68G Sumpless/Skimmerless Cube

[JustinReef]

Not really a build thread...I tried that in the soft coral section of RC with no real interest. The tank was going to be only softies because I was worried with no sump/skimmer that sps might not do too well but thats changed. I am going to keep some easy sps like Digi's and monti caps. I used to have a lagoon inspired tank (pics below) and that will again be the inspiration for this tank. Lots of gorgonians, macro algae, leathers, ect.

The tank is not really quite a cube...its 30x30x18 tall. Better IMO ;)

I love shallow tanks!

All the Livestock is coming from my other tanks (at least to start with). I have (had) a 130G aggressive, soft coral reef that I would like to make a FOWLR. So those corals are moving to this tank as well as the Digi's and other corals I have in a 33G reef.

So since I have had this tank up for a few weeks now, I am going to post pics in a chronological order...although I really did not take many pics of the build unfortunately :( I am however looking for lots of advice, so that, along with keeping track of growth is the point of this thread.

This is the old tank (which I miss so much!) that will be somewhat of an inspiration. I will not be planting nearly as much macro this time though. Just enough to keep nitrates at 0.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi325.jpg


This is the aggressive reef where some of the corals are coming from. You can see from the pics that the canopy was not even done (painted) when I decided to change things up and relieve the corals of the high nitrates. It got hard to get the nitrates below 5 in this tank. They seemed to hover around 10 constantly and spiked to 20 once!!! Not good...

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi039-1.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi051g.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi006.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi035.jpg

Obviously none of these fish are going in the new 68G tank ;)

I have a small Yellow tang which will be the only fish in the tank (at least to start). I need to keep the bioload LOW.

[uhuru]

love your tanks!

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13712153#post13712153 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by uhuru
love your tanks!

Thanks! Hope you like the new one ;)

I think its much nicer than these ones myself! But I am biased.

[JustinReef]

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi031.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi048.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Picture233.jpg

Original rockwork...A bit too busy for me.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Picture601.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Picture012.jpg

[JustinReef]

Bought the "new" tank used from a member fo my local forum.

Soon as it came home, the cats claimed it... :rolleyes:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi038-2.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi056-1.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi065.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi067-1.jpg



This is where the tank is going. Across from the FOWLR. Both tanks are close in height and the stands will match exactly. Same height and finish anyways...

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi064-1.jpg

[Aquabucket]

WOW!!! That is gorgeous! Your fish are amazing! Look forward to seeing what's in store. Good luck!

[JustinReef]

During this time I also got a new fish for the FOWLR. Well at least for the sump/refugium fo the FOWLR. He is only about 2" but WAY too mean to live with the others. The sump is a 75G and he has half of it all to himself. It is viewable, so he is not hidden away all day.

Here he is:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi032.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi057-2.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi058-1.jpg

Meanest little fish I have ever owned. Eventually he will get the 75G all to himself as a species only tank. These guys just cannot be kept with other fish. Much more aggressive than even a Clown Trigger IME.

He is an Undulated Trigger for those of you who don't know Trigs. He will reach about 10-11", so quite small for a Trigger which is why I like them. He will be comfortable in a 75G. They grow agonizingly slow too, so he should have a year or year and half in the sump before he gets a bit cramped.

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13712216#post13712216 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Aquabucket
WOW!!! That is gorgeous! Your fish are amazing!Look forward to seeing what's in store. Good luck!

Thanks!


Well your tank was the main inspiration actually! I was going to mention that. I wasn't willing to try sumpless/skimmerless until I saw your tank as well as a friends tank from my local forum. Both of you are having great success.

It is just so appealing to me to have little to no equipment.

[JustinReef]

The idea for this build was to use all the extra equipment I had laying around. I really did not want to buy too much new stuff.

Flow for this tank is a Koralia 4 and a Tunze 6025.

Lighting is a retrofit 250watt 14K Metal Halide. Originally I was going to build a canopy but I am not s huge fan of them, so I built a small box to house the light. I was going to hang it over the tank from the ceiling (and tried it) but the ceilings above the tank are 16' and it looked weird IMO. So I came up with another idea...pics of that later. For now this is the DIY box for the light.

I have learned over the years how important good reflectors are but for the sake of keeping this small and cheap, I made a DIY one. Not going to compare to proper reflectors and I am certainly not making this light as efficient as it could be but it has worked quite well so far.

Here it is...

