Ludnix's 50g Cube

[lake985]

Congrats on the new place and the successful tank move. Looks like the inhabitants didn't mind it at all.

 

[ludnix]

Thanks lake985! I think they actually preferred the giant water change to their dirty tank water. I was expecting them to look pretty sad for a while, but all the SPS had polyps out within hours. The fish were begging for food in the tote container so I don't think they cared much either!

 

[ludnix]

I installed the octopus inspired light over the refugium last night. I picked up ball of chaeto from the local pet shop to grow as well. I still have some light bleeding into the skimmer and return pump tubing at the height I chose so I'm going to have to extend the light shroud some. I have the light on the reverse schedule of the display. I haven't connected the pH meter since the move but I'm hoping as the refugium grows in the pH swing at night will be reduced.

 

[ludnix]

So the fungia tongue coral that died a few months back is either budding new polyps or has become infested with majanos. I haven't seen any majanos in this tank before or elsewhere currently. I also did score along the septal ridges of the fungia a few months ago so I'm optimistically going forward with the idea that it's new polyps budding. They are in the right location but are so small they barely look like fungia.

There are atleast 7 in the photo. We'll watch them grow and see what they turn into, I hope it's lots of fungia babies.

 

[ludnix]

I took these photos with a Fuji Finepix under the water. It's a fun little camera and I didn't have to clean the glass, ha!

 

[ludnix]

I took these photos with the Fuji Finepix while snorkeling in Hawaii two weeks ago. It was a great to see the fish and corals interacting in their natural habitat. The scale of some of the corals and fish were just amazing, some of the tangs were 3-4" thick in the belly and yellow tangs that looked as big as dinner plates. I took about 500 terrible photos but maybe 10 decent ones I will share with you.

 

[ludnix]

Here's some top down shots of the 50g reef. I think everyone is doing really well. I want to attribute it to the refugium but I'm not sure. I'm getting some great growth out some I have not seen much from previously, but maybe I just have not been paying as much attention until recently. I am still just using kalkwasser for my auto top off water and no other additives.

 

[revhtree]

Looking great!

 

[ludnix]

Thanks Rev!

 

[ludnix]

Anyone have an ID for this LPS coral that is growing out of the rock? This one appears to have been hitchhiker or sprouted out of the dead skeleton on the rockwork. If I look closely I can see dead coralites around the live tissue which might help with ID.

 

[czhao1009]

Following! Nice job, especially the 3D printing, genius

I have a few questions regarding the SCA setup if you don't mind, as I'm considering one myself.

Did you do any modification to the overflow, if not, how do you like their center overflow, is it loud?
I noticed you did your own plumbing, is there a reason you didn't use their parts?
Is there room in the stand for ATO?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ludnix]

Following! Nice job, especially the 3D printing, genius

I have a few questions regarding the SCA setup if you don't mind, as I'm considering one myself.

Did you do any modification to the overflow, if not, how do you like their center overflow, is it loud?
I noticed you did your own plumbing, is there a reason you didn't use their parts?
Is there room in the stand for ATO?

Thanks in advance!

Thank you, I would be happy to answer any questions.

I didn't make any modifications to the overflow, however I plumbed it in a clunkier way than SCA designed. I wanted a bean animal overflow which is much quieter than the open drains they give you to use. On the first page of the thread I have a stock photo of their included plumbing which is designed to have 1 return line in the middle and 2 open strainer drains on either side. This would be incredibly noisy and introduce a lot of microbubbles to the sump which can eventually reach the return pump and make the water less clear in the tank. With the beananimal overflow design that used all 3 holes for just drain lines, so I was forced to run a flexible silicone line outside of the stand up the back of the tank as seen in this picture, which is why I say it's clunkier:

That turns into a bunch of 45 and 90 PVC elbows and a Tee to split the return across both of the stock SCA loc-line return lines which are designed to pass through the overflow.

Overall I'm really happy with how I have it plumbed though. It's a little less clean looking than having all the plumbing in the stand and overflow box, but it's silent and has fail-safes.

In hind sight, I would say that you can probably just use the stock setup to run a herbie overflow, which is the same as beananimal without the dry safety line. This would only need the stock 3 holes and would just as quiet as the beananimal. I think the extra safety dry line is a little overkill but I guess I appreciate the peice of mind it provides. Overall the center overflow is great, I would prefer an overflow mounted on the top back of the glass rather than through the bottom, but this works fine as well and allows it to be closer to the wall if you don't run pipes up the back like I have.

 

[Barrett]

Thank you, I would be happy to answer any questions.

I didn't make any modifications to the overflow, however I plumbed it in a clunkier way than SCA designed. I wanted a bean animal overflow which is much quieter than the open drains they give you to use. On the first page of the thread I have a stock photo of their included plumbing which is designed to have 1 return line in the middle and 2 open strainer drains on either side. This would be incredibly noisy and introduce a lot of microbubbles to the sump which can eventually reach the return pump and make the water less clear in the tank. With the beananimal overflow design that used all 3 holes for just drain lines, so I was forced to run a flexible silicone line outside of the stand up the back of the tank as seen in this picture, which is why I say it's clunkier:

That turns into a bunch of 45 and 90 PVC elbows and a Tee to split the return across both of the stock SCA loc-line return lines which are designed to pass through the overflow.

