Muhli's 28G Nano-Cube

[muhli]

I finally got a new opportunity to share one of my tank builds! I recently started salt water reefing again earlier this year with a 12 gallon from @Enderturtle. Sadly, I was quite lazy to start a while build log for it. Its been less than 4 months and I'm already upgrading

While the perks of having a small tank was pretty cool, I've always wanted to upgrade to a bigger tank, but due to college and lack of space, I was unable to.

It was until recently that I was able to score a nice tank graciously given by Mario. So without further adieu, lets dive in.

The tank when I picked it up was quite dirty. Clearly it needed some deep cleaning to bring it back to its original form

It took a while but I was able to manage it with some elbow grease so now it looks like this:

As for the stand, it was missing a door, but no matter. I needed to rework the stand to match the rest of my living room decor. So I painted it white and now I'm going to Ikea sometime this week to get a custom door (if they even do that).

And here is how it stands now.

For equipment, I'm going to transfer most of it over from my current tank and equipment from my past tanks. When I started the 12 nano cube, I bought equipment knowing that I'm going upgrade anyways.

The tank will be a mixed reef tank.

Equipment list is as follows:

-Kessil a360we
-Aquamaxx Hob-1 skimmer
-Jebao rw-4
-TLF reactor for carbon and gfo

The tank will not see water yet for probably a few weeks as I still need to order more rocks, sand, and heater from BRS.

 

[Enderturtle]

Looks good! If youre comfortable with your current tank, i recommend using water and rock from your current tank when you start the new tank. That way the cycling process will be minimal. Dont bring the sand though. Too many potential nutrient/detritus issues

And be careful with new uncured rock. May leach nutrients

Looks good!!! Cant wait to see it up and running

 

[muhli]

Yup, I'm going to be transferring everything over. I'm going to aquascape a very simple design with the new reef saver rocks. I've used those rocks plenty of times before and never had it leach on me. Then I'm going to transfer my rocks and sand over and do the final aquascape.

The sand shouldn't pose any problems. I vacuum it weekly to prevent and buildup of nutrients.

Current fish and corals will stay in the current tank for a day or so to let the sand settle down in the new tank. Also going to pour in another bottle of bio-spira to help kick start the cycle again. Worked for me 2 times already.

 

[RavenSF]

< Ian from reef central here.

Glad to see the tank is coming together. You're going to be able to grow anything you want with that light.

 

[muhli]

Hey Ian, yes, the light is plenty strong. Made the beginner mistake and put it on 60% intensity right when I put it on, some of my corals didn't like that. =[ But all the corals are growing nicely to it especially my birds of paradise birdsnest

 

[muhli]

Came home for the weekend with new stuff.
Rocks from BRS.
100w Eheim jager (should be adequate for this tank size)
Pink Samoa sand and water from Neptunes. Going to make another trip to Neptune this week to get water as I only got 2 jugs

Plans for tomorrow:
Blast and clean the rocks with water.
Roughly aquascape the rocks to see what design I like best
Fill tank with some water to get a head start on the cycle process

 

[Enderturtle]

Looking good so far.

I hate aqua scaping with the reef saver rocks. Theyre so odd shaped. Hard to make the rocks blend into each other.

Are you gonna use epoxy for the aqua scape?

Do you rinse the sand?

 

[neuro]

Awesome start. 28 gallons should be a great size

 

[tankguy]

Ive been thinking about adding that Aquamaxx skimmer on my 29 Bio Cube

 

[muhli]

Tank has water!

Took a little bit of time due to school and finals just started. Nevertheless, I managed to finish aquascaping the tank. Hooked up another cobalt mj1200 for the other return pump. Once water gets to 80°, I'm going to begin cycling the tank with the dead shrimp method.

Aquascape provides alot of room in the front of the tank for fishies to swim in. One giant cave in the middle of the tank that has tunnels for the fishes to swim in.

 

[Enderturtle]

Looks good Michael! That's good aqua scaping.

Lots of room and flat spots for coral placement.

I kinda failed with my aqua scaping. Too many steep spots in my rocks where I can't put any corals.

 

[tankguy]

Where did you get your stand? I'm moving once again and have been looking for a nice stand for my 29 BC

 

[muhli]

@Enderturtle Thanks! But lots of room means lots of swimming room for fishies!

@tankguy The stand is a stock JBJ 28g stand. I got it from Mario (@xcaret ) I just painted it white to match the rest of my living room decor.

 

[tankguy]

Ive heard the stands for my bio cube are not made very well. They look nice and thought maybe you had a different one I haven't seen before. Gonna need to find something very soon

 

[muhli]

I think the biocube stands and the jbj stands are made of the same material and should work with holding the tank up. Unless you decide to mod it which might affect its structural integrity..

 

[tankguy]

No reason for me to mod the stand. I may give it a shot since I'm moving the tank

 

[Enderturtle]

So you got this tank cycling and your other tank running with fish and corals?

 

[muhli]

Yep. Current tank is carrying on with its normal activities while the newer tank is being cycled.
Just threw in a piece of live rock from the current tank to the 28 and a cupful of live sand to speed up the cycling process.
Once everything is all stabilized, fishes and corals are going to be transferred slowly as to not jump start the cycle process again.

 

[muhli]

Tank finished cycling around 3-4 days ago, but haven't had time to move the current inhabitants over.

Transferred just 2 clowns over today to avoid a mini cycle. Rest will continue in a few days.

 

[muhli]

Transferred almost all my equipment (Rw-4, Tunze nano ato, Aquamaxx hob-1 skimmer) over today. All that's left is the kessil.

Currently experiencing a lot of brown diatoms on the side of the tank that faces the window and some cyano. (Thinking of putting some SPS on that side) Today's move included a rw-4 so hopefully there's enough flow in the tank currently to battle cyano. Also threw in a hob skimmer to help with nutrient exporting.

Bioload is pretty high right now, but I was able to handle it in a 12g with the same fishes with no adverse affects on corals. I plan to tackle the rest of the nutrient exporting side with vodka dosing.

I plan on transferring over the corals in the next week after a couple days rest to reduce the amount of stress on them.

Overall, the fishes seem to be enjoying the new tank. More room and more tunnels to blast through in. They've been hiding most of the time now probably because of all the stress I've put them through trying to catch them... I hate that part of the upgrading process