GfordQC's 90 Cube Build
 

Hello All,

After around a 7 year hiatus i have been beginning to get up to speed on what new has come through in the land of reef keeping by looking through these threads and getting back into the swing of things. To quickly go over the obligatory past of my salt water experience i had a 55 gal FOWLR that i had for around 3-4 years with your common Clownfish, goby, royal gramma type fish until the winds of huricane ike swept through Ohio and we were out of power for around 7 days. After that i took a break, had a few kids, finished school and here I am.

Here is the rundown of what i'm planning now. It's going to be a SCA 90 cube as to which i have already purchased with the white stand probably will be 2 more weeks til i get that. Mostly plan on housing LPS and maybe some SPS down the road, but i am definitely taking my time on this.

Current Equipment list:

Tank: SCA 90 Gal Cube 36" x 24" x 24" w/ White Stand

Lighting: AquaIlluminations Hydra52HD

Sump: Eshopps R-200 2nd Gen (Craigslist find)

Return Pump: Jebao DCT-6000

Powerheads: Jebao PP-4 & PP-8

Controller: Apex Jr.

Reactor(s): BRS Deluxe GFO & Carbon

ATO: Tunes Osomolator 3155

Heaters: Ehiem Jager 150W (2)

Already have my Water change setup ready to go.

Tank location...View from the couch. Tank will be front and center in the middle of it all which will be nice.

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(Picture Test)

Good tank choice!, I have the SCA 50 and love it.

Thanks, Yeah i have been mulling over it for a while asking Steve questions here and there.

Any suggestions/Comments on plumbing. I did a quick model of it and i took a lot of ideas from junior2101's build.

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what kind of setup are you going to run? Steve is drilling for Herbie's now. If you plan to do a herbie, you will want to avoid 90 degree turns. makes it more difficult to get your siphon going which eliminates a quiet system (which is the purpose of doing a herbie). I have 45's on mine so my drains come straight down, 45 to the compartment I drain into then 45 again straight down.

Yeah, Herbie is what i am going for. I like the bean animal, but didn't want the extra drilling and such. I'll try and modify my setup to have 45s instead of the 90s. Thanks!

Is that sketchup for the model?

Not a sketch up its actually a Solidworks model. I'm an Engineer so i have access to 3D modeling equipment @ work.

Updated the plumbing to put in 45° in the inlet and added a union to the return in case I need to take the manifold out.

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Looking at the return line of the plumbing. Not shown is the pump to plumbing connection. I would suggest the soft stuff at BRS: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/white-...-the-foot.html I substantially reduced the noise level from the return pump vibration to the sump tank with this.

It also appears that the emergency overflow feeds to the center chamber rather than the skimmer chamber. If you set the overflow up as recommended with a "trickle" flow to the emergency you might want to consider having it feed to the skimmer chamber as there will be some unwanted paritulates placed there. Also if you have a "nutrient export mode" for your power heads, there will be a lot of those nutrients which go to this connection as well. I have mine plumbed to the skimmer chamber, and had to add a sock to it for proper filtration.

I would also suggest that the connections ALL to the sump be through a soft-silicone-tube. Heat expands, cold contracts and with a hard connection, that will place stress on the three connections to the overflow area of the tank. And it will be more forgiving when you make the connections. Just my 2¢, hope it helps.

Yes I was going to do the soft hose for the return. Thanks for the ideas on the plumbing. I think that may be beneficial to do the plumbing in hose to the sump. I'll take a look at that in my model on Monday. May help to save me some $$ 2!

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Got it i think. Removing the stuff in red and going to use the hose for the Blue. I don't have a model of a barbed fitting or i would put that in there. Also I have a reactor for GFO and Carbon if need. Steve said that he was putting to get the stand in this week so hopefully that happens!

Still a lot to do, but the kiddos/wife are getting ready to go. They like going to our LFS and looking at the different fish.

Still waiting on the tank. Hope to hear somethign from Steve today or tomorrow. Kids and I worked on getting the rock cleaned. Did an acid bath which they enjoyed...and i got to say "Goggle up kids science is about to happen!" which is always a good day when you get to say that.

Did some preliminary Aquascaping last night just to get an idea of what i want the tank to look like. I like #3, but i would move the arch back and bring the rock in behind forward. Also if you look and see a rock that just doesn't look right my helper was adding rocks as he saw fit lol..any comments are appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Aquascape 1

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Aquascape 2

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Aquascape 3

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Wouldn't be right for me to take all of the credit for the work done. I did have a good helper for this endeavor.

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Be sure to leave room for the algae magnetic glass cleaner to pass between the rock and the glass. It will be different depending on which cleaner you use.

Yeah will do. I'm planning on getting a flipper. What do you use?

I have a flipper also.

Got all of my plumbing and other misc. items(Salt/Flipper Glass Cleaner/etc.) from BRS. Now just waiting on the tank to be done.

I'm about to pull the trigger on a SCA cube, so following along to see what I can learn from your experience. Thanks for sharing!

Welcome! Thanks for following along. SCA has been great! Steve emailed me last night and wants to check my tank/stand before it leaves so it should ship out on the 20th or 21st as he is out of the office currently.

Further Updates: I got my screen issue on my Apex Jr. figure out so that is good and that is all programmed up. Messed with the Hydra52HD yesterday as well and have a preliminary schedule for that ready to go as well.

I'm liking the cube

Thanks! I'm looking forward to getting going for sure. The tank is really going to add another dimension to the main floor.

Following! I'm looking into upgrading my 50G to a 75G. It's the same width and depth, just 20" height vs. 24".