Jim's 30G cube

[bubbletip]

Intro:

I wish I would have started this thread from the beginning as I was going through the process of setting up. I did not stumble onto TR until after the tank was cycled. Instead of repeating myself on the forums, I may in the beginning revert back to previous threads from other parts of the forum.

I remember when I started out in the saltwater side of the hobby seeing an old model Oceanic 37 Gallon Grey show model in the store. Well, at the time it cost around $500 w/ stand. My vision back then was to have a clown species tank with a blue carpet anenome. That vision has changed as I educated myself on how costly it is to the oceans in harvesting these and other types of anenomes from our oceans.

My vision is still a species clown tank, but w/ often propogated bubbletip anenomes, hence my forum name, "bubbletip." If you have read any of my other posts, you can probably tell there is a conservationist(is that even a word) growing inside me with each passing day.

Everyone I am sure has seen the new Oceanic 30G and 37G aquariums for sale currently. I really wanted the 37G for the extra water obviously, but set myself on a Petsmart deal for a cherry Oceanic 30G cube for $99. What a deal huh! Well this really created some issues in trying to figure out a sump and now I have a small wet/dry not even being used with a HOB skimmer on the tank. I wish I would have found a 37G gallon stand that would have fit a decent sump before plumbing this system. Oh well, live and learn. I will be asking questions on how to get a sump on in later threads.

Other than the clown and anenomes, I also wanted to keep some clams in order to filter out some nitrate for my next goal to keep some more delicate SPS thriving in a small system. Being such a small volume of water with no refugium as much nutrient export from inhabitants is going to be necessary. So I had my plan of what animals I wanted to keep, next will come developing this system.

[RocketSeason]

Awsome to see another small Oceanic Cube fan on TalkingReef!

Cant wait to see some pics!

[bubbletip]

After refreshing myself with the wealth of information on the internet on plumbing tanks(and especially after hearing Rob's podcasts on powerheads), I wanted to try out plumbing for myself and definitely wanted a closed loop.

I called many LFS's and glass shops to see if anyone would drill a tank. Nobody would bite and I swear people were even upset for me asking. I said I would sign for full responsibility. Were talking about a $99 tank here. Well after doing some research I discovered drilling a tank is not all that hard if you have the right equipment.

So I bought some:

1. plumbers putty
2. a diamond tipped drill bit from here(1 and 3/8"): http://www.diamond-drill-bit-and-too...lt.htm?DD1.htm
3. and the use of my 12V drill
4. 3/4" bulkheads
I was really timid at first and realized quickly that you do have to apply some pressure in order to cut the glass. Pretty much to the point where you hear it grinding. The first couple holes took me 30 and then 20 minutes because I did not apply much pressure. They came out clean but man does your arm hurt after drilling for 50 minutes. The next two holes came out in less than 10 minutes and were pretty easy to do. Now I am really confident in drilling holes in any tank if need be. If anyone wants more information or more confidence in drilling holes, I would be more than happy to answer.

(all holes were cut to fit 3/4" bulkheads for the pump that I wanted)

So here is a pic of the configuration of holes I came up with but wish I would have done differently:



Reason I say this is because of the current setup for the jets, which I did not vision from the start. I guess you never really know exactly how things will turn out. What I wish I did was cut the two holes(returns from closed loop) by the bottom both on the bottom and a little more spread to the sides as well as the top middle hole(supposed to have been an overflow to a sump - lots of frustration with this hole) a bit farther down maybe 5 or so inches from the top. You can actually see the sump below that was a valiant attempt but just did not work out. Will explain later. The other hole is for the closed loop intake and is exactly where it should be. This was my first plumbing ordeal so bear with me please. I also did not get much guidance in doing this so I did my best. Again I wish I knew about TR earlier as I probably could have gotten some great ideas from everyone. O.K. so that it for the drilling side of designing this tank.

[bubbletip]

As with any reef aquarium the circulation of water acts as the lifeblood for the tank. Without proper circulation many known problems can occur obviously. My previous knowledge on the importance of the flow in our tanks was not the current info. we have all learned(especially for SPS), so I revisited the use of a closed loop for this tank. I think the toughest part of designing this small tank, was trying to keep direct flow off any corals, but still providing enough flow to keep the animals I wanted.

