# Sumped Cube



## not called Bob (11 Sep 2020)

now its not going to be a hardscape that appeals to all, esp with the addition of the Bristol Bear.  But its a family tank in a family room, so design by committee.  with a very opinionated client in a 2 and 4 year old.

so that’s how I have rose quartz a a nice dense lump, that in my mind looks like the body and ramus of a cows jaw.

the tanks sumped and just off cubed, illuminated by a Radion G2


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## not called Bob (11 Sep 2020)

not sure why the pics failed to attach above,


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## not called Bob (11 Sep 2020)

so fish, coral inverts gone and its a shell of its former self




dismantled and reassembled in a new location and soil added




lights just starting to ramp up to 20%




lights ramping, will chuck the heater in the sump, was there while I leak checked the plumbing


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## not called Bob (11 Sep 2020)

at full 20% on the pre set planted option








strange how silent they are when not running at almost 100%


bit of scum on the substrate after the return pipe sloughed its biofilm.


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## sparkyweasel (11 Sep 2020)

I quite like the bear. 
It almost looks natural, like when you see a natural rock and think it looks like something, - in this case a bear.


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## not called Bob (12 Sep 2020)

well its not the most offensive on the eye addition that could have snuck in


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## not called Bob (16 Sep 2020)

Excuse the glass, I'm holding off cleaning until some clean up crew are in place.  Not that I'm sure what to go for. But on the positive, there's growth to be seen in the leaves and also roots. 

Lights on for 6 ish hours now, plus the sunlight in the room and still only at 20% through a bit of perspex.


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## not called Bob (17 Sep 2020)

while out today popped into PaH and grabbed some_ Salvinia auriculata_, so now there’s some surface cover

the Java fern seems to be budding and the sword has a flower spike shooting up.

Seems some where at least one snail has made it in, noticed one just pre lights out the other day and there’s a little bit of damage to a few leaves.


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## not called Bob (18 Sep 2020)

Such a glam Friday night






Hoping to be able to ease up on these big water changes soon, currently the tanks way more labour intensive than the reef ever was, but still least the plants have taken.


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## alto (19 Sep 2020)

not called Bob said:


> Such a glam Friday night


  (imagine the drinking and dancing guys)


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## not called Bob (20 Sep 2020)

Top down view, to avoid any glass detritus 




 Is bronzing normal in this plant (sold unlabelled 🤦🏼‍♂️) much more brine to the eye


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## not called Bob (25 Sep 2020)

Never brought anything so small before, and that's after having a whole host of gobies before






The Cory's have had a little bit of stress from the guppies seeing them as a meal, but seems to have settled.


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## not called Bob (29 Sep 2020)

remembered I have a filter sock in the workshop, so now any riders of the pipes (almost at one of each species now) will be bagged ready for reintroduction to the tank and not need a bit of hands and knees net work.

also using a sock on the hose to syphon, as everyone likes to come up close to the pipe and managed to catch a Cory as it was about to exit the window and have had a clown goby before get stuck in the opening of a pipe,


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## dw1305 (29 Sep 2020)

Hi all, 





not called Bob said:


> Is bronzing normal in this plant


Looks like it might be a_ Ludwigia_ sp.  and a lot of them <"have bronze shoot tips">.





not called Bob said:


> The Cory's have had a little bit of stress from the guppies seeing them as a meal


Not ideal, you may also find that the Guppies get all the food before the Pygmy Cories do?

If you feed some really small food items, it gets around this. <"I like micro-worms"> for all the little _Corydoras_ spp. (and _Corydoras_ fry), the fish <"really like them"> and bigger fish can't be bothered with them.

cheers Darrel


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## not called Bob (29 Sep 2020)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all, Looks like it might be a_ Ludwigia_ sp.  and a lot of them <"have bronze shoot tips">.Not ideal, you may also find that the Guppies get all the food before the Pygmy Cories do?
> 
> If you feed some really small food items, it gets around this. <"I like micro-worms"> for all the little _Corydoras_ spp. (and _Corydoras_ fry), the fish <"really like them"> and bigger fish can't be bothered with them.
> 
> cheers Darrel



Thanks Darrel

I'll try and sort out a culture then,  seems to be harmonious in their now, every one swimming about, but always good to give some enrichment and not just one boring meal


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## not called Bob (12 Oct 2020)

Enough growth to have had to do a round of tip pinching. 

Working out of I keep or rage war with the hitchhiker snails, seem to look to be growing into ramshorn and pond snail shell shapes. As yet only squished and fed to the tank the ones that were easy pray.


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## not called Bob (14 Oct 2020)

I was asked previously why keep things like the mag on a viewing pane, tonight was a good example of it being handy to be able to see.  It could get out, but had I moved the scraper, it might not have been a good ending


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## not called Bob (24 Nov 2020)

Wanted to see if I still had 4 pygmies and felt like the odd snips now and then had controlled things I now needed to give it a more substantial cut. 




So a load of stems cut and placed back into the sand and the shorter ones composed on the front garden. 





The filters not stuck on as I like a variable flow and tend to move it about each day and it also moves a bit on its own. Must fix the mp40s wetside bearing and have the nice tidy option back


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## not called Bob (17 Jan 2021)

So that's pre water change and trim







And the next lights on.


