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16K views 122 replies 26 participants last post by  Paramecium 
#1 ·
So I am starting a new thread here about my new 14gal nano. The RO-DI is running atm and this afternoon I plan on hitting my LFS to get sand, LR, some salt mix and some test kits. Anything that I need to do to the tank before putting things in it? Wipe it all down I imagine with some RO? It seems most people like the idea of trashing the bio balls and filter and upgrading the return pump etc... I'll start doing all that this week. As I said I just want to get rock and sand in to start cycling then I'll work on getting it upgraded for the future inhabitants.

This is my first time mixing water, any preferences on salt? I've heard that most any will work, kent etc... And that on average it takes about half a cup of salt for every gallon of water. Refractometer the way to go? I was planning on getting just Ammonia, Nitrite and nitrate test kits to start and a refractometer for mixing. As the tank cycles I'll get more test kits to get everything in line.

~Danny





 
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#4 ·
Did you remove the bio-balls? It will probably easier, and a little cleaner, to go ahead and remove them before you get too far into it.

A refractometer is a very good idea and you will want to set your salinity at 1.025 or 1.026.

Everyone has their own favorite salt mix lists. I use Tropic Marin Pro Reef, which is probably the most expensive I get around here. I read on another thread, HMA's 115 gallon, where Heinz switches salt mixes every month. He says that is good for counteracting the fact that some mixes are lower in certain chemical amounts, such as calcium, than others are. I am seriously considering doing something like this as well. The good news for you is that a bucket of salt mix should last a very long time with less than 14 gallons of water to deal with.

I think your plan for test kits is good as well. Test for the things that are the main factor during the cycling process. You can worry about the PH, Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, and so on after the cycle is finished.

Best of luck with the build.
 
#6 ·
So the water, LR and sand are in and everything is running. The bio balls are in as well as the filter for the moment but I am open to suggestions on what to do about that situation. I figured a couple days won't hurt anything while it gets rolling. I have some pics of it going together, so far we've seen a few tiny snails and a few of the rocks had quite a few greenish looking mushrooms that I got one decent picture of. Any recommendations on a lighting schedule? I also got the refractometer, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits and went with Red Sea salt mix.

Anyone have eny experience with RO-DI water having a serious static charge? As of right now I have a 32 gallon plastic trashcan that I got specifically for keeping fresh RO-DI water in and was mixing salt in a 5 gallon bucket that I bought for use only with the tanks. I imagine with the 70 gal It will be easier to mix larger quantaties but until then the 5 gal works just fine. With rock and all it took less than 10 gals.

Tomorrow I'll test the levels in the tank and retest the salinity. The stuff I made today was about 1.024 on the refrac. So as of now everything is great, it is running and the girly and I have spent most of the day staring and spotting new snails and such. Oh there also are quite a few tiny feather duster looking things and a pink almost clear looking creature about the size of a 50 cent piece.

~Danny

I'll work on taking better pics as well LOL.















 
#11 ·
My son has a 29 biocube and we run his actnic lights 10 hrs a day - 9am -7 pm and run his white lights for 8 10am-6pm - I just leave the little led lights plugged in all the time.

Anywhere between 10 and 12 hours should be a good light cycle for you, most folks have the lights on when they are home most - so if you were gone most of the day, but were home in the evening I would make more of your light cycle for when you are home to enjoy the tank.

hth
Amy
 
#12 ·
So what are some ideas for improving the flow and filtration of the tank? I was thinking about replacing the stock pump with a MJ900 and a hydor flo and then adding a Hydor Koralia Nano PH on the other side of the tank to get things moving.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewI...heads_Fixed_Flowrate_Pumps~vendor~~tab~2.html

The filter, sponge and bio balls should come out I imagine and I think tonight they will. I thought it may be good to keep them in at first to get some of the junk out of the water when it first started. The filter looked pretty brown already last night so I think it is doing a good job of grabbing the big stuff for now. Should I just leave it all empty or is ther ea good cheap nano skimmer that fits into the back somehow? I have heard of people turning the center bio ball section into a fuge as well, is it worth it?

~Danny
 
#13 ·
your plans for flow sound great. I love the koralias myself.



Most things in this hobby all depends on your point of view a little i think.

