AggieMedic and Nicole Yarger's 24g NanoCube

[aggieMEDIC]

Hello, I decided to start a build log. so here it goes.

Back in 2005 I received this 24g JBJ NanoCube. I loved it. Then in 2006 we moved here to austin as i started a career and we started a family. this tank fell to the wayside and long story short ended up on a shelf in the garage wrapped in blankets. fast forward 5 years. Our daughter is now 5 and has been asking about a fish tank. we got her a small plastic aquarium from pets mart and some neon tetras. I started thinking, and while she didnt tell me at the time my wife had started thinking too.

All throughout this time we visited aquariums everytime we had the chance and i wanted it back up more and more. we finally asked ourselves why are we NOT building this tank. Honestly the answer is because I dont have any patience when it comes to this kind of thing. I will throw myself in with both feet and i want everything. so with that said I'm pretty sure I am on a short leash (not necessarily a bad thing).

Last Saturday we went bowling with some friends and I made a bet. If I won she would come with me to RCA while I just looked.

Sunday the blanket came off. I think the wait was over by the time we left RCA, but I didnt know she would need so little convincing. I said "Ok, I want the tank up, I cant wait any longer." her answer was "OK". We started looking for sand. I had used some really cool pulverized limestone made by Pavestone a long time ago so we went looking for it and were unsuccessful. So we ended up at AquaDome. I asked Randy some questions and as always he was knowledgeable and friendly. He had lots on suggestions for a reef on a budget. We left with some livesand and a small bag on salt. Within 2 hours the tank was cleaned and filled. I began looking for all those boxes labeled "Fish". I found some old rocks i had held onto knowing they were completely dead. By 3am the tank looked barren but still better than it had in a long time.

I checked the ammonia and Nitrates every day and sometimes twice. Zero! Knowing i had to wait for it to cycle I sat patiently and checked my test kits. Wed my daughter passed her math test and not thinking she would pass it this quickly we had promised a fish. So off we go. We ended up leaving Petco with a 2# piece of LR, a Blue Devil Damsel, and a black and White Striped damsel. I love Damsels, they are so fast, I do understand they can be difficult but ok. The upside is that my tank might speed up the pace on this cycling thing. Im finally happy, tank with fish. not perfect but it does qualify as a saltwater aquarium at this point.

I dont have any pictures of the damsels yet but they are damsels in a mostly empty tank, use your imagination. Thanks to H2OCool I got a new light knowing that my stock bulbs from half a decade ago needed replacing. I convinced the keeper of the money to let me get this new LED light setup. I dont think she was convinced at the time but i think she is now. Picked that up Friday at Ryan's place and btw if you havent seen his tank you should its beautiful. I love the zoo's and Rics. and that light AWESOME!!! Its going on my wish list.

Now I have a problem. I have this great light but nothing to show off. again i have been carefully monitoring my nitrates and ammonia. She I think decided we needed more LR so off we go to AquaDome again. I spend some more time talking to Randy and while looking for a possible timeframe i hear the most glorious words possible. "You've done everything right it may not have a spike, you used live sand and live rock." GREEN LIGHT. GO...... [Tire squealing sound effect here] The wife and I start looking for some of the heartier stuff just in case. $5 mushroom tank here i come. We did a lot of looking and eventually made a few decisions. 2 new pieces of LR, 1 Torch Coral with 2 heads, 2 Green mushrooms with these cool blue spots, a small zoa rock, and a few $1 frags from the bottom of the tank including this very tiny Galaxia (maybe a half inch). make it home and commence drip acclimation. 45min later frags go into the tank. at this point I am still using the ugly old stock nanocube lighting because i dont have/havent built the bracket to hang/support the new LED's. WAIT... WHAT??? I have these cool new lights but no way to put them over the tank. UNACCEPTABLE! out to the garage to fashion a temporary support out of whatever i have lying around.

45min later i have something that will work until its permenant replacement is decided upon. up until this point anytime the new light was over the tank to test it out (play) with it i was standing so i havent seen what it really looks like. finally i get a chance to sit down and enjoy a good lighting system over my tank. the new Zoa's are opening up the other things are starting to perk up. I have never seen things pop like this in my own tank. It always looked so washed out. not anymore, everything green turns orange. purple turns pink. its awesome. even the black and white damsel has this thin blue line on the posterior side of all of his fins.

