Cubed, a 60 gallon Experiment

[cabbagehead]

I've been a member of Reef Central since 2004. I have had a total of 3 saltwater tanks. Like many of us, I have been in and out of the hobby since setting up my first tank.



After setting up the 55 gallon, I felt limited by the space and choice of fish. I then decided I was ready for the big leagues and ordered a Oceanic 135 gallon.



This tank provided many challenges that I and my budget was not ready for. I broke it down once and sold all of the live stock and took a 1 year break from the hobby. I then came up with the idea of a FOWLR tank. I bought all of the supplies I needed and cycled my tank. On my first trip to the LFS I noticed a mushroom rock that I could not live without. The FOWLR tank idea soon vanished and I was hooked again. This tank had 3 halides and 4 VHO with a sump/fuge filtration. While it was a very viable setup I soon became frustrated with the challenge of keeping softies, LPS, and SPS in the same tank. I decided I needed to downsize and stick with one type of coral. I sold everything and started from scratch. This proved to be a pivotal moment for me as my focus had now changed from keeping all of the corals I wanted to designing a system to keep corals I like alive. My first attempt was a 26 gallon bowfront for my softies.




This tank is still up and running and I am proud to report is flourishing and easily maintained. This brings me to my next and so far most challenging build. I have always loved LPS corals. I decided to build a state of the art tank exclusively for LPS corals. After looking at various sizes I decided on a 24x24x24 cube. Since I was going to build this tank from scratch I decided to take my time and save up for every part I had always wanted. I purchased the cube in February of 2012 and began making a list of wanted equipment. These are my final decisions:

Tank : Deep Blue 60 with factory stand
Sump: Eshopps R75
Skimmer : Bubble Magus 5.5
Light: 1 AI Sol Blue
Return Pump: Tunze 1073.2
Powerhead: Tunze 6055 with 7092 controller
Controller: Reefkeeper Lite
Other Filtration: 2 Nextreef reactors running carbon and Matrix
45lbs of live rock and 60 lbs of live sand
2 Magrocks

[cabbagehead]

Here are some pictures of the build:

Lighting mount using LCD monitor mounts attached to a custom backdrop







Custom rock stand using a carbid hole saw and PVC






Skimmer


Plumbing completed (1st attempt)


Manifold for reactors


RKL and AI controller mounted on right side of tank backdrop

[cabbagehead]

Live rock in frag tank waiting for water


Water in tank for the first time



Live rock added

[cabbagehead]

Plumbing (2nd attempt)


First coral added



Acanthastrea


Lobophyllia

[cabbagehead]

Did water tests today
Ph 8.4
Nitrate 0.5
Phos .02
Mag 1300
Calc 400

Pretty happy with those results as I have been over feeding my two new clowns. I added a small Starburst Anthias today from FAOIS in Oldsmar. I also added a small Wellsophyllia from Eco-reef in Venice. I am very happy with my choice in equipment and my wife is happy that the aquarium is barely audible.

[cabbagehead]

[bskiba]

great setup so far. I have a cube also and did the same thing with the rock. drilled and stacked. i just like the depth that is gives. I have a sunburst anthia on my future fish list.

[cabbagehead]

I am happy with the look it gives but I think I should have gone a little shorter as I was only able to get a 7 gallon water change before exposing coral. Not a major deal, just means I'll be doing small more frequent water changes. Thanks for the reply

[osi]

Sweet setup you got there cabbage.

I’m planning to build exact same setup and actually I started a build thread yesterday.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2195757

Can you plz tell me about you equipment list. Especially what is your light system? Are you planning to keep across?

Are you happy with your skimmer? I never use Bubble Magus before but I was thinking about going with BM NAC7. But after seeing ya tank I think I also go with 5.5.

Let me know about your lights plz. Again it’s a very nice setup you got there... I really like the colour of ya LED.

[cabbagehead]

Thanks osi, I am using 1 Aquaillumination SOL as my primary source of light. It is rate to cover a 24x24 area but I have notice some downsides with the center pillar and shadowing. This will be ok if I stick to my plan of only LPS and Monipora. The NAC 5.5 is pulling some nasty stuff out of my water. It took a while to break in and I had to put a mousepad under it to reduce the vibration noise but other than that I am very happy with it. Good luck with your setup I'll checkout your build thread
Jack

[cabbagehead]

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

[cabbagehead]

Hollywood Stunner Chalice

[cabbagehead]

This is my plan for coral stocking. Any suggestions are welcome

[Vpham97]

Does the pump still have enough return power after being split like that? How are you liking the stand? I'm looking into buying the tank/stand like you have but not sure if the stand is tall enough.
What's your noise level with the stock drain pipe?

[Vpham97]

U sure the acan can withstand that much light being on top?

[MX175]

[QUOTE=cabbagehead;20483726]Here are some pictures of the build:

Lighting mount using LCD monitor mounts attached to a custom backdrop

Looking good!

[cabbagehead]

Vpham97: If I could change one thing at this point it would have been the stand. The stand really limited my choice of filtration methods. I originally wanted to have a Fuge but due to space constraints I was not able to incorporate that into my sump. I chose a Tunze return pump which is extremely quiet. The flow from the return is reduced significantly from the manifold design but with the 6055 powerhead flow is not a problem. So far the Acans are tolerating the high light well. I only have the AI at 40% and plan to slowly work my way to 80%. Thanks for the response and good luck with your build.

MX175: Thanks, I spent a lot of time troubleshooting the lighting mount. Luckily I have a great LFS with plenty of spare acrylic.

[ecoreefman]

What great lfs are you working with? Nice setup!!!

[cabbagehead]

Eco-Reef in Venice is my LFS. They have great customer service and are always willing to help with custom projects. I also visit Epic Reef and Coral Connection in Sarasota.

[cabbagehead]

Got some new additions at Coral Connection today







Full tank shot

[cabbagehead]

I have been keeping track of my water parameters using an app on my Ipad called aquaPlanner. It has a few bugs but has been helpful in setting up reminders and charting trends in water chemistry. Tonight's tests had the following results:

Temp: 79.5
Nitrates: .25
Ph : 8.0
KH : 9
Salinity : 1.024
Calcium: 450
Phos: .02
Mag: 1500

Last week I noticed a spike in phosphate. I determined that it was a result of over feeding. I purchased a Sunset Anthias from FAOIS two weeks ago and I had some issues getting him to eat. After trying a variety of foods, he finally started eating and all is well. I added some Phosguard to my MR1 media reactor along with a new batch of carbon and did a 15 gallon water change. This seemed to help as phosphate levels are coming down. I was also given a Next Reef food strainer from my LFS (Eco Reef) and have been using this for all my feeds to help reduce the phosphate going into the tank.

[cabbagehead]

Some new additions:
Orange Plate

Duncan Colony

Green Bubble

My favorite addition: Orange Wall Hammer

[schudini]

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I bookmarked this thread to tag along and I'm going to "incorporate" some of your ideas

[cabbagehead]

Originally Posted by schudini

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I bookmarked this thread to tag along and I'm going to "incorporate" some of your ideas :thumbsup

Thanks schudini,
I had fun incorporating many of the ideas I found on Reef Central. I had a few MacGyver moments throughout the whole process ; )

[Sprier]

What a great thread. outrageous tanks! I have a 50 g tall, and wanted to maximize space, drill and stack would be perfect! I really like the latest livestock, specifically the orange plate and duncans