Aegeon's 25G Cube Build

[jgraz]

Originally Posted by jgraz

Aegeon, I saw in another thread that you were planning on using a BRS reactor, but could not fit it. Not sure if you have the room in the sump but I ordered one of the new CPR Nano Reactors to give it a try. Should be in today and it is pretty small. That just might work for you.
Here it is. http://www.amekaaquatics.com/product...product_id=826

I'll give a full review one I get it going.

I threw a little review up in my build thread
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...2103759&page=2

[Aegeon]

It's been six days since my last update, and everything seems to be going well. On the recommendations of fellow reefers here and on another board I started feeding the tank a bit of flake food twice a day on Jan 26. I also started the lights on a daily 10 hour cycle (10am - 8pm) on the 26th.

I saw a slight ammonia spike (0.5 on my Salifert kit) on Jan 27, which dropped back to 0 on the 28th. No sign of any nitrite spike at all, but a little nitrate appeared on the 28th and remained level for two days. Early in the morning on the 30th I did a 5 gal water change and fired up the skimmer. So far, the skimmer hasn't done anything yet, but I expect it'll take a while to break in, and there's still not very much in the water to skim out yet, so I'm not worried.

I've also heard that the Tunze 9002 I'm using takes some tweaking to get dialed in, so I'll have to fiddle with it, I'm sure. I think the water level in my sump is just a touch low for the skimmer, too, which I may have to address by upping the water level in my sump by about half an inch. I don't have a lot of headroom left in the sump for back-flow, so I'm hesitant to do this unless I have to. We'll see.

After 5 days of feeding the tank and running the lights with no apparent ill effects, I added my first livestock late in the evening on the 30th. I purchased two nano Ocellaris Clownfish, each about 1.5", and acclimated them over a 30 minute period, then dropped them in. They ate right away, and seem to be doing fine today. I'll let these guys hang our for a week or two and continue to monitor water parameters to see what impact they have on the system.

I also submitted a CUC design request to reefcleaners.org. I'm still waiting to hear back, but now that I have a little bio-load in the tank I think the CUC will be the next thing to go into the tank, maybe next week.

I'll try to get pics tonight. Feedback is always welcome.

Thanks!

[Aegeon]

Another day, and the clowns seem to be doing fine. Water parameters still look good, 0 ammonia and nitrite, and just starting to see a bit of nitrate building. I'll do another water change in a day or two to bring those down. The Tunze skimmer has just barely started producing some skimmate, about 1/8" in the collection cup over the last 24 hours, the color of very light tea.

Latest FTS from 1/31/12:


And here are the first two inhabitants, a pair of tiny (1.25" ea) Ocellaris Clownfish. I've realized that taking pictures of fish is really, really difficult. I probably took 40 pictures, and these two are the only ones even clear enough to post. I don't know how you guys get all those fantastic photos of yours. I just have a crappy point-and-shoot, so any tips are appreciated.


Took this one with the tank lights out, using just the camera flash. Trying anything I could think of to get a clear shot. These guys have pretty much stayed in the back corner, behind the return loc-line. Do clownfish typically stay close together when added to a new tank, or do they typically separate? These guys are never more than a few inches apart. If one wanders off to a different area of the tank, the other follows right behind. They also rub up against each other constantly. Could they be pairing up, or this this just ordinary behavior?


Also, I rearranged my sump a few days ago to get the skimmer in and running and add a backup heater. I removed the temporary Tetra heater I had in the DT and replaced it with a 50w Aqueon in the sump as a backup to the 75w Jager. Now in the sump are a thermometer, the two heaters, the Tunze 9002, the Maxi-Jet 1800 return pump, the ATO float switch and a 3.5lb chunk of live rock. Not too bad for only about 4.5 gallons of usable volume:


Top view:


As always, questions/comments/suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

[reefsahoy]

Love the diy stand. You got the sku # for the stand from ikea? I've been looking for a stand that dimension but as you probably know is hard to find. Love the build too. You get any micro bubbles back into the tank? What size return pump are you using?
Thx

[Aegeon]

Originally Posted by reefsahoy

Love the diy stand. You got the sku # for the stand from ikea? I've been looking for a stand that dimension but as you probably know is hard to find. Love the build too. You get any micro bubbles back into the tank? What size return pump are you using?
Thx

Thanks for the compliment.

I stared with an IKEA AKURUM kitchen cabinet base (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/pr...010/#/14381910).