The heart of this system is a Blueline 40-HD(790gph) purchased here:

http://www.championlighting.com/prod...cat=485&page=1

I love this pump, it is very quiet and as I have read, very reliable. Any product that gives out a five year warranty standing behind its performance has got my vote. I definitely did not want a bad heart from the start. Even though I know they are reliable, I will be purchasing a back up in case anything happens.

Instead of having constant flow from this heart and after doing some research, I decided a heartbeat was needed provided by an OceansMotions Squirt 2-way:

http://www.oceansmotions.com/store/p...472d6b88a7c90f

I guess you can say it acts as the atriums and ventricles.

Anyway, after talking with Paul from OceansMotions on designing this tank(he spent many hours with me on a 30G tank - great customer service), I decided to try one of these little babies out.

The veins and arteries of this system are sch40 PVC and 3/4 inch Locline.

[bubbletip]

Now in designing the flow in this tank I was limited in how I plumbed the tank by the placement of the holes that I drilled. I bought a CPR wet/dry filter that I thought would be o.k. to also use a Coralife Super Skimmer 125 as a hang on to the sump. It just did not work. It would equalize the flow but soon would overflow the sump or the tank itself. Without the use of an overflow box, I was not confident with the setup. I wanted to buy a custom overflow to silicone inside the tank bu tit was going ot take too long to wait as the live rock I purchased was ready to go for the tank. As I would love to have a sump, the frustration and a lot of spilled water caused me to stick with this HOB skimmer. It works very well and I have not encountered the microbubble problems others have reported. It is just a matter of folowing the directions in set up. As they say this can be used as a hang on the sump, the pump has to be hanging to far from the intake on the skimmer that it just does not pull up what I am gettign by bringing the pump closer to the intake as a HOB.

This is a picture of the final lay out before gluing the PVC and the OM 2 way after being glued:





As you can see the use of unions and ball valves make it easy for me to either clean/replace both the OM unit and the Blueline pump. Also take notice of the extra space from the closed loop intake right before the pump. The extra inches are in order to prevent cavitation on the pump as it is recommended to have 5x the diameter of the intake(in this case 3/4") in order to prevent cavitation.

See this thread for more info and prior posts:

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2080

My initial thinking and with help from Paul from OM, I started out with one of the returns from the OM PVC inside of the tank split into 2 returns up to the front of the tank under the sand and 45'd back towards the filtration. The concept here is to move water from the front bottom of the tank back towards the top back of the tank to be filtered/skimmed. As I do like this idea, I have found it was not necessary on a tank of this size. I was not thrilled about the flow and felt it was restricted so I immediately changed this design to use one locline tube to the front of the tank and Y-d off to 45's degree angles shooting towards the filtration and aroudn to the closed loop intake. This was much more effective and increased the flow with a single tube. The other return from the OM is right off the back of the tank and aimed towards the corner of the tank creating a wave sweeping over the entire shelf. I have had the tank set up like this up until a few weeks ago when I made the final change.(pics below) If you would like more information on how the flow was made with this system see this thread(several posts down):

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1252





The amount of movement in the tank without directing flow at any corals is just incredible. I have promised a video and will try to get that done asap. You will see a 250W EVC 14 K bulb and EVC ballast(not in picture) inside a Sunlight supply Lumenarc 2 pendant purchased here:

http://oceanencounter.com/Merchant2/...egory_Code=PEN

http://oceanencounter.com/Merchant2/...ory_Code=EVCEB

http://oceanencounter.com/Merchant2/...egory_Code=MHB

I love this ballast and bulb and researched heavily before purchasing my first MH bulb, reflector, and ballast. I read that Dr. Sanjay Joshi uses EVC 10K bulbs and ballasts on his own tanks so I wanted to try the 14k on this tank. The PAR ratings were higher than other 14K single mogul based bulbs I had seen. It gives off an incredible blue color which looks great, but is obviously hard to get accurate color in photographs. Sorry about the pics. The tank looks much better in person.


You can also see my two captive bred percula clownfish that I have had for the last ten years long before Nemo mind you(Ralph and Alice - after the Honeymooners of course) and the first bubbltip anenome I put in the tank. This whole tank was really created to house these beautiful perculas as I felt they deserved it for sticking around so long. Here is a pic of my last 3 bubbletips(the one mother in the middle has already split 5 times since I purchased her).



