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:



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:



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:



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:

[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:



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: :



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:





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:

[Gillybaby]

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









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