Planeden Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Looks very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Fish Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Looks very nice. Thanks. I also caught the tangs lined up for the cleaner shrimp tonight. I have never seen fish groomed so willingly by a cleaner. It is crazy they had been together less than 8 hours at this point. The symbiotic relationships in this hobby fascinate me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 I haven't had a chance to finish up the cabling yet, got busy over the weekend with work. I am a broadcast engineer and all I can say is Go Spurs Go! I was looking at the tank last night and noticed I was getting a huge glare from the Radion. So, I cut off the flaps of a cardboard box and used it to mock up a shade for the Radion. I think it came out very nice. Far Shot Close Up I poked around the internet a bit to see if I could get an idea of what to build this thing out of permanently but came up with nothing. Any ideas? It is just cardboard taped together and spray painted black now. I cut a channel in the side for the power cord to go through and slipped it over the fixture. I am also a little concerned about heat. I was thinking of cutting some vents into the sides of the shade. I have let it run about an hour and the fan is still blowing cool air. I can't tell a temperature difference with the shade on or off. Anyone care to weigh in on if this will be an issue or not? I have also added a clean up crew (used the live aquaria box flaps to make the shade) and a Naso Tang. More on those later and the cabling. Oh! I had this same idea about cardboard for my lights. The glare is awful unless you're standing up, and usually we are sitting at the dining table unless our faces are pressed against the glass (which they often are lol). Your shade came out looking great! I think I will go ahead and craft one. Mine will probably look silly but oh well. I don't think cardboard would make a difference unless its blocking an in take fan. Your tank is looking great! Makes me jealous. I want more oceanic rock for mine and less ugly landscaping rock. I love the video with the cleaner shrimp. I was amazed the first time I dropped mine in and my coral beauty made a bee-line for it, and was being cleaned within seconds of introduction! Is it okay to have so many tangs in a 90 gallon? I have a 90 gallon too, and I've thought about a powder blue tang. Right now I have a mimic and a purple tang. If you add all the fish in your list it seems highly stocked to me, but I'm new at this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Fish Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Thanks. Once I spray painted the cardboard black, it looked so good I am in no rush to replace it. I haven't noticed any cooling problems yet, we'll see. The fan on the Radion is on the bottom of the fixture and points down towards the tank. It is a strange design. I have been very happy with the dry rock I got from Bulk Reef Supply. It is relatively inexpensive at about 2.50 a lb. I seeded it with some good sized established pieces and it took off. I really didn't want to spend several hundred dollars on rock. I was reading your build thread and thought the landscaping rock was great way to save some money. I am by no means a stocking expert, and one of the reasons I posted my plans was to get some feedback on if it was too heavy or not. I have gone over my plans with folks at a couple of the local fish stores, and they think it will be fine. The Hippo and Naso could very likely outgrow this tank. If they do I will either upgrade with them (excuses, excuses) or rehome them. The Yellow Tang should be good for life. I expected to see fish everywhere once I got the Biocube stuff moved over but that hasn't happened. The Biocube livestock, minus the eibli, all stay within inches of each other, like they are still in the smaller tank. It is bizarre. The 90 gallon livestock participates in this now so often I find all the fish in the tank swimming in the same 18" cube, about a 1/3 of the tank. I don't think I will get anymore firefish. I will at least wait to see if the livestock spreads out a little. My skimmer is also overrated for this system. It is keeping up no problem. I am running carbon and gfo in a reactor as well. I think the reactor has made a huge difference. The diatom bloom that this tank had compared to my Biocube was nothing, and I used all liverock and live sand when I setup the Biocube. All that to say, I have no clue if it is too heavily stocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Fish Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 I got some good shots of the tank last night. Top View Left Side - You can really get a sense for how much lower the rock on the left side is compared to the right. Right Side - I intentionally left a void in the back of the tank for maintenance. I didn't do this in the first version of the Biocube and it made retrieving lost frags a pain. There should be plenty of room for me to stick my hand back there. I also added a big ole ball of Chaeto to my sump last night. After seeing mrshall1027's sump again, I am considering building my own. I am happy with the Fishy Business sump but something a little wider would be real nice... