Mary's only slightly girly 50g cube upgrade thread
- Thread starter fishless
- Start date
- Location
- Manhattan, NY
Lol. Don't worry, he gets plenty of love.
- Location
- Manhattan, NY
I forgot, I wanted to talk about Reef Flakes. I was using CaribSea Fiji Pink, and was not pleased with it. Too many small grains, and too many bigger dark colored shells and stones in the mix. Made my sand bed look messy. The Reef Flakes are very white and clean and uniform in size. They have just enough color mixed in to make them look natural. Ish. Anyway, I'm very glad I bothered to track them down. No idea why not very many places sell them.
- Location
- Manhattan, NY
More on the new build...
These are from last week. After everything was up and running properly.
Almost there:
The doors are going to be attached with magnets so I can pull them off completely to get at the sump.
See, tiny magnets. They work pretty well.
The bottom of the doors rest on little rubber feet on the floor, so the magnets are really just holding the doors in place, not actually holding them up.
I'm still fine tuning and organizing cables. Added a second MP10 and have a nice wave going now. Getting the corals placed and glued to the rocks has become a painfully long, ongoing process.
Corals waiting to go...somewhere.
Coming along, but what a mess!
I really like the look of a super clean sand bed, so everything's gotta go up. Would love any tips for how to get things to stay where I put them. Right now I'm gluing the heck out of them and then going to bed and in the morning checking to see which ones fell down during the night. Ugh. Almost done now, though. I'll get photos of it looking all cleaned up tomorrow. Then I can buy some more to fill in some empty spaces!
One bad (bad bad bad bad) casualty of the switch is I dropped my Maxspect Razor in the water. So I've had to "upgrade" my light as well. This time I went with the Vertex Illumina 260 with aux color module. It's okay. I'm still tuning the colors. It actually has TOO much spread for my tank (no optics), spills light out around the floor about a foot and a half. Guess I'm stuck with it now though.
Now, under the hood:
Custom King made me an awesome sump!
I had him put my filter sock and fuge and ATO box in the front so I don't have to stretch my short arms to the back of the tank to access them.
Chaeto and Caulerpa are in. We'll see how that goes. There's an LED light stuck to the top of the cabinet that comes down over the fuge when I'm not working in there. My RKL PC4 is hiding up in the top left corner, and there is a BRS media reactor hiding behind the skimmer.
That's the CadLights skimmer that came with the tank package. It is a bit of a nightmare. I don't even want to talk about it. I just hope sometime soon it starts to actually do its job. Otherwise I'll probably get a reef octopus. Also, I'm switching out the BRS reactor for the NextReef MR1. I just think it will be a lot easier for me to get at back there.
Anyway, that's what's been going on. Thanks for reading. Some final shots of the tank coming soon.
These are from last week. After everything was up and running properly.
Almost there:
The doors are going to be attached with magnets so I can pull them off completely to get at the sump.
See, tiny magnets. They work pretty well.
The bottom of the doors rest on little rubber feet on the floor, so the magnets are really just holding the doors in place, not actually holding them up.
I'm still fine tuning and organizing cables. Added a second MP10 and have a nice wave going now. Getting the corals placed and glued to the rocks has become a painfully long, ongoing process.
Corals waiting to go...somewhere.
Coming along, but what a mess!
I really like the look of a super clean sand bed, so everything's gotta go up. Would love any tips for how to get things to stay where I put them. Right now I'm gluing the heck out of them and then going to bed and in the morning checking to see which ones fell down during the night. Ugh. Almost done now, though. I'll get photos of it looking all cleaned up tomorrow. Then I can buy some more to fill in some empty spaces!
One bad (bad bad bad bad) casualty of the switch is I dropped my Maxspect Razor in the water. So I've had to "upgrade" my light as well. This time I went with the Vertex Illumina 260 with aux color module. It's okay. I'm still tuning the colors. It actually has TOO much spread for my tank (no optics), spills light out around the floor about a foot and a half. Guess I'm stuck with it now though.
Now, under the hood:
Custom King made me an awesome sump!
I had him put my filter sock and fuge and ATO box in the front so I don't have to stretch my short arms to the back of the tank to access them.
Chaeto and Caulerpa are in. We'll see how that goes. There's an LED light stuck to the top of the cabinet that comes down over the fuge when I'm not working in there. My RKL PC4 is hiding up in the top left corner, and there is a BRS media reactor hiding behind the skimmer.
That's the CadLights skimmer that came with the tank package. It is a bit of a nightmare. I don't even want to talk about it. I just hope sometime soon it starts to actually do its job. Otherwise I'll probably get a reef octopus. Also, I'm switching out the BRS reactor for the NextReef MR1. I just think it will be a lot easier for me to get at back there.
Anyway, that's what's been going on. Thanks for reading. Some final shots of the tank coming soon.
- Location
- Glendale,Queens.
First and foremost the whole setup looks awesome!secondly THANK YOU!im getting a 60 g cube Friday (hopefully)and I'm having custom kings make me a sump/refugium just like yours.cant wait!
- Location
- GARDEN CITY
Looks awesome your hard work will pay off when it fill in Good luck
- Location
- Glendale,Queens.
You could always get optic lenses for the new light either from rapid led or ebay.I paid I think 16 bucks for them on eBay and it made a world of a difference!
- Location
- Manhattan, NY
Thanks, guys.
reefer4eva: I'd like to see about adding the optics, but I don't even know where to start figuring out how to do it. Any how to sites or tips you could share?
reefer4eva: I'd like to see about adding the optics, but I don't even know where to start figuring out how to do it. Any how to sites or tips you could share?
- Location
- Glendale,Queens.
Just looked up the light you have ..I have no idea on how to install the optics..nice fixture anyways
- Location
- Manhattan, NY
That's okay, I think I can get the right ones from rapid,and I think you just glue them on over the LED's. Could it be that simple? I'll ask them what kind of adhesive to use. Thanks, though!
- Location
- Glendale,Queens.
Use 3m double face tape that's what I used with my old led fixture
- Location
- Manhattan, NY
I think I let the livestock stay in the bins overnight. Everybody was fine with rock, a heater and power head in each. I tried to separate the fish and the more fussy corals. No cycle that I know of, though I ran a polyfilter for about a week after to deal with any ammonia that might show up. I am having a diatom bloom again now though due to the new sand. Otherwise all is well. Good luck with yo?rs.
- Location
- Manhattan, NY
Oh I would mention that a lot of the equipment I had didn't work as well for the new setup as I had hoped. I've already swapped out the brs reactor, and today I'm switching to a different skimmer as well. My credit card is on fire!
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