Ron Reefman's 50g Cube

[Zeal]

I love the idea of having the rocks suspended above the sand by using the egg crates.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I love the idea of having the rocks suspended above the sand by using the egg crates.

I got the idea from a friend in our local reef club and IMHO it works great. When the time comes, after I'm done getting my cube all running the way I want, I will definitely re-do my aquascape and put my rocks up on egg crate platforms.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I've got a lot of my build materials like PVC fitting ready. I should hear today about a delivery date for the kitchen cabinet to house my sump/refugium. A new remote for my Current USA wavemakers is due today and Thursday I pick up a used remote for my Photons V2 fixture (I got mine wet... oops).

 

[Ron Reefman]

My new kitchen cabinet arrived yesterday. But it has the wrong doors so I have another small delay. But in the mean time I can start work on the rest of the cabinet. So I cut an opening in the back for plumbing and wiring to pass through. I also needed to do a change to my filter sock holders. They had plastic thumb screws that hold it in place on the glass rim, but they screw in from behind. My sump will be up against the back of my 'drip tray' so there isn't enough room. I had to drill & tap holes in the front side of the holders. It worked out very well.

 

[Fin]

Awesome! Have to follow this one. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Awesome! Have to follow this one. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Fin.

Well, I picked up my replacement doors for the kitchen cabinet yesterday. And I put together the pvc plumbing that will be the 'over the back' return from the sump to the tank. My tank only has 2 holes so I am using the big hole as the main drain and the smaller hole that has been the return, and will now become an emergency overflow. That's why I'm doing the new return. And with the new return I'm splitting it and bringing a line up towards both ends of the back glass. So I will have line-lock nozzles on either side of the center overflow in the tank. The back glass is black so I've used Krylon black and painted the return lines near the top so they should be less obvious.

One unusual thing I did that is a small item, but I think it's useful, is the anti-siphon holes. Rather than just drilling a hole in the pipe and having to kind of guess where the waterline will be. I drill a bigger hole and tap the hole so it's threaded and then install a 90 degree John Guest elbow (the kind of fittings that typically get used with RO/DI plumbing). One end is threaded and the other is the quick disconnect fitting. I thread the end of the elbow into the side of the pvc return plumbing near what I think will be the water surface.

Now the elbow can rotate up and down and direct the water that comes out when the pumps are running. But I can also set the open end of the elbow just a tiny bit below the water's surface. This does 2 things. When the return pump is running, the water coming out the elbow is at the surface and creates some ripples and surface water movement. This helps with the gas exchange of CO2 out of the water and oxygen into the water. It also makes for better shimmer of my lights on the bottom of the tank. Big panel leds tend not to shimmer very well, so this helps a lot. Finally, the primary reason for the holes in the first place is to break the siphon when the return pump is shut off. Well, with the tip of the elbow right at the surface of the water, the anti-siphon effect happens very quickly and I only drain about 1/4" or less of water from the tank to the sump.

 

[dbraun15]

Really like the rock flower garden...I had a spawn a few years ago and was only able to raise 1 to maturity. The others just seemed to disappear. How are you keeping the babies from disappearing and how much luck have you had in raising them? The one I had kept the colors of one of the parents, but I was hoping it would have a mixture of colors.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Really like the rock flower garden...I had a spawn a few years ago and was only able to raise 1 to maturity. The others just seemed to disappear. How are you keeping the babies from disappearing and how much luck have you had in raising them? The one I had kept the colors of one of the parents, but I was hoping it would have a mixture of colors.

Thanks, I'm having great fun with raising the babies. I've had 2 spawns, one about a year ago and one just a couple of months ago. So I found about 8 babies the first time around, but then I torn the 120g tank down, I found about 5 more tucked in among the zoas. Now they are all about the size of a nickel or quarter. The newer babies are still incredibly small and I've found about a dozen of them. And I should not have lost any this time as I don't have any fields of zoas in my current 40g tank! So between adults, juveniles and babies I have between 30 and 34.

