9 to 5 Montipora Cube

[Robbie_Maxwell]

9 to 5 Montipora Cube.

For this tank I aim to keep it Montipora only (or at least close enough to it), being made up of different species and morphs of branching, plating and encrusting Montis.

 

The plan is to try and keep as much of the equipment outside of the tank as possible, so that the corals are the main focus. To do this I have a have ordered some glass lily pipes to create the minimal equipment look Im going for and a fluval 205 canister filter with a hydor external heater I have lying around.

 

 

Current Full Tank Shot:

 

 

Contest Entry Picture:

 

Equipment:

 

• Tank: 12” Cube.
• Stand: Ikea Eket.
• Lights: AI Prime 16HD.
• Heater: Hydor inline heater.
• Temperature Controller: Inkbird ITC-308-Wifi.
• Auto Top Off: DD H2Ocean compact ATO.
• Flow: Jebao SLW-5.
• Mechanical filtration: Fluval 205.
• Dosing: TBD.

 

Livestock:

 

• Coral: Various Montipora species.
• Fish: TBD.
• CUC.

 

Highlight Links:

 

 

Reefin' 9 to 5, Brought to you by:

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[Robbie_Maxwell]

Did a bit of investigation into how much water volume the canister filter will be adding to the system. Since I couldn't really find anything online I just took out the media and filled it with tap water which came to about 5 litres (1.3 gallons) bringing my total volume up to about 32 litres (8.45 gallons).

 

I also had a little bit of window tint from a previous tank so I put it on to the back of the tank to try hide everything and anything that would be otherwise visible through the back glass. I'm not overly happy with how it turned out so will probably look into another option more like a sticker or something.

 

I picked up an ai prime 16hd second hand the other day for this tank and it came with the 18" flex arm which is giving the prime a height of about 11 inches over the surface of the water which gives quite a bit of light spillage. I'm  going to try get one of those  3d printed shades and see does that do anything to help the situation. Assuming that helps with the spillage I will then be getting a loan of a seneye from a buddy of mine to get some par readings and if I feel I'm losing too much I'll probably end up getting one of the shorter mounts for the prime.

 

Still waiting on the lily pipes and the SLW-5 to come in the post. Other than that the only things I have left to get for this tank aside from the livestock is a temperature controller (probably an ink bird), stand from Ikea and an ato.

 

I have some live rock from a system that has been up for over a year or so which should have a decent amount of bacteria and other bits on it to get this tank going. I will be going bare bottom so I can crank up the flow to keep the montis happy. I think that's just about everything I can talk about for now.

[debbeach13]

This sounds great. Good luck in the contest.

[Robbie_Maxwell]

Not much has happened with the Monti Cube for the moment as I am still gathering supplies. Some of the equipment and the stand arrived during the week so I got some of that put together. Here is how the tank sits at the moment. Still waiting on the lily pipes and the jebao to come, hopefully in the next few days.

 

 

This is the tank next to my desk, in the position it will be staying for the duration of the competition.

 

 

For the scape in this tank I think I'm just going to put a single piece of live rock in the center and let the montis do the aquascaping and with any luck you won't be able to see the rock by the end of the competition.

 

Ill update again when the lily pipes and jebao arrive.

[ef4life]

I just bought one of those prime 3D diffusers, it’s really nice for being 3D printed, it fits perfect. It does what it says, although the effect wasn’t as dramatic as what they show in sales videos. I did crank up the intensity a bit too to counteract the diffusion 

 

good luck with the contest

[Robbie_Maxwell]

7 minutes ago, ef4life said:

I just bought one of those prime 3D diffusers, it’s really nice for being 3D printed, it fits perfect. It does what it says, although the effect wasn’t as dramatic as what they show in sales videos. I did crank up the intensity a bit too to counteract the diffusion 

 

good luck with the contest

Good to know they work anyway. is yours just the shade or does it have the translucent plastic to help with the disco ball effect?. I'll try print one during the week and see out it goes. Might try my hand at modifying the design if it doesn't do what I want it to.