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Nice aquascaping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 I haven't had a chance to finish up the cabling yet, got busy over the weekend with work. I am a broadcast engineer and all I can say is Go Spurs Go! I was looking at the tank last night and noticed I was getting a huge glare from the Radion. So, I cut off the flaps of a cardboard box and used it to mock up a shade for the Radion. I think it came out very nice. Far Shot Close Up I poked around the internet a bit to see if I could get an idea of what to build this thing out of permanently but came up with nothing. Any ideas? It is just cardboard taped together and spray painted black now. I cut a channel in the side for the power cord to go through and slipped it over the fixture. I am also a little concerned about heat. I was thinking of cutting some vents into the sides of the shade. I have let it run about an hour and the fan is still blowing cool air. I can't tell a temperature difference with the shade on or off. Anyone care to weigh in on if this will be an issue or not? I have also added a clean up crew (used the live aquaria box flaps to make the shade) and a Naso Tang. More on those later and the cabling. Dang that is such an awesome faux canopy. Not being sarcastic. I think alot of us deal with the same light spill issue. Most lights aren't designed to sit directly on the tank for a number of reasons. My T5's were on their supplied "feet" which have them 3" above the tank rim. Sitting down on the couch or trying to watch tv is a nightmare. The lights are blinding from anywhere in the room and the glare on the tv is offensive. I took the legs off and have had it sitting directly on the tank rim, but the manufacturer recommends against that for heat reasons. I think i'll put the feet back on it, and just go buy some carboard and work on making an open top faux canopy at some point using cardboard and foam blocks. Thanks for the idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 17, 2013 Share Posted November 17, 2013 Are you still liking the tank? Aquatek has a rimless version that I was just looking at. I'd been planning to get a DSA Neo 105 rimless but the cube piqued my interest. I wonder how practical it is to place it in a corner...wonder if it would be too difficult to get to the overflow box if needed. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Fish Posted November 18, 2013 Author Share Posted November 18, 2013 James - I am still loving the tank. I came from a biocube though so I am used to the cube setups, although I had never considered a larger cube until I saw this one for sale on the forums. The overflow on my tank is in the back left corner, if the tank was placed in a corner, that would put the overflow in the third base position. I could twist it the other way and the overflow would be in the second base position which would make the overflow difficult to get to. I need to do a full update on the tank. Coming soon. Life is getting in the way currently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 Thanks for the update...I'm still torn. I'm going to get pricing on the 105 just to compare. Would love to see an update / pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 Your stocking sounds good to me, especially if you have an oversized skimmer like you mentioned. The naso for sure, and possibly the hippo tang will outgrow your tank but that'll give you an excuse to upgrade. I think the norm is 6' wide tank minimum since naso tangs are such active swimmers. A cube setup is nice for now but once they get bigger, they'll need that 6' width to stretch their fins a bit. I have a 125g and I have resisted a naso for 3 years now. Enter the new 215g that's coming soon... Tank looks great. Always a big fan of cube tanks as I came from a nanocube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 19, 2013 Share Posted November 19, 2013 Jake at RCA has a tank on hold for me. He's got a 75g rimless Planet Aquarium tank with an external overflow on the rear and a nice stand. Pretty much exactly what I was looking for and with our discount the price was RIGHT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Fish Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 I haven't posted here in a while as I have been furious with my tank. I've been battling micro bubbles since I set it up and after trying again and again to get rid of them, they remained. I reduced flow, rebuilt my sump (3 times!) rebuilt my dursos, tried filter socks to block bubbles, I got rid of my manifold and reactors thinking they were causing bubbles in the return plumbing (which led to a nasty hair algae outbreak) the list goes on and on. When I finally gave up I was running a modified fishy business sump and a mag 9.5 instead of an 18. I ripped the egg crate out of a fishy business sump and built in two bubble traps. I filled in one of the traps with live rock rubble as this worked great in my old biocube. All this brought the micro bubbles to an all time low but they were still there. It