3x3 Cube - My Frag Journal

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Got back into the hobby a few months ago and decided to start a thread over here also . The start of this build can be seen in my thread over at RC if you chose. I'll migrate some progression photos over here. Enjoy!

Old pic of half of my old tank, never took pictures after that.

Main System:
Tank: 3'x3'x22" secondhand broken tank
Sump: 6'x2'x16" 3 baffled sump (Yes, my sump is bigger than my display)
Skimmer: SWC 230A Skimmer powered by a laguna 1350
Dosing: MTC Minical Calcium Reactor /w Custom Dual Stage Regulator
Return Pump : Laguna 2400
Flow: Ecotech Mp40 Gen 1, Jebao RW-15 @ W1 Mode, Jebao RW-8 and a 3/4" Sea Swirl
Brain: Apex Aquacontroller
Lighting is always being changed, currently running DIY T5/LED. Before today, things were being grown under a 400W Radium.

QT System:

After struggling with AEFW in my previous tank years ago and quitting, I was determined to never introduce pest into my system this time around. All frags are purchased at one time and placed into my QT system for 6 weeks. They are dipped every 4 days 3x after receiving the coral then examined for the next 2-3 weeks before a final dip and moved into the display.

Tank: 4'x2'x14"
Skimmer: Reef Octopus 180
Flow: Jebao RW-8 on ELSE
Temp: Eheim 250W Jager controlled by a Ranco
Dosing: ESV 2- Part Manual.

 

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Building the stand:

Parts list for DIY Stand:
Makita Circular Saw (My first saw!) $139.00
9x 2x4 $35
1x Sheet of ply $17
4x8 3/4" Foam Sheet $20
A box of 3" deck screw $12
4' Empire Magnetic Level $30

Total cost came out to around $220. The stand itself cost around $60.

 

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12/5/15
Spent the next day moving small parts over and got ready to tackle the lighting project. LET's Miro-4 T5 kit was fairly easy to setup, I think I spent more timing untangling the bundle of wire then actually assembling the kit. Please excuse the ugliness on canopy, basically just test mounting to see how the light spreads and what position everything so be at.

Honestly, the best color to my eye was just a 400w radium with no supplement lighting. Might be different once I see how the corals look underneath MH/T5.

Oh yeah, also got the side piece of glass painted black. I purchased semi-gloss but would recommend going with a glossy black, semi-gloss is just too flat looking still.

From this

To this

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Just to show you guys how unlevel the floors were. It took me almost 2 hrs to level out the whole stand. My cuts were always just slightly off and if I wedged it in, one of the other shims would be off balance. I placed shims about every 2ft so should be strong enough to hold the weight of any tanks placed on it.

Water is in!

Stand nice and leveled.

 

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Well probably the most important update yet. Gave the tank a leak test and glad to say there was none.

The aquascape will consist of maybe 2-3 pieces. I've collected these pieces for a long time in anticipation for a tank like this.

Funny that they look so small in the tank. Don't mind the other rocks, they are just there to aid the spread of bacteria in the display.

What the planned scape should look like

The layers and levels for multiple sps mounting on the right rock.

What the tank looks like IRL /w 400w Radiums + 2x Blue PLus 1x Super Purple and 1x Super Actinic

 

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And my favorite piece. The light coloration and transition from blue to purple is just so eyecatching. These are true to life colors in full daylights under my ati sunpower with 3x blue + 1x acticnic blue and 2x super purple bulbs.

 

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My tank has been riddled with nit/phos/algae etc for way too long so I did something most people would think is crazy. I moved in most of my acros from my QT to help compensate for the elevated nutrient levels.

Crappy cell phone vid:
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Dont think you guys can notice in the the video but most of the SPS that were introduced into the system early on have grown and are slowly improving in color.

Added another 30 mexican turbo snails to the tank so hopefully everything will be cleaned up in the next 2 weeks. Can't wait to show you guys my latest additions in the next post.[/QUOTE]

 

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Got a topdown box from s2k (thanks!) so here are some quick pics from my cellphone.

One of the first corals placed into the tank, colors are improving daily on this. Still one of my faves. The frag on the bottom is Paletta's Pink Tip staghorn which I received pretty much competely white. It's gotten most of it's skin back

Ora Frogskin. Pics don't seem accurate at all. In person, it's a bright neon green like seen in the youtube video. Oh well.

