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The Narrow Sea - Aqueon Evolve 4


lkoechle

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In January, I went home to visit Florida and one of my friends mentioned Daytona's Petco was going out of business. I was there and the Evolve 4 was for sale for $25. I had to get it. Since tearing my 20 down in October, I'd gotten it in my head that a pico would be lovely. Since my husband and I were road tripping it back to Arizona, it worked out perfectly.

 

I have a pretty good idea what I want to do with this tank. I learned a lot from my 20 which was my first tank and, thanks to nano-reef, have a lot of ideas now for this one.

 

Where we stand:

3/27/2013

  • All stock with heater on the way and live sand in a bag.

9/1/2013

  • Still completely stock equipment. Corals seem to be growing.
  • CUC from reefcleaners.org in
  • Green Clown Goby (aka Meraxes) added at the end of August
  • Ricordea and small zoa colony added 7/5/2013
  • Two more zoa frags added 8/31/2013

9/16/2013

  • Modified the stock pump (see pg 4)
  • Modified the filter chambers (see pg 4)
  • added Rasta zoas, Darth Maul zoas, Eagle Eye zoas, Shuriken zoas, and GSP (approx 9/8/2013)
  • Started running Purigen

 

The Plan:

Equipment

Upgrade stock lighting to Beamswork Reef Bright 11" - will make custom led light if upgraded at all

Upgrade stock pump to Aquatop NP 80, however, if the 302 will fit, I'll probably go with the 302 - to be determined, stock seems to be performing well

Heater- Hydor 50 watt Heater

Agra-Alive! Indo-Pacific Sand (really love the look)

 

Residents

Green Clown Goby- Woo hoo! added in August 2013

3-5 Sexy Shrimp

Mini Anemone nixed idea. Going with ricordea garden for their habitat instead (9/1/2013)

Pom Pom Crab

Clam (husband wants a clam, told him I'd try to see if we can work it in... Yes, that is what she said) - on the fence. want to keep stock for a while yet.

Edit 9/16/2013

Also adding to future plan:

Venus anemone shrimp or White Spot Anemone Shrimp

 

Coral

 

Mainly zoas and ricordeas

 

DIY

I won't know until I get there what I need, what I don't, etc. But I want to do an ATO at least and then space depending, see if I can put in an auto water change for when I'm out of town, and an auto-feeder. Space is an issue, so we'll see what we can come up with :)

 

I'm stoked for this tank. Leak testing today. I don't have enough rock. To "prevent" me starting another tank in Arizona I threw out all my rock so I have one peice of base rock left. My previous LFS's LR tanks are packed with apstasia so I am waiting to here back from this new LFS that I will probably be switching patronage to, if they are apstasia free or have base rock for sale. We'll figure it out.

 

Hopefully, I can start the cycle after Easter!

 

FTS 6/4/2013

 

965870_10200562606560263_1064551272_o.jp

 

FTS 9/1/2013

9650724196_30a94c5f93.jpg

 

Color balance sucks, but I swear there's stuff in there!

 

FTV 9/10/2013

 

http://youtu.be/VMKcNFRp7SU

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lnglostsurfer

I have the same tank that's been going well for the past month and a half. There is a small drilled hole in the false wall about halfway up on the left side, other than that didn't have any issues with leaking. Be careful with the beamswork light, I had it on here for awhile but if it's the clamp on model, it's really heavy for how thin the back wall is (not sure why the back wall is thinner than everything else). Other than that it's been a great little tank. I'm slowly starting to stock mine now.

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Thanks for the suggestion. The leaking's in the bottom seam. I'm thinking I'm just going to dry it out and put some aquarium silicon on there. Since it's at the bottom, I'm not too concerned for looks. The sand should cover it. But husband may have different ideas, so we'll see what his suggestions are. lol

 

What did you do with your light? Did you remove it or reinforce it?

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lnglostsurfer

I actually ended up doing a DIY LED fixture. Fairly basic one but the color turned out great. I am probably going to sell the beamswork LED. It worked great but like I said, it's just too heavy for the back of this tank having such a thin back wall. I was afraid that it would pop the seams and start leaking.

