60g AIO cube diary

[jackiemon]

Hello!
I wanted to document my tank here and share my experience.

01/20/2024
Bought a used 60g AIO cube with existing sand. There was 2" of old water and sand was DIRTY. I didn't think of removing and washing the sand (my bad). Went ahead and added saltwater, but filtered the tank with a canister filter for 1 weeks. Flipped all the sand bed and that pretty much cleared up all the detritus from the sand and water was clear.

Took existing cabinet and added a quartz top.

01/27/2024
Added established live rocks (this is supposed to skip the cycle). Keep filtering using the canister filter and blowing the sand bed.

02/03/2024
Transfered coral banded shrimp from old tank ( fluval Evo 13.5g). Let the bacteria population increase and stabilize.

02/06/2024
DIY media basket using eggcrate
DIY polycarbonate lid
Added protein skimmer
Added remaining live stock
- pair of clownfish
- 4 nassarius snails
- 3 random snails
- 2 hermit crab

02/11/2024
Added 2 yellow watchman goby
Added 1 pistol shrimp
Added 3 frags

Future plans
waiting shipments for (ETA mid March)
- noopsyche k7 pro v3
- jebao return pump EP 2000
- jebao cross flow gyre MCP 90

Need to add a clear mesh on the lid.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Nice looking aquascape! Following along to see how the tank goes!

 

[jackiemon]

02/14/2024

!!!UPDATE!!!

I haven't seen the shrimp since the moment I dropped him in the tank. Today he's finally out and paired with one of the YWG.

 

[jackiemon]

02/17/2024

With an open top, there's too much evaporation each day so I added an auto top off.

 

[FolkLoreReefKeeping]

02/17/2024

With an open top, there's too much evaporation each day so I added an auto top off.

How’s it working so far? Is that a model off Amazon I was looking at something similar as a cheap alternative to a budget build

 

[jackiemon]

How’s it working so far? Is that a model off Amazon I was looking at something similar as a cheap alternative to a budget build

I just installed it yesterday, but it's great so far. It's been keeping my protein skimmer tunned by maintaining a consistent water level.

I moved the sensor up and it did automatically added more water up to the new level. I got the AutoAqua from AliExpress.

 

[jackiemon]

Started hatching my own baby brine shrimp, super easy.