AlanM January 31, 2021 Author Share January 31, 2021 Salt water, fiji pink sand, and Caribsea Fragzone rocks. The tank is so small that I just glued some of their frag holder rocks together with superglue gel into a cave pile. I think it looks pretty good for what it is. I'm not sold on this rock yet, though. I'll visit some LFS and see if I can pick through their cycled rock to find a good piece that I can carve up into a nice shape. One good rock to hold zoas and ricordia maybe. It's cloudy at the moment from sand and new saltwater. It'll clear up eventually. Now the wait begins, heh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM January 31, 2021 Author Share January 31, 2021 The controls are in the drawer so no cords are out except for the one plug in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresTheReef January 31, 2021 Share January 31, 2021 Cool little setup. How many tangs are you putting in there ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme January 31, 2021 Share January 31, 2021 16 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said: Cool little setup. How many tangs are you putting in there ? It's okay. An upgrade is in the works... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM January 31, 2021 Author Share January 31, 2021 37 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said: Cool little setup. How many tangs are you putting in there ? I was thinking three to start, but I'm sure I'll have to rehome them soon. 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM January 31, 2021 Author Share January 31, 2021 20 minutes ago, howaboutme said: It's okay. An upgrade is in the works... I mean, I won't deny that I do know the dimension of that little table and I've looked online to see what kind of aquariums would fit nicely on it filling it up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 1, 2021 Share February 1, 2021 Nice that scape came out great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM February 3, 2021 Author Share February 3, 2021 The water cleared up, and I think it looks nice. My rock arrangement is growing on me. I'm doing ghost feeding to start the cycle. It'll be a couple of months before I put life in it unless I score a bunch of pest free rubble from someone's established system to fill up the back chambers. I probably won't run the light too much during the cycling period. All it can do is grow algae from the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate during the cycle and I'd rather handle that with water changes. The Kessil A80 is about 7 inches over the water. It's only a 15W light. On full brightness it gives 140 PAR on the top rock and 100 PAR on the sand bed. It drops about 5 PAR when the glass lid is on it. I think that's plenty for zoas and even some LPS, but might not keep good color on most SPS which I know I'll be tempted to put in there. The air/water interface makes a massive difference on PAR. With the sensor 1mm below the water surface I get 160 PAR. If it breaks the surface I get 250 PAR. Amazing. The spin stream made a quiet gear noise for the first few days, but now it's totally silent since some slime has had a chance to build up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme February 4, 2021 Share February 4, 2021 That's interesting. I was going to ask you to do some PAR measurements with the A80. I'm intrigued by the concept of no fan and the entire unit being a heat sink. I assume it's dead quiet? I was wondering why Kessil went only 15W myself. To keep heat down or to open market up to the lower price point. I was tempted to give this a try but decided not to. Some people report it can keep SPS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM February 8, 2021 Author Share February 8, 2021 I'm playing with the placement and orientation of it. I may eke out a few more PAR, but I think it will be totally sufficient for how I plan to use it. I did an 80 percent water change today, mostly as practice. In the process I discovered that there's a little slot really low down in the overflow chamber that keeps the water level the same height in the filtration part as in the tank. No wonder it doesn't do any surface skimming. I think inTank sells a little plug for those AIO slots. I'll see if that would work or else I'll squirt a small amount of superglue gel on it next time I have it empty. I also want to reduce how low those slots go. I know inTank sells things that do that too, but I may just try to use a piece of plastic to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maevepotter February 8, 2021 Share February 8, 2021 If you want higher PAR try the KINGBO. I generally get readings around 350-400 near the top of my rocks 4-6 inches below the water, and the lights are about 8" off the water, generally at least 80-150 on the sand, sometimes 40 near the edges of it's reach, which works fine for some of my coral. Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM February 16, 2021 Author Share February 16, 2021 Did some modifications this weekend to promote surface skimming. I modified the overflows with a piece of thin packaging plastic so now I get surface skimming. The water height difference between the back and front is about 3/4" now. You can see the height of the water behind the slots in this photo. I also plugged the slot down at the bottom that was put there to keep the water levels in front and back the same with some super glue gel. Looks terrible now, but it will age in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime February 16, 2021 Share February 16, 2021 I have found that by growing GSP on my back wall and overflow box, I've run into the opposite problem. The GSP actually restricts the box skimming, and if I don't trim out the weirs every couple weeks or so, the water level rises. Have