These two frags have been covered with hair algae and dino for weeks! I'm suprised they have kept their color in those conditions. The AquaSD Rainbow base is completely ****ed off, need some snail love asap. The Purple Monster on the other hand was completely cleaned once the snails were introduced. They must have known to take care of my preciousssssss.......

Best blue acro hands down, the Oregon Tort! Doesn't look as awesome from the side but it'll get there..

The bling $$$$. Reef Raft Crazy T Monti. :crazy1:

 

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Pink Lemonade in my frag tank under T5s.

ORA Blue Iris. A hard piece to come by and was the piece that took longest to adjust to my tank. Talking about no polyp extension for 3+ weeks then another month until any growth happened. Once it settled, it's been growing nicely. You can see the part where I "fragged" is outgrowing the original piece. The different shades of yellow it has while transitioning is really cool.

The yummy skimmate pulled out from my tank every 3 days. I love pouring it down the kitchen sink and making the whole house smell

 

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It's been a eventful and good week for me. Most of the hair algae has been wiped out, the dino has completely cleared and I'm just dealing with some cyano hopefully as the last phase of this algae thing.

My buddy's(Billyzbear) tank so successful with his DIY LED/T5 fixture, I am going to give it a shot. The 400w Radium had no issue coloring up my colors or making them grow, the only issue I experienced from the color shift due to overdriving the bulbs. Due to the size Lumenbright Large reflector, it was difficult to retrofit any sort of supplemental lighting to offset the yellowness of the bulb I was experiencing. Eventually I'm sure I will go back to back to MH but for now I'm going to enjoy the venture into LEDS.

Currently running 3x diy led fixture with about 21x bulb each, 1x Geisseman Actinic blue, 1x ATI B+, 1x Coral +, 1x Fiji Purple. this seems to recreate that beautiful purple I love when the radiums are warming up. I am missing about 3" coverage in the front and rear so I plan on building 1-2 more LED strips to fill out the tank.

I experienced some difference in the color of coral such as the oregon tort that I really hate. Under MH, the OT is the bluest most beautiful blue. Under LED, it's a ugly green bule thing. The majority of other corals are looking better then ever due to the RB LEDS.

Enough talk, here are some practice shots using the T3i, a zoom lens and no tripod.

Laker Scroll Coral - A beautiful coral in my eyes and fitting for a SPS reef.

Tyree LE OG Purple Monster

Oregon Tort

Atlantis Shades of Fall V1 aka Atlantis Pink Lemonade

Garret's Carduus

Reef Raft Godzilla

 

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WWC Little Red Ferrari

Unique Corals Pikachu

Just stuff on a frag rack..

The current FTS.

 

[spartanman22]

Is that some type of hybrid tang? Some scopas hybrid?

 

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Is that some type of hybrid tang? Some scopas hybrid?

Yes, exactly what type of hyrbid I'm unsure of. I picked him when he was jut a half dollar size 4 years ago. When he gets in fight mode, he turns completely black.

 

[spartanman22]

He is gorgeous good find! Scopas tangs are my favorite! Highly underrated IMO.

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[acropora4u]

Looks awesome!

 

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I was able to do one of the things this weekend I missed most about the hobby. I got to attend a frag swap! Well, not the traditional backyard fragswap but MAX, murine aquarium x po. Got to see a bunch of old faces and bs for about 2 days about reefin. Fun times! Anyways here a few corals I've added to my collection.

Some sexy rainbow to starts. Shot under t5 - 5xblue+ 1x Coral Plus

Blasto flubbers..

 

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OG Rouge Millie - Ran into the buddy who gave me my QT tank at the show. Promptly asked him if he had this coral at home. He reaches into his bag, pulls out a coral and smiles. :celeb2:

LHA Gold Rush Millie - It's probably one of my new favorite pieces. The picture is pretty spot on in terms of the yellow but wasn't able to capture much of the gold bleeding into yellow with zig zags of green.

All Delight Something - Horrida?

Reef Raft Rainbow Passion

Reef Raft Pretty in Pink - A pink tenuis. Yas please.

 

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Wishntoboutside Blueberry Fields

Pink Pankther

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