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Leak test went well. Today I'm going to drain it, dry it, and plug up the seam in the false wall. I'm hoping my aquarium sealant hasn't dried up. lol I've been looking at DIY LEDs. It seems simple in theory but complicated in research. I do not know the first thing about electrical engineering stuff, or wiring or soldering. I might end up with beamswork from the sheer volume of daunting information on LEDs. We'll see though. I am a huge fan of NanoTopia's LED fixture and wouldn't mind on myself...

 

8595293327_ce6c3ebeab_z.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, tank is on hold for a bit. Husband may have a job transfer to Denver, CO. No sense in starting a tank then move in two to three weeks. Got a heat sink from an old Nvidia card for a DIY LED so, will probably focus on lighting options for now and then set up the tank when we figure out if we're moving. But now I have to find a new LFS lol. Any one here from Denver?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Look up the mods for the tank on youtube in the meantime. Lol It'll keep you busy.

 

Your stocking plan was really similar to what I wanted to do originally but I think we're changing things around.

 

Definitely ditch the lid that comes with it and make your own out of acrylic, it doesnt do ANYTHING for evaporation. I also modded the stock pump and it seems to be doing fine on flow, but if there's any problems I'm just gonna put a maxi-jet in there.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Look up the mods for the tank on youtube in the meantime. Lol It'll keep you busy.

 

Your stocking plan was really similar to what I wanted to do originally but I think we're changing things around.

 

Definitely ditch the lid that comes with it and make your own out of acrylic, it doesnt do ANYTHING for evaporation. I also modded the stock pump and it seems to be doing fine on flow, but if there's any problems I'm just gonna put a maxi-jet in there.

 

haha I've been planning the LED fixture to keep me busy and I keep changing my stocking plans. Which also keeps me busy :lol: Hopefully the tank will be up and running in about three weeks. We're making the move June 1st and I can't wait! I'm sick of Arizona and I'm sick of waiting to start the tank. omgomgomg

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Got a deal on an RO/DI unit. My house came with one, and it will stay when it's sold.

 

Luckily, my husband and I happened to be in Petco walking the greyhounds around while our house was being shown. It just so happens that the owner of a shiba inu my dogs love is a Blue Buffalo rep working that day. We strick up conversation about the dogs and we're walking through the fish area and I asked an employee what the salinity of the boxed saltwater was since I'm looking for options to get me through the apartment.

 

Blue Buffalo guy is like, "You guys are into marine tanks too? My 120 just died last year after a bulkhead busted." So we get talkin, and he had bought a new RO/DI unit literally a couple weeks before the tank decided to explode and had never used it.

 

So we got a Kent Marine Deluxe Maxxima HI-S 60 GPD ro/di new, unopened, in the box for $50 today at the dog park. lol Can't complain. It should suit our purposes just fine.

Kent-Marine-Deluxe-Hi-S-Maxxima-60-GPD-R

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  • 3 weeks later...

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!

 

I've been in Colorado for less than 48 hours. I unpacked the apartment like a mad woman yesterday (resulting in tennis elbow and a possible rotator cuff tear... hopefully not. lol) while hubby had his intro day at work so I could drag my darling husband all over Denver today in search of our new "home" LFS. I think I found one and bought my rock and water to start the cycle!

 

FINALLY we can begin! SO EXCITED!!!!!

 

965870_10200562606560263_1064551272_o.jp977273_10200562607880296_865224911_o.jpg966937_10200562607080276_1259858462_o.jp

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lnglostsurfer

Good to see this thing finally up and running, should be looking good in no time. Good luck!!

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Well, I think the tank may be cycled/not have gone through a cycle. It's been a little over a week with fish food dropped in and the ammonia badge hasn't detected any spikes. I'm being lazy and not testing. So I'm going to wait another week or so before testing and the deciding to stock. There's a little over a pound per gallon of cured live rock and an inch sand bed of live sand. But I had anticipated there would have been major die off in the live sand since it's that bagged Aggra-Alive and would have kicked off the cycle. Maybe I was wrong or the live rock bacteria was able to efficiently process it before a detectable spike. Anyways, I'm being lazy since API kits are all I have and they're about as accurate as watching the tank :P We'll know in a couple of weeks when I test and probably take a sample to the LFS to double check. Maybe I'll come back with a friend :P Then its off to ReefCleaners.org for some maids.

