Scotty's 28 cubed

Owen is literally 20 mins from me. I'm moving back home and tehy are on well water, and my folks have a unit and a HUGE like 30 gallon storage for ro. Its not di but won't have the phosphates I guarantee. The hair algae started up, but my cuc is staying on top of it.
 


not a reef, but my 36 corner with 6 now very large angels. got the first mated pair, and they have to get moved soon, their getting really bad hitting each other.
 
added a frag list to my first post. something im trying, if it gets crazy ill stop doing it, but if people are going to be this generous i will be too.

thanks scarlett
 
update.

so i was up at 4am (can't sleep lots going on IRL), and my lights popped on on the tank! upon investigation, i noticed my timer (cheapo target 2 dolla one) has the push down buttons for on and off, and 4-5 am were pushed down, when i have the tank lighting up at 9am-9pm!!!!!

since then, the crazy amount of algae growth has gone down considerably, but i think im starving out my mythrax crab now cause my paly frag i got from puffer is gone. sadface.
 
this tank is getting torn down. i know sad, sad, but with a kid coming, I've decided to downsize from this to a 20 long, makes it easier, and because im already looking at upgrading products for the cube, i can downsize into the 20long with what i have already, and do my LED rig on it easier because it is that much more shallow.

the cube look is so much cooler, but lights are limited by the 20" length, and forget about finding a sump plan worth anything for a cube.

the move is going to make it easier, i can just tear down and put in the new tank easier than a tear down, re-build of the cube.

I'm going to turn the cube into a freshwater angel tank, i need to separate some mated pairs beating on my non mated angels.
 
let me know if you want to drill your 20 long, i have the glass cutting drills and can do it for ya.
 
Good Read

scotty said:
Protein Skimmers Do You Really Need One?
By Tony Griffitts

Protein skimmers have been around a long time and within the last decade or so, manufacturers have made great improvements in their efficiency. A good protein skimmer can cost several hundred dollars with a pump. Today there are a growing number of reef keepers that are very successful running their reef tanks without one. We need to question why these tanks are doing so well.

I have run many marine fish only and reef aquariums with and without protein skimmers for many years. To this day I can not say that there is a noticeable benefit running a protein skimmer. I ran a protein skimmer for many years on a fish only system and then I took it off the system. The system was ran for years without a protein skimmer and there was no noticeable affect on fish health. I have also set up many reef systems without protein skimmers, and had excellent results with small polyp stony (SPS) corals growing very well, and several species of marine fish spawning. Some reef system setups had undetectable nitrate levels after being set up for years.

Why are these systems doing so well? In reef systems, you only need to look at the macro and mirco-creature inhabitants. Many of these creatures are filter feeders that process the same proteins that protein skimmers remove from the system. When a deep sand bed (DSB) is used in the system it can be heavily colonized by these filter feeders that help with water exchange through the sand bed. The slow exchange of water through the sand bed in turn helps greatly with natural nitrate reduction (NNR). This can help explain why some reef tanks without protein skimmers have undetectable nitrate readings. When you run a protein skimmer on a reef tank you are essentially removing a food source for these creatures, there by effecting the population the system can support. Many marine hobbyist that set up their system from the beginning with protein skimmers often notice a substantial decrease in the amount of foam they collect after the system has been set up for several months. Many of them begin to think that their protein skimmer is not working as well anymore, even though the flow rate and bubble production looks the same. This can be attributed to the fact that filter feeders have started to heavily colonize the system and are now competing with the protein skimmer for proteins.

Filter feeders that live in a deep sand bed take up proteins as a food source, and as an added benefit they help with natural nitrate reduction.
In systems where there is no DSB or fish and/or invertebrates that would feed upon the filter feeders that live in the sand bed, a protein skimmer will probably have some benefit on water quality, as far as oxygen caring capacity and nitrate/phosphate accumulation. These benefits can also be realized with large regular water changes.

Protein skimmers on live rock curing tanks are still a great benefit, as the process of curing live rock kills many filter feeding organisms. When there are no filter feeding organisms the best way to remove proteins is with a protein skimmer.

The theory behind running a protein skimmer on a marine aquarium sounds good, but in reality its impact on well established marine aquarium appears to be minimal. Real independent research needs to be done to validate the value of running a protein skimmer on a marine system. With all the examples of marine aquariums that are doing exceptionally well without protein skimmers, I am finding it harder and harder to justify the expense for all marine aquariums.
Click to expand...
 
Ill be sure to take tons of pictures. now's the perfect time to get something built with the tank getting moved to the new place (parents basement), on well water, with ro/di in the basement to get rid of sulfur smell!! talk about getting some taps on that:amen:

some of the best, dynamic, wow factor aquascapes ive seen on nano-reefs have been 20 longs. I'm excited, and if anyone wants to exchange some live rock for some boulder/base rock, i would be interested in that.

thanks john, that wasn't the only thing that made me shy away from skimmers in nanos, but helped, especially because i have 0 interest in SPS.
 
so, i know i said I'm moving to the 20L, but since i had to get the tanks over to the house quicker than i could build a setup, i just stuck with the cube for now.

honestly i did some drastic rock moving, and it looks amazing, i only need 3 more places for smaller rocks, and im thinking of just making that a ric garden up front. Pics tommrow or day after when the sand settles down.
 
so you know what that means....@)(#)(*$*U&%(*$%

2 tanks! i said it, making it another reef, but more on the gradual side, probably gonna take close to 6 months to buy everything I'm gonna do with this tank.
 
made a trip to Trop Quatics and came home with some goodies!

IMG_20110512_200620.jpg


IMG_20110512_200606.jpg


again, photogenic philip has to be in the picture.... after he tore into my hand getting the rock out of the tank.
 
I killed about a dozen glasses aka pests aka aptasia aka making score marks on my poor duncan. My weapon of choice, joes juice. None of them blew up into the water so hopefully I killed them outright. Scotty 1, aptasia 0.
 
so uhhh this tank is going to be sold, because a 'lil dollar gallon sale happened, and i am now an owner of a 40 breeder! this transfer is going to take some time, but for the most part I went far above in filtration and flow in my cube, and minus the light i can get everything moved over from this tank to the 40.

so this tank is going to be replaced by:

40 breeder.
20long sump.
20long fuge.
custom stand
t5 lighting (fishneedit)
skimmer

so no more posts here, I will be documenting my new tank in a new thread thanks for the comments! hopefully many more to come in the new tank!

now to catch that **** strawberry basslet........
 
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