Jimbo's 6gal Nano Diary

J

Jimbo327

Well-known member
Well, I'm going to chronicle the setup of my 6gal nano reef tank.

I purchased the tank setup from a local reefer named Steve G. aka dragon79. It is a modded JBJ 6 gallon nano tank that is probably 1 - 2 years old. It has three 18watt PC lights in the hood with 2 somewhat loud cooling fans.

Currently the tank has a deep sand bed, a large piece of live rock, a couple cleaning crew, and a frag of frogspawn with misc. zoos. It is pretty much empty.

My goal for this tank is simplicity. I want to have only ricordias and select zoos in this tank, along with a few shrimps. I will be removing most of the sand bed over time, I just don't like having the detritus in the sand.

I will post pictures when I get home.

My upgrade priority list is:

1) Auto topoff
2) Get good surge protector
3) Hide all the wires
4) Sand Removal / Filter Sock Installation
5) Silence the fans
6) Chiller
 
Got home yesterday and the tank looked fine.

I want to explain why I got the modded 6 gal JBJ NanoCube from another local reefer (getting out of the hobby) instead of buying a new one. First of all, I got a great deal from the seller because it included the JBJ stand and misc. equipment like window scraper and 50w heater. But the main reason is that I'm too lazy to do all the techy modifications to the tank, which I feel will cost me much more money because I'll probably screw it up and wind up destroying the tank. So I left it to the professionals, and the seller told me it was modded at nanocustoms. Cool. Less work for me. So we drained 1/2 the tank water, and I drove the tank home. Easy and very portable, which is great if I need to move it.

All I did so far is fill the tank back up with Instant Ocean saltwater. The only thing that concerns me right now is that a few spots of purple corraline algae have turned white. I'm going to throw away my old bucket of IO salt, and go buy a fresh bag of IO salt and do a water change tonight. I'm going to increase the salinity in the tank higher as well.

I'm also getting a zoo frag from a local reefer tonight.

The one thing that jumps out at me so far is that it is quite difficult to keep the 6gal tank in balance with such a small tank and no auto top-off. I'm looking at the RC's For Sale section for good deals on an auto top-off.
 
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Here are the initial tank photos. Your not going to see much, took these pictures right after I moved the tank home and re-filled the tank back up.

Tank after setup and filling back up.
12685IMG_2093.JPG


Tank on the JBJ Stand.
12685IMG_2100.JPG


Modded Hood with 3 PC Lights and some fans. 2 white light and 1 actinic. I haven't put them on a timer yet.
12685IMG_2094.JPG


3 Different Chambers in the Back of BioCube Tank.
12685IMG_2095.JPG


Removed Sand from the Tank.
12685IMG_2099.JPG
 
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I got some pictures of the living inhabitants in my tank.

Here is a Hermit Crab picking at the Rocks.
12685IMG_2104.JPG


A snail cruising the sand bed.
12685IMG_2101.JPG


A head of Frogspawn. I kept it on the sand, but it looks like it wants more light.
12685IMG_2102.JPG


Some Red Macro. Not sure what it is, but I like it.
12685IMG_2103.JPG


That's about it for now.
 
Nice tank, looks like you are off to a great start. One suggestion though. Put that heater in a back compartment, it is very distracting in the main display area.
 
Haha, don't worry, the heater will go in Chamber 3 when I get my auto top off installed in chamber 3 as well. I'm waiting for Marine Depot to get the Tunze in stock. I haven't started cleaning up the tank wire yet, so everything will be in the back compartments.

I want to get the tank parameter's stable before I start putting in more corals and shrimps. I bought a frag of Zoo yesterday from a local reefer that I plan on growing it on the back of my tank. The Zoos opened up 5 minutes after I put it into the nano. Most of the rocks will be reserved for ricordias.

Now I need to find some blue ricordias to fill this tank.
 
Picked up a brand new Tunze Osmolator this afternoon, so I don't have to worry about auto top-off anymore. The unit cost me $185 after tax. It is a lot pricier than most top offs, but I think some equipment (for a nano) needs to be top of the line, and this is one of them.

At a local fish store, I picked up a tiny blue Florida ricordia, a pink zoo frag (~10 polyps), and a yellow coco worm. I know I overpaid for some of the items, so I won't be doing any more business with this LFS unless I have to. There are better deals out there to be had, I was just impatient and bought it all in 1 place when I was actually just trying to buy a bag of salt. Haha.

I picked up a bluish zoo frag (2-3 polyps) from a local reefer.

Will be transferring a couple ricordias from my other tank (which I'm taking down).

