Nick's Waterbox 20 Cube

[Nick's Reef]

Been out of the hobby for probably 10 yrs if not more and finally the stars have aligned to start a tank again.

 

Picked up a Waterbox Cube a month or so ago and have been slowly acquiring equipment.  Waiting on a ro/di unit and return pump from BRS then I should have water in the tank by next weekend.

 

Equipment

Lighting: TBD, probably going with a XR15 going to cycle without a light

Flow: Vortech MP10wQD

Return: Sicce Silent 0.5

Filtration: Filter pad with inTank filter floss holder, will run carbon when necessary and trying to avoid a skimmer if possibly

Top Off: Tunze Osmolator 3155

Heater: 2x 50w Ehiem Jager, will hook up to an Inkbird once I have livestock in there

 

I'd guess there's 12-15lbs of marcorock that's held together with superglue.    From my past experiences I'm going barebottom, taking things very slowly and following the BRS/WWC 4 month cycle.  Going to be mostly SPS with some acans and zoas in the bottom 3rd.  For fish the plan is a tailspot blenny, cryptic sixline, and possibly a firefish or some sort.  Going to use Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt and use the Brightwell Dry Rock Kit to cycle the tank.

 

Here's a crappy iPhone FTS:

 

[Nick's Reef]

Mixed up one of the 32gal boxes of Tropic Marin Pro last night after getting the RO unit in Thursday.  Started filling the tank this morning and added the recommended dosage of QuikCycle and 5 cap fulls of Microbacter Start so well see how long it takes.  Not in a rush by any means though.

 

Still need to clean up some cords and possibly get a fan down the road.  I keep the ac in my house between 75-77 and after calibrating the heaters in a bucket they haven't kicked on and the tanks holding steady at around 80.  Not too high but well see once it stays in the 90's consistently come July and August.  Did test pH and Alk with redsea kits just because and am at 8.2ph and 8dkh, salinity is 35ppt.

[Chadicus Meridius]

Looking good I’ll be lurking 

[Nick's Reef]

So the tanks been running for 14 days and not a whole lot is going on with the cycle. Tested the water when I got home from work and ammonia is at 1.2 and 0.1 nitrite.

Its been pretty much the same since day 3 except the nitrite came up a little. Had a big bacterial bloom after I added the Microbacter XLM that cleared up within a day. Not sure if I should try another bacteria product but will let it ride for another week.

This is the first tank I've started with 100% dry rock and in the past if I used fresher live rock it was cycled by now. Not in a rush but kind of in uncharted territory personally and would like to get some pods in there well before adding any fish.

[Gramophone]

Looks awesome! I love the simplicity of the rock work.

[Coolbreeze]

On 5/16/2020 at 2:46 PM, Nick's Reef said:

Mixed up one of the 32gal boxes of Tropic Marin Pro last night after getting the RO unit in Thursday.  Started filling the tank this morning and added the recommended dosage of QuikCycle and 5 cap fulls of Microbacter Start so well see how long it takes.  Not in a rush by any means though.

 

Still need to clean up some cords and possibly get a fan down the road.  I keep the ac in my house between 75-77 and after calibrating the heaters in a bucket they haven't kicked on and the tanks holding steady at around 80.  Not too high but well see once it stays in the 90's consistently come July and August.  Did test pH and Alk with redsea kits just because and am at 8.2ph and 8dkh, salinity is 35ppt.

Awesome salt mix. Using the same for my build

[Nick's Reef]

Figured I'd give a quick update.  Down to 0.2ppm ammonia tonight.  Hopefully will be good to go in a week and add some pods and maybe a fish soon after  if something interesting pops up locally.  Not in a rush at all for corals but staring at rocks is getting boring, a fish would be nice.

[Nick's Reef]

Ammonia was down to zero last Sunday and nitrates through the roof.  Did a roughly 8gal water change with what was left from initially mixing up water.  Tested again today and 0 Ammonia, 0.0-0.05 Nitrite, and 10 ppm Nitrate. 

