27 Gallon Cube

[sprite]

No problem.. I sold them to you

[pelphrey]

I got the BRS Mini Reactor setup and I sort through my cabinet of supplies!

 

No problem.. I sold them to you

 

Indeed you did! haha It's a small world! If you still have my number save it and let me know if you ever have anything else to get rid of!

[pelphrey]

Ordered some ABS plastic this morning, I will be making a lid for my overflow box. The inside of the box is getting a little to much light and I want to prevent as much algae growing in the box if I can. Also moved my output line from the reactor, it is now running into the return section. The filter sock has been reintroduced to the sump, I need to pick up a few more. I think a snail or 2 in the refugium will also help out!

[sprite]

Looks like they settled in good.

[pelphrey]

Looks like they settled in good.

 

I haven't glued anything down yet. I want to get all of the zoa's on one rock. Overall everything is looking happy, I think I could bump the light up a little more.

Full tank shot. Photo was taken with the iPhone 6 and an orange filter. It came out kind of grainy

[sprite]

My tank they was in was shallow so they was getting blasted between t5 and 150w mh.. When you Mount them if the skirts look cupped like they are reaching I would probably bump it up a little a week till they stop reaching

Looking good though

[vlangel]

Cool shots and such a tidy looking sump!

[pelphrey]

I signed up for #MyAquariumBox last month, this is a subscription based service that sends out either a freshwater $24.99 or a saltwater $29.99 box once a month full of various goodies. A group of guys on YouTube teamed up and created the service. Each box is shipped out in the middle of each month, if you sign up after the 5th of each month you will get the next months box. In addition if you upload an unboxing video to YouTube you are entered into a monthly contest they run for the MegaBox. Last months freshwater winner won a canister filter and the salt water winner won a LED light both by Marineland.

If you are interested in checking them out the website is below -

http://myaquariumbox.com/

 

 

My tank they was in was shallow so they was getting blasted between t5 and 150w mh.. When you Mount them if the skirts look cupped like they are reaching I would probably bump it up a little a week till they stop reaching
Looking good though

 

I meant to adjust the light settings this weekend, but didn't get a chance to bump the intensity up. One of the ricordea's got moved by accident and stretched out and beat the crap out of the scoly. I moved them yesterday and the scoly was looking much better last night.

 

Cool shots and such a tidy looking sump!

Thanks! I desperately need to order some parts and 2 off my return to also run my reactor. The MJ1200 and rigid tubing is making a little too much noise for my liking. Should be adding a screen top to the tank in the next few weeks also.

[pelphrey]

Package arrived Friday -

Florida Cerith - 8

Nassarius Vibex - 4

Nerite Snail - 12

Reef Pods - 1

Editing full video review at the moment. Will be up by Sunday!

Excellent communication and top notch shipping. John emailed me almost right away to let me know my order did go through. Will be ordering from Reef Cleaners again!

Thanks!

[pelphrey]

Picture heavy! I need to start gluing some of the frags in their spots.

I did add the shroud back to the light fixture in an attempt to prevent light from hitting my skimmer and other chambers. I may also add the clamp back to the fixure so I can easily remove it and lower it some more. I haven't seen enourmous growth in the cheato but it is looking healthy and green! I do have to flip it once a day.

Time to change the poly filter pad, I also need to add a few snails to the fuge. There is no mechanical filtration going into the fuge so it does get dirty pretty quickly.

I am battling some hair algae on some zoa frags. I am running carbon in a mesh bag as well as Carbon & GFO in the Bulk Reef Supply Mini reactor. I do weekly 10 gallon water changes. I read that I can do a 50/50 dtop in tank water and peroxide. I have a nice mix of snails I picked up from Reef Cleaners I've read multiple threads about hermits, some say they eat coral some say they don't. The hair algae isn't really bad at the moment, so I want to try to contain it the best that I can now.

Open to any suggestions?

The ricordea that was attaching my scoly -

Scoly looks A LOT better, but still healing -

[pelphrey]

Time to reload the carbon and GFO in the Bulk Reef Supply Mini Reactor!

White tipped hammer split. Need to do some research on fragging this thing -

[pelphrey]

I needed some assorted snails and pods for my 27 gallon nano reef tank. I did a lot of research and read about a lot of companies. The one that stood out the most was Reef Cleaners ( http://www.reefcleaners.org). I never read anything negative about this site or company. I placed my order on a Monday afternoon, Monday evening John emailed me confirming he received my order and when it would ship out. Sure enough I got an email on the day he said it would ship out with acclimation procedures as well as tracking. The package shipped out of Florida on Wednesday afternoon and was on my door step in Kentucky on Friday afternoon. The box was shipped out USPS Priority Mail, some items on their site do require over night shipping.

Florida Cerith Qty 8 Price $.060 Total $4.80

Nassarius Vibex Qty 4 Price $0.45 Total $1.80

Nerite Snail Qty 12 Price $0.75 Total $9.00

Reef Pods Qty 1 Price $13.00 Total $13.00

Priority Mail $9.50

Total - $38.10

I highly recommend Reef Cleaners and if you need anything at all contact John or check them out on Reef2Reef -

http://reef2reef.com/forums/reefcleaners.444/

https://www.reefcleaners.org/

[pelphrey]

Woke up this morning and went downstairs to check on the tank. It's part of my daily routine, I want to check the sump level and just eye ball everything. I noticed a smear on the glass, I looked down and somehow one of the snails climbed over the rim on my tank and was climbing its way up my stand. I plucked him from the stand and dropped him back into the water. I am running a strainer on my drain line, but my emergency drain is wide open. I bought some ABS plastic a few weeks ago. I think I may expedite making a lid for my overflow box!