I selected the 18" width (you can get them from 12" to 36" wide, the 18" width is $31.00) to match the width of my DT. They all come 24" deep and you can't select different depths, so I had to use a circular saw to cut the side, top and bottom panels down to 18" deep so the stand matched the dimensions of my cube tank. It cut pretty easily. If you do need to cut these, be sure to put masking tape on the panels where you're going to cut. The panels are laminated and without the tape the laminate will chip off when you run the circular saw through them.

I reinforced the cabinet (which is just laminated particleboard) with 1x3" solid pine boards inside to better support the weight of the tank. I'm not sure I'd trust the stock cabinet to hold the weight of a full 25 gallon tank.

I also bought the NUMERÄR countertop (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00155191/). It comes in a few lengths, I bought the shortest, 49" long for $59). They're all about 25" deep, so again I had to cut the countertop down to size to make it square. I have enough left over after cutting that I could make another stand, or replace the top on my current stand if it gets damaged. Just like the cabinet base, be sure to use masking tape over where you're going to cut to prevent chipping the laminate.

The whole thing is held together with wood screws & glue.

Also got 3 NEXUS doors to use as the side panels of my stand as well as the door in front (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/pr...147/#/40197698), a LANSA door handle (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60138759/), a set of INTEGRAL hinges (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50105863/), a set of AKRUM plastic legs (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30076319/) and a PERFEKT NEXUS plinth kit (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90197733/)

The legs are adjustable, so I can level the stand and tank without using shims. They're rated to hold about 275lbs each, so I figured they'd be strong enough to hold all that weight. So far, they've been fine. Using them was a good idea in my opinion, the house we live in is about 90 years old and all the floors are sloped or warped. It would have been next to impossible to level the stand using wooden shims.

The plinth is a strip of wood that matches the door and clips onto onto the plastic legs to hide them from view. When it's installed, the stand looks like it's sitting directly on the floor, instead of on ugly plastic legs. I don't have it installed yet, so you can't see it in my most recent photos. I think you can see it in some of the earlier pictures in the thread.

The 1x3s, wood screws, etc. are from home depot. All in, it probably cost about $150 to do the stand.

I'm using a Maxi-Jet 1800 as a return pump (http://www.marinedepot.com/Aquarium_...WPSBUF-vi.html). It's rated at 474gph at 0 head, so I get a bit less than that.

I do get microbubbles in the display tank currently. I'm not sure exactly how bad it really is, though. The tank is still settling in, and I'm still moving things around a lot, so I have a lot of small particles floating in the water. It's tough to tell how much of what I see floating in the water are actually bubbles, and how much are sand particles, detritus, etc. I'm going to run it for a few weeks and see what happens. Might try running some carbon or floss, too, to filter out the particulates in the water and see if the bubbles are still enough of a problem that I need to address it.

I did notice that they got worse when I added the Tunze 9002 skimmer. I don't have any baffles in my sump currently, it's just an open tank. I may wind up adding some eventually to cut down on the amount of bubbles I get back in the DT.

Thanks!

[reefsahoy]

wow! thanks! that was very detail info and i appreciate that!.

i have a couple of suggestions on your tank.
1. you may want to put a divider baffel in the sump area where you can keep your water level constant for yur skimmer otherwise you'll be constantly adjusting the skimmer because the level keeps changing. that way it will be set and forget it.
2. for the return you may want to consider building a rack/shelve using the fluoresent light diffuser so you can put a filter pad for the return. this will stop any noise of water splashing and reduce micro bubbles.

again thanks for the info

[Aegeon]

Originally Posted by reefsahoy

wow! thanks! that was very detail info and i appreciate that!.

No problem. Glad to help.

Originally Posted by reefsahoy

i have a couple of suggestions on your tank.
1. you may want to put a divider baffel in the sump area where you can keep your water level constant for yur skimmer otherwise you'll be constantly adjusting the skimmer because the level keeps changing. that way it will be set and forget it.

The sump is baffle-less at the moment, which means that with the return pump on, the water level in the entire sump is stable. I have an ATO set up, too, so under normal operating conditions the level in the sump never fluctuates.

The only time this is not true is when I turn off the return pump, and the water level in the sump rises due to the backflow from the DT. The skimmer and return pump are on the same power strip, though, so when the return pump is off, so is the skimmer.

The sump is really small, which is probably the biggest thing I regret in the build. If I had it do do over again, I would have built a bigger stand to use a larger sump tank. To catch all the backflow without overflowing, I can only keep the sump about half-full. With the low water level and all the equipment stuffed in there, I hesitate to add baffles to further section it off. It wouldn't take much of a miscalculation to have the return section run dry.

