dynaschm0e’s first reef tank attempt: a NanoCube 28

[dynaschm0e]

Hello All,

First, I would like to say many thanks to everybody on reefcentral for the plethora of good advice given and the many questions answered in my research towards this venture so far. I kept several freshwater tanks with easy fish for several years as a wee lad: elementary school. This is my first saltwater/reef tank attempt.

The NanoCube 28 caught my attention in the beginning of my reef tank research, due to its ‘all-in-one’ package. During my early research, my tank wish list did a full circle from the NC 28, to a 40g breeder, to a 55g, to 75g, to 90g, then back to the NC28 after seeing the exponentially larger price tag jumps with the incrementally larger tanks: the lights alone were way too much for me to feel comfortable with for this first time experiment- easy hot-rod, one day. The NC 28 is a good fit in the corner of our living room, and will hopefully be relatively easier to move one day: we rent our house now.

We pre-ordered the NC28 back in April and played the waiting game until the release months later. That was probably a blessing, so we could not make any quick moves and forced me to read everything I could get my hands on, including countless hours on reefcentral, in order to fulfill my aquarium jones.

On to the setup…

I installed the NanoTuners actinic mod to add more blue to bring out the values in the colors and help the colors pop. We also plan to use the actinics for sunrise/sunset periods: will probably run the actinics for 12 hr/day and the stock MH for 10 hr/day in the middle of the actinic on cycle. The tank runs a little hot (84ish) at the end of a 10hr MH cycle, so still working on a solution to keep temps down – probably a chiller.

We modded a 9x5” mini PC as a refugium light and hung it on the back of the tank. We plan to run the refugium lights in a reverse photoperiod from the tank to keep photosynthetic metabolism and nutrient export always going and to help keep a stable PH. We call the refugium area ‘Australia’ – meaning the other side of the virtual aquarium planet. We bought a 3” computer fan from Radio Shack and mounted on top of the mini PC housing over a hole I dremeled (sp? verb – the act of dremeling) out of the hood to keep the light cool leaning against the back of the tank. I also drilled holes on the sides of the light (top and bottom of light when hanging vertically on back of tank) to help airflow through the light hood. The light barely feels warm now. It appears this will work great, as long as we keep the chaetomorpha pruned enough that it can tumble somewhat in the refugium and expose all sides of the algae clump to the light.

Refugium light:


Refugium light on tank:


We also built a comparatively cheap ATO with the JBJ ATO, an Aqualifter dosing pump, black vinyl tubing, and a 5 gallon bucket. For top off water we use an RO/DI unit purchased from melev here on reefcentral: a pleasure to deal with and a great resource for all things reeftank – Marc knows his stuff and is the author of countless tutorials here on reefcentral and elsewhere on the Web including his site melevsreef.com

ATO resevoir and pump:


Our tank is filled with filtered seawater from the UNCW Aquaculture Center on Wrightsville Beach. We feel very lucky to have this available. The water came out of the spicket at 80 degrees and has maintained 80 in our tank ever since.

I got a 5 gallon bucket full of Fiji liverock from a friend, lovingly known as a ‘bigwater’: 180Gallon on reefcentral. We used a solid piece of 3/8” rigid tubing stuck through holes drilled through rocks as support to form a rock pillar. We also used shorter pegs of the 3/8” rigid tubing stuck in couple inch drilled holes to stabilize the bottom couple of pieces of our back liverock wall. We placed the liverock directly on the tank bottom for stability and placed two of the bottom pieces of rock wall together to form a stable cave under the sand for a planned yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp pair. We placed the rock wall ~ 1.5 - 2” from the back overflow wall of the tank to allow for hopefully good flow everywhere in the tank. My wife and I love the freestanding rock pillar and the fact we can see behind the back rock wall from in the kitchen over the breakfast bar. The tank has several viewing angles: from the left side of the tank in a chair directly beside the tank, the front of the tank from across the room on the sofa, and a back left view from the kitchen. The right side of the tank is angled towards a wall, so it is almost like another back side: that is why we put the rock pillar in the tank another backdrop when viewed from the chair directly beside. The pillar also allows for more liverock in the tank without limiting the flow anywhere in the tank.

