Scotty's 28 cubed

scotty

scotty

Member
Figure I would be the first.

Hardware
28 gallon Marineland Cube
AC 50 HOB filter (chemipure, Purigen, sponge)
korlia evolution 720
current USA extreme 2 bulb 18 incher
Double bright LED light that came with the tank


Guts

20lbs of mix black and white sand
20 lbs dry rock
10 lbs live rock


Livestock
5 Nassarius snails
5 turbo snails
2 clown fish, Richard and Philip. Philip is the catcher....
2 heads, growing 2 more, Duncan frag (you betcha gonna frag out)


hitchhikers: good and bad
2 short spine urchins
3 limpets as of now
red mythrax crab
2 gorilla crabs ( banished)
green open brain
some sort of favia, polyp, encrusting finally got some color
isopod 1 very big one
loads of brittle stars
loads of worms
red slime algae
aptasia

My goal with this setup was to create something that I didn't need to dose, didn't need extreme lighting, being my first attempt at saltwater I didn't want to complicate things right off. I am going to post in the future all my research for you guys to read up so I don't feel crazy. :D

Future plans

10 gallon sump, I have to make it 2, 5 gallon tanks to get it to fit in the cube.
5 gallon traditional sump with protein skimmer when i get the bioload.
5 gallon refugium to combat this red slime.
24 LED setup.

FRAG LIST - when I frag out to someone, they goto the bottom of the list, and have the option to pass to the next if they decide to do so.
Not asking for money, however if you put green in front of me, you won't get to ask twice to give it to me!
Frags of pp green explosion paly's, aussie duncans so far
WeePee
Jeff C
ChicagoReefs
 
EyeReef

EyeReef

Active member
Looks like you've done your research...
I never knew Marineland made nanos...
must be very nice based on their larger brothers
 
mr_z

mr_z

New member
umm try ummmm theres a little icon with a little mountain it looks like where you post when you click it you can add a link there get the link to the image and put it there but make sure you dont double the http:// part or img letters. like say theres a photo on your facebook right click that image and click open image in new tab then itll open just image directly not on facebook on a separate page alone now copy this link and put it in the popup window that comes up when you click the little mountain looking icon. its right next to one with a little earth.
 
scotty

scotty

Member
Thought this was actually dead based on this progression now has neon green centers looks awesome under blue led's





 
scotty

scotty

Member
thanks mr Z. I am going to be moving soon, and im gonna put the tank where it is viewable from 3 of the sides, really making it worth the cube shape.
 
scotty

scotty

Member
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.
 
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