Ron Reefman's 50g Cube

[stAlphonzo]

btw .... that is such a gorgeous tank. I really can't wait to see it when it fills in. I imagine you must be exploding!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Really cool reef! How big is that pj cardinal? He looks waaaay bigger than mine!

It's about 2.5" long... maybe a bit longer. And yes, he is as big as I've ever seen a PJ Cardinal. I got it from a friend who was selling off and getting out of the hobby. It was about this size when I got it and that was 6 or 7 years ago... well, maybe it's a bit fatter now. LOL!

Thanks for the reply. I will let you know! I feel like it's probably ok since so many use JB Water Weld for the aquascape, why not the frags? My tank is only about a month new, no fish yet (and no skimmer either) but I've been adding some hardy LPS and Zoanthids to build up the lifeform complexity. I just clipped the extra long stem from my zoanthid frags and it's happy enough where I put it, so I will mount it this weekend. Will pop back with pictures in a week or so, figure that should be enough time ...

I like to play with my rockscape, so having the frags fairly easy to remove makes that a lot easier. That's also why I drill holes in the rocks, so I can find enough holes to mount all the frags. In my current tank there are over 100 frags. Most (90%) are on frag plugs and the rest are on small rocks.

I'm going to do some checking with Loctite (made by Henkel Corporation) and see if their marine adhesive sealant cures underwater (I don't think it will) and if it is toxic while curing. I know 3M Company's 5200 cures underwater but it's not as thick and won't hold the plug as well while curing. I just want to use a dab to hold the plug, not permanently bond it in the hole forever!

 

[stAlphonzo]

Thanks for the reply. I will let you know! I feel like it's probably ok since so many use JB Water Weld for the aquascape, why not the frags? My tank is only about a month new, no fish yet (and no skimmer either) but I've been adding some hardy LPS and Zoanthids to build up the lifeform complexity. I just clipped the extra long stem from my zoanthid frags and it's happy enough where I put it, so I will mount it this weekend. Will pop back with pictures in a week or so, figure that should be enough time ...

Well, that sucked. I tried the JB Water Weld on my Zoanthid first. It looked like it was going to stick but the it was mostly on a horizontal section and I just wanted it to sit in a gap at an angle so the parts that encrusted the side of the plug could grow out well. Thinking that work, I tried my Lepastea which was going on a more vertical face. That didn't stick at all, to the rock or the backside skeleton of the coral. It was a total mess. I double checked the Zoanthid and it didn't stick either, it just sat better because there was some thick ugly putty behind it. I think I really hurt the poor thing trying to push it into the weld so it would stick. It is closed up now and looking very sullen.

Failed experiment, I guess I will just buy some superglue

 

[Ron Reefman]

Give them time and they will probably recover, corals are pretty hearty when it comes to being pushed around.

If you go for super glue, be sure you get gel as it's much better when dealing with water. The regular super glue seems to thin out too much if there is any gap between the frag plug and the rock.

I sent an email off to Loctite and I think I may just try a personal test with some Loctite and 3M 5200. Just try a small dab dry and a small dab in some saltwater and see what happens. I'll post my results back here.

We just got back from a long beach walk out on Sanibel (now that the Red Tide bloom is fading away. Pics will be posted in the snorkel thread linked in my signature below.

 

[stAlphonzo]

Give them time and they will probably recover, corals are pretty hearty when it comes to being pushed around.

If you go for super glue, be sure you get gel as it's much better when dealing with water. The regular super glue seems to thin out too much if there is any gap between the frag plug and the rock.

I sent an email off to Loctite and I think I may just try a personal test with some Loctite and 3M 5200. Just try a small dab dry and a small dab in some saltwater and see what happens. I'll post my results back here.

We just got back from a long beach walk out on Sanibel (now that the Red Tide bloom is fading away. Pics will be posted in the snorkel thread linked in my signature below.

Most of them opened back up again. A few of the ones over the edge of the plug that got the worst of it are still sitting tight, but I'm sure will be fine. Thanks for the tip about the super glue. I picked up a tube of gel and will try that again tonight or tomorrow.

