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Leave my hobbit feet alone
PEDICURE FIRST
Brent's Cube
- Thread starter brentch
- Start date
Didn't realize that it too so long to stabilize, good to know. Came out very nice though.
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Really nice tank bud! Im going mad seeing all the awesome tanks on this forum
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Thanks Mark, Are you new to reef keeping?
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Been in the hobby for some time now. But recently got a new tank so just discovering all the details again
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Awesome, me too!
I've never seen one less than a 100w...a decent 50w with a cheap w1209 controller shouldn't cost you more than R350
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A small update!
My tank is now going through a small diatom bloom, but this has started to recede already. At the same time my skimmer started to pull some stuff out the water. Nothing serious, but it's definitely working.[GALLERY=media, 11813]IMG_20190223_075455 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:00[/GALLERY] I've added some GFO to the sump too just to limit the PO4 from the shrimp tail I added a week ago. It should further regulate all the Diotoms and other nuisance algae that are next in the cycling line up.
The microbubbles in the QQ2 have also now stopped thankfully.
I made an eggcrate box that fits into the center sump compartment which will have all the LR. I almost went and bought those ceramic blocks for the sump, but I remembered I still had some LR from my display build, so I found the most porous pieces and got to work smashing them up[GALLERY=media, 11814]IMG_20190225_105558 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:00[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 11815]IMG_20190225_110154 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:00[/GALLERY] I got them into about match box sized cubes and then dunked them in pool acid[GALLERY=media, 11819]IMG_20190225_111037 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:28[/GALLERY] This opens up the pores an holes, and does some sterilization too. The acid removed about a third of the weight, so it definately worked in opening up holes. Just a tip when doing this..... make up your acid/water mixture first and add the rock dry. This way the acid penetrates into the rock more effectively, rather than if you put the rocks in water and then added acid.
After the acid I rinsed the rocks with tap water and soaked them in sodium hypochlorite (Plain bleach/HTH whatever you can get your hands on). I left for a few hours, and then rinsed thoroughly until the soapy caustic feeling was gone. I then soaked in RO overnight and repeated twice, changing the water twice a day. Once the bleach smell was gone I soaked the rock in tank water and added a bit of Skimmate from the tank and dosed two cap fulls of Seachem Prime.
I'll leave it for two days then take the rock out, rinse very briefly and chuck it into the sump box.
I've also too my display rock out of the water it was soaking in and left in the sun for a full day to dry it out and heat up in the sun. Once it was dry I put it back to soak. Interestingly within a few hours I had an ant colony try to colonize the rock! They were climbing into the base, and had got into some of the holes! You can see them here[GALLERY=media, 11817]IMG_20190225_144025 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:17[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 11816]IMG_20190225_144021 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:17[/GALLERY]
This was the first time I got to see how porous the rock is, and I'm really happy with the way it has ended up. There are holes from the mm scale down to microns, and tonnes of them. I think it's going to work well! I think the dKH and pH should begin to stabilize this week, after which, it'll go into the display.
My tank is now going through a small diatom bloom, but this has started to recede already. At the same time my skimmer started to pull some stuff out the water. Nothing serious, but it's definitely working.[GALLERY=media, 11813]IMG_20190223_075455 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:00[/GALLERY] I've added some GFO to the sump too just to limit the PO4 from the shrimp tail I added a week ago. It should further regulate all the Diotoms and other nuisance algae that are next in the cycling line up.
The microbubbles in the QQ2 have also now stopped thankfully.
I made an eggcrate box that fits into the center sump compartment which will have all the LR. I almost went and bought those ceramic blocks for the sump, but I remembered I still had some LR from my display build, so I found the most porous pieces and got to work smashing them up[GALLERY=media, 11814]IMG_20190225_105558 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:00[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 11815]IMG_20190225_110154 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:00[/GALLERY] I got them into about match box sized cubes and then dunked them in pool acid[GALLERY=media, 11819]IMG_20190225_111037 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:28[/GALLERY] This opens up the pores an holes, and does some sterilization too. The acid removed about a third of the weight, so it definately worked in opening up holes. Just a tip when doing this..... make up your acid/water mixture first and add the rock dry. This way the acid penetrates into the rock more effectively, rather than if you put the rocks in water and then added acid.
After the acid I rinsed the rocks with tap water and soaked them in sodium hypochlorite (Plain bleach/HTH whatever you can get your hands on). I left for a few hours, and then rinsed thoroughly until the soapy caustic feeling was gone. I then soaked in RO overnight and repeated twice, changing the water twice a day. Once the bleach smell was gone I soaked the rock in tank water and added a bit of Skimmate from the tank and dosed two cap fulls of Seachem Prime.