Overall I'm really happy with how I have it plumbed though. It's a little less clean looking than having all the plumbing in the stand and overflow box, but it's silent and has fail-safes.

In hind sight, I would say that you can probably just use the stock setup to run a herbie overflow, which is the same as beananimal without the dry safety line. This would only need the stock 3 holes and would just as quiet as the beananimal. I think the extra safety dry line is a little overkill but I guess I appreciate the peice of mind it provides. Overall the center overflow is great, I would prefer an overflow mounted on the top back of the glass rather than through the bottom, but this works fine as well and allows it to be closer to the wall if you don't run pipes up the back like I have.

I used it in the stock setup as a herbie and it is dead silent.

 

[Barrett]

Oh and BTW you have a beautiful tank. Here is a link if you would like to check out my build.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sca-50-gal-build-thread.302883/

 

[czhao1009]

Thank you, I would be happy to answer any questions.

I didn't make any modifications to the overflow, however I plumbed it in a clunkier way than SCA designed. I wanted a bean animal overflow which is much quieter than the open drains they give you to use. On the first page of the thread I have a stock photo of their included plumbing which is designed to have 1 return line in the middle and 2 open strainer drains on either side. This would be incredibly noisy and introduce a lot of microbubbles to the sump which can eventually reach the return pump and make the water less clear in the tank. With the beananimal overflow design that used all 3 holes for just drain lines, so I was forced to run a flexible silicone line outside of the stand up the back of the tank as seen in this picture, which is why I say it's clunkier:

That turns into a bunch of 45 and 90 PVC elbows and a Tee to split the return across both of the stock SCA loc-line return lines which are designed to pass through the overflow.

Overall I'm really happy with how I have it plumbed though. It's a little less clean looking than having all the plumbing in the stand and overflow box, but it's silent and has fail-safes.

In hind sight, I would say that you can probably just use the stock setup to run a herbie overflow, which is the same as beananimal without the dry safety line. This would only need the stock 3 holes and would just as quiet as the beananimal. I think the extra safety dry line is a little overkill but I guess I appreciate the peice of mind it provides. Overall the center overflow is great, I would prefer an overflow mounted on the top back of the glass rather than through the bottom, but this works fine as well and allows it to be closer to the wall if you don't run pipes up the back like I have.

Thank you! Really appreciate the information

 

[ludnix]

I'm mid-treatment with flucanzole for the tank's bryopsis problem. I have been waiting to see how the refugium affected the bryopsis but it hasn't done much on it. I've seen other algaes migrate to the sump which is good, but the byropsis is pretty happy in the display tank. No longer now that the fluconazole is working. I have about another week of this dosage before I'll do a water change, but most of the bryopsis is already dead.

 

[ludnix]

A lot has happened since I updated but the tank is doing very well. The fluconazole worked amazingly well and there is absolutely no bryopsis left in my tank. Most of the hair algae is completely gone as well with exception of a little in my sump.

Inspired by the success with treating the bryopsis I tried using Chemi-clean to remove cyanobacteria for the first time. I have always been cautious of it from some horror stories I read online, but a local club member I trust has never had issues I so it was time to give it a shot. It worked amazingly well too. I let it run for 3 days and then did a 10g water change. The skimmer was predictably going nuts with the chemi-clean so I ultra-wet skimmed 5 gallons from the tank for the water change and then siphoned detritus for the last 10 gallons. I find skimming super wet when the skimmer is acting crazy helps calm it down almost immediately. I am hopefully skimming off what ever chemical in the product that is making the skimmer run crazy.

I also took the time to clean the rust off the hinges in the SCA stand's doors. The euro-hinges have held up well but salt spray from taking the skimmer head off while it was running left a distinct rust pattern on some of the hinges.

The Blum soft closes had also corroded and were not shutting smoothly.

I put all the hardware and screws in a container with white vinegar and gave them all a scrub with a brass bristle brush. I left them overnight and went at them again with the brush and then rinsed them in freshwater. After drying them I applied a layer of Johnson's Paste Wax to seal them up and hopefully delay further rusting.

They are not quite like new, but much better looking than before. In the future I would like to replace them all with euro-hinges that swing out 180 degrees. I might consider spraying them with laquer before installation though to reduce the rusting.

 

[ludnix]

I was extremely saddened to find my Flame Hawkfish had unfortunately jumped through the 1/2" gap on the side of my aquarium screen and landed on top of the screen. When I found him he was laying on his side in the very middle of the screen top. I returned him to some tank water and waited but he did not come back unfortunately. This occurred about two weeks ago and I can honestly say it still hurts to think about the poor little guy. He had made a bigger place in my heart than I could have realized until he missing. I would like to replace him with a pair of hawkfish in the future, but I will need to redesign my screen top to be 100% effective first.

RIP Peepo, the hawkfish.

 

[Barrett]

I know the pain I lost my hawkfish as well, he is my very favorite fish of all time, I will definitely be replacing him. Your tank is looking good.

 

[ludnix]

I know the pain I lost my hawkfish as well, he is my very favorite fish of all time, I will definitely be replacing him. Your tank is looking good.

Thanks Barrett, I appreciate it!