Enough light for a nano?

[cleandrink]

Hi,

I have a 24 gal. JBJ Nano tank that comes standard with two of the 36 watt bulbs.

Is this enough for corals? Or do I need to add something else. If so, do they make a better bulb that can replace these and fit in the lid?

Mark

[sir_dudeguy]

Its fine for all soft corals and a few LPS but if you want to grow SPS or clams or anemone's you'll generally need a lot more light.

[Illuminati]

I have the same tank, I recently got a new hood from www.nanotuners.com that gives me 108W total over the tank.




Here's a picture of my setup, the only thing I can keep now that I couldn't before the new lights is the orange gorgonia (sea fans) on the right side. Everything else was fine under stock lighting.


http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h73/colinadam/fts.jpg



Just some of the things you can keep:

Mushrooms, Florida Ricordia and Yuma's

Star Polyps

Zoanthids & Palythoa's

Acan Lords, open brains, favia, etc..

Toadstool Leathers (They can grow big and need good water quality)

Kenya Tree's

How are you going to setup your back chambers?

[cleandrink]

Thanks!

In the back chambers, I have extra carbon filtration and I am adding a skimmer.

I had a problem last week when a couple corals I added died and then lost some fish at the same time. So It was recommended that I add a protein skimmer to the back to hopefully prevent future problems.

Also I was thinking about adding corals but only 1 or 2 at a time before adding any fish this time. Any ideas? And where is a good place to get good quality corals from?

Mark

[Illuminati]

Corals and fish died? Something isn't right, let's figure it out.

Do you test your water parameters for things like Nitrate and Ph.? How long has the setup been going? Did it cycle? Any Ammonia or Nitrile readings?

How often do you do water changes and is it RO/DI water being used?

What corals and fish died?

Carbon sucks and you don't need a skimmer.

First my rant about carbon. it is great to use in larger tanks where people dose daily. In nano's it can take out good nutrients that you need. A much better alternative is Chemi-pure, similar to carbon in that it lowers nitrates but it lasts much longer, keeps your Ph steady and doesn't strip the water of useful things.

In addition to chemi-pure I also use Purigen, comes just like chemi-pure in it's own ready to go mesh bag. Just toss it in and it works. Another good nitrate reducer and water polisher. I can tell the difference when I use it it works so well. Keeps the water crystal clear.

Now onto skimmers. Saphire makes a good skimmer for our type of tanks and most people who come from larger aquariums to nano's cannot think of running a tank without a skimmer. Skimmers are basically a must have item for tanks over 40 gallons but for nano's you can get similar results just by doing weekly water changes.

In your back chambers do you still have the bioballs and ceramic rings?

[Illuminati]

Went back and saw your other posts. Classic case of to much to soon.

When you get the new water cycled make sure to add 1 fish at a time and have a good cleanup crew. If you need recomendations I'm sure we can offer some.

Take it slow and I'm sure you'll have great luck in the future.

P.S. Did you upgrade the stock pump?

[cleandrink]

Water tests were all perfect when we added 4 soft corals. Several people thought that there may have been an over bio load all at once. the next morning the water was very cloudy and the fish were dying. Bacteria bloom, oxygen starvation for too sudden of a bio load.

Now of course during this time of clean up on the tank to remove all the dead. We are cycling with an ammonia spike. Have done a couple water changes in the past week and it is getting back on track.

The tank had been well cycled before and about 3-4 months old with 35 lbs live rock and 5 fish.

I have not done anything different to the pump on the unit.

The key things are I want to make sure I am adding things right and have the correct equipment running in it when I start to add more once the cycling is complete.

The bio balls and ceramic rings of course were not used.

[Illuminati]

Sounds like you are back on track.

My last bit of advice on the pump is this:

When I got my tank setup everyone in the world told me to upgrade it. Figured why not, I'll need another pump to mix my saltwater anyway.

Ordered the Maxi-jet 1200 and installed it and used the pump that came with the unit to make water changes.
About 2 months ago the pump died on me before making a waterchange, meaning the stock pump didn't even last 10 months with only a couple days a week of use.
If the pump would have died in the tank it would have killed everything in there.

The maxijet that is in there has been in there ever since the tank saw water without a problem.

Just a suggestion, it's an easy replacement, if you want me to walk you through it lmk.

Good Luck with the tank.

[cleandrink]

You can probably walk me through a lot of things here.

1. the pump, sounds like if nothing else, it would be good to have so I can have a back up.

2. Clean up crew. What do you recommend and where do you recommend ordering from?

3. Better to add corals first or fish first and what recommendations for either?

4. I do have 4 snails that made it and 1 coral that is hanging in there, a soft finger colt. A little droopy, but still very much alive.

Thanks!

[Illuminati]

I got my cleanup crew from www.premiumaquatics.com, they now have www.premiumaquaticslive.com as well.

I got:

10 Baha Hermits (Great hermit)

3 Nerite Snails (Good for the glass and the rock)

3 Cernith Snails (Good all around algae eater, sometimes sandbed, sometimes rock, sometimes glass)

10 Nassarius Snails (Great sandbed snail)

Do you know what snails you have now?


As for the pump a maxijet1200 is the way to go. 99% of people that have nanocubes upgrade to this pump.
Easy to swap out. Turn off the stock pump, push down the ziptie that connects the tubing to the return nozzle inside the chamber. You should be able to lift the entire pump and tubing out now.
With the new maxijet attatch the suctioncup bracket to it with the 3 suction cups. You want this to be against the bottom of the tank in the chamber and the pump to cut down on any vibrations. attatch the tubing to the new pump and lower it in and reattatch the tubing to the return nozzle.



I don't think it matters if you do a fish first or if you do corals first. I personally got a clownfish and a small mushroom frag from my LFS at the same time when I started the tank.

Some good fish choices would be:

Clowns - Percs are the best for nano's, less aggressive than some of the others.

Firefish - Red or Purple, they both look cool.

Gobies - I have a Yellow Watchman Goby, cool fish.

Belnnies - Something like a bicolor blenny would be a good addition with a lot of personality.

www.liveaquaria.com has pictures and info on all of these as well as a section called nano fish.

For corals my favorite place is www.purecaptive.com. Everything Bryan has is aquacultured and grown in his tanks. He also has the ability to get stuff so if you get a wishlist of corals you want he can get them. Get on his mailing list and check out his site when he updates it, lots of cool goodies. Another is www.sealifeinc.com, Lots of cool colored ricordia mushrooms.
They are both in FL but they ship via USPS overnight for $20-$25 which is a good price, some places can charge over $40 in shipping.

[cleandrink]

On the snails, I have 3 of the Nassarius Snails and 1 of the cerinth ones left maybe 2.