60 gallon dream cube

[DazAquariums]

What a journey! I may may may be getting an apex later this year. How do you like it?

My 40 breeder has had it's fair share of downturns but it seems to have turned the corner and it's really starting to shine now.

I love my apex! After getting it I don’t think I could go without one. I try not to rely on it 100% and like to have as many possible fail safes in place but the monitoring and controllability you get is extremely nice.

Good to hear on your tank! I love 40 breeders. One of my favorite sized tanks. Not small, not big. The perfect middle of the pack. But hopefully it continues to perk up and have great success! Share a picture of the setup.

 

[count krunk]

You can click on my build thread badge and on the most recent page are some pictures. I'm on mobile now so can't share any.

 

[DazAquariums]

You can click on my build thread badge and on the most recent page are some pictures. I'm on mobile now so can't share any.

I like it! That overflow is awesome looking on the tank. Makes me want another 40 gallon breeder. Thought about doing one in our home office when my wife isn’t looking

 

[DazAquariums]

So I wanted to make an Adaptive Reef style breakout box for my Apex. I have a 3D printer so I ordered some switches and button and gave it a go.
The first attempt with the 3D face failed. It ended up cracking and breaking during the instal.

This had to do with slightly to small holes for the switch I used. So I went back and reprinted with slightly bigger holes.

Installed it under the stand and plugged it into the apex. So far one button activates my feed mode and one switch turns my water change mode on. I think I want to make a new one with lights on a dedicated power switch.

 

[DazAquariums]

Went today to Reef Masters in Bradenton FL. I decided to pick up a new piece. Frankly I don’t know what it is I just liked the way it looked and was cheap.

I also feel like I’m having some tissue issues with my Montis. Here are pictures of both.

They weren’t the best from the star but they might be getting worse. It’s hard to tell.

I am however loving my torch and Duncan

 

[DazAquariums]

So after my last post I have battle one thing after another. This tank has definitely had its ups and its downs since setting it up.

I had an issue with the auto doser dumping 2dkh worth of alk solution into my tank. That pretty much killed anything that had a skeleton structure.

Right after that I sort of took a "break" since the only thing left were my soft corals. Then I couldn't keep up with the Aiptasia outbreak. This is something I am still working on but it has really improved. I tried using nudibranch but they got ate by my wrasse. Then I tried peppermint shrimp. Once again I'm fairly certain the wrasse ate them as well. So I have been using Aiptasia X to treat the tank of the little jerks.

Also I have switched out a bunch of equipment since. Well I guess maybe not a bunch but a few things at least. I now use the Maxspect Gyres XF-230 and my MP-10. It is more than enough flow to get everything nice and very happy. I have swapped out my Reef Octopus skimmer with a Nyos 160. I love this skimmer. It currently is skimming a bit wet but its fine, sooner or later I will go in and make some adjustments. And the biggest thing I have swapped out was my Hydra 26HD for a gen 5 XR15. I most likely will add another to my t5 fixture as time goes on but for now I think it does the job very nicely.

The plans I have for the tank right now is going to be restocking. I have been lucky not to lose any fish in awhile and want to keep it that way. But sadly I will need to now have to go and restock my corals and get them going again. This tank has shown me I still have a lot to learn. Over the past few weeks it has been extremely stable though and I am very happy about that. Later on Ill upload some new pictures of the tank and various things but I wanted to write up a little update of what has been going on with everything.

 

[DazAquariums]

My Nyos 160 doing it’s thing! I thought my Reef Octopus did an amazing job, this is even better

XR-15 gen 5 over the tank. I think a second one would really give that additional punch

Full tank shot before the T5s kick on

New Duncan coral I picked up a few days ago.

This is the only Stoney coral that survived the fall.

Utter Chaos I have had for awhile. I love these zoas.

New birdsnest. Hopefully this one takes off nicely like my old one.

Some people love them. Some hate. I’m obsessed

Colony I got for cheap.

 

[DazAquariums]

Today I had noticed my new Duncan doesn’t really want to open. Looks really angry for some reason. I don’t know if it’s the intense lights or to much flow (both in the past have contributed to this while a new coral gets used to my system) so I ended up moving it to the back where it’ll get less flow and less lights.

I also received my new MP10 wet side. I had noticed when I was cleaning the pump that one of the propeller blades had broken off. So I got a new one ordered up to replace it. I can’t believe how much more water gets pushed through with just that one little extra blade. It’s insane.

Beyond that a pretty standard day. Everything else seems to be in good check. All the other corals seem to be in a good mood and happy. Hoping after my last crash no more real issues in the tank.

