Hello Reef 15 Gallon Cube Build Thread

[tbrown]

That sounds alright, the more I contemplate it. I'll give it a try. The worst that happens is I give it to an LSF or another reefer. Does anyone think corals and anemones can be together in something small like a 15 cube? Is that too ambitious?

RFAs can be housed in smaller tanks with corals. Bubble Tips - avoid the normal varies and look for smaller ones. ECC Nexus, Nexus Burst, and Joker all stay around 2" max oral disc. They hit that 2.5"-3" and split.

Out of my 20+ Jokers, I think I have 1 or 2 that are over 2" and they're just barely over.

Unfortunately 1 of my little 1"ers found the Gyre yesterday so he was relocated to the sump. Another 1"er decided he likes hanging with the Strats so he may be headed to sump camp as well soon.

 

[DiamondDog1030]

RFAs can be housed in smaller tanks with corals. Bubble Tips - avoid the normal varies and look for smaller ones. ECC Nexus, Nexus Burst, and Joker all stay around 2" max oral disc. They hit that 2.5"-3" and split.

Out of my 20+ Jokers, I think I have 1 or 2 that are over 2" and they're just barely over.

Unfortunately 1 of my little 1"ers found the Gyre yesterday so he was relocated to the sump. Another 1"er decided he likes hanging with the Strats so he may be headed to sump camp as well soon.

A Joker is the only doable one for my budget range. I can see how buying a Nexus might pay you back in the end, though. I think the LFS I go to only has Rose or Colorado sunburst. I'll look into it.

Also tried feeding my clowns. They spat the 1mm BRS pellets out. Hoping it's just not hungry, but might be that I did not soak the pellets beforehand(?).

 

[DiamondDog1030]

Fed my clowns today for the first time. The female is receptive to the pellet food, but the male just spits them all out. The pellets are BRS 1mm pellets, so maybe it's just used to what the LFS fed it. Any other thoughts on the reasons are welcome.

Small update: Tried Hikari Mysis, and they didn't seem to like it much. Maybe they are still not ready to eat yet...

 

[tbrown]

Jokers are pretty.

Ask me how I know.

 

[tbrown]

As far as feeding goes, garlic can help.

Brightwell sells some called Garlic Extreme. Supposedly it's just garlic oil.

 

[DiamondDog1030]

Jokers are pretty.

Ask me how I know.

Those look so cool. Surprised that color scheme is $90 compared to the original nexus for $450.

 

[DiamondDog1030]

As far as feeding goes, garlic can help.

Brightwell sells some called Garlic Extreme. Supposedly it's just garlic oil.

I mean, $20 on Amazon won't hurt the wallet at this point. I'll give it a shot

 

[DiamondDog1030]

Jokers are pretty.

Ask me how I know.

Curious where you got your Joker nem from? I saw BRS and Tidal Gardens as the top searches. Another option was asking my LFS to quarantine it for me since he does that. However, I heard anemones are one of the lower risk factors.

 

[tbrown]

Curious where you got your Joker nem from? I saw BRS and Tidal Gardens as the top searches. Another option was asking my LFS to quarantine it for me since he does that. However, I heard anemones are one of the lower risk factors.

I got mine from SBB close to 3 years ago now. Not sure if he still sells them though.

 

[DiamondDog1030]

A little over a week, and a possible problem came up. I've lost track of 2 cerith snails for around a week. I have not seen them for a while and am not sure if they died. I do get a faint whiff of a weird smell, but it only lasts for a bit (might be the carbon, honestly, getting rid of the smell).

A bit of context, my trio of cerith snails usually are quite active in the morning and night. So I usually see them once every day.

If they are dead, would my Nassarius snails find them, or would they just be dead somewhere under the sand? In that case, how would I find them to suck up and remove?

 

[tbrown]

If you don't have Hermits, the Nassarius will likely take care of them, yes

 

[DiamondDog1030]

Small side quest before getting an anemone. Got a cleaner shrimp and some more cerith snails. It is hard to see, but there is like a hard white rock layer over one of the cerith snails I got. I assume this is not a big deal.

 

[tbrown]

Small side quest before getting an anemone. Got a cleaner shrimp and some more cerith snails. It is hard to see, but there is like a hard white rock layer over one of the cerith snails I got. I assume this is not a big deal.

No big deal. They sometimes come in with stuff growing on them especially if they're wild caught.

 

[DiamondDog1030]

Acclimation went well. Seems it's found its crevice to hide in. Hoping he enjoys the new home.

 

[Foxy-88]

Tank looks great! I started a helloreef tank as well and its a great tank honestly. I dig the rockscape and the name. Solid Ted Lasso reference. Will be following along on the progress of your tank!

Also did you pull the trigger on an anemone yet?

 

[DiamondDog1030]

Tank looks great! I started a helloreef tank as well and its a great tank honestly. I dig the rockscape and the name. Solid Ted Lasso reference. Will be following along on the progress of your tank!

Also did you pull the trigger on an anemone yet?

Hey, glad you like the tank. I am also glad you got the reference. It is actually, coincidentally, a double reference to Ted Lasso and also one of my favorite game series, Metal Gear Solid.

I have not pulled the trigger on the Joker nem yet, haven't had any opening in my schedule to be around home for longer than 5 days (lots of birthdays this month). I also wanted to figure out why my nitrates are always around 11-15 ppm before I order it. I know it is usually fine to be around this range, but I don't really understand why, since my bioload isn't all that big.

I'm thinking of getting it either next week or the week after, though, fingers crossed. Saw Tidal Gardens has it for 90$, which seems reasonable.

 

[Foxy-88]

Tank looks great! I started a helloreef tank as well and its a great tank honestly. I dig the rockscape and the name. Solid Ted Lasso reference. Will be following along on the progress of your tank!

