It's a nano!

[dksart]

Originally Posted by reefernana

I like your rocks! I spent many hours last Sat. re-acquascaping mine, too. I added my last 2 rocks so now I have 26 lbs with 40 lbs of live sand. I have the same brand you used but I chose the West Carribean Reef. Mine is a 29g biocube and has been going since May 1st. I have 3 hermits, 1 peppermint, 1 emerald, 50+ ilyanassa snails, 3 coral frags and I just added my first fish yesterday, a lawnmower blenny. He is so cute and what a personality! Here's a picture:

Nice! I really like your set-up. I'm still playing around with different rock formations and you may have just given me more inspiration.

 

[dksart]

Originally Posted by ric maniac
hey lookin good. has your tank cycled? i wasnt sure. if it hasnt cycled yet you might not have wanted to put in the inverts. and any partifular reason why you chose grass shrimp? lol not that they are bad but its an odd choice lol
I got the grass shrimp because the guy at the LFS said it would help cycle my tank. Plus, they're really cheap. Same thing with the blue-leg hermit crabs.
Should I feed them since there's no other source of detrius.
How do I know when to add others?

 

[ric maniac]

you will know your cycle is done when the ammonia and nitrite have spiked and then gone down to 0. and i would feed them a little bit of food to get the algea going(but not too much)

 

[reefernana]

Originally Posted by dksart
Nice! I really like your set-up. I'm still playing around with different rock formations and you may have just given me more inspiration.
Thank you. I know it's so hard to know what to do! It took me forever to finally arrive at something I really liked. I wanted to have a real open look and to have good flow and I think I got it!

 

[dksart]

Help!
I re-tested and my ammonia is not a color that's on the card. Instead of being a shade of green, it's a milky translucent white. What does that mean?
My nitrites are still 0.
My pH is still 7.8 even though I dosed the tank with Marine Buffer 8.3. It said it would balance the pH up to 8.3 but it hasn't yet after two doses.
My SG is still 1.022, I'm working on that.
What now??
Oh, yeah....the nitrates are up to somewhere between 5 and 10.

 

[dksart]

New pictures!
I really like the new rock arrangement, here's some pics with and without the flash. The last two are of my hermits and grass shrimp. The shrimp like to play in the 'current'.

 

[reefernana]

Originally Posted by dksart
Help!
I re-tested and my ammonia is not a color that's on the card. Instead of being a shade of green, it's a milky translucent white. What does that mean?
Did you put both bottles of drops in the vial and shake it good? Other than that, I have no idea! I like your new rock work. Just keep testing until your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all zero. Your Ph will come up if your doing weekly water changes. I do a 4 gal water change every week.

 

[dksart]

Originally Posted by reefernana
Did you put both bottles of drops in the vial and shake it good? Other than that, I have no idea! I like your new rock work. Just keep testing until your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all zero. Your Ph will come up if your doing weekly water changes. I do a 4 gal water change every week.

Yes, I put in the drops from both bottles and shook well for one minute. I even got in touch with the company and they checked the expiration date etc. and asked me to send back the whole ammo test kit.
Meanwhile....I did the test over and it registered correctly this time. It came up a pale olive green which is zero.
Should I be doing water changes already? I thought I should wait until the tank fully cycles.

 

[reefernana]

Should I be doing water changes already? I thought I should wait until the tank fully cycles.
I've done weekly water changes since I set up 2 mos ago. That is what was suggested to me from several long timers. I use RO/IO water that I buy 4-6 gal at a time from a water station that's only a few blocks away. It's only .25/gal, so I do a 4 gal w/c every week and it's only costing me $4/mos. I have a 17 year old daughter and a 21 year old son still at home so I make them go get it for me most of the time.........lol!

 

[dksart]

Originally Posted by reefernana
I've done weekly water changes since I set up 2 mos ago. That is what was suggested to me from several long timers. I use RO/IO water that I buy 4-6 gal at a time from a water station that's only a few blocks away. It's only .25/gal, so I do a 4 gal w/c every week and it's only costing me $4/mos. I have a 17 year old daughter and a 21 year old son still at home so I make them go get it for me most of the time.........lol!

What % is that of your total volume?
The cheapest we have found is .64/gal, the LFS sells it for .99/gal.
Our girls are 15 and 18 and they don't drive! (yet)

 

[dksart]

I originally posted this on the noob board, but I was hoping for some of your input here..........
"So, we would eventually like to have a few mushrooms, some zoa's, a few feather dusters, a gorgonian, a sponge, a pair of ocellaris, a firefish, a yellow watchman, a pom-pom crab, a couple of emerald crabs, some snails, a camel and a peppermint shrimp, and another very small fish (?)."
.........I also said I wanted a long-nose hawkfish and a flame angel. Those two would only be temporary, until we get our 105 gal (some day)
Would the hawk pick on my shrimp?
I really wanted to know the order in which I should get them.

