My First Reef Tank 60g Cube Build

thunderreefer · Feb 2, 2020

This past week the canary wrasse seemed to spend most its time in the container of sand. Didn’t see it this past week until today. My kids said they saw it a couple times. Added it to the DT today. Made quick friends with the clowns and they were all swimming around together today. Everyone looks happy and healthy!

thunderreefer · Feb 2, 2020

Spent a chunk of the day finishing organizing, getting cords more organized and equipment controllers mounted (I’m thinking all cords should be 8 feet long, I’d rather deal with the extra than not have enough). I think it turned out and finally have a clean look to the room again!

thunderreefer · Feb 2, 2020

I think my DIY controller board worked out well and a big thank you to my wife! I left space in the upper right for a controller. Someone in the local AZ Frag reef club just lost their tank due to a heater stuck on. Devastating. When Neptune came out with the ApexEL BRS special edition controller/monitor, it was at a price point I could justify, especially give this recent experience. So, the ApexEL will be the next addition. In the meantime, I just keep checking parameters and trying to consistently do my water changes. Also should be getting another shipment from the quarantined fish supplier, which is probably a couple weeks out as planned. Keeping changes slow and incremental, which hopefully translates to stability and success!

thunderreefer · Feb 2, 2020

Here’s a shot of the tank with storage, stuff put away and cords cleaned up!

Sabdali · Feb 2, 2020

Seeing your dt go from a tangle of wires and boxes to that last picture is something else. Makes me want to go reorganize my wiring lol.

Congrats on getting life into the DT, that's always the first big step.

thunderreefer · Feb 2, 2020

Sabdali said:
Seeing your dt go from a tangle of wires and boxes to that last picture is something else. Makes me want to go reorganize my wiring lol.

Congrats on getting life into the DT, that's always the first big step.

Thank you for the feedback! It’s definitely been a journey to finally feel somewhat organized.

thunderreefer · Jul 2, 2020

I haven’t made any updates since COVID quarantine started so I need to get caught up. I’ve made a number of equipment changes and plumbing changes to have more automation and experimenting with different things. I finally got my first group of corals in my DT from my frag QT tank this past weekend. The hammer is one of the family favorites. Trying to take the process slow and trying to follow QT best practices but this all feels mega slow.

Highlights:
-Lost my lawnmower blenny. Couldn’t get it to eat. Did get another that is doing great.
-Lost my pink streaked wrasse. Jumped out while I was vacuuming the sand.
-Lost a torch to BJD (brown jelly disease) in QT. Felt like a failure.
-Finally tossed a cheap zoa frag that I treated for aptasia then it would pop up on another area of the plug. Treatment worked; however, when it kept popping back up, I just rather it not spread anywhere else and try to prolong the potential/eventual?? battle for a future day.
-Changed out my sump plumbing and smaller refugium light for better access, added a DC pump to have better control over sump flow and amount flowing through the overflow drain pipe, added an ApexEL controller, dabbling with dosing pumps for auto water changes and automated some of my testing.
-Can’t seem to keep phosphates or nitrates in the tank and have basically turned off the refugium for now
-Borrowed a PAR meter from my local club and found out my QT par was between 4 and 17 and I’m not missing any digits . Not sure how things survived, but was able to get the lights turned up and things are still looking good. Almost lost an alveopora, but I think it’s making a come back.

Added a handful of pics from my DT and frag QT tanks.

Paulie069 · Jul 2, 2020

thunderreefer said:
I haven’t made any updates since COVID quarantine started so I need to get caught up. I’ve made a number of equipment changes and plumbing changes to have more automation and experimenting with different things. I finally got my first group of corals in my DT from my frag QT tank this past weekend. The hammer is one of the family favorites. Trying to take the process slow and trying to follow QT best practices but this all feels mega slow.

Highlights:
-Lost my lawnmower blenny. Couldn’t get it to eat. Did get another that is doing great.
-Lost my pink streaked wrasse. Jumped out while I was vacuuming the sand.
-Lost a torch to BJD (brown jelly disease) in QT. Felt like a failure.
-Finally tossed a cheap zoa frag that I treated for aptasia then it would pop up on another area of the plug. Treatment worked; however, when it kept popping back up, I just rather it not spread anywhere else and try to prolong the potential/eventual?? battle for a future day.
-Changed out my sump plumbing and smaller refugium light for better access, added a DC pump to have better control over sump flow and amount flowing through the overflow drain pipe, added an ApexEL controller, dabbling with dosing pumps for auto water changes and automated some of my testing.
-Can’t seem to keep phosphates or nitrates in the tank and have basically turned off the refugium for now
-Borrowed a PAR meter from my local club and found out my QT par was between 4 and 17 and I’m not missing any digits . Not sure how things survived, but was able to get the lights turned up and things are still looking good. Almost lost an alveopora, but I think it’s making a come back.

Added a handful of pics from my DT and frag QT tanks.

Sweet setup brother