 

[DazAquariums]

Today I spent most of my focus getting my trident back up and going and killing aiptasia. I had ran out of B&C forever ago but somehow I have noticed that my A never runs out in the same time. I wanted to finished off at least the bottle of A I had before picking anymore up. So I ran over today to my closest LFS that had it and got a 6 months supply of it.

After testing I noticed that my calcium is still higher than I generally like it, so I'm going to allow it to continue to drop and not dosing any additional calcium to the tank. I also noticed that my magnesium needs to be raised further so I plan on doing that here later tonight.

Generally speaking I like to have around 8dkh, 450ca and 1400mg. That seems to be the sweet spot for me.

The aiptasia problem seemed to explode in the 3 days I wasn't treating the tank. Im sort of playing with the idea of adding ceramic media to the sump for a bit so bacteria can spread onto that. And then pull all the live rock out and replace it with new rock. I have not noticed any aiptasia anywhere else in the tank/sump other than on the rock in the tank. Ill keep up with the battle but there's a chance I might consider doing this.

Since moving the Duncan back in the tank it has slowly started opening up more. Im hoping in time it will get use to how the tank is and I'll be able to move him out to the open. But for the time being its probably best I go ahead and keep him right where he is.

I also am considering removing some of my BTAs and selling them off. I have 8 from the 1 I started with.

I do love them and think they extremely beautiful but that are starting to take up a lot of space. My other idea was simply to leave them and let them do whatever they want to do and any new coral grow out for the purpose of moving them to my new tank next year (Waterbox 220.6). I have not really decided what I want to do just yet.

Also speaking of the new tank I think since I want to keep this 6 gallon up and going it would be a good idea to get it resealed. I have done some research and it seems pretty straight forward. I might see if there's someone nearby who has done it previously though just to get some additional help to make sure everything works out ok. But if I do that Im going to need to figure out a place to store the inhabits of this tank while all that goes on.

 

[DazAquariums]

Today I ordered some new plumbing for the return side of the tank. This is something I have been meaning to do for ages. When I swapped out to my current sump I was lazy and just "made it work" with the piping that I had installed. Because of this it looks very terrible but functions. I will also be swapping out the return pump for my Ecotech M2. Keeping the red color scheme and 2 port manifold.

On top of that this week Im going to start making a controller board so I can clean up all the wires on the side of my tank. Its basic function will be to hide my rats nest really but it will look nice at least. I plan on designing a new stand in a few months and might try to get my hands on the same tank just a new one. So on the odd chances someone reads this and knows someone who can ship from Marineland please let me know!

 

[DazAquariums]

So I have been filling under the weather today but I stilled managed to enjoy tank(s) maintenance Sunday. This is something I just refuse to miss. Something peaceful about working on your tank(s) every week in peace.

Plus once Im done the tank always looks so incredibly happy. I also did the same with my Biocube 29 and my 55 gallon outside freshwater pond. This was a several hour adventure as like I said feel under the weather.

I also received a VDM module this week from a local reef2reef member. My plan is to use this with my Maxspect Gyre XF230 since the screen is not working properly. I just ordered the Gyre interface for it as well which should be here in a few days!

This coming week on Thursday is going to be the day that I am able to redo the plumbing on the return side. Everything should arrive on Wednesday and my game plan is to drain the overflow and sump completely. Clean more of the sump out since there's still some crap on on it that bothers me. Then Ill fit the new Ecotech pump in and get to work! This is going to be amazing once its all done. I know from every time I have ever done anything with plumbing there will be some sort of issue and hiccup.

I also finally for the first time order Coral RX. Yes I know Im one of those reefers who doesn't quarantine anything or dip anything but that is changing shortly. I will be setting up two tanks. More then likely they will either be both 40 gallon breeders or 20 gallon longs. Just depends on what I think is the best fit for my plans. One will be Coral quarantine and one will be for fish.

I dont plan on treating fish just cause. It will be to observe them and make sure they are health before adding them into the tank. If I notice an issue I can then treat as needed.

The coral quarantine is going to be coral that will end up for sale. I just recently got all my paper work done to open my business. Placed my first order this week with a coral wholesaler and should get my first shipment this coming week. The idea behind all this is, in the future I will be building a 500 gallon grow out in our garage (which is cooled and heated) and it will be local pickup and shipping. Pretty excited for this future endeavor.

