nano cube filtration ...what do you use?

[newhomes4reef]

I've been visiting nano-reef.com and have seen so many different ways to set up a nano cube but wanted to see if anyone local has experience with this...the folks over there aren't nearly as friendly as everyone here is!! I have a first generation 12 gal JB Nano Cube w/ sponges in the first compartment of the overflow, live rubble in the 2nd w/ a bag o carbon and bag o' phosban, and finally bio balls in the 3rd compartment w/ the pump. I have the stock lighting, about 15 lbs of live rock, and 3" dsb. I bought it as an established tank with some zoos, bubble tip, gsp, engineer gobie, 3 blue chromis, etc. I have a 145 reef that now seems easy in comparison as i've already noticed how drastically things can be affected in such a small environment. I'm still spending the majority of my monthly pet budget on my diabetic dog and my display tank but would like to build this tank into something i could bring to my office to zone into when i need to decompress!! I had a pretty big algae bloom which i think occured due to the move and disturbing the established dsb, so I have moved nearly everything that came with the nano into my 145 so i could start from scratch.
thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Jeff

[Richard]

I agree with Joshua. We have a little 12gallon jbj at the store. The sponges, bioballs and ceramic rings were tossed before I ever set it up. It gets a 1 gallon water change a week. It's not an awesome tank but not bad considering it's only been worked on a total of about 3 hours since setting it up and that includes setting it up.

[markgsa]

i have one 12g nano df and i have chemi pure and two sponges in first chamber, along with the stock pump pushing out the vents. second and third have live rock rubble, and fourth is a rio 200, and a visi therm heater. i also upgraded the lights from the 24w to 68w, 48w are 50/50 and 20w are actinic. things have been great so far. i plan to add kents, mixed bed resin to replace chemi pure.

[cvonseggern]

I run mine with as much rock rubble in the sump as I can cram in, and a bag of chemi-pure to boot. As long as I resisted the temptation to tinker it was remarkably stable until the half-canister-of-flake incident...

Chris

[smelleybrad]

I run my nano with what it came with and everyones thats been to house says its awsome. Its been running for a while now and I have not had any problems. I just due a weekly water change of a 1 to 2 gallons.

[6LINE]

Brad, no problems ehhh? ;) What about the poor clown that mysteriously disappeared? Now that sounds like a problem.... J/K. LOL, just wanted to give you a hard time.

BTW, I am also running my nano w/ everything that came w/ it. And my xenia are going wild, and they pulse like mad!!

[newhomes4reef]

I think i'll leave it as is for a while and follow the 1 gal / week water changes. I think i like having the sponge filter in the first chamber to get the big stuff and it's pretty accessible to clean. I do think i need to do something with the light though...it's pretty pathetic in stock form.

Markgsa...did you retro the light upgrade yourself or buy a kit? Any trouble with heat? By the way...mine is a first generation cube...not the De Luxo turbo super model!

thanks,
Jeff

[markgsa]

Jeff, i got the kit from nanocustoms.com. i too have the og with fans. it comes with everything you need, except a soldering iron(cheap at wal-mart) and some screws. check out the sight and if you have any questions he'll answer them for you. as far as heat goes, the fans are keeping it under control. the fans run faster because they run off the pony ballast. hope everything works out great. oh yeah now i have spare parts for a 5 1/2 gallon nano from the stock clips,ballast, and fans, so it works out great. any question or concerns let me know.
it'll never end....
mark

[dwdenny]

Is the stock lighting in the DX modle enought to keep, Muchrooms, and rhodactis? I was thinking of puting one in my office but was a little concerned about the lighting. Also how often do you all change out the lights

[wfrancis]

I've got a new eclipse 12 this the stock filtration and lighting taken out. I put in a retrofit 96 watt powerquad and a Aquaclear 300 HOB filter. i'm using all the filtration that came with the AC 300. Since the tank is new, i've still got a lot of die off material from the LR so I need the mechanical filtration to remove it from the tank. Except for out of control algea, the tank looks great. I do want to build a fuge/sump for it. I'm not going to put any new live stock in for a few weeks and see if my algae problem dies down. if not i'll build the fuge. I don't think you need much filtration once the tank is established and if you keep up with water changes.

[markgsa]

i have'nt changed my lights out. they are still running good. as far as lighting i think its okay for the shrooms. but that is just my 2 cents. any other comments on this topic will be awesome because i am too sometimes sceptical of what i can put in my nano. i just plan on keeping my lps's and shrooms.

[dwdenny]

oh no i wouldn't do that! I like the softies myself that will be all that goes into it and of course a fish or two.

[TexasState]

How noisy is your nano cube system? Do you get dizzy looking at the tank since the tank looks kind of curved.

[markgsa]

texasstate, what noise? mine is quiet. dizzy no. nice system actually.

