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MatthewDVM's Cubist Dream


Matthewdvm

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I've been looking to upgrade my 6 gallon Edge for some time now, and have been trolling the local forums to see what was available. A local (somewhat) reefer was deciding to get out of the hobby, and had a great looking system at a great price, so I couldn't say no. Feeling somewhat overwhelmed at this point with all the gear, but really looking forward to the possibilities.

 

So, here's what I got:

60 gallon (24 inch) Starfire Cube (made by Miracles) with a Herbie Overflow

Nicely made wooden stand

80 gallon (2x4 foot) acrylic sump (this is WAY bigger than I need (the previous owner had it in a separate room, and had a 2 ft sq refugium), so I will be selling it and buying something that can fit under the stand.

Vertex Omega 150 Skimmer and Vertex 2 L media reactor

2x AI Vega lights with both mounting brackets and hanging hardware

Ecotech MP40W

Apex Jr with AWM, ALD AFS and PM1 and a Tunze ATO

Live Rock

An assortment of corals in various states of health

A mated pair of clownfish

A Cleaner Shrimp

Some type of Lobster

A whole lot of algae (!)

and various bits and pieces.

 

The previous owner hadn't done any maintenance or water changes in 3 months, so it needs some TLC for sure.

 

And here's where I'm at:

The tank will eventually be going in the home office in my basement. But basement renovations are not quite done yet (we're still in the painting stage) so it is currently set up in the bird room. Since I will be moving it again, and since I don't have the sump I want, I am currently running it just as a main tank, with nothing else. I'll be doing water changes to keep things healthy until I get a sump and get everything settled in.

Yesterday I picked it up, moved it in and did a temporary scaping and got about 35 gallons of water (20 from the old setup and 15 fresh) in it. So far I got the apex running the heater, and that's it. I have one of the Vega's running on manual mode and the other one isn't set up yet.

I'll be posting lots of questions I'm sure about sumps, the apex, and coral ID.

 

But first, some pictures of how things look right now (hate the glare on the glass, but the bird room is north facing with lots of windows. hopefully the algae won't get out of control before I can move it downstairs):

675B99EE-3B9E-41C0-B05C-5FCEBD2998CE.jpg

 

Head on Shot. Gonna play with the scape some more, but thought a curved wall would look good:

BA9EF396-A486-474B-BCC6-DE1CE1F6D07B.jpg

 

Top Down

5F48AC03-5537-41B0-A7CA-A3FBD7E43944.jpg

 

And a video of feeding the clowns last night as they settled in:

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg624/Matthewdvm/th_49F7AE39-46F1-4755-9C73-D7EDEA6F2661.mp4

 

 

Top Down

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Elizabeth94

Agreed. I have been waiting for another big cube build. Im still not sure if my next tank will be a cube or deep rectangle.. It will be one 60gals though.. Love how there is no background on the tank. Makes it look much more open. It would be cool if you cut acrylic sheets that were different colors to use as a removable background.

 

Followed. I love seeing neglected tanks come back to life!

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OK! So I have the Apex controlling the lights (that was quite the battle to get them to connect), heater and temperature and pH monitoring so far. Took a few pictures of the better looking corals. Let me know if you have any positive IDs on things - I'd love to start making a stock list:

Love these Zoas

DSC04472.jpg

 

Are these Blue Hornet Zoas?

DSC04467.jpg

 

ID, Anyone?

DSC04460.jpg

DSC04456.jpg

 

I love shrooms!

DSC04459.jpg

 

What's this crazy thing - about 3-4 inches long, quite tall, hard exterior, fleshy bits in the middle

DSC04458.jpg

 

 

ORA Neon Green Toadstool?

DSC04463.jpg

 

No Idea on this guy:

DSC04462.jpg

 

 

 

Hammer needs help!

DSC04469.jpg

  • Like 2
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Not sure about the zoas you have there, too many varieties to keep them straight in my head anymore but they are nice looking. The green leather is a green sinularia. They are nice and colorful when healthy. The toadstool should color up nicely also. As far as the mystery stony coral, have you seen any tentacles on it yet? It obviously is very shrunken. It might be too far gone to save. Try feeding it and see if you get a response. It could be a lobo maybe?

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What's this crazy thing - about 3-4 inches long, quite tall, hard exterior, fleshy bits in the middle

DSC04458.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

I'd put in a shout of a wall hammer or frog spawn, not the branching type. But it does look very sick you may get lucky. I brought a lobo back from this sort of sick once, took a long time though.

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I'd put in a shout of a wall hammer or frog spawn, not the branching type. But it does look very sick you may get lucky. I brought a lobo back from this sort of sick once, took a long time though.

 

Thanks, Benny. That would be pretty cool. We'll see if I can bring it back to life! It has lots of algae growing on it, and if I've learned one thing during my time in this hobby, it's that healthy corals don't have algae growing on them!

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In other news, the power supply on the MP40 I got with the tank crapped out tonight. I think the problem is in the power brick between the driver unit and the wall (the light on the brick does not light up). I guess I need to spend tomorrow afternoon trying to get a new one so I can have some circulation (the sump isn't up yet, so right now there is no flow).

 

Speaking of sumps, I was trying to plan one today. If anyone has any input on the design, I'd be interested in hearing it (I don't think I've ever seen a sump in action, let alone had one in a tank, or designed one, so be gentle!)

 

IMG_0569.jpg

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What size space are you putting the sump in?

How are you going to feed water to the refugium?