I'll leave it for two days then take the rock out, rinse very briefly and chuck it into the sump box.
I've also too my display rock out of the water it was soaking in and left in the sun for a full day to dry it out and heat up in the sun. Once it was dry I put it back to soak. Interestingly within a few hours I had an ant colony try to colonize the rock! They were climbing into the base, and had got into some of the holes! You can see them here[GALLERY=media, 11817]IMG_20190225_144025 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:17[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 11816]IMG_20190225_144021 by brentch posted 27 Feb 2019 at 09:17[/GALLERY]
This was the first time I got to see how porous the rock is, and I'm really happy with the way it has ended up. There are holes from the mm scale down to microns, and tonnes of them. I think it's going to work well! I think the dKH and pH should begin to stabilize this week, after which, it'll go into the display.
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So here's the center compartment for the biological filtration. I stuck the rocks in the basket after soaking in tank water (from the first water change) and some Seachem prime, overnight.
The tolerance in the back compartment is quite high, and tested my bush mechanic style...
Aaaaaaand, it's in!
I measured the height in the last compartment before and after adding the rock. It looks as though I've added about 400ml of volume in live rock for bio filtration. The rock was wet, so realistically it is probably a bit less, maybe 300 to 350ml. What's nice is that I can pull the whole basket out and rinse detritus off the rock every so often. I'm quite happy with this bio filtration set up, but time will only tell if it's going to work...
Tthe last chamber I am possibly thinking of doing something for the chemical filtration.... Maybe a small DIY reactor that can custom fit the very small amounts of GFO and carbon I need to run in this system. I could bleed some return flow from my return pump to power it since it's only running at about 60%... Let's see... Maybe I'm over complicating things.
The tolerance in the back compartment is quite high, and tested my bush mechanic style...
Aaaaaaand, it's in!
I measured the height in the last compartment before and after adding the rock. It looks as though I've added about 400ml of volume in live rock for bio filtration. The rock was wet, so realistically it is probably a bit less, maybe 300 to 350ml. What's nice is that I can pull the whole basket out and rinse detritus off the rock every so often. I'm quite happy with this bio filtration set up, but time will only tell if it's going to work...
Tthe last chamber I am possibly thinking of doing something for the chemical filtration.... Maybe a small DIY reactor that can custom fit the very small amounts of GFO and carbon I need to run in this system. I could bleed some return flow from my return pump to power it since it's only running at about 60%... Let's see... Maybe I'm over complicating things.
Last edited:
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Soooo.... Some real progress.....
Rock and sand are in! Finally!
I added the rockwork I made a few weeks ago, and added 2L of my Red sea Fiji pink aragonite.
I'm not too bleak about the water becoming dirty, and one benefit is that I can visually see the light attenuation from the surface to the floor. I have got a decent idea of the "levels" I will place species of coral based on their light requirements...
I'm hoping to wake up with a crystal clean tank and be able to see the rockwork!
Rock and sand are in! Finally!
I added the rockwork I made a few weeks ago, and added 2L of my Red sea Fiji pink aragonite.
I'm not too bleak about the water becoming dirty, and one benefit is that I can visually see the light attenuation from the surface to the floor. I have got a decent idea of the "levels" I will place species of coral based on their light requirements...
I'm hoping to wake up with a crystal clean tank and be able to see the rockwork!
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FYI, this was when my lights were about to shut off running all of the channels at most 15%. But it still give me a good idea of how the light spreads in the tankSoooo.... Some real progress.....
Rock and sand are in! Finally!
I added the rockwork I made a few weeks ago, and added 2L of my Red sea Fiji pink aragonite.
I'm not too bleak about the water becoming dirty, and one benefit is that I can visually see the light attenuation from the surface to the floor. I have got a decent idea of the "levels" I will place species of coral based on their light requirements...
I'm hoping to wake up with a crystal clean tank and be able to see the rockwork!
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Almost 100% clean now. Just a bit bleak at how dusty the red sea sand is... I'll have to slowly remove the fine dust with my sand cleaner over the next few weeks. As soon as I stick my hand in the tank, it just goes murky again. Never had this problem with my previous tank. Oh Well, nothing I can do now but slowly clean it.
Take a look at my back pane, full of aragonite dust!!!!!
Take a look at my back pane, full of aragonite dust!!!!!