Eager to hear about the Loctite experiment!

Great pics from Sanibel, btw and glad to hear the red tide is fading!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I haven't done an update here in a couple of months, so here goes...

I added a ATO with an electric eye like the one Reef Breeders sells. It works great but the cord from the controller to the pump was shorter than I needed because I have the top off water tank in a different cabinet from the sump. It took a bit of figuring out, but eventually I found the right extension cord. I had just been using a dosing pump to add a small amount of water every day, but the evaporation rate here is pretty irregular due to A/C some days and open house other days. I really like having a 20g tank to draw top off water from. I only have to fill it every couple of weeks. And now that the water level in the sump is stable the skimmer works much more consistently and I'm not always fussing with the settings.

I've added a 16g DIY tank to use as a frag tank and holding tank. I do collect stuff from the beach or snorkeling and I don't always want to just drop them in the DT. It just has a new HOB filter system, a couple small old wavemaker powerheads I had laying around and I got a cheap ($100) led fixture that has 3 channels and 6 set points for ramping each channel up and down. I haven't checked the PAR levels, but I don't think it's very strong. But then this tank is only 12" deep. It's just through the diatom phase of breaking in, but I already put it to use holding some new zoas I got from Cultivated Reef. I had to pull a few empty frag plugs and a few corals I'm not crazy about (they don't fluoresce), out of the DT to make room for the new frags (that do fluoresce). So the new tank is already proven to be worth having.

I added 2 small Current wavemaker powerheads to the DT. One on the back glass points mostly down and makes for some extra flow under the egg crate platform slope that I have all my rocks on. I don't know that I really needed it, but I had the pump so why not use it!

I guess the best news is that my Rock Flower Anemones have spawned for the 3rd time in the last 18 months and I have at least a dozen new babies.

I'm still dosing Ca & alk manually. I test for both every Monday and I end up dosing Ca up from around 400 to 425 and alk up from 7.0 to 9.5. I don't see this dosing schedule changing much as the tank is about as full of corals as it can be. It's 80% or more zoas and anemones with only a few lps and sps colonies.

Here is a photo of the new 16g tank sitting next to the 40g DT.

 

[Michael Rodriguez]

Hi Ron,

It is cool to see another person from Cape Coral on here. I have a 60 gallon glass holes rimless cube with a home built stand that I am using as a native species tank. It is interesting so see how many different things are out there.

I have different seaweeds and algae. The red drift type algae seems to have a ton of small creatures in it. The tank has a 150ish watt LED black box which keeps the algae going but the crustaceans seem to tear it to pieces.

I am setting up a 75 gallon to become the native tank and I am going to turn the 60 gallon into a reef tank. I just need a good light for the reef tank.

Keep up the interesting thread. I am going to check out your one on snorkeling.

Mike

 

[BeejReef]

Fantastic thread. So interesting, especially captive, sexual breeding... Pretty sure this is the only forum where that phrase can be uttered

Humbling to see how much some have accomplished in the hobby.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Fantastic thread. So interesting, especially captive, sexual breeding... Pretty sure this is the only forum where that phrase can be uttered

Humbling to see how much some have accomplished in the hobby.

Thanks! I appreciate your kind words. Back when I was just getting started with a 30g tank 15 years ago I did some work for a guy with a big tank and his RBTA had recently split. I thought that was amazing and it hooked me on anemones right from the start.

The number of reefers who have experienced their RFAs breeding gets bigger all the time, but it is fun to have it happen. The part that slays me is other people have seen it happen and even shot videos! I've seen the results 3 times now, but I've never actually witnessed the spawn or the birth, just a fresh supply of babies scattered around mom & dad and some throughout the tank!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@Ron Reefman, I love how that cube is coming along! Got any closer pics of it? I'd love to see a recent FTS

 

[Jason mack]

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.

I love the idea of doing a floating reef ...but instead of doing it on egg crate I'd use a u shaped piece of acrylic and lay it down on its side ...

