12 gallon Nano Cube Refugium w/light...

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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Hey Reefers,

As most of you know, my replacement tank came in. I've decided to go refugium in the back like my brother did.

Because I'm re-doing the tank, I will be documenting all my progress on film for you guys to ask questions and give me advice.

Here are the first set of pictures:


3.5 lbs live rock rubble


13 watt fuge light


Tank inside


Chamber 2 live rubble


Chemipure


Front view live sand


Lighting system


Top view live sand


Ready for water
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Okay reefers,

I've purchased my macro algae and my digital timer to set up my 13 watt daylight on reverse daylight operation.

My main tank lights work from 8am to 6pm. Then at 9pm the refuge light kicks in and turns off at 3am.

I've also placed my Rio 90 pump in chamber 1 to force current back out to the main tank so it crashes against the currents of the Mini-jet 606. I have noticed I get a lot better water movement and I have occluded the pump, Dragon gave me the idea when he commented on how ugly nanos look with pumps in the main show area.

Here are the pics of my setup:

Macro Algae


Digital Timer


Chamber 2


Chamber 3


Rio pump Chamber 1
 
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dragon79

New Member
bit confused...

Mike:

How is it you put a pump in chamber 1? isn't chamber 1 supposed to be sucking water in, *waste and misc food & particles* ?? You have it blowing out back into the tank? I dont know what you are trying to accomplish there, unless that thing is helping suck in water. That's crazy how you got that green macro algae, what a cool trick. I tell you Sandra did a water change today and waited about an hour or so before testing her water. Her water parameters are nice, no spikes or anything since adding in the rubble in compartment 2. Also I recommend using poly filter in compartment 1. That does double the work of the sponge. When sandra went to clean the two sponges she has in there, they were practically clean, the polyfilter absorbed just about everything. very nice, and pleased with the results. We've seen a benefit from doing this, as everything tested, came out zero, and PH was 8.1.

On another note: my pico went though another aquascaping moment, and to accomplish this I had to remove my living things and set in a bowl while I fixed everything. I took out another piece of LR *it was one from the back that was never visible and I added it to Sandra's second compartment of her JBJ. I have a bit more sandbed on the middle and left of tank, which is pleasing to me. After my water change today I tested the water, and everything was cool, but I had a low level of nitrate, it showed at 10. Must be from where the sand I got, as I dont have anything producing much nitrate other than my two sexy shrimps and that 1 blue neon goby. I tell you also that I found that my yellow goby was dead. He had disapeared from the tank and I thought he jumped out, after doing my water changed and after all the aquascaping, I find that when I turned my filter off, what to my suprise to see come out of the whisper 10 intake tube but the yellow gum drop. Either while sleep or if he got curious, he got sucked up by it, and did not get lucky at all. No big loss, he was cheap to buy and owning him for the short time I had him, well it sucked as I never realized how much of a boring fish he is. They just perch in one location, and you can come in after hours and he's still in the same place you left him. I guess I like more active fish, like sandra's nemo, but I'm content with the neon blue, he's active, he swims all around. anyway, that is' so I'll talk to you later.
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Hi Dragon,

Sorry about the loss of your gum drop. It's true they are very inactive fish. But mine grew on me and I would be very sad if he died. I too lost something over the weekend, my anenome shrimp.

When I transferred him back to the main tank he had lost a claw due to some fighting he did in the waiting tank. But with my ammonia high and nitrite high, he died the next morning.

I wasn't that sad since I didn't own him more than 1 week. As far as critters go, everything else is doing okay, the cloudy tank is getting a lot better.

I did transfer over both brittle stars to the 2.5 tank and my goby and shrimp are there as well. My little neon goby is there too. They are doing great.

The only fish that are in my 12 gallon are the yellow gumdrop and the six line wrasse. I didn't feed them for 1 day and then when I did the yellow gumdrop fed. Then when I was watching the tank at dusk time, I witnessed the six line hunting copepods, he caught a really big amhipod and shreded it, it was a really cool experience to watch him hunt like in the wild.

Regarding my Rio 90, I read up on Larnies post, where he did the same thing and I copied him. I tried it out to see if it would work and it does. Because the Mini-jet is so powerful, my water level in chamber 2 and 3 drop like it's suppose to. With the stock pump, it was horrible the water rose high and didn't move from chamber to chamber in the order it is suppose to.

Well, I place the rio and it moves water current near the top to reverse and crash against the glass and mix with the other current of the minijet. The end result is an equilibrium on both sides that create really good water movement throughout the entire tank, not too much and not too little.

You might think it would defeat the purpose of sucking, but this is not the case, in fact it causes anything that nears the right side to be forced in, stronger than before, you have to see it to believe it.

I tried tanking some pictures of the debris rushing in but you can't see it under the camera. All I know is that it works way better than when I had it on the outside of the grate in plain view.

These tanks need more than just the mini jet steve, trust me on that, you should read on the importance of water movement via powerheads in a reef tank.

Well, tommorrow I will be testing my water again after having placed Bio-spira things are calming down majorly. My fish are not breathing heavy just after 2 hours of the bio spira.

I will post the results with pics in the next couple days, so you reefers can get a glimpse on my new aquascapping and what I now have, since the loss of the elegance coral and the adding of rubble and macro agae for my refugium.

Mike
 
Sugar Magnolia

Sugar Magnolia

New Member
That's alot of sand. ;)

Be prepard for some serious growth of that chaeto. I have to prune mine back every couple of weeks because it grows so fast.
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
DJ,

That is the same amount of live sand from when I first started the tank last year in March.

