cycle. but already from some of what i read this is not right. So any more help would really be great and it spare some fish lives
LFS advise should always be taken with a grain of salt!!!
Here what I would do:
1...remove everything from the rear chambers, including the pump. This is easy to do, it should just pull off the hose. Install a Maxijet 1200 and zip tie to the hose.
2...return the carbon to chamber 1 and place a piece of filter floss over that to catch any large debris.
3...place a heater, I use a via aqua titanium 100 watt, in chamber 2.
4...place the sand into the tank, if you are using a combo of base and live sand, put the base down first. Add just enough fresh water to cover the base. Then add the live sand, do not mix just cover the base as much as possible.
5...place a bowl on the sand bed and continue to add water, the bowl reduces splashing and helps reduce the amount of sand that gets disturbed.
6...once you are about half full place you LR onto the sand bed (some people will place the LR onto the bottom before adding sand, some will use egg crate as well.)
7...fill the tank up the rest of the way and turn the pump on
8...slowly add the correct amount of salt, remember to turn the heater on so the temp is correct when you check for SG. (this is the ONLY time you should add salt directly to the tank!)
9...run the lights and pump as normal and wait about 3 to 4 weeks. check the water two or three times a week. After all the levels return to zero add a clean up crew. DO NOT RUSH THIS STEP!!! Make sure the cycle has finished before adding any live stock. If you are patient here you and your tank will benefit greatly down the road.
Best of luck,
Bob
 
pclown

pclown

Member
Originally Posted by jacksdad
LFS advise should always be taken with a grain of salt!!!
Here what I would do:
1...remove everything from the rear chambers, including the pump. This is easy to do, it should just pull off the hose. Install a Maxijet 1200 and zip tie to the hose.
2...return the carbon to chamber 1 and place a piece of filter floss over that to catch any large debris.
3...place a heater, I use a via aqua titanium 100 watt, in chamber 2.
4...place the sand into the tank, if you are using a combo of base and live sand, put the base down first. Add just enough fresh water to cover the base. Then add the live sand, do not mix just cover the base as much as possible.
5...place a bowl on the sand bed and continue to add water, the bowl reduces splashing and helps reduce the amount of sand that gets disturbed.
6...once you are about half full place you LR onto the sand bed (some people will place the LR onto the bottom before adding sand, some will use egg crate as well.)
7...fill the tank up the rest of the way and turn the pump on
8...slowly add the correct amount of salt, remember to turn the heater on so the temp is correct when you check for SG. (this is the ONLY time you should add salt directly to the tank!)
9...run the lights and pump as normal and wait about 3 to 4 weeks. check the water two or three times a week. After all the levels return to zero add a clean up crew. DO NOT RUSH THIS STEP!!! Make sure the cycle has finished before adding any live stock. If you are patient here you and your tank will benefit greatly down the road.
Best of luck,
Bob
Great advise
I agree 100%, that is almost step by step of what I did and it worked out great for me. I do recommend not using tap water for your tank. I would use RO, RODI, or distill water. You can get RO/DI from walmart for .37 cents a gallon the water machine thier. They also sell distill water. Also your LFS should sell RO or RO/DI water.
Also I agree with Alyssia on the Seahorses.
I would retink the damsels, they are very aggressive and hard to get out of your tank if you decide they are not worth it. My wife love s the yellowtail damsel but I told her "No way!!"
 
coot

coot

New Member
Hey Bob thanks now i have a better idea on how to get things going and i have decided to not go with the damsels dont need the headaches. And what kind of eggcrate would i put in any special kind? And I mentioned a horseshoe crab but i dont know where the seahorse comes from everyone keeps mentioning lol
 
reefiness

reefiness

Active Member
yup i noticed that to.

BUT you cant keep a horse shoe crab, they get to be huge. have you ever been to the beach and saw the horse shoe crabs and or dead shells, well they get to be that big and bigger. some are known to exceed 3ft.
 
coot

coot

New Member
yeah after some further research it would grow alot faster then i would be able to buy a bigger tank after i get my cube up and runnig i am going to get like a 150 or 200 gallon and maybe go with a horse shoe then.
I modifyed my stock list see how this sounds
Percula clown
Bangii cardnial
 
coot

coot

New Member
Well let me try that again
Percula clown
bangii cardnial
orangeback basslet
Either court jester or zeber catilina goby
3 turbo snails
3 margarita snails
3 bumble bee snails
1 banded trochus snail
1 zebra snail
1 pacific conch
6 blue legged hermits
1 zebra hermit
1 emerald crab
would like to have some shrimp to like a coral banded or/and others.
got to have variety that why want all the different snails and crabs
 
pclown

pclown

Member
I like it! I really love the Bangii Cardnial. That is my favorite Cardnial
One thing though, I have read where Coral Banded Shrimp has killed small fish but I have never seen it.
 
zanoshanox

zanoshanox

Active Member
CB's are really agressive and they sometimes go after fish, and especially other shrimps..I would be scared to have one in there with the cleaner idea, but that's just me :)
 
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