Whitefish 24g Nano Cube Story

[lweepin]

This is the first attempt to have a Marine Aquarium.

About 1 month ago, I did not know a single thing about marine aquarium. In the last few weeks, I borrowed quite a few books from the library to read about this new hobby.

My aim is to have a aquarium that is nice to look at but at the same time do not need much sophiscated equipment.

As a result, I decided to purchase a JBJ 24g Nano Cube with S Tank from AM. I also paid $100 more for set up of LR and water.

I was advised to wait for 3 weeks before puting LS. But I gave in after 2 weeks due to intense pressure from my wife and children to put LS in.

Thus today, Ibought the following LS from Coral Farm. Hopefully my choice of hardy fish/corals and "magic" water from the shop will compensate for my impatience. LOL

Fish

2 x Common Clownfish

1 x Yellow Tail Blue Damsel

1 x Pajama Cardinal

2 x cleaner shrimp

Corals

1 x Cauliflowers Finger

1 x Leather Sponge Mushroom

1 x Purple leather?? (need help to ID this one)

I will wait another two weeks before adding some more corals. Corals are more important than fishes in my tank. I don't intend to add a chiller because it will spoilt the overall look of the cube. Thus I need some recommendations on what corals to add. I want to make my cube as colourful as possible.

Any recommendations and comments are strongly encouraged to help a newbie like me.

Hopefully, I can incorporate your suggestions into my tank!

[scubajazz]

Think ur purple leather is a star polyp, like mine when it is not open it lokks like that but when lights on it will open up nicely. Bro caulifower not easy to keep. try it a few times in my colleagues office tank but always soften off after 2 to 3 mths, good luck.

[JSNEO]

it need a wave maker in order to keep the coral alive

[xersion]

i dun think a chiller will spoilt the 24 look.. just leave it beside ur stand will do.. cause the 2 fan inside ur 24g will evaporate the water very fast..

[thedidavid]

I had NC 24 also last time, but the temperature without chiller when the main light is on can hit 34 deg C which is impossible to keep coral with this kind temperature. If you notice at AM they run the air con 24 hours and sometime they left the feeding lid open to release some heat. I saw that your are using Tunze nano, in my opinion it's too strong for 24 gallon tank maybe Koralia nano or Koralia 1 is more suitable.

[scubajazz]

i dun think a chiller will spoilt the 24 look.. just leave it beside ur stand will do.. cause the 2 fan inside ur 24g will evaporate the water very fast..

I dun experinece much water loss, why we chose nano is try to keep everything simple and ease of maintenance, having a chiller beside it will spoil the look n it maybe nosiy n generating heat n use more power which generate a higher bill. Trying to save n still can hv a marine tank. If temperature really hot on a fan n blow at the tank lor when it is 28 plus degrees, can lower down at least 0.2 to 0.3 degrees

My highest temp with light is 28.5 degrees while the lowerst is 26.5 degrees. I only on the light during the night when I return from work cause no one will be appreciating the tank during the day cause no one at home n will rasie the cover halfway up before I go to work. So far the corals is doing fine n my main fish the lemonpeel is also quite happy in there except for a few disappearing fish I had.

I only do top up once a week using Irwana Top up water 500 to 750 ml each time n I do 25% water change every 2 weeks.

[angelfishlover]

I dun experinece much water loss, why we chose nano is try to keep everything simple and ease of maintenance, having a chiller beside it will spoil the look n it maybe nosiy n generating heat n use more power which generate a higher bill. Trying to save n still can hv a marine tank. If temperature really hot on a fan n blow at the tank lor when it is 28 plus degrees, can lower down at least 0.2 to 0.3 degrees

My highest temp with light is 28.5 degrees while the lowerst is 26.5 degrees. I only on the light during the night when I return from work cause no one will be appreciating the tank during the day cause no one at home n will rasie the cover halfway up before I go to work. So far the corals is doing fine n my main fish the lemonpeel is also quite happy in there except for a few disappearing fish I had.

I only do top up once a week using Irwana Top up water 500 to 750 ml each time n I do 25% water change every 2 weeks.

I tot nano is hard???You got air con is it???Why my tank only maintain in 28 deg celsius but i hate June.Wah the water can soar up to 31 even though open top wif cold air coming in from my window.

[xersion]

a small tank is nv easy to maintain in marine.

[jervismun]

Simple and nice scaping with lots of room for corals... keep it up

[scubajazz]

I tot nano is hard???You got air con is it???Why my tank only maintain in 28 deg celsius but i hate June.Wah the water can soar up to 31 even though open top wif cold air coming in from my window.

No Air con in my hall, as stated so far so good for me, started somewhere in August and as mentioned in some other thread have to wait till the hottest period here n see how is it. For me lately for the last 2 weeks I hv registered the best temperarture with the cover close without lights on and is 25.9 degrees and with lights on it fluctuate between 26.8 to 27.5 degrees. Maybe my place her is cooler no blockage n has good circulation n on high floor. Good luck to me

[scubajazz]

Simple and nice scaping with lots of room for corals... keep it up

Jervis,

Can ask a question, understand u hv posted a thread b4 that u use Poly Lab Products like Medic n reef-roids. How much is these items n r they effective especially for the medic does it harm the corals, do u put it direct into the main tank or sump?