COST SO FAR:

Used tank & stand w/ misc equip: $100
Tunze Osmolator: $185
Livestock(LFS): $54
Livestock(Reefers): $15
Bag of Instant Ocean Salt: $12

Total: $366

Dang this is adding up pretty fast. :mad2:
 
OK, I got home and set up the Tunze auto top-off in chamber 3. It took a bit of work to fit everything in there, I dropped a screw into the chamber and almost got my hand stuck in the chamber trying to fish it out. But after a bit, the Tunze was installed.

Tunze Osmolator in Chamber 3 of the nano. There are actually 2 sensors installed. One is a optical eye sensor to see if the water level gets too low, then it will start the pump to refill and keep the water level constant. The 2nd sensor is a safety float type for the high level, it will shut off the pump if the water level goes too high in case the optical eye sensor malfunctions.
12685IMG_2113.JPG


Pink Zoos. Hot.
12685IMG_2114.JPG


Here is another shot of the frogspawn at night, not as inflated and the purple tips come out more.
12685IMG_2115.JPG


Blue Florida Ricordia. Pricey and Tiny. It is probably half the size of a dime.
12685IMG_2116.JPG


Yellow Coco Worm. Not sure why I got it since I have to feed it. Just got caught up in the shopping spree moment.
12685IMG_2117.JPG


Mixed Zoos.
12685IMG_2118.JPG


At the moment, I'm not going to trade any frags because it is still too small and I want my nano to develop. And I don't want too many types of frags in my tank, I hate the look of tiny little frags scatter around the tank, I'm going to let mine grow and fill out a bit before I start trading. I'm just going to keep it simple and open.

I will not be adding anything to this tank until next year, then I will be on the lookout for sexy shrimps. And I'm trying to keep an eye out on an used 1/15 hp chiller, if anyone knows where to get one cheap or know someone getting rid of theirs, hit me up. And I'm also trying to assemble the parts needed for a DIY project to keep my tank stable. More details as it unfolds. :D
 
Right now, I'm just posting shots of the initial tank setup and keeping a log to document the steps. I'll be using this log in the future to remind myself for the PC bulb changes and maintanence. I'm notoriously bad at remembering dates and times.

When the tank is finally stable and all the frags are in the right places, I will probably just do a weekly whole tank photo.

But as of right now, the Tunze osmolator is working great. I checked the water level this morning and it is spot on. One less thing for this lazy bum to do. Sweet.
 
Just got back from my week long vacation, and the tank looks just fine when I got home. The glass was a bit dirty from some algae growing on it. I'm seeing a haze develop on the back of the tank, so I'm hoping it is coraline algae developing.

The frogspawn has really stretched itself out and getting bigger by the day, and it is trying to attack the pink zoo's...so I had to move both. I will need to start aquascaping the rockwork soon.

I really want to install a chiller for this tank so I don't have to worry about the summer and the crazy Southern California electricity bills. I'm not sure if I should get a 1/15 or 1/20 hp chiller. My room can probably get up to 100 degrees F in the summer so the drawdown has to be pretty efficient because I don't want the chiller to be constantly running.

And I also bought a dosing pump for $32 shipped from Ebay to play with. I want to automate even more stuff, so I don't have to do it.
 
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I think the coralline algae is really taking off in my tank. Most of the tank's back wall is starting to look greenish, and I can see signs of red/purple/pink coralline algae growing on the back of my tank.

And here is the secret to get good coralline growth: Stability!

Since I don't have fish, SPS/LPS, clams or other calcium sucking inhabitants...it is easy to keep the calcium and alkalinity stable. So all I have to do is worry about salinity and temperature and trace elements. I plan on doing a small water change to try to keep the trace elements in balance in the tank and export nasties nutrients (bad algae can quickly smother the growth of coralline algae), and continue to foster coralline growth until I can get a solid layer growing.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8878665#post8878665 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jimbo327
I really want to install a chiller for this tank so I don't have to worry about the summer and the crazy Southern California electricity bills. I'm not sure if I should get a 1/15 or 1/20 hp chiller. My room can probably get up to 100 degrees F in the summer so the drawdown has to be pretty efficient because I don't want the chiller to be constantly running.
Click to expand...
Here you go
JBJ Nano-Arctica Chiller Group Buy

It's funny, because I try hard not to have coralline algae grow in my NC6. I like the clean looks of the black background, it gives the illusion of depth (that goes away when the background is covered with coralline)
 
I know what you mean, the black background gives it a deeper look. I like the coralline algae because i know my tank is healthy just by looking at it, and I plan on growing corals on my background...so it doesn't really matter.

A lot of people like to lean their rockwork on the background because it gives them more space to grow their corals, but I like the open feel so I will only have an island rockwork.
 
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