24 Cube SPS reef tank build

[Project]

See you at 1 yr update. Lol

 

[NoohpyT]

never seen someone use AI Primes like that lol, very unique

 

[bakbay]

Very nice build - I love cubes! Also, very cool & interesting way to have a full-body sauna lighting effect.

 

[Northern Flicker]

Sweet build, well done.

 

[Project]

12 month update:

Tank was initially started on July 9th 2022 with dry rock and dry sand. The tank had 1 upgrade from 15G to 24G (Sep 30th 2022), and one transfer to new home. (March 6th 2023).


Changes:
-I am running both skimmer and the filter roller on 12hr/12hr cycle due to its effectiveness.
-Still dosing nitrate and phosphate time to time.

Specs:
-Tank: 24 Gal aqua top reef tank + 7Gal sump
-Light: AI Hydra 26HD and 2 AI Prime 16HD
-Flow: 3 AI Nero 3 on random,
-Filtration: Roller Mat 500, Miracle Mud, Sphere Media, Tunze DC9001 skimmer
-Misc: Neptune Apex (Old 2nd edition), Bubble Magus BM-01 doser (ESV-b) , IM Hydrofill , Hygger titanium heater on controller
, Hygger 915 dc return pump, automatic dosing of kalk mixture via litermeter3 dosing pump

Tank Parameters:
Salinity: 1.023 (Milwaukee reflectometer) - Idk why but it is down. (I didn’t test for like a month). Bringing it up slowly atm.
pH: 8.5- 7.9 (Apex controller). Have 2 pH probe focusing on the patterns more than of the number it self. But I know I should keep it stable.
Alkalinity: 9.0-9.3 dkH - Went up about 0.5-.07 dkH from last month due to concentration of kalk
Calcium: 385 ppm -Tested once (redsea)
Magnesium: 1400ppm -rarely tested (redsea & aqua forest). Currently not sure. Didn’t test
-Nitrate: 11.5ppm-3.5ppm. tested weekly now (Hanna & redsea) Now that the tank is 1 yrs old, I just eye ball it. Above number are showed from random testing. And I made adjustment accordingly. Tested like 4 time this month
-Phosphate: 0.06- 0.01. Also randomly tested. And add whenever I feel like with out testing. Above number are from random test.

Start up 15Gal AIO (July 9 2022)

First sets of corals Added ( Sep 1st 2022) 10 frags. 8 survived

Upgrade: Sept 30, 2022

It’s Ugly stages: Oct -Dec 2022. About 3 month. After the diatom brown/green hair algae. I beat it with flux tab.
Oct 18th 2022

Feb 4th 2023

Tank move: March 9th 2023

2nd set of SPS added March 31st 2023 (9 frags)

July 9th 2023

July 9th 2023

 

[Gumbies R Us]

12 month update:

Tank was initially started on July 9th 2022 with dry rock and dry sand. The tank had 1 upgrade from 15G to 24G (Sep 30th 2022), and one transfer to new home. (March 6th 2023).


Changes:
-I am running both skimmer and the filter roller on 12hr/12hr cycle due to its effectiveness.
-Still dosing nitrate and phosphate time to time.

Specs:
-Tank: 24 Gal aqua top reef tank + 7Gal sump
-Light: AI Hydra 26HD and 2 AI Prime 16HD
-Flow: 3 AI Nero 3 on random,
-Filtration: Roller Mat 500, Miracle Mud, Sphere Media, Tunze DC9001 skimmer
-Misc: Neptune Apex (Old 2nd edition), Bubble Magus BM-01 doser (ESV-b) , IM Hydrofill , Hygger titanium heater on controller
, Hygger 915 dc return pump, automatic dosing of kalk mixture via litermeter3 dosing pump

Tank Parameters:
Salinity: 1.023 (Milwaukee reflectometer) - Idk why but it is down. (I didn’t test for like a month). Bringing it up slowly atm.
pH: 8.5- 7.9 (Apex controller). Have 2 pH probe focusing on the patterns more than of the number it self. But I know I should keep it stable.
Alkalinity: 9.0-9.3 dkH - Went up about 0.5-.07 dkH from last month due to concentration of kalk
Calcium: 385 ppm -Tested once (redsea)
Magnesium: 1400ppm -rarely tested (redsea & aqua forest). Currently not sure. Didn’t test
-Nitrate: 11.5ppm-3.5ppm. tested weekly now (Hanna & redsea) Now that the tank is 1 yrs old, I just eye ball it. Above number are showed from random testing. And I made adjustment accordingly. Tested like 4 time this month
-Phosphate: 0.06- 0.01. Also randomly tested. And add whenever I feel like with out testing. Above number are from random test.

Start up 15Gal AIO (July 9 2022)

First sets of corals Added ( Sep 1st 2022) 10 frags. 8 survived

Upgrade: Sept 30, 2022

It’s Ugly stages: Oct -Dec 2022. About 3 month. After the diatom brown/green hair algae. I beat it with flux tab.
Oct 18th 2022

Feb 4th 2023

Tank move: March 9th 2023

2nd set of SPS added March 31st 2023 (9 frags)

July 9th 2023

July 9th 2023

Tank is doing really well!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Nice!

 

[rennjidk]

Is that scape really just the carribsea nano tree kit with 3 rocks or did you add to it? It looks like maybe some smaller rocks in the back? It looks amazing in that light.

 

[Project]

Tank is doing really well!

Thank you~. I had two fishes death so far. Cleaners wrasse and hector’s goby. I plan on adding mesh top eventually.