In my current setup, I have an anti-siphon hole drilled in the locline of the return inside the DT, near where it exits the bulkhead. With the hole in the position it's currently in, I get about 3 gallons of backflow with the pumps off.

I'm working changing the design of the return line to get the anti-siphon hole up closer to the normal waterline, so there will be less backflow before the siphon is broken. This should let me add more water volume to the sump because I'll have to leave less empty volume to account for backflow. If I can do this, I might be able to add a baffle into the sump somewhere to help stop the bubbles and run a higher water level for the skimmer, which I think it needs.

Originally Posted by reefsahoy

2. for the return you may want to consider building a rack/shelve using the fluoresent light diffuser so you can put a filter pad for the return. this will stop any noise of water splashing and reduce micro bubbles.

again thanks for the info

I'm considering doing exactly this. Right now, the drain line just dumps into the sump, which creates a lot of turbulence and bubbles. I'm thinking of building a small acrylic "tower" that the drain line could run through, with a shelf for filter floss or pad to help deaden the sound and catch some of the bubbles. I think it would also help clarify the water in general, especially if I could rig it up to hold a bag of carbon when necessary as well.

As I said, the sump is really tight, so I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do this yet. Most of the rock in the DT is base rock, except for one piece of live rock, about 4 lbs. I have another 3.5lb piece of live rock in the sump to help seed the system that I didn't want to put in the DT. My hope is that eventually, the base rock will be sufficiently "live" that I can remove the chunk of rock from the sump to free up some space, and use it instead to seed another system (it remains to be seen if my wife will go along with a 2nd tank, so the live rock may remain in the sump permanently).

Thanks for the suggestions!

[reefsahoy]

One of the things you might want to do is use a hang on power filter like the whisper 40. Hang it on your sump and fill the filter bag with carbon and rowaphos. This will save space in the sump, give you mechanical and chemical filtration and is easy as heck to change the mechanical and chemical media by simply pulling it out and refilling with a new one. It's also cheap to get the refills.

Im seriously considering this route to save sump space.

[reefsahoy]

Btw was the nexus a solid piece of woor or is it particle board too? Thx

[Aegeon]

Originally Posted by reefsahoy

One of the things you might want to do is use a hang on power filter like the whisper 40...

Sounds like a good idea. I might look into this, thanks!

Originally Posted by reefsahoy

Btw was the nexus a solid piece of woor or is it particle board too? Thx

The Nexus doors are laminated particle board. They're laminated on all sides, though, so none of the particle board is visible unless you drill/cut them.

[reefsahoy]

How much gals of topoff would you say you need in a week to maintain your tank?

[reefsahoy]

or to save space you can have your return run into one of these. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLa89Lbshco
http://shop.mediabaskets.com/BioCube...C29-Bundle.htm
i'm probably going to make one myself.

[Aegeon]

Originally Posted by reefsahoy

How much gals of topoff would you say you need in a week to maintain your tank?

I keep my top-off water in 2.5 gal containers, and I swap them out about every 6-7 days when they run low, so I figure I'm loosing about 2.5-3 gallons/week to evaporation.

Originally Posted by reefsahoy

or to save space you can have your return run into one of these. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLa89Lbshco
http://shop.mediabaskets.com/BioCube...C29-Bundle.htm
i'm probably going to make one myself.

This is similar to what I'm thinking of building. An acrylic "tower", about 3"x3"x12" tall that could clip over the edge of my sump. The drain line could be held inside the tower, directing water flow over filter pad/floss and a bag of carbon or gfo. Just need to find the time to work on it.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[reefsahoy]

Originally Posted by Aegeon

This is similar to what I'm thinking of building. An acrylic "tower", about 3"x3"x12" tall that could clip over the edge of my sump. The drain line could be held inside the tower, directing water flow over filter pad/floss and a bag of carbon or gfo. Just need to find the time to work on it.

Thanks for the suggestions!

yeah, this is good because one less power cord and less heat into tank!

[Aegeon]

It's been a few days since I've posted an update. I finally got a cleanup crew into the tank on Friday. Also, I had my first official tank emergency Saturday night. So, in the last few days I've learned a couple things:

Thing I learned #1: John at reefcleaners.org is awesome.
I purchased my cleanup crew through them, and he was great working with me to get the package delivered to my local post office and held until I could get there after work to pick it up. Everything came through with flying colors, I don't think I had a single loss.