In the next post I will show the final changes in setting up the returns and future picture will show different configurations for aquascaping as corals were purchased.

[gwen_o_lyn]

Very nice tank!

[bubbletip]

I noticed that the y-d off locline from the front of the tank was not flowing as much as the other return and decided against this configuration. Instead I decided to do the same thing as the wave creating return on the other side. Now both returns are equally powerful creating a wave coming back and forth every 15 seconds or so. Pretty cool stuff. It woudl be best to see this with video and again asap. You will also notice some new rockwork swapped in and a different aquascape as well as a bunch of new corals that I will put into later posts.








Tank inhabitants:

2 captive bred/ tank raised percula clown fish
1 Royal Gramma(Nefertiti) - recently added
1 peppermint shrimp - has eaten all aptasia already
50 Nassarius snails
3 cerith snails
6 astrea snails
6 nerite snails
12 bluel legged(tri color) hermit crabs
6 mexican red legged hermits crabs
1 electric blue hermit crab(less than 1" in size)
1 Emerald crab

2 pocillipora damicornus frags
1 superman montipora frag
1 montipora verucosa frag
1 3" pocillipora sp. aquacultured
1 3" blue-green acropora sp. aquacultured
1 3" yellow-green polyped with purple tips acropora sp. aquacultured
1 Green Euphyllia Divisa frag w/ 2 heads(left over as my very first coral ten years ago originally from my 65G)
1 acropora rosaria frag
3 Green bubble tip anenomes
1 blue green 4.5" Crocea clam
1 turqouise(from top) purpl from below 3" crocea clam
1 1.5" squamosa clam

I will post some picture of the inhabitants in later threads.

[bubbletip]

Thanks Gwen,

I am working on it. You got any tips on taking picture under a 14K bulb?

[gwen_o_lyn]

Skip the flash, and use a tripod. Adjust the white balance? Maybe listen to the photography podcast?

I'm not very good at photos....

[bubbletip]

My latest pictures are without flash. I am using a tripod, but it is still hard to stop the fish in midswim at such a low shutter speed. I have tried setting the white balance so many different ways. The bluest spectrum on and DSLR's in Kelvin rating is 10K so I don't think they are capapble unless I shoot all RAW files. That would create some enormous files and use up all my premium member gallery space. I love the blue look, but may swap out the reflector for a PC combo(actinics) with an EVC 10K bulb. Photography is my other hobby but taking pictures of tanks is much more difficult than what I usually shoot.

[gwen_o_lyn]

You know much more about this than I do!!

My cameras aren't that high tech. One of them will shoot TIFF, but I'm mostly lost when I use that camera.

[wildeone]

Bubbletip, this is a great journal. You plumbing looks impecable and your design is great. The one thing I have struggles with in my tank is the flow. I don't like the flow patterns that I have and I am looking for a better solution.

Keep up the great stuff!

[CarmieJo]

Jim,

Can you adjust the ISO on your canera? I usually use 800 for my tank shots.

[V]

bubble, love the cube bud, fantastic effort to raise that off the ground!
equiptment is sweet, and the set-up returns are blended well, still looks to be a noticable amount of bubbles in suspension though. id still keep an eye on where it collects on the rock work! although from what you say uve covered that base with great flow patterns. once again, out standing effort our bubble warrior

[bubbletip]

Thank you Wild One, Veriann, and CarmieJ,

Only time will tell. I have heard a couple reports of people's OM's that stop working. I have no idea how they plumbed their tanks though. Sometimes when plumbing, those extra bends and choice of piping can cause cavitation which may wear on their OM units. Personally, they may have other problems in the tank causing buildup in the unit and eventually stopping it from turning. That is why I want to buy a replacement. Not because I think I have buildup, but just in case. I just love the flow and so do the corals and fish. My Acros polyp all day long, the bubbletips actually look like bubbletips and the fish love swimming in these currents.

CJ,

I am shooting ISO 400 and could shoot ISO 800. The problem is the blue glow that is inherant in any 14K bulb. I don't think my cameras meter can handle it. I am going to try shooting RAW with a white balance card and jpeg with custom white balance using a gray card to see if that works out.

