Dual cubes

[mch1984]

I guess the blue barrels will be media tumblers?

 

[johnnycamp5]

I used the barrels to add 90g of extra capacity to the system and to aid in water changes.
I have thought of using them as tumbler and/or to hold a bit more rock as well…

 

[mch1984]

I used the barrels to add 90g of extra capacity to the system and to aid in water changes.
I have thought of using them as tumbler and/or to hold a bit more rock as well…

I've never ran a tumbler, I was just kind of wondering. Extra rock would be a good use for sure.

 

[johnnycamp5]

I’ve started the cycle with microbacter 7

Thoughts on if I should feed the cycle once a day?

 

[johnnycamp5]

I’ve gone with SMATFARM G5 from Amazon for each cube…

Is there a SMATFARM
“operation manual for dummies”

 

[johnnycamp5]

lol!

 

[johnnycamp5]

Having nothing but trouble trying to setup the sunrise sunset times

Tiny buttons on the side of the lights and I’m “all thumbs”…

 

[johnnycamp5]

The cycle has come along fine with zero ammonia, and a touch of nitrite and a bit more of nitrate

 

[mch1984]

Never used smartfarm so I'm no help with that. Glad to see they are full and making progress.

 

[johnnycamp5]

They seem to work fine when I use any of the presets…in this case LPS…
But can’t make them work with any custom settings I input…
not yet anyway…

We’ll be going away in late Nov…
Can anyone suggest a fairly reliable auto feeder?

 

[michaelzk]

They seem to work fine when I use any of the presets…in this case LPS…
But can’t make them work with any custom settings I input…
not yet anyway…

We’ll be going away in late Nov…
Can anyone suggest a fairly reliable auto feeder?

In my experience you may not have selected the mode you set. You might want to go to youtube and search for SMATFARM g3 operation videos, their product operation logic is the same.

 

[johnnycamp5]

I’ve tried to YouTube thing…
All it brought to my attention was that once I figure out how to operate and select different settings,
I should really make a good (much more descriptive/precise) video that most folks can follow and understand lol

I’m happy with the LPS preset.…except for the 3 hours of moonlight (8-11pm)

I’ll probably have my daughter do it lol

 

[johnnycamp5]

From watching user videos…
it appears to me the manufacturer randomly changes the orientation of the buttons/selects (name and description of the selections) every few months…
contributing to some confusion on my part

 

[johnnycamp5]

Finally got the lights figured out-

All I needed to do was leave them on one of the presets under “Mode setting”-

(SPS-LPS-Mix-Fresh-or Constant)… as long as I did not select “self def”, which I believe stands for self defined

But I continued to select “self defined” in the mode setting bracket,
which is exactly what all the how to videos suggested

Not sure why it wouldn’t work for me,
but as long as I don’t select “self defined”mode, I can set the times for sunrise Sunset, and Moonlight to wherever I want

OK, so enough about the lights!

I’m guessing this massive algae problem on the bottom of my larger, bare bottom cube is dinoflagellates?

Is it too early (or incorrect) for me to try and get Copepods to consume it?

 

[johnnycamp5]

The system has been up and running (cycling) for 22 days only

 

[johnnycamp5]

I’m not sure why, but my smaller cube has none of this on the bare bottom (that I can see)

 

[johnnycamp5]

You can’t tell in the pic, but the algae on the bottom, basically looks like The color of rust

 

[johnnycamp5]

Just to update…

clearly my ugly stage has arrived lol

Brown algae forming on all surfaces… gray homemade rocks turning brown as well

 

[johnnycamp5]

Update-

Seems yesterday the cycle has fully finished (35 days)
Suddenly nitrites dropped to 0
and nitrates to 5

All is well with the inhabitants, except for a very hyper active Coral B B that most certainly will have to be re-homed)…

It’s stressing hell out of a pair of Bartletts Anthias

Luckily the pair of nearly naked clowns don’t seem to be as stressed by it

Now that the trites and trates have completely bottomed out, I’ll start to consider adding a couple easy starter coral frags

 

[johnnycamp5]

Hi all.
Update on my new (relatively) system -

Question about API test (I know they’re considered junk but it’s all I’ve got for now)

I was gifted a live rock with three small bubble tip anemones, and some Kenya trees attached

I added it to the larger cube tank (90g) tank about three days ago.

The overall system with the other 50 gallon cube and sump and both barrels holds about 250 gallons

Cube tanks are about 3.5 months cycled.

Anemones look rather retracted snd bad (to me)… one has completely disappeared in the rock

I’ll attach some pics of my water test showing .25 nitrate and .0 nitrate…

I’m wondering if the existing nitrate and lack of nitrate is why they are suffering, perhaps I should give my friend back the rock?