Thks in advance

[cdckjn]

I think that if you want to keep corals, it is ALWAYS best to have a chiller. As you would want to turn on the lights for the corals to grow but since the lights are on, these generate heat the water warm up and the corals will not do well. Thus it becomes a "chicken and egg" problem, therefore you will have to have the chiller.

[lweepin]

Thanks for all your suggestions.

I will still go without chillers for now. I will also stick to corals that are less sensitive to heat. I will need to monitor the temperature during the hot month. Or knows if I can find a chiller that is small and nice looker , I may change my mind.

[lweepin]

Sad day for me yesterday. When I reach me yesterday, one of my clownfish died. It was only 2 days since I bought it. It is my first setback as a marine hobbyist.

It was still OK the day before. There is no visible problem seen on the fish too. My wife become paranoid that all the other fish will die too. Unfortunately, I did not have a ammonia test kit with me. I did a test with my nitrite kit and everything seem normal. I better go buy the rest of my test kit this weekend. My other clownfish, damselfish and cardinalfish still look OK to me.

I read somewhere that it is common to have early fatality for clownfish due to transportation stress. Is this true, or there is something wrong with my tank? Any suggestions on what is the cause of the problem.

[thedidavid]

Get test kit minimum for amonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Usually clown fish is hardy as damsel. I also bought from same LFS my NC24 last time, I was told very easy just need upgrade kit (Aquapharm A&B, SOrb-4, etc) should be okay. But after reading I found that that's not only thing needed to maintain sustainable reef tank. I am still learning also and sometime there is still casualty in my current tank. IMHO there are 2 ways approach for this hobby; sustainable tank or show tank anything die just replace it with new one from LFS.

[lweepin]

Another of my Clownfish died today (3rd Day). Now left with my CardinalFish and Damsel (+ 2 shrimp).

I bought the whole set of test kit today.

The readings are as follows:

PH: 8.0

Sg: 1.023

Ammonia 0 ppm

NO2 0.02 ppm (very rough estimate)

NO3 5 ppm

KH 8

Ca 420 ppm.

All the test looked good but both my clownfish still die.

I will monitor for 2 more week before I take any additional actions

[Terryz_]

Your NO2 is still there... So that might be the cause for the death of your clownfish... Even though it is a minimal amount...

Everything else looks good to go...

[lweepin]

I went down yesterday to coral farm to buy some LS. My wife saw some green wrasses and wanted them due to their nice color. I thought that they are quite hardy and bought them. When I read more about them when I reached home, I realised that they are exactly suitable for my tank ( eats meat)

I also brought 4 x blue-knuckle Hermit Crab, Serpent Star and 2 zoas.

The green wrasses gave me a shock of my life when they disapear from my "tank" for long period of time. LOL

Then I realised that they actually hide in the sand. I think they spend more time in the sand than swimming outside.

The crabs and Zebra Serpent star are very lively and interesting to watch (good buy I think)

Description of stuff in my tank now

Corals

1 x green star polyp

1 x Califlower finger

1 x leather sponge mushroom

2 x button polyp (Zoa)

Fish

1 x Pajama Cardinal

1 x yellow tail damsel

2 x green wrasse

Cleaning crew

2 x skunk shrimps

4 x blue knuckle hermit crap

1 x zebra serpent star

[lweepin]

Anyone has any experience with green wrasse?

Can they take pellets with frozen stuff once a week?

[jervismun]

Anyone has any experience with green wrasse?

Can they take pellets with frozen stuff once a week?

Wrasse are basically quite adaptable when it comes to food... if your wrasse is already feeding on pellets... then you can cut down your frozen to reduce bioload. Just make sure you get good quality pellets and no harm feeding a variety of brands

[Terryz_]

For green wrasse, they practically eats anything.. Haha.. Should be able to do well with pellets..

[lweepin]

For green wrasse, they practically eats anything.. Haha.. Should be able to do well with pellets..

Thanks for the advice.

Yep. Now my green wrasse did eat the pellets. However, 50% of the time, he is in the sand. Thus I have to time my feeding time. However, my 2 wrasse fight each other so badly that I have to remove one. Luckily, so far it lived peacefully with my yellow tailed damsel and 2 new clownfish.

Last week, i tried to feed 1 cube of frozen mysis. Once, I put it in, the water circulation make it dispersed all over the tank. It looked very messy, I don't know whether this is normal or not. However, I will try not to feed with this stuff too often because I got a feeling that it will increase my bio-load.

[big_ben102000]

i dont think you should feed mysis. your tank doesnt have enough fish to consume all the food. if u want u can cut the cube into smaller pieces.

[Terryz_]

I think can if you have enough scavengers for your leftover food and you have a overkill skimmer..

It seems should be quite okay... Since you have 2 cleaner shrimp and 4 blue knuckle hermit... and the serpent star is also a good scavenger...

[jervismun]

I always thawed the frozen cubes in a container, sieve them dry before using a tea spoon to slowly feed as much as the fishes can consume within 10 seconds.