[ef4life]

13 minutes ago, Robbie_Maxwell said:

Good to know they work anyway. is yours just the shade or does it have the translucent plastic to help with the disco ball effect?. I'll try print one during the week and see out it goes. Might try my hand at modifying the design if it doesn't do what I want it to.

It has the diffuser, but you don’t have to use it. It does block some over spill for sure since it hangs down under the light at least an inch

[Robbie_Maxwell]

While I wait patiently for the rest of my equipment to arrive, I am thinking of the stocking options for this tank and don't know what to go for. I was thinking of maybe a possum wrasse or something but since I am not going to be doing much with the scape I am not sure there would be enough hiding places for cryptic fish like that. I am open to any suggestions ye may have.

 

[seabass]

Starry Goby

 

You might get some ideas from lgreen's Untimate Guide To Nano Fish.  Most of the fish up to ten gallons would be fine as a single fish.

 

 

 

[Robbie_Maxwell]

21 hours ago, seabass said:

Starry Goby

 

You might get some ideas from lgreen's Untimate Guide To Nano Fish.  Most of the fish up to ten gallons would be fine as a single fish.

 

 

 

Thanks. Ill have a look at that and see what’s available to me

[seabass]

Where are you located?  The pic is a link to one that's still available here in the U.S.

[Robbie_Maxwell]

34 minutes ago, seabass said:

Where are you located?  The pic is a link to one that's still available here in the U.S.

Im from Ireland and the number of places selling saltwater live stock is very limited so I usually order from Germany or somewhere else in Europe

[seabass]

Nice, thank you.  You might want to add your location to your profile, so that people know.

 

So yeah, reference lgreen's fish guide against what's available to you locally.  Then just research the fish prior to buying it.

[Robbie_Maxwell]

The jebao and the lily pipes finally came today so I did a little playing around with setting up the tubing in the rough layout I will want it so this is how the tank currently sits. 

The lily pipes look a bit bulkier than I was expecting but what can you do.

 

 

Tomorrow I am going to use some pipe clips I have lying around to hold the canister filter tubing in place. Once that is done I will do a test run with fresh water just to see how everything works as well as check for leaks.

 

With any luck I will have this tank salty before the weekend is over!

 

 

[W1ll]

Looking forward to seeing this tank full of water!

 

[Robbie_Maxwell]

Bit of a bummer day today with the progress of the tank unfortunately.
 

The canister filter did not hold water at all. Just started leaking a lot of water along the entire perimeter where the O ring is so that will need to be changed. Problem is that i have no idea where to get O rings locally so will probably need to order them online.

I'm starting to think that since its an old filter is it really worth trying to put the effort into repairing it if its just going to have other parts fail on me down the line when the tank is actually running? It had been sitting out of use for a few years before it was given to me so who knows how much wear and tear it has under its belt.

 

Anyone have experience with canisters that can advise me if its better to try use what i have or just get a new one?
 

The SLW-5 i got is also making a hell of a lot of noise which is frustrating because this tank is going to be in my bedroom/ work space so i need it to be quiet. I have the SLW-20 and that is dead silent so im starting to think that maybe i got a dud. 
 

 

[allesluge]

I have had issues with canister filters, specially on the input an output connection I had only to fasten some screws to solve it, this is especially if connectors are position adjustable .

Also be sure that you don't put so many media in the filter that it can't close properly.

 

If your orings are dry and brittle you probably have to change them.

 

I have used teflon tape for sealing threads to increase diameter in orings, this could work for a temporarily solution.

[Robbie_Maxwell]

5 hours ago, allesluge said:

I have had issues with canister filters, specially on the input an output connection I had only to fasten some screws to solve it, this is especially if connectors are position adjustable .

Also be sure that you don't put so many media in the filter that it can't close properly.

 

If your orings are dry and brittle you probably have to change them.

 

I have used teflon tape for sealing threads to increase diameter in orings, this could work for a temporarily solution.

The connections at the inlet and outlet seem to be fine. It is the main o ring that seals the entire unit together that leaked. 
 

