Jimbo's 6gal Nano Diary

[Jimbo327]

Tonight:

20-30% water change.

Shot 2 of the aiptasia with some kalk paste.

New PhoSar Media.

New Carbon.

Trimmed red macroalgae way back. Pulled hair algae manually. Cut coco-worm tube shorter, and moved coco-worm to left back corner of tank. Glued Rics Floridas to the main rocks. Glued some loose zoa frags to the main rocks and the surface skimmer.

 

[Jimbo327]

2 new yumas I picked up from a local LFS. Pricey, but worth it.

I also made a DIY refugium light following another reefer's design in this thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1215893

It turned out really well and easy. I just need to trim off that back piece on the socket there.

 

[Jimbo327]

Here's a couple shots of my zoas.

I know it has a lot of glare, but hey, I admit I'm a terrible photographer.

And I glue stuff all over the place.

:lol:

 

[Jimbo327]

I traded some of the zoas in the previous post's picture for some blue zoas (tubs and spiderman) with a local reefer.

And he recommended a coral food called "coral frenzy". I've never heard of it, but I'm willing to try it if I can find it at the LFS.

 

[Jimbo327]

I checked my water yesterday.

Calcium at 380 ppm
Alk at 8.6
pH at 8.4

Not too happy about that, I really want to get the calcium above 400.

I pulled out a bunch of the chaeto macroalgae from the back chambers, it was packed. The new refugium light is really helping.

My stupid pistol shrimp kept pulling rocks (with zoa frags on them) to make his burrow entrance....hey buddy....this ain't the Taj Mahal! He is a great builder though, I gotta give him credit for his effort. Everything looked fine and thriving, I wish my coralline would grow faster.

And the temperature of my tank was 76.4F this morning, I was not too happy about that. Seems like my 50w heater's thermostat is not working properly. I cranked the heater setting higher.

I added 3 new yumas from a LFS near my work, they were in the frag tank, so I scooped them up for like $10 a piece. Amazing. I plan to go back and see what else they got in the frag bin. I like to browse through and try to find some gems in the frag bin.

 

[Jimbo327]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10904011#post10904011 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jimbo327
And the temperature of my tank was 76.4F this morning, I was not too happy about that. Seems like my 50w heater's thermostat is not working properly. I cranked the heater setting higher.

OK, recently, as the ambient temperature has been dropping, my tank has been dropping below 76F in the morning. I thought, it was because I'm losing too much heat from the chiller tubing. So I went to Home Depot, bought some pipe insulator and put it around the tubing.

Fine. Then I pulled out the heater and touched it...stone cold. It was dead. Cheap junk!

So I put my 250w heater in my tank right now until I can find a good replacement. Haha, I can't even fit this thing in the back chamber.

It's good I checked the temperature every morning. At least I found the malfunction before anything died.

And did a large water change yesterday.

 

[spleify]

Tank looks awesome!!! Very nice job.

 

[Jimbo327]

Thanks, Spleify. I like your in-wall tank too. You're lucky to have a bigger tank.

Most reefers, myself included, are always being urged to upgrade, but I find the beauty in having a mature tank that has been up years. So I'm determined to keep my little nano up for as long as possible.

To me, longetivity is more impressive than eye candy. I mean, it doesn't hurt to have a lot of eye candy, but to keep a small nano going for a long time (years) takes a lot of dedication and knowledge. I only wish my corals would grow faster to overcrowd my tank, I would be very happy if that was true. I'm quickly approaching (December) having this tank under my care for 1 year...this tank would have been more mature if I have not neglected it for the first 4 months.

 

[bad santa]

Have you found a good heater to put in your nano?

 

[Jimbo327]

I think I'm just going to drive down to Petsmart, and get myself a 50w Visi-therm stealth heater. It doesn't have the temperature display, but I have a seperate coralife digital thermometer anyways.

It's like $17 plus tax.

I don't want another crappy heater like my last one. I have to go check it out, and see if it will fit in my chamber 3 though.

 

[Jimbo327]

BTW, if buying from Petsmart in store, go to their online website, print out their online price and bring it in store to price match. The price was almost double in the store.

My heater was marked $30 in store, and is only $17 online. I didn't bring my printout, and tomorrow, I have to go back into the store to get some money back.

 

[bad santa]

what pump are you running for a return, a maxi-jet 600?

