Nano Upgrade

[Gillybaby]

Just in case any of you haven't heard yet (and if not, where on earth have you been ;) ) I got a D&D Nano Cube for Xmas. The cube, being around 24 US G, is an upgrade to my current 11g nano as my clowns are getting a bit big and I really don't want to part with them. That and my old 11g nano had been modded to bits and the hood kept falling apart every time I touched it :eek:

As a homage to my 11g nano, here's a picture of it just before I tore it apart last night:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/nano27dec06.jpg

And this is how it looked after everything was removed, a very sad moment indeed as it had been successfully running for nearly 2 years:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/nano27dec06b.jpg

TBC

[trik]

wow you really shut that down, look forward to the upgrade.:)

[Gillybaby]

Heyho, onwards and upwards as they say.

Whilst the changeover was taking place we decided to store the livestock in two spare salt buckets with half new salt water and half old water in order to acclimatise them:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/buckets.jpg

This worked very well. They were only in the buckets for an hour or so whilst I got on and set up the new tank. Here's the specs for the new tank:

D&D Nano Cube (made by JBJ in the US imported by D&D) (approx 19")
24 US Gallons
2 x 36w compact T5s
2 moonlight LEDs
Rear sump area with 3 compartments (came with sponges, bioballs and hoops which I'm ditching for liverock rubble)
290 gph turnover through the rear sump

Not sure if I'll add any more flow, will see how it goes first.

Picture of tank just out of the box:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/27dec06a.jpg

[Gillybaby]

More pics I'm afraid :D

The sand that I've had maturing for 2 weeks in the sump of my 160g reef has been added and so has the remaining water from our old nano - seems to be bit on the cloudy side:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/27dec06b.jpg

Ok, got carried away filling the tank with water, rock and livestock and completely forgot to take any inbetween pics. Oh well, here's one of me nearly finished having just found a blue leg hermit hiding in the bottom of one of the salt buckets which I was about to empty down the toilet :eek: :

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/27dec06c.jpg

As it was getting late by this time and I didn't want the stock left in the buckets much longer, I was almost literally tossing the rocks and corals in the bottom of the tank. As it was still a bit cloudy and I couldn't see what I was doing all thoughts of aquascaping went out of the window. I thought I could do that another time.

[Gillybaby]

However, as the tank has cleared today and everything seems quite happy and settled I actually quite like the loose rubbly reef bottom look of the tank:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/28dec06.jpg

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/28dec06side.jpg

The rocks do need to be moved back a bit and maybe some height created but that's about it. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it. The flow seems ok for the moment and everything seems quite settled and none the worse for their escapades last night.

I was quite worried about my female clown actually. She got caught in the net both times she was in it. I had to manhandle her as the net had caught on her gills and was worried I'd squeezed too hard. The male clown was a perfect gentleman in the net and just lay there nicely until he was back in water. But oh no, my girl just had to struggle and get herself all stuck. Still, to show she's ok, here's a pic of her and one of her wee man:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/femaleclown.jpg

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/cutie.jpg

[Gillybaby]

And here's some more corally pics for you (and a Fluctuosus snail for James), can't believe how great everything looks:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/zoasnxenia.jpg

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/zoas.jpg

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/kenyantree.jpg

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/fluctuosus.jpg

Thanks very much for listening to my rambling. I'm just hoping the next 2 years with my new tank are as interesting and fun as the last 2 have been.

[Tetley]

Gillian,

I am sure your clowns love thier xmas present almost as much as you.

New nano look very good indeed - I wonder............... :D

ATB for the New Year

[Tangman]

Hi Gilly all i can say is WOW what a stunning little tank, the clowns look as happy as Larry in there. I like the way you have set it up as you say the loose rubbly look looks cool. Well done and keep us all up to date with it, i think you have set Tetley's cogs whirring i can almost hear them turning over from here. I know him you see and i know what he will be doing next as he has the bug.:) Eric

[Pinkfish]

Hi Gillian you tanks looking great, like the clowns, nad the live rock rubble on the bottom. Nice Zoas and softies in there.

