15g Anemone Cube

[Lebowski_]

So I have been out of the reefing hobby for about 15 years. One of my buddies Thomas (@TJ_Burton) and a couple other guys got me interested way back in the day when we worked together at an LFS. 
 

Since COVID happened, I’ve spent almost no time or money on my hobbies and I think it’s time to get back in the saddle. My most recent tank was a 5 years ago, but it was a freshwater planted tank with two beautiful blue angelfish.

 

Anyways, I’ll keep this post updated. 

 

Fish and CuC

• 2 x Tank Bred Clownfish
• Blue legged hermits, snails (Nass, Astrea, Trochus).

 

Corals

• A few Zoas
• Rainbow Bubble Tip

 

Equipment

• Tank is the IM Fusion 15
• Light is the AI Prime 16HD
• Heater is the IM Helio + an Aqueon 50w preset
• ATO is Reef Breeders Prism (ATO removed, manually topped off)
• Substrate is 7lbs or so of regular Caribsea Aragonite
• Rock is mainly Caribsea Life Rock Nano Kit + 5lbs from established reef

 

This tank was inspired by:

• @Sharbuckle Sharbuckle's IM Fusion Cube
• @Snow_Phoenix Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos
• @joshthebox Josh's Softy Reef(s)

2023-04-22

 

[Lebowski_]

I decided I wanted this tank in my office to help me relax on chaotic days. I ripped out the gross old closet doors. I decided to paint the inside of the closet Tidal Blue by Behr and I really like how it turned out. 

 

Before

 

After

 

 

Added the rock and some substrate. Was going to go bare bottom but this tank won’t be as intense as previous tanks and I want my wife to enjoy it too! Very bland rockwork but hey, it works for me.

 

 

The original stand I had planned turned out to be wildly not level, the base the tank would have sat on was curled. I ended up giving it to my wife who is going to use it as a little greenhouse to propagate  cuttings and maybe raise butterflies in the spring.

 

[Sharbuckle]

Hey this is awesome! I love the aquascape, great job.

 

I also love how the tank has its own closet, very cool. Looking forward to seeing it grow. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I love the cabinet/stand! The tank looks adorable on top of it. 😄

 

The aquascape looks really nice too. 👍

[joshthebox]

21 hours ago, Lebowski_ said:

So I have been out of the reefing hobby for about 15 years. One of my buddies Thomas (@TJ_Burton) and a couple other guys got me interested way back in the day when we worked together at an LFS. 
 

Since COVID happened, I’ve spent almost no time or money on my hobbies and I think it’s time to get back in the saddle. My most recent tank was a 5 years ago, but it was a freshwater planted tank with two beautiful blue angelfish.

 

Anyways, I’ll keep this post updated. 

 

Equipment

• Tank is the IM Fusion
• Light is the AI Prime 16HD
• Heater is the IM Helio
• ATO is Reef Breeders Prism
• Substrate is 7lbs or so of regular Caribsea Aragonite
• Rock is mainly Caribsea Life Rock Nano Kit

 

This tank was inspired by:

• @Sharbuckle Sharbuckle's IM Fusion Cube
• @Snow_Phoenix Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos
• @joshthebox Josh's Softy Reef(s)

2023-04-17

glad I could inspire you! Looking forward to seeing the tank progress!! 

[Lebowski_]

Something I don’t love about my Helio heater…apparently my model doesn’t come with a holder…but I feel really weird about having it just rattle around in the sump area. 
 

Waiting to hear from Helio if it’s okay for it to touch other materials. Not ideal.

 

Maybe I will upgrade to the higher wattage and sell this one or use it on a planted tank.

 

 

 

[phinatic]

@Lebowski_ I was looking at this heater last week and called them about this. They said it was fine to just drop it in there without the holder. Touching other items is apparently fine. If you decide to sell it, let me know. I didn't pull the trigger on it since I thought it may be undersized for a 13.5 G.

[Lebowski_]

1 hour ago, phinatic said:

@Lebowski_ I was looking at this heater last week and called them about this. They said it was fine to just drop it in there without the holder. Touching other items is apparently fine. If you decide to sell it, let me know. I didn't pull the trigger on it since I thought it may be undersized for a 13.5 G.

I just heard back from them via email. They basically said the same thing, but that I could always get a holder for an additional $29.99 USD! Oof.

 

I am in Canada, so what I will likely end up doing is using this heater on a smaller planted aquarium, and I may just buy the next size up.

 

Seems like they did this basically just to cut costs, but I am not a fan of it. IM stuff is usually pretty nice and tidy, which a lot of us will pay a little more for. Would not recommend this size...be smarter than me and get the next size up everyone lol😞

 

[Lebowski_]

Finally got some water in it. Pretty good view from the workstation.

 

 

[Sharbuckle]

Perfect viewing spot. 

