Hunter S Thompson
Community Member
I don't see many 12 gallon threads so I figured I should post mine. Also it's a bit of a different nano build if only because of the aquascape. I suppose this could go in the general nano reefs threads but I hope my experiences with the Nano-cube help other owners. Info about the 12 gallon seems to be especially rare online for whatever reason and my mods should work for all sizes.
This is "Flamy" as named by my 7 year old daughter. The only fish in this tank. She loves firefish gobys and picked him/her out at LFS.
I love nano reefs. It seems to be a given in this hobby that everyone that gets a reef tank wants ever larger tanks. Not me. I have owned large (several hundred gallon) tanks, and I have not enjoyed them any more than my smallest (a 6 Fluval Edge, though I cheated with a 30 gallon refugium on that one). Nano reefs can go in places you wouldn't expect to see a saltwater tank, and you can get a "closer" look and feel with the life within. I also like them because they have shrugged off all of the accepted/established rules in reef keeping and made what everyone said was either impossible or at the very least bad husbandry, the new lifeblood of the hobby. Sure, some new products/tech are making nano reefs possible, but it's really more our community sharing of information that has changed everything.
I was looking for a small tank that I could put next to my office desk so I considered all the usual nano options while trolling craigslist for a few months. I found a NanoCube DX 12 near me for $75, with stand. Also came with some extras like fuge light (more on this later). A good deal.
I decided I would try to run this as my first tank without a sump/refugium. A bit scary to me for 12 gallons.
The first thing I noticed about this tank is that the fan noise is loud. A web search revealed it to be a common problem. I guess it's a matter of opinion if it's too loud or not but I found it unacceptable next to my office desk that I take phone calls on all day. Having owned a computer business for several years I knew it wouldn't be difficult to replace the fans with quieter ones, or slow the RPMs with resister until the noise was acceptable. Well after some experimenting and temperature measuring I got good news on these fans. They are 100% completely unnecessary. It is baffling why they exist at all, as they do not remove moisture or cool the tank (or the lights for that matter). They seem to be a remnant of the pre-LED marketing. Anyway, the short story is if you don't like the noise they make or the mess they deposit on the back side of the splash guard, disconnect them. If you want more info I have a separate thread on this in the same forum.
Here is a pic of the fan wires you need to disconnect...
Reviews on this tanks lighting relieved that it was strong enough to maintain most corals, but that it was "ugly" or "too blue". I could tell this by turning it on without water. I researched replacements lighting. Frankly none if it was good, and definitely not worth the hundreds of dollars asked. I saw a nano reef here on Reef2Reef that had much warmer lights than most would dare and I liked it. We are rightfully scared of red and yellow lights because they grow algae. Also some zoa peeps have had success with "green" light. Well no one wants to see that but... So I thought about just supplementing the already good (but flat) lighting of the NanoCube. Would be best if I could control the color. All of the web research I did for DIY LED strips returned a slew of out of business companies. Forced to turn to Ebay. Settled on a $9.00 LED strip light with remote/power supply. After research I was specifically looking for 60 LED 50 50 strip. Water proof. 1m in length. If you have large Nano-cubes you might want 2m.
So I could have and maybe should have started a thread called "How to significantly upgrade your NanoCube LED lights for $9.00"
Here is the description for what I ordered on Ebay. There are dozens of people selling something similar or identical:
RGB 5050 SMD LED Strip Light 5m 10m 20m + 44Key Remote + Power Supply
So once you have the lights, follow my separate fan thread on how to remove the plastic guard (easy). You will want a drill bit to make a hole that connects power to the controller. You will want Super Glue to glue down the LED strip (even if you get the one with 3M tape it won't stick to the aluminum reflector).
This LED "tape" can be cut and laid anyway you want. I chose to run it in a continuous strip because I figured the more light the better.
If it's not clear by now, you now have an LED strip that can run at nearly any color you can imagine.
Here it is by itself:
Here it is turned to RED so you can see it next to the Nano LEDs
You can use the remote to dial up nearly any color temp, including the sought after violet or orange.
You also now have a "moonlight" or a blueon to show off your corals (for those that don't know, the Nanocube does not have separate controls for the blue vs white lights, its all or nothing)
My favorite setting is what you might call "disco". It slowly changes from one color to the next, which when combined with the stock lights, simulates the constant color shifting you see when diving/snorkeling.
I have tried to figure out which color setting (or rainbow of them) my corals like the most and honestly they seem happy no matter what. I only have zoas, pallys and mushrooms.
It's quite nice to sit at my desk, take the remote and dial up a new color temp for my tank at any time.
Best $9.00 I've ever spent in the hobby.
Rock -
So this is probably different than many a nano reef.
