My first Nano Pics

[crashoverride]

Hello Everyone! These are some pictures of my nano. I have a 24G Nano Cube by JBJ. It has been runing for almost two weeks now. I have 30lb of live FIJI rock, 30lb of live sand.The readings are: Nitrate-40 , Nitrite-0, Alkalinity-300, PH-7.8, Ammonia-0, SG-1.023, Temp.-79F. To test the water I use the Quick Dip Tester.
I have notice some brown stuff on the rock and on the sand bed. The rock has some stuff growing, can anyone identify it? Is it time for me to do my first water change? I have the lights runing for 10hrs a day.

Thank you.

 

[clowninaround74]

no need to be running the lights as the tank cycles...at least i didnt. Also the brown stuff you are seeing is diatoms (another part of a new tank cycle that is very normal) I would say its time to start introducing a small clean up crew. Now dont go gung ho on it but just start off with one or two astrea snails and a few hermits and see how they do. Your levels are good enough for snails and crabs. Just start slow and dont rush it because when that happens is when things start going wrong. Once you have them in the tank they will be able to find food for so dont dump a bunch of food in the tank for them because it will distrub your cycle.

O and I would personally cut the lights back to around 8 hours per day once you have them in the tank. 10 hours seems a little excessive and i think this early in the tank you will start developing some serious algae problems.

HTH
Randall

 

[Illuminati]

I also see some hair algae, the astrea snail is a good hair algae eater, I'd get one of those, a pair of cernith snails, maybe 4 Nassarius snails and a couple scarlet hermits (No blue legged hermits). I would get them this weekend. Also looks like it's time to start your water changes, 3 gallons a week.

Your ph is a bit low, hopefully water changes can raise it, something to continue testing.

Looks great

 

[cherubfish pair]

crashoverride, have you noticed if any pods came in on your live sand?

 

[crashoverride]

Thank you both, should I do my first water change this weekend and as soon as I do it, put the astrea snail,a pair of cernith snails,4 Nassarius snails,and a couple scarlet hermits ? or should I do the opposite and do the water change next weekend? I will cut the lights down to 8hrs a day. I am so exicited to do this! How do I introduce them to the aquarium?
Colin, should I change the carbon I have active right now in the aquarium to ChemiPure when I do the water change?

 

[crashoverride]

Cattleman, what are pods? I don't know what they look like, so I would not be able to tell you. Please give me some more info and I will look for them on the LS.

 

[Illuminati]

Hector, I would do the water change first, then add the cleanup crew. I always floated mine for a while to get temp acclimated and dumped them in. Things like shrimp need to be acclimated better though.

Yep, when you do the waterchange you can switch to chemi-pure.

Also not sure how you like your liverock, I got mine as 3 big boulders, had to break them up with a hammer and chisel. If you think you may want to do this now is the time. I found softball to baseball sized pieces work the best.

 

[clowninaround74]

i run both chemi pure and purigen in my 24G AP and i love it. I wouldnt run carbon for longer than three or four days at a time though as it starts to dissapate essential elements that are found in the tank. I think you would be good with changing your carbon out for chemi pure and purigen both!

Start getting into the habbit of weekly water changes and start those soon. The more consistent you are (same day each week) with anything in this hobby the better things will turn out.

what i do when acclimating my new inhabitants is pour water down the sink from the bag that they fish, coral, or invert is in...to the point where they are just completely under the water line. after that i put the bag itself into the tank, letting half of it or so hang out of the tank. This allows the temperature of the water inside the bag become consistent to what you have in your system. Begin adding 1/4 cup of your tank water into the bag itself every 15 minutes for no less than an 1.5 hours. After you have successfully done that reach into the bag and manually place the coral, fish, or invert into the tank by hand. NEVER EVER DUMP THE WATER IN THE BAG INTO YOUR TANK!!! WATER FROM THE STORE MAY HAVE DISEASE OR THINGS IN IT THAT YOU WOULDNT WANT IN YOUR SYSTEM. some fish may require the use of a net to get out of the bag and into the tank. After they are in the tank just take the bag out, dump the water out and replace the water that was used in the acclimation process with clean salt water.

Whew!!! that is always hard to explain! Now when you do get to acclimating fish into your system, dont be afraid to allow 2-3 hours for it. The less amount of stress you put on the animal the better.

Randall

 

[crashoverride]

Colin, thanks for the input, I like the rock work how it turned out,I will do the 3g water change this Saturday and add the Clean up crew on Sunday, that way I know I won't make a mistake.
When I do the water change do I warm it up to the current temperature reading in my aquarium the day before? also, when I remove 3 gallons from my aquarium, do I replace the 3 gallons with pure salt water or do I add RO water?

Randall, I like the way you wrote on how to acclimate the animals, does that include the clean up crew? I have to do the same process for them?

 

[clowninaround74]

with the clean up crew you only really need to do the 1/4 cup every 15 minutes for about 45 minutes...inverts are usually pretty hardy.

With the water changes just think about it. When you take water out of the tank your taking out salt water, so your gonna want to add new salt water into the tank.
Now when your water evaporates, only the water itself is evaporating and not the salt. The salt stays in the tank which will raise your salinity above the recommended safe salinity level. Thats why you need to add fresh RODI water when toping off the tank.

so in answer to your question when you do your water change add 3 gallons of new salt water to the tank. The best thing to do is to put a powerhead and a heater in the bucket of saltwater a day or two before you actually do the waterchange. This will again make it so you dont shock the system with a huge change in temperature, O2 levels and so on. If you really want to get technical you could even test the new water change water and compare it to the tank water trying to make PH as close as possible. IMO thats really not needed.


Randall

 

[clowninaround74]

with the clean up crew you only really need to do the 1/4 cup every 15 minutes for about 45 minutes...inverts are usually pretty hardy.

With the water changes just think about it. When you take water out of the tank your taking out salt water, so your gonna want to add new salt water into the tank.
Now when your water evaporates, only the water itself is evaporating and not the salt. The salt stays in the tank which will raise your salinity above the recommended safe salinity level. Thats why you need to add fresh RODI water when toping off the tank.

so in answer to your question when you do your water change add 3 gallons of new salt water to the tank. The best thing to do is to put a powerhead and a heater in the bucket of saltwater a day or two before you actually do the waterchange. This will again make it so you dont shock the system with a huge change in temperature, O2 levels and so on. If you really want to get technical you could even test the new water change water and compare it to the tank water trying to make PH as close as possible. IMO thats really not needed.


Randall

 

[crashoverride]

I have a 5 gallon bucket that has not been used, also, a heater and power head to warm up the water to correct temperature before I do the water change. Any thing else I need to know?
Thanks

 

[clowninaround74]

have fun! you will love this hobby! just go slow and take your time!!!

Good luck

 

[crashoverride]

Thanks, I will keep you posted when I do my first water change with new pics.