JBolt Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 So long story short I adopted a crashing nano cube and all was lost. Time for a fresh start. I kept the stock hood and lights but got new bulbs, one of the fans was out so I upgraded both fans with overcool 60mm I also turned them to pull air in rather than to push it out (airflow observation made that a no brainer). I customised the return system a bit, I added a sicce multi 1300 to replace stock pump I then drilled a return line for the stock pump to come out of chamber 2 and flow is nice and slow to hit the back corners, it sits In chamber one so water goes through the whole aio sump. I went with reef cleaners dry rock and ended up with about 30lb of beautiful light rocks. I went with 30lb of aragonite oolite and a 3lb fully cured live rock from lfs. I tossed it in last night and immediately had a few tufts of red algea/coraline? This morning the tufts dissipated a bit and gave way to a little dark pebble making a ring around it (see photo) anyways that is all the excitement I have had so far. I hope that as I post my experiences and photos other reefers could chime in and help me understand what is happening, and give recommendations, advice, and knowledge. Thanks for letting be be a part of the community! The day I took possession Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 Rerouted pump, the other one sits above it and returns to the same spot the original did but i drilled it for 3/8 bulkhead and put a 3/8 to 1/2 split. Aquascape Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 Water in the tank!! To the left is the one frogspawn that survived the whole ordeal. Added the live rock Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 I think I really like the look. I tried to think about flow and surface area for bacteria growth. Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 This is tuft attached to the dry rock on the opposite side of the tank almost instantly like 5 minutes after I added the live rock This one found a spot on the sand bed The next morning (today 10-29-17) Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted November 12, 2017 Author Share Posted November 12, 2017 Day 12, making some progress ammonia down from 6ppm to 1, nitrites up to 10 and nitrate 140ppm. Also ditched the too hot stock pump for a lower watt tunze pump now pulling a total of about 550gph total through the AIO sump and the over flow with adjusted surface skimmer and in tank media basket handle it just fine with no water level problems or slurping sounds just a light trickle noise when lid is open. Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted November 22, 2017 Author Share Posted November 22, 2017 24 days down, getting ready to add a few members of my clean up crew, any recommendations on what to add first? I would like to start slow a few hermits or a few snails just don't know what would be more beneficial. Looking at dwarf blue legs and spiny astreas stars. Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 The tank is now home to 5 happy little blue hermit crabs. Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted December 31, 2017 Author Share Posted December 31, 2017 On 11/26/2017 at 10:26 PM, JBolt said: On 11/26/2017 at 10:26 PM, JBolt said: Quote Link to comment
JBolt Posted December 31, 2017 Author Share Posted December 31, 2017 Time for an update, so the "cool" red tufts i thought was coraline (I'm so smart) was actually cyanobacteria. During the initial cycle the the cyano appeared then disappeared then diatoms on the sandbed, then diatoms disappeared and cyano took over in force this time along side gha covering everything rocks/sandbed. That was about the time I figured out that the "red stuff" was bad. I have since added a 9001 dc skimmer, purigen, phosgaurd, and a dc controllable jabeo pump (sicce multi 1300 seemed to be defected and generates bubbles). I have sucked almost all cyano out and it's return rate has lowered gerastically, also pulled most the gha and upped the cuc with 9 nassurrius snails, one more blue leg hermit, and a limpet but now a second diatom bloom is starting. A week after that I added a really cool cardnalfish who is starting to show his little personality coming out more often. Quote Link to comment
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