Cali Kid Corals

Need help with 12 gal. nano cube.

Lyn

Lyn

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Does anyone have a fool proof method for setting up a 12 gal. Nanocube? It has a 70 watt 10,000 K metal halide with overflow in back; sponge, ceramic rings, charcoal bag, and pump. There are 4 compartments in the back. I Probably had it for 8 months.

When I used the system "as is", it got a nice oil slick at the surface of the water that wouldn't go away, plus lots of micro algae. Actually, it looked like algae soup. I figured it was due to excessive nutrients and lights. At the time, it contained some rock, hermits, snails, a fish, and a couple softies. Oh, and a thin layer of sand. It was really gunky looking, so I stripped it, scrubbed and rinsed, and then added a Remora HOT skimmer (which really defeats having a self contained system in the first place) and rotating fixture to the output for circulation and to break the water surface. It's been going for 3-4 months.

It continues to have a scummy surface. I am ready to rip it apart again and try something else. Right now it contains some rock, thin layer of sand, banded coral shrimp, hermits, and snails. The hermits and snails have been munching on the algae, so it is not as bad as it used to be (but still bad), and the only critter I feed is the banded coral shrimp. She gets a tiny bit of mysis or table shrimp. Is this too oily?

From what I can see, the oil slick is not being drawn into the overflow fast enough. There is a porous blue sponge in this first compartment. I put the skimmer in the 2nd and third compartments, along with the ceramic rings and charcoal, and the pump is in the last. The pump has an adjustable flow rate, so I increased it to the point where it almost sucks all the water out of that compartment.

Should I remove the metal halide and get pcs? I would like to keep some corals in this tank. Right now I run the light 6 hours a day. What can I do to get rid of the scum? Remove sponge and ceramics to increase water flow? Will there be enough surface area for beneficial bacteria? I could eventually add more rock when my order arrives. Should I get a filter (although I don't know where I'd put it)? ???

Anyone with a successful nano, please help! I really don't want to turn this into an expensive quarantine tank. :-
 
hey there! i have a 24 gl nanocube that has been up for about 2 years. You can upgrade the return pump to get more flow in your tank. I run a sapphire aquatics protein skimmer in chamber 1(they make them for the 12 gl's as well) in chamber 2 I have a refugium (some live rock, a bunch of cheato, and some hermits, snails, and a small brittle star. I have 12 submersible led's that run 24hrs.). This system has been running successfully for the 2 years it has been up! I have a variety of sps's and lps's with a 150wt halide. What kind of water are you adding to your tank? I use store bought seawater and do 5gl water changes once a week. Hope my info helps! Good luck!
 
Scummy surface most likely is because you're not actually skimming any water from the top. Look on the back plastic (inside the tank) and you'll see the overflow return, I'm betting it looks like a lot of slots maybe two lengths high? Well that's pulling water and recirculating it, but it's not pulling nutrients from the top. A simple fix many people do is glue a piece of acrylic over the lower slots so that the water that flows over it comes from the surface water in the tank, and not just any.

Also what are you feeding? You didn't mention any fish so I assume you're feeding nothing?

The lack of a protein skimmer in that setup means that water changes should be done quite a bit more frequently (and consistently). The sponge and ceramic pieces basically provide surface area for nitrifying bacteria to colonize, and with rocks and what not in the tank probably would not be necessary, not to mention that sponge probably catches all the gunk and then that's one more thing to break down and create "nasties" in the tank.

Short of adding a skimmer to the thing I would do water changes on the order of 25% every week, that's 3 gallons so shouldn't be too difficult, just makes sure your salinity matches as those shrimp can be a little touchy. Softies probably don't need that much light, if you have any sort of PC bulbs or T5s as suppliments I'd cut the lighting cycle down to maybe 3 hours and use the supplimental lighting after. If you don't have PCs/T5s over it, I would suggest a higher kelvin MH bulb, if anything it'll inhibit the algae growth a tad.

Glue a piece of acrylic over a good part of your overflow to skim from the top, and regularly replace the carbon.
 
Thanks for the replys. :) I have a better idea as to what I should do. Would you mind answering a few more questions?

I think I'll get rid of the sponge and ceramics. Add rock to the front and back, Chaeto. to the back, and decrease the halide time. I don't have any spare lights that would fit, so I may need to get a new bulb. Would 14,000 K work? If I do eventually put corals back in, how long should I run the halide? I think I will try to keep the skimmer to pull out proteins, although it is quite noisy and large. It takes up two slots in the middle. Wish I knew about the Sapphire Aquatics before I got the Remora, but Remoras worked well in my other tanks, and since I already invested in it...well you know how that goes.

Should I cover both the lower and middle slots so the water flows from the top only? The sand partially covers the bottom slots. I could get more sand and cover it all the way if this is better. Also, how much sand do you have in your nano? Should I have at least one inch, or is a 1/2 to 3/4 inch ok?

Again, Thank you and Aloha :D

P.S. I have a side question concerning another tank. I have a lot of tiny sponges growing in its skimmer and skimmer box. Should I wash them out? I do believe they are impeding the flow somewhat. Some have told me that the sponges are benign and even benficial.
 
I like the 14k Ushio 70w, it's a good bulb. AFA surface skimming, you want to get the maximum amount of surface water, the more you ramp up your flow the less surface water you collect per volume of water traveling through the filtration section. Your thinking is right on "Should I cover both the lower and middle slots so the water flows from the top only?".

Think of it this way, 10X turnover through the filtration in a 12 gallon nano is 120 GPH, not that much huh? It's all you need in such a small tank to skim off the surface, especially with some sort of in tank circulation, for instance the Koralia nano would suffice.
 
Tuberider,

I debated on whether or not I should get a Koralia nano. I noticed that the outflow didn't reach all corners of the tank, and wondered if this was another problem compounding the situation. Thanks for confirming my suspision and thanks for the bulb recommend. :D
 
Yah, what Jeremy said re the surface water. I block the lower slots on my 12g Aquapod.

You might want to try the Koralia 1 instead of the nano. I'm running that, and it's not too much flow at all.

I'm running bare botom, and I have it aimed down behind the rocks to keep detritus in suspension.

Im running one of those Hydor rotating outlets on the return too.
 
[quote author=Lyn link=topic=4081.msg48846#msg48846 date=1215826897]P.S. I have a side question concerning another tank. I have a lot of tiny sponges growing in its skimmer and skimmer box. Should I wash them out? I do believe they are impeding the flow somewhat. Some have told me that the sponges are benign and even benficial.
[/quote]

How about relocate them somewhere else in the tank? Sponges filter a ton of water.
 
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