High Tide Aquatics

Jugato's 28g Nano Cube

jugato

jugato

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I get to start my tank journal from the very beginning as the tank is brand new. It is a JBJ 28g Nano Cube LED. I'm running the stock lighting:
  • Daylight – 25 x 3 Watt – 14K
  • Dawn/Dusk – 4 x 3 Watt – Actinic/466nm
  • Moon – 2 x 1 Watt – Nite-Vu/456nm

    I have the dawn/dusk lights on from 11:00 - 23:00 and the daylights run from 13:00 - 21:00. I'm currently leaving the moonlights on all the time, but I'm not sure I'm going to continue doing that as they are pretty bright just by themselves.

    I removed the media basket from the main filter chamber. The only thing in there now is a bag of GFO since Robert from Neptune recommended it and because my water tested positive for PO4. I'm not currently running a protein skimmer but expect to add one in the future after I have a nice population of "little critters".

    I added roughly 20 pounds of live rock on 7/17. Once I got it home I realized that it wasn't going to be enough. During the next week, while the rock was just sitting on the bare bottom, I built a Fly Guy's DIY invisible rock lift.
    34753_407873727822_544722822_4651414_4352570_n.jpg

    I built it out of acrylic despite having read a post or two on here saying that fiberglass was superior to acrylic. Time will tell if I made a mistake.

    This past weekend (7/24) I added the rock lift, 40 pounds of sand and about 12 pounds of Key Largo dry rock to the tank resulting in how the tank looks today.
    38951_409167347822_544722822_4687554_3339343_n.jpg


    Here's a close up picture of the rock lift in action.
    38951_409167352822_544722822_4687555_1898543_n.jpg


    Next up for the tank is hooking up the ATO. Other than that, I'm not planning on making any changes for a couple of weeks in order to see what life comes out of the rocks.

    Update from 8.7.2010
    Hooked up the ATO.

    Added:
    • Sunset Monti
    • Superman Monti
    • Green & Yellow Zoas
    • Blue Cloves Polyps (removed 8.10.2010 before they could take over my tank)
    • 3 Cerith Snails
    • 3 Margarita Snails (have since learned that these aren't really warm water species and shouldn't really be in our tanks)


      Update from 8.14.2010
      Started feeding some Phyto and Oyster Feast I won in the raffle at the swap, though at about 1/2 recommended starting dosage.

      Added:
      • Favia given to me by 99sf
      • Green Eyed Echinopora given to me by 99sf
        Green Star Polyps
        Idaho Grape Montipora
        Tyree Sky Blue Acropora Millepora
        Orange Skirt Zoas
        Blue Zoas
        4 Dove Shell Snails (Strombus grazers) DBTC from zepplock

      Update from 8.19.2010
      Started dosing ESV B-Ionic 2-part.

      Update from 8.28.2010
      Put a Vortech MP10 in the tank on reefcrest mode for some extra water movement.

      Added:

      3 tiny Nassarius snails to sift through the sand (one of which climbed out of the tank a few days later and died)

    Update from 9.4.2010
    Converted the main filter chamber in the back of the tank to a mini refugium by adding some Chaeto and lighting it on a reverse daylight cycle. pH has been much more stable since though it does still move around a bit at times.

    Added:

    Prism Favia frag (single polyp)
    Florescent green unidentified Acropora frag (dead, RTN'ed)
    Pale blue unidentified Acropora frag
    Birdsnest frag (Pocillopora or Seriatopora?)

Update from 9.11.2010
Added:
  • DBTC - Purple Fungia plate frag from sfboarders


    Update from 10.8.2010
    Added some frags given to me by yardartist at the meeting:
    • DBTC - Orange Montipora digitata
    • DBTC - Montipora aequituberculata
    • Turbinaria


      Update from 11.13.2010
      Added:
      • DBTC - Purple valida frag from from Tumbleweed
      • DBTC - Green Acropora bottle brush frag from Tumbleweed
      • DBTC - Eagle Eye Zoas from newhobby


        Update from 12.11.2010
        Added:
        • Peach colored Lobophyllia I won in the raffle


          Update from 3.19.2011
          Put an AquaC Remora protein skimmer driven by a Rio+ 800 pump on the tank. The pump just fits in one of the side compartments in the back and with the skimmer output going back into the largest compartment.

          Update from 3.26.2011
          Added:
        • One Mexican Turbo snail to eat the red turf algae which was getting out of control

        Update from 04.03.2011
        Added:
      • 2 head Duncan frag
        Meteor Shower Cyphastrea frag
        2 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner shrimp
        2 Nassarius

      Update from 04.16.2011
      Added:

      2 ORA Orchid Dottybacks (1 died a few days later.)

    Update from 05.14.2011
    Came home from BAYMAC with a bunch of corals for which I didn't really have room. Squeezed them all in. Unfortunately I realized after the fact that I miscalculated the povidone dose (doubled it) for the Montis. They are very unhappy, having lost most of their tissue. I don't know if they are going to make it.