[blueboy]

i've got a custom 18G cube(16x16x16) with 2x18W PCs, this is sufficient for shrooms, and capnella. in fact the 2 red shrooms i put in there about 3 months ago are now 5, they're multiplying faster than the ones in my reef! probably because of the dirty water(it's a mantis tank). that's why the lighting is so low.

[farrah]

I have the original stock lighting (just 24 watts) and keep zoos (Zooanthus, Palythoa, and Protopalythoa), shrooms (Discosoma, Rhodactis, and Ricordia), a leather (Sarcophyton), and blastos (Blastomussa welsi). I've had this tank set up for over a year, and everything seems to do just fine. Believe it or not, I even have some sps (no idea what kind) growing on one of my zoo rocks. There was a tiny patch of it when I bought the coral. I figured it would jsut die, and instead it has grown.

[newhomes4reef]

i like looking at the curves...makes the shrooms look bigger! :) It's definitely very quiet but i have a bone stock original one for the moment. I was looking at it earlier thinking that if they just made the housing a few inches deeper you could quite possibly retro a small skimmer back there sorta like my DAS set up!

[newhomes4reef]

farrah, what are you using for filtration in yours? What kind of maintenance are you doing? What are you feeding?

[farrah]

Filtration - I left the sponges in the first chamber for particulate matter, but removed all of the other media. I have about 10 lbs of really porous fiji rock and aobut 10 lbs of live sand for biological filtration.

Maintenance- Weekly waterchanges of about 2 gallons (when I'm being good). As part of the waterchange, I suck out as much detritus as I can with airline tubing from the rocks, sand, and back chambers of the tank. I also rinse out the gunk from the sponges and clean the glass at that time too.

Feeding- Daily, I feed my fish and shrimp 2-3 small pellets. After reading an article about stirring up top of the sandbed and cleaning algae off the glass to release algae into the water to feed your corals, I tried that for a long time. Whether or not the corals benefitted from it or not, I don't really know. I just bought two giant feather dusters, though, so I'm trying to feed Liquid Life BioPlankton again... I don't want them to starve and don't know that the previous trick is enough. I just swirl in a tooth-pick's worth every couple days or so. Occasionally, I also feed some of the corals mysis shrimp- some of the shrooms and palythoa will eat them and my shrimp goes crazy. I don't do it too often, though, because I'm worried about overfeeding and my baster sucks at target feeding. I've kind of adopted the philosophy that if your tank doesn't have to have it, don't do it. It seems to stay more balanced when you don't add all kinds of stuff to it... at least the nano.

[farrah]

Oh, and I have a handfull of chaeto tucked behind a rock for nutrient export.

[CD]

We have seen Farrahs nano and it looks fantastic.
I would say that whatever she does maintainence-wise definitely works for her nano.

Farrah, we may have to talk about one of those rics one of these days. :innocent
Perhaps we have something that we could trade, if and when you are ready to let one go?

Chris

[newhomes4reef]

yes, pics please!! Give me hope!! :)

[farrah]

Well, apparently I can't link to my nano-reef.com gallery outside their forum, so you'll have to view them through my post there:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=457937

[farrah]

Chris,

Do you mean the blue and orange ones? I will let you know when I'm ready to chop one off, but not yet :) I was actually thinking I need more of them at this point. They had a bunch of really nice ones at Aquatek last week, but they were $75/rock. I don't have anywhere to put a big rock, anyway. I need another aquarium.

[CD]

[quote="farrah"]Chris,

Do you mean the blue and orange ones? quote]

Yes Farrah,
Those would be the ones.
Someday when you wish to give one up, let me know please.
I just cant bring myself to buy (or maybe afford) a rock of them.
Thanks,

Chris

[markgsa]

i just picked up a nice ric at fin-addict, i think its the same one in the picture, he still has another one, so you should maybe stop by and check his place out, and it went in my nano cube. :skeezy

[AlexKilpatrick]

Just chiming in here. My nanocube is bare-bottom, and I never had an algae bloom. I intended to change the water every week, but it has been more like every 3 weeks. I have no problems at all with it, and everything looks great. It is very quiet, just a slight hum from the fans. I don't get dizzy looking at it. :-) The curve isn't that pronounced.

[newhomes4reef]

what do you think about putting some cheato in one of the back compartments?

[Ram_Puppy]

joshua, are you up late to keep me company? :)

[newhomes4reef]

I'm going to send a link to this thread to my wife...so she knows there are "others" like me that surf aquarium sites until wee hours!

[markgsa]

I'm going to send a link to this thread to my wife...so she knows there are "others" like me that surf aquarium sites until wee hours!

LOL :lol

[farrah]

The chaeto will die in the back compartments unless you install a light over it. The stock light doens't light up the back.