Soulpatch's build thread (ongoing)
- Thread starter soulpatch
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soulpatch
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No final decision. If I got a good price for it to offset getting another tank I would do it though.
I would prefer to have another SC setup so as to match my main tank and the fact that it is already plumbed. I was looking at the 45 gallon tank which is $400. So if I could offset the price then giddy up.
Figure even if I got $350 someone is getting a steal since the skimmer and lights alone are worth well over that. Add in the media basket, heater, and whatever other goodies I add in on top of the tank and it is a steal.
Though I have yet to post it. I did however post up the skimmer and lights already though no bites on the lights.
The BAO stuff is incredible though. I am really impressed with the quality. That said I don't think I would want an acrylic tank.
The thought has crossed my mind, particularly after anyone has an example of catastrophic failure, but yeah, the maintenance is more difficult, and scratches are so easy to make and so hard to remove. That being said, at least you can remove them. I'm also nervous because somehow I've managed to scratch up the sides of my cube as it is...
Maybe that's the only benefit to going sandless/bare bottom in this hobby, can't scratch the glass with sand...
soulpatch
New member
The cube or new frag tank will be bare bottom (well save for a few pieces of marine pure thrown in just because) so I have less hassle. I thought about leaving the sand simply for the frag plugs to slide into but in the end it is not worth it. If I want a frag in the sandbed it can go in the large tank.
And yes I totally agree about the benefits of glass. I dont think I have any scratches on my cube though. The flipper cleaner has been on point.
And yes I totally agree about the benefits of glass. I dont think I have any scratches on my cube though. The flipper cleaner has been on point.
After reading a thread yesterday on why everyone in the large tank forum recommends going with a 300 instead of 220DD, now I'm daydreaming about what I'd do with a 300g tank... One day... one day....
I've only used the flipper... I think I got a grain of sand stuck under the flipper, and I do worry because it makes a terrifying scratching sound any time I move the blade end around. I wonder if it needs blades changed out frequently? Mine is probably a year old now, and a bit rusty, but not too bad. I should just take it out and play with it. I've even seen threads where people are sharpening up their scrapers with a file to do a better job at scraping coralline....
homer1475
New member
Same here, I only use the scraper side. I do take it out every time I use it, so it does not sit in my tank. No rust and they do make replacement blades, 10$ at BRS. Even though I take mine out and leave it out, it still sounds like it scratching the glass every time I use it, but it's not. With that said, I have quite a few big scratches right front and center of my tank from trying to clean corraline off with a scotchbrite pad. Never again will I use a scotchbrite pad on glass!
Think I read on here somewhere horror stories of scratching the hell out of a tank because a baby snail got stuck under the cleaning pad.
On a side note, hows your weather holding up? Heard your supposed to get a decent storm this weekend.
Think I read on here somewhere horror stories of scratching the hell out of a tank because a baby snail got stuck under the cleaning pad.
On a side note, hows your weather holding up? Heard your supposed to get a decent storm this weekend.
soulpatch
New member
supposed to get like 20 inches of snow or something. I am not really concerned since I have generators to use should we lose power. Otherwise it will just be a nice weekend in the house...
Electrician comes in 2 weeks so this storm is horrible timing in regards to me having everything set up. HA HA. No transfer switch for this weekend which will stink but whatever. I have space heaters and enough power cables to power a small city.
Electrician comes in 2 weeks so this storm is horrible timing in regards to me having everything set up. HA HA. No transfer switch for this weekend which will stink but whatever. I have space heaters and enough power cables to power a small city.
soulpatch
New member
Well we got 30+ inches of snow but never lost power which was good. The bad was digging out the 30+ inches of snow. Our HOA bobcats broke down and they just came back online last night so it was a long few days.
In all my snow battling I did not get around to changing my tank water and it is showing in some of my algae. I took my skimmer offline the other week to play around with high nutrient in the tank for my acans. I think I need it back online but not worth messing with it too much right now (I took it down and cleaned it expecting a fast sale...oops)
I did sell my ATO and have my new ATO in the other tank as I plan out where I want things and such. As such I let the water get low on me yesterday so my temp probe was partially out of the water which threw alarms. Fun times.
Will do a water change this week and a massive one at that. Hopefully this will be the last for this tank. I plan on booting up the QT tank and moving my corals and such into that while the big tank cycles. I will remove everything I can from the rock that I wish to keep, dip all corals in bayer to be safe, and then do a few peroxide dips over the course of the big tanks cycle. I dont want any of the trouble algaes to come over.