Left view:


Front view:


Kitchen view:


Goby cave (can’t see very well in picture, and is not fully dug out- it is a suggestion, hoping the burrowers will dig there, we will see:


Front close-up of rocks:


I went to Tropical Paradise, a LFS aimed towards reeftanks, to purchase sand yesterday. We wanted a 4” DSB for the nutrient export properties and a comfortable environment for the planned burrowing duo. According to the calc on reefcentral, we would need ~71 LBS to accomplish this, minus a little because of the displacement from the rocks placed directly on the tank bottom. I talked to the Jason, the LFS associate who assisted me, about options to purchase ~40 LBS of plain dry 1-2mm aragonite sand, and a 20 LB bag of live oolite sand to put on top. He informed me they only had livesand in stock and I informed him I could not feel good about paying their price for 60 LBS of live sand. He then showed me a 75 gallon aquarium they had just replaced at a local attorney’s office due to old silicone: everything was replaced except the pumps. He offered me the 1-2mm aragonite sand still in the bottom of the tank, if I had a bucket. Lucky for me, I had a five gallon bucket in the trunk from returning the extra liverock to my buddy the night before. He scooped the sand out of the tank with a net and it filled my 5 gallon bucket: it smelled like it had just been pulled from an active reeftank. I purchased a 20 LB bag of CaribSea live Bahamas Oolite sand to toss on top of the free sand. My wife and I love the look of the sugar sand, but we know we need some coarser sand in the mix for burrow stability. The free sand filled our tank ~ 3 - 3.5” and the oolite on top brought the sand bed to ~ 4”. Yeah!

I tested water parameters today for the first time and results are below:
Ammonia – 0 ppm
Nitrite – 0 ppm
Nitrate – 0 ppm
Phosphate – 0 ppm
Calcium – 480 ppm
PH – 8.2
KH – 8% / 143.2 ppm
GH - ??? (got up to 30 drops: still red??? Maybe did something wrong??? Will try again later)
Salinity - 1.026 SG / 35 ppt

I will test again in another two days to see if parameters are changing. So far, the tank does not appear to be going through a cycle: no smell and no visible algae blooms. It has only been a week since we put live rock in and a day since sand: we will definitely wait a few weeks to assure stability before beginning to stock with fish or corals. If parameters remain stable we may put a snail or two and maybe a crab in a week or so.

I plan to order a ball of chaeto from floridapets this week to start nutrient export, and so we can start to turn on the lights. The lights are off now, so as to not allow any unwanted algae to get foot. I will post more as the tank develops. Any thoughts, comments, or questions are welcome. Again, thank you all for your expertise and help getting started, and thanks for reading. More soon. -Trey

[dynaschm0e]

Here are a couple of pictures before the sand. The lone rock in the front left and liverock pebbles were removed before the sand: the liverock pebbles were tossed in the center overflow in preparation for the refugium soon to be back there. The goby cave is hidden behind the front left rock: it is ~ 1.25” in diameter and ~ 2.5” deep.

[dynaschm0e]

Here is a shot with the actinics on before putting the sand in. You can just see the mouth of the goby cave over the front left rock:



Okay, I’ll get over showing the goby cave now…

[bteagle93]

damn thats a deep sand bed! LOLOL. looks good so far! good luck.

[reefman13]

sry double post..........

[reefman13]

That's a lot of sand..........that is going to seriously cut down on swimming space for your fish.

Personally, I would take some out and add it to the future refugium and throw some of the free stuff out. It maybe a nutrient export, but if the flow isn't good enough and things aren't right, it will just become a nitrate factory.

Otherwise you have a really nice setup.

[dynaschm0e]

Thanks for the feedback bteagle93 and reefman13.

We only plan to house a pair of perculas and a yellow watchman, so I think we are set for swimming space. Flow appears to be sufficient everywhere so far: items seem to be suspended in the water column until getting sucked into the overflow.

