starting nano cube 24

[cobysreef]

I couldnt resist the temptation. Some girl on was selling her nanocube 24 for less than $75 including the S stand, heater, salt, temp moniter, and coral vite liquid. she had it less than a year and I inpected it for any leaks or cracks. she said it never leaked, she just didnt know how to maintain it. she had no test kits or anything she needed to keep this running. It was running when i was there looking at it. It looked brand new! Her corals were all dead but the jets were still running. told her ill pick it up the next morning. Picked it up in the city a few blocks from my office and dropped it off. she even bagged the sand for me. Ill pass on using it, who knows whats in there. I just ordered a maxijet 1200 for it and the sybon refractometer and 20lbs of fiji pink live sand. When im ready ill order the cured live rock, just need 20 lbs of it. Going to wait a week or two before i set it up. I want to make sure I dont rush it and have time to set it up without having any hassles. Wish me luck!:inlove:

 

[simike]

good luck ask lots of questions before you buy stuff, great deal on tank, you can use some money you saved to upgrade the lighting. check out nano-reef.com, alot of people have nano cubes there and plenty of info on mods.

 

[cobysreef]

Thanks mike. Im getting cold feet about setting this up in the office now. Ive always had over 150 gallon reef tanks, never nanos. I worry that if thing takes too much of my time or if things go bad the smell could have a massive impact on the office and I dont think I want to chance it. wouldnt want to get the personnel or the boss upset. guess ill just have to settle for a reef screen saver.

 

[tosiek]

what is the make of the nano cube? and change the pumps in it. the original JBJ pump rusts.

got a 24 myself running almost almost 3 months now. if ya got any ?'s with the lighting or cooling or anything.

 

[cobysreef]

I have a maxijet 1200 for it. its a JBJ nano cube 24. looks new. I just wonder how much work it will be to deal with at the office. as it is im limited with time and worry about the smell if things start going wrong.

 

[DonCisco]

Coby
don't be afraid of the nano tanks. My ex-wife had one for about 8 months, and she was TERRIBLE as a reef keeper, but the tank kept on going, no smells, no nuisances. Then she had a baby, and stopped feeding and maintaining it for like 2 months, everything died, with the exception of the cleanup crew. But, the tank NEVER got disgusting.
I took over the tank, had it for 2 months already, and it is running great. Top off every 2-3 days, I do a 2 gallon water change every 10 days to 2 weeks. Test all parameters every week. As long as it is within normal parameters, you should be fine. A constant issue with nanos is that the nitrates usually are a lil hi, at about 20ppm. But from what I understand that is pretty normal and acceptable. I also bought a digital temp monitor, and a Seachem amonnia monitor (it stays in the tank) it changes color within 15 min of ammonia levels becoming dangerous. So that lets me know that there are no immediate issues.
Make sure you chose fishes that will thrive in a nano. Clowns, wrasses and some basslets as well as some gobys are fine but I would recommend
www.nano-reef.com is an excellent source for nanos, and they have a good list of nano friendly fish and corals.
It is a good idea to upgrade the pump, and if you are handy you can upgrade the lighting from 2x27W CF to up to 4x32W CF, you can get info and materials at www.nanocustoms.com
As for LR, make sure you pick it, because that way you can get an idea of what sort of aquascaping you want to do. Huge sizes that would be great for a larger tank will not work for a nano.

Best of luck, if you have any questions, let me know. I am fairly new but I think I have a nice nano myself.

 

[cobysreef]

thanks for the advice and the pic. Im going to do a little more thinking and make a decision by next week.

 

[tosiek]

most important advice for the JBJ's that were put out more than 6 months ago is the stock pump rusts.

Other than that hand pick your LR if you could. And hope u have small hands for when you clean the filter pads, not much room in the filter box.

Also they aren't that hard to keep although alot of people say the fluctuation in parameters is bad. I wouldn't worry much about the tank going bad as long as you take your time setting it up, with the cycle, and how quickly you stock the tank. I usually add a half a liter of water daily to maintain salinity and water level. Water change every week to 10 days about 3-4 gallons.

Take a look at nanocustoms.com. They have a plethora of upgrades for the tank and have descent prices and the guy who answers the phone is super helpful and a nice guy. If you run into probems with the tank beeing at 84-86 like i did the ICA 2.0 chiller (nanocustoms.com) brought my temp down to an amazing 74 (they said 2-4 degree cooling max).