Also did you pull the trigger on an anemone yet?

Hey, glad you like the tank. I am also glad you got the reference. It is actually, coincidentally, a double reference to Ted Lasso and also one of my favorite game series, Metal Gear Solid.

I have not pulled the trigger on the Joker nem yet, haven't had any opening in my schedule to be around home for longer than 5 days (lots of birthdays this month). I also wanted to figure out why my nitrates are always around 11-15 ppm before I order it. I know it is usually fine to be around this range, but I don't really understand why, since my bioload isn't all that big.

I'm thinking of getting it either next week or the week after, though, fingers crossed. Saw Tidal Gardens has it for 90$, which seems reasonable.

Honestly its a healthy range. Ive had tanks at 20-40 before full mixed reef with about 5 or 6 fish. I just started mine about a month and a half ago. Tossed my fish in from my 90 but prior to that nitrates were at 20ppm and holding strong. Honestly I'll take nitrates over nitrites and ammonia all day. Means the biological filter is doing its thing.

Ive also learned with anemones they like established tanks depending on the anemone. I myself am actually putting in my rock flower anemone from my 90. This is all part of my attemlt to break my 90 down and rebuild it.

If you have a chance check out my build of my hello reef. Super cool to see people have the same tank but different ideas on them for rock scapes and equipment alike. You put a filter roller in yours too correct? I also noticed, given a few months apart from purchases I would assume, your heater is different than the one I received. I ordered the same heater controller fully expecting the same heater to find its already a preset heater. I may still had the controller though. Can never be to sure to prevent a meltdown

 

[DiamondDog1030]

Honestly its a healthy range. Ive had tanks at 20-40 before full mixed reef with about 5 or 6 fish. I just started mine about a month and a half ago. Tossed my fish in from my 90 but prior to that nitrates were at 20ppm and holding strong. Honestly I'll take nitrates over nitrites and ammonia all day. Means the biological filter is doing its thing.

Ive also learned with anemones they like established tanks depending on the anemone. I myself am actually putting in my rock flower anemone from my 90. This is all part of my attemlt to break my 90 down and rebuild it.

If you have a chance check out my build of my hello reef. Super cool to see people have the same tank but different ideas on them for rock scapes and equipment alike. You put a filter roller in yours too correct? I also noticed, given a few months apart from purchases I would assume, your heater is different than the one I received. I ordered the same heater controller fully expecting the same heater to find its already a preset heater. I may still had the controller though. Can never be to sure to prevent a meltdown

Yeah, I have heard of higher nitrate ranges being sustainable while browsing here, too. My cleanup crew is a bit larger than I planned. I have MB7 in my pocket for whenever I see things getting backed up or when I introduce new things to my tank.

Checked on your HelloReef build and saw we had the same ATO and water jug by coincidence. I don't use a filter roller, though, just swapping between three filter socks. Bleach and clean 2 when the final one is in and all that. The rock scape was more of a happy accident, I guess. The epoxy gave in while I was cleaning some crevices, and I noticed they were holding detritus in them. I use the stock Eheim heater still (love it, of course), but I also have their newer E-series heaters, which seem to be smarter versions of the old ones.

I've had my ups and downs with this combo of Inkbird and eheim, but I think it's probably just California weather being colder than usual, so the heaters are fighting extra hard to maintain temperatures.

 

[Foxy-88]

Honestly its a healthy range. Ive had tanks at 20-40 before full mixed reef with about 5 or 6 fish. I just started mine about a month and a half ago. Tossed my fish in from my 90 but prior to that nitrates were at 20ppm and holding strong. Honestly I'll take nitrates over nitrites and ammonia all day. Means the biological filter is doing its thing.

Ive also learned with anemones they like established tanks depending on the anemone. I myself am actually putting in my rock flower anemone from my 90. This is all part of my attemlt to break my 90 down and rebuild it.

If you have a chance check out my build of my hello reef. Super cool to see people have the same tank but different ideas on them for rock scapes and equipment alike. You put a filter roller in yours too correct? I also noticed, given a few months apart from purchases I would assume, your heater is different than the one I received. I ordered the same heater controller fully expecting the same heater to find its already a preset heater. I may still had the controller though. Can never be to sure to prevent a meltdown

Yeah, I have heard of higher nitrate ranges being sustainable while browsing here, too. My cleanup crew is a bit larger than I planned. I have MB7 in my pocket for whenever I see things getting backed up or when I introduce new things to my tank.

Checked on your HelloReef build and saw we had the same ATO and water jug by coincidence. I don't use a filter roller, though, just swapping between three filter socks. Bleach and clean 2 when the final one is in and all that. The rock scape was more of a happy accident, I guess. The epoxy gave in while I was cleaning some crevices, and I noticed they were holding detritus in them. I use the stock Eheim heater still (love it, of course), but I also have their newer E-series heaters, which seem to be smarter versions of the old ones.

I've had my ups and downs with this combo of Inkbird and eheim, but I think it's probably just California weather being colder than usual, so the heaters are fighting extra hard to maintain temperatures.

Thats awesome. Youll get far greater temp swings with a nano for sure and believe me i know about weather. Im in colorado. Can be 70 one day and 10 the next. Theres no in between. Love eheim heaters. I have always one of those or the the titanium ones from brs with a controller. Honestly been using the same eheim heater in my 90 from my 75 and its still running stronger 7 years later.

 

[DiamondDog1030]

Before going to bed, I noticed something stuck in the return area of my tank. Seems my cleaner shrimp molted successfully (?). It was hiding in weird spots and standing still, acting all funny, so I guess this is what it was doing. He seems fine now so I guess there is nothing to worry about there.