3 Compartments on Nano Cube

[cburns32]

I'm wondering what to do with the three compartments in the back of the nano cube, in my 3rd I have my heater and maxi jet 900 pump, what should go into the 1st and 2nd...Here are some pictures to help you all out. And what should I do about lighting during the cycle, on, off, on/off part of the day?

 

[addict]

Those compartments are essentially a wet/dry filtration system. Personally, I don't recommend wet/dry systems for a reef, since they tend to load up with a lot of organic material and only add to potential nutrient problems. You could probably still circulate water through it, and hide your heater in there anyway.

Somebody else may have a better suggestion.

As far as lighting goes, you can just leave it off during the cycle... leaving it on (or even having it on) will only supply algaes that will be trying to grow with much-needed light, and then you'll have a lot of nuisance algae to deal with. It's better to leave it off until the cycle ends and nutrient levels drop, so that their primary source of food is eliminated... then you can turn on the lights once you start adding in critters.

Good luck.

 

[Witfull]

ditto~

the Daves have it~

 

[cburns32]

I was thinking, putting 1 smaller sponge in the 1st compartment, with a bag of chemi-pure, then in the 2nd compartment putting crushed live rock, and in the 3rd my heater, temp probe, and pump. What do you think?

 

[Joe69]

Cburns, this is exactly the way I had mine setup for almost a year.

Sponge in first compartment, live rock in second, and heater and return pump in third. This seemed to work well except for all the feather caulerpa algae growing in the display. I think it was due to the sponge.

I would clean the sponge once a week when I did water changes and it was really nasty. I figured I really needed it because of how bad the water looked coming out of the sponge.

About a month ago I bought one of those little fusion skimmers for the nano and had to replace my sponge with it. Guess what.....caulerpa almost all gone!! On top of that I really haven't got the skimmer to perform as well as I have heard other people's performing. So do yourself a favor and forget the sponge, IMHO it will become a bad source of nitrates and limit the flow of your return. Hope this helps.......

 

[addict]

feather caulerpa algae

If the algae looks like little feathers, then it's actually bryopsis, and is a real bugger to get rid of... I'm glad you've been successful at eradicating it.

brian_e tore down his 360g tank because he had a huge bryopsis problem and couldn't gain any headway... it was really bad... so consider yourself to be a lucky fella.

I agree with you that a sponge isn't the best idea, because it leaves a spot for organics to build up. I also don't recommend live rock rubble, because it's a huge detritus gathering spot too. I used to have a rubble pile in a spot in my old sump, and it was a detritus magnet... it slows the water down just enough that the detritus settles out in that area, and it's a real bugger to clean, especially once the detritus settles 'into' the rock pores and starts causing problems with nutrient levels.

I'd put the heater in one compartment, the temp probe in another, and then your pump in the last one... but that's just me. Otherwise I'd leave it open, and try not to put anything in there that's going to trap detritus. Keep in mind that you do, however, 'want' detritus to settle in this area, so it stays out of the display portion of the tank, but you also want to be able to clean all of it out when you do a water change... adding in rock/sponges, etc. just makes that job more difficult (if not impossible).

Good luck.

 

[cburns32]

I'm thinking about 1 small sponge (that I'll clean weekly) and a bag of chemi-pure, purigen, and seagel, in the 1st compartment, in the 2nd LR and maybe some chaeto with a small subermisble 10W Halogen light, and in the 3rd the pump, heater, and temp. probe...Sound good?

 

[sl305]

I added some filter floss above the single sponge in the first compartment. It takes care of large dirt. You just need to replace it often.