afboundguy's 25'ish cube build from 2011

afboundguy · Monday at 7:59 PM

I also upgraded my phytoplankton cultures thanks to the amazing help from @ReefLegends and I have 7 cultures going now and for the most part enjoying all the strands!

Also redid the stand and organized the BBS hatcheries and copepod cultures...

afboundguy · Monday at 8:02 PM

I also redid the air pumps as the two large air pumps were a little loud so I bought 320 feet worth of airline tubing to relocate them to further away so the noise is significantly lower and more enjoyable...

afboundguy · Monday at 8:05 PM

I also received a free Sapphire 34 sump that was cracked by a fellow local reef club member and I patched

I purchased a Theiling roller mat that I plan to plumb in when I upgrade so I had to modify the first section to fit it...

it up and it's all fixed.

afboundguy · Monday at 8:06 PM

Used a Dremel to remove the sections...

And she fits! I night raise it slightly but we'll see once I plumb everything in after the Holidays.

afboundguy · Monday at 8:18 PM

I also started dosing Aquaforest 3 part/balling method as well as set up an automatic phytoplankton dosing. I am dosing 10 ml of the 3 part spread out over the whole day and it seems to be keeping everything in check. I also am dosing 75 ml of a mix of all of the phytoplankton strands into the return section while also at the same time taking out 75 ml from the skimmer section 3 times a day to keep salinity the same as I noticed it kept creeping up when I was dosing phytoplankton by hand. I am dosing that much as I have several NPS corals, gorgonions, a clam and several scallops and also want my copepods to have plenty to eat in the sump to keep the mandarin well fed!

It's not the prettiest set up right now as I didn't want to waste time and efforts since I will be upgrading the sump. I now have some magnetic stir plates under all three bottles of the 3 part as well as the phytoplankton. I have them running 24/7 on the lowest setting. I plan to hook up the 3 part stirrers to the Reefkeeper system to have them turn on throughout the day and not have them run 24/7. I have found that having the phytoplankton running 24/7 helps with it spoiling. I do plan to try and get one of those 6 can desk top super mini fridges and see if I can fit it all in there to keep it colder to help it last even longer.

Here's a quick video of the whole setup

afboundguy · Monday at 8:24 PM

I had set up a 10 gallon tank on top of the shelves that have the phytoplankton, BBS and copepod cultures as I wanted to try and raise a batch of clownfish but I tried a 3D printed setup and a Vossen larvae trap and couldn't catch any of them so I pivoted and decided I wanted to do a display refugium and possibly have dwarf seahorses in there as well.

I purchased a small Eshopps Eclipse overflow kit and had planned on drilling a 10 gallon tank but I found a "6.8" gallon AIO tank that holds water that I got for free that was a Petco tank sold as a freshwater kit that I like much better.

afboundguy · Monday at 8:28 PM

I plan to plumb it into the setup when I upgrade the sump and I drilled it today. I was on the fence about if I wanted to remove the AIO part but after I had to remove some of the AIO baffles to drill it and saw how bad it looked I decided to keep it. I also saw that the slits were much smaller so if I do go with dwarf seahorses it would be harder for them to get sucked in. I didn't even check if it was tempered glass or not, which I probably should have, but it was a free tank! Well I successfully drilled my first tank! I used a 1/2" piece of wood as a guide to help keep the drill in the same spot and it worked well.

I put the Eshopps overflow in but I might replace it with just a bulkhead and keep the external box to keep the inside overflow section for another project possibly but we'll see.

afboundguy · Monday at 8:34 PM

Of course all this re-plumbing and sump upgrade will be on hold as the biggest plan is to build a custom stand/desk combination out of 3030 aluminum extrusion! I plan to make it so any future tank upgrades would be seamless! I used tinkercad to make a half scaled design to figure out what sizes and how much I would need. Plan would be to have the phytoplankton on the right side on shelves as sort of a display of some sort and then do a floating shelve with the now "6.8" gallon tank and plumb it in. Here are the super rough designs I did and just planning on waiting to see how much Holiday money I get for gifts which will have a direct impact on how fast I can get all the pieces.

I like the idea of using aluminum extrusion as it allows for flexibility and customization and I plan to possibly add a custom phytoplankton drying rack underneath with an airpump to dry out the jars after I spray them with rubbing alcohol and also add a custom shelve to put the phytoplankton and 3 part jars as well.

Tahoe61 · Monday at 9:34 PM

Well, what a journey! You are a mad scientist, and I mean that in the nicest way.
So the cultures are for possible dwarf sea horses, possible clown fry, mandarins wow.

afboundguy · 2024-12-24T07:13:33-0500

Tahoe61 said:
Well, what a journey! You are a mad scientist, and I mean that in the nicest way.
So the cultures are for possible dwarf sea horses, possible clown fry, mandarins wow.

Thanks! In my old 25 gallon tank that was up and running I had copepod, BBS and phyto cultures to be able to keep a mandarin in a smaller tank than advised and I did and kept them fat and healthy it was the adulting that got in the way and then the tank crashed.

With this setup it's even easier as I have a sump and I have organized everything that makes it easier to upkeep and hopefully with the new stand/desk combination it will make it even easier and more organized! With the phyto, BBS and copepods it is to ensure that the mandarin has plenty of food. It still eats frozen and pellet as it's a @Biota_Marine CB mandarin. I am hoping to add a female in the future so it would be a tank full of 3 happy couples! I dose the phyto daily (now automated which is super nice) and seed the tank with the copepods 1-2 times a week and feed BBS multiple times daily.

Plan is to do the display refugium and let it setup/grow for a while before introducing dwarf seahorses. The dwarfs hit multiple desires on my reefing list as I have had seahorses before and they were awesome and they breed easily which would fulfil my desire to try and raise a batch of fish. I will still have the current 10 gallon DIY AIO if for some miracle the dottybacks get a clutch of eggs and I can capture those or by some divine miracle the eventual pair of mandarins breed!

By the way this is the mad scientist fun you speak of. Cleaning all the jars and supplies with rubbing alcohol and airing them out and then using pool bleach and then a dechlorinating tablet to sterilize the SW before splitting the cultures!

Tahoe61 · 2024-12-24T09:05:31-0500

I love that you have a vision for your tank. Tinkering is so rewarding.

afboundguy · 2024-12-24T21:52:48-0500

Tahoe61 said:
I love that you have a vision for your tank. Tinkering is so rewarding.

My vision has caused so many sleepless nights not being able to sleep because I keep changing things. Sprinkle in the issues it's caused with the wife and it's not so rewarding all the time