 

We're going house hunting today too. Prayers that it all goes well! There are a couple of really promising homes and if they show well today we might put an offer on one. So, once again, life might put the tank on hold depending on how fast we close.

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happyhour99

Hi

Using ghost feeding takes the longest when cycling. It takes a while for the food to decay to ammonia. After a week your tank is definably not cycled. You probably also need more rock or bio media in the back. (actually looking back at your rock, IMO it looks like you have 3-4 lb, so Nevermind)

 

Other than that, Looking good!

Good luck on the house hunting!

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I have 4.4 pounds of rock and an inch of sand in about 3 to 3.5 gallons of water. I'm good with the rock. I don't need more bio media at the moment. :)

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If you already have LR, the cycle might not even "happen" as the bacteria will already be there.

What light did you end up using?

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If you already have LR, the cycle might not even "happen" as the bacteria will already be there.

What light did you end up using?

 

Thats what I was thinking. But I'll let it sit for another couple weeks just in case.

 

For now I think I'm going to use the stock light. I've heard so many mixed things about it from "It's not enough" to "It's can grow more than we give it credit for" I figured I'll experiment and see what it can do. Later on though, I think I'm just going to do a custom LED build. A couple people on reefcentral compared the stock light to the Beamswork light which is what I was going to upgrade to. And some there have said it's marginally better, but like with the stock light, it has mixed reviews. So why bother? I'll just save the money, play with it now, and upgrade later. :P

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WOO HOO! We put in an offer on the house it beat out two others. We are officially under contract! It's such an awesome house too. It's just like those zillow commercial "where your life happens". It's totally a house I can see us in ten, fifteen years down the road and raising our kids. There's renovations that need to be done but they're all cosmetic. More of a bringing the house in to the 21st century.

 

Drawback is we're tapped out of money for the next couple of weeks and I need to buy a clean up crew. lol Oh well, in two weeks I'll be making an order to reef cleaners.

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Quick Crew has been ordered. Should ship Monday and arrive no later than Thursday. In the mean time its time to get some more water from the LFS for a water change.

 

The house inspection went so-so. The house is in pretty good shape given its age but there are a ton of little things that need to be fixed that add up to quite a lot. And it's really just general maintenance the homeowners should have been doing on a regular basis. Add that in to the fact there are a few big projects in the near future we need to do to make sure the house is sellable in 10 to 15 years and that's a ton of money. So prayers that the sellers are reasonable and either fix the small stuff or give us a buyer's credit!

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lnglostsurfer

Good luck on the house! I'm in the market myself, finding it hard to compromise between price and updates....

 

Great choice with the quick crew, and I would expect to get far more snails than you bargained for. The ceriths take a bit of time to get going once you put them in the tank, mine took 3 or 4 days to get going but the nerites and nassarius got to work right away. It's been a great crew for my tank, John really knows his stuff.

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Yeah. Our home that should be closed today (Woo hoo!) was a very new modern build. 2009 I think. The thing I hate about modern builds is well, my neighbor, his neighbor, his neighbor's neighbor, the neighbor two streets down (you get my drift) all live in the same house, with the same paint scheme, with the same layout.

 

So, while we weren't discriminatory in our search, this house is older in an older neighborhood and we're all different :P Like I said, it definitely has some work. We have level the floor in the den, refinish the hardwoods in the den and the kitchen and then we want to remodel the kitchen, put in a five piece in the master en suite, update the guest bathroom, and finish the basement. (and then I want to expand the deck and relandscape the backyard) There's a lot of work we want to do. But the character of the home is fantastic. I just hope the sellers do the few things we ask them to.

 

Our take is the price is better because it does need updates. Once those updates are done, the house will be worth far more than a newer build and last much longer. They don't make homes like they used to. I'm excited if not a little disappointed because I know I won't see my dream home for a decade lol

 

I bought a clean up crew for my 20 from reef cleaners. They do fantastic crews. I felt totally ripped off with the first CUC I bought from a lfs. It was my first tank so I had no idea. Always going to reef cleaners since buying my "refresher" crew. lol

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