27 Gallon Cube

pelphrey · Feb 22, 2016

I signed up for [HASHTAG]#MyAquariumBox[/HASHTAG] last month, this is a subscription based service that sends out either a freshwater $24.99 or a saltwater $29.99 box once a month full of various goodies. A group of guys on YouTube teamed up and created the service. Each box is shipped out in the middle of each month, if you sign up after the 5th of each month you will get the next months box. In addition if you upload an unboxing video to YouTube you are entered into a monthly contest they run for the MegaBox. Last months freshwater winner won a canister filter and the salt water winner won a LED light both by Marineland.

If you are interested in checking them out the website is below -
http://myaquariumbox.com/

pelphrey · Feb 22, 2016

Package arrived Friday -

Florida Cerith - 8
Nassarius Vibex - 4
Nerite Snail - 12
Reef Pods - 1

Editing full video review at the moment. Will be up by Sunday!

Excellent communication and top notch shipping. John emailed me almost right away to let me know my order did go through. Will be ordering from @reefcleaners again!

Thanks!

pelphrey · Feb 23, 2016

Picture heavy! I need to start gluing some of the frags in their spots.

I did add the shroud back to the light fixture in an attempt to prevent light from hitting my skimmer and other chambers. I may also add the clamp back to the fixure so I can easily remove it and lower it some more. I haven't seen enourmous growth in the cheato but it is looking healthy and green! I do have to flip it once a day.

Time to change the poly filter pad, I also need to add a few snails to the fuge. There is no mechanical filtration going into the fuge so it does get dirty pretty quickly.

I am battling some hair algae on some zoa frags. I am running carbon in a mesh bag as well as Carbon & GFO in the @Bulk Reef Supply Mini reactor. I do weekly 10 gallon water changes. I read that I can do a 50/50 dtop in tank water and peroxide. I have a nice mix of snails I picked up from @reefcleaners I've read multiple threads about hermits, some say they eat coral some say they don't. The hair algae isn't really bad at the moment, so I want to try to contain it the best that I can now.

Open to any suggestions?

The ricordea that was attaching my scoly -

Scoly looks A LOT better, but still healing -

pelphrey · Feb 24, 2016

Time to reload the carbon and GFO in the @Bulk Reef Supply Mini Reactor!

White tipped hammer split. Need to do some research on fragging this thing -

White%20Tipped%20Hammer%20Split_zpsblpmse0s.jpg

B2MD · Feb 24, 2016

Great thread! I'm in the process of rebuilding my 30 gallon and adding a overflow with the Eshospps nano sump. Quick questions...Where did you get the second overflow box you ended up installing? Did you drill 1 inch holes to set up your Herbie overflow? Did your Syncra 1.5 return pump give you sufficient return when you switched over to the Eshopps sump? Thanks for sharing your build! I will be following along!

pelphrey · Feb 25, 2016

B2MD said:
Great thread! I'm in the process of rebuilding my 30 gallon and adding a overflow with the Eshospps nano sump. Quick questions...Where did you get the second overflow box you ended up installing? Did you drill 1 inch holes to set up your Herbie overflow? Did your Syncra 1.5 return pump give you sufficient return when you switched over to the Eshopps sump? Thanks for sharing your build! I will be following along!

Thanks for checking it out! I got the overflow box off of ebay. I installed my bulkhead from the hold I drilled first and held the box in place in order to figure out where I needed my 2nd hole. The box was less than $20. I used krazy glue to first install the overflow and followed up with black silicone around the outer edges and as far inside as I could get. The down side is when I installed the 90's inside the bulkheads the box fit perfect. But there is no way to remove the bulkheads without taking the box off... If I can get it off the tank since I glued it! It's been running for 6 months now with zero issues.

The bulkheads are 1" bulkheads, I can't remember if the bit was 1 3/4" or 1 7/8". The bulk heads came from @Bulk Reef Supply and they have a chart that will tell you the bit you need.

It took my a few weeks to get the correct amount of water in the sump with the sicce 1.5. At first I thought it was the filter sock and mesh pieces in the sump that was restricting flow. All I needed to do was add more water to the sump to correct the flow error. I'm also running the PSK-75 skimmer so that will consume some of the water volume in the sump. And last I am running the @Bulk Reef Supply Mini Reactor and that also will take about a cup of water out of the sump. For the reactor I am pulling water out of the skimmer section, running it through the reactor and pumping it into the return chamber.

It is also worth noting I had to cut the sump for it to work, as I had not initially planned to use this sump it was easier for me to modify the sump than to modify my plumbing. My emergency drain is plumbed into my return section just to ensure my return pump doesn't run dry. With such a small water volume to begin with the Sicce 1.5 is working perfect for me. I may eventually T off the return and use the Sicce to return water to my display as well as run my reactor.

B2MD · Feb 25, 2016

pelphrey said:
Thanks for checking it out! I got the overflow box off of ebay. I installed my bulkhead from the hold I drilled first and held the box in place in order to figure out where I needed my 2nd hole. The box was less than $20. I used krazy glue to first install the overflow and followed up with black silicone around the outer edges and as far inside as I could get. The down side is when I installed the 90's inside the bulkheads the box fit perfect. But there is no way to remove the bulkheads without taking the box off... If I can get it off the tank since I glued it! It's been running for 6 months now with zero issues.