 

[Jason mack]

OK, I took Monday to recuperate from auto-x (I won my class for the first time!) and get some things set up for the rockscape rebuild. Tuesday morning I set up containers for the frags and rocks in the tank. Then added some saltwater I had made last Friday. So here is what the tank looked like before.

And after I took all the coral and rock out of the tank.

Here is the big picture. The bins are full of rock and coral. This is part of why I wanted work space next to the tank. If you have the room, and a spouse that will allow it, it makes working in the tank a lot easier!

Here's a look inside a couple of the bins. One is all RFA's, mini maxi's and RBTA. The other is rock & coral.

Then I loaded the new platform into the tank (I had to remove the led fixture). It was a tight fit around the center overflow but being snug is probably a good thing.

This isn't the final rockscape, but it's close and at least you can see the basic look... a rock slope/wall.

The fish are crazy about having the 'cave' under the platform and almost everybody else in under there as well. I guess that makes them safe from my hands. I don't know how long we'll be able to see in from the sides like we can now. I assume that will get covered with coraline algae in time. But for now we can see that all the inhabitants are doing OK. And my wife thinks being able to see the life under the rocks is cool. That's just so much the better for me! So far I'm happy with where it's going. I just hope I have enough holes for all the corals. There were close to 50 that were already in the tank and only a couple green paly colonies aren't going back in. But then there are 50 more corals in the sump! Fingers crossed. BTW, when is the last time you did a rockscape and were concerned you may have too many corals for it?!?! ;Nailbiting

More to follow.

I love the scape ..fantastic. !!

 

[mmw64]

OK, all the corals are in place, but some may move so the better looking (fluoresces better) coral is up front. I did pay much attention to that as it was white light when I moved them all in. I will be doing the wavemakers different. I got a low profile unit from Reef Breeders and I intend to put it up high on the side glass near the back and aim it at the middle of the front glass (L to R & top to bottom). Then I may use 1 or both of the Current wavemakers I've had on the back glass on the other side or on the back glass and side glass. It depends on how it looks and how well I can control the flow. I may even put the different brands on timers so the current flows one way for 3 hours, then both systems for 3 hours, then the other way for 3 hours and back to both for 3 hours. That would kind of simulate the tides. Not that anybody in the tank is going to care, but I think it would be cool!

Here are my clowns hanging out together under the platform.

This is the view looking down from the top along the front glass. Anemones at the front in the sand. Some of the RFA kids are up in the rocks now and I still have some more to figure out what I'm going to do with them. Then there is the short vertical wall and then the slope (where the led reflections are).

And finally, here is how I'm leaving it for today. I'll take a good look at it tonight under blue leds in a dark room and decide if any of the really good fluorescing corals are at the back. I placed the frags with more heads toward the front so it would look better in the normal daytime white light. So you can see the frags all over the place and most have some room to reproduce and spread. But even during daylight outside and with the blue leds on in the tank, it looks like little jewels of red, orange, yellow and green that are lit up from behind. So far I couldn't be happier. I have some holes in the vertical front wall which will eventually get filled with some of the best corals (assuming the anemones aren't going to reach up and sting them. But I'll need to work on a mounting system as the holes are a bit too big and the frags fall out. If anybody has an answer for how to do it, I'm open to suggestions. I'm thinking to pack some JB Water Weld putty around the stem of the frag plug and push it into the hole.

Looks great, Ron.

 

[PaulPerger]

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

.

Just found this build. I love this idea and am going to be building my Return system this week. I am going to do this...
Do you happen to have a link to where you found black john guest threaded 90 degree connectors? I have found regular 90 degree connectors, but haven't found threaded ones anywhere... Beautiful tank! I might be raising my rocks as well... Love that idea too!

 

[Tihsho]

@Ron Reefman Why do you keep your RFA's in PVC endcaps?

 

[Ron Reefman]

@Ron Reefman, I love how that cube is coming along! Got any closer pics of it? I'd love to see a recent FTS

I been playing with some photo and will post a couple later today! It's been a long time coming, but then retired people always have so little spare time with all the hobbies and traveling they do! ;Joyful

I love the scape ..fantastic. !!