I think the colorful RFA's require feeding. I don't think they do photosynthesis well enough to survive without food. I spot feed them once a week and also shut down all my pumps every time I feed the tank, which is about 3 or 4 times a week. And when I feed, I tend to feed a bit heavy and let stuff settle to the bottom over 10 minutes, stir everything up for about 10 to 15 seconds and then do another 10 minute shut down. I also run my leds a bit higher than I think most other reefers. I have a PAR meter and I'm at 200 at the sand for 4 hours and very close to 200 for another 2 hours and still at 125 for another 2 hours.

Others have told me they have watched the birth and see massive numbers of babies, like 50 to 100. But only a small percentage like 10% to 20% survive the first hours. Some probably get eaten and some end up in filter socks, etc. I've never witnessed the spawn or the birth but I got between 10 and 15 survivors each time.

There is some good exchange of info in this thread and I'm going to try and keep it going:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ron-reefmans-rock-flower-experience.409436/

 

[Ron Reefman]

Here is an update to the work going on with my 40g cube. BTW I just did the calculations and the tank is really 40g as it's 2'x2'x20". The sump will be close to 40g as well... when it's done and hooked in.

I decided not to install the sump in the stand under the DT for a variety of reasons. Primary is this stand is a kitchen cabinet, not an aquarium stand. Secondly, I wanted storage room for an ATO tank and all my electrical systems and control boxes. Third, with an additional cabinet I will get open counter space right next to the tank for when I want to do work in the tank. You can see how full the stand would have been here.

20180626_110023 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


I added a pair of glass baffles to separate the refugium and filter sock section from the skimmer and return pump section. I spaced them apart with a pvc block and glued the spacer and glass all together with 3M 5200 adhesive.

20180628_073815 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


I now have my new cabinet and new doors. The wrong cabinet got ordered and the supplier had to reorder the correct doors for me. These go from above the kick plate to the top of the cabinet. I may use the old doors to close in the shelves on the other side of the DT. A freebie!

20180717_105935 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


I cut a 'window' in the back of the cabinet for plumbing and electrical wires to pass through.

20180717_105947 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


So the new cabinet, sump/refugium and the pvc 'drip tray' I made earlier are now all together. I've added 2 filter sock holders and a gyre style pump in hopes of getting the Chaeto to tumble in the refugium. I think the extra flow in the refugium will help keep it cleaner. I will have a regular aquarium led fixture above the refugium and I expect to be able to move my frag rack from the DT to the refugium front glass.

20180717_124325 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


Since I'm using both holes in the DT as drains, one full time drain and the second as an emergency back up, I need to build a return system to get water back to the tank. I'm just doing a simple 'over the top' return to feed two dual line-lock nozzles. I painted the visible parts black so they will be less obvious.

20180717_110021 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

For anti-siphon holes I've gone a bit beyond just drilling holes. I've tap the holes and added Jon Guest 90 degree elbows. They can now be adjusted up or down to direct the small flow during return so it helps create some water surface agitation and sets the opening as close to the surface as I can so it will break the siphon as soon as possible when the pumps are turned off (by me or by a power outage). I've done this on previous tanks and have been very happy with the results. I even get better shimmer in the tank despite the fact that I use a wide array led fixture which usually cuts shimmer down to almost nothing.


20180717_110058 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

20180717_110047 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday removing the old plumbing that went outside to my chiller which I'm not going to use with this system. Then I set up the cabinet and sump so I could get the DT and sump tied together and running. Currently I'm running the drain and return in the same configuration as I was with the Brute sump. I expect to convert the current return plumbing into an emergency drain and add a completely new return plumbing (as seen a few posts back).

I have the skimmer and a gyre in place in the sump/refugium, but they are not running yet. One big change at a time, I'm in no rush and the DT seems to be doing just fine. I did toss all the water from the Brute garbage can and filled the new sump with day old water. It's not running quite as quiet as I would like, but I expect that to get resolved today with the new plumbing. The air vent in the drain is acting like a musical instrument! I still have some finishing to do on the cabinet (don't look at the hole in the back of the stand!). And I have only just started to figure out what I'm going to do for the countertop/workspace on top of the new cabinet.

