SCA 50 gallon cube build *PIC HEAVY*

[mr70ss]

Oh bummer.. yea it does fill up fast! if your doing a build thread drop a link here i'd like to follow it.

On a tank note i added 8 more astreas today to help with some brown hair algae.

 

[TechnicalFisher]

Thanks @mr70ss, here's my build thread- https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/TechFisher's-50-G-Cube-Build.276721/

 

[mr70ss]

Last night i added a few more swimmers...

I'm happy to report that they all ate great within an hour of being introduced to their new home. Switching gears a bit i'm seeing a fair amount brown algae on the rocks and i noticed that it's only in the high flow areas. I've added more snails to my clean up crew but i also purchased a algae scrubber from another r2r member. I will post more information and pics about it after i get it setup and running this weekend.

 

[bowen1022]

Looking great man! I live near Spokane, which LFS do you go to?

 

[mr70ss]

Thanks, to be honest i use just about all of them, but i'd say Aquatic Dreams & Beyond would be my favorite.. by far the best selection for corals in the area.

 

[bowen1022]

Awesome good to know! I went there once and saw some nice stuff but I'm worried about aptasia. :/

 

[mr70ss]

yea i hear ya, but to be fair i think every LFS has the potential to have some sort of unwanted hitch hiker, so i dip and inspect each each frag before adding it.

 

[mr70ss]

Well I got some work done this weekend, Here is the new ATS installed.

It's a Marine Magic dual screen. I got it from another R2R member at a great price. It's my first time using an ATS so i'll see how it works. It is a spray bar style, and from what i've read many like the slot/waterfall style better. Maybe I'll upgrade or try and mod this one down the road. Running the lights for 16 hrs a day and it started growing algae on day 2.

 

[bowen1022]

Sweet it looks good. I dont know if this was answered earlier but is the SCA aquarium acrylic? Also I went to Aquatic Dreams and picked up a new fish. I never knew they had the back acro tank so that was sweet to look at.

 

[mr70ss]

No it is low iron "starfire" glass (3 sides). cool it's a fun place to visit.. i just have a hard time "just looking".. seems i always walk out with something.

 

[mr70ss]

Well I have some major bad news to report.. I finally figured out what was going on with my random fish death's. It turns out i had a velvet outbreak, and sadly it took out all of my fish. I lost the shark nose 3 days ago, he was eating fine and appeared to be happy. Then the next morning the royal, 1 clown, and 1 bangai were dead. By the end of that day my last 2 fish (a clown & bangai) had developed very small white spots, and both fish did not last through that night. It sucks, but i did learn a huge lesson, and will not add any more fish until i have a QT up and running. So i've been reading about velvet, and it looks like 8-9 weeks is the time line for the velvet to runs it course and die off. so that give me time to get a QT up and going. On a happier note all of my corals and inverts appear to be unaffected. in fact my paly's have doubled in size and is up to 6 polyps, and my hammer has 5 new heads starting from the base. I have to admit I did read a bunch of posts / build logs that said to ALWAYS RUN A QT, and i thought oh i'll just be careful.. well now I am paying the price for not doing so. So if you are reading this I can't stress it enough, start a QT at the same time you setup your main DT!!!

 

[Jimbo662]

awww man...sorry to hear that. Unfortunately so many of us learn from this kind of stuff.

 

[mr70ss]

Thanks, yea it sucks but hopefully others will see this and avoid the mistake i made.

 

[TheEngineer]

That sucks.... That's not the way you want to learn about QT :(

 

[bowen1022]

Dang man that sucks. Now I'm a little worried:( it's hard for me to QT in my little apartment.

 

[mr70ss]

Yea i hear ya.. but i think this is a "when not if" problem.. so i'll setting up a QT this weekend.

 

[mr70ss]

Well It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted any updates, and to be honest I really don't have much to share. Seems how I can't have any fish for at least another month I've just been looking over the tank and came across a fairly good size (or at least to me) bristle worm. It appears to be around 3"-4".

I've also noticed some real small guys as well...

I'm going to keep an eye on them, and if I start seeing more and more then I'll make a trap and remove some.

I'd like to give a huge thanks to fellow reefer @bowen1022 who sold me 5 zoa/paly frags, and 1 paly colony. I'll post some pics of them once they are permanently placed on the rock. For now here is an updated tank shot..

 

[mr70ss]

Finally getting around to posting some pics of the new zoa's and paly's now that they are mounted to the live rock.

 

[bowen1022]

Looking good!

 

[Water Dog]

How has that algae scrubber been working thus far?