New 14g nano-cube

[bumble]

Hi,

So I started a thread in the "general" section, where I was handed a plethera of information about moving the tank from our office to home. So it's all set up and great but figured I'd move to here being it's a nano cube.

I'm new to the saltwater game. I have a 55g brackish with puffers + bumble bee's and a dragon goby that's been up for about a year and a half. I've always wanted a saltwater but they are expensive to setup so that's been my biggest deterrent, that and space. When a buddy at work asked if I wanted his 14g nano-cube for free I jumped on the opportunity. So now I have a fully stocked and operating nano-cube and I'm scrambling to figure everything out. Right now I'm in research and maintenece mode. He was taking care of everything but not really upkeeping it all. So last night I was cleaning off the algea from the glass and tonight I'm on to repairing the fans in the hood and possibly ordering replacements.

I try to find as many answers as I can but sometimes you just have to ask, for starters, was he, and now am I overstocked? All the fish I think are somewhere from 2-3"
x1 Watchman Goby
x1 Starry Blenny
x1 Tomato clown
x1 royal gramma
x1 pom pom crab

I think this is his cleanup crew
turbo snails, blue leg hermits, nassarious snails, trochas snails

As for corals
richordia mushrooms, a lot (IMO to many) pulsing xenia + kenya trees, and a big ~5-6" green brain coral, some zoathids

Also should I put a skimmer in the back? recommendations? I do plan to look them up before buying if one is needed but knowing where to start is always helpful.

I'm not planning any real fish changes till I get the tank up to snuff but my wife and I would love to do a clownfish or two, possibly one being a black and white. I still have to do research on these guys.

Anyhow, thats it for now. Pics will come later. I have to get back to work even though I will probably end up back here in 10 minutes reading someone else's nano-tank experience to get to konw a bit more.

[pepper815]

ok well i say ur overstocked already.....my suggestion would be sell sell sell!
the corals and fish!..... start anew! this way u can clean the tank add the mods like replacing the return pump with the maxi 900, getting the oceanic protein skimmer... possibly upgrading the lighting, turning the 2nd chamber into a fuge....depending on if he hasn't already! and all this can be helped paid for by selling the stock on ebay or 2 local fish store for most likely store credit!

if u have more questions send me a private message.

[pepper815]

also what i ment by clean was...............the filtration to get rid of all the waste and if u wanted change sand to get rid of all the waste build up!
but keep the water and if u were to do this..... pretty sure after u kinda cleaned house a lil it would still be ok and u wouldn't have to recycle the tank!

but then u could have ur clowns(:

[bumble]

pepper,

Thanks for the advice, This weekend I need to find 50mm replacement fans for the hood, the one doesn't work and the other makes some noise. The tank is all re-setup at my house, we had to get it out of his cube and I didn't know how long everything could set in buckets, so this is going to be a WIP on a running tank

I'd post some pics but it's not allowing me to post yet. If you want to see them paste this into your address bar
russellstenberg.com/trip_pics/tank/
and add to the end
Tank
1.jpg

brain
2.jpg

Tomato
3.jpg

I don't know what this is.
4.jpg

mushrooms
5.jpg

Watchman Goby
6.jpg

Starry blenny
7.jpg

Urchen
8.jpg

[pepper815]

unfortunately it wont let me!
why dont u send them 2 pepperrules2008@gmail.com and ill take a peek!

[Loverotties]

Sounds over stocked ,if you do wc every week don't need but always good to have a skimmer.

[bumble]

Thanks for the advice,

I just did my first water change and checked the SG, it's a bit high so I'll be doing some small water changes over the next week with freshwater to bring it down. I purchased the water from the fish store, it's gone through the filters it needs to go though to be tank safe. Ro/Di is the abbreviation I think.

Skimmer installed + running. He had one but wasn't using it, so I grabbed an airstone and running.

The temps a bit high so I unplugged and removed the heater. he wasn't using it at work and I don't think I will need it here, but we will see.

The pics were mostly just showing off, nothing to be worried about. But it's time for the caps game 6 + I'm going to repair the broken hood fan so thanks for the followups.

[bumble]

OK, fans are back and both working

Now I've got a lighting question. He did an "upgrade" I guess, there are built in blue LED's that I guess are part of the hood (he didn't have the Oceanic manual), he also has three sets of lights - two coralife, one unmarked, 24w Actinic, 10k 24w, pl-24W/110v 10k. the Actinic is all blue, the generic light has blue + white, and the othe light is all white.

Here's now I understand how the lights are supposed to work the Actinic light comes on an hour before and stays on an hour after the other two lights. The LED's are on all hours.

Is this right?

[yetti]

Hello,

the hours for the lighting sound about right. The Actinic lights come on before and go out after the 10K (or daylight) lights to simulate the dawn/dusk period. The LEDs are Moonlights, which as you might guess simulate the moon. They can be left on at all times.

How long are they on for? should be about 12 hours for the actinics...

Cheers,

[bumble]

Ha, I was right... research wins again

I have the Actinic lights on for 10 or 11 hours, not sure. I finally found the manual online for the insane power strip he has. I believe it's made by a company called "zilla", it's a dual timer with 4 different colored outlets. I finally figured out how to make it all work properly, so the LED's are on at night, they turn off when the Actinic light turns on and the 10k's turn on an hour after.

Next task is I need to bring the temp down because it's running around 84 and do a few 1/2 gallon FW changes over the next week. I figured out his refractometer last night (which is very cool). Once I had it calibrated right I was reading an SG of about 1.028 and according to online sites I want to be around 1.023-1.025.

Thanks for all the help and following along so I don't erraicate everything he gave me.

[yetti]

Yes you should bring the temp down to around 78-82 range, but be careful and try not to make the change too fast. The same goes for salinity, the target you have is ok, but adjust it slowly.

[bumble]

It's weird I pulled the heater entirely and it's been almost 48 hours and the temp of the water hasn't gone down one deg.

Next three things.... fuge, return valve, chemicals
Turning the middle compartment into a fuge. I've read they are really not needed for a tank of this size. What's your opinion? What's the benefit for one also? Through reading I've found that I should use some algea called Cheato and various critters, but what critters?
Looking online I found this guy who apparently sells custom media basket/fuge in one unit that's designed for nanotanks. Anyone have any exp with mediabaskets nanocube fuge/light combos? IYO are they worth the $40?

Return Valve
Is it easy to replace the existing valve with the maxi 900?

Chemicals
The guy I got it from had a few different chemicals, one was for calcium and I think the other three were for water quality. With weekly water changes are any of these, or others, even needed?

[YLChik]

Best rule of thumb is don't add it if you don't test for it

So if you are not testing for calcium ect then don't add it.

Yes it is easy to replace the pump with an MJ ( though I have not done it)

Can I ask why you are considering a fuge?
I am of the mind that in a tank like this you want to keep detritus from settling in those compartments, so keeping everything out of them is one of the best ways to do that.
In a smaller tank the more junk that settles the bigger issues you will have with nitrates and phosphates ( which will fuel algae blooms). In a different set up a fuge may be worthwhile, but in this application I think you are going to trap more junk than you are able to process with the cheato.

hth

[bumble]

I wasn't sure on the chems but I do like the "don't add if you don't need" theory. And so far everything seems to be doing great. So I'll hang on to them for a bit just in case but I don't plan on using any.

As for the Fuge, I've decided against it. In fact I pulled out the oceanic skimmer upon reading more peoples experiences with both + tanks of this size. Seems like just weekly water changes are plenty.

I am going to be adding his chiller though because the temp won't go below 88

[YLChik]

sounds like an excellent plan!