I actually didn’t have any media in it because i was just testing everything with tap water. 
 

I might try the teflon tape if i cant get an O ring. 

[Robbie_Maxwell]

Another bump in the road with the canister filter unfortunately. I took out the O ring to inspect it and it looked fine and not hard or brittle. I cleaned it and added some 100% petroleum jelly to it as well as some ptfe tape to try and make sure it makes a proper seal but it still was leaking. 
 

I had a closer look at the filter body and I think there is a hairline crack just at the seam of where the clasps attach on to. So it looks like I wont be using this filter unfortunately. 
 

Im gonna do some research and see what my options are for canister filters that will fit in my stand as well as be the right size for the lily pipes I have without Breaking the bank. 
 

After all this, I still made some progress on this tank. I decided to just throw in a freshwater filter I had lying around and plug in a 25w preset heater with the live rock and some water so that im not staring at an empty tank any longer. 

The tank is finally wet, although it does have a few too many wires in there at the moment for my liking but hopefully that wont last too much longer. 
 

I also temporarily threw in a ball of chaeto to try get some pods from it. 

[Robbie_Maxwell]

Not much to talk about this week. Did a 20% water change yesterday to get some of the detritus and sand that came from the live rock. 
 

The rock started to grow some light hair algae looking stuff which I assume is part of the ugly stage of this tank. I added a mexican turbo snail and a banded trochus to try and control it. (This picture was taken monday so the algae has grown quite a bit more)

I will most likely remove one of the two snails when the algae starts to go away because i dont think that the tank is big enough to support both snails long term. 

 

I might add a tester coral or two during the week and see how that goes. 
 

No news on the canister front i think i will just go for the newest version of the one i have as i like the layout of the trays and the size fits perfectly in my stand, but its gonna have to wait until payday because my car needs some work done and i cant drive to work on a canister filter unfortunately. 

[debbeach13]

Looks like things are progressing nicely in the rock. Yes unfortunately life, in your case the car has to come first so you can make $$$ to spend on the tank.

[Robbie_Maxwell]

Hi all,

 

Nothing much to report this week either. Algae is definitely coming in strong so i manually removed some during the week and will take some more out later today when i do a water change.
 

Parameters from yesterday before i do this weeks water change are:

Battery died in my pH pen so i have no reading for that. 

Nitrates and Phosphates are reading zero but im assuming that’s because of the hair algae sucking it up. Otherwise i think the parameters are a little bit low compared to where I would like them to be. But for now since there is no real demand on the parameters it’s nothing to worry about. 

 

I will be aiming for in and around the numbers brs has on their hybrid method which are:

Calcium-480ppm

Alkalinity-8.6dkh

Magnesium-1440ppm

Nitrate-2ppm

Phosphate-0.05ppm

 

Ill give the tank stocking some more thought once everything settles out, In the next week or so hopefully, but for know im leaning towards some ornamental invert like a species of coral banded shrimp maybe. 

[Robbie_Maxwell]

Dont think this tank is off to a great start. The tester frags seem happy with good PE too but the coral rx dip they got before going in the tank didn’t seem to get everything unfortunately. Came home from work to find two of these guys on the rock(well hair algae because it’s everywhere).

seeing as the only coral in the tank at the moment are 4 montipora frags i think its safe enough to assume these are monti eating nudibranchs? A real kick in the teeth for a system that is meant to be based entirely on this species of coral. 
 

any suggestions on where to go from here on trying to eradicate them would be greatly appreciated. 

[M. Tournesol]

Maybe look for eggs on your mantis frags? Because your tank is a nano, trying to eliminate them by frequently removing adults and eggs may be feasible?

 

https://reefbuilders.com/2020/02/05/montipora-eating-nudibranch-finally-have-a-name-phestilla-subodiosus/

[Robbie_Maxwell]

After some googling im not entirely sure that these are what i have. The bits hanging off the nudi look different and colours dont match? size is also quite different or can these get up to 6mm also?Anyway ill be manually removing as much as possible and dipping the frags to try get them out.