 

[DazAquariums]

Today I got my package from BRS for my return side plumbing. Im so excited to finally get this taken care of. It has bothered me for so long how horrible it looks under my sump! The idea is I will have several unions so I can take it apart if needed in the future. There will be two manifold ports as well. One for the time being will be for my reactor until I can get my hands on a g2 NYOS reactor. Even more exciting is replacing the 10 year old Jebao return with my Ecotech M2!

 

[DazAquariums]

This is going to be my last post on this thread. Sadly for the time being the 60 gallon is going to go away. The plan is I'm getting a new tank for a new house we are moving into. Now the move is temporary as we are going to stay there just until our new house is built roughly a year later. When we do that the 60 cube will be back. I plan on making a new stand for it and re sealing the tank. But until that day comes its going to sit in storage after being cleaned up.

For the time being I will transfer all the old inhabitants into a new tank. A Red Sea Reefer XL 350. You can follow the build log for that at the link below if you want. Should be a fun journey for sure!
Build log for Reefer XL 350

Since my last update I was able to replumb the tank and make it look much nicer.

As you can see it looked horrible before. It worked! But it was just ugly looking and really had bothered me for a long time. This is what we looked like afterwards.

Now of course no plumbing job can be complete without some level of issues afterwards. I experienced some leaking after the fact from the media reactor. Im not entirely sure why but I currently do not have it hooked up because the tubes that I have are not currently long enough after everything was shifted around. Im probably going to keep it offline as it seems everything in the tank has enjoyed not having the media running and everything really has perked up nicely.

Another issue I was having was the pipe between the bulkhead and the first union was leaking. Im not entirely sure what was really going on here as this is no longer an issue? I had ordered a new bulkhead and union to replace it and has it overnighted just for the next day to not have a leak. I think I may have just been crazy or the glue cured and fixed itself. Im going to just say the reefing fairly must have visited me and fixed the issue.

And these are some random photos from the tank. Enjoy!

 

[a fish]

9/27/2020

3/15/2020

I will be updating this thread as I go along and adding pictures later today of the tank where it stands currently. Till then a little back history and the few photos I have on my phone will have to do.

I've had several tanks over the years and have really loved this hobby. Started off with a little 20 gallon long with nothing more then a powerhead, heater and hangon back media filter. I ended up breaking my last tank down a few years ago to make room for one of my dream builds, a 120 gallon tank. I was going to do a no expense spared build. Well sadly I never got to finish it. When I was going to move the tank and equipment to a new home I notice it had a huge crack in. This left me incredibly sad as it never even got to see water .

After this I was given a 30 gallon cube tank which something was better then nothing. I got it started and had it cycling when a buddy of mine came over and saw and wanted it for a frag tank (its proper purpose) and offered to exchange it for a 60 gallon cube he had stored at his house. I of course quickly agreed for the simple fact that it was more water volume, better viewing and I always wanted a cube tank.

So after much struggle I was able to get everything switched over to the 60 gallon cube and get some additional rocks added to it and water. I waited a few additional weeks on the cycle to start stocking it.

Always updating
Equipment list
60 gallon cube
Trigger System Ruby 20c
Reef Octopus Classic 150 INT Protein Skimmer
BRS Reactor (carbon)
BRS CO2 scrubber
Jebao dct 6000
Ecotech MP10
Maxspect Gyre XF230 Gyres
AI Hydra 26HD
Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid
Prime HD for sump
Eheim Jager 150w heater
Reef Breeders ATO
Jebao 3.4 Wifi Doser (Calcium, Alkalinity and auto water change)
Apex EL
AFS
B/O Box
Apex Trident

Livestock
Platinum Clown x2
One Spot Foxface
Diamond Goby
Firefish
Scopas Tang
6 Line Wrasse
Rainbow BTA x3
Rock Flower Anemone
Cleaner Shrimp

Corals
Soft Corals
WWC Pandoras zoas
Tutti Fruity zoas
Bam Bam zoas
Rasta zoas
Green Polyp Toadstool
Green Star Polyps

LPS Corals
Sweeetheart Favia
Green Duncan
Neon Green Candy Cane
Hollywood Stunner chalice
BBQ Chip Pavona
Green Blastomussa

SPS Corals
Green Birdsnest
Birds of Paradise
Tyree Seasons Greetings montipora
Orange Monti Cap
Green Stylophora
Purple Stylophora
Green Slimer

NICE! I am also hoping to setup my 60-gallon cube. I have 2 AI hydras and a protein skimmer and 2 hydor korillia flow heads. I am planing mostly lps like hammers and maybe a zoa garden.

 

[GHOSTLY]

My dream tank is a sps dominated 60g cube. Looking really nice!