Coinee Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 I was at the LFS to buy a test kit and this stuff just appeared in my hand 😉 and next thing you know, I was home with the tank unpacked and full of rock...oh no 🙆♂️ Gave the tank a short leak test (about 30 hours) and everything is good (doesn't matter too much though the volume is 3.4 gallons). Plans are to cycle this tank separately from my jar (with a bit of live rock) and then put in a CUC then move everything over from my pico jar. Then chuck an Aqua Clear HOB filter on for a refugium with some chaeto. Scape hasn't finalized yet since I have a bit more rock that I am going to play with before I add sand and water. 8 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 1 minute ago, Coinee said: I was at the LFS to buy a test kit and this stuff just appeared in my hand 😉 and next thing you know, I was home with the tank unpacked and full of rock...oh no 🙆♂️ Gave the tank a short leak test (about 30 hours) and everything is good (doesn't matter too much though the volume is 3.4 gallons). Plans are to cycle this tank separately from my jar (with a bit of live rock) and then put in a CUC then move everything over from my pico jar. Then chuck an Aqua Clear HOB filter on for a refugium with some chaeto. Scape hasn't finalized yet since I have a bit more rock that I am going to play with before I add sand and water. I hate it when that happens. 😄 cute tank. 2 Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 2 hours ago, WV Reefer said: I hate it when that happens. 😄 cute tank. It's this forum's fault...the fault of everyone here! To be honest, I find well-scaped smaller tanks (30 gallons or less) more aesthetically pleasing generally than a lot of the larger tanks. What I enjoy most about this stuff is it cuts my stress a lot (and I enjoy researching things). 2 1 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 5 hours ago, Coinee said: It's this forum's fault...the fault of everyone here! To be honest, I find well-scaped smaller tanks (30 gallons or less) more aesthetically pleasing generally than a lot of the larger tanks. What I enjoy most about this stuff is it cuts my stress a lot (and I enjoy researching things). It’s true, we all have the aquarium sickness and will always encourage more aquariums!! 😄🤷🏻♀️ 1 Quote Link to comment
Gourami Swami Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Tank looks great! What is the brand and size? Looks like one of those penn plax vertex tanks? I've been curious about those Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 1 hour ago, Gourami Swami said: Tank looks great! What is the brand and size? Looks like one of those penn plax vertex tanks? I've been curious about those Penn Plax Radius 3.4 gallon. You can find it on amazon too in different sizes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0069RR2CC The small LED light it comes with is fairly weak but it should probably be fine enough for a refugium. Quote Link to comment
JBM Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 I hate it when that happens. So does my wife. Kids love it tho 1 Quote Link to comment
Gourami Swami Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 They make this thing in 10 gallons too, for 80 bucks. Seems like it would make a nice little reef. I'll be interested to see how yours turns out! Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted February 26, 2019 Author Share Posted February 26, 2019 So, I haven't done anything yet LOL. But my plan this weekend is to fill it with some "live sand" from my jar, some live rock from my jar and some jar water to start my cycle. I'll dose 2 ppm ammonia and leave it sit until it cycles then add a couple snails then get an aquaclear hob filter and set up a small refugium with chaeto (once I source some chaeto from someone on the local reef group). This week has been too busy so far and it's just Monday. Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted March 3, 2019 Author Share Posted March 3, 2019 I added some sand from my jar into the tank and mixed it with some other dry sand. I started the cycle with some ammonia last night (enough to get about 1.5 ppm). The water had 1.5 ppm ammonia and 0 nitrite last night. Today it was at about 1 ppm ammonia and about 1 ppm nitrite. Don't think this cycle will take too long because of the sand. I haven't even added any live rock yet (too lazy to break it up and clean up the mess lol). Quote Link to comment
JBM Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 To be honest, if you add cured live rock. You might not even see a cycle. Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 8 minutes ago, JBM said: To be honest, if you add cured live rock. You might not even see a cycle. Yea, I realize that...I'm just lazy and I am kind of doing it this way to buy time to stop me from buying more things hahaha Quote Link to comment
JBM Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 Just now, Coinee said: Yea, I realize that...I'm just lazy and I am kind of doing it this way to buy time to stop me from buying more things hahaha Tried that, went from a 5g, to a 20 long, to a 80 deep in 18 months. I keep running out of space. 1 Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 37 minutes ago, JBM said: Tried that, went from a 5g, to a 20 long, to a 80 deep in 18 months. I keep running out of space. When I graduate from university, find a job (and probably move), I'll probably be getting a 25-30 gallon going. I saw a reefer here with a IM Fusion Lagoon 25 and an IM 30 long and they were really nice tanks, not to mention his coral and fish look amazingly healthy and well kept. Like pristine and flawless, I was amazed. Edit: Measured the params again in my tank. Today ammonia is down to 0.25 ppm and nitrites are up to 2.0 ppm. Everything is processing pretty quickly with just some tank sand. I'm a little surprised...I expected this to take more than a couple weeks! Dammmmnnnn Quote Link to comment
