Taylorhardy1 Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 (edited) Well everyone, I have some great news. Not so great for my wallet, or my own sanity. But it will be worth it eventually. As some of you have seen, I started setting up a rimless biocube. I got it up and cycling, but the light I had over it started giving me issues so I decided to start looking online for a lightly used radion, or reefi duo, and stumbled across this 120g setup. Realized it wasn't a bad deal and decided to message the guy on it. After getting a little more info on it I let my impulses take over entirely and committed to buying it. Then the day I had planned to pick it up, I get a text saying his skimmer overflowwed and fried the pump controllers and power supply for the skimmer pump, and he's fed up with it and gave me a sizeable discount to make it REALLY worthwhile. So then at 6:30pm Saturday night I finally worked out going to get it and got there a little after 8. Got the tank and everything into the truck just after 10, then headed over to @cjmdh house to pickup a stand that would actually fit in the space I have (thanks again!) Got home at midnight, and hauled all the living stuff inside, and got some pumps and aerators in the buckets at about 3 am, poured the water I brought into the tank and started making new water and finally made it to bed around 3am. The next day I got started on removing the water damaged bottom panel, and replaced and reinforced the bottom panel and the entire stand, just for peace of mind really. Ft. Curious little Simba. Then I got so focused on the project I forgot to take more pictures until I got the tank on, and finished the plumbing. I used some leftover wood from reinforcing the stand to build a mount for the light to avoid hanging it from the roof. I didn't have time to wait for paint to cure, so I just said screw it, and wrapped them in black tape😂 it actually turned out pretty decently, and I didn't even use a whole roll of tape All while I had been doing this, I had 60g of water mixing. Unfortunately when I finally got to a point where I was nearly ready to add water I found I didn't add enough salt and was gonna have to wait another few hours. But I was getting nervous about 2 tangs, and a foxface in a 5g bucket for more than the 24 hours they had already been in there so I decided to just add my new sand, rock, and all the fish and corals with the water I had which then got me to this point. Once I got to this point it was pretty much a waiting game for the water, so I decided to scrub everything back to like new condition. Edited February 4, 2020 by Taylorhardy1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 Around this time, I had finally got my first batch of water mixed up, and decided to get my scape going. A few hours later, I ultimately settled on this. Spent a couple more hours working on getting wiring routed, and monkeying around the tank to get proper drip loops routed, and finally got the system turning water through the sump a whole 6 days after picking it up. Thankfully/unfortunately the only casualty was a melanurus wrasse that ended up jumping out of the tank on the first night I had it filled. I knew I should have put the dang tops on. And now this is how it sits today! Now that you all know the interesting, and stressful story that got me here, here's the equipment list that I've currently got online. The tank is just a standard 4x2x2 aqueon 120g with what appears to be some sort of custom overflow box. The stand is a little freebie MDF stand that I extensively reinforced. The sump is a 40b with a custom baffle kit Return pump is a simplicity dc1600 Skimmer is a coralbox dc500 3 hydor 1500gph wavemakers on controllers (will be replaced with 2 jebao gyre scp 120, and 2 wp40 when they arrive) 48" aquatic life t5 hybrid fixture with 3 ati blue+ and 1 coral blue, and 2 ai Sol blue fixtures. I plan on replacing this first, I really like the noopsyche t5 hybrid fixture. Fish/livestock list: Mated pair of percularis clowns and 1 fancier male. 1 small sailfin Tang 1 blue hippo Tang 1 foxface rabbitfish Dozens of hermits and snails Halloween urchin 80lbs of live rock, 25lbs of cured and live blue iquatics rock 4 rainbow acans 1 indo neon green/pink tip torch 1 wall hammer 1 rainbow lobo 1 derasa clam 1 green toadstool leather And soon, all of the sps😈 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Congrats Taylor! I know that was more the size/shape you were hoping to get in the first place so glad it ultimately worked out OK. Good luck getting everything dialed in man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 59 minutes ago, albertareef said: Congrats Taylor! I know that was more the size/shape you were hoping to get in the first place so glad it ultimately worked out OK. Good luck getting everything dialed in man! Thanks man! Unfortunately I just had convinced my girlfriend on a red sea peninsula 650, but wasn't able to convince our property manager. Wanted rimless, but this was too good of a deal. I ended up being able to repair the simplicity controller and got a new one to replace it in case it fails. I also learned jebao controllers are all the same and currently have an old wp10 controller running my skimmer pump. Only costed me $70 on top of the original $375 for the complete setup because I bought controllers the day of for precaution. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higher Thinking Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 Great looking work, all around! You got that all put together pretty seamlessly. Are you going to clean the sides of the tank? That's the first thing I thought about when I saw it situated between the walls. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted January 28, 2020 Author Share Posted January 28, 2020 3 minutes ago, Higher Thinking said: Great looking work, all around! You got that all put together pretty seamlessly. Are you going to clean the sides of the tank? That's the first thing I thought about when I saw it situated between the walls. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Thank you! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I've still gotta figure out my ATO situation and a few other small things but it's generally there. As far as the sides go I haven't decided. My OCD will probably take over and I'll end up cleaning them to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted February 5, 2020 Author Share Posted February 5, 2020 Finally got a proper ATO Reservoir situated this morning (thanks again @pdxmonkeyboy) the original measurements I had taken I had actually measured wrong, so I didn't have the extra 1/4" of clearance I was planning on and it took some maneuvering, but it slipped in and fits perfectly. Looks super nice too. Im super happy to get rid of the 5g bucket, and finally have everything looking neat around the tank. I've also added 4 acros, and a digi this last week. So far so good! Added an Oregon tort frag, paletta pink tip, original garf, a really bright green tenuis,and a forest fire digi. Everything looks happy, things have been stable. Hopefully I can keep it up🤞 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 Nice! We should have glued legs on the bottom of it to open up storage underneath!! Nice looking torch BTW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted February 5, 2020 Author Share Posted February 5, 2020 40 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said: Nice! We should have glued legs on the bottom of it to open up storage underneath!! Nice looking torch BTW! Thanks man wish the phone picked up the pink tips! Im actually planning on building a little stainless steel stand for it so I can keep the ATO res more easily removable 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 I have enough 1" left over.... I think How tall would you want it? They are thin strips I would just chuck. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted February 5, 2020 Author Share Posted February 5, 2020 1 minute ago, pdxmonkeyboy said: I have enough 1" left over.... I think How tall would you want it? They are thin strips I would just chuck. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk 10" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted February 11, 2020 Author Share Posted February 11, 2020 @pdxmonkeyboy made me a little acrylic stand for my ATO and now I've got a little extra space for storage underneath my ATO. Added 2 rw15s for flow, have them turned all the way down and flow is just about right. Seeing better PE from my sps already, my lps seem to be adjusting to the extra flow pretty nicely. I also shifted my scape a bit because it was too symmetrical, and I felt it wasnt quite right. Much happier with the new one. Hopefully the epoxy holds till some sps start welding the rocks together. But now it's time to decide between dosing and running a CARX. I like the idea of a CARX, but with atleast a $1400 up front cost for a quality setup I'm not quite sure if I wanna just stick with a doser. Especially considering I don't plan on running this tank long term, and want to be upgrading to a significantly larger setup. But I'm also not sure where I could fit anything aside from the chamber between my fuge and return. I could build a shelf to mount a doser, or fit a compact CARX in the chamber before my return, but im not sure which way is the smartest financially and for my limited space. Any advice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 Tanks doing nice! Ive kept myself from getting too many corals before I've worked out the remaining equipment situations. Still trying to figure out a way to setup a calcium reactor remotely in a cabinet next to my stand. I think I've decided on going with the VarioS CR200 8" DC reactor, with an apex monitoring pH in the reactor body, pH of the display, and pH of the sump as well. I've been contemplating the idea of running a trident or alkatronic to run a peristaltic pump and keep things even more stable and have a few fail-safes. Once taxes come back I'll be making the final decisions. Anyways, added a couple more acros. 1 is supposedly a Walt Disney- not sure, seems to have yellow polyps, blue tips, pink coralites but it's not looking super hot as he had recently caught aefw. (Told me tank was crashing for an unknown reason, sold em off for pennies. Found aefw in Bayer dip.) The other is PC rainbow. After sitting in Bayer for 25 mins, I let em hangout in some revive for 20 minutes. Nothing fell off during the revive dip, both were fresh cuts showing no skeleton. I really need to QT, but no space, but I think after 2 dips they're safe. Hoping they start picking color back up and turn around for me. Right now I'm blasting my Oregon tort with 550par at peak, and a bright green/yellow I think tort? They have a nice contrast from each other, hopefully they'll take off and make some very interesting contrasting colonies The tenuis in this photo is what I was given as a "Walt Disney" the mother colony looked nice in photos, but who knows what it'll really turn out to be. Thankfully it was cheap enough I wouldn't even be hurt if I lost it. My pink tip seems to be taking off, encrusting the frag plug crazy fast. My OG Garf is also taking off, but in the back corner and hard to get photos. Currently maintaining stability with 2tbsp/gal of kalkwasser in my ATO. Aaand last is my leather that I'm pretty sure is being blasted with way too much light and flow. But seems to put out more pe everyday so I guess it's adjusting. So far things have been going pretty good! The other day I found my peppermint shrimp dead for an unknown reason. Cleaner shrimp is fine, maybe some Territorial issues? But since my peppermint shrimp died, Ive had 3 aiptasia pop up in the display. I think I'm gonna inject em with some kalk paste and hopefully take care of em today. Or the other option is let em run a little rampant then pick up a CBB or some berghias. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted March 8, 2020 Author Share Posted March 8, 2020 So I bought a new phone today and learned it has a kickass camera. Samsung galaxy A50 on pro mode with the white balance cranked to 10k, under 100% blues with no gel filter or post editing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted March 30, 2020 Author Share Posted March 30, 2020 This whole virus thing has been a difficult process to find a transition into. I decided to quit my full time job working on cars back in February in order to pursue my own business with my friend Matt. Luckily we chose to stick with automotive and have been able to stay open. However all of our big projects are on hold, and works been spotty so I've had a little extra time for the tank. Since the last update, I've had a few more interesting pests start showing their faces from what I had believed was pest free rock. (that ones always too good to be true) anyways, I had this fun invasive algae that rarely makes an appearance in the hobby. I've identified it as colpmenia sinuosa. Unfortunately it really got a hold before my urchin developed a taste for it. I got 2 emerald crabs to address it thinking it was some sort of valonia. Luckily my urchin is going to town on it and has been making a huge dent in it finally. I got a couple peppermint shrimp to start taking care of my ever growing aiptasia issue, but haven't seen any progress. I also added them 2 days ago so not much to be expected. I also found a little red convolutriloba flatworm on my glass and had to get a wrasse to start keeping them in check. Unfortunately Jeff didnt have the radiant wrasse I was hoping to find, so I ended up getting a blue sided fairy wrasse instead. He just popped up today and I tried to get a photo. But here's the best I could get. All of the others my other fish wanted to be in the photo for😂 I also happened to pickup a few mariculture tenuis frags so hopefully they color up to something cool. This ones my favorite, but stop by @CuttleFishandCoral and check out all the sweet pieces they've got. The shop is loaded up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 In the last few weeks I've added quite a few more acros. Up to 26 different acros, and a few other pieces have been added now. I got the colpmenia under control by reducing my nutrients to the point it stopped growing so my urchin could mow it down. Well that worked pretty good! Until I accidentally bottomed everything out and fueled a dino outbreak😑 trying to add bacteria, and feeding super heavy to get something else to counteract it, but I'm approaching the blackout stage.anyone here have advice for battling dinos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted May 20, 2020 Author Share Posted May 20, 2020 Recently traded some work with Jeff@CuttleFishandCoral for this sweet aquamaxx reactor setup. Got it up yesterday, gonna start tuning it in today! Have had some issues purging the air from the reactor body and dont wanna risk inconsistency until my pump stops screaming with every air bubble it sucks up. Now to get a peristaltic pump, and apex to run my ph monitor. But even without those things, will be nice to stop blowing money on kalkwasser @2tbsp/gal in the ato+ manually dosing 2 part because kalk just doesn't keep up with 40+ quickly growing sps frags.Waiting on some new xr30 g4 pros to arrive then lighting will soon be upgraded. Still been battling some sort of nuisance algae/bacteria. Not entirely sure if its dinos, did a water change and siphoned out as much as possible and it hasn't returned in the past 2 days. Added some more sweet sps, and some cool wrasses since my last update. I also decided to get a diamond goby to help maintain my sandbed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 Upgraded to my all time dream light fixture, an 8 bulb ati powermodule. This+ the calcium reactor this week should help my sps start really taking off. Thanks again Jeff @CuttleFishandCoral! Still battling dinos/cyano. I've found if I vacuum the sand really well It goes away for about 4 days, but were 6 days out from the last water change. Working on another tonight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylorhardy1 Posted May 28, 2020 Author Share Posted May 28, 2020 Reset my scape today to get a little more even light distribution throughout with the new light. This powermodule really is an awesome light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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