A 60 Gallon Cube Doesn't Fit in a Model 3

[gsepanik]

Following along--I really like the size on those 60 gallon cubes. Heavily considering one in the (hopefully) not so distant future!

 

[glmory]

Yeah, 60 cube is a really nice size. I was planning on upgrading in a few years to at least a 120 and more likely something in the 200 gallon size. Now I am worried though that much anything larger would look funny in this room.

 

[glmory]

One thing I don't understand is that my alkalinity is staying around 11 or 12. I dosed a little kalk maybe three months ago, but quickly stopped as I realized it wasn't needed. After a bunch of weekly water changes it has stayed high. Doesn't seem to be hurting anything though, might simply be testing error although multiple tests have given the same results.

As it has become more brave, the upside down goby has grown on me. Tempted to get ten or so to make a theme of the aquarium. It would be really neat seeing them all popping out of the rocks, but at $45 each does seem likely more than I want to put into the plan.

 

[glmory]

Still up and running. Coral needs another year of growth before it is a nice aquarium but only real issue remains hair algae.

Someone suggested I try turning off flow and adding hydrogen peroxide with a syringe directly to the hair algae.

Was an interesting exercise. Got to watch the algae bubble.

Unfortunately, within 24 hours I lost a peppermint shrimp. Also, my clove polyps are clearly unhappy. Been months since I have lost anything significant in the aquarium, so rather annoying.

Unclear if it worked, although the algae is discolored today so maybe.

If I do try again it will be on one small spot of hair algae at a time and I will not add much.

 

[Mebbid]

How much hydrogen peroxide did you end up using?

 

[glmory]

I wasn't scientific enough but 30-50mL of 3%.

Will possibly try again with 5mL once my clove polyps recover. Honestly though it only seems worthwhile places you can't reach. It damaged the algae but didn't really destroy it.

 

[glmory]

Still battling hair algae. Tried both turbo snails and emerald crabs to no real success. Should probably just turn down light, but trying to pull through despite the light.

Being too small for tangs and unable to use urchins because of the acrylic is rough.

Decided to try and push back to my initial plan by getting a few more species that should reproduce in the aquarium. Ordered:
Seven dwarf trochus (Monilea)
Five limpets (Lottia leucopleura)
Three Pitho crabs (Pitho mirabilis)
One Thrush cowrie (Naria turdus)
Five checkered nerite (Nerita tessellata)
Seven dove snails (Columbella mercatoria)

Only the dove snails and dwarf trochus are likely to breed in the aquarium, but once you pay so much for shipping it was hard to not get carried away.

The colonista snails, asterina starfish, micro brittle starfish and trochus snails I have already reproducing might eventually be able to cover the tank. Am hoping another two species pushes it over the edge. If not, will try Stomatella snails and maybe one or two additional snails known to reproduce in the aquarium.

 

[Mebbid]

After years of deciding it was too expensive a hobby to take up, I finally started poking around Facebook Marketplace. First I found some great 180 and 240 gallon aquariums at a great price and got excited. Then I realized I don't want to buy a used glass aquarium because they seem too likely to end up exploding on the kitchen floor. Still though, I am in a big city so some acrylic aquariums in that size range also seemed to be amazing deals. But would I hate acrylic tanks? Searching online finds that I might as well search for whether Star Wars or Star Trek is superior. Lots of loud confident opinions on both sides of the glass acrylic divide.

So, it is time to get real world experience and find out if I can handle an acrylic aquarium.

Found a good deal on a acrylic 60 gallon cube with an external overflow and a stand. Sent a message, confirmed a time, checked the trunk and back seat of the Model 3 was empty. Drove off to pick it up.

Met with a rather skeptical looking individual who took one look at my car and said it wouldn't fit. I grumbled a bit that I fit all kinds of things in cars that shouldn't fit them, but no a 60 gallon cube does not fit in a Model 3. Drove off disappointed, but he said if I could be there by 4PM I could come back for it. Drove home, measured my Prius and found that while it was borderline it likely would also not be up to the task.