was incredibly frustrating to watch all my hard work seem to go to waste. My fish and corals were surviving but I wasn't seeing the growth I thought I should, the growth I thought I deserved. Lol. I decided to abandon the tank. My thought process was there wasn't enough space under the tank for a sump long enough for all the bubbles to surface because the form factor of the tank was a cube. Only being 30" wide left me with only a 20 gallon high to use off the shelf or building something custom. At this point that definitely wasn't happening, I wasn't investing another dime in the tank. I knew going into a new tank I was not going to rely on someone else's outdated information for the plumping and it was time for research. The Herbie method just clicked for me. It made the most sense for a tank that had the highest chance of being bubble free. I was concerned about restricting the flow of one pipe but felt the emergency pipe was a good fail safe and, with the use of a strainer, I've never found a critter in a standpipe. So, the new tank got ordered, the new sump got built, the system got plumped Herbie style, and... it was easy. I can do this. Then, the aha moment, my girlfriend asked why I couldn't do that to the cube? After stumbling through a couple excuses it was clear, the plumping on the 90 had to go. It was too easy to not do. Even though I wouldn't have the tank that much longer, whoever I sell it to will want to enjoy it. After taking a day to plan I was off. The vortechs would maintain some flow while I took 24 hoiursish to replumb. After pumping the water out of the first section of the sump into some buckets, the old blue spa flex hose stuff came out with no complaints. The black water break section of the fishy business sump had already started to fall apart. A tug here and a pull there, 5 min later it was out. I was a little surprised it came out so easily. I was able to attach the new plumbing to the little pvc nub that the flex hose used to attach to at the bulkhead. I quickly roughed out the new pipes, prepped it all and solvent welded it all except where the new plumbing attached at the bulkhead. I waited 6 hours for the pvc glue to cure. My only concern was this glue harming the fish. I then rinsed the new plumbing very well with RO water and welded it to the bullheads. I waited 12 hours for the bulkhead welds to cure. I still had a good amount of water in the weir section of the display tank and wanted to use it to rinse the new plumbing again as I replaced he dursos with the Herbie plumbing. I placed a bucket under the drain for the first durso. As I pulled it, water rushed down, rinsing the new plumbing. I moved the bucket to the second drain and did the same. That gave me some relief that there wasn't anything left after glueing that could harm the tank inhabitants. After starting your return pump with a Herbie overflow, it can take almost 2 minutes for the full siphon to take effect and you adjust the ball valve from there. When the siphon happened and the bubbles disappeared, I almost burst into tears. The war was over. I use a JBJ auto top off and with the new baffles in the sump I couldn't get the stepped bar that the sensor hangs on in the right place to keep the water at a good level. I decided to super glue it to a mag cleaner so it was more adjustable. I was worried it would fail eventually but the glue seems to have fused the two together. I also used this with a small piece of pvc and a mag cleaner for the line from my auto top off. I used to try to stuff the line under something so it would stay put. I'm much more confident in this solution. I'm really enjoying the 90 gallon now that it is crystal clear. The difference in the tank was almost instantaneous. My anemone is the deepest purple and green I've ever seen. There is some sps coral I've never seen the polyps out on till yesterday. Moving from dursos/fishy business water break thingy to a Herbie has brought back all the joy to this hobby for me, and at the perfect time. Remember my ultimate solution pre Herbie was to abandon the 90? Yeah, well I'd already put that in motion: More on this soon! PS - Does anyone have an email address for "Herbie"? I joined RC in hopes of thanking him but I don't have those privileges yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaFan Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Wow... Great write up! Congrats on finding the solution! I don't know if he's the inventor, but the foremost expert on Herbie is this guy: www.gmacreef.com Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Great writeup indeed and welcome back again! No big surprise about the dated and ineffective sump and drain setup. I won't say anymore on it but nice guy, just dated concepts in my opinion. Sorry you were victim of it for so long! That's awesome that you were able to complete your microbubble eradication journey. Some problems never give you quite the closure you want but I'm sure it was quite satisfying in this case. The new setup looks great! I smell another salty build thread coming up... sans the microbubbles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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