20180723_084247 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


This photo will give you an idea of what the whole thing will look like when it's done. So far I'm pretty happy with everything. I'm looking forward to getting the frag rack out of the DT and moving it down to the refugium.

20180723_084336 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

 

[Redleg]

For anti-siphon holes I've gone a bit beyond just drilling holes. I've tap the holes and added Jon Guest 90 degree elbows. They can now be adjusted up or down to direct the small flow during return so it helps create some water surface agitation and sets the opening as close to the surface as I can so it will break the siphon as soon as possible when the pumps are turned off (by me or by a power outage). I've done this on previous tanks and have been very happy with the results. I even get better shimmer in the tank despite the fact that I use a wide array led fixture which usually cuts shimmer down to almost nothing.


20180717_110058 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

20180717_110047 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

.[/QUOTE]
Ron your anti siphon set up looks great. I'm going to look in to using something similar on my return.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks. I like being able to adjust my anti-siphon so it's just barely below or right at the water surface That way it adds movement to the water surface for shimmer and gas exchange and it brakes the siphon almost instantly when the pump is turned off.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Well, I haven't done too much to the tank recently. But we did just get back from a trip to the Keys and I've put several new serpent stars in the tank.

stars bundle by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


I fell in love with this one when I saw it in the water. The blue is so bright and it almost sparkles!

star blue disk serpent by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


This one was injured but I liked the fact that it was such a bright red.

star red serpent by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

There is a lot more about this snorkel trip, including more photos, at the link in my signature below.

Comments and questions are encouraged!

 

[mmw64]

Here is a feature that I had built in to may last three builds, but I didn't do in this one. It involves lifting some or most of the live rock off the sand! I didn't do it in this build (yet) because I was in a hurry moving corals that I was going to keep from my 120g tank to the 50g. And I had a lot of work to do to get the other corals sold and start selling off the system and a lot of the spares and backup hardware that was specific to the big tank.

OK, so you have 'x' amount of sand in your tank. I usually have about 2-3". So I figure out how I want the rock to be laid out first. Then cut some standard egg crate in roughly the same footprint as the rocks in the sand, only a little smaller.
P8310001 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P8310002 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Now my sand was 2" deep, so I cut 3 1/2" legs out of 1" PVC pipe to go in the sand under the egg crate. I also drilled small holes at the end of the leg and attached the legs to the egg crate with very small cable ties to keep everything for moving so the platform would be stable.
P8310003 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

I put the platform in the tank, press it down into the sand until it hits the bottom glass.
P8310004 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P8310005 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Then put the rocks back into the tank as I had designed earlier.
P8310007 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Now you have rocks that are above the sand, but it looks like crap! So I take much smaller rocks and some flater rocks and use them along the edge of the platform. They go in the sand and are big enough to cover the gap between the sand and the egg crate and main rocks. Now it looks good normal.
P9020001 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

However, you now have more open sand for the critters like serpent stars, sea cucumbers and wrasses who need open sandy spaces. And it's under the rocks so it's very protected. You have also exposed the entire rock, including the bottom that would have been buried in the sand, so it can all develop useful bacteria for processing ammonia and nitrite. You now get some water flow under the rocks and because it's mostly dark, you get more sponges, small feather dusters and some other critters that help with cleaning. And it creates lots of room for shrimp, crabs, mollusks and other animals that like to hide out during the day a place to do it. I even found that because I had better flow around and under the rocks (now that they are off the sand) that I had less issues with cyano developing on the sand.

To be perfectly honest, the only drawback to using this technique that I found, was that I spent a little extra time designing my rockscape and then an extra couple of hours building the egg crate platforms. Other than that, everything was good and most people who looked at the tank never had any idea that the rocks were off the sand.

