50g Cube Build

TheEngineer · Dec 23, 2015

Bensadork said:
The tank looks like it is coming together quite nicely. Have you gotten that list of fish yet? The only reason I am asking is because you may want to reconsider buying a pair of bengaii cardinalfish. They are beautiful fish and I bought 2 of them a couple of months ago and they got along ok for the first couple of weeks. After that, one of the bangaiis started bullying the other one. Shortly after, my bigger clown started to bully the same fish. Next thing you know, I only have one bangaii cardinalfish. I would suggest buying 1 or 3. I could be mistaken and it all may work out for your tank though, just throwing in my experience.

Thanks! I haven't bought any of the fish yet. I'm still settling on the list. I've had pajama cardinals in the past without issue as a pair. Are banghai's different? Maybe I just got lucky before since they became a mated pair.

Bensadork · Dec 23, 2015

Honestly, I could not give you an educated answer to that question at all. I am still on my first reef tank and I am still very new to the community. I just know that I wanted some Bangaiis and I went and bought them. The pair I got did not work out. Just from that experience I would expect the same results from pajamas as well. But, like I said every tank is different and you could very easily luck out and get a pair that turns into a mating pair and you get to fully enjoy watching the life and times of a mouth breeder.

Bensadork · Dec 23, 2015

or is it brooder......eh you know what i mean

TheEngineer · Dec 23, 2015

I got advice on the list in the giant thread where you can ask and I think they actually said to go from a trio to a duo because they would kill the third.

Bensadork · Dec 23, 2015

who knows! I love lamp!

brandon4432 · Dec 23, 2015

Nice tank! Can you show some more pictures detailing filtration? Etc? That would be great. Also, I love the tank and how it fits with the interior design wonderfully

TheEngineer · Dec 23, 2015

Thanks! I'm still working on the bookshelves to the left. They are on my list to finish while I'm off this week and next.

Not much to see in my sump, it is a bit of a mess to be honest. Two blue lines coming down are drains.

Goose1505 · Dec 28, 2015

Hello
I have the same tank and it has been set up for about 5 months now and I have a few questions.
Did you take out the divider in the section of the sump?

Also do you just let your skimmer suck off of were your drain line comes in or close to it or is there a way to plumb it directly?

Also is it better to have live rock in the middle section or something else? I don't have a light in mine and currently I have two heaters in it with my pump for my dual reactor.

Thanks for the help in advance.

TheEngineer · Dec 29, 2015

Goose1505 said:
Hello
I have the same tank and it has been set up for about 5 months now and I have a few questions.
Did you take out the divider in the section of the sump?

Also do you just let your skimmer suck off of were your drain line comes in or close to it or is there a way to plumb it directly?

Also is it better to have live rock in the middle section or something else? I don't have a light in mine and currently I have two heaters in it with my pump for my dual reactor.

Thanks for the help in advance.

I didn't make any mods to the sump. The skimmer is in the section immediately next to the drain. I have some leftover LR in the center section for now. I'm contemplating a frag rack down there at some point.

TheEngineer · Jan 5, 2016

After reading @twilliard's article on dosing Spectracide Stump Remover I decided to give it a shot in my tank and see where it lands me. I still only have the one clownfish in there and even with the skimmer off my nitrates stay at 0. I dosed 5mL of Spectracide and it brought my nitrates to 2ppm. I'm going to leave it there and test again tomorrow to see if it is stable.

Here are two quick shots of the tank on day 1. This frags are mostly glued down so it will limit the number of variables

:

TheEngineer · Jan 5, 2016

Here is the link to the thread I mentioned:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/

TheEngineer · Jan 6, 2016

Just tested my water 24 (ok it was 23) hours after I dosed 5mL of KNO3 and my nitrates read at 1ppm. They dropped 1ppm overnight. I think that means the tank uptake is 1ppm/day so I need to dose an additional 5mL now which should bring it up to 3ppm. Each 5mL raises 2ppm for me.

Then I think I can dose 2.5mL/day going forward and maintain between 2 and 3ppm. I'll need to keep testing, obviously, but I think that's right....

@twilliard?

twilliard · Jan 6, 2016

The first few doses dont stick around long
Its tricky to find a conclusion to daily uptake as I have found it varies so I take 3 day averages to help with the fluctuations of daily change.

TheEngineer · Jan 6, 2016

OK. I dosed another 5mL and I'm up to 2ppm (around there) again. I'll test again in the morning.

bairdimusprime · Jan 6, 2016

Love your build! great job

TheEngineer · Jan 7, 2016

Just under 2ppm NO3 today. I'm going to dose 2.5mL and test again tomorrow morning.

TheEngineer · Jan 8, 2016

With an algae bloom starting as a result of the dosing (I assume) I decided not to dose yesterday. I'm at around 0.5PPM now, so I dosed 2.5mL. I'm gonna keep the level low for a bit while the algae bloom subsides.