Fentanyl Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 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 Link to comment
HVani Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Sweet! Can't wait to see the set up. I just set up this same tank and I love it Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 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? Link to comment
HVani Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 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. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 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. Link to comment
HVani Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 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. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 So Hravanii what type of a filtration r u using or planning to use? Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 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? Link to comment
HVani Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 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. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 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 Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 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 If anyone is wondering what happened to the glass top, it broken during the transport so I'll be getting a new one soon. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 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? Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 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. Link to comment
bananahands Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Is the top of your "stand" glass? If so, are you really that confident that it can hold 250+ lbs long term? Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 This is just a span of about 3 days since the initial appearance of the dreaded GHA. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 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 Link to comment
HVani Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 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. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 Even that GHA there?!? It looks atrocious though. Hravanni: What did u make your screen from? Link to comment
HVani Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 Yeah it seems to get pretty ugly before it gets better. Adding a CUC will help Here's my screen top: 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. Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 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. Link to comment
HVani Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 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. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 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. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 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. Link to comment
Fentanyl Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 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. Link to comment
JR! Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 frogspawn looks nice but i would have wait to put it in there till all the gha was cleared up Link to comment
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