Thing I learned #2: Order less than you think you need from reefcleaners.org.
John really over-delivers when you order, especially on the little things. The crew I ordered was supposed to include 20 dwarf cerith snails, but the package probably included more than 50. I also ordered 6 blue-leg hermit crabs, but a dozen or more arrived.

Everything in my list showed up in quantities more than double what I paid for. This is awesome, but now my concern is keeping everything alive. My tank is pretty empty and sterile since it's new. Not knowing what to do with all the extra cleanup critters, they all went into the tank, so now it looks like a snail farm in there. I think some of them will have to find new homes eventually.

Thing I learned #3: Nerite snails like to leave the tank.
Every morning since I added the crew, I've found at least 2 of the nerite snails on the floor near the tank. You can see a trail on the glass where they crawled up out of the water, down the outside of the glass, across the stand and then off the edge. I drop them back in when I find them and so far they've recovered just fine, but I may have to look at adding a screen or lid to the tank to keep everyone contained.

Thing I learned #4: Cerith snails are really, really attracted to light.
We keep a light on overnight in our front hallway, near the dining room where the tank is. Every morning, I find dozens of cerith snails stuck to the front glass of the tank. They disperse during the day, but it's sort of disconcerting to wake up every morning to the "wall-o-snails". As I said before, I have way more of these guys than I probably need, so I might need to thin the herd a bit.

And finally, a little excitement Saturday night...

Thing I learned #5: A Maxi-Jet 1800 utility pump is more than capable of pushing 7 gallons of water out onto your dining room floor.

We have a 4 month-old baby at home, and I got up with him at about 2:00 am Sunday morning. On my way to his room, I heard a grinding sound coming from downstairs. I immediately thought, "The return pump is running dry. That can only happen if the sump is empty. Not good."

Running downstairs, baby in arms, I find our dining room floor is one big puddle with our stupid dog wet, but still asleep, in the middle of it. About three hours of emergency tank maintenance and cleanup ensued. Fun, fun!

Thing I leaned #6: There are some things you just shouldn't jury-rig.
I use a Maxi-Jet 1800 as my return pump, which comes with a return line hose barb that will take a 1" or 3/4" clear nylon hose. My return line is 1/2" spaflex tubing. To make the connection, rather than finding an appropriately-sized hose barb for the pump, I spliced together a homemade adapter from a section of 1" spaflex coupled to the 1/2" with a reducer bushing, and forced the 1" spaflex side onto the Maxi-Jet's stock barb and held it in place with plastic hose clamps. Bad idea.

As it turns out:
1. The nylon hose barb fitting on the maxi-jet is not made for spaflex tubing.
2. Cheap plastic hose clamps are also not made for spaflex tubing.
3. Using silicone will not magically fix #1 or #2 above.

So, sometime overnight, my homemade adapter came loose from the Maxi-Jet's hose barb, allowing the pump to spray water straight up out of the sump and into my stand, where it ultimately ran out onto my floor. Lesson learned.

I shut down the pump, moved the heaters and live rock up into the display tank, and started making up a new batch of saltwater. The tank ran sumpless overnight, and on Sunday I went out to find the part I should have used the first time around. Now I have a real, appropriately-sized, correctly-installed reducer bushing installed directly into the Maxi-Jet. I added a real 1/2" spaflex hose barb, held to the spaflex tubing with real stainless steel hose clamps.

Since the sump was already offline, I took the opportunity to break it down completely and clean it out along with all the equipment. Looks much better than before, and the equipment is laid out better as well. Refilled the system with new saltwater, and we're back up and running. I have yet another batch of SW mixing now, so I'll do another 5-7 gallon water change tomorrow, and keep an eye on my parameters.

Also, the dog survived.

[Willster]

Based on your review, i believe i will be making an order at reefcleaners! hope everything works out on your tank!

[Aegeon]

Originally Posted by Willster

Based on your review, i believe i will be making an order at reefcleaners! hope everything works out on your tank!

Thanks, and I'm glad to help! I don't think you'll be disappointed with reefcleaners.

My only complaint (if you can call it that) is that too much stuff arrived. I'm not sure my system can keep everything alive. Also, I'm using mostly BRS base rock which is still very white, and I don't really like the look of it covered in so many tiny black snails. It won't be an issue once I start getting corals in, and the rock starts to darken up, but it looks kind of nasty at the moment.

After I added the crew to the tank, my wife walked up and looked in at all the snails and said, "Gross." Not the reaction I'm looking for. Oh well, just need some time.

