24 Gallon Nano-Cube Build (1 Viewer)

[AquaNerd]

I got lucky today. I was the lucky winner of Mihn's Bay Area Aquarium raffle or drawing or whatever you want to call it. The original items up for grabs in the raffle were of no use to me, so we bargained. He offered me store credit and I took it. So he wouldn't have to order anything that I would have to wait for, Mihn changed the offer to a JBJ 24 Gallon Nano-cube DX with stand. He's selling them there and has a great offer on them. If you buy the tank you get the stand (over a $100 value) for free. So I loaded up my new nano and stand and took off for home. I built the stand, even though it came with the wrong instructions, and I got the tank plugged in and ready for water.

As of right now I have to wait for my wife to get home to tell me where I can put it. She won't let me put it in the bedroom (I want it on my side of the bed) so we have to determine another spot.

After I get it set up, I'll get some sand and live rock to put into it.

As far as my plans for the tank go, I would like to upgrade the hood (more lighting), add a skimmer, possibly get a HOB refugium, add a Koralia Nano powerhead (or Koralia #1), and maybe swap out the stock pump. Needless to say, I'll be shelling out some dough at nanotuners.com. I am going to get some nice, fine grain sand, a lot of live rock (branches and some flat pieces especially), and a pair of yashia shrimp gobies with a companion pistol shrimp. I do plan on getting several corals as well. I'll start with the typical mushrooms and zoas, but I would like to put one of my smaller T. croceas in there as well.

And now for the pics:

This is all that has happened so far, but there will be a ton more pics and updates to come.

 

[Guest]

Ditch the hood completely and get a 150w MH!!!!

 

[boogaman]

Lucky you!!
Have fun with it , now you have another item to spend money on.

Gavin

 

[AquaNerd]

Ditch the hood completely and get a 150w MH!!!!

i have a feeling that is going to happen. or i might find someway to utilize some t5ho.

 

[sempfi]

lucky dog

quite a reward for shopping so much there

congrats

 

[AquaNerd]

or i might find someway to utilize some t5ho.

i'm such a tard. i said that i would try to use t5ho...tank is only 18" wide while the shortest t5ho bulbs are 24". i don't know what the heck i was thinking.

thanks guys for all the congrats. i have to really thank mihn for several things: having an awesome store (and is close to me), having really really good prices on everything, having spectacular customer service, and last but certainly not least...letting me get the tank instead of what the raffle prizes were originally. i love his store and he's utilized the space very well. can't wait for that monday shipment , although my wallet and wife aren't looking forward to it.

 

[AquaNerd]

Update:
Found a location for it. My wife said it could go in the bedroom as long as it wasn't too loud. Hehehehe...I mischievously carried the tank and stand upstairs, put all the sand in and filled it with water before she could get a chance to hear it running. Now she has no choice. I'm not breaking it down now. On to the new purchase...

I know I just got this thing, but I've been busy trying to get it up and running. So in order to further facilitate and participate in Mihn's master plan to keep me shelling out the cha-ching at his store, I went back there today and picked up some relatively inexpensive sand. I got a nice 15lb bag of CaribSea Aragonite Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand (long title huh) for a little over $15 and dumped it in there. I also did a 20 gallon water change on my 90 gallon tank tonight (busy night for me) and I took the old water from the 90 and used it to fill up my cube. The tank is all cloudy now, but it will settle. I'm so tire now. I spent an hour scraping coralline algae off the inside glass of my 90, then spent another half our draining and filling the tank, then spent another half hour pouring sand into the cube, rinsing its filter media, and filling it with water. My wife is now telling me to get live rock locally so as not to pay shipping, so that's what I'll be hunting for next.

Almost forgot the pics...

Tank in its new spot.

Jake (my lab) is so curious about this tank for some reason...maybe he thinks it is his.

Sandbed

Me starting it up

Sand and water in the tank (still very cloudy)

 

[AquaNerd]

and my plans for tomorrow include:
-purchasing live rock
-buying a naso tang and a flame angel to put in the tank
-getting a bunch of sps colonies/frags from lfs and members


haha...just kidding. but the live rock is on the list. those fish and corals aren't even coming close to my tank. i like the yashia gobies, but their price might deter me a little bit.

 

[sempfi]

brandon

keep the pics coming

looking good so far

 

[Guest]

Awesome setup! I want a nanocube now... Keep the pics coming

 

[lilred1995vette]

hey they have 18in ho t5s now. Congrats on your new nano!

 

[AquaNerd]

hey they have 18in ho t5s now. Congrats on your new nano!

really...i've never seen them. did a quick search and only found one model. it's a current usa nova extreme t5ho with 2x20 watts t5ho bulbs. are there any other fixtures that i'm not finding?

 

[skeeter76]

looking good brandon! again congrats! what corals will you be putting in there? I say go straight monti's, ...

 

[AquaNerd]

looking good brandon! again congrats! what corals will you be putting in there? I say go straight monti's, ...

well the lights currently on the tank are two 36 watt compact fluorescents. i'm looking into a few other light setups and i might go hoodless. but i plan on getting zoas/palys, rics/mushrooms, acans (the acan bug has bitten me now), and a few undecided.

if i upgrade the lights i'll throw in a crocea clam and sps corals as well.

 

[Guest]

and my plans for tomorrow include:
-purchasing live rock
-buying a naso tang and a flame angel to put in the tank
-getting a bunch of sps colonies/frags from lfs and members

My Hippo tang and Clown Trigger love it in my 24 AP

 

[AquaNerd]

Update:
It's been a little while since an update. The cloudiness settled down about 24 hours.

I also got some live rock today. I'm not sure on how many pounds, but it was enough to fill a five gallon bucket to the top. I'm guess about 15 pounds or so at the most. I got it in the tank and was happy with the overall layout, but I'll probably be getting more. Critique my layout please, and keep in mind I still need some more rock.

Any my new little Mag-Float:

 

[deepsea43]

if i were you i would try to make several caves. but other than that it looks great.

 

[crvz]

Oh, looks troublesome! What are you keeping in it?

 

[AquaNerd]

if i were you i would try to make several caves. but other than that it looks great.

yeah, there's more live rock to come. i should be getting some today. but cave's are what i'm going for. there are a few here and there, and i was pleased with the opening in the middle. i'll add more live rock tonight and update again.

Oh, looks troublesome! What are you keeping in it?

i plan on keeping either a single yashia goby with shrimp companion, or a pair of yashia gobies with shrimp companion, and at least one or two more small fish (not decided yet). i also plan on keeping a lot of higher end zoas, some acans, some micromussas, and whatever else i haven't decided on yet.

 

[AquaNerd]

another update:

i got more live rock today. so when i got home from work i tinkered with the tank some. i couldn't simply add the new rock to the existing structure, so i took all the rock out and started over. looks much better imo, and there are more caves.

here it goes, again:

i'm going to upgrade the lighting to a sunpod 150 watt hqi setup and i plan on adding a tunze nano skimmer that should fit into the center rear compartment. i guess i should ask for another rockwork critique.