So last night after a water change, I'm almost asleep on the sofa, as walked in on the crown and clueless what's going on.
Loud bang and other half asks what's that, I have leap across the room and now directing the water from the sumps emergency overflow pipe into the sump, after the pipes comes away (maybe to many gym class on a slightly sprung floor)
They have dashed off to get a towels and I'm in hushed tones trying to get them to pull the plug and stop the flow, as I can't quite reach it.  Apparently it never crossed their mind to kill the power, over welfare concerns. I point out there's a signify lightstrip and all the tank leads on the floor and maybe if happens again, ensuing the whole house's power is protected and especially the person with their arms trying to address the leak well and trying in harms way.

Still seem the crown was engaging enough to escape any stromg words and it also highlighted some stale air behind the curtain as a small patch of damp, where the things not moved in a while.


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## not called Bob (1 Feb 2021)

Seems all the focus on home school and not the tank has a bit of a diatom bloom on the go.


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## not called Bob (11 Feb 2021)

Think I forgot to mention it before, but the neons I got I suspected had come with neon tetra disease, well I'm almost certain now, as they age this is the case, so I'll let the thing run its course and take action if they seem in unnecessary distress, but for now besides a bit of body modification, you'd never know they are feeding and active. 









I think the time has come to think about feeding the plants, there appears to be some chlorosis going on, excuse the floaters, they are free range and get a bit of down time so look a bit battered.


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## not called Bob (12 Feb 2021)

Yate, Coalpit Heath and Warmley (415)
Your drinking water supply is classed as hard.
Your water supply comes from surfaces waters (rivers)
Water composition
Calcium 89 mg/l Ca
Magnesium 7.2 mg/l Mg
Flouride 0.12 mg/l
Hardness 251mg/l
CACO3 18 UK Degrees Clark(C)
25 UK Degrees French(F)
15 UK Degrees German(dH)

Additional details
Alkalinity 160 mg/l CaCO3 No legal limit applies
Alkalinity 195 mg/l HCO3 No legal limit applies
Chloride 46 mg/l Cl Legal limit 250
Nitrate 20 mg/l NO3 Legal limit 50
Phosphate 1.7 mg/l P No legal limit applies
Sulphate 88 mg/l SO4 Legal limit 250
Sodium 35 mg/l Na Legal limit 200
Conductivity 585 μS/cm @200 C Legal limit 2500

Currently I have just been running tap water and the odd root tab, I currently have no plans to run gas (hopefully school restarts soon and I can go back out to sea for a few months and have a rest) as it would not be fair to add to the task list, this was part of why I had such a simple to run marine setup using this tank, so open to any and all suggestions on what sort of Fert regime I should go down.


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## not called Bob (26 Feb 2021)

Still growing away happily, though now have a reeflink so will increase the photo period and possibly power a little. 

Had an otto and guppy wash up in the sump dead since last update. Normally weir riding does not seem to cause any harm, so maybe they were all ready on their way out. Sump is still a breeding ground for shrimp, plenty of life down there in the dark.


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## not called Bob (28 Mar 2021)

Water change last night and pinching the tips out, just before heading off to a stay in a quarenteen hotel pre work and tank looked OK.  
It's not going to be waterchanged for at least a month so maybe a suplemental fed is needed in that time for the plants. 

With dst I set the reeflink up and sorted the lights out, they will now slowly change over the next month to the longer and brighter settings.


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## not called Bob (2 May 2021)

Well considering I have been away since late March, the pic sent today looks like not too much feeding and topping up evaporation has been taking place.

Edited the weird multiple posts of the same image.


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## not called Bob (22 May 2021)

2+ months of neglect seems to do the world of good. 

Not sure what's going on with surface plants, maybe the radion is frying them, but the submerged plants are doing well


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## not called Bob (6 Jun 2021)

Back from a weeks half term holiday and at 3 months of nothing being done it looks like I need a good cut, if any ones near North Bristol make your self known or the flower bed gets the cuttings.


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## not called Bob (7 Jun 2021)

@dw1305 could it be for me due to the lights output at the surface the floaters are being cooked, or is something else at play that I have overlooked.  it used to grow like stink when the lights output was 10%, think though not checked its only at 40%, but it is a unit that packs a punch as it can support corals and anemones with no worries. the Duckweed Index was such a handy way in the early days, before the submerged life started to grow with gusto in this low-tech setup


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## dw1305 (8 Jun 2021)

Hi all, 


not called Bob said:


> at the surface the floaters are being cooked


Yes, it definitely could be. It may just be back to the <"first law of thermodynamics">, the energy (not used in photosynthesis) will end up as heat and then you may have thermal damage. It is Clive's <"Klingon photon death ray">.

cheers Darrel


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## not called Bob (17 Jun 2021)

With growth bursting out and into the air and children asking to see the fish again I finally did some tlc. A water change and grabbing a few fistfalls of plants, snapping and adding to the flowerbed as a green mulch. The stems are still in leaf, right to the base, so no need to replant anything. 







Depends on how it settles overnight, but I might pull a bit more tomorrow. Excuse the fragments of leaf in view, they will soon settle and rot away.


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## not called Bob (2 Oct 2021)

A busy summer of rig removals and owf pre build work has had me away for a long time and returning with a duff back meant time just looking at the tank. 

I love the tiger when it hits the surface and spreads out and goes green on top, yet keeps its lovely pattern when viewed from below. 



But I realised that there's been a lot of shading and over growing, so rather than a water change, using the kids drawing table  as a platform to stand on to reduce the bending, it was happy hacking time so its gone from this 







To this









Needs a bit more, but don't want to do too much in one night, that's a big old change for the inhabitants. Plenty of bits awaiting fishing out from the sump comb or allowing to breakdown and be scavenged by the CUC.


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