 

I can see what you want to do, and placing the return next to the drain chamber is a nice use of space (my next sump will be built like that) but the water must flow to all the compartments or you need to be pumping water into your refugium off a tee from the return or second pump.

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This is currently my thinking for when I build a new sump. I have a recirculating skimmer that I can run outside of the sump saving me space in the sump it's self so I can have maximum refugium area.

 

sump%20plan_zpsccnvt9sj.png

 

What I'd do with an in sump skimmer is section off some of the refugium area at the drain end with a baffle that's between the height of the drain area and the return baffle allowing water to flow from the skimmer section into the refugium before following into the return chamber.

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Thanks for the input, Benny. I'll think about it more in the morning hen I have a fresh mind. I might just say eff it and keep it simple. Socks, skimmer, return, maybe with space for ato on the side. Pass on the refugium, or just have a more linear plan. The space in the stand is just slightly over 23x 17.5 inches, so this would just fit. More planning tomorrow.

 

In the meantime, I took the owner brick for the mp40 apart, had a look around and saw that a bolt holding one of the heat sinks was loose. I thought "a bolt should have a nut with it." A little more looking and out fell a loose bolt. Removed the nut and bolt, reassembled the unit, plugged it in and it works again! I guess the nut was shorting out the circuit board. Win win! Now all I need to do is bring home some small forceps the hold the nut in the right place and re-attach the bolt to the heat sink. Time and money saved!

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New, espresso fuelled sump drawing. Smaller refugium, but gain a second filter sock, room for a 3 gallon ato reservoir, a more linear flow through of water and the return pump clearly visible from the front of the stand. All of which sound like a good plan to me! Benny and others, I'd appreciate any thoughts of comments:

C700B6D8-D4F4-480F-8CF3-3A2C7AAC81F3.jpg

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Yep can't see why that wouldn't work. Refugium is pretty small though, but you'd probably be able to keep a good lump of cheato in there.

 

Is there no way to put the ATO reservoir somewhere else, next to the cabinet if you had a smart looking one, or on a shelf above the sump in the cabinet.

Then you could swap the return and refugium chambers in your plan and have an L shaped refugium to maximize space.

Another other option is - how much space do you need for your skimmer? You could use the reactors that can be mounted in the cabinet then supply them off a manifold from the return pump so only the skimmer needs to be in that chamber allowing you to make it smaller.

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Yep can't see why that wouldn't work. Refugium is pretty small though, but you'd probably be able to keep a good lump of cheato in there.

 

Is there no way to put the ATO reservoir somewhere else, next to the cabinet if you had a smart looking one, or on a shelf above the sump in the cabinet.

Then you could swap the return and refugium chambers in your plan and have an L shaped refugium to maximize space.

Another other option is - how much space do you need for your skimmer? You could use the reactors that can be mounted in the cabinet then supply them off a manifold from the return pump so only the skimmer needs to be in that chamber allowing you to make it smaller.

 

Interesting idea, Benny. I think the stand is too small to have the ATO on top of the sump, but Ill look and measure today. I do have another piece of furniture that I might be able to use to store the ATO. I guess I need to do some more thinking. Good thing the guy building it has been to busy to finalize things!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got the basement finished and had time to move the tank downstairs. I took the opportunity to add another bag of sand, clean the algae off the glass, scrub the rocks with a toothbrush and topically apply some peroxide to the worst areas of algae, clean the algae off the frags and frag plugs, and re-assemble the whole thing in the basement. The dust is still settling from the move, but I think it is looking pretty good. Once the whole thing clears, I'll assess the scape and see if I can make it better.

 

This Tuesday I'm planning on meeting the guy who is going to make the sump for me, and finalize the plans for that. In the meantime, now that it is in its final place, I'll rig up some temporary plumbing and run a rubbermaid sump with the skimmer, I think.

 

Anyway, here's how things look now:

 

9F5F7CA1-7212-4A0E-8B09-50E4A7F7778E.jpg

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So the wall hammer thing died a stinky death prior to the move. A few other corals seem to have perished in the move, but others are flourishing.

 

Today I got a temporary rubbermaid tote sump up and running with the skimmer going. Need a bit more saltwater to keep the return pump from sucking air, and might need to adjust the skimmer height, but at least the parts seem to be running OK. I'll probably switch off the skimmer when I go to bed tonight, so I can observe it for another day and make sure all is good before I run it 24 hours. I'd hate to wake up and find a mess on the brand new floor!

 

Now that I have a sump, I think I'll transfer some of the rock down to the sump, try to get the scape nailed, them maybe I'll transfer some corals over from the edge.

 

Speaking of the edge, I tried a massive flatworm killing a few weeks back, and despite doing 3 almost complete water changes, I killed all the SPS in the tank. The birds nest was on it's way out anyway, but I am a bit gutted to have lost the forest fire digitata and the monti cap. Makes me almost want to go all LPS and softies in the cube...

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Very nice 60g cube. I have kicked around getting one to replace the 36g for a seahorse tank. Starfire is really a nice feature.

 

Sorry about the after effects of the flat worm treatment. Finicky coral are too frustrating for me. I prefer finicky animals, like seahorses, ha ha!

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Very nice 60g cube. I have kicked around getting one to replace the 36g for a seahorse tank. Starfire is really a nice feature.

 

Sorry about the after effects of the flat worm treatment. Finicky coral are too frustrating for me. I prefer finicky animals, like seahorses, ha ha!

 

Yeah. People at work keep asking if I'm going to get seahorses. Much to delicate for the rough and tumble world that is our house!

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