Dorado's 3'x3' Cube

[koalahty]

nice set up


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[SandStorm]

View attachment 96736
If you're referring to this metal clamp, it is called a conduit mini, it's usually for electrical pipes. I'm not sure the brand, probably Caddy, but you can find them at Home Depot in the electrical aisle.

Yes and thank you!

 

[CoffBoss]

Thanks Coffboss, good luck with your cube. Lighting and flow can be a challenge with cubes but I love the look.

Yeah thank, so far everything has been a challenge! Right now I am trying to figure out how to fit things in the stand haha! Haven’t even gotten to inside the tank yet

Both the GRO and DOS have been up and running for over 6 months now, the sump pictures are just old. The GRO has done a great job growing chaeto, it doubles in size every week or two. I'm sure there are plenty of other lights that grow macroalgae just as well but it's nice that it doesn't take up outlet space and is easily controlled by the apex. It's also somewhat water proof because I dropped it in the fuge once and didn't have a problem.

I've been very happy with the DOS, I use it to dose kalkwasser. The first peristaltic pump that I had bought was the ecotech versa, but I had nothing but problems with it. I switched over to the DOS and have had no issues what so ever. Unfortunately/fortunately, alk consumption in my tank has gone through the roof and I'm almost to the point where my kalk addition rate is meeting my evaporation rate. I knew the day would eventually come where I'd have to look into getting a calcium reactor.

The 200sss is nice, I really like the Varios pump and the controller that it comes with, it makes tuning it pretty easy. This is the first skimmer I've had in quite some time, so I don't really know how it stacks up to others on the market.

That is good to hear, I am going to pick up a GRO and try to stuff it in the cabinet for this cube haha. I am going to run smaller dos pumps though for now but I want to go APEX in my net planned setup. I was also looking a the 200SSS which is why I asked and everyone so far seems to like it!

sounds like you are burning a lot of kalk! What is your evaporation rate at for this setup? If I have to add more equipment into this cube stand I might have to build a second cabinet haha, sheesh.

 

[Dorado]

Just thought I'd post a little update. Things have been going pretty well. For the most part, everything is taking off and my alkalinity consumption is going through the roof. I ordered a GEO calcium reactor a couple of weeks ago, but it won't be here for a couple more weeks. In the meantime, I hooked up some soda ash to a dosing pump and am adding that throughout the day on top of the daily kalkwasser dosage, so my values have been pretty stable.

On the downside, a couple of my SPS frags that had previously been growing pretty well, have started to bleach a little bit. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I turned off my LEDs to see if that has any effect. I've also turned in an ICP test to confirm that everything is looking good.

I've also started to see an increase in a few common tank pests and have decided to try get rid of them before they get out of hand. I added a harlequin shrimp about month ago to get rid of my growing Asterina star population. It seems to have put a pretty good dent in the population for being so small. I've also added a peppermint shrimp in an attempt to get rid of a few rogue aiptasia. So far, I have yet to see any evidence that the shrimp has any interest in the aiptasia. I've also been using aiptasia-X, but it seems that when I take five out, five more pop up somewhere else. No matter what, I always have about ten in the tank. The last nuisance that I've been dealing with is bubble algae. It's still very isolated and small but I bought and emerald crab to just try to knock it out. I'm undecided about how effective he is but I have caught him munching on one bubble once.

Here are a few full tank shots:

 

[CoffBoss]

The tank looks great! I can’t even see the pests haha, well maybe a little in the third pic. Your tank is so colorful though looks really good.

 

[Smite]

The tank is poppin, man! Looking super clean, nice work

 

[drexel]

Tank is looking good! I've never found aquilonastra stars (not asterina) to be much of a problem, other than numbers, kinda like bristleworms, if there's food for them (algae), then they'll keep going. Peppermint shrimp are almost pointless in a tank that gets fed on a regular basis, too many other options for food than aiptasia. Be careful with aiptasia x, I found that it causes them to stress and drop tentacles and you wind up with twice as many as before. Rent the reef delete for a couple days and zap them or pick up a couple berghia and let them take'em out, then find a new home for them as soon as they clear them up.

 

[joseserrano]

tank looks dense. Bleechinf typically are high temp swings or too much light. Too much light can also be due to change it water chemistry (adding carbon, dropping nutrients,...).

 

[Dorado]

The tank looks great! I can’t even see the pests haha, well maybe a little in the third pic. Your tank is so colorful though looks really good.