Mike

[callum_parsons]

amazing tank i love the rubble bottom and all the corals its a great tank and the colours are awesome

[TerraC]

lovely looking nano Gilly. great mix of colour in there.

[Gillybaby]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I wondered what the noise was earlier, must've been Tetley thinking ;)

[Tetley]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I wondered what the noise was earlier, must've been Tetley thinking ;)


Its hard work all this thinking, you get great tanks like yours, and then off I go thinking :D

[SteveS]

nano looks brill Gilly :)

steve

[MR Teee]

Looks great Gilly.

Did you modify the tank in any way?

I have heard of a quite few easy mods to improve the D&D nanos.

[callum_parsons]

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/nano27dec06.jpg

how did the xenia get up there??:eek:

[Gillybaby]

lol Callum, the xenia grew up the back glass from a rock I placed down the back. I did this on purpose as I quite like the look. Am going to do the same with the new one too. But it'll take a month or two ;)

Thanks again for the kind comments. I haven't done any mods...yet. Aside from adding liverock to the filter compartments to create a cryptic zone that is. A lot of the mods involve cutting the hood and messing about which I really don't want to do after the mess I made of my last hood. Also if you cut the hood evaporation goes way up which is another reason I don't want to do it. I am however, thinking about getting one of those submersible lights to make the filter compartment a refugium instead of cryptic zone but haven't decided yet.

[MR Teee]

Theres also the mod to the pump, only a little one, but if you replace the hard pipe 90 degree bend with a soft piped sweeping one you maintain alot of the flow instead of loosing it.

[Gillybaby]

Theres also the mod to the pump, only a little one, but if you replace the hard pipe 90 degree bend with a soft piped sweeping one you maintain alot of the flow instead of loosing it.

Yeah, forgot about that. Might try it at some point although the flow is pretty good at the moment.

[angel1]

HI!

Is it as easy as u made it look in those pics!(knowing my luck maybe not!)

New to this and looking for ideas at mo!

LILYANN.

[Gillybaby]

HI!

Is it as easy as u made it look in those pics!(knowing my luck maybe not!)

New to this and looking for ideas at mo!

LILYANN.

With at lot of patience and fore thought, yes it can be pretty easy. Although you've gotta remember that my nano had been running for 2 years before the upgrade and I haven't added any fish or corals in well over a year so it had plenty of time to mature and stabilise.

The key to keeping marines does seem to be patience and you will hear a lot of people say that nothing good happens quick in this hobby. Take your time and resist the temptation to fully stock your tank as quickly as possible and everything will come good for you. ;)

[angel1]

HI!

Just out of curiosity,what r u doing with old tank?

Lilyann.

[Gillybaby]

I'm actually going to hang on to it as a quarantine/hospital tank as it is small enough to hide away in a cupboard but easy to set up at short notice. Even though its only 11g I'm confident that I could fit any of my fish into it for a short time if necessary.

[Reefer]

Looks really, really good Gilly, excellent, I like the rockwork it looks erm , well natural, great stuff.

[Cudders]

Hi Gillybaby,

Looks very nice, great set-up :D

Cudders

[Gillybaby]

Well, its been a few days since the changeover and everything still seems quite happy. Managed to sort out the rockwork yesterday, basically just moved the larger bits further towards the back and moved various bits away from where they were being squished against the glass. As I quite like the accidental reef bottom look I didn't want to disturb it too much. Oh, and I have added my green clown goby to the tank too - the Wee Green Meanie is in the tank ;)

Here's some pictures:

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/31dec06.jpg

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/31dec06side.jpg

http://www.trapper300.co.uk/photos/albums/userpics/10002/weegreenmeanie.jpg

[callum_parsons]

gilly u have done some great work there u must be very happy with that

[Blue]

Cool looking :cool: very nice :) :)