10G Cubey reborn after 5 year hiatus

plankton

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Here in CA we are 'shelter in place' and literally are discouraged from leaving our homes or if we do keep social distance (no closer than 6') so on and so forth.

Long story short, I cleaned up the nano from the garage, tooth a tooth brush to the LR and setup my beloved nano after more than 5 years being dry.

All I can say is 'WOW' it feels so good to have a tank again!

It's only been up for a week, but thus far everything looks good.

Tank Specs:
Tank : 10G JBJ Cubey
Stand : matching lacquered black
Controller : Digitial Aquatic Elite with PC4/PB4/SL1 and NET Module
LR : four medium pieces
Lighting : AI Prime with flex arm
ATO : Simple AquaLuft hooked up to DA
Dosing : Using Brodibio

I'm on week 1 of cycle, so in another 3 I'd like to add some zoa and LPS (few acans).
 

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Here in CA we are 'shelter in place' and literally are discouraged from leaving our homes or if we do keep social distance (no closer than 6') so on and so forth.

Long story short, I cleaned up the nano from the garage, tooth a tooth brush to the LR and setup my beloved nano after more than 5 years being dry.

All I can say is 'WOW' it feels so good to have a tank again!

It's only been up for a week, but thus far everything looks good.

Tank Specs:
Tank : 10G JBJ Cubey
Stand : matching lacquered black
Controller : Digitial Aquatic Elite with PC4/PB4/SL1 and NET Module
LR : four medium pieces
Lighting : AI Prime with flex arm
ATO : Simple AquaLuft hooked up to DA
Dosing : Using Brodibio

I'm on week 1 of cycle, so in another 3 I'd like to add some zoa and LPS (few acans).
Nice! Make sure you use RODI water or else the tank will have a lot of problems
 
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Thanks for kind words and oh yeah used RO/DI and fighting the urge to just load up an empty tank with frags!
7A0F210B-9F6E-480C-906A-1BF59361B7B0.jpeg
 
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It’s recommended to have a goal for your tank and plan to achieve your goal.

My goal is an Acan garden cuz I’ve always loved acans for many reasons : they are super hardy, colorful, grow quickly.

From decades of personal experience they really don’t like to be picked on by fish nor shrimp; hence species only tank.

So, plan might be like
1) cycle tank
2) add chaeto
3) add acans
4) add some snails (cerith and nerite) to help control diatoms, etc

too simple?
 

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It’s recommended to have a goal for your tank and plan to achieve your goal.

My goal is an Acan garden cuz I’ve always loved acans for many reasons : they are super hardy, colorful, grow quickly.

From decades of personal experience they really don’t like to be picked on by fish nor shrimp; hence species only tank.

So, plan might be like
1) cycle tank
2) add chaeto
3) add acans
4) add some snails (cerith and nerite) to help control diatoms, etc

too simple?
Don’t add chaeto until you have a nutrient issue. Where in CA do you live? I’m in the bay.
Get trochus snails too.
 

Katrina71

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I added chaeto immediately to our 8g and never had an issue. Actually had a short ugly stage, but I used some 5+ year old live rock.
 
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sorry for reflection but rearranged LR yet again to give layers and more edges to display acans.

809BF5D7-B713-40BE-A48A-53AA8EB407DE.jpeg
 
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Entertaining/distracting myself with stuff until tank cycles...

Today I looked at numbers. Specifically Specific Gravity (SG) and Temperature. We all know that consistency is most important because most corals can adapt so long as they are given time to adjust to their surrounding conditions - within limits. Absolute numbers are great if you can calibrate to standard solutions, etc.

So, today we look at temperature and SG. I have in my possession a refractometer (every reefer should have one) and a digital salinity/temp meter made by Aqua-Mate (AM). I also have two standard calibration solutions : one by pinpoint (35 ppt) and one that came with digital meter (30 ppt).

IMG_4112.jpg


1) Temperature

The RKE sensor has an 'offset' and the temp sensor didn't come with one so I calibrated to what the AM temp reading gave me. Initially, tank temp was set to 72, but meter measured 68.5! So, set calibration of RKE to read 68.5, then changed target from 72 to 76. Tank was off by almost 3 deg F. Will bring tank temp to 76 and keep there for now.