I don't run a fugue, but many do so if you like the idea you may wanna go for it... you may also want to wait until you have more "yuck" for the macro to "eat"

On a 14 gallon most run that size skimmer less in these parts, BUT that doesn't mean you have to. ;)

I think staying on top of water changes is the best way to keep water quality up, but a skimmer never hurts.

Oceanic makes one that is air stone driven, you just have to replace the air stone like once a month to keep it fresh.

there is another called the Sapphire skimmer. Both these options fit into the cubes.

a good place to look for things like that is nanotuners.com


If you wanna get super fancy you can make a sump and throw in whatever kind of skimmer you like.
 
#14 ·
So would you recommend taking out the filter, sponge and bio balls and running nothing for filtration other than the LR and sand that is in the tank? Should I run the filters and such for another day or two to get large particulates out? I understand that the reason for removing them is to prevent them putting pollutants back into the system but I would think it would take a little bit of time for that to happen.

The Oceanic skimmer looks like it could be mounted in the back where the filter is currently located but I can't be sure without looking at one in hand.

~Danny
 
#15 ·
Danny,
Yeah I would take all that stuff out of the middle chamber so you can build up your bacteria within the tank. I am definitely part of the no bio-ball crowd.

It is true that the reason people say take them out is the harboring of nasties, but in your case you are just starting your tank and we want all the bacteria to live on things that are staying in the tank, that is why I suggest taking them out now.

i think that oceanic fits in that middle compartment I have seen them at our lfs - they are really tiny- about the size of your hand :)
 
#16 ·
And the carbon filter as well should be trashed? My understanding is that it all gets trashed and some LR rubble goes into the middle chamber. I'll upgrade the stock pump to the 900 with a hydor flow and add the hydor nano PH on the other side. Some people seem to think that the skimmer isn't needed until later on when you add some bio load to the tank. What am i missing?
 
#20 ·
Putting LR in the center chamber can end up doing the same thing as the bioballs.....breed nitrates. One option is to add some filter floss on top of the drip tray, that will catch extra stuff as if flows through the back.

I went with the fuge in the center chamber, I'm happy with it.

Keep a carbon filter on hand in case you need one, but reality is, they are no good after a week, use them as needed if your dosing chemicals like Flat worm exit or something.

So when I got home from work today the tank temp was sitting at 86. Any ideas for cooling this thing down? Not sure how high it may have gotten during the day.

~Danny
Do you have AC??? if your ambient temp in your house is going that high, you're going to have trouble keeping your temps down. You can lift the feeding hatch and set a fan aiming at the tank, that will help keep temps down. You can also get new lighting and make it an open top.
 
#17 ·
So I got the MJ 900 and koralia nano PH in the tank. Any advice on a way to fix the MJ in the chamber? Right now I have it hooked up to the hose and outlet that came with the tank. I couldn't seem to figure out a good way to get in in with a suction cup of any sort so it is just sitting at an angle in the bottom with the hose holding it down. I also removed the bio balls and sponge and rinsed the filter with RO-DI water and put it back in for another day. I moved the rock a bit so I stirred up a lot of loose stuff and wanted to catch some of it to clear the tank up.

I got a thermometer as well and the tank currently is running about 82 degrees which seems a bit warm. I did tests for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate to get a baseline so we'll see how things progress.

~Danny







 
#21 ·
Well I went with a fan overnight and today to see how much difference it made. Was 86 when I went to sleep and with the hood open about an inch and the fan on high it was down to 76 this morning. The girly just texted me that it was at 70 when she went to work so she had turned down the fan. I have no AC so other than a chiller this may be the way to go for the summer months. in the winter I don't see it being a problem. I was thinking of getting a stealth heater and using the fan to control the temp.

I took everything out of the back. I ran the charcoal for a couple days to grab a lot of the big stuff that was stirred up initially but now the water is pretty clear. i may try the floss on the overflow tray to filter out any particulates and just change it every few days. So I need to have anything back there or is it ok to run with nothing like that? I was thinking about getting one of the nano skimmers but wasn't sure how effective they really are.

The tank has only been up and cycling for 3 days so i'm hoping the erratic temp swings won't be too big of a deal. I'm going to try and grab the heater tonight so hopefully I can get the temperature thing under control.

