Aegeon's 25G Cube Build

[Aegeon]

Well look at you. Finally you've got this whole thing setup! It all looks fantastic dude. What LED lights do you have btw?

 

Ha! Thanks. It only took about 2 years to actually get a fish. 11 years, really, if you consider that I first got interested in reef tanks and went through all this with a 90 gallon way back in 2001. Didn't make it to the stocking phase then, either.

 

The light fixture is a DIY. 18 Cree XR-E LEDs, 9 cool white, 9 royal blue in 3 dimmable strings. There are some photos and whatnot earlier in the thread if you're interested.

 

How's your setup coming along? Haven't seen an update in a couple weeks.

[Aegeon]

Another day, and the clowns seem to be doing fine. Water parameters still look good, 0 ammonia and nitrite, and just starting to see a bit of nitrate building. I'll do another water change in a day or two to bring those down. The Tunze skimmer has just barely started producing some skimmate, about 1/8" in the collection cup over the last 24 hours, the color of very light tea.

 

Latest FTS from 1/31/12:

 

And here are the first two inhabitants, a pair of tiny (1.25" ea) Ocellaris Clownfish. I've realized that taking pictures of fish is really, really difficult. I probably took 40 pictures, and these two are the only ones even clear enough to post. I don't know how you guys get all those fantastic photos of yours. I just have a crappy point-and-shoot, so any tips are appreciated.

 

Took this one with the tank lights out, using just the camera flash. Trying anything I could think of to get a clear shot. These guys have pretty much stayed in the back corner, behind the return loc-line. Do clownfish typically stay close together when added to a new tank, or do they typically separate? These guys are never more than a few inches apart. If one wanders off to a different area of the tank, the other follows right behind. They also rub up against each other constantly. Could they be pairing up, or this this just ordinary behavior?

 

Also, I rearranged my sump a few days ago to get the skimmer in and running and add a backup heater. I removed the temporary Tetra heater I had in the DT and replaced it with a 50w Aqueon in the sump as a backup to the 75w Jager. Now in the sump are a thermometer, the two heaters, the Tunze 9002, the Maxi-Jet 1800 return pump, the ATO float switch, and a 3.5lb chunk of live rock. Not too bad for only about 4.5 gallons of usable volume:

 

Top view:

 

As always, questions/comments/suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

[Zer0]

So yeah I went back in the pages to see the light build, must have missed it. Great design, and it looks even better in the pictures too haha.

 

Everything is coming along really nicely dude, great job.

[Aegeon]

It's been an interesting couple of days for the tank. I finally got a cleanup crew into the tank on Friday. Also, I had my first official tank emergency Saturday night. So, in the last few days I've learned a couple things:

 

Thing I learned #1: John at reefcleaners.org is awesome.

I purchased my cleanup crew through them, and he was great working with me to get the package delivered to my local post office and held until I could get there after work to pick it up. Everything came through with flying colors, I don't think I had a single loss.

 

Thing I learned #2: Order less than you think you need from reefcleaners.org.

John really over-delivers when you order, especially on the little things. The crew I ordered was supposed to include 20 dwarf cerith snails, but the package probably included more than 50. I also ordered 6 blue-leg hermit crabs, but a dozen or more arrived.

 

Everything in my list showed up in quantities more than double what I paid for. This is awesome, but now my concern is keeping everything alive. My tank is pretty empty and sterile since it's new. Not knowing what to do with all the extra cleanup critters, they all went into the tank, so now it looks like a snail farm in there. I think some of them will have to find new homes eventually.

 

Thing I learned #3: Nerite snails like to leave the tank.

Every morning since I added the crew, I've found at least 2 of the nerite snails on the floor near the tank. You can see a trail on the glass where they crawled up out of the water, down the outside of the glass, across the stand and then off the edge. I drop them back in when I find them and so far they've recovered just fine, but I may have to look at adding a screen or lid to the tank to keep everyone contained.

 

Thing I learned #4: Cerith snails are really, really attracted to light.

We keep a light on overnight in our front hallway, near the dining room where the tank is. Every morning, I find dozens of cerith snails stuck to the front glass of the tank. They disperse during the day, but it's sort of disconcerting to wake up every morning to the "wall-o-snails". As I said before, I have way more of these guys than I probably need, so I might need to thin the herd a bit.

 

And finally, a little excitement Saturday night...

 

Thing I learned #5: A Maxi-Jet 1800 utility pump is more than capable of pushing 7 gallons of water out onto your dining room floor.