Veriann,

The micro bubbles do come out especially after I clean out the skimmer but it settles after a while. I have a close eye on bubbles adhering to rock and corals and have not seen a problem. I guess the amount of flow has kept the bubbles from adhering.

Wild One,

When I decided to change the returns I thought about how I would do this on a bigger tank. First I would use a 4 way OM unit on any tank 3ft or longer. Second I would recommend if possible getting a tank pre-drilled from the bottom of the tank to put two reduced(1" PVC to 3/4") locline nozzles. This would keep piping out of the tank and hopefully create a higher flow rate. Also, even if you had dual overflows(1 per side), each of these returns would be aimed at your overlow boxes. I would expect crystal clear water as the majority of the water will be going through your filtration. I think the biggest problem people have with not getting enough skimmate is not providing the skimmer with the majority of the water consistently going through the filtration. Usually, their are dead spots in the tank and this water is not being filtered out. Obviously I would recommend a pump suitable for the tank size. The other two returns I would recommend doing the same as my current setup running up the corners of the tank creating these waves. What is important about this? Gas Exchange!!! First I don't have to have a return at the top pushing water to the sand in order to agitate the surface. Second, the two returns will always be creating gas exchange by running up the corners and agitating the surface. I suppose you can do this without an OM unit. The only difference is it will not be as random as it would be with the OM.

More pics to come.

[bubbletip]

The main reason I wanted to revive this thread was to show some video of some type of spawning event that occured in the cube several days ago. It was about an hour before lights out and I started to notice some tiny little specks all over the tank. Recently, I started feeding Roti Feast by Reed Mariculture after winning a bottle in a raffle along with some Phyto at a CMAS club meeting where Randy Reed was presenting on 9/22/07. Very down to earth and answered all questions. There facility holds 2,500,000 gallons of saltwater. Yes, folks - millions Pretty cool stuff. He talked about some new products that are coming out including some red puff ball macroalgae for tangs. He really hit home with his philosophy on feeding with bottles as opposed to the typical frozen packaging we all know and love. Basically it is grab the bottle from the fridge, gulp, gulp, gulp into a collection cup with a small convenient opening in the cap to easily dose your tank. I have been using their phytopheast product over the past year and have aded a couple bottles of tiggerpods into the cube as well. I dose phyto every other day typically 15 minutes before the lights go out. Sometimes if I am up at night I will dose in the dark so everything in the tank can benefit from it. I really like the idea of holding 6 species of microalgae in one convenient storable bottle. I know every sized animal is getting some of the best microalgae strains available and for a very reasonable cost, more so if you buy bigger bottles.

Again, I just started feeding Roti Feast, which is a bottle of:

"5 million rotifers in the 6 ounce bottle, and 14 million rotifers in the 16 ounce bottle (Brachionus plicatilis, 150-275 microns) and millions eggs (40-75 microns), gut-packed with Phyto-Feast."*

* qoute from Reef Nutrition Website located here:

Roti-Feast

Again a very easy feed great for hard corals and any zooplankton loving animals. Dosing your refugium with a combination turkey baster/syringe device of Roti & Phyto Feast is a great mix. Being only a couple weeks of trying this combination I have certainly witnessed a spawning event in the tank. I was really unsure of what took place even after going to bed. Basically it just looked like thousands of little specs grouping together in three different parts of the tank up in the corners. When I first noticed them the pumps were on and they filled the whole water column. Basically I was skimming them out as they went through the plumbing down to the sump. I quickly turned off all the pumps and after the water settled I can see these huge groupings of what I now know to be little microshrimp of some kind. Unfortunatley I did not have a magnifying glass or I could probably give a better id. I will certainly be getting one. The last few nights when I looked into the tank I am seeing hundreds of different sized microshrimp swimming around. I use a red LED head lamp you can buy at Home Depot - pretty geeky but works great. You can notice towards the end of the video as it is clearer the little buggers kind of swimming around in the front right corner of the tank. The video is a little choppy and not much in focus for most of it. When something like this happens you really feel rushed to capture it before it is gone. At least that is what I was thinking at the time.