Now of course the camera comes out but i want to take the pics without the whites to get the pop of the orange. not happening guess i need a crash course in photography. i get some good pics but nothing outstanding. will have to talk to a buddy with a better lense and get some pointers. I will get some more pics on monday while I am at home and the whites are on. As I am typing this I realize allt he pictures i have up to now are not on the computer I am typing with so I wil edit and add pics while I am at work tomorrow. Thanks for listening/reading. I hope to make this a long thread with LOTS of updates (mostly ones shorter than this).

Thanks

AggieMedic

I am so excited now. I have to be at work in 5 hours, but im too excited to sleep.

[aggieMEDIC]

As far as feedings go. obviously the damsels need fed, and they get some freeze dried brine daily (sometimes twice when i dont know they have already been fed by the little one) any suggestions for any of the other stuff? never had torch or galaxia before. i remember feeding phyto years ago but have a serious case of CRS (cant remember s...stuff). I dont think at this point i need to be feeding anything else, am I correct?

[subsea]

Rob,

I know the feeling of being the kid in the candy store. If you have time come look at this Florida live rock. While the rock is not available for sale yet, I have much diversity in macros. If you want more macro in your new tank, come see if you want some starts.

Patrick

[aggieMEDIC]

things are coming along. I'm going out of town for some training for a week and just yesterday got a big cyano and gha bloom. Went to pick up some CUC. Stopped at PETCO their astreas were only 1.99. And picked up a tiny 1/2" ricordea they didn't know they had so he gave it to me for free.

then headed over to aqua dome. Looked around for a bit to see if I ha missed anything yesterday and saw some cute little frog fish they have. I want one but after someones post on here about them I was able to resist. But for you aggies out there THEY HAVE A MAROON ONE!!!!!!!!

Anyway, because of the gha problem I was talking to hunter about wishing I could get a diadema, but I know they grow too fast for my little 24. As a matter of fact, someone brought one in that had gotten too big in just 2 months. But hunter mentioned the tuxedo urchin. So guess what I brought home? He is cool. I like how he moves around. He is about an inch wide now. A bright blue color. I know he is going to rearrange some things but im OK with that. Pictures to come in a little bit. Also picked up a single zoo polyp that is bright orange on the outside.

Also did a water change today and things are looking great. Can't wait to get some clowns but I made a deal with my daughter that we couldn't get any clown fish until she passes her big math test. So I'm waiting.

That's all for now.

Thanks for listening.

Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

[aggieMEDIC]

Things are looking up lately. Lots of new zoos and a purple digi from the frag swap. Then some more zoos from a north austin trip and a purple haze from jeeperty.

Got a big algae bloom so Hunter at aquadome recommended a foxface. Man he did a good job. GHA was gone. He did So good in fact that he started on the dyno when it began to bloom. 2-3 days later he was found gasping for "air" and was immediately moved to a qt so I could monitor him. He didnt make it. Went to work and found him stiff as a board when I got home.

My daughter is in first grade and has these math memorization tests. We have been bribing her with marine life when she passes. She passed one of them she was having a lot of difficulty with and earned herself an anemone. Well of course she wants a pink one. And so began the search for an rbta. I can find them in houston and dallas all the time. But when the budget lines up I can seem to find one here. Aquadome has one now but its too big. I have her convinced that green is good too. No clowns until the last test. The ultimate goal for a 6y/o: Nemo. She is close but still no clowns yet.

Oh for the dyno we dosed h2o2 at jeeperty's recommendation and after a little research started. Man it did a good job. Just have to add some starter bacteria to help it along.

Thats all for now. Pics to come.

Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

[+Capt. Obvious]

Glad to see things are coming along. Shoulda told me you wanted an urchin...would have given you mine

[esacjack]

any pictures to go along with the progress report sir?

[aggieMEDIC]

I will take and post pics tomorrow.

Called in sick for work both today and tomorrow. Feeling better today but still need some recovery time. I'll have plenty of time tomorrow for some good pics.

On a side note my dad does a lot of photography on the side and is giving me one of his old macro lenses that he doesn't use anymore. But I can't get up to dallas for another 2 weeks to get it. The pics should roll in much better after that...

Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

[FarmerTy]

Glad you knocked out the dinos. If you can, I'd definitely setup that refugium in the back chamber with chaeto we were talking about. Made my old nanocube bulletproof for 5 years... that and never missing a water change.

The good ole days of the nanocube... miss that thing.

[aggieMEDIC]

Ty, I'm hoping to do that tomorrow. Needed to wait until payday for the rubble for the first chamber. And I'm going to look at home depot for a light for it.

I have some cheat in a HOB fuge (got both from captain obvious) powered by a minijet. Borrowed a light from btw the cheato has completely filled the fuge and I need to either trim or move it now. I'm assuming there are pods in it but I can't find any.