[banasophia]

Love everything about it - nice scape, stand, and space for it. What a great idea to put it where you did, and paint the walls around it like that. Also love that your wife can use the other stand for her little greenhouse / butterfly garden… please post updates on her progress with that, too! 🦋 

 

And thanks for the heads up on that heater situation!

[debbeach13]

Everything about the tank looks great. I don't know how much work is going to happen when you can view the tank while being so comfortable!

[Sharbuckle]

What part of Canada are you in Dan? 

[Lebowski_]

1 hour ago, Sharbuckle said:

What part of Canada are you in Dan? 

I am in Niagara, southern Ontario.

[Sharbuckle]

8 hours ago, Lebowski_ said:

I am in Niagara, southern Ontario.

Right on! I wanted to go to the coral show this year but work is too darn busy. Are you going? 

[Lebowski_]

2 hours ago, Sharbuckle said:

Right on! I wanted to go to the coral show this year but work is too darn busy. Are you going? 

I am! Tank won’t be ready for anything yet I don’t think, but I’ll still give it a walk through.

 

Are you in the area as well?

[Sharbuckle]

2 hours ago, Lebowski_ said:

I am! Tank won’t be ready for anything yet I don’t think, but I’ll still give it a walk through.

 

Are you in the area as well?

Ottawa 

[Lebowski_]

45 minutes ago, Sharbuckle said:

Ottawa 

I’m ashamed to say I worked at Big As Innes for a few years (and a small reef shop that closed before that)! Hopefully it’s gotten better since those days.

[Sharbuckle]

5 minutes ago, Lebowski_ said:

I’m ashamed to say I worked at Big As Innes for a few years (and a small reef shop that closed before that)! Hopefully it’s gotten better since those days.

Haha which store? Got fish? Fish tails? 

6 minutes ago, Lebowski_ said:

I’m ashamed to say I worked at Big As Innes for a few years (and a small reef shop that closed before that)! Hopefully it’s gotten better since those days.

And no innes is no better lol 

[Lebowski_]

48 minutes ago, Sharbuckle said:

Haha which store? Got fish? Fish tails? 

And no innes is no better lol 

It's been a long time, but Fish Tails sounds familiar. It was out in Orleans.

[Lebowski_]

Visited a local shop for the first time. Man it feels good to talk to passionate people again. Ended up buying about 3lbs of live rock from their reef system sump to seed my tank, plus I bought one of their filtration bricks for my sump.

 

 

Brick was too long for where I wanted it so I smashed it in half.

 

 

He also gave me some water lettuce and caulerpa for free. I rooted the Caulerpa in the sand like I used to in my larger tanks to discourage it from spreading to the rocks, might not work in a smaller tank and I may hate myself later for adding it…but my wife loves all plants and she was excited to bring it home and see it in the tank 🤷🏼‍♂️. Hid it in the back corner where I wouldn’t put corals anyway, guess we will see. 
 

 

 

 

As you can see im lacking that beautiful rockwork vision that others on here have but I do like the large platform this will provide halfway up the tank. I picture a nice encrusting plate or something there, hovering over the open plateau below. 
 

Here are a few pics of the shop. The owner was fantastic and I look forward to supporting him with all my future bad decisions 😎.

 

 

 

$400 CAR for that giant bubble coral 😍 I think the hobby has changed a lot and inflation has also happened. It is what it is! That sucker was gorgeous in person, looked like two heads but 10” across. Maybe if he frags it I will buy a wee lil one.

 

 

Some expensive mushrooms here but they were mind blowing. The mushrooms I remember from 15 years ago were all brown, although I think a lot of that was due to the MHs being so white. I might try an expensive one and see if I can frag it one day. 

 

 

 

Only real problem I am running into is my Helio heater is showing .7 dF higher than the coralife backup thermometer. Going to get an old school mercury to sort out who is correct.

 

Anyone have experience with the little hygger wave makers? Tank os definitely lacking flow, and I thought they looked neat. New brand to me, but I like that they are wet mount unlike the bulky Sicce and Koralia nano power heads.

 

This is the one I was looking at: hygger Mini Wave Maker

 

 

[Lebowski_]

Here is what my wife turned that other stand and our 20 year old 20g tank into:

 

 

I don’t know much about house plants but I guess some require really high humidity, and being in Canada, our furnace is on a lot in the winter and really dries out the air. Tank should help keep in the humidity.

[Lebowski_]

Updated with pink background and puppy tax

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

I just want to hug that puppy.

[Lebowski_]

Not impressed at all with this Helios heater. 
 

Barely 12g in the tank and the heater can’t hit its mark.

 

 

So many times I’ve learned not to trust heater specs and to over compensate but I ignored my own wisdom :(. Will probably just try one of the smaller presets, maybe with an inkbird.