I added a few snails to my fuge and they always climb out, I grab them and put them back in the water. No telling how long they have been out of the water, but they all seem to rebound really well!

[jamescstein]

imho most snails are idiots and have a death wish.

[pelphrey]

Sit back and relax... While viewing my nano reef! Finally a video with coral in it. I picked up all of these pieces all at once from a local craigslist find. At one point the ric stretched out and got a hold of the scoly, it if doing a lot better now! The zoa's have really taken off and I need to add a few more colors to the rock.

As always thanks for following my build thread and watching my YouTube videos!

 

 

 

[pelphrey]

In this video I show you all of the "things" I have collected over the last few years. Some of it I could throw away, other stuff I need and some stuff I keep just in case. I am sure everyone does the same thing and my case me be mild to a lot of you. Having gone through it I find stuff I didn't know I had and other things I could use right now. I do occasionally make the mistake of ordering something I already own because it is thrown inside of a box I rarely ever get into!

 

[pelphrey]

Coloring up nicely!

This has always been orange, now all of a sudden it has some green on it -

I tried to get the best shot that I could. This is off the same rock as the ricordea as above. 2 little babies -

[pelphrey]

#MyAquariumBox March Salt Water Unboxing

Excuse the horrible camera angle. I wanted to record this raw and unedited. After I saw the camera shots I almost redid the video, however I decided not to because I knew my level of excitement would be different.

 

 

[pelphrey]

Full tank shot just because!

Eshopps Nano Cube Sump!

Reef lighting up the house!

[pelphrey]

If you are running a reef tank you should also have an auto top off. There are a ton of options when it comes to purchasing an ATO, I decided to go with the JBJ ATO. It is very common in the hobby and it allows you to flip float switch 2 around which will shut the ATO pump off if the water raises this float switch. If you are not running an ATO your skimmer can run inconsistently. Last running an ATO will allow you to leave the tank for days or weeks without worrying about burning your return pump out when to much water evaporates.

Maybe the most important factor is the fact that Auto Top Off's will stabilize the water, if there are salinity swings they will be minimal!

[pelphrey]

Got some more "Stuff" from BRS! I wanted to try out some of their filter socks, so I picked up 2 to test out. So far they are working out great in the Eshopps Nano Cube Sump! I also picked up some coral feeders. I've been wanted to feed my coral for awhile, I've just now got around to getting the food and tools to do so. I've only been feeding my coral the Reef Roids for a few weeks now and I haven't seen anything change, nothing good happens fast! Time will tell!

 

I did pick up the nano flipper, I probably should have went a size up. It takes some time getting used to how this thing works. Seems like every time I try to flip the cleaner the wet side takes off in the flow on the tank and gets lost in the middle of the sand.

 

Next on my list from BRS will be the screen top. I may try to order that this week. I'm holding off putting anymore fish into the tank until I can get it covered. A screen top isn't 100% fail safe, but it sure will help keeping my critters in the tank. I haven't had any jumpers yet, the clowns seem at piece in the tank.

 

[pelphrey]

When I installed the overflow on this tank I never considered that light would be getting inside of the box. Where there is light there is algae! With such a small foot print I didn't have many options as far as moving the light. I decided to pick up a sheet of ABS plastic and make my own cover. The overflow box I installed was bought off of eBay, and for whatever reason I paid for 1 box and the seller sent me 2. I kept the 2nd in my box of "stuff" and it came in handy when I needed to make my cutting template for the lid.

Nothing Fancy... Typical ABS

Creating the template

Might not be a pretty cut, but this can be fixed easily!

I could have very well cut this by hand. But it is MUCH more fun using air tools & faster!

The smell of burning plastic, 5 seconds later and we're done!

Notched out to fit around the Kessil Mount -

Not very pretty, but it is functional. Now the light can't get in the overflow and it will keep out unwanted guests!

[vlangel]

Yep, that should do the trick. I should actually consider doing the same since i only have 1 drain. Although it would be tough for a snail to clog it since it has a hofer gurgle buster on it.

[pelphrey]

If you saw my previous post you noticed that I made a lid for my overflow. Attached is the video of me making the lid and putting it on the tank! Over the last few weeks I noticed that I was getting unwanted algae growth inside of the box. With such a small footprint there really wasn't any other way to stop the light from getting inside of the box other than to make a lid for it. Not only will this stop the Kessil from penetrating the overflow it will now also keep unwanted guests from entering the overflow box!

 

 

Yep, that should do the trick. I should actually consider doing the same since i only have 1 drain. Although it would be tough for a snail to clog it since it has a hofer gurgle buster on it.

 

The lid has only been on for a week now, time will tell but I feel like this will help. Like you said it will help keep unwanted fish/snails out now!

[pelphrey]

Sold my 75 gallon freshwater african cichlid mbuna tank a few weeks ago so now the cube is the only tank I have to maintain! I'll be upgrading to a larger tank within the next year or so. It took me about a year to get all of the equipment I wanted for this cube, so it will take me about a year to get everything I need for a larger tank.

 

First up will be adding a water mixing station to my garage. I am using the SpetraPure CSPDI-MF 90 GPD RODI, I ordered a booster pump for is two days ago. I need to order my containers (They take 4-6 weeks to come in) soon. I am going with two vertical tanks. Top tank will hold 75 gallons of RODI water, underneath it I will be putting a 40-45 gallon tank for mixing salt water. I should be ordering the containers very soon!

 

I want to add more coral to the cube, my choices are limited without having to place an online order and pay for Saturday delivery. May make a road trip soon, or such it up and pay the delivery fee. I think I may try my hand in a few pieces of SPS!