Thanks Jason. I'm seriously considering pulling it apart to make the egg crate platform fit closer to the glass and around the overflow box. There is just enough gap that I've lost a couple of things into the area under the platform and it's no easy to get things out from under there! But I'll put it back together very similar to how it is now.

Looks great, Ron.

Thanks, I'm thinking of moving the Hollywood Stunner from the side glass to the overflow box at the back of the tank when I finally do get around to the rebuild... if ever!

Just found this build. I love this idea and am going to be building my Return system this week. I am going to do this...
Do you happen to have a link to where you found black john guest threaded 90 degree connectors? I have found regular 90 degree connectors, but haven't found threaded ones anywhere... Beautiful tank! I might be raising my rocks as well... Love that idea too!

I just used white john guest elbows from Home Depot and painted them black with Krylon plastic /epoxy paint. It holds up very well.

Raising the rocks off the sand, whether as a flat platform or an inclined one like I have now, really has provided some excellent advantages. I get 100% use out of my live rock for bacteria growth rather than having some percentage of them buried in the sand. I have a LOT more open sand for stars, cucumbers and other sand lovers. The area under the platform seems to work well as a cave for anybody who wants to hide. All my fish sleep under the platform. I get some unusual critters that like the open sand and don't care for bright light like tiny white feather dusters, small spaghetti worms and a couple of non-photosynthetic 'sand' anemones I picked up off the beach on Sanibel Island during a beach walk. And with a small wavemaker above the platform (so I can get at it for cleaning) but aimed through the platform seems to make enough water movement that I never get any cyano bacteria blooms anymore. Oh, and in time, at least with my old 120g DT, the underside of the egg crate had a lot of yellow and black sponges! And I love sponges. I just wish I could get some of the crazy colorful ones I see while snorkeling in the Keys to survive in my tank!

@Ron Reefman Why do you keep your RFA's in PVC endcaps?

Two primary reasons. One, they tend never to move from wherever I put them in the sand. RFA's don't tend to move much anyway once they settle in. But I've found most new additions I would put in the tank tended to move over the first few days down to the point where the live rock and sand meet. Then the nem seems to be a bit 'folded' when they open. And some even end up hiding under the edge of the rock. But if I let them set their foot in the bottom of an end cap (while acclimating and after while in a bowl of tank water) and then move them to the sand in the DT, they never move. And this is also where most of (not all) the RFA's I find in the Keys live. There is hardscape bottom (flat, hard coral rock) with holes and covered with 1 to 3 inches of sand. They set their foot in one of those holes and they become almost impossible to remove. And when disturbed, they can retract and hide under the sand and then come back out later.

Second, this technique makes them very easy to move. I've moved several of mine from one tank to another a couple of times and they never leave the end cap. I've also sold a few (I have lots of babies from 3 spawning events in the last 2 years) and they even stay in the end cap when the buy transports them home and puts them in their sand! And I have to assume they are happy this way given the regular spawning. I started with about 5 adults (3" to 5" in diameter) and now have between 25 and 30. The older kids are the size of a quarter and the youngest are so tiny (smaller than 1/8th on an inch in diameter) that I'm always finding new ones I hadn't spotted earlier among the fields of zoas that make up my tank. Eventually they get big enough and they start to stand out as not looking like the rest of the zoas where they have settled.

I hope that helps? If you have questions, please ask.

 

[PaulPerger]

I been playing with some photo and will post a couple later today! It's been a long time coming, but then retired people always have so little spare time with all the hobbies and traveling they do! ;Joyful

This is SO true. I remember when my Grandparents retired the only time I was ever sure I could call them was at dinner time (they always ate dinner together) or Saturday evening (they always went to bed early and woke Sunday early for church). Grandma volunteered at a local hospital over 30,000 hours before she died. They named the cafeteria after her. And Grandpa volunteered at an Air Force Museum where he rebuilt WWII aircraft, just like when he served.

I just used white john guest elbows from Home Depot and painted them black with Krylon plastic /epoxy paint. It holds up very well.

Thanks... I'll stop and get some of both today!