    A green and pink chalice I bought from Neptune
    Some Palythoas I got from Stewart's Frag Farm
    2 Ricordea from Sustainable Reefs; one blue, one orange
    Frogspawn frag from the BAR tank
    (JAR's ?) Montipora undata from the BAR tank
    A green Montipora with red polyps from the BAR tank
 
houser said:
Nice lift!!
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Thanks! I'm really happy with how it turned out. It took way longer to build than I ever would have expected and I even had 2 friends helping me with the drilling and grinding.
 
Very nice. Where/how did you get the ends of the rods to have grooves? A couple of plates/brains etc and you'll never know the rods are there :D
 
iCon said:
Very nice. Where/how did you get the ends of the rods to have grooves?
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Using a friend's bench grinder. I couldn't quite figure it out myself but luckily had 2 other, more handy, guys helping me out with that part.
 
sfboarders said:
First time I've seen a rock lift. Will you add more sand or is it going to be levitating? :)
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It's going to levitate. :) This way there is good water circulation under the rocks and hopefully they'll trap less detritus.
 
A_Lee said:
You may want to consider rearranging the rocks so you have enough room to clean the glass on the sides.
Click to expand...

My NanoMag fits between the rock & glass. Hopefully that is sufficient because the idea of rearranging the rock is not appealing. I'm pretty sure I spent about 5 hours fitting the pieces into their current configuration. I'm not completely happy with it as it looks a bit more "rock wall" than it really is, but this was by far the best configuration I was able to come up with. At least without heading back to TAP Plastics for more rods and starting to drill the rocks in order to build up higher.
 
Updating on the progress of my tank. After letting it sit more or less untouched for the past couple of weeks I decided to do some work on it this weekend. I finally got around to installing the ATO and I also now have my heater and circulation pumps plugged into a UPS in case of power outages.

I was letting the algae grow to provide food for the little critters. It seemed to work as I have lots of copepods scurrying across the glass, though I'm not seeing many amphipods. My tank was starting to look a little unkempt though.
39801_413414182822_544722822_4809942_1762924_n.jpg


The water params have been looking good since last weekend so I decided it was time to add to the tank even though I probably should have waiting longer. To deal with the algae I added 3 Cerith and 3 Margarita snails. I also added some small coral frags to test out how they would do, all of which are currently hiding out in the shade under the rocks so that I can try to acclimate them to my lights.
38664_413418932822_544722822_4810121_3403505_n.jpg


Sunset and Superman Montis
38898_413414212822_544722822_4809945_4721863_n.jpg


Green and yellow (Green Bay Packer?) zoas
38898_413414222822_544722822_4809947_1520884_n.jpg


Unknown softie which looks like tiny, blue clove polyps. Can anyone give me a correct id? Google searches seems to turn up a lot of confusion about them.
35978_413416102822_544722822_4810079_5006088_n.jpg


Sorry about the poor picture quality. Turns out the camera in my phone takes the best pictures out of the 3 cameras I have, which isn't saying much. I may have to invest in a "real" camera so that I can get better pictures.
 
Thanks. I guess I may come to regret the blue cloves as I know many people find them to be a plague. I really like the way they look though. What I read on the internet (so it must be true, right? :bigsmile:) is that while they can spread like wildfire they aren't aggressive at all and will fall back to advancing corals. Is that true, or should I get them out now before it's too late?
 
That is not what I have found. I have found they will irritate corals making them recede. I have found them to be one of the worst soft coral plagues ever. I lost about a 1/4 of my favorite corals to those damn things.... have fun, they not only spread but breed both sexually and asexually in aquaria and will end up every where at some point. Damn things were growing in my sump with no light!!!
 
There bad, Ive token my rock out boil it and its still growing. I think its growing faster since I boiled my rock. lol. If I was you take it out, but if you want more PM me I got some for you. ;) since you seem to :love: those things. 8)
 
the best thing about the cloves is they seem to compete and win against nuisance algae including pub algae. I find that my SPS kill them back, but LPS and zoas lose the fight
 
Roc said:
the best thing about the cloves is they seem to compete and win against nuisance algae including pub algae. I find that my SPS kill them back, but LPS and zoas lose the fight
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:lol: OK what's pub algea... did you mean pube algae and if so what are you calling that? I gotta know, is it hair algae?
 
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