Well here you go, a little spawning event in my 30g cube.

Video of Spawning? - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

They were definitely not clown fish eggs as they were too small and I definitely have not seen my 11-12 year old clowns lay eggs in a long time. I thought maybe the Reef Nutrition Roti Feast eggs may have hatched? But after seeing the little ciliated shrimp did I realize the Roti Feast could have quite possibly bloomed a big swarm of little zooplankton into the system.

I have to say if it happened one hour later I would have been in bed and my skimmer would have pulled the majority of them out. I wondered if these events could have taken place similarly in the past. Shortly after I took the video I fed more Roti-Feast and PhytoFeast and kept the skimmer off for the night. Three days later I shined an LED on the side of the tank and was pretty shocked at how many critters were swimming over the substrate, tank corners, back glass, rock and at the base of the sand. I then realized that this kind of event could not have occured in the past with the visual numbers of new life that entered the water column. I had not seen a bloom of life at night since the first 4-5 months of starting this cube. The only thing I had changed really was the feed I was using. Now I have little buggers swimming all over the sand and live rock of this 30g cube with no refugium. Pretty cool stuff
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I started a new link as Rob would have wanted to share this event somewhere other than on my 30g thread. I still wanted to document it here to record it and to revive my old tank build.

I am hoping if poeple have questions, insight, or experiences with the Reed Mariculture products, tha they would visit the other thread to share that information with everyone. Thank you

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/ge...html#post60523
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I want to mention in no way am I affilitated with Randy Reed or Reed Mariculture. I really enjoyed listening to Randy Reed speak and be able to ask him direct questions about the Roti Feast product. I love the Reef Nutrition products and thank them for brigning life back into my reef.

Jim Memije(bubbletip)
__________________)

[bubbletip]

Here are some pics I took yesterday of some progress in the cube. This originally green staghorn quickly developed blue tips and over the last week has been getting bluer by the day and all the way down the stalks. I now have a turqouise staghorn with green polyps. Pretty cool stuff. My pink stylophora has laso colored up wonderfully and is now developing green polyps itself. Other color changes have happened with other corals as well. I currently have a darg greyish brown acropora nobilis that on some days has appeared purple. It is now covered with ice blue tips as well. Enjoy!

Here is a shot from 8/5/07: It has grown at least two inches from then as well.



And here it was yesterday when I really noticed the blue had streched all the way down the stalks...







and here are a couple others...

[bubbletip]

Here are a couple of my porcelein crab. I got two and this one was the only one that made it Very interesting crab and has not bothered much of anything in the tank. I obviously add a lot of zooplankton/small particulate into the tank so this porcelein crab just perches somewhere and waves its fans to filter out the nutrients in the water. These shots were taken off the back glass of the cube on his favorite perch(the bulkhead ring).

[bubbletip]

I have made a few changes over the year in terms of plumbing a sump that I had bought for it but could net get to flow right. It is the smallest CPR Wet/Dry sump and fits perfectly underneath the stand. The skimmer is obviously below the cube now as well and hangs right off the edge of the sump. This had really opened up the tank for more coral. In such a small tank, different aquascapes were necessary to accommodate corals and the anemones of course. I still have my mother bubble and two little pico bubbles that have grown from .5" to 2" in diameter.

A list of current corals include -

Blue Acropora sp. - very nice coral keeping its form and its blue zooxanthalle - introduced 4.5 months ago

Green Acropora sp.? - bushy type acro that has now turned a yellow/tan? color in the branches but kept the green polyps - it also has purple tips now. introduced 3.5 months ago

Blue Acropora sp. - with purple rings on the tips and green polyps - has some aqua in the branches - my favorite coral in the cube. - Added about 1 year ago to the date.

Green polyped Pocillipora Damicornus(had three - 1 is now in my 156g as a starter coral) - the large piece stemmed from a 1" y-d off piece you can see in on the front of the tank in one of the original pictures) - that piece broke off giving me 2 - 2" round pieces and a just about baseball size colony which will eventually go into the 156g - it was the first SPS introduced into the cube as a starter coral and has thrived for sure. Added a little bit more than a year ago.