 

 Going to order some pods from algae barn and begin weekly 10% water changes.  Tried to find some Dr. Tim's locally but no one had any, with it being in the 90's pretty much everyday figured i'd be throwing money away to order it.  Did start adding Microbacter Clean as per the instructions on the bottle.

[Nick's Reef]

Well guess it wouldn't be reefing without set backs...

 

Started to get a light dusting of diatoms last week and went to pick up some snails.  LFS had a tiny little sixline a little bigger than my thumbnail.  Left with 3 trochus snails and the sixline.  Pretty sure the sixline had internal parasites of some sort as all was good for 3 days but it had white stringy poops.  It disappeared Monday and Tuesday morning it was stuck to my vortech slightly decomposed.

 

Probably too much livestock all at once and the ammonia spiked to 1.2ppm when I tested this past Wednesday.  The snails seemed fine so I didn't do a huge water change and wanted to let this play out as obviously the bacteria population isn't where it needs to be.  I got a 4oz bottle of fritz turbo start and added that Thursday.  Ammonia and Nitrites are back down to zero and Nitrates are off the charts.  Going to do a big water change today to get nitrates down and not add anything except maybe some more pods for at least 2 weeks.  

 

Going to look into skimmers as well as I think I'm going to need one down the road.  Leaning towards the icecap k1 and even if it does draw out too much for $100 if I have to take if offline it won't break the bank.

[Nick's Reef]

Things are getting back on track.

Got the nutrient spike under control, I think it had a lot to do with lack of bacteria diversity. For the past 2 weeks I dosed Microbacter 7 following the instructions on the bottle and ghost fed a bit of frozen food every other day or so. Used the quickstart I had from the initial cycle to make sure the tank could process 2ppm in 24hrs. All was good with that.

Picked up a trio of Springeri Damsels on Thursday that will hopefully keep coral pests in check down the road and should be all the fish I add.

 

Next on the list of things to do is find a clean source of coralline to seed the tank and get a light. Going back and forth on the Radion and just throwing a 250w halide over the tank but I think the heat and electricity might not be worth it with the halide.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Nick's Reef said:

Things are getting back on track.

Got the nutrient spike under control, I think it had a lot to do with lack of bacteria diversity. For the past 2 weeks I dosed Microbacter 7 following the instructions on the bottle and ghost fed a bit of frozen food every other day or so. Used the quickstart I had from the initial cycle to make sure the tank could process 2ppm in 24hrs. All was good with that.

Picked up a trio of Springeri Damsels on Thursday that will hopefully keep coral pests in check down the road and should be all the fish I add.

 

Next on the list of things to do is find a clean source of coralline to seed the tank and get a light. Going back and forth on the Radion and just throwing a 250w halide over the tank but I think the heat and electricity might not be worth it with the halide.

Wonderful to see things moving along again!

[Nick's Reef]

Been awhile since the last update but there hasn't really been anything exciting going on with the tank.  Just water changes, feeding, and testing Nitrates and Phosphates.

 

Finally picked up a G5 Pro XR15 and snagged a few frags over the weekend from Worldwide and Top Shelf.

 

Couple Acans from Worldwide

 

 

Red Planet from Top Shelf

 

View from the couch before adding corals.

 

Need to improve my crappy Iphone photo skills but going to keep an eye on parameters and let things coast for at least a nothing month to see how the frags do before adding more.  A piece of Garf Bonsai and Strawberry Shortcake are next on the list.  Also added some coralline scrapings out of one of WWC's displays and am hoping that takes off as well. 

 

Still torn on a skimmer as well, hard to find something that is big enough that fits around the Radion mount and thought about the hang on route but only have 3" between the tank and wall.  Looks like the icecap K1 is going to be the ticket but everyplace local is sold out and BRS doesn't sell them.  Trying to find somewhere with the Hanna Phosphate reagents and the skimmer in stock before pulling the trigger.