Headed to Lowes to rent a truck. My local Lowes doesn't rent trucks! Headed to Home Depot, rushed through the process, and made it back to his house at 3:50PM. We have an aquarium! Also picked up a sump and protein skimmer that he had laying around.

Got it home now. Probably a few months before I am ready to put fish into it as it seems like there are a lot of small tasks to do.

First will be trying to get the scratches out of the tank. I ordered a kit of Novus 1, 2 and 3. Hoping to avoid sanding but it is a lot of surface area so will re-evaluate after I have tried a bit.

The stand seems sturdy but there are dings in the paint. Ordered some "AstraVox Wood Touch Up Paint, 1.5 Oz Black Paint for Wood Repair Scratches, Spots and Chips" which looked like it should do the job.

Also high on the priority list is to sort out the sump situation. The sump he had was only two chambers, seemed made for a wet dry system. Might try to reconfigure it a bit, or might leave as is. A return pump and the plumbing are still needed. Imagine I will also need an automatic top off system.

The overflow box only has one drain pipe. Debating if it is worth the trouble to drill an emergency drain. Hard for me to see anything that gets through the overflow teeth blocking up the drain but possibly a fish or large snail could.

No lighting yet. Might try to mount a pair of AI blades in the hood, but those cost more than I paid for this aquarium so I may find something cheaper.

As far as stocking, probably going to do soft corals with ORA/Biota fish. The exact details are not worked out but my seven year old made it very clear that we will be getting a Nemo.

Hah, I had a similar experience with my 60 cube. Had to strap the hood to the roof of my car to get it all home in 1 trip

 

[StradicCi4]

Now that’s a story. Love it. Build looks good!

 

[glmory]

Unclear if this is aftermath of the hydrogen peroxide debacle or something new, but going through a minor crash.

All the turbo snails died.

I think one goby may have died but he hides enough it is hard to be sure. I don't expect the Royal Gramma to make the end of the week. He is moving from hiding to laying on the substrate. Unclear what it could be, he looks more or less normal but doesn't act that way.

The leather corals, xenia, mushrooms and older gorgonian look fine. My new gorgonian is sad looking and most the clove polyps closed up after months of rapid growth.

So many things it could be, but going down the route of wet skimming out five or ten gallons a day. Bad water in some form makes the most sense to me.

Unfortunately I didn't quite realize this was happening before my new cleaner crew showed up. So will need to stay on it a few days to keep things together.

Pitho crabs really give me hope. As soon as they were dropped in they filled their faces with hair algae. Unlike the emerald crabs that mostly pick at the rock, the pitho crabs seem to go after big tufts.

Or they are hungry and they will stop eating hair algae tomorrow. Both turbo crabs and emerald crabs started out giving me hope then got lazy.

 

[glmory]

Am thinking dissolved oxygen may be one of my problems.

I had just been running the skimmer to wet skim. It was loud and hard to tune for daily work. Also, over the weekend, I moved my wave pumps lower in the aquarium where they caused a lot less surface agitation.

When I found the gramma laying on the bottom of the aquarium both looking fine and almost dead, I turned on the protein skimmer to pull out any junk from the water. Within fifteen minutes he returned to the rock to hide. I have only seen him a few seconds since then but he did appear to swim more normally.

So, I moved my wave pumps a bit closer to the surface than they started. A lot more surface movement than before. Expect that should be sufficient as everything seemed fine a few weeks ago.

 

[skey44]

Lovely job cleaning up the display scratches. Sorry about your mini crash. Sounds like you’re quite dedicated and doing the right things to recover. Thanks for sharing your story! Love the tile

 

[glmory]

My pithos crabs were finally all three out today. I think they may be more active in the morning.

They really give me hope on the hair algae. Relative to the emerald crabs they seem to spend more time picking at the large tufts of hair algae. They are also cuter than emerald crabs. I have one large one which I assume is a male, then two small ones I assume are females. The difference in claw sizes is so great they don't even seem like the same species.

 

[glmory]

Another clean up crew member that has been doing well is the tiger conch. I was worried about these since I don't have sand, but the four I have are at least six months old and have not lost one yet.