Seriatipora sp. - nice frag(4" - came off a 12" x12" colony from Mike Leonard's TOTM - definitely looks like a colony in the cube though. Beautiful coral - has lime green tips. - added 2 months ago

2 - Orange Montipora digitata - I love these corals as they are like my gauge for how well the tank is doing. Even when all the corals look fine, these change color from time to time showing me that if it is light orange almost looking pink - it is not getting enough nutrients and if it is bright orange they are getting plenty of nutrients and in the process I see a positive difference in the other coral in the cube. Added 2 months ago

Purple Encrusting Montipora sp.(Witch Hat) - this is one of my favorite corals in the cube - introduced about 3.5 months ago it has already grown/encrusted an inch and a half all the way around the original disk. This coral apparently can be quite sensitive with the potential to brown out. This witch hat has purpled up quite a bit since I first got it. Added about 3.5 months ago. Most of the growth occurred in the last two months.

Acropora nobilis - A Dark grey(sometimes looks purplish) with ice blue tips. This coral was in my favorite store for SPS coral(Sho Tank Aquariums) for at least a month when I first saw it. Yeah it does not have the pop of a blue acro or a bright bali green slimer but it has a lot of character and a wonderful growth form. I have a feeling when moved to the big display that this will be one of my favorite coral. Introduced about 2.5 months ago.

Pink Stylophora pistillata - this is also one of my favorites as well and a huge gauge as well to how the tank is doing. This coral is so sensitive that the slightest variation in PH will cause it to close up its polyps. If the temp gets too warm or too cool(a rarity in the cube) it will do the same. Not enough nutrients and the coral looks paler pink. Right now it is hot pink and starting to grow green polyps. I kind of saved this coral as it was much lighter pink. Others in the store had partially browned out already and this one was starting to. Very cool. It has grown an inch in the last 2 months - not bad growth. The color is amazing! Introduced about 4.5 months ago.

Green Euphyllia Divisa - This is the very first coral I have ever owned. I sold off to a local LFS my last two 8 and 12 headed branch pieces(Advanced Aquatics - I have know Glenn almost since the beginning - my E.S.V. vendor). I kept a two head(1" each) piece after I took down the 65g and started the cube - it has not grown much because I have it kind of tucked away but is alive and healthy.

Turquoise Acropora sp. - certainly a branching staghorn that was purchased with 2" branches and it was dark forest green. Over the last week this coral has completely changed color stretching its ice blue tips all the way down the branches and being the dominant zooxanthalle now inhabiting the coral. This coral has appeared blue before but really has stuck out over the last several days. It has now grown branches that are 6" long and has been in the cube for approximately 4.5 months.

Acanasthrea sp. - this was also a big surprise finding it at Sho Tank sitting there for at least 6 weeks before I broke down and bought it. I cannot believe noone scooped it up - I did not have $80 at the time and also left me waiting several weeks before bringing it home. It has a lavender color and bluish grey polyps. It has definitely grown some heads since I bought it and I currently count approximately 75 heads. I have seen prices on these corals for rare varieties upwards of $30-$40 per headIntroduced 3.5 months ago.

There is a great article on fragging "acans" here -

"Frag" of the Month - September 2007 - Propagating Acanthastrea by Agu Lukk - Reefkeeping.com

Acropora SP. - Blue Table acro from Mike's TOTM - I gave one 5 branched frag to the guy that put in a 20 amp circuit for my large display and kept 2 pieces one small frag and another 4" frag that will eventually go in the big display. I guess blue "table" acros are somewhat rare according to Mike. It also has nice green polyps.

Green Montipora sp. - This is one of my favorites frags that Mike had given me - it is a really lime green branching montipora certainly not digitata. It grows branches that look like toadstools on the top. It cracked off of Mike large piece and he was kind enough to give me this 2" piece. This will certainly be one of my favorites and is definitely going in the big display.

Some other notable coral frags that Mike gave me include:

Yellow w/ blue tips and green rings and polyps - a piece of the coral that actually spawned in his tank along with his huge squamosa.

Purple staghorn sp.
Green Montipora digitata
a different yellow with green polyped acropora sp.
an orange Montipora capricornus - nice growth form
Bali Green Slimer
Olive green acro sp.- staghorn type

there is also some Red Sea hitchhiker Xenia that has grown underneath my turquoise staghorn.