The bulkheads are 1" bulkheads, I can't remember if the bit was 1 3/4" or 1 7/8". The bulk heads came from @Bulk Reef Supply and they have a chart that will tell you the bit you need.

It took my a few weeks to get the correct amount of water in the sump with the sicce 1.5. At first I thought it was the filter sock and mesh pieces in the sump that was restricting flow. All I needed to do was add more water to the sump to correct the flow error. I'm also running the PSK-75 skimmer so that will consume some of the water volume in the sump. And last I am running the @Bulk Reef Supply Mini Reactor and that also will take about a cup of water out of the sump. For the reactor I am pulling water out of the skimmer section, running it through the reactor and pumping it into the return chamber.

It is also worth noting I had to cut the sump for it to work, as I had not initially planned to use this sump it was easier for me to modify the sump than to modify my plumbing. My emergency drain is plumbed into my return section just to ensure my return pump doesn't run dry. With such a small water volume to begin with the Sicce 1.5 is working perfect for me. I may eventually T off the return and use the Sicce to return water to my display as well as run my reactor.

Great information! Thanks so much! Keep the updates coming on your tank. Best of luck.

pelphrey · Feb 29, 2016

I needed some assorted snails and pods for my 27 gallon nano reef tank. I did a lot of research and read about a lot of companies. The one that stood out the most was Reef Cleaners ( http://www.reefcleaners.org ). I never read anything negative about this site or company. I placed my order on a Monday afternoon, Monday evening John emailed me confirming he received my order and when it would ship out. Sure enough I got an email on the day he said it would ship out with acclimation procedures as well as tracking. The package shipped out of Florida on Wednesday afternoon and was on my door step in Kentucky on Friday afternoon. The box was shipped out USPS Priority Mail, some items on their site do require over night shipping.

Florida Cerith Qty 8 Price $.060 Total $4.80
Nassarius Vibex Qty 4 Price $0.45 Total $1.80
Nerite Snail Qty 12 Price $0.75 Total $9.00
Reef Pods Qty 1 Price $13.00 Total $13.00

Priority Mail $9.50

Total - $38.10

I highly recommend Reef Cleaners and if you need anything at all contact John or check them out on Reef2Reef -
http://reef2reef.com/forums/reefcleaners.444/
https://www.reefcleaners.org/

pelphrey · Mar 4, 2016

Woke up this morning and went downstairs to check on the tank. It's part of my daily routine, I want to check the sump level and just eye ball everything. I noticed a smear on the glass, I looked down and somehow one of the snails climbed over the rim on my tank and was climbing its way up my stand. I plucked him from the stand and dropped him back into the water. I am running a strainer on my drain line, but my emergency drain is wide open. I bought some ABS plastic a few weeks ago. I think I may expedite making a lid for my overflow box!

I added a few snails to my fuge and they always climb out, I grab them and put them back in the water. No telling how long they have been out of the water, but they all seem to rebound really well!

NHreefguy · Mar 5, 2016

Looks good dude, I have the same tank. Its a big little tank haha

pelphrey · Mar 5, 2016

NHreefguy said:
Looks good dude, I have the same tank. Its a big little tank haha

Thanks for the kind words. I really do like the foot print of this tank!

pelphrey · Mar 5, 2016

Sit back and relax... While viewing my nano reef! Finally a video with coral in it. I picked up all of these pieces all at once from a local craigslist find. At one point the ric stretched out and got a hold of the scoly, it if doing a lot better now! The zoa's have really taken off and I need to add a few more colors to the rock.

As always thanks for following my build thread and watching my YouTube videos!

NHreefguy · Mar 6, 2016

pelphrey said:
Sit back and relax... While viewing my nano reef! Finally a video with coral in it. I picked up all of these pieces all at once from a local craigslist find. At one point the ric stretched out and got a hold of the scoly, it if doing a lot better now! The zoa's have really taken off and I need to add a few more colors to the rock.

As always thanks for following my build thread and watching my YouTube videos!

That toadstool is sweet!

pelphrey · Mar 9, 2016

It is much happier in its new location!

pelphrey · Mar 12, 2016

In this video I show you all of the "things" I have collected over the last few years. Some of it I could throw away, other stuff I need and some stuff I keep just in case. I am sure everyone does the same thing and my case me be mild to a lot of you. Having gone through it I find stuff I didn't know I had and other things I could use right now. I do occasionally make the mistake of ordering something I already own because it is thrown inside of a box I rarely ever get into!

pelphrey · Mar 14, 2016

Coloring up nicely!

This has always been orange, now all of a sudden it has some green on it -

I tried to get the best shot that I could. This is off the same rock as the ricordea as above. 2 little babies -

pelphrey · Mar 15, 2016

[HASHTAG]#MyAquariumBox[/HASHTAG] March Salt Water Unboxing

Excuse the horrible camera angle. I wanted to record this raw and unedited. After I saw the camera shots I almost redid the video, however I decided not to because I knew my level of excitement would be different.