sna66 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 About 15 years in the hobby, starting over with this 20 gallon. I started the tank on 3.1.2018 and it is cycling with live rock that I got from kp aquatics (15 lbs of pretty good stuff) the only life I see so far is a few small feather dusters and spaghetti worms. This is uncured rock and I have been adding a half dime size of rods food once a week. I plan on adding my first livestock 4.1.2018. So far I'm really impressed with the tank, the skimmer and return pumps are a bit noisy though. The skimmer over exceeded my expectations, it started pulling gunk from day 1 and works very well. I'm using the ai prime that came with it, I really like how they attach it to the redsea. The auto top off is a joke, its a small container, but would need to be filled every 2-3 days. I hooked up my apex to do the ato, control heater and read ph. i run the lights for about 4 hours a day at a low setting. Here are some photos. Im still deciding on live stock, I'm thinking 2 orange percs and one black, one green and one red bta, some zoas and acans 3 Quote Link to comment
_ST Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 I absolutely love the beauty of the cube aesthetic, yours is no different. Will be following! Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 Thanks ST, aquascaping is my biggest challenge, but I think I have a good starting point, I’ve seen a lot of cubes with nice scape but it’s hard to replicate 1 Quote Link to comment
_ST Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Oh yeah, as gorgeous the aesthetic is of a rimless cube aquarium I will agree that it's a PAIN to come up with a decent aquascape haha. Yours looks good as it is though and will fill in beautifully once you start getting corals in it. I had a 60 gallon cube before in which I based my rock work from MedRed's TOTM build. Three spires with no corals on the sand bed, at least that was the goal lol. Other than zoas and acans, what else do you have in mind in terms of livestock? Will water changes be your main source of nutrient export or will you be utilizing a different method such as biopellets or carbon dosing? Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 Ill check out that tomt, thanks for the tip. For corals, Id' like to keep it simple but that never happens lol, maybe gsp's and xenias. I even thought about doing a BTA tank like 3 of them with the clowns. Still trying to figure it out, but gonna take it slow. I've never researched carbon dosing or biopillets but i"m thinking 5 gal bi weekly changes - ill see how the testing goes after cycle is complete, getting an ro di soon as i'm using distilled water now Quote Link to comment
_ST Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 A BTA only tank sounds super dope, just like Bulk Reef Supply's BTA display with a harem of clownfish lol. Sounds good though! You got an AI Prime so you aren't quite limited to what corals you can keep in that respect. Keep us posted can't wait to see where this goes. Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 yes the clownfish harem @brs was the inspiration Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted March 18, 2018 Author Share Posted March 18, 2018 Decided to rip out the apex classic and go with the new one and the dos ddr and atk, having a blast installing this stuff now. I’ll soon have the classic and brs posted for sale. Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted March 18, 2018 Author Share Posted March 18, 2018 One thing about this new apex -it’s kinda plasticy, feels like a kids toy. I love the upgrades and think it’s definately worth it, but I really wished they stuck with a more industrial build Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 Olinrearranged the scape a bit and I think I’m satisfied for now. In a few days the take will be a month old ammonia and nitrites at 0, alk 9 cal 480, phos 0, nitrate 25. No inhabitants except for a few small feather dusters and spaghetti works that came with the rock- did I mention I’m taking it slow? I went to Mexico for a few days and had the ai prime at 19 white and 100+blues on a 6 hr cycle and had the mp10 turned to high. turns out the rock I got online(uncured) had Bryopsis, so it pretty much took over the rocks. i planned on dosing nopox and I started 3 days ago I started with 2 ml then dropped to 1 since it was getting cloudy. one thing I noticed is that the nopox keeps the glass algae free af. i ordered some Fluconazole so I’ll do 2 separate doses of 2 pills and see how that goes. still haven’t decided on livestock 1 1 Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted March 31, 2018 Author Share Posted March 31, 2018 I dumped in 2 caps of 200mg Fluconazole last night, Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted April 4, 2018 Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 Added a clean up crew last night 1 small emerald crab (size of a dime) and he is eating hair algae and bryopsis _ never had one eat this stuff before. I got 4 trocus snails and 3 scarlet hermits> I got some coral epoxy and stuck the rocks in place. Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted April 4, 2018 Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 tons of micro bubbles right now due to the coral expoy. I'm waiting a few more days for the fluconazone treatment to complete then illl do a massive water change and restart NOPOX on a brs dosing pump with carbon and re add the skimmer cup Quote Link to comment
JCosper Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 You said youre having good luck with your stock skimmer...any tips? So far mine hasnt done a thing. I havent bothered to do much tuning...just what i generally do on skimmers which is to set the bubbles so they come up to the top of the skimmer/ bottom of the cup and the air line wide open. With that im not getting squat. Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted April 8, 2018 Author Share Posted April 8, 2018 On 4/5/2018 at 4:33 PM, JCosper said: You said youre having good luck with your stock skimmer...any tips? So far mine hasnt done a thing. I havent bothered to do much tuning...just what i generally do on skimmers which is to set the bubbles so they come up to the top of the skimmer/ bottom of the cup and the air line wide open. With that im not getting squat. Hmmm, that’s strange my skimmer started pulling out dirt from day 1 and all I had was uncured rock and water. I have the air valve almost closed it works great so far Quote Link to comment
JCosper Posted April 8, 2018 Share Posted April 8, 2018 Mine had since started to skim pretty well. Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 How's your nano reef doing these days @sna66? Hopefully the byprosis is taken care of after your treatment. What livestock did you decide on? Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted July 16, 2018 Author Share Posted July 16, 2018 Hi guys a lot has changed, even the tank, here is the new tank I will do a new thread Quote Link to comment
JCosper Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 Oh wow, very nice.. what tank is that? I am wanting to go bigger as well... for the same reason as you it would appear... to get a tang! Quote Link to comment
sna66 Posted July 31, 2018 Author Share Posted July 31, 2018 On 7/19/2018 at 11:41 AM, JCosper said: Oh wow, very nice.. what tank is that? I am wanting to go bigger as well... for the same reason as you it would appear... to get a tang! Thanks! its a redsea reefer 250 its 65 gallons with the sump - i think its still considered a nano Quote Link to comment
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