NEW NANO!

[Adam113]

I've only been in the hobby for about 6 months or so, and I've now got my second tank. Reefing has definitely grabbed a hold of me, and I really enjoy every second of it. I have a 29 Biocube stocked about the way I want it.

I really wanted a small reef tank for the family room with just a few soft corals, a shrimp, hermit crabs, and a few snails.

I picked up an innovative marine NUVO 10 last week. I got the tank only, as I heard the light wasn't great. I went to the LFS last night and grabbed some live sand and rock to get this thing going.

As it sits I have 10 pounds of live sand and 14 pounds of live rock. The water was all cleared up this morning when I left for work. I'm not running any filtration yet besides the sock that comes with the tank (ordered the media basket). The heater will be at my front door this morning as well as a small circulation pump and my light.

Light
SB Reef sPar38 light

Heater
Aqueon Pro Heaters 100W

No protein skimmer

Does anybody have any comments, tips, or suggestions with this tank? Time to start testing the water and waiting for that ammonia spike!

FYI the bench that the tank is on is temporary. We just moved into the new house and we have tables coming in for the cutouts next to our fireplace. The tank is going to be on one of them.

 

[40B Knasty]

From the people I have helped with a biocube is get rid of the bioballs. Buy Marine Pure blocks or spheres. If you get the spheres. Put them in a bag or even a few bags for easy Removal for when you do a water change. They get gunked up I heard after awhile and need a quick swish around in some old tank water. Also below the sponge in the next chamber where carbon would go. Add a bag of Purigen. Keep it fluffy like a pillow so it tumbles. Carbon doesn't last long. A week tops. Purigen lasts 6 months. Takes out ammonia and nitrates. This is so you spend more time enjoying vs digging in there and cleaning it out. Plus the quality of the two products are top notch. The porosity of Marine Pure is like 2,400 vs the best live rock Fiji is 700. Marine pure will harbor way more anaerobic bacteria. This is what turns nitrates into a gas form. The final stage of the nitrogen cycle.
I use both products. My 40B after a week is always below 5 nitrates now.
Nice choice on a heater. I have a 150w Pro that has been at 78.6 the past month. 78.7 for the prior months.

 

[Adam113]

From the people I have helped with a biocube is get rid of the bioballs. Buy Marine Pure blocks or spheres. If you get the spheres. Put them in a bag or even a few bags for easy Removal for when you do a water change. They get gunked up I heard after awhile and need a quick swish around in some old tank water. Also below the sponge in the next chamber where carbon would go. Add a bag of Purigen. Keep it fluffy like a pillow so it tumbles. Carbon doesn't last long. A week tops. Purigen lasts 6 months. Takes out ammonia and nitrates. This is so you spend more time enjoying vs digging in there and cleaning it out. Plus the quality of the two products are top notch. The porosity of Marine Pure is like 2,400 vs the best live rock Fiji is 700. Marine pure will harbor way more anaerobic bacteria. This is what turns nitrates into a gas form. The final stage of the nitrogen cycle.
I use both products. My 40B after a week is always below 5 nitrates now.
Nice choice on a heater. I have a 150w Pro that has been at 78.6 the past month. 78.7 for the prior months.

Thanks for the reply, but my Biocube has been up and running. The new tank is a NUVO 10 [emoji23]

 

[40B Knasty]

Well technically its running. It ain't up and running. I have a 13g (3 years) & 40B(3months).
Never to late for upgrades. I just added those products to both tanks last month.

 

[Angel125]

You should break that rock up to make smaller pieces. That will help with a better aquascape.

 

[Adam113]

Well, I already have some life in the new tank. Shined my phone's light to look for hitchhikers and found this. Any ideas??

 

[Angel125]

Looks like a mojano... If it is get rid of it.

 

[Adam113]

Already been told on hitchhiker ID forum... I work fast.

 

[Jisko]

funny how I come here and find that same butter knife... man that thing gets around ;D

 

[40B Knasty]

Bro just a heads up. Do not put that rock back in your tank thinking it is over. That looked like aiptasia to me. I had it and nuked 20lbs of LR. 1 cell to regrow. If you put that back in. There is a good chance you might have put more back in your tank. Those cells will be floating around only to repopulate.

 

[Jisko]

Bro just a heads up. Do not put that rock back in your tank thinking it is over. That looked like aiptasia to me. I had it and nukes 20lbs of it. 1 cell to regrow. If you put that back in. There is a good chance you might have put more back in your tank. Those cells will be floating around only to repopulate.

did you try the peppermint shrimp?

 

[Adam113]

Bro just a heads up. Do not put that rock back in your tank thinking it is over. That looked like aiptasia to me. I had it and nuked 20lbs of LR. 1 cell to regrow. If you put that back in. There is a good chance you might have put more back in your tank. Those cells will be floating around only to repopulate.