~Danny
 
#22 ·
The fan seems to be working although evaporating a ton of water. That's worakble though so no big deal, I'll just top it off every day. Salinity is sitting at 1.026. I haven't retested the ammonia, nitrite and nitrates yet but I plan on doing that tomorrow. The temp was up from 70 to 74 on the tank when the girlfriend got home so she turned the fan off and it was at 78 when I arrived. I picked up a stealth heater on the way home and put it in the 1st chamber after I pulled out the bottom tray. I turned the fan back on low with the heater set for 77 and hopefully they will balance each other out. The few shrooms had perked back up and were looking happy.

I also got some floss and cut out a piece that I put on top of the overflow tray for the 2nd chamber. Hopefully that will pick up some of the small particles floating around in the tank. I'll post some pics later.

~Danny
 
#23 ·
The tank seems to be holding right about 78 degrees so i think that issue has been resolved. I do have a few questions though. The rocks I bought from the LFS were in their tank and I imagine are either cured or partially cured depending on how long they had been in the shop. The sand was a 20lb bag of live sand. Will the tank still make a full cycle or do I need to bury a dead shrimp in the sand etc to kickstart it? I plan on checking the ammonia, trite and trate again tonight. Just wondering if in the long run it is better to trigger a full blown cycle.

I took out the carbon filter and just put some floss on top of the overflow tray in chamber 2 to polish the water a bit. I read on one site that you needed some activated carbon in the tank for the cycle, is this true and should I buy a bag to stick in the back or should it be ok without it? I have the lights set for the actinics to come on an hour before and stay on an hour after the compacts and the LED's are on at night when the others are off. Is this ok during the initial cycle?

I also am seeing more and more tiny snails that look like miniature snails from your home garden. Should I just leave them in there and let them keep eating at this time? Not sure I could get them all out anyhow, they really only come out at night and there are a lot of them haha.

~Danny
 
#25 ·
The tank seems to be holding right about 78 degrees so i think that issue has been resolved. I do have a few questions though. The rocks I bought from the LFS were in their tank and I imagine are either cured or partially cured depending on how long they had been in the shop. The sand was a 20lb bag of live sand. Will the tank still make a full cycle or do I need to bury a dead shrimp in the sand etc to kickstart it? I plan on checking the ammonia, trite and trate again tonight. Just wondering if in the long run it is better to trigger a full blown cycle.

It sure won't hurt. I would just put a cube of frozen food or some flake food in the tank, but a shrimp if ya got it will work too. The shrimp should really ramp up your good bacteria.

I took out the carbon filter and just put some floss on top of the overflow tray in chamber 2 to polish the water a bit.
This is a good idea, just remember to change it out every few days.

I read on one site that you needed some activated carbon in the tank for the cycle, is this true and should I buy a bag to stick in the back or should it be ok without it?
You'll be fine with out it. I run carbon to clean up yellow water, or to help reduce chemical warfare with soft corals.

I have the lights set for the actinics to come on an hour before and stay on an hour after the compacts and the LED's are on at night when the others are off. Is this ok during the initial cycle?

Sure, the cycle doesn't need light, but we do to find all those cool things in the tank!

I also am seeing more and more tiny snails that look like miniature snails from your home garden. Should I just leave them in there and let them keep eating at this time? Not sure I could get them all out anyhow, they really only come out at night and there are a lot of them haha.

hmmm can you describe them more. I am not so good with the hitchhickers, some are good some not so much ;) But it sure is fun to look for life on the rocks isn't it!

~Danny
So I tested the tank again today and the results were the same as on Monday. I don't expect it to cycle in a week but am I wrong in thinking there should be a spike happening somewhere? The temp is holding steady at 79 though so that seems good.

.50 Ammonia
.25 Nitrite
20 Nitrate

~Danny
What test kits are you using... just helps us get a better handle on what you are reading ;)

That seems like a good start to me though.
 
#27 ·
Actually the API test for the most part IMO are just fine. Comparing them to some of the other kits I have seem to have fairly similar results;)

I have a mix of API, salifert and redsea. I'm thinking about trying out some elos and a few others. I like to have a back up for each kit, pH, ca, mag, alk, po4 and no3. Although I really only test for ca, alk and mag with any frequency.
 
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