IMG_4113.JPG
IMG_4116.JPG


2) SG

Oh boy. I have two standard solutions by two different manufacturers : PinPoint and the Korean company that makes AM. I calibrated the refectometer to the PinPoint (PP) standard then measured using it the AM standard. The reading of PP meter of AM standard was 1.021

Then, calibrated AM meter using AM standard solution then measured PP standard : 35ppt/1.026 / 34ppt/1.026

So far so good.

Then used both meters to measure SG of my tank water which is just Instant Ocean (IO) mixed per instructions of 1/2cup per 1 US Gallon; which should result in SG of 1.023. [According to instructions imprinted on bag of salt]

Using refractometer I got 1.0265; using AM I measured 1.028. <sigh>

IMG_4114.JPG


Conclusion and action items:

I trust my my two meters than the generic instructions on the IO bag and will bring down SG via water changes to 1.025.

Temperature difference is a concern but not major concern because temp sensor itself has accuracy of +/- 0.5 deg F.

AI : 1) slowly bring tank SG down to 1.025 and hold there
2) RKE seriously was off and needed to be calibrated. Had tank at '72' (really 68) but raising to 76 for now.
 
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Don’t add chaeto until you have a nutrient issue. Where in CA do you live? I’m in the bay.
Get trochus snails too.
Hey HemmDog - I'm Easy Bay (Pleasanton) and have been out of the hobby for several years. I used to have a heavily stocked 210G SPS and smaller 30G acan tanks. Feels great to get my hands dirty again! On the fence of seeding the tank with chaeto to help prevent too many nutrients from building up and realize I can't add snails until there is food for them to eat so that is prolly weeks away. So much to relearn!
 
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Day 12 update: took API test kit and measures for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I think values are : between 0.25 and 0.5 ammonia; 0 nitrite; 0 nitrate

D0DBE455-0A04-4AC6-BE11-4E06A10DDCDA.jpeg 75F43C0B-54A8-465B-97C3-0FD0E32FF997.jpeg 173D46C1-A34A-4125-B758-D6258869DD6C.jpeg 3B393077-5871-4D84-9236-33DEA868AD83.jpeg
 
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Plan to dose Prodibio this Thursday (2nd dose) as per instructions.

Guess I should be in downward side of ammonia slope now

95F99423-7E30-4811-A0EC-C8C871102082.jpeg
 
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Currently using IO to cycle tank as according to salifert Ca, Alk test kits the current tank water is 430 Ca and 15 dkH alk. Alk appears super high. When IO runs our will slowly switch to Reef Crystals.

What’s your favorite salt for an acan tank and why?
 

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I like hwmarinemix and tropic marin pro because they mix fast and clean. Tropic marin is a bit cleaner and has an alk around 7.6 whereas hwmarinemix is a bit cheaper and has an alk of around 9dkh
 
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Thursday April 2nd. Took basic measurements again. Only change was ammonia between 0.5-1.0ppm

DD7C9DA3-457D-41EF-BF1F-FE5C1ABB9E84.jpeg ED3B110C-02F0-42BF-A9CF-9CC74046B1F0.jpeg
 
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I like hwmarinemix and tropic marin pro because they mix fast and clean. Tropic marin is a bit cleaner and has an alk around 7.6 whereas hwmarinemix is a bit cheaper and has an alk of around 9dkh
Thx will research TM and HW!
 
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Well I lasted two weeks and couldn’t pass on some acan frags. Acans are one of the species that seem to thrive on nutrients. Yeah I’m weak. I also added chaeto and sea lettuce to see how those do. Lights are on ramp up acclimation cycle and are only one 2 hours a day at 50%

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I’ve noticed that daily evaporation rate varies wildly and is heavy influence by pump placement and how much water surface agitation there is.
Right now I use 3/4” from storage cylinder: 3 in^3=49.2 mL = 1.66 oz

However if I move pumps more toward surface and really agitate the water this increases to 3” water line drop.

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plankton

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Next mini project. After a couple day’s when the sea chem pH/Ammonia sensors adjust compare their values to those measured via API test kit. I’ve always wanted to try the sea chem sensors.

A9A8D9C7-781E-4607-9739-D77A070013DE.jpeg D67473C2-DE84-4193-AF1C-2618B0C5EC8C.jpeg
 
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After letting the sea chem sensors adjust I expected to see clear results but levels and indicator color is very hard to read and way off. Useless. Removed them.

A7690A05-FF07-40EC-AF39-90189C7D51DB.jpeg
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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