12 Gallon Nano Cube

[carolyn]

I am what you call a newbie. I recently tried to glue a new coral reef, at least that's what I call it, and got the glue from the exotic fish store, but it did not adhear. I am really really new at this, but totally addicted.

Is there such a thing as a book or course on nano cube 101 and what to put in it and what to feed, etc.

I'm 61 and memory is sometimes a problem with all there is to know and a book or printed material to refer to would really help. I can't stop visiting exotic fish stores and wanting to buy everything.

Thanks

Carolyn

 

[skipm]

I don't know of a book dedicated to nanoreefs but a couple of good books on reefing in general are "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Bob Fenner or "Natural Reef Aquariums" by John Tullock. Both are good books that give alot of information about reefing in general and most of the information can be adapted to a nano reef.
To get information about nanoreefs in general then as far as I know you will have to stay on a board like this one or www.nano-reef.com . HTH, Skip

 

[Jennie]

I'll second what Skip said, and Welcome to Nanotank.com. We look forward to getting to know you more! :gh:

 

[djconn]

Hi Carolyn and welcome to the site. Both of those books mentioned are good ones. I also recently heard about another good newbie book from another member here on Nanotank.com. Here is what she had to say:

I built my tanks with "Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies" - best $15 I ever spent!!!!! It's written in easy to understand language. Highly recommended.

Good luck,
LuLu

Hope that helps.

 

[cadeucsb]

in terms of the glueing... i go with Cyano Acryllate Gel ...you can get it at hobby stores (it may be what u got from the lfs). Pull the frag out of the water, dab off the end to be glued on a paper towel, put a pretty generous amount of glue on the end and into the water you go. Hold it in place, moving it slightly to get the glue to tack up for a couple secs, then just hold it still for about another 30 secs. Slowly start to release it and you will be able to tell if the glue is holding or not.

A good way is to find a crevice or hole in the LR that you can mount it in, gives a little more support than just trying to glue on a flat surface.

 

[incysor]

Cyano Acryllate Gel = Super glue gel. :smile:
He's right that you can usually find larger cheaper bottles in the hobby shops.

They also make an epoxy putty that you can use directly in the tank underwater...Just pinch some off, knead it to warm it up and make it a bit softer and then stick it on the bottom of the coral, and then press it to the rock. Kind of like floral putty. It's easy to use, but it generally takes quite a bit of it to work, and it's expensive.

http://www.reefgeek.com/products/catego ... 03487.html

B

 

[incysor]

Here's a partial list of my aqarium-related books. I've still got boxes of books in the garage that we haven't been able to find room for, so there are probably a few others.

Aquarium Corals - Eric Borneman

The Living Aquarium - Peter Hunnam

Ultimate Marine Aquariums: Saltwater Dream Systems and How They Are Created - Michael S. Paletta

The Ultimate Aquarium: A Definitive Guide to Identifying and Keeping Freshwater and Marine Fishes - Mary Bailey & Gina Sandford

Reef Life - Tackett & Tackett

Natural Reef Aquariums - John H. Tullock

Marine Aquarium Problem Solver - Nick Dakin

Marine Invertebrates - U. Erich Friese

Saltwater Aquarium Fishes - Axlerod & Burges

Reef Notes - Revised and Revisted by Julian Sprung

Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies - Gregory Skomal

While I've read these, and a handful of others, most of my daily info/questions are answered online. It's an interesting change for me from the norm. I really love books, but I found enough differing opinions and obsolete info in the books to keep me looking mainly online for up-to-date info. I've even got one book that was written in the mid 80s, that states that SPS corals will never successfully be kept in hobbyist's aquariums. I got the book because it had nicely detailed instructions on how to build your own tank.
Execept for taxonomy books I think that a lot of the info in the books is obsolete, or at least somewhat outdated within 3-5yrs. This keeps me from spending a ton of money on books and lets me wait until I can find them at a used book store cause there isn't anything that compares to a book when it comes to pictures.

Hope this helps some.

Brian

Here's a few more recommended in earlier posts on NT.

wizord25
The Reef Aquarium vol 1 &2 - Delbeek and Sprung
The Modern Reef Aquarium vol 1-4 - Nilsen
Giant Clams - Daniel Knopp
Ultimate Marine Aquariums - Paletta
Clownfishes - Wilkenson
Aquarium Corals - Borneman
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist

Flame Angel
"Natural Reef Aquariums" - John H. Tullock
"Reef Secrets" - Alf Jacob Nilsen and Svein A. Fosså

I think I've mentioned this before but if anyone is making a book purchase, please go through our Amazon affiliate link below and 5% of the transaction will go towards Nanotank.com sever space and webpage development. Thanks!

 

[djconn]

Yeah, I remember 8-10 years ago, people would tell me that reefs tanks were impossible under 20 gallons in size. Now look at us :booty: .

Oh yeah, a long time ago I removed the Amazon banner link. It never really amounted to anything. Might put it back up one of these days.

 

[Mariney]

We have two nanos in our home and a small pico. We have keep alive for more than one year.

It depends alot on water changes and care.

Nadia

 

[carolyn]

What does :gone through its cycle yet" mean?

I keep hearing has it gone through its cycle yet and I don't know all the terminology yet, besides I'm 62 and can't remember all this stuff :

 

[djconn]

You must of had a birthday in the last two weeks!

:band:

 

[incysor]

Re: What does :gone through its cycle yet" mean?

I keep hearing has it gone through its cycle yet and I don't know all the terminology yet, besides I'm 62 and can't remember all this stuff :

There is a biological cycle for the breakdown of ammonia that's generated by waste from food and from fish/critters in the tank.

A combination of aerobic, (oxygen loving), and anaerobic, (oxygen hating), bacteria that live in the sandbed, and the live rock break down the ammonia into nitrites, and then into nitrates. If you have a refugium, macro algae can then use the nitrates as fertilizer, just as your garden plants use nitrogen as fertilizer.

A new tank doesn't have large enough bacteria colonies for the cyle to balance back out to zero, so it has to have time for those colonies to grow and spread. When you first start your tank, if you tested your water every day, you'd see a spike in ammonia readings, then they'd start to go down. At the same time ammonia was decreasing you'd get a spike in your nitrite readings. A few days later your nitrites would start to go down as your nitrate readings started spiking. It takes anywhere from 2-6weeks for the full cycle to finish so that your ammonia, and nitrite, and nitrate readings are at zero.

Most people don't test everyday, but during a tank's cycle period will test every few days to see how it's progressing. Once the tank has been up about a month if your readings are all at zero then you can start to slowly add critters. You want to add them slowly though because if you add too many at once you'll be adding more ammonia to the sytem than your bacteria colonies can handle.

After the initial cycle period most people test their water once a month or so. Some only do it when they feel like there's a problem, some do it more frequently, like every time they do a water change.

B