New cube build! Again!

[Bmasculine]

 

[Muttley000]

Great pickups!

 

[Bmasculine]

Great pickups!

Thanks things are looking good so far. I think I’ll probably chill on the coral purchasing for a little and focus on getting some of this stuff to grow. Those dang live sales are killer.

 

[maroun.c]

Couldn’t get a good pic of the rainbow milli or some of my other acros. The lighting is to much with just this iPhone. Believe it or not I actually own a nice camera but the pics I take with it are actually worse than these iPhone pics. Anyway here are a couple more iPhone pics of other random stuff.

Advise you told read some of the threads in the photography forum and qlso checkout the articles I wrote on photography, they should help.

 

[Bmasculine]

Been struggling to keep my ph up so I made a DIY co2 scrubber today with a little fabrication of my skimmer and a water bottle. Got it installed and it’s running fine with full adjustability of the air still. Just missing the soda lime that’s on order. Hopefully this will help with growth.

 

[Bmasculine]

 

[ranchhand02]

What are you using on the bottom of the tank under the rock? How well do you like it?

 

[Bmasculine]

What are you using on the bottom of the tank under the rock? How well do you like it?

I cut a piece of black pvc board that I got from HD and siliconed it to the bottom. I like it, I don’t like having to vac sand all the time and I have lots of flow so nothing really sits on bottom. I’ve had tanks with sand and without and they’re just a lot less maintenance and cleaner with no sand IMO. One thing is though I can’t keep any wrasse

 

[NY_Caveman]

I cut a piece of black pvc board that I got from HD and siliconed it to the bottom. I like it, I don’t like having to vac sand all the time and I have lots of flow so nothing really sits on bottom. I’ve had tanks with sand and without and they’re just a lot less maintenance and cleaner with no sand IMO. One thing is though I can’t keep any wrasse

Could do a Possum or Pink Streaked Wrasse (I know they are probably different than what you meant). I have the latter with no issues in a bare bottom and she is good picking at pods and pests.

 

[Bmasculine]

Could do a Possum or Pink Streaked Wrasse (I know they are probably different than what you meant). I have the latter with no issues in a bare bottom and she is good picking at pods and pests.

I may look into that as I’ve been looking to add to my fish population. So the possum or pink streaked don’t bury themselves in the sand to sleep?

 

[NY_Caveman]

I may look into that as I’ve been looking to add to my fish population. So the possum or pink streaked don’t bury themselves in the sand to sleep?

Nope. My Pink Streaked Wrasse usually sleeps up in a cave or sometimes wedged between rock. Both species are quite timid, but after about a month mine was out and about regularly.

 

[Bmasculine]

Been a while since I’ve updated this, made quite a few changes to the tank. Gone mostly the way of lps, things are growing nicely, but the biggest change was the addition of sand a few days ago. All the coralline on the bottom was becoming a huge pain to scrape off and when I stopped everything just looked so purple. So back to sand! Although it’s just a light covering. I’ll snap some pics this evening and post up.

 

[Bmasculine]

P.S. also adding sand to an established tank was a PIA, just incase y’all were wondering how that went.

 

[Bmasculine]

Took me long enough but here are a few pics of how everything is looking as of now

 

[Bmasculine]

Yes I know I know those are more sticks in those bags however tank has been really stable and I just don’t learn my lesson. Used some STAX rock I had and made a little more rock scape to put some of these frags Turned out pretty good I think. I’ve had some other sps in here for a bit and they’ve been doing quite well. As of now my parameters are staying pretty solid now for the last 4 months. Alk runs between 7.6-7.9 phosphate stays at .02 cal runs 410-425 nitrates are high at around 15. I just did a deep clean on my sump removed some of my marine pure blocks and started skimming a little wetter. I’ll let it run for a few days and see what nitrates are looking like. Not really sure what else to do other than adding cheato back in the sump.

 

[Bmasculine]

Here are a few pics of how things are coming along

 

[Bmasculine]

Here are a couple side shots and one more from the front.

 

[Bmasculine]

My build thread badge went missing? What up

 

[Hannahrain]

My build thread badge went missing? What up

I had to look the same thing up earlier, you have to plug in your build thread address into this spot on your account details.

Also wanted to say that I love your tank much better with the sand!

 

[Bmasculine]

I had to look the same thing up earlier, you have to plug in your build thread address into this spot on your account details.

Also wanted to say that I love your tank much better with the sand!

Thanks! I enjoy the sand as well definitely gives it some contrast and a “natural” look. Now my clown has made it her personal mission to move sand around, and bury my echinata.