JBM Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 quick cycle is always a good thing. now just find some quality live rock and the tank will be set Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted March 8, 2019 Author Share Posted March 8, 2019 Tested the params yesterday and ammonia and nitrites were 0 ppm. I dosed another 2 ppm of ammonia, gonna let that clear out, do a water change and add a small clean-up crew. I got an Inkbird temp controller that I'm gonna hook up too to see if I can limit temp swings a bit. The temps seem to swing between 23C and 26C (73.4F and 78.8F) despite the fact the heater claims to keep even a 10 gallon at 26C. What utter BS! It can't even keep a 2 gallon jar at 26C. I have an eheim heater I will be using in place of it. Quote Link to comment
JBM Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Dont feel to bad about the swings. My large reef has a similar swing 2 Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted March 28, 2019 Author Share Posted March 28, 2019 I still haven't actually had the time to do more than cycle this tank with ammonia yet. I'm extremely busy and haven't been able to get over to get an appropriate clean-up crew yet. I'm hoping within the next week I can. I still haven't given up haha! Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted May 23, 2019 Author Share Posted May 23, 2019 So, it's been a long time since I've been super busy. But I haven't forgotten about this. I have transferred over nearly everything from the jar into this tank now. I am still gonna work on the coral placement after I assassinate some I noticed when I was moving coral over. I included a nice pic of the hammer coral I took earlier on my phone. Going forward for this tank, I think I'd like to sell a couple pieces that I don't think are compatible with what I want for this tank. I'd like to get some more mushroom corals, a small toadstool and maybe put some GSP on the backwall. I should also get some acans too! I have never seen too many locally here for some reason. I'll probably get some zoas in here sometime too. I will be definitely doing some equipment upgrades in the future also. As great as the cheap light was, I want something more configurable and better, so I will most definitely be doing an upgrade to something like an AI Prime HD in the near future. Maybe, some SPS with a new light even but I'm not sure yet. I have yet to set up a HOB filter like I wanted to with a mini refugium for chaeto, so that may be coming in the near future too. But that's undecided since I don't know how long this tank will be up for. Given how I stock it right now, (just corals and 3 cerith snails), it's pretty lightly stocked so I can get away with water changes weekly, so a filter probably isn't necessary. Also since my apartment lease terminates at the end of August, I may just run this relatively lightly because I'm going to move. I have some plans for when I do move, but I'm not one for spoiling surprises 😉 But, let's just say, I just started exploring the hobby and I'd like to try more challenging things in the future. 2 Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted May 30, 2019 Author Share Posted May 30, 2019 Everything seems to be good so far. Still fighting some aiptasia. Does anyone have experience with Aiptasia X working well? Lessons learned: Examine new corals better but quarantine tanks are even better. On a side note, I'm officially done my degree! Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 I honestly just kill aiptasia by boiling water on the stove...sucking it up with a syringe (no needle)... Sneaking up on them and melting them in an instant with the hot water. Then I can usually pull back and suck whatever goop is left over into the syringe. Just have to be careful not to hit corals or curious fish. 2 Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted June 22, 2019 Author Share Posted June 22, 2019 On 5/30/2019 at 1:10 AM, Tamberav said: I honestly just kill aiptasia by boiling water on the stove...sucking it up with a syringe (no needle)... Sneaking up on them and melting them in an instant with the hot water. Then I can usually pull back and suck whatever goop is left over into the syringe. Just have to be careful not to hit corals or curious fish. This is what I did to get rid of the aiptasia, but I must not have gotten all of it because it moved to the other side and regrew. I took the coral out and cut the skeleton a bit shorter and the aiptasia is gone now. I got a new corals in the past while. Some zoas and I got an elegance coral. The elegance is HUGE, it's almost the size of my palm when it is fully extended, it's crazy! Conclusion: Elegance coral is huge, bad choice for pico. Better choice for nano....upgrade to nano ALMOST justified...ALMOST. But I need to rescape my pico a bit. 1 Quote Link to comment
Coinee Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 So update: I'm selling all my coral and tearing the tank down. I recently took a position as a Hardware Engineer and it requires some travel and I will also have to move. So when my life settles down a little bit, I'll start a new tank. On the plus side, I learned a lot from this tank and I just realized how much money I spent on coral 😮 I'm thinking my next tank will be larger 😉 and probably more expensive since now I have a well paying job. 1 Quote Link to comment
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