I knew I didn't want sand in a tank this small. I didn't want to waste space with rock at the bottom of a small tank. I didn't want a pile of rocks look. I knew that the challenge for this tank would be to use it's height and depth. I wanted shade and shadow to add to depth. If I could I would have used a freshwater tree root design. I was also afraid of "live rock" for obvious reasons in 12 gallons. So I purchased 20 lbs of CaribSea Life Rock Branch Rock. This is basically a manmade rock made by the least inventive or artistic people on the planet. All pieces are fake "branches" that up close look nothing close to reality and show zero imagination. Every single piece that was shipped to me was broken in 3 different ways. I honestly couldn't ask for anything better because broken in pieces meant that is all (mostly) fit in my 12 gallon tank. The painted on coralline looks good and frankly I'd rather have paint than coralline growing everything any day.
If you order this rock I guarantee you it will be broken in pieces, but it is quite easily superglued back together. You should also know that it is NOT like their normal life rock which are actual (painted) rocks, the branch rock is MUCH heavier/denser.
It kind of sounds like I drubbed CaribSea Branch Rock but actually I love it and would use it again any time. It is supposed to contain dormant bacteria that cycles your tank. I will never know if this is true because I filled every empty space with MarinePure spheres soaked in SmartStart Complete. I had no cycle, or I suppose you could say I cycled with zoanthids.
Mistakes:
So far my biggest mistake was having a cheato chamber as the middle chamber. When I purchased the tank the previous owner had peeled away the backing to allow for chaeto, and the tank came with a refugium light. I had run chaeto successfully on so many tanks I figured of coarse this is a great idea. I was wrong. It is different in a sump vs in a back chamber. On the plus side I had so many pods the tank looked like a snow globe. I could have kept my favorite fish, mandarin goby. On the negative side, the chaeto created too much debris in addition to the podsplosion, that what ever good it was doing would not be outdone by the gunk it was creating in a small tank.
Success?
I purchased a media basket from InTank immediately. It's a bit expensive for a piece of acrylic that should have come with the tank, but thank goodness Intank is there to pick up the slack where JBJ left off. Seriously, JBJ, you designed a filter with no media tray/basket at all?.
I have come up with many designs for fitting a skimmer in the last chamber, one successfully tested (using the bottom and top half of a Fluval Sea skimmer), but honestly there is no need. I have learned the power of filter floss. I combine the double layer stuff from inTank with squares of the stuff from WallMart and I sear its doing 80% of the job a skimmer was doing. Chemipure Elite cleans the rest. I dangle a very small amount of Phosguard near the return (I didn't need the phosguard until I got rid of the chaeto, but it's worth the trade off).
I will post pics the lights at Red, Blue, Green and White. There are many other colors but this should show you how it changes the color temp combined with the stock lights. Pics taken with iPhone so they look nothing like you would see in real life but at least you can see some diff the $9.00 LED makes. Much more dramatic in person without iPhone white balance stealing the show.
This is "Flamy" as named by my 7 year old daughter. The only fish in this tank. She loves firefish gobys and picked him/her out at LFS.
I love nano reefs. It seems to be a given in this hobby that everyone that gets a reef tank wants ever larger tanks. Not me. I have owned large (several hundred gallon) tanks, and I have not enjoyed them any more than my smallest (a 6 Fluval Edge, though I cheated with a 30 gallon refugium on that one). Nano reefs can go in places you wouldn't expect to see a saltwater tank, and you can get a "closer" look and feel with the life within. I also like them because they have shrugged off all of the accepted/established rules in reef keeping and made what everyone said was either impossible or at the very least bad husbandry, the new lifeblood of the hobby. Sure, some new products/tech are making nano reefs possible, but it's really more our community sharing of information that has changed everything.
I was looking for a small tank that I could put next to my office desk so I considered all the usual nano options while trolling craigslist for a few months. I found a NanoCube DX 12 near me for $75, with stand. Also came with some extras like fuge light (more on this later). A good deal.
I decided I would try to run this as my first tank without a sump/refugium. A bit scary to me for 12 gallons.
The first thing I noticed about this tank is that the fan noise is loud. A web search revealed it to be a common problem. I guess it's a matter of opinion if it's too loud or not but I found it unacceptable next to my office desk that I take phone calls on all day. Having owned a computer business for several years I knew it wouldn't be difficult to replace the fans with quieter ones, or slow the RPMs with resister until the noise was acceptable. Well after some experimenting and temperature measuring I got good news on these fans. They are 100% completely unnecessary. It is baffling why they exist at all, as they do not remove moisture or cool the tank (or the lights for that matter). They seem to be a remnant of the pre-LED marketing. Anyway, the short story is if you don't like the noise they make or the mess they deposit on the back side of the splash guard, disconnect them. If you want more info I have a separate thread on this in the same forum.
Here is a pic of the fan wires you need to disconnect...