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Picture.jpg

[JustinReef]

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of how the stand was built but it was basically just the typical 2x4 overbuilt design. 3' tall which is the same as my FOWLR.

I will take some pics of the finished stand/tank tonight :)

[jthao]

love that first tank!!! do you still have it??

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13719437#post13719437 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jthao
love that first tank!!! do you still have it??

No unfortunately. I moved a while back and lost most of the corals in the move. A few fish also died and the tank cracked in the moving truck. Needless to say it was a disaster. It was only a 20 minute move!

I have more pics though and will post some.

[JustinReef]

I don't have many pics right now but here is one of the left side of the tank. You can see the tank is softie dominated with a few sps. There is just a single island or peninsula of LR coming out from the back of the tank (hard to tell from this pic) with lots of open space on either side of the tank. Colors are really dull in this picture...I will try to get better one later.

I will get better pics soon that show how the lights were "mounted" over the tank.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/LeftSide.jpg

Here is my arrow crab. He is quite big and worries me. He is constantly trying to eat my clowns :( I am not sure yet if I am going to keep him but I think I will take him back to the store and trade for a small one. Best scavenger I have ever ha din my tank though! Love this guy. He is about 6" across including his legs.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Arrow2.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Arrow1.jpg

[E.intheC]

Justinpsmith.. your tanks are beautiful. Looks like you really put a lot of time and effort into everything.. well done

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13720640#post13720640 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by E.intheC
Justinpsmith.. your tanks are beautiful. Looks like you really put a lot of time and effort into everything.. well done

Thanks. I do spend as much time as possible making sure the animals I am keeping have a nice safe home. I have had some problems along the way with some of my tanks and hope that this new one will get more established (last few only made it to the year mark before I moved).

Its been really nice so far to have no sump or equipment to deal with. Its been up three weeks only but nitrates have stayed at 0.

[Aquabucket]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13720640#post13720640 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by E.intheC
Justinpsmith.. your tanks are beautiful. Looks like you really put a lot of time and effort into everything.. well done

I agree and I think his tanks look very modern and natural at the same time. I look forward to seeing more.

[Slakker]

I spy with my little eye...the exact same fan I have sitting on top of my canopy trying to bring the temp down :D I dunno if it's powerful enough to do any good from 20 inches over the water though.
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/3503/10478179we7.jpg

This new tank looks great! How about a shot of it in it's full glory in the surrounding area? I always forget how great your apartment is, and when I see pictures of it it makes me hate my place :D

[JustinReef]

It wasn't from Walmart but it may be the same one your thinking of!

It does keep the tank below 81 when it kicks in. I have my controller set for it to turn on if the tank hits 81.5 and off when it gets back down to 80.5. It comes on once a day about 6 hours after the light comes on.

I think having no canopy makes this fan enough.

[Slakker]

Yeah, if it's the same one I have it moves a good amount of air. I'll have to come up with a better solution than just sitting it on top of my canopy blowing air down at the water...

[JustinReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13721427#post13721427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Slakker
Yeah, if it's the same one I have it moves a good amount of air. I'll have to come up with a better solution than just sitting it on top of my canopy blowing air down at the water...

Yeah this one moves a good amount of air, is small, black and quiet. Everything I was looking for in a fan :)

I will get some room pics and an actual full tank pic as soon as I get a chance in the next few days.

[OkieMT]

Hi, just jumping in on this thread. I have a question for you. My hubby wants a puffer so bad, but everyone tells him we can't have one because they will eat the corals. I noticed the porcupine puffer. Does he bother your corals? Are puffers known to only eat certain corals? I am trying to find a way we could have one with some corals in the tank also. I want to give him my current tank to use when I upgrade *sighing with wishfulness*. Anything you know about keeping puffers with corals (small puffers) would be appreciated.

[happyclam]

What happened to more pics in a couple days? According to my calender, it is January 17th 2009.

[E.intheC]

okie.. I agree with your husband that puffers are awesome fish! but unfortunately puffers are a definite risk. some say they've had limited success, but overall, it's more "when" than "if" they will chomp on the corals. If you have any inverts, the vast majority of puffers will eat them right up, especially the porcupine. They're smart, curious fish, and all it takes is for one bite on a coral to realize "hey, that tastes good!".. also, puffers get big, are messy, and when they get older typically become very aggressive. further, I'm not sure how big your tank is, but for most puffers, it should be at least 150 gallons or larger for puffer to be happy and healthy. that's why I choose not to have a puffer in a reef tank.