New Reefer's First Build - 60 Gallon Cube

[atnet360]

Can't believe it's been almost three months since my last post. Unfortunately the holidays hit me hard in the wallet so the tank build went on hold for a while.

I'm getting back to it now though.

Last weekend I picked up some dry rock from a LFS that sells used and discount equipment and supplies. Rock is pretty cool but it will need to be cured. Some of it was still damp when I bought it. I got about 80 lbs. but probably won't use it all.

Smells pretty bad.

Spent the day yesterday setting up a Brute can to cure my rock in. Eventually this will be where I mix saltwater, but for now I'll get the rock curing. Probably going to do an acid cure today too.

Placement in front of the water heater isn't ideal and hopefully temporary.

I still have some work to do to finish the stand and I still need to drill the return holes.

I'm also in the midst of a complete redesign of my front yard landscape which is taking most of my time. That's why I want to get the rock curing in saltwater asap so that by the time it's done curing in several weeks I will have had time to finish the rest of the project.

 

[atnet360]

Been busy this weekend.

Drilled the holes for the returns

(Tucker was pleased with the results)

Bought most of the pipe and fittings I need to do the plumbing. Got some live sand on the way from BRS. Hoping to have water in the tank within a week or two.

Also the tank got a new home, so the stand got a new coat of paint to better match the new room.

Rock has been curing in saltwater for several weeks now.

Been dragging this project out for a lot longer than I expected so I'm super excited to get water in the tank.

 

[atnet360]

So its been ages since I posted an update, but I have made lots of progress on the tank.

After a lot of debate with my wife, we finally decided to move my existing freshwater tank into the office, and put the reef tank in the niche where the planted tank was. There were several pros and cons to that approach but it ultimately won out.

Cons:

• Moving the planted tank was a royal PITA and took most of a weekend
• The 60 cube doesn't fit as nicely in the niche as the 48 in 90 gallon tank did (the niche is about 60 inches wide and 24 inches deep.
• Having the planted tank out of site in the office means I am less likely to pay attention to and maintenance it like I should

Pros:

• The niche is right between the living room and kitchen and is where our family spends a lot of time--being close to the tank means I'll be more likely to take care of it (and enjoy it)
• The niche has a tile floor, most of the other options we considered had carpet or wood floors

Ultimately, those two points out weighed any other considerations, so we agreed to put the reef tank there.

Here's a few shots of the tear-down:

Here's a pic of the tank on the stand at one of the locations we considered, but ultimately rejected (mostly because of the carpet, but also because it felt a bit awkward in the room. In hind site I regret the light blue background. I've always had black backgrounds and will probably sick with that in the future.

Plumbed the tank with mostly spaflex and some regular schedule 40 pvc. Kinda disappointed with the way the plumbing turned out. Its functional, but not very pretty.

I have a tee off the return line for a potential future manifold, TBD.

Wife helped tremendously with the scape, she has a better eye for that sort of thing. Used some thick gorilla glue to hold a few of the pieces together:

Finally got water in it on May 18th.

One of my first purchases after filling the tank was a Tunze Osmolator ATO, which was the best money I've spend so far on this tank. Topping off by hand those first few days sucked!

A week later on the 23rd, I added some Dr. Tims One and Only and two Black Ice Ocellaris Clowns from my favorite LFS. Either the Dr. Tims is awesome, or my rock cycled while it was soaking in salt water for 6 weeks prior because I never measured any ammonia in the tank. I did see a tiny amount of nitrite about 2 weeks after adding the fish, but it went away quickly and has been 0 ever since. Currently I'm at Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 2ppm.

I've kept the lights off most of the time for the first two months, gradually started adding light a few weeks back. I got a small diatom bloom on that top rock, added two Trochus Snails and they cleaned it up over night.

I also added a couple of Banggai Cardinalfish:

And most recently a Diamond Goby and an Emerald Crab. No pics of them cause they're shy.

So, stock as of today:

1. 2x Black Ice Ocellaris Clownfish
2. 2x Banggai Cardinalfish
3. 2x Trochus Snails
4. 1 Emerald Crab
5. 1 Diamond Goby

Next addition will be coral, but I'm not sure what to get, and I will probably wait several more weeks before adding anything as I've added a lot in the last 4 weeks.

A soft coral would be the obvious choice for a first coral, but I just don't care for them, and it seems most grow so fast they can take over your tank. I'd much rather go with an easy LPS that is more in line with my long term vision for the tank, but I don't know...

Honestly I'm in love with the SPS dominated tanks that I'm seeing online and that is definitely the long term goal, just not sure if I will get there with this tank. I'm already working over the wife to let me upgrade to a 180 gallon within the next year. I had to agree to install wood floors and get new furniture in the family room before I can think of a new tank .

 

[atnet360]

Feeding time

 

[atnet360]

Update: The Diamond Goby is MIA. He hasn't been seen since Sunday morning before I cleaned and vacuumed the sand. Working theory is he jumped out of the tank and was eaten by a cat or the dog

Materials for a screen top are on order and that will be the next addition to the tank.