The cube will then have a HOB overflow put on (need to meet up with Cabo soon to buy his) and plumb it into the big tank plumbing. It will dump right into the refugium I guess. Still need to mess with planning some. Nonetheless the cube will become a great frag tank shortly.
In all my snow battling I did not get around to changing my tank water and it is showing in some of my algae. I took my skimmer offline the other week to play around with high nutrient in the tank for my acans. I think I need it back online but not worth messing with it too much right now (I took it down and cleaned it expecting a fast sale...oops)
I did sell my ATO and have my new ATO in the other tank as I plan out where I want things and such. As such I let the water get low on me yesterday so my temp probe was partially out of the water which threw alarms. Fun times.
Will do a water change this week and a massive one at that. Hopefully this will be the last for this tank. I plan on booting up the QT tank and moving my corals and such into that while the big tank cycles. I will remove everything I can from the rock that I wish to keep, dip all corals in bayer to be safe, and then do a few peroxide dips over the course of the big tanks cycle. I dont want any of the trouble algaes to come over.
The cube will then have a HOB overflow put on (need to meet up with Cabo soon to buy his) and plumb it into the big tank plumbing. It will dump right into the refugium I guess. Still need to mess with planning some. Nonetheless the cube will become a great frag tank shortly.
Glad everything made it, minus your back and arms. But hope you pull through 
This isn't your show tank any more, so if you get a little extra algae here or there, no big deal. You can always toss in some chaeto or dragon's breath algae or something just to keep most nutrients at bay.
I'm thinking that if/when I move to a bigger tank, my plan at this point is to break off all coral growth, dip them, and then put them in the new tank, and carry almost nothing over from the old tank, particularly without a quarantine time. I'm done with these friggin zoanthid rocks. I'll sell them locally and then make sure if/when I ever add zoanthids in the future, they're isolated and easily removed. Maybe I'll even get creative and drill those specific rocks so when the time comes to remove any SPS from them, I can just pull them out by the plug and sell off the rock.
Still watching the other thread too! Looking forward to seeing how the initial changeover goes. It's neat watching your build and my (sorta) neighbor's build come together, and I'm getting the opportunity to mentally start new tanks up and go through the motion, and learn from the planning and experiences.
This isn't your show tank any more, so if you get a little extra algae here or there, no big deal. You can always toss in some chaeto or dragon's breath algae or something just to keep most nutrients at bay.
I'm thinking that if/when I move to a bigger tank, my plan at this point is to break off all coral growth, dip them, and then put them in the new tank, and carry almost nothing over from the old tank, particularly without a quarantine time. I'm done with these friggin zoanthid rocks. I'll sell them locally and then make sure if/when I ever add zoanthids in the future, they're isolated and easily removed. Maybe I'll even get creative and drill those specific rocks so when the time comes to remove any SPS from them, I can just pull them out by the plug and sell off the rock.
Still watching the other thread too! Looking forward to seeing how the initial changeover goes. It's neat watching your build and my (sorta) neighbor's build come together, and I'm getting the opportunity to mentally start new tanks up and go through the motion, and learn from the planning and experiences.
soulpatch
New member
A lot of my newer corals I left on plugs and they have not outgrown them so I can swap plugs to new ones and dip to be safe. Some of my older acans might be an issue as they have grown but I will figure it out. I will cut out my utter chaos as well but I have some small rocks it can go on OR I leave it in the frag tank once it is set up again as a money grow out.
I am concerned about my ricordea though as it is a pain to get a fw of the pieces out. I might have to chalk them up as a loss. Anything I dont want to keep will be going to my LFS for him to cut whatever he wants from them to offset my fish purchase some. So he might get some awesome pieces of ric and such. I simply REFUSE to allow any of the rock to go into my new tank. It is not worth the risk to me of starting off on a bad foot.
I do have some dragons breath in my nano now. The PITA part is that it blew and decided to root on top of one of my acans and it is a strong bugger to pull and try to relocate.
I am concerned about my ricordea though as it is a pain to get a fw of the pieces out. I might have to chalk them up as a loss. Anything I dont want to keep will be going to my LFS for him to cut whatever he wants from them to offset my fish purchase some. So he might get some awesome pieces of ric and such. I simply REFUSE to allow any of the rock to go into my new tank. It is not worth the risk to me of starting off on a bad foot.
I do have some dragons breath in my nano now. The PITA part is that it blew and decided to root on top of one of my acans and it is a strong bugger to pull and try to relocate.
I'm with you on the new rock.
That's funny that it rooted. To this day, my dragon's breath hasn't rooted at all, in the year and a half I've had it. It basically just stays with part of it wrapped around a piece of live rock. Any time I pull on the main bunch, the entire thing comes out of the rock and floats around until I tuck it back in.