I've read a scientific paper by Bob Goemans from 2000 on the benefit of deep sand beds, and what I remember is anything less than 4" DSB is guaranteed to be an eventual nitrate sink. This paper also states that a 4" DSB without any deep burrowers stirring the sand up is supposed to be able to metabolize the nutrients all the way to O2. To hopefully keep our planned burrowers from stirring the sand too deeply, I am hoping the goby/pistol shrimp pair will use the cave we fashioned for them.

This is an experiment and we will alter as necessary. Thanks again. -Trey

[dynaschm0e]

Any comments not about the sand bed? Thank you. -Trey

[zimmy1979]

I also like to make room around the rocks to clean the class. You will hate life later if you don't have room to clean the glass or to watch the sides.

[2OceanLovers]

I think this tank looks awesome. The sand is my favorite part. I can't wait to see it full and stocked!

[dynaschm0e]

Thank you for your comments zimmy1979 and 2OceanLovers.

zimmy1979, we left enough room around all rocks to for our mag float to fit: we tested before laying sand. I agree, it would be a royal pain if there was not enough room to clean the glass around the rocks. We were also thinking that it would help overall flow without the rocks touching glass: flow appears great so far. On a side note, I think your listed occupation is hilarious zimmy1979: I used to work for 'The Computer Nerd' before he got a government job and sold his business.

2OceanLovers, thank you: my wife and I also love the organic look of the deep sand bed.

I am going to order chaeto today for hopefully a Thursday delivery. Will post more pics soon.

Thanks again. More soon. -Trey

[dynaschm0e]

Wow! There are more bristle worms than I ever imagined. We can see many tunnels in between the side of the tank and the oolite livesand on top with orange worms in the tunnels. We pulled the refugium light from off of the back of the tank looked: now we could see the bristles. There are even more in the 1-2mm grain sand below the oolite that we could see with the light. The bristle worms are cruising through the coarser grade sand. They did not seem to like the light: most seemed to move deeper into the sand after having the light shone on them.

A tiny feather duster, our first sign of life, was spotted by my wife a few days ago on top of the top rock of the rock pillar. There is also a near microscopic feather duster right next to that one that you can barely see.

We also have these three tiny little white balls on the rock that look like little cocoons that have started expanding some sort of appendages like little tentacles or polyps: sponges, I guess. There is a larger one (almost small marble size) in one of the rock caves that has longer (maybe .25") appendages.

There is also this tiny litle red thing growing on the liverock that branches like a mini acropora that now appears to have white tips: can't tell if it is bleaching or the white tips are new growth - it is really tiny.

We don't have a good camera and probably could not take pictures worth viewing of these tiny creatures. I will post photos of life once we find some large enough to shoot.

I ordered a ball of chaeto from floridapets today: only ~20 bucks including shipping. They are so confident about their shipping rates, that they give you links to their competitors to compare shipping: big names too like premium aquatics. Their site states that they harvest their chaeto directy from the Florida keys and that it is loaded with micro stars, bubble snails, small clams, medusa worms, and pods. Sweet! I can't wait to put more life in the tank.

Man, I hope I get a good night sleep tonight. I have been like a kid the night before Christmas for about a week now: staying up late looking at the tank, and unable to go back to sleep in the morning after going pee and I go back out to look at the tank until time to take the dog for a walk and get ready for work.

Oh, I do have a kind of funny story to share. As stated before, we were given the 1-2mm sand we have on the bottom of our sandbed from a LFS: they had just swapped a tank the night before at an attorney's office that they maintain. As I was scooping the sand from the 5 gallon bucket into the tank with a plastic cup, I looked down into the bucket to see a finger! Oh my God! No wonder they were getting rid of this tank! What do I do? Is the LFS in on this? Can I be blamed for this? I was panicking… Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a piece of Tonga branch liverock mixed in with the sand and there were a couple of more, deeper in the bucket. Ha. I can laugh now, but was in a full panic for those first few seconds.

