Hey everyone!
I’m relatively new to REEF2REEF. I’ve posted some threads looking for guidance on variance things and everyone is awesome! My 5 year old son was begging for a pet. When I asked him what kind of pet he wanted, he said, “a cat.” I proceeded to laugh out loud and said “well that is never going to happen”. I’m not much of a cat person. Dog lover here, however our lives are a little too chaotic to take on that kind of responsibility. So when I asked him to pick again, he responded “a clown fish”. Ok that’s something we can talk about........I had a couple of saltwater tanks in high school, so it wasn’t completely foreign to me. Although, I now realize how little I actually knew and feel bad for some of the mistakes I made without doing any research. I knew that if we invested in a tank, it would be more cost effective for us to find a set up used, from someone getting out of the hobby. We live in Indiana, so there aren’t a ton of reefers that I am aware of nearby. I researched and researched and researched and decided to go with the biocube 32. Now to find someone nearby that was selling theirs. I’ll make the rest of that part short because this build thread isn’t about our biocube. We found one, stocked but with a GHA algae problem. Since I didn’t get to “build” that one. I wanted to start a thread for our Evo. We have been battling the GHA in our biocube with frequent water changes, scrubbing, and dosing with the vibrant. It’s coming along but we really need to up our cleanup crew and eventually I would like to add more corals. I started reading about QT tanks and decided we would need to start one for our inverts and corals that we plan on adding on to our Biocube. At first I thought we would just do something really basic. But the more I researched, the more I was drawn to doing a quarantine tank that was also kind of nano build for invert and corals only and we can move to Biocube as needed.
After I purchased the Evo, I started to look at changing the filtration to be closer to how our biocube works. Eventually, I’d like to have a media basket in chamber 1, bio media in chamber 2 and heater and return in the third. In the interest of not spending even more money and to get the tank up and running for our needed CUC, I decided to stick with the stock sponge filter and just plan on changing it later. I think since it will be fishless, the stock should be more than enough for now. I would also like to had a little wavemaker once we start adding the corals.
Today, I did a leak test before we got started.
Everything looked ok, so I emptied it and started playing with the small aquascape. I bought dry live caribsea rock from our Local pet store. The nearest reef store is about an hour away . It’s not exactly what I had in mind but it will do until I can get somewhere with more of selection.
Added live sand- caribsea bahamas oolite. The amount was more than what I expected but I decided to go with and I can vacuum some out later if I don’t like it. One of my favorite snails is the Nassarius Snail. Is that weird? Hahaha. I wanted them to have a nice sand bed to roam through.
Added the water, and now just waiting for the water to clear up.
That’s all for tonight. Hope to connect with others and their nano builds along the way!
I’m relatively new to REEF2REEF. I’ve posted some threads looking for guidance on variance things and everyone is awesome! My 5 year old son was begging for a pet. When I asked him what kind of pet he wanted, he said, “a cat.” I proceeded to laugh out loud and said “well that is never going to happen”. I’m not much of a cat person. Dog lover here, however our lives are a little too chaotic to take on that kind of responsibility. So when I asked him to pick again, he responded “a clown fish”. Ok that’s something we can talk about........I had a couple of saltwater tanks in high school, so it wasn’t completely foreign to me. Although, I now realize how little I actually knew and feel bad for some of the mistakes I made without doing any research. I knew that if we invested in a tank, it would be more cost effective for us to find a set up used, from someone getting out of the hobby. We live in Indiana, so there aren’t a ton of reefers that I am aware of nearby. I researched and researched and researched and decided to go with the biocube 32. Now to find someone nearby that was selling theirs. I’ll make the rest of that part short because this build thread isn’t about our biocube. We found one, stocked but with a GHA algae problem. Since I didn’t get to “build” that one. I wanted to start a thread for our Evo. We have been battling the GHA in our biocube with frequent water changes, scrubbing, and dosing with the vibrant. It’s coming along but we really need to up our cleanup crew and eventually I would like to add more corals. I started reading about QT tanks and decided we would need to start one for our inverts and corals that we plan on adding on to our Biocube. At first I thought we would just do something really basic. But the more I researched, the more I was drawn to doing a quarantine tank that was also kind of nano build for invert and corals only and we can move to Biocube as needed.
After I purchased the Evo, I started to look at changing the filtration to be closer to how our biocube works. Eventually, I’d like to have a media basket in chamber 1, bio media in chamber 2 and heater and return in the third. In the interest of not spending even more money and to get the tank up and running for our needed CUC, I decided to stick with the stock sponge filter and just plan on changing it later. I think since it will be fishless, the stock should be more than enough for now. I would also like to had a little wavemaker once we start adding the corals.
Today, I did a leak test before we got started.
Everything looked ok, so I emptied it and started playing with the small aquascape. I bought dry live caribsea rock from our Local pet store. The nearest reef store is about an hour away . It’s not exactly what I had in mind but it will do until I can get somewhere with more of selection.
Added live sand- caribsea bahamas oolite. The amount was more than what I expected but I decided to go with and I can vacuum some out later if I don’t like it. One of my favorite snails is the Nassarius Snail. Is that weird? Hahaha. I wanted them to have a nice sand bed to roam through.
Added the water, and now just waiting for the water to clear up.
That’s all for tonight. Hope to connect with others and their nano builds along the way!
. Phosphate can get bound in rock so it can take some time, just need to be patient. If you can afford a Hanna ULR Phosphorous reader I'd recommend investing in one.