We have a 4 month-old baby at home, and I got up with him at about 2:00 am Sunday morning. On my way to his room, I heard a grinding sound coming from downstairs. I immediately thought, "The return pump is running dry. That can only happen if the sump is empty. Not good."

 

Running downstairs, baby in arms, I find our dining room floor is one big puddle with our stupid dog wet, but still asleep, in the middle of it. About three hours of emergency tank maintenance and cleanup ensued. Fun, fun!

 

Thing I leaned #6: There are some things you just shouldn't jury-rig.

I use a Maxi-Jet 1800 as my return pump, which comes with a return line hose barb that will take a 1" or 3/4" clear nylon hose. My return line is 1/2" spaflex tubing. To make the connection, rather than finding an appropriately-sized hose barb for the pump, I spliced together a homemade adapter from a section of 1" spaflex coupled to the 1/2" with a reducer bushing, and forced the 1" spaflex side onto the Maxi-Jet's stock barb and held it in place with plastic hose clamps. Bad idea.

 

As it turns out:

1. The nylon hose barb fitting on the maxi-jet is not made for spaflex tubing.

2. Cheap plastic hose clamps are also not made for spaflex tubing.

3. Using silicone will not magically fix #1 or #2 above.

 

So, sometime overnight, my homemade adapter came loose from the Maxi-Jet's hose barb, allowing the pump to spray water straight up out of the sump and into my stand, where it ultimately ran out onto my floor. Lesson learned.

 

I shut down the pump, moved the heaters and live rock up into the display tank, and started making up a new batch of saltwater. The tank ran sumpless overnight, and on Sunday I went out to find the part I should have used the first time around. Now I have a real, appropriately-sized, correctly-installed reducer bushing installed directly into the Maxi-Jet. I added a real 1/2" spaflex hose barb, held to the spaflex tubing with real stainless steel hose clamps.

 

Since the sump was already offline, I took the opportunity to break it down completely and clean it out along with all the equipment. Looks much better than before, and the equipment is laid out better as well. Refilled the system with new saltwater, and we're back up and running. I have yet another batch of SW mixing now, so I'll do another 5-7 gallon water change tomorrow, and keep an eye on my parameters.

 

Also, the dog survived.

[peewee1467]

aaaaaaaaaah, pretty tank! haha

[Aegeon]

A few more days, and some good news and some bad.

 

The good:

I finally have corals! After 12 years, I finally purchased my first frags. On Sunday I got 2 Ricordias (Ricordia florida), a 3 head Aussie Duncan frag (Duncanopsammia axifuga), a 3 polyp green and white Acan (Acanthastrea echinata), and a tiny $5 Monti Cap frag (Montipora capricornis). The Duncan frag also has what looks to be the start of a bud along one side, so hopefully it'll sprout a new head before too long, too.

 

I got everything home, acclimated and placed in the tank. One of the ricordias had separated from the plug it was attached to during the drive home, but I got it re-attached to a small piece of live rock rubble and into the tank with no problems. Everything looks good. Within 24 hours, all the corals were nice and full, good color, with feeders out in the water. I fed the corals a bit of cyclopeeze last night, and everything looks good.

 

I'll try to get some pics.

 

The bad:

I spotted a tiny hitchhiker crab last night while watching the tank. It's tiny, a bit smaller than a dime. All white with tiny black/brown spots that almost look like freckles. Not particularly hairy, but it does have black-tipped claws. It was tucked under some rock, picking through the sand, so I couldn't get to it. So far, it doesn't seem to be bothering anything, but I'm wondering if I should try to capture/kill it?

 

Also, my clownfish have some sort of fungus. I noticed about a week ago a tiny white spot on the side of one of them, along the lateral line about halfway between the pectoral fin and tail. I didn't think much of it at the time and it didn't seem to grow. Last night, however, I noticed that it had doubled or tripled in size. It looks like a tiny cotton ball stuck to the fish's side. I also noticed a similar "puffball" on the other clown, near its gill.

 

Looking around online, it sounds like a fungus. Guess I get to set up a hospital tank. I have a spare 10 gallon and some PVC fittings I can toss in, along with a spare heater. What else do I need? Can anyone recommend a medication? Freshwater dip?

 

Thanks!

[camps23]

Great build thread spanning 2yrs

I'm currently setting up a marineland rimless 25G with the same glassholes.com overflow.

How loud is the overflow? Any gurgling at all? What do you have protecting the drain so nothing

Can clog it? Anything you would change with your drain and return lines?

Thanks for any tips