Thanks for reading. More soon. -Trey

[dynaschm0e]

Kyle, from sapphireaquatics, is working on a below tank sump with a refugium and a real skimmer for the NC28s, maybe even an ATO. If it is anything like his HOB refugiums, I imagine it will be bad a**. That would add more total water volume to the system and have room to house more macro algae. Can't wait to see this.

[zimmy1979]

Originally posted by dynaschm0e
Kyle, from sapphireaquatics, is working on a below tank sump with a refugium and a real skimmer for the NC28s, maybe even an ATO. If it is anything like his HOB refugiums, I imagine it will be bad a**. That would add more total water volume to the system and have room to house more macro algae. Can't wait to see this.

Really?? When is this going to be done? Any estimates? I was thinking of buying the tunze nano doc skimmer but that will not fit at all. My NC28 is doing great but anything I can do to help it would make me happy.

[dynaschm0e]

He said he had a couple of other projects to complete first, but hoped to begin work on this soon. Ha. The cat is out of the bag now: he is going to have NC28 owners all over waiting with bated breath for this. I can't wait.

[zukihara]

In my humblest opinion you will grow to hate that deep sand bed in time because it's the least thing you can control both chemically and aesthetically.

Fistfights have been started on this forum over DSBs but in my own silly view I think those employing them, most especially, in a tank this size would do well to house them outside the main display. In the end you will have less room for LR, corals and fish and much less control.

Now, I certainly don't want to turn this into a DSB debate (please oh please) but even though I haven't read that paper, I'd say that any results would be skewed due to the proportion of DSB vs. water in such a small environment. I'm guessing the room for error is tiny at best.

My advice is to get it out. If you agree with the type of filtration then apply it proportionally from a remote location. Again, imho, though..........with a fuge of macro, a skimmer being added, mega live rock, etc. how much benefit do you believe a DSB would actually provide?

OK, that's my 2 cents, please take it as intended, which was to assist in your plan.

[dynaschm0e]

Thank you for your insights zukihara: they are very much appreciated. I am still researching DSBs and the effects on proportionally small water volumes and in this research, hoping for experienced assistance from fellow reefers such as you. I am finding many people giving this same advice. I may adjust the sand bed eventually, but plan to leave it now during my research and while we still have a window to decide while there are no fish or corals in the tank yet that could be disturbed by the removal of the sand bed.

If we do eventually pull some of the sand out, I think we will do exactly as you and reefman13 recommend, which is toss some in the refugium. We are waiting to see what Kyle from sapphireaquatics comes up with for a refugium: maybe try a DSB in there if the size permits. I do not want to toss sand in our current refugium in the center compartment of the overflow: that sounds like an unmanageable mess.

Thank you again for your response zukihara. -Trey

[dynaschm0e]

Finally, the sweet sound of silence… This is my favorite mod yet. I used airline tubing secured with fishing line strung through tied around the Maxijet 1200 return pumps as vibration cushions. Our returns always seemed to end up vibrating against the sides of the aquarium and back overflow wall. The top of the pump intakes also occasionally ended up vibrating against bottom of the center overflow chamber. The pumps are now wrapped like bumper cars on all edges that can possibly vibrate against something: the bottom, the sides, and the top of the intake.



No matter how much we loved everything else about the tank, we could just not get over the noise of the pumps. It is dreamy now: nothing, we hear nothing.

Still no signs of a cycle: no smell, no visible algae. We are not turning the lights on to give any unwanted algae a head start until we put the chaeto in Thursday to start to export nutrients.

We are still finding all sorts of signs of life: more feather dusters, bristle worms in the sand, copepods on the glass, more sponges, and what look like tiny green ferns all over a rock. Anyone have any ideas what the tiny fern like things may be? A plant maybe?

Thanks for reading. More soon. –Trey

[seapug]

hi dynaschm0e, my parents live by you down in Southport. Wilmington is a cool town I visit there a couple times/year. Every time I go there I wonder what the LFS are like. Got names of some good ones I should check out next time I'm there?