 

[atnet360]

Added a nice purplish Duncan Coral yesterday. He was very shy last night, but when I got up this morning he had come out and this afternoon he's doing great.

Left him on the frag plug for the time being on the advice of the LFS where I got him. He seems happy there so I will probably glue him down soon.

Also got a pretty serious diatom bloom going on. Hoping that with patience that will work its self out.

I replaced my ebay RO/DI unit with the 7 stage unit from BRS (under the assumption that I may have silicates not being removed by the cheap system, feeding the diatoms). Looked into upgrading my existing system, but by the time i bought all the components it would have been nearly the same price. Going to try to re-purpose the old unit for drinking water.

 

[atnet360]

Also did some work to make my salt water mixing station a bit more functional and permanent.

RODI water supplied by a 7 stage RODI unit from BRS mounted in the laundry room above the washing machine. Still need to mount the TDS meter.

Built a platform in the garage to store the 55 gallon barrel of RODI water:

Had to get a little fancy with the engineering because I still wanted to be able to fit my truck in the garage. I suppose if we ever have an earthquake or something, I may be in trouble, but otherwise it is rock solid. Braced top, middle and bottom, and screwed into two walls in multiple places.


PVC plumbing and some ball valves allows me to fill up the brute trash can for saltwater mixing, or attach a hose to fill buckets, or run to my freshwater tank for water changes there.

I don't care for the brute trash can, I think I'm going to pick-up another 55 gallon barrel to hold the salt water. Also I need to find a way to better organize the mess in front of the truck, thinking of building some small shelves for 5 gallon buckets, pumps etc.

Also, being in Arizona, I don't like storing my saltwater in the garage. It gets pretty hot this time of year and I have to bring the water in the house the night before a water change to allow it to cool down to a reasonable temperature before adding it to the tank.

I told my wife that someday I'll buy a stack-able washer and dryer if she lets me use the space created to store saltwater . For now thought, this works.

 

[atnet360]

Picked up a Hanna Check for Alk this week and I'm a bit confused. Tested my tank and the Alk came out at 6.8 dKH. I've been using HW-Marinemix Reefer salt and I tested my fill water stored in my garage...6.5dKH. Hmmm. Per BRS it should mix up at around 9 dKH. I suspect I need to mix the dry salt before adding it to the water.

I'm going to toss the dry salt a bit and then mix up a 5 gallon bucket and see how it comes out....

Too bad I just mixed 40 gallons of this stuff over the weekend.

 

[OllieGreen]

You've put a ton of work into this already, it's awesome! I just got into the saltwater hobby recently too after enjoying my freshwater tank so much. And as for your lighting, I've been using the AI Prime 16HD so far and it's been great. The lights can be super strong and get kinda hot so if you do get it watch for yours eyes when you turn it on the first time!

 

[OllieGreen]

Oh! for your alk being weird here is what i think...When i first mixed my salt water i needed to 1.) give it time to settle, and 2.) play around with it a bit, a lot of times just depending on the specifics of how your mix your water it doesn't come out as intended on the box/bucket. When i mixed mine i ended up having to use almost twice what the instructions said to get to 1.025 for my salinity. If what you tried next doesn't work and you need to raise the alk by dosing or at least just giving it a kick start I've used the red sea reefer kH and alk supplement and it's worked well.

 

[atnet360]

You've put a ton of work into this already, it's awesome! I just got into the saltwater hobby recently too after enjoying my freshwater tank so much. And as for your lighting, I've been using the AI Prime 16HD so far and it's been great. The lights can be super strong and get kinda hot so if you do get it watch for yours eyes when you turn it on the first time!

Thanks! I've been taking it slow--mostly due to budget constraints, but also because I really enjoy the build aspect of the hobby as much as (or more than) the husbandry and ongoing care of the tank and animals.

The AI Primes 16s are very tempting due to the very accessible price point, but I'm actually pretty happy with the Maxspect Razor I have on there now. I'm kinda tentatively thinking about upgrading to something bigger next year (I really want a 180 gal), which was always the plan, so I probably won't invest in lighting on the 60 gallon at this point.

 

[atnet360]

Picked up a Hanna Check for Alk this week and I'm a bit confused. Tested my tank and the Alk came out at 6.8 dKH. I've been using HW-Marinemix Reefer salt and I tested my fill water stored in my garage...6.5dKH. Hmmm. Per BRS it should mix up at around 9 dKH. I suspect I need to mix the dry salt before adding it to the water.

I'm going to toss the dry salt a bit and then mix up a 5 gallon bucket and see how it comes out....

So I tossed the bag of salt around as much as I could without spilling. It was pretty chunky and solid, so I was able to break that up and hopefully blend the salt a bit better. Mixed up 5 gallons and it is now testing at 8.1 dKH, which is much better, but not the 9 dKH that it should be. I will say salinity was spot on. 2.5 cups of salt in 5 gallons of water = 1.025 specific gravity.

 

[atnet360]

Alright, baseline for the experiment.

