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| Build a Nano Reef Day 78-90 |
| 07/22/04 Day 78 Nano Cube stand review As unbiased as I can, today I would like to make some comments on the skinny black stand by JBJ or the other similar oem version of the skinny stand for the Jbj Nano Cube. First off, I question the safety of this stand. This skinny stand is 28" in height, now add a Nano cube to the stand, add 10 lbs of sand, 15 pounds of live rock, and about 9 gallons of saltwater. Now we total up all that weight. Water weighs about 8.2 pounds per gallon, add everything else and you got about over 100 pounds or more weight sitting ontop of the skinny stand. Alright, so now you have a very skinny stand with about 98.8 or more pounds of weight mostly all on top. Try to magine this, during an earthquake, If you really want the tank to crash literally, this is the stand to buy. If you have little kids that might know over things, try to consider buying another stand with a bigger foot print. Next, let's take a look at the storage capacity inside the cabinet. What exactly did the engineers of this stand design to keep underneath the stand? With the small capacity for storage, might as well keep a seperate container to hold all your tank accessories because all you can keep in there the wiring. Let's zoom into the future and see if there is any room for expansion. Where would the refugium go? How about an autotop off unit? A 10 quart bucket can't even fit underneath there. Next we have craftsmanship. This stand is not made of oak, it is made of mdf, so why does it cost 90 dollars in stores? This stand will not make cleaning the tank any easier, you would need to pull up a table or place all your cleaning tools on the floor. How much does this stand cost? 80-90 bucks! Don't get suckered into buying this stand which is made for a nano cube. Shop around, you will find much nicer wider stands that will be able to acommodate a nice size refugium below, a 5 gallon top off unit, and hold most of your aquarium accessories right were you need it, and under 90 bucks. I suggest looking for stands at Pet's Mart or some other furniture store. Just make sure that the top shelf will be able to accomodate atleast 120 pounds of weight. I say again, from the looks of this stand, it willl become top heavy supporting a full Nano cube. If you have skinny floor stand speakers with 8-10" woofers near the top, you will know what I mean by top heavy. Final thoughts: I would definately avoid this stand at all costs. It is unsafe, not practical, ugly, and expensive. |
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| 08/03/04 Day 83 19:01 Algae battle and Nudibranch removal The battle of bubble algae countinues, as a new nudi pest of destruction appears. Yesturday I was removing a few bubble algae manually while popping a few in the process. Hopefully the Emerald crab can take care of the rest of the bubbles algae whihc I could not remove. While observing my tank recently, I have discovered new hitch hikers I have yet seen before, the nudibranch you see in the photo to the right. I have removed as many as I have found, approximately 10 of them have been removed from the tank glass, and on the zoos. Yesturday I added three Nassarius snails. Hopefully they will help clean the substrate of any uneaten foods. I have also noticed for the first time what it is like for zooz to start melting away. The base of the zoos start to rot away, and then each zoo will start to fall off from the colony. |
| 08/10/04 Day 90 17:25 Dosing Salifert Coral calcium I have noticed recently after my purchase of my two Montipora Capricornis that the water in the tank has been declining in calcium. When I measured the calium level with a Salifert Calcium Profi test kit, the level of calcium in the water was at 320 mg. The calcium level in ocean salt water is from 420-450 mg. Seeing how 320 mg of calium is not very good for my corals I dosed my nano cube with 2 ml of Salfert Coral Calcium in a cup of tank water and let it drip at one drop per second just to be safe. After a couple of hours I checked my calcium levels, and the level was up to 400 mg. Well, I hope what I did was right thing to do to help the corals and coraline grow. I will be dosing another 2 ml of coral calcium in two days from today, after I do a gallon and a half water change. My goal is to raise calcium levels to about 430 mg and hopefully during the process of doing so, everything will be healthy. |