12g Nano - A LOT of changes

As pretty as the main tank is, the most important part of any salt water tank happens in places you can't see (or can't see well). On the nano cubes, there are compartmets behind the back wall of the tank. When you buy a nano, the come with 3 'chambers' inside the back wall. each chamber has a different design and purpose.

Out of the box, the tank comes with three blocks of sponge that sit in the first chamber. They feel about like a soft loofa sponge that you put in your bath/shower. The sponges catch large particles (like food and waste). Then natures takes over and beneficial bacteria grows inside the sponge.

The second is always empty at first, but I put 'live rock' in it. Live rock is the name that is given to the stones that are created when ocean corals die. The rocks are very porous and life (bacteria and microscopic organisms) literally grow inside the holes. Over time, the surface of the rocks collects beneficial algae. All of these life forms create an awesome natural filter for the water that flows through it. I put a baggie of small ceramic tubes in the second chamber as well. They also have many pours and overtime they also grow life that is beneficial to the tank.

The third chamber holds the pump, and as that takes up a great deal of space, I didn't ad anything to it. I tried to put the tanks heater in there, but the water level in that chamber is always much lower than the levels in the rest of the tank. The heater needs to be submersed in water. If the water level gets low, the heater will overheat, and burn out. To prevent this, I put the heater in the main tank. I never liked having it there, but I didn't have room for it in the back.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I purchased a protein skimmer. It's a really simple (but very cool) device that uses air to blow bubbles into the water. Clean salt water doesn't have enough protein to support bubbles. The more protein there is in the water, the longer the bubbles will stick together. The longer they stick together, the bigger the bubbles will get. Literally the yucky stuff in the water, will rise to the top of the protein skimmer, and fall into a little cup that sits on top.

This has been working pretty well, and every day I've had to clear out the skimmer to remove excess protein. Last night I made a lot of changes...

I took everything out of the back except the pump in the third chamber. Then I put it all back in in this order...

Chamber 1:

Proteins are generally created in the main tank, and the flow into the back through the return grate. That means that chamber 1 will always have a higher protein concentration than the other chambers. So I moved the protein skimmer to the first chamber. Also, because the sponges were no longer in the first chamber, I had room to put the heater in there with the skimmer. This made the main tank look better.

Chamber 2:

Live rock that is broken into small parts if termed 'rubble rock'. I put the rubble rock back into the bottom of the second chamber. Truly the rocks are the best filters for salt tanks. I also stuffed a single sponge on top of it to because it never hurts to have to much filtration.

Chamber 3:

There a LOTS of little chemical packs that you can buy and put into your tank. Each has a benefit unique to it's make up. This time I went with carbon. I'm told that it will clear up my water, and make everything look really crisp. I'm also considering putting a bag 'chempure' in the third chamber for the added water cleaning properties it offers.

All in all, I'm happy with the changes. I waited 2 hours and tested for niterite, niterate, PH, and ammonia. All of them came out perfect, except ammonia. You want it at zero, but mine came out at .25. This doesn't concern me now, because it's not very high, and there is going to be an ammonia spike when you start playing with the filtration.

Next I'm going to take a sample of water and have it tested today. I can't test for all the levels. I need to buy more test kits for that... but the test kits are not free, so new test kits will have to wait.