50g Cube Build

drstratton · Feb 11, 2016

Buying frags is much more fun than buying groceries! Nice purchase!!!

TheEngineer · Feb 16, 2016

Pickup from this weekend:

TheEngineer · Feb 16, 2016

Daylight shot:

drstratton · Feb 16, 2016

Very nice! Name, no name?

TheEngineer · Feb 16, 2016

It apparently has a name. I however have no idea what it is

I have an ID thread up, but no takers yet.

drstratton · Feb 16, 2016

icecool2 said:
It apparently has a name. I however have no idea what it is I have an ID thread up, but no takers yet.

I'm of no use in that department either.

It's a nice addition to your tank!

TheEngineer · Feb 17, 2016

I just got great news yesterday. I mentioned to my favorite LFS a few months ago that I was looking for a few Vanderbilt chromis for my tank. He said he would keep an eye out for them. He got some in yesterday! Woot woot! He said he wants to hold onto them for a while and make sure they're going to survive the trip. Time to get my QT setup up and running!

drstratton · Feb 17, 2016

I had to look up the chromis, I hadn't heard of them before. Cool fish, I might consider some for my tank as I was wanting a group of fish! Sounds like you've got a great lfs! Are you going to do TTM? I've finally gotten it down pretty good and will do it with all of my fish unless they come in with something like Velvet or Brook. Can't wait to see them, they'll look great in your tank!

TheEngineer · Feb 17, 2016

They're a common fish, but fairly uncommon in the US apparently. They're peaceful and can be kept in groups of 3 or 5. I just have the one 10g tank so I'm going to do the oldschool QT. I'm going to treat prophylactically with prazipro and cupramine as per Humblefish's QT thread. I have a 6 year old clownfish in the DT now and I don't want to risk her getting anything.

drstratton · Feb 17, 2016

For sure, there's no reason to risk your clown. Cool that she's 6!

TheEngineer · Feb 28, 2016

Well my little chromis friends never made it to my house. They stayed at the LFS, he wouldn't let me take them, and weren't eating well. One died yesterday and the other two today.

Picked up a Sunny D frag since I was there. He didn't charge me a penny for the fish and said he's going to find another source and try again.

drstratton · Feb 28, 2016

icecool2 said:
Well my little chromis friends never made it to my house. They stayed at the LFS, he wouldn't let me take them, and weren't eating well. One died yesterday and the other two today.

Picked up a Sunny D frag since I was there. He didn't charge me a penny for the fish and said he's going to find another source and try again.

Sounds like you've got a good lfs.

TheEngineer · Feb 29, 2016

drstratton said:
Sounds like you've got a good lfs.

For sure. I wish he was a little more local, but I don't mind a bit of a drive to get to him.

Nick92515 · Feb 29, 2016

Sweet

jmp21677 · Feb 29, 2016

Great tank. I'm looking at this or a red sea reefer. Is it quiet? My concern is the sump? I'm sure the included skimmer is of no use. What skimmer are you using?

TheEngineer · Feb 29, 2016

Nick92515 said:
Sweet

Thanks

jmp21677 said:
Great tank. I'm looking at this or a red sea reefer. Is it quiet? My concern is the sump? I'm sure the included skimmer is of no use. What skimmer are you using?

Thanks. I redid the plumbing to use a herbie drain so it would be quiet. You just hear the normal hum from the return pump and skimmer pump. I use the included skimmer. It works pretty well actually. I have a lightly stocked tank, so I don't really need to run it but it does pull out some dark stuff.

TheEngineer · Mar 1, 2016

Tested my alkalinity yesterday and noticed it was down at 7 dkh. I'd like it to be at 9 dkh. I did a 10g water change and brought it up to 8.5 dkh. Looks like I'm going to have to do a little dosing between water changes now. I'm not too thrilled about that. I could increase the frequency of my water changes to every 2 weeks instead of every 4, but I'd rather not. It's a hassle for me to make that much water due to my degassing process.

I have Two Little Fishies C-Balance from years ago that I never opened, so I guess I'll see how long that lasts me. I might go the kalk in the ATO route too.

TheEngineer · Mar 1, 2016

I realized I haven't posted a FTS in forever. Here's a quick cell phone snap.

TheEngineer · Mar 11, 2016

In a first for me, I made a short video update of my tank. I just passed the 6 month mark on the tank and thought it would be neat to put a short video together showing where the tank is today. This was shot and edited on my iPhone, so don't expect Oscar quality material. Hope you enjoy!

TheEngineer · Mar 17, 2016

I've discovered my pH is a bit on the low side. Not sure why yet, but I have a new thread discussing the possible causes here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/low-ph-with-normal-alk.240109