FDchase 14 gallon cube

[FDchase]

Hello, I’m new to the site and kinda sorta new to keeping reef tanks. So here’s some background on me.

I had a reef tank back when I was a poor jr. high school kid. Started with a 20 gallon cube that I kept small freshwater sharks and mini puffer fish. That ended up becoming a reef tank. Then I got a 75 gallon from my uncle that was absolutely infested with hair algae. After I moved out of my parents and got married I switched that to a 40 gallon AIO tank. And when I started loosing motivation because I couldn’t afford to fix degrading equipment and things started dying I transferred what was left into a standard 20 gallon tank with a bio wheel filter where everything did pretty well for about a year until the wife left on a hot summer day and turned the ac off to save money. Since the start of my original tank until the last day I had a bi color angel that stuck with me during the whole thing for about 7 years.

So I’ve been wanted to get another tank since my last one died about 8 years ago. Always held off though because I was renting and never felt I was financially comfortable starting another on. Well I just purchased my first home and was at petco and they were having a 50% off sale on Aqueon rimless tanks. Asked the wife if she would care if I started another on and she said go ahead. $45 later I got a 14 gallon cube.

Moved it out to the garage work bench and filled it up with water to check for leaks.

This is where I’m currently at. I’m probably going to go by home depot tomorrow morning and build a basic frame to hold the tank until I build a facia to wrap around the frame to better match our furniture.
My idea for the tank were to keep 2 clown fish, a 6 line wrasse and mostly LPS corals. As much as I would like to get another bi color angel I feel the tank would be too small. I plan on taking this tank very slow. After I get it on a stand I plan I getting dry rock, sand, a power head and possibly one small piece of live rock and waiting for the cycle. I have an idea in my head of what I want the tank to look like so hopefully I can meet my expectations.

While I’m still unpacking some things I will keep an eye out for my old phones so I can show what I used to have. They weren’t very nice but it was an attempt.

 

[SPR1968]

Great start and keep the pictures flowing

And welcome to Reef2Reef as well!

 

[Tiki_Reef]

Welcome aboard

 

[FDchase]

Built a frame for the stand. I feel it’s a little over built but I’d rather have it overbuilt than underbuilt. I’m going to see if my dad can build a nice facia, drawer and a door for it later. He has nice woodworking tools in his garage. I just build elevators and play with cars so he would be better suited to make something nice.

I’m also going to head into Sacramento today and return a couple deposits I have on things. Hopefully I’ll come home with dry rock, salt and a power head. If it’s still standing when I get back I’m going to sand and paint the stand.

 

[FDchase]

Frame is painted and waiting to dry. I also went into the Sacramento area yesterday and went to a place called aquarium depot. Lots of fish, coral and dry goods. Tanks were well maintained too. Once I’m able to stock the tank I’ll be going back even with the 50 minute drive.

I also picked up about 13 lbs of Marco rock. I sorted through the rock and kinda aquascaped on the floor but when I got home it obviously didn’t work. So after taking inspiration from here and some of the BRS videos I took a chisel and hammer to most of the rock and came up with this.

This is hopefully what the front of tank will look like. Outside of the blue tape is the glass. Red tape is just to keep rock from sliding on the stainless.

This is looking in from the left.

And the top down shot. Once I get some glue to make it more stable I want to add a shelf coming off the peak towards the front right of the tank.

 

[FDchase]

Here is the final aquascape, maybe. Trying to leave room for the skimmer. I’m thinking of going with the tunze comline 9004. Has a pretty small footprint and seems to have good reviews. I don’t really want anything hanging off the back of the tank.

I tried to make lots of arches and over hangs. There isn’t going to be many fish in here so I’m hoping they will explore through the rocks a lot.
Coral placement will probably be a little challenging but I think it will grow in nicely.

