Rob's Cube build

[feh]

Vendor is shipping the rock and sand out tomorrow morning and it should arrive tomorrow afternoon for me to pick up at the airport all goes well. I also decided to order a few extra filter socks to keep on hand, an Apogee PAR meter, and a few other odds and ends. I decided to install a small Hydor pico 180 in the fuge area. I'm thinking about programming it to turn on for 5 mins once an hour. It seems to be just right for the flow rate in how I wanted to add a little more to the fuge without fooling with the drains. Anyway I should have some pics tomorrow of the first shipment of rock and the live sand I ordered. Once the tank cycles I'll receive the other half of the rock and a few other things. More to come...

 

[feh]

First half of the rock and the sand are in. Tank is too cloudy for pics right now so I'll try to get some when things clear up. So far I'm quite pleased with the first half of the rock and I can't wait to see the rest. All goes well I'll be picking up the rest of the rock and the rest of the package next Saturday. We'll see how the numbers look by then.

 

[feh]

I haven't really had the opportunity to aquascape yet, but here's a couple of pics of the tank while it's cycling. As of now I'm thinking this Saturday I'll be getting the rest of the rock and a couple other things. Once i have all the rock I can think on how I want to arrange things.

 

[kevantheman35]

Water!

 

[mixer911]

Awesome!!

 

[spspirate]

Your on a roll!!!

 

[feh]

Your on a roll!!!

Awesome!!

Water!

Thanks guys. Got the 2nd shipment from Tampa Bay Saltwater today. He doesn't mess around, I only ordered the "package", 3 porcelain crabs, and a starfish. This is what I ended up with... still work in progress with the rock work.

 

[feh]

Here's a better FTS...

 

[spspirate]

Looking good!!

 

[feh]

Looking good!!

Thanks man. Still a way to go, but getting there.

 

[feh]

Finally stocked the fuge with some algae.

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

So nice.

 

[feh]

They're here...

I finally scored the first additions for this tank. I still haven't completely finalized my fish list, but these were a must and the rest of the stocking will have to work around them. As of right now they both arrived safe and sound and appear to be healthy. These were the bonded pair up on LA's DD a few days ago. :tongue:

 

[AJQ69]

They're here...

I finally scored the first additions for this tank. I still haven't completely finalized my fish list, but these were a must and the rest of the stocking will have to work around them. As of right now they both arrived safe and sound and appear to be healthy. These were the bonded pair up on LA's DD a few days ago. :tongue:

Very nice addition

 

[feh]

3 more for QT coming tomorrow... stay tuned. :tongue:

Sadly I did lose one of the helfrichi pair. Not sure what happened. Shrimp and so on got to him before I had any chance to get a look see, but was last seen happy and healthy just the day before.

 

[Aquaculture]

That looks really good. Here is a picture of what I am shooting for.

Nice build Rob, love the Synergy sump and your stand is fantastic...I have been reading several build threads, but haven't come across this one yet. mr9iron, do you know the screen name for this build? I am trying to incorporate several great ideas from different builds.

 

[tgee]

Nice tank! How 'bout some more pics of the TBS rock and sand??

 

[ashr]

Great build man, very nice and clean! Good work

 

[feh]

I've been working really nasty hours so I haven't had much time for updates. I'm off for the next 3 days. I'll try to get some new pics. The surviving helfrichi firefish has made it into the display. I ordered a bonded pair of Yasha gobies from DD, but that didn't work out well. They came with a pistol shrimp. When I received the order I had 2 empty bags of water and 1 bag with a single Yasha goby which didn't make it for long in QT. At this point I'm no longer willing to deal with LA. I don't normally like to ship fish and have always tried to stick to local. Fintastic is still shutdown and no idea when they will be reopening. Nemo's Reef is a little bit of a ride, but seemed like a decent place. So, I'm thinking about venturing out to Nemo's reef to see if they have anything on my fish list. For now, other than a LFS about an hour away that's my only choice for local. I need to find a good source for fish. In the meantime, tank is still seeing some diatoms, but that's all part of the maturing process.

I did lose my salinity probe last week for a few days. Then it started working ok again, I already have a replacement, but I haven't had a chance to swap it and callibrate the new one. I plan to do this within the next 2 days. Other than that tanks has been stable. Chaeto in the fuge didn't seem to grow so well, but the gracillaria seems to be doing fine. With that said I've started dosing a little iron to see if that improves.

Still monitoring for hitchhikers... so far I've pulled out a few gorilla crabs and welchs I missed when I got the rock. Removed the starfish and urchins. These are purple long spine urchins which will get way too big for my cube. They're in another tank for now. Two of the starfish were removed for munching on gorgs.

I'll try to get some updated pics soon.

 

[feh]