tjgr34

Sorry for your loss. I don't think I can offer any help, but keep the boards updated and I'll jump in if I can.

I was afraid to hear that about the lack of filtration, but I suspected it. Do you think something like a HOT Mag 250 would be appropriate for both filtration and flow help?

My tank has been accumulating an excessive amount of detritus and I'm looking for idea on how to get it under control. Here's my setup: Tank: 27 Gallon Cube Filter: Aquaclear 10-30 gallon model. I run this with two sponges and a carbon bag. The sponges get changed once or twice a week. Skimmer: Aqua-C Remora with an MJ 900. I know it's under-powered, but it consistently produces skimmate. Movement: Koralia Nano (240 gph) The tank also has about 30 lbs of rock and a 1-2" deep sand bed. Livestock: 2 small Oscellaris Clowns, 1 Firefish, 1 Yellow Watchman Goby with a Pistol Shrimp. Other inverts are an GBTA (who hates his life right now) three zoa frags (also not happy), a rhodactis mushroom, and a candy cane frag that is doing really well. I'm not sure about exact numbers for the cleanup crew, but I would guess 2-3 red-leg hermits, 5-7 so small nassarius snails, 5 or so cerith snails, 3-5 astrea snails. I added three turbo snails last week, two of which died within a day. I haven't seen the third since and assume that he also fell victim to high nitrates. I feed frozen, rinsed mysis once a day and sometimes supplement with pellets or an additional mysis feeding on the weekends. Does the cleanup crew seem under-stocked? My nitrate levels were, and still are very elevated due to neglect. I'm trying to correct that problem with frequent 10% water changes and reduced feedings. I have really noticed the detritus buildup because of these water changes. When I fan the rock off before siphoning my tank looks about like a snow-globe. Any suggestions?

I just got a McCosker's the other day and he immediately wedged himself into a rock crevice upon being released into the tank. He stayed there for about 36 hours and is not swimming around exploring the tank. He still darts back into the rock crevice if I walk up to the tank quickly. I wouldn't start to worry for another couple of days.

I ended up getting a small McCosker's Flasher Wrasse and a pistol shrimp at Tropical Lagoon Aquarium in Silver Spring. The price was right on both and I'm happy with the purchase...I've been watching the pistol shrimp make a burrow since I got him in the tank. Hopefully my YWG will make friends. Now I just have to figure out how to get my clowns to host in my GBTA.

I forgot about royal grammas! One would fit my needs almost perfectly. Definitely the front runner at this point. There is a pair of tank raised banggis that just popped up in the For Sale thread, though...somebody go buy them and make my life easier!

I like the idea of a dwarf angel a lot. My theory is that the lack of space might encourage their coral nipping tendencies, but if people have successfully kept them in <30 gal. tanks I'll give it a try. Which species do you think would be best?

I'm worried that a six-line might get aggressive in small tank, although he would be the last introduction, so maybe not. I thought my tank would be too small for a midas, although they are very cool. I really like bangaii's. If I happen upon any that are tank raised I may end up getting a pair. How do they fair when kept singly?

I think I have room for one last fish in my 27 gallon cube, but I'm having trouble deciding what it should be. Right now I have a small ocellaris pair, a standard firefish, and a yellow watchman goby. I plan on getting a pistol shrimp to keep the goby company at some point. Other livestock in the tank are a GBTA, a candy cane coral, a green and white rhodactis mushroom and a few zoa frags...and a cleanup crew with a couple of red-leg hermits. My fish are all warm colors while my coral and inverts are mostly cool colors. I would like to add a purple firefish, but I'm leery of putting another firefish into such a small tank. A mandarin would be cool, but I don't want to chance being unable provide for its diet when school gets busy again later this spring. I think I would prefer a swimmer as opposed to a perching/bottom dwelling fish. Based on those few parameters, what do you guys think? Any input is appreciated.

I'm running my AquaC Remora with an MJ 900 instead of a 1200 and it still does very good work on my 27 gallon tank. The pump is connected to the skimmer via some plastic tubing which allows it to sit as low in the tank as you would want. I guess that you could put a pump down in the back section of your BioCube and prop that portion of the lid up with something or remove it all together.

If the goby and shrimp are still available on the 5th of January, I'll take them pending a price.

Agreed. While a skimmer isn't a substitute for water changes in a larger tank, it does help keep water quality up to snuff.

Excellent insight. I hadn't considered that. Pending my acquisition of a Dremel I plan on making an acrylic chute in the interest of preserving laminar flow. I'll throw some pictures of the "Longnose Remora" up when it's completed.

The acrylic strips seems like a good idea, but I may take it a step further. I'm hoping to get a Dremel for Christmas, which will make life much easier. I'm thinking I'll take a 1/2" or 3/4" (flow on an MJ 1200 is pretty low) PVC T piece and attach extensions with caps to create something the width of the skimmer's overflow. I'll then use my handy-dandy new cutting tool to cut a slot in the top of the extended T and create a trough to collect the water. I figure I'll use some combination of superglue and silicone to attach the trough to the skimmer, and then just extend it down to water level with another piece of PVC. Think it'll work?

