Sand bed depth/ granual size in a JBJ Nano

[Zak]

Just bought a Nano Cube today. Going to build the stand tomorrow and start shopping for LR soon. One question I have is what depth is good for the nano for a nice thick sand bed? My wife would like to have a finer granular bed, she really likes the Figi Pink ultra fine. Should I add a larger granular substrate for the lower portion then top off with the finer?

I was thinking of doing a nice 2-3" bed.

Thanks a lot!

Zak

 

[brandon4291]

I would use the fiji pink ultrafine. I like smaller particle sands. In terms of allowing detritus to penetrate the sandbed, smaller grains generally restrict while larger grains tend to accept particle settling. In my beds with coarse aragonite, there was never any dust clouds on top. I could see the crud lining each chip from the sides of the glass, and it went all the way down to the bottom of the tank. Instant cross-section verification!With live sand, brown patches of light detritus were easy to filter out before they could penetrate the upper cm of the bed.

It all depends on the amount of maintenance and stocking/feeding you plan on working. IMO, the best way you could design that Nano is with a very shallow bed of that fiji pink. Disturb it greatly and siphon it regularly at water change, keeping all the dust/detritus out of the rockwork. This design allows the most flexibility with fish stocking, whereas a deeper sandbed nano needs to have more restricted stocking and much more careful feeding/export.

Welcome to our forum, glad to have you onboard.

Brandon M.

 

[Anonymous]

In a large tank, I would provide a mixture of textures.

In a nano, it may be less of an issue (because of the more frequent water changes).

But I would stick with the medium to large sand. The small sand does not allow for much water flow down there, it can be pretty gross. And having large pebbles on TOP will allow silt to fall thru them into the layer below. I guess.

In the nano I just set up, I only put 1.5" of aragonite. I'm now in the anti-DSB camp.

 

[Zak]

Thanks for the info! I was at a LFS and bought 15 pounds of live sand from him. Great stuff, it's out of his reef tanks and has tons of nice critters crawling around in there. It's a pretty fine mixture so we'll see
how it works out. I'm planning on putting in about 1- 1 1/2" of a bed. As far as stocking, I'm going to keep it on the light side. A clown goby, and well not sure yet. Still designing the setup. Going to do a bunch of softies, and a few LPS. We'll see if i can upgrade the lighting, don't want to much heat buildup, and do not want to place a fan on top.

Great tips so far I've read here and love the tanks. Glad to be back in the hobby. Been away for about 3 years, and could not resist the Nano. Just really miss having MH!

 

[Anonymous]

hey crack open your hood and look at the two vents in the center near the back. see the little screw holes? you can buy a fan and just slap it right in there if heat is an issue. the ones at the aquarium store work fine, but cost a bit more. you can also use a computer case fan, but you need a converter to switch up the powersupply . .

 

[Zak]

Did not notice them. THanksa lot! I ahve a ton of computer power supplies so it should not be a problem. Good idea! Did you put the second 32W bulb in your setup yet?

 

[Anonymous]

nope i was looking at two 9w retrofit lights - each comes in 50/50 and would more evenly distribute the illumination by taking up the empty areas in the case.

 

[brandon4291]

Guys, I just wanted to drop in to let you know I don't think you will be happy with the dual nines. It sounds like it would work great and would definately light the tank, but I assure you in time you would only upgrade it with more $$, better to do that the first time around. Im saying this because dual 9's is what I light the reefbowl with (1 gallon) and it is barely enough. The Nanocubes are 6' taller than the reefbowl so I think you'll find lower-level corals stretching for light.

My best idea for a lighting upgrade on these tanks is to just double the one provided, its a 28w right? I have seen several people just double-up the supplied lighting and successfully keep acros on top along with the standar fare.

JMO
BMason

 

[Zak]

Actually it's an odd wattage bulb at 24w. I found someone who is selling a used top to one, so I'm going to remove the current ballast and place in a second 24w bulb giving me 48w. And removing the current ballast from the lid will make things a little cooler. We'll see how well the 48 does. THanks for the info.

 

[Anonymous]

brandon the two nine's i was talking about are SUPPLEMENT. ... I already have a 32w 50/50 PC bulb crammed in there. I want to put the two nines in the leftover space... see? It would even out the illumination pattern... I wouldn't recommend going with two nines either.

 

[brandon4291]

Ahhh, a suuplement. Gotcha! Good idey.

 

[Anonymous]

lol @ your sig. i'm a rugged indoorsman too!

 

[Zak]

I was cracking up at that too. And Hwrang, your last avator was disturbing!!! Love the new one.

 

[ricky1414]

pretty kewl, from fight club, isnt it? you used to have it a while back, didnt you?

 

[Anonymous]

yeah i had to change the batman avatar. . . so i changed it to an animated one of a naugty transformer (the cartoon) gettin bizzy with spike's behind. but that didn't go over so well so i just went back to the fight club AV.