Nano6 Diary

[danielwatson]

Hello everyone, I am kinda new here on this board (well longtime lurker anyways). I recently started a 6 gallon JBJ nano cube salt tank in my home office. I decided to start this diary thread which I will update as I add livestock, hardware, parameters change, etc.

My tank is already cycled as I have had it up in running for three weeks now.

My tank has the following setup:

-Stock Lighting and Pump.
-RO water from my LFS and Distilled water from my supermarket.
-Used Oceanic salt, recently switched to Instant Ocean.
-Marine Labs Hydrometer
-Tetra Labs test kit along with Quick dip test strips.
-75w Ebo Jag Heater (Chamber 2).
-Stock Sponges (Chamber 1)
-Chemi-Pure (Chamber 3).
-5.5 lbs of liverock from my lfs.
-1 inch Crushed Coral substrate.

I moved from Oceanic salt to Instant Ocean last night. I am hoping IO improves my dKH.

I currently have a light clean-up crew which overnight took care of my brown diatom bloom.

My current clean-up crew:

1 Mexican Turbo Snail.
1 Nassarius Snail.
1 Astraea Conehead Snail.
1 Emerald Mithrax Crab.

I have to say, the Emerald Crab is quite interesting to watch.

Current Water Parameters:

Temp: 78
Specific Gravity: 1.024
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
dKH: 6

As you see, my dKH is low.

Maintenance: 25% water change every week (1.5 gallons). It's easy to do with a 6 gallon cube and with such a small tank a larger change should ensure a better environment.

I use a turkey baster to get debris from the bottom, and I cup water out into a 1/2 gallon bucket. (you have to love small tank water changes)

LiveStock planning:

Fish: Tough one, I am really on the fence between the cliche ocellaris clown fish, or gobys / blennys (the latter two seem more interesting)

Shrimp: Skunk Cleaner or the Blood Fire Shrimp (which i am in love with).

I would love to do a reef safe starfish and some other cool inverts.
I will probably stock low light corals (shrooms, etc), but I want to wait a a good while before starting a true reef and adding corals to ensure that I can maintain water parameters and learn to cope with problems/issues.

Ok, i'd love to here people's comments and suggestions.

http://www.scitechinc.com/temp/fish/nanoCube031806.jpg

[danielwatson]

My dkH is now @ 8. Switching from Oceanic to Instant Ocean made this improvement.

[randt122]

Is the stand for nc6 or for nc12? I've been looking for a stand for nc6 with no luck.

[danielwatson]

This is the nano 12 stand. I own the nano 12 original (which I might convert into a freshwater tank). The six (to be honest) looks much better on the nano 12 stand. I'll post a full picture. I like the nano 6 much better than the 12.

[danielwatson]

I added two Percula Clownfish today. These are recommended as nano-sized fish, though most would argue (and with good reason) that two in a nano six is exceeding the bio-load limits.

My maintenance is aggressive which I believe allows me to house these two fish without problem.

1) I change 25% of my water each week (1.5 gallons)
2) Perform water tests bi-weekly.
3) Clean glass, measure salinity daily.
4) Clean sponges (in aquarium water) weekly.

Most people recommend removing Sponges, I honestly believe you should leave them in. Every saltwater book I have read recommends having Sponges or some other method (filter floss, etc) for removing large debris. My sponges catch allot of stuff. When I change my water, I turn off the return pump and rinse my sponges out in the water removed from the tank. I think if you are not going to use a Protein Skimmer (which is somewhat impractical in such a tiny tank) than using Sponges and larger water changes can really make up for the effectiveness of one.

I mentioned in the beginning I am using Chemi-Pure. I also believe that carbon is essential in any tank. I have not a clue whether Chemi-Pure lives up to its claims, but it seems to be a popular choice along with Purigen. This is probably the only chemical substance I will use in the tank. I don't believe in using chemical additives as large water changes in a small tank like this are very affordable, and the only reason I am using Chemi-Pure is to hopefully control any shifts that may occur between water changes.

The salt mix is a highly opinionated debate. Everyone has a favorite. I used Oceanic in my first salt water tank (which failed because I did nothing by the book. Oceanic is probably a fine salt, but IO seems to be very balanced and highly popular, affordable and is used by a lot of major aquariums. In several scientific studies I have read, IO did very well (if not always in the top three). Considering the price and availability I think it's a good welcome choice (your mileage may vary).

I highly recommend reading as many saltwater books as you can get your hands on. I love these forums and I love to here people's suggestions and while I will take anything into consideration, I never steer away from the guidance in the books (well except for doing a nano which none of my books suggest for stating out for obvious reasons). These books are written by experts using tried and true methods. Forums are great places to share and exchange ideas, but are also full of misinformation.

Here is a full shot my nano tank and stand for
randt122.

http://www.scitechinc.com/temp/fish/nanostand.jpg

Here are my clowns:

http://www.scitechinc.com/temp/fish/nanoclownfish.jpg

[schiavonir]

Congratulations on starting your nano. Looks like you are off to a good start. I'm about 2 months into my 6g.

