James's 60 Gallon Cube Reef

[daplatapus]

The little grape looking things on the vine is Grape Caulerpa. It can be invasive and a bear to remove once established. The little roots get into your rock.

GFO - Granular Ferric Oxide - Used to remove phosphate from your water. Usually used in a reactor and changed out ever month or so. Some use it in a sock and allow water to passively flow through it in their sumps. If you have algae in your tank, you've probably got phosphates. But you don't want to strip it all as corals and things in your tank need it to some extent. It's finding that balance that's tricky.

Carbon - again either used in a reactor or sock in your sump. Used to remove harmful toxin's released by corals etc when they get stressed. Also good at removing some chemicals. I don't think people run carbon all the time, I don't, just when something goes wrong and you're trying to maintain water quality till things settle down.

That's a VERY brief, general answer. Lot's of reading can be done on both.

[sewerman45]

That's all really helpful. Thanks for the heads up about the Grape Caulerpa. I've started manually removing it. We'll see how it turns out.

I am going to read more on the rest. Thanks for the tips.

Originally Posted by daplatapus

The little grape looking things on the vine is Grape Caulerpa. It can be invasive and a bear to remove once established. The little roots get into your rock.

GFO - Granular Ferric Oxide - Used to remove phosphate from your water. Usually used in a reactor and changed out ever month or so. Some use it in a sock and allow water to passively flow through it in their sumps. If you have algae in your tank, you've probably got phosphates. But you don't want to strip it all as corals and things in your tank need it to some extent. It's finding that balance that's tricky.

Carbon - again either used in a reactor or sock in your sump. Used to remove harmful toxin's released by corals etc when they get stressed. Also good at removing some chemicals. I don't think people run carbon all the time, I don't, just when something goes wrong and you're trying to maintain water quality till things settle down.

That's a VERY brief, general answer. Lot's of reading can be done on both.

[sewerman45]

I did a bit of a rescape yesterday. I stacked the rocks higher and opened up the cave underneath as well as shifted everything farther back. I also switched the positions of the zoas and the acans. I wanted to make room for some people eaters that I got at the swap and put the acans in a better position.

Let me know what you think. Is it too symmetrical?




I also want to add some more fish to the tank. Here is the current stock:
- Ocellaris Clownfish
- Six Line Wrasse
- Lawnmower Blenny
- Royal Gramma
- Blue Damsel

Some of the things I was thinking of adding are: Firefish, Coral Beauty, Goby of some kind, or Chromis. Anyone have any good ideas? There's a lot of room in the tank and I would like at least a few more fish.

Any cool invertebrates ideas as well? I have a fighting conch and a cleaner shrimp. Thanks!

[jhj0112]

I love the rockscape.. your tank is also very clean very nice!!
dwarf angel can be risky (coral nipping).. I know many people (including me) have kept dwarf angels with corals though.

Mine (pygmy angel) nip on SPS but leave LPSs alone.. i think every fish is different..

have you heard Vanderbuilt chromis?? they are awesome chromis.. I had them in my frag tank.. they look awesome..
you can also try goby/shrimp pair.. they are really fun to watch BUT I would not recommend it if you plane to keep corals on the sand bed because they constantly dig/shift sand..

[Skimmer Juice]

the six line wrasse might bother the firefish , IMO . Might not though . Firefish also like to jump so those 2 combos I would avoid . Even if the fish is not attacking it could still chase it a cause the firefish to jump.
A yellow boxfish (easiest box to keep) could make a cool addition .

[sewerman45]

Thanks for the kind words.

Those Vanderbuilt Chromis look amazing. That's exactly what I want. Any idea where I could get them? Or does anyone else know where I could get some? I definitely want to get my hands on a few of those.

Originally Posted by jhj0112

I love the rockscape.. your tank is also very clean very nice!!
dwarf angel can be risky (coral nipping).. I know many people (including me) have kept dwarf angels with corals though.

Mine (pygmy angel) nip on SPS but leave LPSs alone.. i think every fish is different..

have you heard Vanderbuilt chromis?? they are awesome chromis.. I had them in my frag tank.. they look awesome..
you can also try goby/shrimp pair.. they are really fun to watch BUT I would not recommend it if you plane to keep corals on the sand bed because they constantly dig/shift sand..

I keep a lid on my tank so it wouldn't be able to jump. I wouldn't want the firefish to be stressed though. I'll look into the boxfish. Thanks for the recommendation.

Originally Posted by Skimmer Juice

the six line wrasse might bother the firefish , IMO . Might not though . Firefish also like to jump so those 2 combos I would avoid . Even if the fish is not attacking it could still chase it a cause the firefish to jump.
A yellow boxfish (easiest box to keep) could make a cool addition .

[sewerman45]

It's been a while now so I figured I'd put up some updated pictures and details.




This is what it looks like right now. I added the gorg in the front as well as a little SPS frag in the middle. I've rearranged it a bit. I added the mp40 for some more flow and I will move the mp10 over to the little tank once I get it rolling. Also the Flame Angel is new.





Somehow the stars aligned and both the cat and the dog both ended up in this picture. I didn't even see the cat there till after. The tank on the left is my summer project. It's going to be a bonsai looking tree euphyllia tank. I am going to add it to the system. I am going to start a journal for it pretty quick.





Here's what the guts are looking like these days. I added a couple of reactors: the biopellet reactor next to the skimmer which I love and a regular reactor above the fuge which I do not like. I have GFO and carbon in the regular reactor and it makes me crazy how fast it gets clogged up. I've stripped it down to the point where there isn't much holding everything in place and it still gets down to a trickle inside of a week.

I had a pretty bad cyano outbreak after starting GFO but I hear that's pretty typical and it's just about gone. I also had some brown and hair algae that was everywhere but that is also almost all gone. Everything else is humming along. I'm not seeing a lot of growth in any of my SPS yet but the tank isn't super old and I am still working on getting my parameters dialed in.

Let me know if you have any questions or pointers based on what you see. Thanks for looking.