I will be patient and not try to get too many at once. They will be spaced out properly.

 

[dksart]

Hello, anybody out there?

 

[reefernana]

Originally Posted by dksart
What % is that of your total volume?
The cheapest we have found is .64/gal, the LFS sells it for .99/gal.
Our girls are 15 and 18 and they don't drive! (yet)
It's about a 16-17% water change. It's a 29g but with the rock and sand, it's volume is probably more like 24-25g. On your other question, I would add your inverts first and give them a few weeks, then it seems like 1/3 like to put corals in first then fish, then another 1/3 would put fish in then corals and the last 1/3 adds them together. I'm definitely not an expert so I don't know the best way. I think it's more of a choice. Just make sure you read up on your choices to make sure they will all get along. You seem to have a big list. You need to read and find out how many fish you should put in your size tank. For our small tanks, they usually only recommend 3 or 4.

 

[dksart]

Originally Posted by reefernana
It's about a 16-17% water change. It's a 29g but with the rock and sand, it's volume is probably more like 24-25g. On your other question, I would add your inverts first and give them a few weeks, then it seems like 1/3 like to put corals in first then fish, then another 1/3 would put fish in then corals and the last 1/3 adds them together. I'm definitely not an expert so I don't know the best way. I think it's more of a choice. Just make sure you read up on your choices to make sure they will all get along. You seem to have a big list. You need to read and find out how many fish you should put in your size tank. For our small tanks, they usually only recommend 3 or 4.

Thanks Nana!
I am looking for the opinions and advice of regular people here. I have done tons of research in books and online by reading what the experts would do. I would also like to throw in some experiences from my newest friends on this board, because I believe that the more information I gather, the better chance my tank will have at becoming successful. So, thanks again, and ask your friends to send me some comments.
On the amount of critters we will be adding.......that is still up in the air. The list I posted is only a wish list, and all of our fish will be very small.

 

[reefernana]

Originally Posted by dksart
On the amount of critters we will be adding.......that is still up in the air. The list I posted is only a wish list, and all of our fish will be very small.
Just remember, it's the size of a fish at their adulthood size that counts. And the rule they say is 1 inch of fish per every 5 gal. of water. So, as mine only has about 25g of actual water in it because of sand and rock, that would mean that I should only put in up to 5 inches worth of fish. And, that, isn't very hard to do, very quickly.

 

[dksart]

Well, we will eventually get a 105g and anything that outgrows this tank can go in there.
My husband wants a maroon clown. We were going to keep it in the 24g until it got too big, but I've been reading a lot about them bullying the other fish, so he will have to wait for the big tank.

 

[bonebrake]

In my JBJ 24 DX I tripled my flow by putting the powerhead (Maxijet 900) directly behind the hole where the flat head nozzle comes out and replacing the flat head nozzle with a Hydor-Flo head. On the Maxijet I had to add about eight inches of 1" tubing to the intake so that the intake was low enough in the back chambers to pull water.
With the way the nano cubes are currently set up you lose half or more of your gallons per hour from the resistance of the small diameter piping and the 90 degree bend it goes through to reach the main display. With my set up you only lose a few gallons per hour from the resistance of pushing the Hydor-Flo head around.
I also highly recommend a Jacksdad (Nano Bob's) surface skimmer if you don't already have a surface skimmer of some sort.
Enjoy your cube! Mine is over a year and a half old and I am moving it this weekend and it will be converted into a 90 gal. nano very soon!

 

[reefernana]

Originally Posted by Bonebrake
In my JBJ 24 DX I tripled my flow by putting the powerhead (Maxijet 900) directly behind the hole where the flat head nozzle comes out and replacing the flat head nozzle with a Hydor-Flo head. On the Maxijet I had to add about eight inches of 1" tubing to the intake so that the intake was low enough in the back chambers to pull water.
With the way the nano cubes are currently set up you lose half or more of your gallons per hour from the resistance of the small diameter piping and the 90 degree bend it goes through to reach the main display. With my set up you only lose a few gallons per hour from the resistance of pushing the Hydor-Flo head around.
I also highly recommend a Jacksdad (Nano Bob's) surface skimmer if you don't already have a surface skimmer of some sort.
Enjoy your cube! Mine is over a year and a half old and I am moving it this weekend and it will be converted into a 90 gal. nano very soon!

I have a 29g biocube, does jacksdad's skimmer work on those? And, if so, where can I get one? Thanks!

 

[bonebrake]

I don't think you need one in the 29 BioCube. I helped set my step dad's up and he doesn't have any scum on his surface.

 

[reefernana]

Originally Posted by Bonebrake
I don't think you need one in the 29 BioCube. I helped set my step dad's up and he doesn't have any scum on his surface.

Yeah, I haven't had a scum problem. I have been doing weekly 4gal water changes, tho, so that probably has been helping.