Who knows. At least you have it, and hopefully it's offsetting some of the nutrient destabilization going on.
soulpatch
New member
Like you said I dont really care at this point. I am taking the reactor offline and the skimmer has been down a week. I bought some chemipure and purigen to throw in the media rack in the mean time. I also have some marine pure in the tank to seed the QT when I move over.
All in all I see a very long weekend coming up soon in which I need to frag and take down a tank. I am off for President's day so the cube will probably come down at that time so I can change it out. I am still considering drilling it instead of a HOB overflow but honestly the HOB is probably the easiest route to go. The return I will bring over the rear lip and tap into the return plumbing already there.
All in all I see a very long weekend coming up soon in which I need to frag and take down a tank. I am off for President's day so the cube will probably come down at that time so I can change it out. I am still considering drilling it instead of a HOB overflow but honestly the HOB is probably the easiest route to go. The return I will bring over the rear lip and tap into the return plumbing already there.
soulpatch
New member
no nibbles on the cube on CL. So looks like she is staying. I will work on plumbing her in this week when I get the overflow in. I need to get my QT tank up and running so I can do the transfer and get things set up. I might FW dip the rock as I pull it out just to see what falls off. Curious to know what was in there in terms of worms and such. I will keep some of the rock going in the QT tank so it doesnt have to go through cycle or constant water changes. Mainly the rocks that my corals are attached to while I frag them off.
sad and excited at the same time as I have spent a ton of time on the biocube getting it looking awesome and I have let it go slightly the past 2 months or so as I ramp up other things. I have been having some algae resume as I have slacked on water changes and my skimmer/reactor are offline. So sad to see its current state but excited to know it will be an awesome frag tank here shortly.
sad and excited at the same time as I have spent a ton of time on the biocube getting it looking awesome and I have let it go slightly the past 2 months or so as I ramp up other things. I have been having some algae resume as I have slacked on water changes and my skimmer/reactor are offline. So sad to see its current state but excited to know it will be an awesome frag tank here shortly.
soulpatch
New member
Woot skimmer sold so now have the light sitting out there waiting to be picked up eventually.
Money from the skimmer will go towards CUC and fish purchases. I cant think of any toys I need right now that the money would go towards save for the leak detectors for the Apex or a webcam so I can watch the tank from anywhere.
I have the overflow from Cabo so will be installing that sometime this weekend after I get time to take down the cube. Should be a straight forward move of the rock and corals into my QT tank which should instantly cycle it. The base rock and sand will be removed and the tank cleaned with RODI and vinegar. I can salvage the reactor and return pumps for other items (like my mixing tanks).
Money from the skimmer will go towards CUC and fish purchases. I cant think of any toys I need right now that the money would go towards save for the leak detectors for the Apex or a webcam so I can watch the tank from anywhere.
I have the overflow from Cabo so will be installing that sometime this weekend after I get time to take down the cube. Should be a straight forward move of the rock and corals into my QT tank which should instantly cycle it. The base rock and sand will be removed and the tank cleaned with RODI and vinegar. I can salvage the reactor and return pumps for other items (like my mixing tanks).
Have you considered removing the back-wall partition out of the biocube and maybe making your own overflow (or ghost overflow or something) out of plastic/acrylic, and then having more space in the tank? It just occurred to me, but why not if you're going to be running separate plumbing and everything anyway, and have no equipment to hide otherwise.
soulpatch
New member
I have the hob overflow from Cabo and dont really want to drill if I dont have to as it adds time and cost for limited gain over the HOB.
I have though about removing everything in the rear though and might do it when I take a look but I like the idea of being able to sell it OR return it to its use shoudl I want to move it somewhere else in the house.
In reality I don't need a ton of room in the tank as it will merely be for frags. I can't see it being overly stocked in the near future once the kitchen remodel starts...
I have though about removing everything in the rear though and might do it when I take a look but I like the idea of being able to sell it OR return it to its use shoudl I want to move it somewhere else in the house.
In reality I don't need a ton of room in the tank as it will merely be for frags. I can't see it being overly stocked in the near future once the kitchen remodel starts...
Don't know why I forgot about the overflow.... Still, false wall could go, or not. I think they're just siliconed in, so as long as you dont demo it in the process of removing it, you could always add it back later. I guess the chamber partitions would be tough, but you could leave everything intact and just cut away silicone that touches the glass walls and bottom.
Dunno, I'm sure you've thought it all out already.
Dunno, I'm sure you've thought it all out already.
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