 

[Project]

Is that scape really just the carribsea nano tree kit with 3 rocks or did you add to it? It looks like maybe some smaller rocks in the back? It looks amazing in that light.

You are collect. It had base unit and two arche unit. And I’ve added two smaller base to the back. I really like their rock shapes. I’ve added two larger arch pieces (same type), when I upgraded to 24. Still using same rocks except the base unit with rod. Ive saved it for future use and one in sump.

 

[rennjidk]

You are collect. It had base unit and two arche unit. And I’ve added two smaller base to the back. I really like their rock shapes. I’ve added two larger arch pieces (same type), when I upgraded to 24. Still using same rocks except the base unit with rod. Ive saved it for future use and one in sump.

I was a little worried, because I wanted to emulate the scape in my 18" cube, but they have multiple different sized arches and tree kits, as well as expansions. Some of the nano tree kits have fist sized rocks, which would be way too small.

 

[Project]

I was a little worried, because I wanted to emulate the scape in my 18" cube, but they have multiple different sized arches and tree kits, as well as expansions. Some of the nano tree kits have fist sized rocks, which would be way too small.

That's same size as with my tank!!! I really like the caribsea liverock (granted its dead), it looks very natural. I will never ever use marco type rocks. Ones I currently have are two "half-dome" shape arches that are about 14" wide or so i think. It is flipped outwardly to create more space for coral placement as you can see. Back side of the rock is very shallow (because its half dome shape). Lots of spaces for shrimps and fishes to swim around in the back alley. These rocks are now being covered in coralline. I definitely suggest these rocks to anyone.

 

[kevgib67]

Wow, well done!

 

[rennjidk]

That's same size as with my tank!!! I really like the caribsea liverock (granted its dead), it looks very natural. I will never ever use marco type rocks. Ones I currently have are two "half-dome" shape arches that are about 14" wide or so i think. It is flipped outwardly to create more space for coral placement as you can see. Back side of the rock is very shallow (because its half dome shape). Lots of spaces for shrimps and fishes to swim around in the back alley. These rocks are now being covered in coralline. I definitely suggest these rocks to anyone.

How has your flow been? Are you liking the 3 neros or would you have preferred a vertical gyre?

 

[Project]

How has your flow been? Are you liking the 3 neros or would you have preferred a vertical gyre?

I love 3 Nero’s. But! If i didn’t have internal overflow box, I would have used mixture of 2x Nero with 1x gyre pump or other way around depends on your liking. I just like the fact that Nero can be pointed upward for better air exchange and randomized flows.

*It’s really hard to create really good flow in small nano tanks. Granted Nero3 max out at 2000gph, it will never reach that force due to our tank sizes.*. Gyre pump may work better if your footprint allows it. I like how easy Nero pump is for cleaning than of gyre.*

 

[Project]

15 month update:
Last two month has been very challenging for this Nano tank. I made way too many changes too fast that shocked the tank and still recovering from many mistakes.

Changes:
-I’ve been having lots of STN and few RTN for the past 2month. One by one they started loosing tissues from the bottom. Started around August 25th. One coral will die and the one next to it will start to STN and on. I maybe still battling it but I feel like initial damage is now finished and Do see the improvement over all. None of LPS’s were lost or stressed. -.-

-I do have cyano bacteria on some parts of the tank. Manly in the dead SPS skeletons but I don’t feel like pulling them out. I’m just going to leave it as it is. I am trying to keep elevated nutrients. Which been a issue from the start. Rollermat was on/off 12hrs but I now have automatic roller turned off and stays on 24hrs. My issue was low nitrate.

-I started culturing Nanno phyto, tisbe Pods, and tigger pods for mandarin goby and to seed the tank in general. I crashed Tetra phyto (twice) which is harder to culture than expected.

-Tigger pod on left and tisbe on the right (tisbe pod has been split once). Will split by weekly for these.

-Phytoplankton culture (One on the left is crashed Nanno) -.-;

CAUSE:
#1. Too High Alk over month period. Which I didn’t adjust and the damage was done. I was dosing of Kalkwasser on Automatic doser at the full strength which doses every 9 minutes. I did change back to 1/2 strength and lowered dosing amount. It’s common sense to lower the alk dosing when corals are dying but it was later on when I realized to do this.

#2 I stop doing water change at 1yr mark. I was under impression that my tank was pretty stabilized granted I started with Dry rock and dry sand. The way they STN looks as it was bacteria infection but just speculation. But I know I’m still having an issue with stabilizing my import and export of nutrients. I am restarted weekly water change 3 weeks ago.

-I did ICP MS test. Iodine is elevated because I was treating with it. I don’t know how to read the chart and don’t really pay much attention since it’s not accurate. Sample was sent in after two month of no water changes

#3. Wrong Spectrum/Par. I’ve changed the LED positions after doing par testing around Aug 25th. Biggest problem was from not using uniformazed spectrum for 3 LED’s. I think I have too much UV light as well. Lost all the fluorescent colors over time and still missing lots of colors but recovering. I do believe few corals died from this issue.

-Last photo of tank before having an issue Aug 25th

-Corals that are lost. They went one by one slowly.

-Now dosing via doser to keep stable Nitrate and Phosphate. As well as 2pt.

- This morning

-This morning

-I plan to leave the tank alone and just do water changes weekly. Nothing has entered or leave the tank since 1yrs mark.

 

[kevgib67]

Looking great, even one loss is tough. Glad things are bouncing back.

 

[basshead808]

Great tank!

 

[jackson6745]

Sorry for your problems. Part of the sps game as you know. You'll learn from it and the tank will be better than ever. Keep it up!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Glad to see your coming back strong even after the loss!