Unclear if they actually clean anything, but they are clearly poking around the reborn media all day so must be eating some of the detritus.

 

[glmory]

The dove snails seem likely to turn into my favorite snails. Not sure how much work they do but they are already laying eggs and are a unique appearance.

I don't like constantly pulling out dead clean up crew. Something small enough I only notice it die from the empty shells, and don't need to go to the store to replace is ideal.

I still think a half dozen species that reproduce to carrying capacity in the tank should be able to get to a good spot. So far all evidence is I am wrong, but Colonista snails, asterina starfish, and micro brittle stars are still scaling up in population. I don't often see copepods so think I may just have too many predators. Trochus snails laid eggs, but none of those babies have yet reproduced so less clear there I will get to a self-sustaining population. A somewat larger tank might make that easier.

Dove snails plus my new mini trochus snails hopefully push that over the edge.

Hair algae though may continue to plague me for some time, the type of micro clean up crew I prefer don't mess with that.

 

[glmory]

Ugh, my Thrush cowrie (Naria turdus) was sitting next to my bali giant xenia for a while sort of standing up. I kept an eye on him because he looked suspicious.

Sure enough, my xenia is missing a bunch of polyps! Everything I find online shows he is a reef safe algae eater, but that wasn't my experience. Banished him to the sump.

Maybe a tiny chance it was a Pitho or Emerald crab and he was just investigating. However, he was at the scene of the crime too long for me to think that likely.

A shame, as these are invasive in Florida they otherwise seem like a good choice of clean up crew.

 

[glmory]

Going to be out a few weeks so decided to get a better autofeeder. After obsessing for a while I decided that the Plank was the way to go.

It hasn't gone well.

The feeder is substantially larger than my previous one, so while I can get the hood onto it, it is extremely precarious. Just a matter of time before I knock it into the tank it while removing the hood.

This might not matter if it were properly secured. Unfortunately, the way it ships, it can only fit about a 2.5 inch eurobrace. I have a 5.5 inch eurobrace.

So, no fear I saw in a review they make a version for bigger eurobracing.

Nope, that product is rated for 5 inches and mine is 5.5 inches.

So, now I have a $200 autofeeder which is almost certainly going to end up in the tank.

Maybe I could get someone to 3D print something but even that seems like quite a bit of experimentation.

 

[glmory]

While I probably won't be happy with it until I have it well secured, I will say that I love that you can set the Plank to not over-feed. Every other fish feeder I have used seems to think it is on a 500 gallon tank. Or at a minimum only feeding once a day. For some reason vendors don't understand that the whole point of an automatic feeder is to feed a small amount at a time multiple times a day.

I got the Nearpow timer on Amazon. It was a bit of a pain to set and wouldn't let me put more than an hour between feedings but seems like money well spent. Currently it is set to feed four seconds every hour from 7AM to 8PM. That is 54 seconds of runtime a day, still maybe a bit much but I will keep an eye on it.

The feeder tube is ugly and long, but the pump does a great job of sending otherwise floating food down into the water column. A lot less food should go down the drain this way. The kept granules I have been feeding seem to work much better in it.

 

[glmory]

Avast Marine suggested double sided industrial tape to lock down the feeder. I ended up finding some scotch brand velcro pads that said they could connect to acrylic. I used six of them on the bottom lf the plank. Not totally sold but appears it will be enough to keep the feeder from taking a swim.

From a pure usefulness standpoint this plank is fantastic. A lot of the kelp granules I would feed fell down the overflow. Now they get injected right into the water column and don't come back up.

The percentage of food that gets eaten by fish rather than going down the overflow improved dramatically.

It will take some time to dial in, but four seconds an hour for 13 hours a day seems about right.

Only remaining complaint is that it is sort of ugly. The tube has to drop four inches below the water line and with my giant eurobracing it is practically in the center of the aquarium. Still, from the couch it disappears into the black background. I am sure I will get used to it quickly.

 

[glmory]

A couple full tank shots.

Still not beaten the cynobacteria and hair algae but the coral keeps growing, feels like another year like the last and I am in a good place.