24g Nano Cube take 2

[OoNickoC]

I have been wanting to setup another one of these for afew years now, the time has finally come. I got a killer deal on a 24g dx with some accesories, could not pass it up.
My little 5 gallon is still chugging along but the top-off routine gets out of hand mid summer. I was leaning towards an ato but was offered this tank, the intank basket and skimmer for less than the ato would have run.

So far;
24g nanocube
Jebao wp-10
Fluval heater
Intank media basket in first chamber (just some poly batting for now)
Surface skimmer
Hydor Slim Skim Nano enroute

20lbs or so of man-made rock which I am very satisfied with so far.
20 or so lbs of "dead sand" seeded with livesand from my two year old 5g.


The wp10 is unbelievable at its price point, though I am a believer in you get what you pay for. I have backups just in case. I'll be satisfied if I get a year out of it. I do have an Mp-10 on standby if this pump should fail or give me issues.

Thought I would start a video log of the system, more fun than pictures! The video was taken with my lumia 510 so it is not very clear. I'll be using a d600 for the future videos and pictures as my rebel dslr just checked out.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XQy4R0y0sqQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[hersheyb]

Looks very promising, what's that gray stuff on the falsewall?

 

[OoNickoC]

I got the tank 2nd hand so it is the old coralline algae, Im hoping to get some to come back as the strain in the tank was nice and strong. If I dont get strong regrowth I will probably scrape/vac it. Edit; just watched the vid again...it looks like teh white balance from my phone is pretty bad = P

 

[tntdsol]

What setting are you using the WP-10 on?

 

[OoNickoC]

What setting are you using the WP-10 on?

I have it on W1, s2, with the dial at about 11 oclock.

 

[OoNickoC]

Update

Update

Upped the bioload with some inverts. Some test polyps and a hammer coral went in and are doing great.
I dosed some Aquavitro Fuel and got a bit of algae out of it, finally some diatoms!

Found a state side source that I really am excited about for LED fixture. Saw some very sleek little fixtures over my buddies mixed reef and was impressed to the point of buying a pair with a dimmer and apex compatibility.
Decided to try out some "Build My Led" fixtures. Went with a custom spectrum that puts out about 20 watts per bar, 2 separate bars. Thin enough to slide in where the PCs are with no mods in the stock splash guard.

Upgraded the noisy stock fans.

Toying with the idea of mounting some of the frags on the rear wall. Glued a small magnet to a piece of rubble and that to the skeletal stock of the torch. I don't plan on keeping the torch though, just a tester from another system.

Expecting my skimmer in tomorrow and the lights this week. :beer:

 

[OoNickoC]

 

[OoNickoC]

Woot, almost there!

Woot, almost there!

Got the skimmer in on Tues, up and running. Pulling dark tea out already but still need more film for the micro bubbles. I have to say it is a tight fit in the NC but man it is perfect! I set an eggcrate box underit just in case but the chamber wall and rear wall hold it snugly in place.

I drilled a hole in the cap for the collection cup to hold 1/8th tube that I will use to empty the cup without opening the whole tank. I figure I will just use an aqualifter on a timer set to clean the cup out twice a day.
Ballast on the lights got trashed, running some temporary homebrew leds.

My custom strips from BML are coming to the rescue though so I am okay there. I also got my aluminum heat exchangers in. I decided with 4 blue, 2 uv, 2 green, and two red to balance the color of the BML strips. I decided to omit the colors form the BML lights and put those on a separate dimmer as I already have one. Save alot of money and I get a bit more control out of it.

Small cleanup crew is in place and the test corals are doing excellent. Once the skimmer is dialed in and I have completed the first water chance I will decide on coral placement.

Got my coral in to from Pacific East Aquaculture today, woot! :spin3: Impressive level of communication and top notch shipping procedure. Corals to date are as follows;

Pink eye green/yellow Diploastrea. Very very cool coral.
Blue Sympodium
Orange Burst chalice
War Paint chalice
Hopt Spot chalice
Red Lava cyphastrea
Brain Freeze favia
Green Goblin pectina
Monitpora Setosa
Recovering Sunset Montipora
Sun king Psammacora
Tiny Purple Rain Ricordea
Green shroom of some sort
Space Monster Pally
Rasta Zoa

I am planning on adding some more interesting and unique corals but for now that has subdued my inner coral hoarder. I will get pics up soon but most of the frags are small to tiny size except for the pectina and diploastrea.
I will update soon :wave:

 

[OoNickoC]

Here are some of the new frags waiting to go in the main display. I know, it needs a cleaning.

Green Goblin pectina

Brain Freeze favia. I love the shade of blue on this one. For some reason I have to turn up my blues to capture its color on my cell phone, this is more accurate to what i looks like to the eye.

Pink and green/yellow Diploastrea.

War Paint chalice
http://www.flickr.com/photos/119036587@N03/12843587805/[/IM]

Sun King Psammacora
[IMG]http://www.flickr.com/photos/119036587@N03/12843997824/

I'll get a full pic list when everything goes in to track growth.

 

[OoNickoC]

Opps...

 

[Jnickles85]

Tank is looking great.

 

[OoNickoC]

Update

Update

Lights are in and look great! I mock rigged them yesterday the sake of the coral I have in there (not much at this point) and the spectrum looks perfect!
To my eye it looks around 15k, which is perfect for my needs and what I was shooting for.

The mockup was quick, took me about 20mins and there is plenty of room to throw in some more. I still plan on adding some reds, greens, and UV.

I ordered some 3.2 mm rubber sound isolation sheeting. Going to double layer this on the rear and maybe on the sides. The setup is very quiet, though I want to see how quite I can make it. I also figure it will help with temperature stability int eh winters and summers once a chiller is added.

I believe I have the rockwork where I want it now, a bit more open. Though I will need some more pieces for the rear and upper portion.

Parameters are holding perfect, diatom bloom is dying back and was fairly subtle.

Frags in QT are doing great, save the pectina which took a blasting from a power head that came loose.

Picking up more frags tonight.

I plan on final fitting the lights whent eh insulation arrives.

Another note, I am still getting micro bubbles from the Hydor in a decent amount. Going to give the skimmer chamber another few weeks to build up then I may hold off on it until the system mautres more.

 

[OoNickoC]

After removing the black backing to see the chambers the flow issue is obvious. The portion of the slim skim sits right at the effluent of the first chamber and because it sits snug in the chamber it pulls the bubbles from the "froathing chamber" of the skimmer up and into the third chamber. I somewhat prevented the overflow of bubbles with a some variations of mechanical blocking but they are too many.

Hydor is out, weekly water changes back in...which coincide nicely with my new schedule.