I'm running an AquaC Remora on the sump (modified 10 Gal AGA) of my 27 Gallon cube and have a couple of problems. The skimmer is connected to a Maxi-Jet 1200 pump. First, the water in the sump only comes about halfway up the tank. This means that the water coming out of the skimmer has a long way to fall resulting in a lot of splashing and noise. Aside from the noise the falling water seems to be causing a lot of evaporative loss and TONS OF SALT CREEP. Does anybody know of a modification I can make to convert the current spill-over return flow into a pipe or tube that I can bring down to the water level in the sump? Second, the skimmer isn't producing much skimate. Is the pump inadequate? Do I just need to clean the skimmer well? Any thoughts are appreciated.

My lights came in the mail today and the tank is officially up and running. The lights consist of two strips of BridgeLux 3 watt LEDs (9 white, 6 blue) on one non-dimmable power source. From left to right we have: whites only, both and blues only. I got the strips from a guy who basically does custom lights with a DIY level of finish. At $135 shipped, I couldn't pass on getting them and am very happy with the results. I know the BridgeLux products don't yield the light output that Cree's do, but I also know that I didn't want to pay for a dimmer and controller so that I could run my lights at 70% all the time. Since I have my new LED's I don't really have a use for the Marineland Doublebright strip that came with the tank. It's the 18-24" model, which I hear is great for fuges. I'm going to post it on the For Trade forum here in a minute and hope to get some livestock for it. The cleanup crew seems happy, although I had to separate 4 or so Astrea snails who refused to get off the shell of one of the Ceriths.

Thanks for the sump tip. I'm not sure what it's from, but there is a fair bit of visible detritus on the sand. There is also algae growing on most of the rocks, although I haven't really seen any cyano appearing as I was expecting with the new tank. Hopefully there will be enough food to hold the inverts over until the system starts getting daily nutrient inputs. Any recommendations on zoa sources around DC? Are there any LFS's with good stock?

w00t! They guys at the Ace Hardware store at 5th and I are awesome. They let me use one of their rental chop saws to do the cutting I needed to do, so I've got a ball valve in place above the return pump now. The flow only needed to be restricted a tiny bit, but everything is working well. I don't anticipate much of a cycle as the rock in the display came straight from an operational tank and has been kept in heated, circulated, lighted water since I got it. The stuff that I placed in the sump has been in a bucket with a powerhead since it didn't fit well in the display. Tests I did a week or so ago showed no ammonia, and some nitrates, so I'm hoping I'll be alright. I went in on a cleanup crew order from LiveAquaria (DFS) and am getting the following; 7 Nassarius (vibex) snails 12 Astrea snails 7 Cerith snails 3 Scarlet Reef Hermits 1 Green Lettuce Sea Slug (no experience with these guys, but they seem harmless and interesting) 1 Porcelain Crab I'm going to put a few Nassarius and a few Cerith snails in the sump to help keep things clean down there. The crew is supposed to arrive Thursday, so I'll test the water again to make sure that everything is alright before adding everybody. I'm still waiting on some new lights to come in and the system to age for a couple weeks before I jump into a few zoanthids. In the mean time, I'm on the lookout for a couple (not necessarily a mated pair) of regular oscellaris clowns. Tank bred is going to be key. If anyone knows of a breeder or just has an older pair in need of a new home, please let me know. I'll a couple more pics up this weekend. Thoughts?

Well, I'm an idiot. I got a Mag 5 to use as a return pump assuming that it would lose enough gph due to head height that my overflow would be able to accommodate it. This is not the case. If anybody is looking for a used Mag 5, I'll trade it for a smaller pump, straight up. The pump had a small squirt/leak when I got it, but it has been sealed with silicone and works well.

Hey guys, thanks for all the input. As far as the tank goes, there aren't aren't a whole lot of aspects on which I am seeking advice. If there are, I'll make that clear. My goal for this tank and thread is to provide a sort of case study for future reference. I'm not generally going to be doing things conventionally, but rather in a way that I see as best meeting my needs. Also, I should note that I have plenty of experience in the hobby, so don't worry about "bearing bad news."

PM sent on refractometer and tds meter.

I'm considering DIY. The thing that most concerns me about going that route is that it would come out looking unfinished and tacky. Also, I have a very incomplete set of tools, which could be a problem.

I'm slowly putting together a 27 Gallon Marineland Cube. I'm also in grad school so this entire build is on a shoestring budget. I'll put things up as I get them done and include the costs and where everything came from. There are going to be a few basic guidelines and ideals for the tank: 1) It must be relatively cheap. See: "budget" above. 2) It must be relatively environmentally responsible. I'm going to try to get everything tank bred or from an existing tank. I'll try to avoid anything that is coming straight from the ocean for my purposes alone. 3) It must be LED. Kinda goes with the environmental responsibility. To start, I got a great deal on this 27 cube on craigslist from another wamas member. The tank is 20 x 18 x 20 and came with a slick black stand, sand, 10-15 lbs rock, a Koralia Nano powerhead, a 100 (ish) watt heater, an AquaC Remora skimmer, and various odds and ends. Cost: $150. I picked up another 30 lbs. of rock off CL for $100 and have the tank aquascaped but at the moment, it's just a glorified holding tank for the rock. This is how the tank looks at the moment. I should mention that the tank also came with a glass top, but that I broke it during transport. I'll probably end up ordering a replacement, but let me know if you have a 20 x 18 lid.

It's at least up to 40 breeders. I didn't look around a lot, but I definitely saw those. "This is an 8-car train, please use all doors to load your giant aquarium."

It's going on now at the Petco in Cleveland Park. Very metro accessible.