 

[Jimbo327]

I'm running a mini-jet 600, not a maxi-jet, for my return. It should have stated that somewhere at the beginning of my thread.

 

[Jimbo327]

And yesterday, I was looking at my tank, and I see something small moving. I had a closer look.

RED FLATWORM!

****! DIE!!!!

I used a tweezer to pull it out of the tank. And where there is smoke, there is fire. I proceeded to get my Salifert Flatworm Exit, read the instructions. "One drop per gallon" So I squeezed off 5 drops because there is probably less than 5 gallon of water volume in my tank.

Then I saw flatworms start floating in the water. COOL! It works. So I syphon out a few of the floaters and put it in a cup to study. I wait 45 minutes, and the flatworms in the cup still didn't explode. So I decided to just add a drop into the cup, which theoretically should nuke them, but it didn't kill them like I thought. So I added 10 more drops into the tank to see what happens. Waited a total of 90 minutes...then added carbon.

Nothing died in the cup. ***!!!! This stuff doesn't even work, it just stuns them. Now I'm ****ed.

I woke up this morning, saw the snail on its back. So I did a minor water change and added fresh carbon again. Then went to work.

Hmm...perhaps I need to break out the big boys of Red Flatworm eradication. This medication I know works, but I think it may also kill inverts in the process...which is like most of my tank's inhabitants. I'm reluctant to use it. Sigh.

I may try Flatworm Exit again just in case.

When I put the Flatworm Exit into the water, all of my yumas contorted. Weird. And I know who gave me the flatworms, it was the shop where I bought 3 of my new yumas. I saw some of them the last time I went there, and had chills down my spine because I didn't dip my yumas before putting into my tank. Big Mistake.

 

[MDP]

Hi Jimbo.

Great thread. I'm in the process of setting up a 6g myself. Still at the mod stage.

On the flatworm problem, stick with the flatworm exit. Never had a problem with it. You might need a second dose. I used it to clear flatworms form my 24" cube with great success.

Matt

 

[Jimbo327]

MDP,

I want to kill the flatworms, once and for all. FWE does a great job of keep them in check. But I will wait a week before I decide what course to take. Most likely I will dose FWE again, and if I see more FW's, then I might step up to stronger alternate medication.

Anyways, I pulled 90% of the chaeto from my chamber 2 refugium. Does anyone ever smell their chaeto? I don't like the smell of it. It was so packed, the chaeto acted like a mechanical filter. I do not run any type of mechanical filter on my nano, there is no room. I may mod my nano to start running a pad, I feed too much and the detritus is accumulating under the macro chamber.

I'm also thinking of adding an air tube into the tank, just worried about the bubble affecting my Tunze osmolator sensor.

 

[Jimbo327]

I turned/twisted the standard return nozzle on my NC6, so the flat output is running vertical instead of horizontal. I think it is helping out with the overall circulation of the tank because the flow really curves around the tank front corner. If you look from top down, the overall flow pattern is a clockwise flow. I did not want a random turbulent flow, so all of the nozzles are pointed in the same direction. I believe this reinforces the circular flow pattern and makes the flow to every part of the tank stronger.

 

[Jimbo327]

I just had an idea to get some kind of mechanical filtration.

It will be a manual process. I turn off the return pump. I keep the chiller pump going. I take the output tubing of the chiller and feed it into a micron pouch. I start turkey bastering the tank and the back compartments and everything will be collected in the micron filter bag.

After I'm done, I'll reconnect the chiller output tubing back onto the nozzle. Or I can just use a 3 way valve on the chiller output tube.

I think I'm on to something here. It is not a permanent mechanical filtration, but it should work fairly well without another piece of equipment like a canister filter.

 

[bad santa]

Jimbo...Im thinking of setting up the same fuge set up you have. Are the 13 watt bulbs putting out 6500 Lumens? Does the light assembly get hot?

 

[Jimbo327]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11123641#post11123641 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bad santa
Jimbo...Im thinking of setting up the same fuge set up you have. Are the 13 watt bulbs putting out 6500 Lumens? Does the light assembly get hot?

I'm not sure how many lumen it is putting out, but it was very bright. The light assembly does get warm (but not hot) and will heat your water up a little bit. I have an oversized chiller, so it's not a problem for me. And it is getting to winter, so it is actually helping me maintaining heat in my tank.