It probably appears more because of the picture.... You'll have to see the tank when I take my shots of it completed..

Mike
 
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dragon79

New Member
gee mike, your making what seems to be the replica of the beach. Where will you place the people and the beach towels? J/K. Keep us posted with your project :)
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Hey guys,

Like promised, I'm continuing to share my photos of my progress on my 12 gallon nano cube deluxe...

My R-2 moon light came in today from nanocustoms, thanks Chris. I was able to place it under the splash guard as per the instructions of the kit, (don't want salt creep to prematurally kill it).

It took me a while to find the correct place under my splash guard. As most of you know I'm running a total of 115 watts under this bad boy.

In the front part of the hood I have 102 watts of lighting. First light is the 10 watt actinic 03 followed by 24 watt 50/50 JBJ stock light followed by antoher 10 watt 03 actinic followed by 24 watt Jali daylight followed by another 10 watt 03 actinic then last is another 24 watt 50/50 JBJ stock light.

If you look closely at the very back, right above my refugium I have a 13 watt 7,100K daylight.

I looked all over the splash guard to try and find a spot that would house the moonlight and I wanted to make sure it would not in any way occlude Chris's awesome setup.

So finally after trial and error if you look closely I placed my R-2 vertically on the left side of the hood over the connectors that feed into the light. Look closely at the pictures and you will see, they DO NOT occlude any portion of the main lights.

I'm trying to be different than other nanocustoms users so we can have variety and choose accordingly to what we like.

My moon light nicely covers my reef in such a way that crtters have a choice to either be in moon light or hide on one side where the light doesn't bother them. (much like true moonlight shadowing a reef at a 45 degree angle).

I will be posting pictures of how it looks next. I just want us to have preferences.

You will see that my cube looks as stock as can be, from just a glance. You will not see a powerhead in the maintank like before and you will not see any temp gauges as well. Everything is hidden from view much like Larnies cube. ;)

Enjoy the pics and please feel free to comment...

Thanks,

Mike

R-2 Moon light



R-2 Moon light off



R-2 Moon light on

 
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dragon79

New Member
talk about packed....I'm suprised you found room for that. I remember Larnie has it up in the front, not on the side. That way it does an even spread on the tank. I think your lights may be a lot stronger on the left, but who knows......I want to see night pics :)
 
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Rich

New Member
That is one hell of a lot of light you guys have there....can we in the UK purchase anything like that, would you know? I've never ever seen anything like that in a hood so small!!
Makes my 80 watt m/v and two 24" actinics look absolutely dark by comparision.

I compliment you gentlemen...just hope my little tank ends up looking similar to yours.

Rich
 
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dragon79

New Member
Rich said:
That is one hell of a lot of light you guys have there....can we in the UK purchase anything like that, would you know? I've never ever seen anything like that in a hood so small!!
Makes my 80 watt m/v and two 24" actinics look absolutely dark by comparision.

I compliment you gentlemen...just hope my little tank ends up looking similar to yours.

Rich
Click to expand...
try finding the answer to your question on nanocustoms.com

That is the site my brother ordered it from. Cool deals there, but
if you are interested in the R2 moonlights, I noticed they are cheaper
on marinedepot.com

Take it easy,
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Dragon,

You are right, Larnie does have his R-2 in the front but it's at the sacrafice of not having a 10 watt T-5 actinic in there. Whereas I do retain that location with one and do not have to sacrifice that area to a moon light which doesn't give off what corals need.

By having all T-5's I have more variation in raw power towards the corals without a sacrifice to the moon light.

You have to understand that under our splash guard we run out of space rather quickly. I am maximixing the hood wihtout occluding any main lights.

You can say it's pretty clever what I have done, and like you ask does it fully cover the entire tank?

The answer is no, but the area that it covers makes it look very natural, there is a very small area on the right of the tank where the moonlight does not breach and guess what, my six line wrasse prefers to sleep in that area. You might say he's pretty private and I don't blame him, I personally don't like any lights in my room while sleeping. I like to give my critters choices not restrictions. :D

Mike
 
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dragon79

New Member
with your projects coming along....I smell in your near future, a 20 gallon being born.... hehe

Project JBJ is almost complete with you, but I know you are still trying to work with the "from justin to kelly" errr I mean " from LPS to SPS" hehe
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Hey guys I finally got a chance to take pics of my tank since I changed to my replacement tank.

I refrained from tanking any pics becuase my tank went into a new mini-cycle. But now everything is back to normal, thanks to bio-spira for speeding the mini cycle.

This is how my new aquascaping looks I hope you guys like it. I am getting rid of the Frog Spawn and the plate corals so if anyone is interested in buying it for really cheap let me know, otherwise I will take the credit at my LFS.

They are beautiful pieces but they out grew my nano and I'm trying to go SPS and no longer will be a LPS owner.

I rather it go home to a fellow reefer than someone I don't know. Hey they have been family for 4 months.

Mike







 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Hey Reefers,

My parameters were finally ready for me to step into the world of SPS corals. My LPS corals are no longer here, I traded in my frogspawn and my plate coral. Apparently you cannot keep both species in the same tank and especially for my size tank.

Both my LPS corals out grew my tank and were stinging everyone. Now after adding my new SPS corals things are different, I have tons of room and my tank has a new look, which I love.

I hope you guys enjoy the first four pics I took today:







 
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