The majority of the colonies will be moved into the large display in the next couple months. This cube will be set up as a holding tank for newly acquired coral and possible small fish.

other inhabitants -

turquoise blue tridacna Crocea
Six Line Wrasse
2 - 12 year old clownfish
Flame Hawkfish - gets bullied all the time
Royal gramma
Cerith, Nerite, Nassarius snails - no astreas survived(lunch for the blue legged crabs)
Scarlet,blue legged, and mexican red legged hermit crabs - no more blue leggers for me - mexican red legs are great - will even eat hair algae - scarlets have never bothered a thing.
orange linkia starfish
porcelain crab
emerald crab

[bubbletip]

Some inhabitants that did not make it over the last year:

peppermint shrimp - lived for 8 months - probably the hawkfish

electric blue hermit crab - kicked out of the tank months ago - pestered every coral

3" yellow-green polyped with purple tips - acropora sp. - first victim to go in the tank after the heat went to 84.5 maybe highter - I came home from a conference and found it bleached.


superman montipora frag - frag never had a chance


montipora verucosa frag - frag lasted a while and then left rtn'd after a vacation.


3" pocillipora sp. aqua cultured - this coral actually started out slightly pink - then went totally brown and then started to coem back pink before it finally bleached- still had its polyps for a month or so before totally dieing.


1.5" squamosa clam - baby clam didn't have a chance


1 blue green 4.5" Crocea clam - not sure what happened - maybe not getting enough light.


A couple times going on vacation for a couple days I had come back to some corals that had rtn'd and a clam gone. The tank temp would read 84.5 and I would ask my girlfriend what happened. Now I do not trust just running a fan only when the lights are on - I use a reefkeeper 2 to have the fan literally control the temp within 1 degree throughout the day with one fan. Best piece of equipment I have ever had for my tanks.

Recently a yellow granulosa I had just started rtn'ng. All parameters were fine in the tank - no other corals were affected. I guess some corals just know when it is their time to go. I tried saving it to no avail by fragging it - the coral frag rtn'd as well. Oh well.

Well there you have the current and deceased tank inhabitants. We all have inhabitants leave us which is the unfortunate truth. I have learned from my mistakes and have become a more knowledgeable reefkeeper because if it. Smal tanks are difficult and need much attention. After the losses(probaly all within one month - I stopped introducing inhabitants for about 4 months - got the tank where it needed to be with lots of attention. Over that 4 months I was not surfing the forums much at all and really focused on my photography. Over all things have been going pretty well and everything seems to be thriving - Some pics will follow for sure...

[thesaent14]

i relly like your cube is really nice

[bubbletip]

i relly like your cube is really nice

Thank you for the complement

I will try and get some additional coral pics and full tank shots in the next couple days

[bubbletip]

Here are some recent shots I took of the cube:





This is the Acro Nobilis I mentioned in the previous post on the left. It has looked purple some days. It has grown all of the ice blue tips after being introduced to the cube.



What a find? These LPS Acans have been selling for a huge price - sometimes $20-$30 a polyp. I was able to grab this coral for $80 and can't even count how many polyps there are. This coral was inthe LFS for a month and a half or so before I broke down and grabbed it. I can't beleive it did not get scooped up.



You would think this Flame Hawk would bully the tank but it has been the exact opposite. He is put in his place continually. Great additon to the tank and a lot of personality.



This Green Poci started out as a 1/2 inch frag that broke off a 1" frag. It is now the size of a baseball 1 year later. It was the first SPS introduced to the cube.


The majority of the coral you see will be introduced to the main display. This cube will act as a quarantine tank mostly for corals and frags.

[Danamck]

Gorgeous tank Jim. The corals and fish all look stunning. At the growth rates you're seeing, you're gonna need a bigger tank soon!

[bubbletip]

Gorgeous tank Jim. The corals and fish all look stunning. At the growth rates you're seeing, you're gonna need a bigger tank soon!

I totally agree, which is why I started the 156g tank. I have a thread outlining the build of that tank here:

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/me...nant-tank.html

Like I said the majority of the coral will be transferred over. I have laready sampled severla SPS frags int he big display and all are doing well.

Thanks for the kind words Dan!