Preybilly's 11 Gallon Custom-Cube with life added!

[Preybilly]

 

Hello everyone,

 

I've been silently stalking nano-reef now for the better part of 2 years, and this is my 2nd post. I've successfully kept a pseudo-reef tank when I was 12, which was a lot easier, as it was funded by my parents.

 

Faced with funding a tank alone, I've stalled in starting a new tank since moving out - I almost started an IM Nuvo 10 gallon a couple years ago, but as is common in the hobby, it just wasn't in the cards due to life's responsibilities. Now twice as old, I'm giving it another shot:

 

Tank Build:
-Aquatop HCC-14 11 gallon cube 13.78x13.78x13.78
-100% poplar corner cabinet from overstock.com
-DIY Sump
-DIY Plumbing with modified herbie overflow, consisting of 2 drains, 1 lower than the first, in "full siphon" with second drain used as a "trickle" emergency drain.

Livestock:

-Blue Reef Chromis

-2 Peppermint Shrimp

-2 Bristle Worms (Hitchhikers)

-Rose Bubble Tip Anemone (Hitchhiker)

-2 Cerith Snails (Adding gradually)

-2 Nessarius Snails

-3+ Brittle Stars? (Hitchhikers)

-Bunches of amphipods eating all my copepods

Equipment:
-Eheim jager 75watt heater
-Hydor 740 pump
-AI Prime HD LED with mounting bracket
-Wavepoint Micro Sun 6500K refugium light

Plumbing:
-(3) 3/4inch double-threaded bulkheads

-(3) 3/4inch vinyl hoses

-(3) 3/4inch mpt to hose adapters

-teflon tape

-hose clamps

-flow accelerator (replaced with nano version)

Ingredients:
-20 lbs dry "reef-saver" rock
-10 lbs ocean direct live sand
-Mineral Mud
-1 piece of live rock seed
-Fluval reef salt
-RODI Water

 

Building it:

 

They're Here!

Ordered Some Glass

Let's silicone this bad boy

Okay so my silicone job kind of sucked, but it does at least hold water...

Time to drill, supposedly this is frowned upon in less than 6mm glass or so close to the edge like I did it.

Parts are here!

I can't believe it actually works

Time to paint

Yes, the wavepoint will fit under there, its just a little tight. I double-GFCI'd the whole thing for safety.

 

Assembled:

Sump

Drawer comes out for somewhat easier maintenance. I've already practiced siphoning from middle chamber, and it isn't too bad.

Drains seen from behind

A good image of how the modified herbie works with the siphon drain and the emergency drain. The water level drops a good inch or so in a power outtage, but I won't be placing any coral or sensitive organisms that high.

 

My AI Prime HD LED, live sand, and refugium mud come in Tuesday, so the build isn't quite finished. I'm also either going to glue my rockwork together or use acrylic rods, haven't decided yet.

 

I would appreciate any stocking pointers, as I have been out of the hobby for over a decade, and I'm not sure what is and isn't kosher for a tank this size. More posts to follow, thanks for reading!

[mashedpotato]

Nice glass work!

[Preybilly]

Nice glass work!

Thanks! I way over-siliconed it, but it was my first DIY, so wasn't taking any chances. Putting on the last panel was frantic, as it didn't fit as flush as I would have liked, but I assembled it pretty quick, so all the silicone was wet when I went to clamp it all, which seemed to fix the issue.

[Preybilly]

Lots of changes since last post!

 

To name a few things, I thought I was fighting dinoflagellates, so did a 24 hour light out period, only to come to the realization it was probably some variant of hair algae or diatoms.

 

Afterwards, I decided to add some ocean direct sand (I like the variance in grain size for a potential jawfish/substrate dweller), refugium mud, and one of the new AI Prime HD LEDs that are so popular. I'm still tinkering with the light settings, but I found the deeper blue/purple hues to wash out some of the coraline algae's colors.

