60 Gal Cube Noob Build

[Thegoodson]

Thanks..I think half the fun is figure out the issue.

And yes I used all dry rock. A guy form my lfs gave me a little rock with some coralline algea on it(it didn't work)

 

[tnyr5]

Ah. I've watched a lot of dry rock builds, both on forums and in person, builds done by people who can grow corals faster than I can grow weeds in the back yard. Based on all that observation, ( and this is still just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt) I've concluded that dry-rock tanks, despite the fact that logic would argue to the contrary, take forever to stabilize, as if they were cycling in slow motion. That doesn't mean they don't work, of course. However, when people like Sanjay Joshi and Mike Paletta have trouble ( trouble being defined as looking good for a month or two, then having constant algae/dino plagues of one sort or another for a year or more, a timeline I see play out again and again on the forums), it tells me that maybe the system trades the luxury of theoretically being pest-free ( you can still get every pest known to man after the fact, after all) with user-friendliness.
I vote for trying to find a well-cured and substantial piece of live rock, putting it in the sump/tank, keeping your parameters stable, and waiting. It may take till spring, maybe even summer, but it will all eventually go away, probably independent of anything you do other than the basics.

 

[Thegoodson]

Ah. I've watched a lot of dry rock builds, both on forums and in person, builds done by people who can grow corals faster than I can grow weeds in the back yard. Based on all that observation, ( and this is still just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt) I've concluded that dry-rock tanks, despite the fact that logic would argue to the contrary, take forever to stabilize, as if they were cycling in slow motion. That doesn't mean they don't work, of course. However, when people like Sanjay Joshi and Mike Paletta have trouble ( trouble being defined as looking good for a month or two, then having constant algae/dino plagues of one sort or another for a year or more, a timeline I see play out again and again on the forums), it tells me that maybe the system trades the luxury of theoretically being pest-free ( you can still get every pest known to man after the fact, after all) with user-friendliness.
I vote for trying to find a well-cured and substantial piece of live rock, putting it in the sump/tank, keeping your parameters stable, and waiting. It may take till spring, maybe even summer, but it will all eventually go away, probably independent of anything you do other than the basics.

Thanks for the replay. So after reading and reading when I 1st started I was up in the air about it....mostly money lol is why I went with dry rock but I'm not aupposed to trying now i do want to try and get some coralline algea to grow. Now some is going to be the fun part. I've heard also to try and run carbon in a mini reactor. At the moment what's on the list is I'm getting a apex probably Jr and I'm adding 2 power heads to my tank

 

[Thegoodson]

Soo tanks clear and has been for 3 days. I'm scared to touch it but after testing my mag is 1100 and Calcium is 400. So I'm thinking of doing about doing a water I don't dose. I only have 5 coral atm

 

[Thegoodson]

Some pic

 

[Thegoodson]

Don't wanna Jinx it but clouding his problem having returns as been a few days.

But now there's another problem some of my corals don't wanna open up frogspwan and gsp

Tested everything and so far so good

Also In anticipation for the Apex that I'm picking up soon and to help move the other electric out from under the stand......don't know if it going to work or not

 

[Thegoodson]

what i have done so far

 

[Thegoodson]

Getting a big bacteria Bloom out of no where white slimy stuff where

 

[Thegoodson]

Gsp open and happy

Frog speak not open still

 

[Thegoodson]

Move the frogspwan trying to get it happy also got something else came for my little
Cabinet

View attachment 20180105_191344.jpg

 

[Thegoodson]

Messed up on my 1st controler cabinet
So round 2 having a issue with trying to mount the adj power strip

old one

Blank slate

 

[Thegoodson]

so i have about 300 dollars to spend on the tank i just dont know what i should
a few things on the list are

apex jr
another mp 40 (going to upgrade to a 75 gal in 6 mouths )
a new returned pump (my current is a rio came with the set up when i bought it it works just a little loud)

 

[smiley28]

I say just wait till you get the 75g cause you never know what your plans will be once you have the tank setup

 

[Thegoodson]

Got some stuff today don't remember the name of all of them

]

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Do you have a cat? It's got to LOVE that stand lol. Built-in steps to see the tank.

 

[Thegoodson]

Funny you should say that my gf wants one

 

[Thegoodson]

Ok finish finally been working a lot. Got my equipment cabinet together still a few thing and some how get the cables better in order.

Also having a mass Brown algea outbreak soon been fighting that

I'll put up picture of the tank tomo it looks bad..looking for a good algea scraper was thinking about getting tunez care

 

[ectoaesthetics]

Soooo watching this build! I am blown away that you are new to the hobby. Man you are doing soooo much right: solid investment in the sump! Solid lighting, echo tech mp10, stocking slowly.... LOVE IT. And to top it all off you are already wise enough to invest in an Apex. You are going to kill my first few tanks TOTALLY STOKED for you. I can't wait to see how this turns out!!!

 

[Thegoodson]

Soooo watching this build! I am blown away that you are new to the hobby. Man you are doing soooo much right: solid investment in the sump! Solid lighting, echo tech mp10, stocking slowly.... LOVE IT. And to top it all off you are already wise enough to invest in an Apex. You are going to kill my first few tanks TOTALLY STOKED for you. I can't wait to see how this turns out!!!

Thanks for the kinds

I'm just reading everything I can to give myself the best chance for Success

If you see anything I can improve on plz let me know

 

[ectoaesthetics]

"If you see anything I can improve on plz let me know"

Improve... LOL. Dude I've been keeping reef tanks for well over 20 years, and I'm looking at your design and learning. LOL. Impressive man!

The only improvements I see are opportunities for redundancy. I think the longer I do this the more freaked out I am that something will totally fail (as it usually does). I will be adding two heaters (Ironically I will be buying the same heater you did -setting the second one 3 degrees below the first in case of failure with an Apex alert), I will also be installing check valves on both my returns for redundancy, and two return pumps (one running each output [you might be doing this I don't remember from scanning through the photos]). Redundancy is also one of those things that can also be added later when the tank is built up a bit . I think I am going to run two Sicce 1.5s for return flow... but I need to check their flow at 4.5 ft. The other thing that was hard to tell from the photos is whether or not there was another macro algae in your chaeto. It looked like it might be mixed with caulerpa (really hard to tell from the photo), if it is I would def pull the caulerpa out asap. Way back when we thought that stuff was ok in tanks -I can attest to what a disaster it is. I have also been lazy about removing it from a ball of caulerpa thinking I would "do it later before it was a problem..." that day came and I was hateful LOL. It is really hard to eliminate from the main tank, and often finds its way in. It can also go sexual -which while "rare" has in fact happened to me.

Good luck with the aptasia as well!! I hate those little guys. Put as much time and energy into that problem early! I typically pull the piece out and use a scalpel to remove it from the rock -but I literally cut the rock under it and not the aptasia itself.

Questions thought: what return pump did you go with? How well is the MP40 working on the tank (planning on two of them in my currently build, but wondering if I might not need to)? What do you have it cranked up to?

Your build is SOOO close to my current design I'm in the process of putting together that I have a million questions LOL.