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New 25gal Ecoxotic AIO


Fentanyl

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Hello Everyone, updated info.

11/11 - 03/13

 

 

Specs:

Ecoxotic 18" cube

Carbon

Purigen

Cheato

GFO

 

 

Equipment:

 

Stock pump and Skimmer

Vortech MP10w ES pump

Hydor theo heater 200W

Radion XR30w LED lights

Corallife 18W PC for fuge

10Gal Sump

Phosban 150 reactor

Neptune apex jr. Controller

- EB8 bar

- PM2 module

- temp and conductivity probe

- ALD module

 

 

20lbs of live rock and 20lbs of ara-live sand

 

 

Live Stock

Fish

- 2 Clowns

 

Inverts

- 3 turbo snails

- 3 astraea snails

- 6 hermit crabs

- cleaner shrimp

 

Corals

- green birdsnest

- orange plate coral

- 2 types of frogspawn

- crocea clam

- GSP

- Brain coral

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Here the pic as promised... Not much to see but its a start... Nice to hear that ur tanks going great Hravanii. How long has it been running for?

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A week lol. But it was an upgrade for my 5 month old 14 biocube. Have you had much luck with the skimmer? I have had a lot of trouble getting mine to work right and continue working.

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Yea the skimmer been a bit tricky. Keep in mind it's probably only been a day or so but it did start working pretty good. I find that you have to adjust the height of the collecting tray with the white screw to get it working. It was working pretty well with brown looking broth bubbling into the collecting tray. I'll give u a update with pics later.

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Yeah I did adjust it a bit. I think I have my water level too high in the chamber. It seems like the skimmer works at first but after a few hours it isn't working as well. I think the pump has been coming loose.

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So after trying to get the protein skimmer to work I decided to ditch the skimmer and instead use that space to put some cheato there, after the tank has been cycled. My thought process is that having an extra biological filter (as well as the 20lbs of live rock) and regular water changes it can do without a protein skimmer. As a added benefit it's much quieter. Any comments?

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I have cheato and a light in the middle chamber. Otherwise it's stock filtration. I love how much flow the pump has. I also have some purigen and carbon in the back. I've also turned off my skimmer. It's just so loud! For now I think I'm fine with low stock and plenty of live rock, plus water changes.

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Quick update,

 

I made a few changes since my last post. First off I found my temperate fluctuating at big too high with the HQI pendant being too close. So I decided to hang the lamp higher so now the temp ranges 78.5-80.5 F, which hopefully will be stable enough. I also put back the skimmer as I felt I needed some more filtration as I took out the purigen and bio balls. All parameters seems to be fine with nitrate and nitrite levels near 0pp, pH 8.2. Pics to follow

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Here's the my updated pics. I'm getting a lot of brown algae growing so I'm taking this as my algae bloom, which means I should be able to put some clean up crews very soon :lol:

 

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If anyone is wondering what happened to the glass top, it broken during the transport so I'll be getting a new one soon.

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So it looks like my tank is having a green hair algae bloom as well as a brown algae bloom. Is this fairly normal for a tank in its cycling phase? I'm hoping that with the addition of some of the clean up crew it should regress. Any comments?

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Update:

 

The green algae bloom seems to be continuing and getting worse. I've tested my water and the nitrate, nitrite, and phosphate are near 0. So I'm kinda confused as to why this is happening. Since its only be about a week since start up I've decided to cut the light to tank and use that to control the GHA. I'll also try to pick up some turbo snails and maybe some emerald crabs as I have heard they are good for this problem. Some pics to follow.

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bananahands:

 

yea the top of the stand is glass. It is a fairly thick slab of glass... Now that you mention it though, I probably should get another stand in the next little while just to be on the safe side. Thanks for the pointer

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The algae blooms are pretty normal for a new tank.

 

I ended up getting rid of my glass top. I had 2 fish jump through the front corners and the glass was always dirty and blocking a lot of light. I made my own screen top to use instead.

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Yeah it seems to get pretty ugly before it gets better. Adding a CUC will help

 

Here's my screen top:

 

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I used a window screen kit, some hinges and a drawer handle. Instead of window screen I bought a cheap laundry bag and used the netting.

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I had a bad GHA outbreak in the beginning with my 20 and then again when I transferred everything to the 40.

 

Also, you're not getting anything in the tests because the GHA is absorbing it.

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Yeah I transferred everything from my 14 gallon 2 weeks ago and I'm getting an algae bloom. It hasn't been too bad only because my urchin eats it's ALL. I have seen a few tuffs of hair algae along with diatoms.

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Thanks guys for the heads up. I'll try to tough through the GHA with some CUC and see how it goes. I'm just worried that my LR which were transferred from a older dying tank is storing a large amount of phosphates. Which I was not aware of before.

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Update:

 

Picked up a few CUC that included 3 hermit crabs, 3 astraea snails, and 3 turbo snails. I also picked up some chaeto algae for the back chamber to help keep down the nitrates. So far the GHA is getting a bit better but not much. I'll have to get more CUC to help out. Pics to follow.

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Still fighting the GHA be seems to be in control thanks to the addition of more CUC's with include 3 more turbos, a peppermint shrimp, and a emerald crap. As and a last minute idea, which is usually not a good idea, i also got a frogspawn. I could not say no to it. Made sure my parameters were 0 and did a PWC. So far it looks like its settled in fine. pics below.

 

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