Congrats on getting the tank up and running. I've got a JBJ 28 going on one month right now. It's been a great tank so far. I like your fuge ligt setup. I've going to try that on mine. Can you explain more how your ATO works? How is it plumbed into the rear compartment? More specificially, how is the float switch mounted in the small space?

If you are going to do a sandbed that deep, you ought to consider a jawfish. It would probably love it.

[Racktacular]

Just wondering why you aren't turning on the lights? I know it is because you don't want an algae bloom, but isn't that what is going to cycle your tank? I don't see how you are going to get away from an algae bloom once you start to turn the lights on. I would say it is better to do it now with no critters in the tank just to get it over with. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing your progress.

[dynaschm0e]

Hi seapug. Southport is a cool little town too: we love taking the ferry there and the Tai restaurant in town. The best LFS I have found in Wilmington for reeftank supplies is Tropical Paradise. They have really strange hours though: something like 2-6 or 12-4 weekdays(maybe??, might have changed) and 11-5 Saturday(at least last Saturday anyhow). The owner says he makes all of his money from tank maintenance and just has the store to ‘have a reputable name in the industry’ or something. Kind of expensive, like all LFS, compared to online prices, but a good resource to direct questions. They carry livestock too: they’re perculas are actually bread by the UNCW marine biology department. Jason, the associate there last weekend told me that Tropical Paradise has a pair of black clowns from ORA that UNCW is breeding now. They’ve also have some sweet looking green and purple bubble-tip anemones.

Thanks seapug: we like the fuge mod as well. It was real easy and cheap.

The ATO has the float switches in the left overflow compartment and hangs on the divider between the center compartment and the outside compartment. It is tight in there with the .5” tubing from the pump to the tank return routed around the float switches. I will try to post a picture tonight, if I can get a good angle to shoot a photo. The black airline tubing from the aqualifter pump that draws water from the bucket below is pushed into one of those little wire/tubing holders on the back of the tank. The tubing is above the water line, so it cannot siphon water from the tank when the pump shuts off. I have the JBJ ATO on a timer that is set to turn on for an hour a day. The reason being, both pumps are powered on when the wavemaker is reset: if the power were to blip the water level would be much lower in the back with both pumps on. Until we figure out a better solution, I want to be there when the wavemaker is on. The aqaulifter pump has ~3.5ish gallons an hour flow, and top off is not that much, so an hour is most sufficient for the top off.

I agree, I think a jawfish would be happy in our sandbed, but from what I read the sleeper gobies are not always accepting of their own kind. I think we are going to go with a yellow watchman/ pistol shrimp pair instead: we like the whole shacking up together symbiotic relationship thing.

I was thinking we maybe weren’t going to cycle Racktacular. Everything was cured, I guess, before putting it in the tank: liverock that has been cured for years from a buddies tank that was carried home in a five gallon bucket filled with sea water, filtered sea water, reefsand from an established tank, and Caribsea live sand on top. I plan to start turning the lights on tomorrow when we put the chaeto in. I was thinking we may start the chaeto in the tank with the higher powered lights, instead of the refugium in the overflow, so it will grow quickly and I can give bunches to three friends. You are right Racktacular, the algae bloom is part of a cycle. We plan to wait for a few weeks after turning on the lights before stocking with fish or corals to assure stability. Maybe we will put in a snail or two and possibly a crab in a week. Thanks for the thought Racktacular.

Thank you again. More soon. -Trey

[dynaschm0e]

"better solution, I want to be there when the wavemaker is on."

I mean

better solution, I want to be there when the ATO is on.

[dynaschm0e]

A few pictures of the refugium in the center overflow filled with chaeto that arrived yesterday:








A few pictures of the live rock structures taken yesterday:

[seapug]

Lookin, good! Make sure you leave enough room behind the rocks to clean the back wall. It tends to become a hair algae magnet the first few weeks.

[dynaschm0e]

Thanks for the advice seapug. How do folks normally clean hair algae off of or their back wall? A toothbrush, or siphon it maybe? Thanks again. -Trey