BTW, I race as well... I saw that you Autocross. I think I read you run a Miata? Which class do you run in? I run my DD, a Fiat 500 which I had to lower and widen significantly to adhere to rule #13. I also do Track Days whenever possible, and every May for the past 15 years I go to Nevada and race the Nevada Open Road Challenge with my Father. And for the past four years since both of my sons are now old enough we all go and race Dad's Jaguars. Two expensive hobbies, but both are extremely rewarding in very different ways! One gets the adrenaline flowing, and the other also gets the adrenaline flowing, but will someday (hopefully) be very relaxing! And I hope I never get too relaxed behind a wheel!

 

[Tihsho]

Two primary reasons. One, they tend never to move from wherever I put them in the sand. RFA's don't tend to move much anyway once they settle in. But I've found most new additions I would put in the tank tended to move over the first few days down to the point where the live rock and sand meet. Then the nem seems to be a bit 'folded' when they open. And some even end up hiding under the edge of the rock. But if I let them set their foot in the bottom of an end cap (while acclimating and after while in a bowl of tank water) and then move them to the sand in the DT, they never move. And this is also where most of (not all) the RFA's I find in the Keys live. There is hardscape bottom (flat, hard coral rock) with holes and covered with 1 to 3 inches of sand. They set their foot in one of those holes and they become almost impossible to remove. And when disturbed, they can retract and hide under the sand and then come back out later.

Second, this technique makes them very easy to move. I've moved several of mine from one tank to another a couple of times and they never leave the end cap. I've also sold a few (I have lots of babies from 3 spawning events in the last 2 years) and they even stay in the end cap when the buy transports them home and puts them in their sand! And I have to assume they are happy this way given the regular spawning. I started with about 5 adults (3" to 5" in diameter) and now have between 25 and 30. The older kids are the size of a quarter and the youngest are so tiny (smaller than 1/8th on an inch in diameter) that I'm always finding new ones I hadn't spotted earlier among the fields of zoas that make up my tank. Eventually they get big enough and they start to stand out as not looking like the rest of the zoas where they have settled.

I hope that helps? If you have questions, please ask.

Interesting. The misses and I setup a RFA Nano with 7 RFA's (3 about half dollar sized and 4 around nickel sized) and a large Mini-Maxi and when I acclimated everyone they had their foot already attached to rubble from what was in the bag from when they were shipped (shout out to @AquaSD) and everyone acclimated fine. The smaller ones I placed on the sand bed and the larger ones I placed on the TwoLittleFishes Stax rockscape we put together and since then they have shuffled around until they found the place they wanted to be. How deep of a cap do you think they need to feel comfortable? The tank doesn't have a deep sand bed, but I wouldn't mind 3D printing something as a solution in order to get the display more organized.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Interesting. The misses and I setup a RFA Nano with 7 RFA's (3 about half dollar sized and 4 around nickel sized) and a large Mini-Maxi and when I acclimated everyone they had their foot already attached to rubble from what was in the bag from when they were shipped (shout out to @AquaSD) and everyone acclimated fine. The smaller ones I placed on the sand bed and the larger ones I placed on the TwoLittleFishes Stax rockscape we put together and since then they have shuffled around until they found the place they wanted to be. How deep of a cap do you think they need to feel comfortable? The tank doesn't have a deep sand bed, but I wouldn't mind 3D printing something as a solution in order to get the display more organized.

For my big ones, 3" and up I used a 1 1/2" end cap. The smaller ones that are quarter size or smaller I used a 3/4" or 1/2" end cap. On the 1/2" end cap I just took a hack swa and cut the depth in half and so far it's worked OK. And as they grow you can always pull the end cap out of the sand and coerce the RFA out and then put it in a bigger cap. So far I haven't had any move out because the end cap was too small. And I see no reason why a 3D printed version wouldn't work just as well.

 

[crusso1993]

Going to be harassing, um, I mean following you here too! I haven't read the whole thread but, with time, will work my way through it.

I see you're in Cape Coral. Beautiful area there. I lived in Sarasota for a few years and miss it tremendously. We are trying to make our way to Florida and, as the song indicates, have high hopes!

BTW - looks like this thread is due for an update.