5 gallons of HW-Marinemix, freshly mixed inside the house (mixed for about 24 hours)

Salinity = 1.025
Alk = 8.1 dKH
Ca = 460 PPM
Mg = 1400 PPM

Going to leave it in the hot garage for a few days and re-test and see what I get.

 

[Butcher333]

Picked up a Hanna Check for Alk this week and I'm a bit confused. Tested my tank and the Alk came out at 6.8 dKH. I've been using HW-Marinemix Reefer salt and I tested my fill water stored in my garage...6.5dKH. Hmmm. Per BRS it should mix up at around 9 dKH. I suspect I need to mix the dry salt before adding it to the water.

I'm going to toss the dry salt a bit and then mix up a 5 gallon bucket and see how it comes out....

Too bad I just mixed 40 gallons of this stuff over the weekend.

Alright, baseline for the experiment.

5 gallons of HW-Marinemix, freshly mixed inside the house (mixed for about 24 hours)

Salinity = 1.025
Alk = 8.1 dKH
Ca = 460 PPM
Mg = 1400 PPM

Going to leave it in the hot garage for a few days and re-test and see what I get.

So glad I found your post. I started my tank with HW Marinemix reefer. I waited a good while before hooking up my Trident because I hadn’t had enough time into the tank to waste reagent testing a new tank.
After setting it up my Alk = 6.5, Ca = 480, and Mg = 1410. I read a bunch and used the reef calculator to determine how much Sodium Carbonate to increase my Alk to 7.5. The first time I raised it to 7.5 it dropped really fast over a few days, so I added another 5 grams. This seemed to stabilize a little bit. I have had to add another 6 grams to my top off water and over the last few days the alk seems to hover around 7.45. I was worried about an imbalance of Cl, since I wasn’t using any Calcium Cl because I don’t want my calcium to go higher. @Randy Holmes-Farley when I found your post.
What was the result of your tests? Does your HW Marinemix fail to mix at the levels claimed. I was hoping to use a salt mix that mixes where I want it at and not dose to get the levels claimed on the box. I think I’ll hold off on ordering any more until I hear what your thoughts are or results ended up being. It’s been a while since your last post, so I may ask Randy in his forum specifically.

 

[atnet360]

Been ages since I updated the thread...things are going along...okay. Just confirmed that I'm dealing with a full on outbreak of amphidinium dinoflagellates. Boo.

Classic rookie mistake, but I was too worried about high phosphates, ran too much GFO for too long and bottomed out the nutrients in my tank.

Luckily I have some left over potassium nitrate and mono potassium phosphate from my freshwater planted tank days. Been dosing those to keep nutrients up. Targeting 10-20ppm for nitrate and .1ppm for phosphate. Also started dosing silicate in the form of Spongexcel on the recommendations of Taricha and others in this beast of a thread:

Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

This thread is a spin-off from the @mcarroll very successful Dino thread The purpose is to discuss methods for removal and fighting against a particular strain of dinoflagellate - Large Cell Amphidinium. It seems to make up about a third of the cases of dinos. The reason this strain gets its...

www.reef2reef.com

Patience is key here, but I'm rapidly loosing a beautiful Hollywood Stunner that was thriving until a week or so ago :-(

Latest full tank shot:

Discouraging to see the stunner bleaching so fast...

Here's some cool videos of the dinos and other critters under a microscope:

Taken from the sandbed:



And these from the rockwork.

 

[atnet360]

In more exciting news...my beautiful wife bought me a 180 gallon tank for Christmas which I am (very slowly) working on setting up. Ultimate goal is to move everything from the 60 to the 180, but taking things super slow now as I don't want to make the same mistakes again.

Currently waiting on quotes from a couple of electricians to add a dedicated 20am circuit to support the new tank.

I've been thinking a lot about what I will do differently in the new tank based on what I've learned so far. At some point I'll start a build thread for the 180 and put my thoughts down in writing.

Mean time, check out some pics of the build so far on my Instagram:

Red Mountain Reefer (@180gallonreef) • Instagram photos and videos

180 Followers, 118 Following, 48 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Red Mountain Reefer (@180gallonreef)

www.instagram.com

 

[bigdeeezyyyy]

In more exciting news...my beautiful wife bought me a 180 gallon tank for Christmas which I am (very slowly) working on setting up. Ultimate goal is to move everything from the 60 to the 180, but taking things super slow now as I don't want to make the same mistakes again.

Currently waiting on quotes from a couple of electricians to add a dedicated 20am circuit to support the new tank.

I've been thinking a lot about what I will do differently in the new tank based on what I've learned so far. At some point I'll start a build thread for the 180 and put my thoughts down in writing.

Mean time, check out some pics of the build so far on my Instagram:

Red Mountain Reefer (@180gallonreef) • Instagram photos and videos

180 Followers, 118 Following, 48 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Red Mountain Reefer (@180gallonreef)

www.instagram.com

I wish my wife gave me a 180g and a spot to put it... You are a lucky man! lol