NeverlosT's 140g Cube in Paradise

[ethridge78]

looks good to me

 

[NeverlosT]

So the tank uses two WP40's for circulation, both mounted in the back corner on the overflow, both pointed forward and up. I do not use the controllers that came with them, I combined two ReefAngel cables into a single RJ45 ethernet connector, and have that plugged into the Variable Speed 1,2 ports on my Apex. The ReefAngel cables have the required resistors to cut the Apex 0-10V signal down to 0-5V and making programs for them were easy! They currently run 24 hrs and throughout the day they pulse from 30-70%, at 30 for 20 seconds and 70 for 40 seconds, then at night they toggle between 30-40% with the same timing. You can't really run them at less than 30% since they may not energize with much less than that. I think you can go down to 20% but saw no reason to try.

Anyhow, I used to be a MP40 guy. No longer. $85 each, just as controllable, and super powerful. I dig them, my corals and fish dig them, and I saved a boatload. No reliability issues yet, but I will keep people posted...

One happy acro, has been coloring up, I like it so far!

 

[11f150]

Thanks 11F150, as chance would have it, if you check the first post on the first page, I also have a 2011 F150 Ecoboost SuperCrew. Great truck!

Thanks again Ethridge!

I'll post about how the water circulation works next, pretty cool and fun project that was.

Nice! Mines a supercab fx4 with the 5.0 reefs and f150s go together like pb and j's not really lol but we can haul our new tanks around

 

[NeverlosT]

Some recent shots...

Pearlberry:

Red Planet (Finally reaching up under T5 after a year of dormancy under AI Vegas):

The Aussie that I like with more fish:

FTS1:

FTS2:

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

Nice tank!!! it looks amazing! Can you post a picture of how your rocks are set up?

 

[mic209]

Nice almost a cube tank! I live in AZ, but we visit the central coast a lot, we love the area. Was just out there last week. Visited Tropics, didn't have time to go to fins and critters though.

 

[skinz78]

Sweet looking reef!

 

[NeverlosT]

Nice tank!!! it looks amazing! Can you post a picture of how your rocks are set up?

You bet Longnose, here are a few, they go right side, front, left, then two fun views through:

I basically went with four separate rock formations with little alleys between them, modeling it after some reefs that I have seen in shallow water. I didn't make any very high structures so that the corals would have lots of room to grow. There is a good amount of negative space in the middle which is a look that I enjoy.

Nice almost a cube tank! I live in AZ, but we visit the central coast a lot, we love the area. Was just out there last week. Visited Tropics, didn't have time to go to fins and critters though.

Thanks Mic209, Tropics is a great LFS, very knowledgeable and they have exciting stock often. Fins and Critters is too but they didn't have a ton of SPS the last time that I was in, the gentleman working there was nice though.

Sweet looking reef!

Thanks Skinz!

 

[NeverlosT]

hrm. I need to take pictures earlier in the day when the light is less blue... that or figure out how to use my girlfriends camera better!

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

Thanks for the pictures!! I think I might do my new rock scape like yours!

 

[spspirate]

Very beautiful reef!! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[NeverlosT]

Very beautiful reef!! Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks Andy, and thanks for stopping by!

 

[spspirate]

PM sent

 

[NeverlosT]

April Pics...

RR Asia Wolverine beside AquaSD Rainbow Millie with a tiny Oregon Tort frag on top, cant wait until these are colonies...

a terrible pic of AquaDelight:

Currently helping our new anemone get settled in, a nice Magnifica with purple base and green tip polyps.

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

Looks good!!!

 

[NeverlosT]

Some shots from this evening

 

[skinz78]

Looking great!

 

[NeverlosT]

thanks! The slimer touches the surface in several places now, the Mag has moved out back but is very happy along with the clowns, still fighting a bit of Cyano which ticks off the SPS but just trying to stay vigilant about changing filter socks, cleaning skimmer, and using enough GFO.

Had to remove my cleaner shrimp. He was crazy, I'd feed the anemone or fungia, and he would wait for them to eat the food, then crawl onto them, pry open their mouths and rip the food from their gut. I couldn't believe it. So, I built a 2L soda bottle fish trap and got him out.

 

[NeverlosT]

Well, i thought i had cyano for ages. It was even on/killing sps, and so I decided to finally be rid of it so I used chemiclean.

Only problem is that I had dinoflagellates, not cyano. I should have seen the signs! The stringy bubbles, the dead snails, the fact that water changes didnt help and that the water tested great.

So the chemiclean destroyed any bacteria competing with the dinos and they bloooooomed.

Major sps distress. So I decided to act. Cleaned the UV sterilizer, 50hrs lights out with no ambient light. Feeding every other day, skimming wet, new filter socks daily, blowing it off and siphoning it away wherever it grows. Reduced my photoperiod to 4hrs a day after the blackout, raised pH to hover around 8.2 (it was already close to that).

So too early to tell now but it seems to be working, we will see as I slowly increase the photoperiod.

 

[NeverlosT]

*meant 8.4 pH. I know that studies show that some strains of Dinos grow worse in high pH and some grow better, I am banking that I have the former. Also, my pH is normally pretty high since I have kalk in my ATO reservoir.