SoCal's 60g SPS cube (2x2x2)

SoCal been watching your thread for a while finally wanted to ask some questions. You've come along way from the 20L. Your cube looks great!
1. In your sump picture you have a SWC skimmer but in your footnote you have SRO 100 listed did you switch and why. If you do have the SRO how deep do you have it I am having a hell of a time getting mine dialed in and have had it for a while.
2. Also I just got Radions for my 40 Breeder and am wondering how you have your Scheduled. maybe you could do a print screena nd post it on here. Looks like you are getting pretty good growth so far.
3. Do you think the Solana is worth the money they go for. I have seen the Deep Blue brand for half the price and I know I want to build my own stand.
 
ticklem said:
SoCal been watching your thread for a while finally wanted to ask some questions. You've come along way from the 20L. Your cube looks great!
1. In your sump picture you have a SWC skimmer but in your footnote you have SRO 100 listed did you switch and why. If you do have the SRO how deep do you have it I am having a hell of a time getting mine dialed in and have had it for a while.
2. Also I just got Radions for my 40 Breeder and am wondering how you have your Scheduled. maybe you could do a print screena nd post it on here. Looks like you are getting pretty good growth so far.
3. Do you think the Solana is worth the money they go for. I have seen the Deep Blue brand for half the price and I know I want to build my own stand.
Click to expand...
Thanks for following along. To answer you questions:
1. The pump on my SWC160 failed on me and I did not want to deal with replacing it. I found a gently used SRO1000int locally. I run mine in 5 inches of water and it has been working well for me. Any more than 5.5 inches or so of water and this thing just runs way too wet.
2. I use the simple natural mode @ 60% intensity right now. My cycle starts at 7:00am and runs to 7:00pm.
3. You might want to ask MedRed or someone else who has been using the Solana to see what they think. I have never seen one in person, but I see a lot of people using them.

I checked my tank's phosphate readings for the first time with my new Hannah phosphate meter I got for xmas. Turns out my phos readings are through the roof @ .07ppm! I will be doing a couple 10gal wc to help with this. I am debating putting in a GFO reactor. Should I run GFO with my biopellets are just leave it and wait for them to kick in?
 
Everything looks great! I am looking forward to watching your tank mature.

As for the phosphate, I used dry rock from BRS, not Marco, but I found that GFO really helped to get the phosphates down. I "cooked" the rock, but even with that and bacterial dosing there weren't significant drops in PO4 until I used GFO. I can't speak to biopellets, but I can speak to how hard it is to lower phosphates. Good luck!
 
SoCalDude said:
I checked my tank's phosphate readings for the first time with my new Hannah phosphate meter I got for xmas. Turns out my phos readings are through the roof @ .07ppm! I will be doing a couple 10gal wc to help with this. I am debating putting in a GFO reactor. Should I run GFO with my biopellets are just leave it and wait for them to kick in?
Click to expand...


I am very curious about what people have to say about this. I had biopellets up and running on my tank for about 6 months in a phosban reactor and it didn't really seem to make a huge diffrence. I mean I could tell that the glass was staying cleaner but doing weekly water changes I was still have some algea issues. So I dumped the pellets and switched to GFO recently. I'm waiting on the new black BRS single reactors to get back in stock and I think I am going to run carbon , gfo in single BRS reactors and the biopellets in the phosban reactor and see if that will do the trick.
 
I found that buying the mounting kit and mounting to the ceiling was the easiest thing to do with the Radion. A 1/4" drill and a couple of toggle bolts and it was up in under an hour. I have a spackled cailing so if I want to move it it's no big deal. I can cover the toggle bolts quite easily.
 
I picked up a Blue-Head Fairy Wrasse. It dove right into a hole in the rock after having a spat with my male Carpenter Flasher Wrasse. I wonder how this will work long term with the two of them. Pics to come.
 
Still having phos issues. My biopellet reactor has been online with 1.5 cups of biopellets as of yesterday and I decided that it was not enough so I added another 2 cups of pellets.

The blue head flasher is not doing so well. It came out only to eat the first couple days but has not moved out of it bolt-hole for the past 3 days to my knowledge. It seems to be gasping and lethargic. I am not sure it will make it. I think it may be some kind of parasite or post-shipping/collection stress issue as it was eating and swimming fine for the first couple days.

The tank is not exceptionally good looking right now as I am dealing with a little bryopsis and bubble algae, but I will post some growth shots of some of my SPS this weekend. I have been getting some decent growth from several of my acros despite the high phos levels.
 
Are you running GFO with the biopellets? Also, I just read in Coral magazine that you should use some sort of "inoculant" bacteria with the pellets.

Dennis
 
NaH2Ofreak said:
Are you running GFO with the biopellets? Also, I just read in Coral magazine that you should use some sort of "inoculant" bacteria with the pellets.

Dennis
Click to expand...
I just bought 2 TLF 150 reactors from marinedepot.com on sale. I think I am going to use GFO and GAC with the biopellets for now. As for the inoculant bacteria, I have heard about that as well but I really don't buy into it. There is plenty of bacteria in my tank.
 
I decided to pick up a couple TLF 150 reactors on sale. I will use one to start off with carbon and gfo. When my biopellets start working I will most likely switch to solely carbon. I have the second just in case I end up using one for gfo and one for carbon.
IMG_0847.jpg

Time for some tank shots-
IMG_0812.jpg

IMG_0846.jpg

Growth shots
IMG_0822.jpg

IMG_0820.jpg

IMG_0819.jpg

IMG_0825.jpg

IMG_0849.jpg

I know some people wanted pictures of my sump. Well, here it is. Left side is the drain with the biopellet reactor. The reef octo inlet is right at the outlet of the biopellet reactor. Then I have the return on the right the is soft plumbed. I have my dosers hanging on the right with b-ionic 2 part. It is a little cramped, but it works.
And the FTS
IMG_0846.jpg
 
What size return line are you running? I recently bought a 65 and it has a 1" overflow line and a 1/2" return. Does this seem right?

Thanks
 
Just took a phos reading. My levels are finally acceptable! I am at .02ppm, down from .18ppm. Hopefully this will be sustained and I will a great response from my SPS.
 
I picked up a 1.5'' Macropharyngodon meleagris Leopard Wrasse yesterday along with some filler zoas for color. I hope the Leopard survives. It was eating in the store and went into the sand. I guess we shall see.
 
You still have the bryopsis issues I had that a while back and Kent Tech M knocked it right out.
 
Last edited:
walnuts24 said:
What size return line are you running? I recently bought a 65 and it has a 1" overflow line and a 1/2" return. Does this seem right?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Sounds Like a CADlights tank. Mine was like that but I noticed I only needed to grind the hole 1mm wider and I could fit a 3/4 return bulk head...
 
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