Reviews on this tanks lighting relieved that it was strong enough to maintain most corals, but that it was "ugly" or "too blue". I could tell this by turning it on without water. I researched replacements lighting. Frankly none if it was good, and definitely not worth the hundreds of dollars asked. I saw a nano reef here on Reef2Reef that had much warmer lights than most would dare and I liked it. We are rightfully scared of red and yellow lights because they grow algae. Also some zoa peeps have had success with "green" light. Well no one wants to see that but... So I thought about just supplementing the already good (but flat) lighting of the NanoCube. Would be best if I could control the color. All of the web research I did for DIY LED strips returned a slew of out of business companies. Forced to turn to Ebay. Settled on a $9.00 LED strip light with remote/power supply. After research I was specifically looking for 60 LED 50 50 strip. Water proof. 1m in length. If you have large Nano-cubes you might want 2m.
So I could have and maybe should have started a thread called "How to significantly upgrade your NanoCube LED lights for $9.00"
Here is the description for what I ordered on Ebay. There are dozens of people selling something similar or identical:
RGB 5050 SMD LED Strip Light 5m 10m 20m + 44Key Remote + Power Supply
So once you have the lights, follow my separate fan thread on how to remove the plastic guard (easy). You will want a drill bit to make a hole that connects power to the controller. You will want Super Glue to glue down the LED strip (even if you get the one with 3M tape it won't stick to the aluminum reflector).
This LED "tape" can be cut and laid anyway you want. I chose to run it in a continuous strip because I figured the more light the better.
If it's not clear by now, you now have an LED strip that can run at nearly any color you can imagine.
Here it is by itself:
Here it is turned to RED so you can see it next to the Nano LEDs
You can use the remote to dial up nearly any color temp, including the sought after violet or orange.
You also now have a "moonlight" or a blueon to show off your corals (for those that don't know, the Nanocube does not have separate controls for the blue vs white lights, its all or nothing)
My favorite setting is what you might call "disco". It slowly changes from one color to the next, which when combined with the stock lights, simulates the constant color shifting you see when diving/snorkeling.
I have tried to figure out which color setting (or rainbow of them) my corals like the most and honestly they seem happy no matter what. I only have zoas, pallys and mushrooms.
It's quite nice to sit at my desk, take the remote and dial up a new color temp for my tank at any time.
Best $9.00 I've ever spent in the hobby.
Rock -
So this is probably different than many a nano reef.
I knew I didn't want sand in a tank this small. I didn't want to waste space with rock at the bottom of a small tank. I didn't want a pile of rocks look. I knew that the challenge for this tank would be to use it's height and depth. I wanted shade and shadow to add to depth. If I could I would have used a freshwater tree root design. I was also afraid of "live rock" for obvious reasons in 12 gallons. So I purchased 20 lbs of CaribSea Life Rock Branch Rock. This is basically a manmade rock made by the least inventive or artistic people on the planet. All pieces are fake "branches" that up close look nothing close to reality and show zero imagination. Every single piece that was shipped to me was broken in 3 different ways. I honestly couldn't ask for anything better because broken in pieces meant that is all (mostly) fit in my 12 gallon tank. The painted on coralline looks good and frankly I'd rather have paint than coralline growing everything any day.
If you order this rock I guarantee you it will be broken in pieces, but it is quite easily superglued back together. You should also know that it is NOT like their normal life rock which are actual (painted) rocks, the branch rock is MUCH heavier/denser.
It kind of sounds like I drubbed CaribSea Branch Rock but actually I love it and would use it again any time. It is supposed to contain dormant bacteria that cycles your tank. I will never know if this is true because I filled every empty space with MarinePure spheres soaked in SmartStart Complete. I had no cycle, or I suppose you could say I cycled with zoanthids.
Mistakes:
So far my biggest mistake was having a cheato chamber as the middle chamber. When I purchased the tank the previous owner had peeled away the backing to allow for chaeto, and the tank came with a refugium light. I had run chaeto successfully on so many tanks I figured of coarse this is a great idea. I was wrong. It is different in a sump vs in a back chamber. On the plus side I had so many pods the tank looked like a snow globe. I could have kept my favorite fish, mandarin goby. On the negative side, the chaeto created too much debris in addition to the podsplosion, that what ever good it was doing would not be outdone by the gunk it was creating in a small tank.
Success?
I purchased a media basket from InTank immediately. It's a bit expensive for a piece of acrylic that should have come with the tank, but thank goodness Intank is there to pick up the slack where JBJ left off. Seriously, JBJ, you designed a filter with no media tray/basket at all?.
I have come up with many designs for fitting a skimmer in the last chamber, one successfully tested (using the bottom and top half of a Fluval Sea skimmer), but honestly there is no need. I have learned the power of filter floss. I combine the double layer stuff from inTank with squares of the stuff from WallMart and I sear its doing 80% of the job a skimmer was doing. Chemipure Elite cleans the rest. I dangle a very small amount of Phosguard near the return (I didn't need the phosguard until I got rid of the chaeto, but it's worth the trade off).
I will post pics the lights at Red, Blue, Green and White. There are many other colors but this should show you how it changes the color temp combined with the stock lights. Pics taken with iPhone so they look nothing like you would see in real life but at least you can see some diff the $9.00 LED makes. Much more dramatic in person without iPhone white balance stealing the show.
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