Really enjoyed your "shelling" experience and all the critters you were able to save. Hope to hear more from you on this site.

 

[Ron Reefman]

The new return from the sump to the tank is installed along with a new emergency drain. I pulled the skimmer and cleaned it. It was in my way for doing the new plumbing. I also have the 20g top off tank running through a medical grade dosing pump rather than an auto top off. It's a bit more work, but no fussy floats to deal with. And I expect the 20g top off tank will be about 3 to 4 weeks worth of water. I cleaned the glass so I took a new full tank shot.

I now have all my spare rocks in saltwater getting them ready for the new rockscape. But before I do that, I'll take most of the rocks and drill as many holes as I can so frag plugs will fit in easily. Extra holes disappear after about 2 months in the tank. I'll start drilling soon and I'll build an egg crate platform that will sit on PVC pipe legs above the sand for the rock. That way 95% of the sand in the tank is available for critters to use and I get flow under the rocks so 100% of the rocks have beneficial bacteria rather than having 20% of the rocks stuck in the sand.

Here is the FTS:

 

[Katrina71]

That is exactly what I wanted to do in my cube. Next time I will!

 

[Ron Reefman]

That is exactly what I wanted to do in my cube. Next time I will!

What exactly is it that you want to do next time? Raise the rockscape off the sand? Or just look like this in general? LOL!

I have about 50 different corals in the tank now. When I tear it down to rebuild the rockscape I intend to remove 2 or 3 colonies of palys that are fairly plain looking and don't fluoresce much. The whole reason for doing a new rockscape is that I have over 40 more frags in my sump that I want to add to the tank. All the frags in the sump fluoresce like crazy... it looks insane under blue leds!

I was going to do the rockscape as a ramp from about 1/4th of the way off the front glass leaving room (4" to 6") for rock flower anemones, and going up to near the water surface at the back glass. I just saw some pics of joshporksandwich's tank and he had shells and barnacles added to the back glass. I may do one side of the overflow rock all the way up and the front of the overflow and other side of the overflow more like Josh's tank. I'll make an insert that will hold the shells and barnacles and set it up against the back glass. I might do the panel kicked out slightly at the bottom so the corals and anemones that will move into those shells and barnacles at the lower level won't get totally shaded by those higher up on the wall.

If I go this route, I will reconsider where I'll have my wavemaker pumps. Currently they are on the back glass and I could keep them there actually wolven into the rock and shells. Sort of camouflaged. Or I could move them to the sides of the tank just off the rocks. I might even remove the 2 pumps I use now and replace them with a gyre just below the water surface on one side of the tank. If anybody has any suggestions, ideas or sees any issues with my plan, please feel free to share. I always appreciate input.

 

[Katrina71]

Both. Lol. I wanted to raise my rock using egg crate. I was (still am) new at the time and was told it was a bad idea. Next time I'm doing it.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Both. Lol. I wanted to raise my rock using egg crate. I was (still am) new at the time and was told it was a bad idea. Next time I'm doing it.

Thanks!

I think the rocks up on egg crate above the sand was very beneficial to my last 2 tanks (180g and 120g). Better water flow at the sand with very few rocks in the way reduced the potential of a cyano bloom on the sand. And the underside of the rocks and egg crate were loaded with small white feather dusters and sponges.

I think on this build I may do the egg crate all the way to the side glass on one side so I can look underneath the rocks and see what's happening. I removed a rock from the front of the rockscape in my 120g tank so I could see underneath. The 'ceiling' of that 'cave' had hundreds of feather dusters. And I wish I had taken a photo of the egg crate when I tore the tank down. About 40% of the squares had sponges growing in them!

BTW, I think egg crate in the sand on the bottom glass has potential to be a small problem. It could create an area in the sand that collects more detritus than the sand alone would. But if it's under 2" or more of sand, I think the concern is minimal as that sand wouldn't get disturbed much anyway.

 

[Katrina71]

Please post lots of pics. I'm curious to learn from yours.