Aqua dome is going to love me tomorrow

Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

[esacjack]

Glad you knocked out the dinos. If you can, I'd definitely setup that refugium in the back chamber with chaeto we were talking about. Made my old nanocube bulletproof for 5 years... that and never missing a water change.

The good ole days of the nanocube... miss that thing.

Theres a pico challenge going on here on the forum Go spin a new one up!

[esacjack]

Glad you knocked out the dinos. If you can, I'd definitely setup that refugium in the back chamber with chaeto we were talking about. Made my old nanocube bulletproof for 5 years... that and never missing a water change.

The good ole days of the nanocube... miss that thing.

I'd like to get more info on your dino elimination tactics. Just for future reference.

[FarmerTy]

Ty, I'm hoping to do that tomorrow. Needed to wait until payday for the rubble for the first chamber. And I'm going to look at home depot for a light for it.

I have some cheat in a HOB fuge (got both from captain obvious) powered by a minijet. Borrowed a light from btw the cheato has completely filled the fuge and I need to either trim or move it now. I'm assuming there are pods in it but I can't find any.

Aqua dome is going to love me tomorrow

Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

Sweet... let me know if you have any questions about how I did it before. Good luck!

Esacjack, I PM'ed you. Didn't want to fill up their build thread with off-topic discussion.

[aggieMEDIC]

Sweet... let me know if you have any questions about how I did it before. Good luck!

I am assuming pull off the black layer, fill chamber 1 with rubble, 2 with cheato. I would also like to make some kind of barrier with egg crate that i can set my purigen bag onto, but not sure if i put it at the top or bottom (before or after Cheato) i dont want to block any pods from escaping. or should it go right at the start by the overflow? id like to keep the HOB fuge, but now im thinking i might use it for the pico contest if it get going.

[aggieMEDIC]

I'd like to get more info on your dino elimination tactics. Just for future reference.

I believe he pm'd you but just in case, as it is part of how i built my tank.

I dosed hydrogen peroxide at 1ml per 10 gallons (of actual tank water) i started at 1.5ml but decided it should be more like 2ml. so i upped it after 2-3 days. within a week the dyno's were 99.9% gone. I decided to continue for 1.5-2 weeks after the last noticeable dyno was gone just to make sure it wasw really gone.

im still having some kind of algae outbreak on my sand and glass but again my params are great. not exactly sure how to fix that problem. i understand algae is going to be a constant battle but man i HATE algae.

Oh I also dosed some of the starter bacteria because as Ty explained to me it oxygenates single celled organisms, which include bacteria. so i dosed a bit just to recover any that i might have lost during the H2O2 stuff.

[aggieMEDIC]

oh on a seperate note, my purple digi isnt purple its still brown... suggestions.

backstory: i placed it high on the rocks originally but i believe in too much flow as the polyps started to receed, so i moved it to the sand bed. the polyps are returning but still all brown, so i moved it back to the top but in much less flow and no newly receeding polyps but still no purple. I can tell that it is growing though because some parts are bigger than they were when i got it. 2 little stems on the base have doubled in size.

Suggestions...

[FarmerTy]

Sounds about right to me for the fuge. I initially started off with rubble back there as well but it became a nutrient trap because I couldn't get enough flow back there. Something to think about... just make sure there is good flow through the rubble.

If you want to see any color other than brown and muted greens... phosphates... phosphates... phosphates... keep it low and get a test kit to confirm. I didn't see any color until I got into the 0.05 ppm range. My tank started at 0.300 ppm... it is currently at 0.009 ppm... actually a little lower than what I want. Natural seawater (NSW) is around 0.032 ppm if I remember correctly.

[FarmerTy]

My guess on the digi polyps receeding when moved higher had more to do with too much light (you'd be surprised what LEDs can put out) than too much flow. I got digi's being blasted by current almost directly and they are fine.

[aggieMEDIC]

any pictures to go along with the progress report sir?

I took some today but spent most of the day making the lens shroud for underwater. PVC and Acrylic baby...

I took this one while learning to play with the RAW settings, the actinics are on only. ill take more tomorrow when the lights come back on.

[aggieMEDIC]

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving everyone... I feel i need to rant for a minute about how my tank and some of its inhabitants annoy me.

Here are some of my problems,

ALGAE!!!! aaaarrrrgh its driving me crazy. cyano, dyno's, GHA, and whatever that green crap is growing out of my sand. The stuff wont go away. Now I understand i cant make it ALL go away, but as long as i can remember my tanks have always had algae problems. so I had a dyno problem a few weeks ago. Wrapped the tank in blankets etc for 4 days, problem mostly gone, then i treated it with H2O2 and have been for almost 2 weeks.