[pbradley0]

Do you happen to remember the part number for your light enclosure?

[ange062]

Glad the dog (and tank) survived the ordeal!! Floods are never fun, but glad you had a lesson learned from the ordeal!

[Aegeon]

Originally Posted by pbradley0

Do you happen to remember the part number for your light enclosure?

I got it from Mouser. Here's a link to the one I bought: http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...h3E9ns6%2fo%3d

It's a Bud Industries AC-1424 aluminum enclosure, 12"x12"x3". It arrives as bare unfinished aluminum. Mine had a protective plastic clingfilm on the surfaces. Because it's not finished or anodized it scratches REALLY easily, so be careful. I wound up sanding mine down a bit to remove scratches and painting it black using Krylon Fusion spray paint.

The walls of the box are fairly sturdy, but they will bend/dent if you press too hard on it while drilling. Be sure to directly support the underside of the panels with wood or something similar when drilling. I didn't, and by the time I was done with all the vent holes the top was bent up pretty bad. I managed to straighten it out pretty well but you can still see it if you're up close.

Also, you can't tell from the pictures on their site but the box is made from a single sheet of aluminum bent into box form. Because of this, there are gaps at the corners that will let light out if you use it for a light fixture. Mine were covered up by the heatsink so it wasn't an issue, but depending on your design you might have to seal these corners.

It also does not come with a lid/cover, so I made my own from a 12"x12" sheet of 1/8" Lexan.

Hope this helps!

[Aegeon]

A few more days, and some good news and some bad.

The good:
I finally have corals! After 12 years, I finally purchased my first frags. On Sunday I got 2 Ricordias (Ricordia florida), a 3 head Aussie Duncan frag (Duncanopsammia axifuga), a 3 polyp green and white Acan (Acanthastrea echinata), and a tiny $5 Monti Cap frag (Montipora capricornis). The Duncan frag also has what looks to be the start of a bud along one side, so hopefully it'll sprout a new head before too long, too.

I got everything home, acclimated and placed in the tank. One of the ricordias had separated from the plug it was attached to during the drive home, but I got it re-attached to a small piece of live rock rubble and into the tank with no problems. Everything looks good. Within 24 hours, all the corals were nice and full, good color, with feeders out in the water. I fed the corals a bit of cyclopeeze last night, and everything looks good.

I'll try to get some pics.

The bad:
I spotted a tiny hitchhiker crab last night while watching the tank. It's tiny, a bit smaller than a dime. All white with tiny black/brown spots that almost look like freckles. Not particularly hairy, but it does have black-tipped claws. It was tucked under some rock, picking through the sand, so I couldn't get to it. So far it doesn't seem to be bothering anything, but I'm wondering if I should try to capture/kill it?

Also, my clownfish have some sort of fungus. I noticed about a week ago a tiny white spot on the side of one of them, along the lateral line about halfway between the pectoral fin and tail. I didn't think much of it at the time and it didn't seem to grow. Last night, however, I noticed that it had doubled or tripled in size. It looks like a tiny cotton ball stuck to the fish's side. I also noticed a similar "puffball" on the other clown, near its gill.

Looking around online, it sounds like a fungus. Guess I get to set up a hospital tank. I have a spare 10 gallon and some PVC fittings I can toss in, along with a spare heater. What else do I need? Can anyone recommend a medication? Freshwater dip?

Thanks!

[Tahlequah]

A long time ago I had a clown get a fungus. I will try to see if I still have the bottle, but the stuff inside was blue. I mixed it in a slightly saline water and dipped her in it for about 3 minutes. I was sure she was going to die by the way she was acting, but I figured if I didn't kill the fungus she would die anyways. I did this 2x a day for 3 days (if memory serves me correctly). In the end the fungus fell of, and I still have her today (5 years later).

Good luck!

[pbradley0]

Originally Posted by Aegeon

I got it from Mouser. Here's a link to the one I bought: http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...h3E9ns6%2fo%3d

Perfect. Thanks!

[Tahlequah]

Originally Posted by Tahlequah

A long time ago I had a clown get a fungus. I will try to see if I still have the bottle, but the stuff inside was blue. I mixed it in a slightly saline water and dipped her in it for about 3 minutes. I was sure she was going to die by the way she was acting, but I figured if I didn't kill the fungus she would die anyways. I did this 2x a day for 3 days (if memory serves me correctly). In the end the fungus fell of, and I still have her today (5 years later).

Good luck!

FYI the medicine was methylene blue.

[Crazy_Beaver]

great build!!!!