My 12 gallon tank..Pics!

[Anonymous]

To busy to borrow the digicam right now, and there's nothing to photograph yet anyway. It's a JBJ 12 gallon glass nanocube, and I decided to not modify it besides adding a large pump and remove all the filter media.

The filtration is 15 lbs of live rock from www.harboraquatics.com . I'm a little disappointed that the rock has some Aiptasia anemones on it, but otherwise it looks very good. Lots of nice coralline algae, a hitchiker astrea snail, and a gargantuan (about 6") bristleworm. There is also a tiny crab which is probably a coral predator, but I'm leaving him in. The sandbed is shallow, about 1", and is Southdown sand. The water is natural sea water from

I'll post pics when I get the orchid dottyback pair next month

EDIT: Scratch that, never got them for this tank.

 

[brandon4291]

I can't wait to see it unfold. I too am wanting to go with a shallower sandbed or try the GSP grass mat technique, anything that would allow for better detritus removal at cleaning time and still look decent. Your one inch sandbed should keep detritus easy to remove, any probing or vaccuming of it would turn over 90% of the sandbed and remove a host of otherwise unwanted protein material. Not that this would even be necessary when the full range of reef inhabitants are up and running, but at least if you ever had a problem of some kind the "nutrient sink" characteristic of a crashing Nano would be reduced.

Im sure it will be great when its complete, pics when you can!

B

 

[UnderGrad]

Its about time you set up another one!!! :wink:

-AM-

 

[Bleeding Blue]

No external sump for the pumps this time?

M

 

[Anonymous]

Nope, I left it as is. The only thing I added was a little overflow box, a stronger pump, and some weather stripping to keep the light from coming out the crack between the hood and tank. I only plan on keeping a hardy leather or some mushrooms and zoanthids, nothing too tough.

 

[Bleeding Blue]

What kind of lights?

M

 

[brandon4291]

Matt, when I was looking at this new nano package at my LFS I noticed it came with a nice reef-ready ballast and bulb, a 28 watter right? Did you see how there was room for right at 3 or four of these bulbs under the hood after you remove the reflector, clearly one would need to use external ballasts and fan or vent the canopy a little but it seemed nice to have the lighting upgrade space. Do you plan on using the supplied bulb, which IMO would be fine for any specimen placed middle-to-high on your rock wall>? PS, I think the power quad would fit on this one no?



B

 

[Anonymous]

The light supplied is a 24W 10K/actinic bulb. Very nice color. The color is quite similar to your setup Mike, but it's a bit more intense. There is probably room for two more bulbs of equal size in the waterproof section. The ballast is housed in the hood, so if you removed it and the reflector and wired it remotely you might be able to fit two more bulbs in there. That's just too much trouble for me though. A 24W will grow soft corals just fine, and that's all I plan on keeping in this one. I think Montipora might do OK up near the top, and I'm sure eventually I'll be tempted to try that as well. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, as of a week ago I've added a pair of peppermint shrimp, some Caulerpa racemosa, and a rock of mushrooms that used to be in my 6 gallon. I thought it might be a bit too soon, but I noticed coralline algae growing on the glass so I figured water conditions must be pretty good. Anyway, the peppermints ate the Aiptasia and I'm seeing a lot of growth in a white and yellow sponge and in the Caulerpa....the strombus snails, stomatella, and copepods are starting to show themselves in greater numbers as well.

www.harboraquatics.com has GREAT live rock. I am incredibly happy with what I got, and my tank cycled almost instantly, if there even was a cycle. I highly recommend them.

 

[Anonymous]

Finally got some pics. This is my white ribbon eel, Pseudechidna brummeri. He ate the two peppermints after about a month. I can pick him completely up out of the water when he slithers through my hands, and he still comes back for more. Crazy fish.

 

[Anonymous]

Some sponges that have grown a bit. There's another bright yellow one the size of a ping pong ball, but it's too dark where it is to get a pic. The mushrooms, Rhodactis indoinensis (sp?), I think. They are three instead of one now. Xenia as well. I added Montipora digitata as well. It kept getting knocked off/broken by the eel, and it was brown as heck, so I gave it to a friend.

 

[nanocat]

Sweet Matt, nanocubes rock

How big does a ribbon eel get? He looks very cool.

 

[Zak]

Very nice setup! The Rhodactis look fantastic. What chemicals/additives to you add to your setup?

 

[Anonymous]

nanocat, they get up to about 3' IIRC. He's about 2.5' right now, believe it or not. Hopefully he won't need a larger tank, but I have one if he does.

Zak,
All I add to this tank is topoff from my tap. If you have a JBJ you know they don't evaporate much; mine is maybe a quart a week. I just toss a little dechlor in some tap water to top off. My city's water happens to have relatively high levels of Ca and carbonates, which is a bonus. I also do water changes biweekly or so, a gallon at a time.

Talk about breaking some cardinal rules of reefkeeping... :roll:

 

[Zak]

Thanks for the info Matt. Beautiful tanks you have. Absolutly love the Wave2k on your FOLR. When I get a large reef back I'll have to get one of those. New someone just has to design one of those for the JBJ's!!

We just got our JBJ up and running tonight. 15 pounds of live sand, 12 pounds of LR, but need a little more. Going to wait a week or so before adding some inverts.

Beautiful stuff, and great place for info.

 

[Anonymous]

Matt. you make it look so easy.... :

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys! If you have any more questions just let me know... I've noticed some folks like to ask me questions via PM, but there's no better place than right here where everyone can see the exchange of info. That's how the hobby advances.

 

[Anonymous]

Matt,

What fish is that in your avatar?

 

[Anonymous]

Stonogobiops yasha. Also known as a "yasha haze" "whiteray" or "clown" goby. A lot more info can be found here:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2002/Fish.htm

Great, great fish!

 

[Ticeman]

Matt,

Looks great. Do you have any pictures of your overflow box? Also what do you think of the $10 light upgrade from Walmart? If you were going to upgrade the lighting what would you recommend?

I will post some pictures of my 12 gallon Nano hopefully tomorrow. Do you save your pictures in a certain size or format? I do not want to post enormious shots.

Thanks,

Tice