you thought about what you're going to use to clean the glass? The rounded corners always were the hardest parts on the biocubes. I wish Algae Free still produced their nano scraper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM February 16, 2021 Author Share February 16, 2021 I have the tiny orange Flipper magnet cleaner that I think can get the round corners, but I guess we will see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas March 22, 2021 Share March 22, 2021 Any updates on this one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM March 22, 2021 Author Share March 22, 2021 Only a bit. I'm running the lights each day seeing if I grow some algae. Not much so far, but I'm getting brown on the glass which is good, I think. I picked up some rubble from Isaac and am letting it go in the tank for a bit. Various amphipods, bristleworms, and a few asterina stars came out of it, which is just what I wanted. I think one of the rocks he gave me will fit absolutely perfectly under my little purple rock sculpture, so I'm going to pull out my purple rock, push the sand to the edges, lay his rock down on the bottom and then put mine back and see if I hate it. I'm soon ready for some coral since I have done a few successful water changes. I've just been ghost feeding so far, no ammonia drops or anything. No testing either. I'm hoping such a small water volume can be handled by water changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas March 28, 2021 Share March 28, 2021 On 3/22/2021 at 6:51 PM, AlanM said: Only a bit. I'm running the lights each day seeing if I grow some algae. Not much so far, but I'm getting brown on the glass which is good, I think. I picked up some rubble from Isaac and am letting it go in the tank for a bit. Various amphipods, bristleworms, and a few asterina stars came out of it, which is just what I wanted. I think one of the rocks he gave me will fit absolutely perfectly under my little purple rock sculpture, so I'm going to pull out my purple rock, push the sand to the edges, lay his rock down on the bottom and then put mine back and see if I hate it. I'm soon ready for some coral since I have done a few successful water changes. I've just been ghost feeding so far, no ammonia drops or anything. No testing either. I'm hoping such a small water volume can be handled by water changes. Cool! What kind of corals are you thinking of keeping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM March 28, 2021 Author Share March 28, 2021 Starting with zoas and ricordia, so I'm just about to the point where I want to look for some of those. I'd like some movement in there, but am concerned that anything I put in there that would sway would quickly take over the tank. I like xenia and GSP, though, so I may eventually put that in there. I started running the light on a controller and will do that for a couple of weeks to see how much algae and cyano grows. I'm feeding a bit now that I know I have many bristleworms in there to eat it, heh. I'll visit a local store or two to pick up some hermits as well and maybe some small ceriths since I'm getting some growth on the glass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimlin March 29, 2021 Share March 29, 2021 Any issues with corporations with that tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM March 29, 2021 Author Share March 29, 2021 7 hours ago, jimlin said: Any issues with corporations with that tank? I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimlin March 29, 2021 Share March 29, 2021 13 minutes ago, AlanM said: I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. Sorry, auto correct. Evaporation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM April 2, 2021 Author Share April 2, 2021 Ah, makes more sense. If I leave the glass lid off I evaporate about 200ml per day. If I leave the lid on I only evaporate 50ml per day. It makes a huge difference. Right now I'm doing top-off by bringing a jelly jar downstairs to my bucket of DI water and filling it up once a week. Each morning I look at the marker line I drew in the return section of the rear filtration area and pour in a little bit of DI to bring it up to the line. If I put the lid on I can leave for a week and not lose very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresTheReef April 2, 2021 Share April 2, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, AlanM said: Ah, makes more sense. If I leave the glass lid off I evaporate about 200ml per day. If I leave the lid on I only evaporate 50ml per day. It makes a huge difference. Right now I'm doing top-off by bringing a jelly jar downstairs to my bucket of DI water and filling it up once a week. Each morning I look at the marker line I drew in the return section of the rear filtration area and pour in a little bit of DI to bring it up to the line. If I put the lid on I can leave for a week and not lose very much. Have you measured the salinity swings based on your weekly top-offs? Might tell you if more frequent refills are needed to maintain stability. Edit: I should learn to read... Looks like you top off daily. Still interested in swings though. Edited April 2, 2021 by WheresTheReef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM April 5, 2021 Author Share April 5, 2021 OK. I left the lid off over the weekend. This morning I added around 150ml of DI to top off back to the line. It was exactly 1.025 SG before topoff and 1.024 after. So a visible swing, but not a huge one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM April 11, 2021 Author Share April 11, 2021 Life! I visited the fish store. Got a few hermit crabs, a single nassarius snail, a rock of random zoas, and a ruby red dragonet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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