150g Cube Build

Dorado · Jun 18, 2021

I've definitely been bitten by the SPS bug and have acquired quite a few new frags. Names of my new Acros:
Blue Oregon Tort
ASD Sweet Tort
Miyagi Tort
Fuzzy Red Milli
Orange Passion
Pink Lemonade
RR Tanzanite Terror
Boom's Blueberry Stag
PC Rainbow
Aussie Gold Acro
Rainbow Granulosa
Garf Bonsai
ORA Green Bird's Nest
Purple Tenuis

truepercs · Jun 18, 2021

Nice size aquarium, coming along nicely. That is a lot of coral in there.

husemn · Jul 18, 2021

Good looking aquarium, I have a similar sized tank on order, can i ask what size drains you are using? Are they 1.5" or 1"?

Dorado · Jul 18, 2021

Thanks Husemn, the three drains and return are all 1"

Dorado · Jul 18, 2021

July Update:
I don't know if anyone is like me, but I don't really like testing. I decided to try to make the process a little easier and more convenient by making a little testing cart so that everything is out and ready whenever I want it. I bought a little cart on amazon with some pieces of foam and a little roller stool. I cut some holes in the top layer of foam and then glued it to another bottom piece. The cart fits nicely in a hall closet 3 feet away and I keep the stool in the stand.

Dorado · Jul 18, 2021

I'm not a very good photographer, but I bought the icecap phone filter attachments and it's made things a little better. I'll have to read up in the photography forum, but here are a couple practice close up shots and a side tank shot.

truepercs · Jul 19, 2021

Coralline spots are showing on the rocks!...

revhtree · Jul 19, 2021

truepercs said:
Coralline spots are showing on the rocks!...

YAY and very nice!

Dorado · Jul 19, 2021

truepercs said:
Coralline spots are showing on the rocks!...

Yeah, it's just too bad it's not growing on the rocks as quickly as it is on the powerheads and the back glass.

Dorado · Dec 12, 2021

It's been quite some time since my last update. Overall, things have been going pretty well. I have since added a kalk dosing pump which has made my life a lot easier, no more 2 part. I started off with an ecotech versa but I kept having problems with it keeping a siphon. Ecotech's customer service was great and they sent me replacement parts multiple times, but to no avail. I had finally had enough and decided to go with the neptune dos and haven't looked back. Since dialing that in, my alk and calcium have been super consistent and I can really tell the difference with my sps.

On a not so great note, about a month ago, my tank was hit hard by a cyanobacteria outbreak. One day my tank was doing great with pure white sand and overnight it seemed like the sand bed was covered in slime. I immediately checked my nitrates and phosphates thinking that they had possibly gotten out of hand only to find out that they had bottomed out. Completely undetectable. I hadn't realized that even with all of the heavy feeding, my biological and mechanical filtration was doing too good of a job. My chaeto was growing from baseball size to basketball size weekly. I immediately started overfeeding, kept dirty filter socks in the sump, skimmed much dryer, added microbacter and lowered my refugium photoperiod by half.(I didn't want to stop skimming and turn off my refugium completely because of ph benefits). It took a couple weeks before I could see any results, but sure enough the, cyano is in remission. It's not completely gone yet, but I'm hoping it will be before long. I plan on adding a few more fish in order to keep my nutrient levels a little higher.

Not much else to report, here are a few tank shots

Dorado · Nov 3, 2022

Updated pics

truepercs · Nov 5, 2022

Looking fantastic!

Genetics · Nov 5, 2022

Dorado said:
Updated pics

I had to do a double take on this. In less than 12 months your aquarium underwent a transformation where it is unrecognizable from the previous post! Nice work.

Dorado · Nov 7, 2022

truepercs said:
Genetics said:

I had to do a double take on this. In less than 12 months your aquarium underwent a transformation where it is unrecognizable from the previous post! Nice work.

Click to expand...

Looking fantastic!

Thank you!

InvaderJim · Nov 14, 2022

That is some insane growth for less than a year.

reef’r · Apr 11, 2023

Dorado said:
It's been a few weeks since my last post so I thought I'd make an update. My tank was hit with new tank syndrome pretty hard a couple of weeks ago so a got a small clean up crew consisting of 25 trochus and 25 margarite snails and they went to work and killed it. Within 3 days my rocks went from looking brown to bleached white again. Unfortunately, the coralline algae hasn't started blooming yet but hopefully soon. I also got three more lyretail anthias(for a total of 6), two mocha clownfish(one died due to shipping), 2 skunk shrimp and one blood red shrimp.

In an attempt to increase biodiversity in my tank, I started a phytoplankton and copepod culture setup from Poseidon phytotank. Its been a fun little project and I've had 3 successful harvests so far.

I also finally got my hands on some chaeto for my refugium. I decided to take a chance on the new Neptune refugium GRO light. The fact that it didn't need to take up outlet space on my apex was very appealing to me, I hope it works out.

Lastly, I'm a little on the fence about my future lighting situation. The original plan was to use the Straton LED fixture but because of its unavailability, I may just end up using the 8x24w T5 ATI Sunpower fixture. I'm getting a little tired of waiting an am eager to start stocking some coral. Below are a couple of my lighting option layouts.

Hey I know this thread is about two years old so not sure if you’ll see this but I notice your drains are not going into the filter socks, are you bypassing them and just using the rock and skimmer in there place? Btw an updated pic of this tank would be awesome! I’ve read through this thread probably 5 times your tank in the inspiration for my first reef tank, a 60 gallon cube

Dorado · Apr 13, 2023

Hey reef'r, thanks for the comments and following along. The tank is still going strong, and I'll be sure to make an update with a FTS soon. To answer your question, the drains do flow through the filter socks even though it may not look like it (illustrated below). Let me know if I can ever help you with anything. I also attached a couple of recent shots.

Gumbies R Us · Apr 13, 2023

Dorado said:
Hey reef'r, thanks for the comments and following along. The tank is still going strong, and I'll be sure to make an update with a FTS soon. To answer your question, the drains do flow through the filter socks even though it may not look like it (illustrated below). Let me know if I can ever help you with anything. I also attached a couple of recent shots.

Glad to see the tank is still doing well!!

reef’r · Apr 13, 2023

Dorado said:
Hey reef'r, thanks for the comments and following along. The tank is still going strong, and I'll be sure to make an update with a FTS soon. To answer your question, the drains do flow through the filter socks even though it may not look like it (illustrated below). Let me know if I can ever help you with anything. I also attached a couple of recent shots.

Definitely your tank is awesome and the piping is an inspiration I’m using for my own. Another question, what are your stand dimensions? I know your tank is 36x36. I’m in the process of building a stand for mine.

Dorado · Apr 13, 2023

reef’r said:
Definitely your tank is awesome and the piping is an inspiration I’m using for my own. Another question, what are your stand dimensions? I know your tank is 36x36. I’m in the process of building a stand for mine.

The stand dimensions are 37.5”x36.75”x42”. I’m a tall guy and don’t like to bend over when I look at the tank.