Yesterday we went to the Dome and as usual everyone there was awesome, my daughters favorite part is Hunter lets her feed the fish. we got a sand sifting Gobie, a purple Firefish, and a GBTA. we also got a new piece of RR and some rubble. once at home we noticed one of the pieces of rubble has a lot of GHA on it so I stuck it in a QT so it could get a week of darkness. Bonus: I found a whole colony of Zoa's on it 2 different kinds that i didnt see at the store.

So as BTA's do this one found a nice spot until the lights went out ant then he went roaming. which is fine. the fire fish went in and immediately hid under a rock near the front. the Gobie sneaked to the back center of the tank under the rockwork and started digging, again im fine with this because its what he does, i just wish he would do it where i could see it. I was able to get 1 of the 2 damsels out and put into a temporary holding tank, the other is just too smart. more on him later. I also put the new RR in and i totally love the aquascape now. its a tall curve if that makes sense.

So today since the kiddo is staying with Grammie and we decided to NOT go shopping. I started with hacking off the long plug parts on all those frag plugs and gluing them to some rocks. While I did this the lights went off and when i came back i noticed the firefish not doing well his eye half out of its socket kinda lying on the sand. it also looked like his skin was starting to fall off around his head. so first i reached in and he actually let me pick him up. so i pulled him out and put him into the holding tank with the zoos covered in algae.

Now that the firefish looks bad im concerned about the gobie, so the search begins. I see his tail but cant see the rest. wait where did the GBTA go? crap, spent 5 min searching and figured, i guess he will come out when he is ready. crap the damsel is bullying my new goby (not that its a suprise really) well he must come out then no if ands or buts about it. crap need more water, RO/DI filters arent here yet and i have become suspicious of the HEB RO water from the filter machine outside (i figured it was better than from the tap but now im not so sure) guess ill hit AD tomorrow when i take back my dead fish and get 15gal of water.

So out comes the LR into a bucket until all thats left is the goby and a damsel and what does that pesky brat do? he hides under the goby. after a laugh i got him out and put him in the holding tank with the other damsel. Anyone want 2 damsels? im sure they will be great in some big gigantic tank where there are some tangs for them to bully. maybe someone with a big lion fish could use them. you know as food.

back in the LR goes just jumbled this time because i needed more sand anyway and im going back to the LFS tomorrow.

ok Rant part is over. here are some problems i have realized i have.

1. no RO/DI, - ordering in 2 weeks until then will buy LFS water.

2. Damsels - enough said

3. impatience - Didn't QT the firefish, but then again i dont have anything to QT them in. so its a catch 22.

4. stupid damsels

5. dont do a major tank overhaul on thanksgiving when NOTHING is open.

6. find a way to clean up the detritus, tank looks like a huge dirty snowstorm came through, do I need more flow in the tank to keep it suspended? and wehre does it go? it will float into the back and then wha just sit on the bottom? with the LR in the tank i dont need the sponges and bioballs so they went bye bye. i have cheato in the back too. so what should happen to all that detritus? I guess I am destined to suctions it out during water changes. which sucks because my tank was looking better without water changes than it had been with them (another reason i am suspicious of that HEB water filter machine)

Anyway thanks for listening, tonight with my tank has been a comedy of errors, so I needed to vent a bit. any suggestions im open to them. I want my tank back together because i saw 2 little gobie's at AD that i want. a rainford and harpers? its black with yellow stripes.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[aggieMEDIC]

I have pods and other things galore.

All those little white things on the glass are little tiny bugs. Some look like a pic I have seen before of rotifers but based on my understanding way to big to be rotifers. I have pods galore all over the back wall and they are everywhere on the rocks. I am sure this is mainly because I really dont any predators for them but who cares I have tons of them.

Mysis too. Awesome!!!

Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

[(Bio)³]

NICE!!!

[+Capt. Obvious]

that free Chaeto finally paying off

[aggieMEDIC]

that free Chaeto finally paying off

Very much so. Now just to figure out at what point can I get a mandarin.

Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

[FarmerTy]

Congrats on the pods! Just a heads up, in a 24g, the mandarin would destroy your pod collection in about a week or two. They constantly eat and there is no way you could possibly keep up with their appetite in a 24g. Unless you intend to buy pods on a monthly basis from one of the online retailers.

If you want one, get either an ORA mandarin that feeds on non-live food or get a spotted mandarin (the green one with target-looking markings on them). They usually take to non-live food more readily.