 

Also added a foam pad in between the bubble trap baffles to collect more bubbles. Due to the siphon drain being so much lower than the water level, quite a bit of room has to be in the sump to hold all the display tanks water after it drains, therefore, the 3rd chamber's water level, with the pump, is much lower than the second chamber's. Water falling into the 3rd chamber causes a lot of surface agitation/bubbles, which bypass even the bubble-trap baffle. Part of this is the nature of the sump design, as I had to construct it taller rather than wider to fit the footprint of the stand. Such is the nature of DIY, almost never perfectly clean and without fault no matter how much planning is involved.

 

Here are some pics of the tank with a color I seem to like. The sump light will be on a reverse schedule, but I wanted to show how everything works in there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Preybilly]

After completing a mini-cycle having transferred my dry rock from a bucket to the tank, I decided to add some life add some life. Started off with Phil, the scarlet hermit. Scarlet hermits are oddly rare in Seattle. Of the 3 major LFS we have in the area, only 1 had a scarlet hermit, which was labelled as "not for sale." Managed to convince them to give it up, as I have heard better things about scarlet hermit demeanor when it comes to snail aggression. Wanted to name him Eugene after Mr. Krabs from the beloved Spongebob TV series, but wife said his name was predetermined by the saltwater gods, so Phil it is. I derive great amusement in watching Phil scale my rockwork every day. Interstingly, Phil has a feather duster, which you can't see in the photo, growing on his shell. The adornment adds some serious character.

 

 

A couple nessarius snails, both extremely small and this photo doesn't do justice. They are camoflauge with my oceandirect sand and look like moving pieces of coral rubble when they emerge from their sand-sifting slumber. These guys are about 1/4 to 1/8 inches long.

 

 

Added some Chaeto to the sump as well, and I inherited more hitch hikers than I bargained for...

 

 

Here is one of 3 brittle stars found in the clump of chaeto. He got the drop in treatment instead of an acclimation as I didn't see him at first, but he looks no worse for it and here you can see him battling a nessarius snail for a kibble of mysis. At one point, he latched onto the kibble while the nessarius was still stuck on it and reeled them both in. Dejected, Nessy gave up and buried himself in the sand.

 

 

I decided to be more humane with snails this time around in the hobby, and added 2 florida Ceriths who are doing a stunning job keeping the rock polished. The one bugger keeps lodging himself into the flow accelerator there must be some delicious diatoms up there for him to brave those 740gph currents.

 

 

 

Call me creepy, but I think the little cerith elephant trunks look kind of cute, rooting around for algae.

 

And lastly, the largest copepod I have ever seen. I am actually accepting challenges from Nano-reef to produce a photo of a larger copepod. This sucker came out of hiding when I was broadcast feeding the inverts, and he wrestled a kibble of hikari while fighting a battle with the current whipping him around. He looks quite a bit like a cat with a ball of yarn:

 

 

[Preybilly]

Been a while since the last update, I added 2 peppermint shrimp and a blue reef chromis and wanted to wait a couple weeks to ensure everything was going to survive before I celebrate. Even though I've done this before, I still get the livestock addition anxiety that I'm going to kill everything I touch.

 

Also, you may notice that the theme here is now a Caribbean tank, every species is from the western Atlantic region I believe (except for the anemone I rescued from the sump).

 

Shipment from LiveAquaria is here!

 

 

They gave me an extra peppermint shrimp. They look kind of pale here:

 

 

Exploring the new tank:

 

 

Blue Reef Chromis!

 

 

 

 

My hitchhiking (rose bubble tip?) anemone. Found him in a clump of chaeto walking around in the sump, he looked like an ugly brown thing down there, but with some blue light, he has some real beauty I think.

 

 

And some humor:

 

Hermit Crab had to be rescued from the flow accelerator, I've since swapped it with a lower-profile version

 

 

Cat Licking its chops!

 

 

Plan is to find some Caribbean corals to add, thinking ricordea and gorgonians once the diatoms settle down some more. I may also substitute pacific zoas to mimic the blue and green ones found around Florida, since harvesting there is banned according to my research. Thanks for following!