I found another on a different rock....

 

[Jisko]

I found another on a different rock....

yup... and it begins haha

 

[40B Knasty]

did you try the peppermint shrimp?

Yes and it is still alive. The other one got eaten by my swissguard basslet. Waste of money.. 50/50 shot means in this hobby 10/90.

 

[Jisko]

Yes and it is still alive. The other one got eaten by my swissguard basslet. Waste of money.. 50/50 shot means in this hobby 10/90.

haha I battled aptasia for so long I won't even purchase a coral if its in the tank at the LFS... first sign of it in my tank and youll see my clowns moved to a holding tank while I toss in a copper banded butterfly for a few weeks -.-

 

[40B Knasty]

You can do what you want with it. Personally from experience with all suggested cures of it are 100% garbage. Anything irritating it. It goes into protect and populate mode. So once you have something nibbling, touching, blowing on it, or injecting it. You just made it spit cells into your tank.
If that was me.
I would start all over with sand.
Pull the rock let it go bone dry. Then boil it with water in a deep fryer or side burner on a grill OUTSIDE for an hour. Let it go dry again. Then bake it on a broiling pan at 450F for 30 minutes.
MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT BREATHE WHEN YOU OPEN THE OVER OR AROUND THE STEAM/FUMES WHEN BOILING. USE PROTECTIVE GLOVES & SAFETY GLASSES. CLOSE EYES AROUND THE BOILING WATER FUMES AND OPENING THE OVEN. OPEN ALL WINDOWS AND DOORS WHEN BAKING. NO PETS OR HUMANS IN THE HOUSE.
That's how you cure aiptasia 100%.
Any worries of bacteria being destroyed in a cycle is nothing compared to the headache you have just received.
Clean out all filtration and let it dry while you wait to start over again.
Sorry to hear man this happened to you, but at least it happened before you started. Right now you got it easy.
Like I said this is what I would do, because I did do it.
If you want to try aiptasia x, lemon juice, inject boiling hot water, and whatever pipe dream is out there. good luck
Aiptasia eating Nudibranch is the only one I can see could work.
Fish like a file fish or copperband. Your tank is to small.

 

[Adam113]

You can do what you want with it. Personally from experience with all suggested cures of it are 100% garbage. Anything irritating it. It goes into protect and populate mode. So once you have something nibbling, touching, blowing on it, or injecting it. You just made it spit cells into your tank.
If that was me.
I would start all over with sand.
Pull the rock let it go bone dry. Then boil it with water in a deep fryer or side burner on a grill OUTSIDE for an hour. Let it go dry again. Then bake it on a broiling pan at 450F for 30 minutes.
MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT BREATHE WHEN YOU OPEN THE OVER OR AROUND THE STEAM/FUMES WHEN BOILING. USE PROTECTIVE GLOVES & SAFETY GLASSES. CLOSE EYES AROUND THE BOILING WATER FUMES AND OPENING THE OVEN. OPEN ALL WINDOWS AND DOORS WHEN BAKING. NO PETS OR HUMANS IN THE HOUSE.
That's how you cure aiptasia 100%.
Any worries of bacteria being destroyed in a cycle is nothing compared to the headache you have just received.
Clean out all filtration and let it dry while you wait to start over again.
Sorry to hear man this happened to you, but at least it happened before you started. Right now you got it easy.
Like I said this is what I would do, because I did do it.
If you want to try aiptasia x, lemon juice, inject boiling hot water, and whatever pipe dream is out there. good luck
Aiptasia eating Nudibranch is the only one I can see could work.
Fish like a file fish or copperband. Your tank is to small.

I'm probably just going to start over. The tank is so small it's really not a big hit... 8 gallons of water, 10 pounds of sand, and 14 pounds of live rock.

Do you think if I just took the rock out and trashed it and started with new rock I'm safe? Or siphon out the water and trash it, trash the rocks, and trash the sand and just start with a a "new tank?"

 

[40B Knasty]

Definitely new water. New sand. That is easy enough.
The rock is up to you. The one thing about nuking live rock like I did which shouldn't be bad if you went that route is. You would not have a ton of detritus built up inside the rock having never been fed. My 22lbs of live rock had 11 months of 3x a day feeding evolved. So I had to worry about leaching ammonia. After seeding and cycling again in a separate tank.

 

[Jisko]

personally I'd just order a small batch of dry rock from BRS order about 10 lbs more then you need to allow some aquascape use a epoxy to get it how you want it. use a coarse substrate then add bio sphere to the water get 1.026 salinity and add a little clownfish... should be fine and after about 2 months youll hit your first diatom outbreak

 

[Adam113]

My cycle has started!