One add-on I would definitely recommend is the surface skimmer. There are DIY plans out there for using a cassette case, but one can be had for about $11 on eBay or a little more from an LFS, but they are sometimes hard to find for the 6g.

Water pressure holds it into place, so there's no glue or modifications necessary. (It falls off when you turn your pump off, which I always forget about.) It does a few things:

1. Skims the surface by creating an overflow.
2. Keeps the water level in the tank constant. Only the levels in your sump will change. You can easily adjust it to the level you want to keep your sump by moving the overflow up or down. I notice that your water line is below the rim of the tank, so if you'd like to get it all the way up, so you can't see it, this is the way to go.

I don't know why they don't just include these with the tank.

Roger

[randt122]

Thanks for posting pics. The tank looks real good with the stand.

[danielwatson]

Schiavonir, thanks I will definitely add a surface skimmer. I might buy the one from JBJ, the one from nanocustoms is super expensive not sure why.

randt122 - I highly recommend the JBJ stand, it's overpriced and a pain to put together but it complements the tank so well and I have recieved alot of feedback about how great it looks.

[danielwatson]

Everything is doing very well. My tank parameters are still excellant and things seems to be thriving. I am experiencing a nice outbreak of coraline algae growth.

A week ago I added a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp.

http://www.scitechinc.com/temp/fish/shrimp.jpg

Today I added a feather duster ($12 @ my LFS).

http://www.scitechinc.com/temp/fish/featherduster.jpg

Here is an updated tank picture

http://www.scitechinc.com/temp/fish/tankapril.jpg

[outrigger]

nice pics!

[flameangel88]

Great pixs and please keep them coming!

FA

[kingtoad]

I'm going to start setting one up for my office at work pretty soon. Keep us updated.

[rodgod20]

daniel and schiavonir,

how often do you top-off the water? once a day, every other day?

I am working on my first SW tank and it is this tank. I know the risk of the nano's and I have been doing a TON TON TON of research, so I think I am up too it. I am probably going to start out like you with FOWLR and then go with shrooms and zoo's. The feather duster would be cool as well.

But I have been wondering that 1 question.

and very nice tank btw, hopefully be starting my diary thread soon

[danielwatson]

Believe it or not I have little to no evaporation. My salinity has been steady at a constant 1.024 (which I check daily). I do not have the surface skimmer mod so I keep my water level fixed @ the middle of the top left intake (this also ensures that the return nozzle breaks the water surface). Every week I change out 25% of my water, but during the week I have not yet needed to add top-off water. My room temperature stays at a constant of 73 degrees and my tank temperature has been holding steady @ 81 degrees.

I only have stock lighting which may be the reason I have little to no evaporation. People who have added aftermarket lighting such as metal halide or the like seem to have to most issues with evaporation.

Thanks for all the kind comments, please feel free to critique !

[rodgod20]

thanks daniel, I am starting to feel better about jumping into this hobby with a 6G nano everyday, and one of my biggest worry is keeping the salinity correct. I am going to be checking that before bed. I was thinking about sticking to a .5 gallon water change once a week, but I think the 1.5 gallon water change will be better for the enviroment.

See your a software developer, hopefully when I finish my masters in august, in computer science I will be jumping in that field. We will see what the future holds for that.

Thanks for the info, I am going to keep up with this thread, look for mine soon!

[schiavonir]

I have 54W of PC lighting, so I do have some evaporation. I probably top off once or twice a week, though only a small amount. Because of the overflow, the only water level that changes is the right chamber of the sump. It fluctuates about 4 inches, so in that little space, we're only talking maybe two cups. If you do the math, 2 cups is about 2% of 6 gallons. That means, at my lowest water level, my salinity will increase 2%. I like to keep my salinity at 1.028. A 2% increase is about 1.0285. So the bottom line is that I don't let evaporation worry me when it comes to salinity.

I do a one gallon water change once a week. I don't want to hijack your thread with a link to mine, but if you want to see some pictures, look for my thread entitled, "My office 6g nano".

Roger

[schiavonir]

OK, lest someone pick on my math, I thought it over and it's not completely accurate. Because I have rock and sand in the tank, the total water volume is not 6 gallons. And it's probably not 6 gallons anyway, probably closer to 5.5 gallons without anything in it.

The bottom line is that I experience small salinity swings due to evaporation, and with topoff every couple of days, it does not appear to pose any threat to my tank. Could it explain the occasional loss of corals? (I've had some zoos die and my yellow polyps "disappeared") Maybe, but I also have a couple dozen other corals that are doing just fine.

Now that I've said all that, watch for my thread "My nano crashed!"

[danielwatson]

for my cube. just thought it would be fun. check it out and see what you all think...


http://nanosix.blogspot.com/

[lisajulia]

What are you feeding your clowns??? Every time I go to the LFS...and I have been to several in my area, I ask to see the clowns eat. NONE of them ever go for anything other than live brine shrimp...which I know is like giving them potato chips.

I have this exact tank set up...I think it's been up a little over a year...I would dearly love to add a clown, but fear I won't be able to get it to eat.

Your set up and blog look great!