Thank you for the compliments. I see your tank is coming along nicely, you added some coral recently

 

[Dorado]

The tank is poppin, man! Looking super clean, nice work

Thank you, your tank is looking good as well. It's always a pleasure to see your tank in person

 

[Dorado]

Tank is looking good! I've never found aquilonastra stars (not asterina) to be much of a problem, other than numbers, kinda like bristleworms, if there's food for them (algae), then they'll keep going. Peppermint shrimp are almost pointless in a tank that gets fed on a regular basis, too many other options for food than aiptasia. Be careful with aiptasia x, I found that it causes them to stress and drop tentacles and you wind up with twice as many as before. Rent the reef delete for a couple days and zap them or pick up a couple berghia and let them take'em out, then find a new home for them as soon as they clear them up.

Thanks! I know that the stars aren't harmful, but it just bothers me when they munch on the coralline. After they move on, the bone white marco rock shows through. It's just unsightly is all.

I've heard the same thing about Aiptasia-x, kalkwasser, joe's juice, etc. Just giving it a shot. Maybe I'll look into the Reef delete. I'm strongly considering getting a few berghia, I'm just a little worried that my wrasse will eat them, they'd definitely have to be on the larger side.

 

[Dorado]

tank looks dense. Bleechinf typically are high temp swings or too much light. Too much light can also be due to change it water chemistry (adding carbon, dropping nutrients,...).

Dense as in a lot of coral or a lot of fish? My temp has been pretty consistent in my opinion, always between 78-79.5*. I'm going to try keeping my LEDs off for a week with only the T5's on and see if I notice any change. I don't run carbon, and since my cyano troubles a few months ago, I have been very adamant about keeping my nutrients up, typically with nitrates around 7 and phosphates around .06

 

[joseserrano]

Dense as in a lot of coral or a lot of fish? My temp has been pretty consistent in my opinion, always between 78-79.5*. I'm going to try keeping my LEDs off for a week with only the T5's on and see if I notice any change. I don't run carbon, and since my cyano troubles a few months ago, I have been very adamant about keeping my nutrients up, typically with nitrates around 7 and phosphates around .06

Dense, like full of life.

 

[CoffBoss]

Thank you for the compliments. I see your tank is coming along nicely, you added some coral recently

welcome yours inspired me haha, but yeah I did add a handful of little frags which is exciting! Can’t wait to have a bustling reef like yours

 

[Dorado]

Things have continued to be going pretty well with the exception of a few acros that don't seem to want to turn it around, all three of which are tenuis'. The ICP I turned in came back fairly normal, just low in a few trace elements. Wondering if low trace elements could be the cause of the acro's unhappiness, I've decided to give the moonshiner method a shot. I'm excited to have a fun new little experiment and hopefully it pays off. Here are the elements I needed along with the correction and daily dosage schedule I made

 

[CoffBoss]

Moonshiner indeed haha, what is the alternative here? I would guess just more water changes and/or some mixed element dosing but at the risk of adding things you don’t need.

I am also sending off an ICP just to get a baseline, but glad the tank is doing well!

 

[drexel]

If it's just a couple corals, then I wouldn't change anything and just keep consistent with your methods. In my 22g, tenuis never did that well, so I stopped adding them and everything was happy. Moonshiners is great and you'll notice improvements (especially with color and PE) as you continue.

 

[Smite]

You'll see improvements with the shine for sure. Correcting trace elements have unlocked dormant pieces for me in past systems. The fluorescence is gonna get real nice with the daily manganese too.

 

[Dorado]

Moonshiner indeed haha, what is the alternative here? I would guess just more water changes and/or some mixed element dosing but at the risk of adding things you don’t need.

I am also sending off an ICP just to get a baseline, but glad the tank is doing well!

The other alternative to this particular methodology would be the Triton Method which is basically the same idea but just with a few differences including the triton test instead of the ATI.

 

[Dorado]

If it's just a couple corals, then I wouldn't change anything and just keep consistent with your methods. In my 22g, tenuis never did that well, so I stopped adding them and everything was happy. Moonshiners is great and you'll notice improvements (especially with color and PE) as you continue.

I'm sure that giving up on keeping tenuis is the wise thing to do, but I'm not a smart man. There must be something that is out of whack and upsetting them. I vow to find out what it is haha