Sunken New Fiji Cube 32 Gallon EXT Build

[sunken3]

put some water in.. it stayed cloudy for quite a while. I used Tropic Marin Syn-Biotic salt... that along with new sand and me not putting the roller mat together correctly... all good now.. water is crystal clear.

 

[sunken3]

So all my new gadgets started to arrive.

 

[sunken3]

Apex A3 pro with Trident, Reef Octopus Elite 150-sss protein skimmer, Duetto 2 Dual Sensor ATO, Ecotech XR-15 G6 Pro and mounting bracket, IM Aquagadget 5 gallon hydrofill reservoir...

 

[sunken3]

And that's where the fun ended. I cannot get the Apex to connect to my wifi (i have several Apex's... so I don't think it's totally me - a ticket is in with Neptune)... no controller or Trident for now.

The skimmer.. nearly the smallest one reef octopus makes barely fits into my skimmer section (the lip on the top of the sump is too big).. I can get it in with effort and a little dismantling. Though now I cannot use the heater rack in the sump because it is in the way of the skimmer... so that neat upgrade is out (along with my second redundant heater, as there is no room). One day after setup, the skimmer is not working... all blue lights blinking.. resetting didn't do anything. I took half of it apart, nothing. Took the entire skimmer out, dismantled it and ran it in a 10g side tank. It now works again. Chipped my sump putting the skimmer back in.

 

[sunken3]

Setup my ATO... very straight forward. turned it on... sat back. all seemed well. Left the room. came back 20 minutes later, heard a whinning pump noise. The entire volume of my 5G reservoir has been dumped into my 32G tank. I quickly unplugged the Duetto. what the heck.

 

[sunken3]

On the bright side the Radion is awesome. connected easily. looks great (i have always had AI Hydras, Primes, T5's and metal halides) ... I like the new Ecotechs. That said the mount cannot be centered as my overflow is in the way. I either need to go with an offset light, buy another Ecotech for the other side just to make it look symmetrical, or get a different mounting system.

 

[sunken3]

At what point to i just give up? I haven't even made it to the fish and coral part of this cursed build.

 

[WillpoleReefers]

The corner to see a before and after view - plain vs stain.

The stain colour looks great!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

On the bright side the Radion is awesome. connected easily. looks great (i have always had AI Hydras, Primes, T5's and metal halides) ... I like the new Ecotechs. That said the mount cannot be centered as my overflow is in the way. I either need to go with an offset light, buy another Ecotech for the other side just to make it look symmetrical, or get a different mounting system.

Nice looking light!

 

[WillpoleReefers]

So all my new gadgets started to arrive.

Aquarist Christmas! Love it.

Steve

 

[sunken3]

Starting to stock the Aquarium. a couple of clams and stick corals up top... then some encrusting monti's. lower down some favia's. down to the left will be blasto's. a cyphastrea garden across the back. 2 rocks of zoas and an acan rock.

 

[Phamousreef]

So all my new gadgets started to arrive.

How do you like the skimmer ?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Starting to stock the Aquarium. a couple of clams and stick corals up top... then some encrusting monti's. lower down some favia's. down to the left will be blasto's. a cyphastrea garden across the back. 2 rocks of zoas and an acan rock.

Great looking coral!

 

[sunken3]

How do you like the skimmer ?

the skimmer is great. I have owned several reef octopus. their biggest drawback is they aren't cheap!

 

[sunken3]

Great looking coral!

Thank you!! have some more coming in 2 weeks.... i'll post more then.

 

[Mr. Papita Frita]

Love if that rock structure. And that acan garden is phenomenal

 

[Houstoner]

How did you like the aquaforest reef mud?

 

[sunken3]

Love if that rock structure. And that acan garden is phenomenal

thank you.. I have 2 more acans coming to add to it, and have created a blasto garden on the back left. i will try and get good pics up soon

 

[sunken3]

How did you like the aquaforest reef mud?

i have no comment at the moment. it's under the sand and rock, so its out of sight which is good because its just brown slime. my tank is doing well... the mud could be helping, hurting, or doing nothing. I dont know. it just seemed like a safe addition for bio diversity. I used a lot of stuff to jump start this tank!

 

[nyfishkid87]

Tank looks great. How do you like the filter roller mat?