First Tank, 60g Cube

[jdwreefer]

Now that I'm getting close (hopefully) to setting up my first salt water tank, I want to put up my ideas for review. I've been researching for almost a year now, reading every book I could get my hands on, and spending hours a day on RC and other forums. Just starting to get acquainted with my local reef club, so I'll be getting feedback from them soon as well.

I'll be using a 60g acrylic cube (24”x24”x24”) that I got used. Here's a frontal picture:



Side:



Here's the back:



The tank has one of those giant overflow boxes which was pretty much a built in sump. Kinda like how Biocube tanks are. I'm going to be plumbing in a sump and fuge, which will be in the stand under the tank. The overflow came with acrylic partitions that made three separate areas. One area had a built in skimmer, which flowed into an area filled with bio balls, and then over into the return section, as shown in this picture:



I decided to remove the skimmer tube, and the partition between it and the bio ball area. This gives me one large area that I am going to fill with small pieces of live rock, which empties into a separate space for the drain to the sump. It's easier to understand when you look at this picture:



Here it is after I cut everything out, and made an eggcrate stand:





Getting those out was a huge PITA. I used nylon string sawing method, a few different hacksaw blades, a file, dremel sanding bits, and what worked best: a drill bit in a dremel. I cut with the side of the drill bit, which worked pretty darn good, except it broke when I was almost done...

From the drain, water will flow into a ten gallon tank that will be the fuge. In there I'll keep some LR and cheato, on a reverse daylight timer. The fuge tank will be on a ~4 inch stand, and will have a 1” bulkhead which will drain into the skimmer/return ten gallon. This ten gallon will be divided into two sides by bubble trapping baffles. Here is inside of the stand with one ten gallon (I chipped an edge on the other, so cut it up into baffles ):



My plan for this tank is mostly LPS with a few softies and SPS. I'll add on my stocking plans, plumbing plan, and the rest later today in bits and pieces.

[billdogg]

Looks good so far, IMO. The only problem I can think of is that gunk is going to collect in the LR area and be nearly impossible to clean out. As much as I dislike them, you may want to consider using a bunch of filter floss or other filter media in the overflow area to help prevent that from happening.

I've had a 60g cube (oceanic glass) running since 1992 - it's a great tank size.

JM.02

[spleify]

I think you are off to a great start. billdog brings up a good point as far as settling in the back section, what I have found to work well for me is to just take a small power head like a MJ1200 and add some tubing to it, and every so often just dip the power head in the tank and put the tubing in the section you want stirred up, move it around and let it run for a few minutes, to get things into suspension. I supggest running a filter sock on your drain line to help collect as much junk as possible. This is also how I "clean" my sump.

Here is a link to my 60 gal cube build.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1343381

HTH

Good luck and have fun

[bmw-legend]

I like that cube..great start..can I ask you where did you get it??/
Thanks

[jdwreefer]

Originally Posted by billdogg

The only problem I can think of is that gunk is going to collect in the LR area and be nearly impossible to clean out. As much as I dislike them, you may want to consider using a bunch of filter floss or other filter media in the overflow area to help prevent that from happening.

Ya I thought of that too, also worried that *shudder* a FISH goes in there.... Some filter floss is a good idea, I was contemplating window screen and eggcrate but I think the floss would work better.

Originally Posted by spleify

what I have found to work well for me is to just take a small power head like a MJ1200 and add some tubing to it, and every so often just dip the power head in the tank and put the tubing in the section you want stirred up, move it around and let it run for a few minutes, to get things into suspension.

That's also something I think I'd have to do every so often with this setup. Even though it will be a pain, I think it's worth it to squeeze in that extra bit of rock.

Originally Posted by bmw-legend

I like that cube..great start..can I ask you where did you get it??/
Thanks

I bought the cube from a local guy I found on craigslist. He's had it for about 9 years and only used it for FW.

[s.reef]

Looks good so far.

[jdwreefer]

A few months ago, because I thought it would save money, and just for something to do, I made rock! Here's the thread I made showing the whole process: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...ght=aragocrete

The rock is made of 1 part portland cement to 3 parts crushed oyster shell to 1 part aragonite sand and 1 part water softener salt. I mixed those ingredients up and added water till it looked good. Then dropped handfulls of the cement mixture into sand molds. I let em dry for a day, took them out and brushed them off, then started soaking them in water. Here is my favorite piece I made:



And closeups of the texture:





The rock turned out pretty good, was fairly light and very porous. They've been soaking for about 3 or so months but are still far from done methinks. A hard scum forms on the bucket they are soaking in, and the pH is off the charts still.

I plan to use these as a base that will be mostly covered by sand anyway. One top of em I'm thinking of putting about 50 lbs of marco rocks, seeded with a few small pieces of live rock from LFS/local reefers. The sump will get whatever is left over, leaving just enough room for cheato. I'm hoping to fit in at least 120 lbs of rock in the whole system

I want 3-4” of sand bed because of the goby/wrasse/jawfish etc I might get.

[nguyentxd]

thats alot of rock

[moze229]

Good job on the rock! I think once it's in a system for a while, you won't be able to tell much difference between this rock and real rock.

Matt

[spleify]

Nice job on the rock, looks awesome