 

[FDchase]

After filling the tank up an letting it clear it looked like a big rock wall in the middle of the tank. So I pulled it all out and redid it. So here’s aquascape v2

I got a bottle of doctor Tim’s, ammonia and some coralline in a bottle on order from BRS. I’m also going to be going to the store this weekend to get another jug of saltwater and a jug of freshwater. I’m kind of thinking of getting a small piece of live rock while I’m there for more bio diversity. Anyone have an opinion if that’s necessary?

 

[FDchase]

No real update. Put the doctor Tim’s in and am dosing ammonia. Currently it seems to be going down 0.5 ppm overnight. Nitrates also seemed to go down 10 ppm overnight. Does the bacteria in dr Tim’s one and only have bacteria to reduce nitrates?

Im also thinking of making a little spire with the leftover rock on the upper right side to help hide equipment.

 

[FDchase]

Been testing daily and dosing ammonia every couple days up to 2 ppm. Ammonia levels dropped 2ppm in about a 24 hour period every day last week. Did about a 2.5 gallon water change yesterday. Going to go to the store and take a look at some clown fish today.

 

[FDchase]

Found 2 clownfish at a local store. I originally wanted 2 matching clowns but the guy had these 2 in the tank together and they looked happy and healthy and never left each other’s side. So I decided not to split the pair up.

The black one seems to act like the clowns from my old tank. Just kind of chilling out in a small area. Orange one keeps zooming back and forth across the tank. After being released I put a couple pellets in and they immediately chased after the food and ate.

 

[FDchase]

After 2 days in the tank they are getting more comfortable. They started hiding every time I walk up but they are swimming throughout the tanks open water areas. The black one will probably end up being the male and orange female. Every time they get low to the rocks where they hang out at night the black one starts twitching at the orange.

 

[FDchase]

After a week with the clowns the orange one knows who I am. Kinda funny watching her.

Not sure if the video will work.
Also have 5 red leg hermits and 5 upgrade shells. One died and am keeping track of the remaining 4. One already changed out shells and 2 appear to have molted.

They kept climbing the silicon for a few days. Now they are all cruising through the rocks.

 

[Steven Garland]

That scape is AMAZING !!! I see you are a FD fan,my uncle had an FD built by the legend Peter Farrel.

 

[DE FISH]

I agree nice scape better than the original by far

 

[FDchase]

Yah it’s always been one of my dream cars. Owned mine for about 6 years now.
As for the original scape I was thinking I could mostly use whole rock to build it. Looked kinda nice on the bench, but water had a different story. Then I decided let’s grab a chisel and start building something custom. I’m kind of thinking about adding another arch or something on the top right to hide the filter that’s coming Wednesday.

 

[FDchase]

Got my new tunze comline 3162 in today. Takes up a bit of room but looks a lot cleaner. Was a little nervous from some reviews, biggest complaints were noise and overflow not working. So far the water surface is crystal clear and it’s also very quiet and manual said it will get quieter in 2 weeks

 

[FDchase]

Got my light yesterday. Ended up with an aqua illumination prime 16. App is easy to use but still a bit of learning on it. Disco ball effect is also quite bad throughout the whole tank. Anyone know how to help get rid of it without just shutting off red and green lights?

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Might be an idea to start off low intensity with your Prime on a new tank that size. I’d also zero out your red and green or at least <5%. Also keep your cool white low depending on how blue you can tolerate your tank. I started out with UV, violet, royal and blue at 15% and increased very slowly. If you go too hard you can run into algae issues

 

[FDchase]

I like more of a natural look. So blues are set to about 20-25 cool white is I think 40, uv and moons 0, red and green are 2-5. It’s also on acclimation mode set to 15% over a month. Fish seemed stressed out when I first put the light on so I’m trying not to blast them too hard.
Also is there a way to change spectrum without changing sun up and down and having all light kick back up to 60?
I’m hoping once the fish get used to the light I can play around with the light a bit more and find some setting people use with success that isn’t really blue. Also need to try to get a par meter.

 

[Steven Garland]

There is a diffuser for the Prime,but idk if it works with the newer 16HD.