Shaun's 25g Rimless Cube

[ragnas]

I've been meaning to update the progress more frequently, but things have been crazy with a 13 month old and my wife going back to work.

The tank is doing great. I was fighting some pretty nasty green hair algae about 5 or so weeks ago, but that is almost fully eradicated now. To help win that war I installed a BRS carbon/GFO reactor about 4 weeks ago. I'm running both carbon and GFO and it's done a great job polishing the water and keeping algae growth on the glass to a minimum. The biggest difference in the hair algae war though, was reducing the photoperiod to about 10hrs/day and not over-feeding.

Mechanically, I'm mostly happy. The auto top-off system is working great. I still haven't found time to finish the LED light project, but that's coming soon (before Christmas).

The skimmer is pretty good. It seems to pull an okay amount, but the annoying part is when I turn it off and then back on again, the pin-wheel seems to get stuck. It's pretty tight in the sump area so I have to pull it out and fiddle with it to get it spinning again. Any thoughts on what the problem here might be?

The return pump (stock Solana pump) does okay, but it's loud and vibrates a lot. I think I'll be in the market for an upgrade fairly soon. Any suggestions on a quiet pump in the 300(ish)gph range?

I've been fiddling with an arduino based pH probe - which is pretty sweet. I added a wireless shield and can now read the pH by going to a webpage on any computer on my network (iPhone included). I have an ELN dimming shield from DWZM that I will use to control the LED lights once I get them wired up.

So now for the good stuff. I have the following inhabitants:

• 1 six line Wrasse
• 2 Ocellaris Clown fish
• 1 green Chromis
• 1 green bubble anemone
• 1 coral banded shrimp
• 1 lettuce nudibranch
• a ton of florida ceriths from reefcleaners.org
• a few trochus snails
• about 8 nerite snails
• 1 large red scarlet hermit
• about 15+ electric blue hermits
• 1 Halloween hermite (sold to me an electric blue hermit)
• 1 brittle starfish, whom I never see

I also recently added a few corals to supplement the leather coral I had from my previous nano reef, including:

• green star polyps
• tricolor orange ricordia
• red mushrooms
• candy apply zoanthids
• candy cane coral

I must say that now that the hair algea is under control, the clean up crew has established itself, and the clowns have taken to hosting the anemone (which is growing like crazy), the wife acceptance factor for the whole setup has increased a ton.

Enjoy the pics and I'll try and do better on the updates.

[ragnas]

Here's a video I took a few days ago:

[HiImSean]

do you have any pics or more details from the LED build? im going to order the same tank tomorrow or monday and i really want to do a DIY LED build. what size heatsink are you using?

[bigworm175]

Sweet. Thanks for the update. That tank is on sale at Marine Depot. I just got mine.

[ragnas]

Originally Posted by HiImSean

do you have any pics or more details from the LED build? im going to order the same tank tomorrow or monday and i really want to do a DIY LED build. what size heatsink are you using?

I have all the parts to do the LED, just haven't found the time yet. I purchased two 5.9" x9" heat sinks from rapid led. I'm using two ELN-60-48p drivers, which will allow me to dim them using the arduino. As for the LEDs themselves, I will be using XP-G whites and XR-E royal blues. I will not be using optics as the light will be integral to the tank cover. The two heat sinks will be connected using 1/4" inch aluminum angle.

For the cover I am currently using two pieces of glass cut to the inside dimensions of the tank and suspended with plastic clips. The plan for the cover for the light is slightly different. I will use a piece of 1/4" plexi with a hole cut in the middle for the light. The who light will slide into a catch on the top of the acrylic and hold the light unit in place. That way I can easily remove the light and the lid. I'll post some pictures once I start the build.

[ragnas]

Originally Posted by bigworm175

Sweet. Thanks for the update. That tank is on sale at Marine Depot. I just got mine.

That's an awesome deal! It's a great tank and the packaging for shipping is excellent - so excellent that it will tank you some time to free the tank from the packing materials.

[SWINGRRRR]

How do you like the MP10 on a tank that size? At what % would you say you are running it at? Would 2 be overkill?

[HiImSean]

Originally Posted by ragnas

I have all the parts to do the LED, just haven't found the time yet. I purchased two 5.9" x9" heat sinks from rapid led. I'm using two ELN-60-48p drivers, which will allow me to dim them using the arduino. As for the LEDs themselves, I will be using XP-G whites and XR-E royal blues. I will not be using optics as the light will be integral to the tank cover. The two heat sinks will be connected using 1/4" inch aluminum angle.

For the cover I am currently using two pieces of glass cut to the inside dimensions of the tank and suspended with plastic clips. The plan for the cover for the light is slightly different. I will use a piece of 1/4" plexi with a hole cut in the middle for the light. The who light will slide into a catch on the top of the acrylic and hold the light unit in place. That way I can easily remove the light and the lid. I'll post some pictures once I start the build.

so pretty much a 12x9 heatsink? how many of each LEDs are you going to use? i'd love to see some pics when you get a chance. im actually ordering my tank right now

[ragnas]

Originally Posted by SWINGRRRR

How do you like the MP10 on a tank that size? At what % would you say you are running it at? Would 2 be overkill?

The MP-10 is awesome. I run it on about 50% reef crest mode. If you crank it too high it will stir up the sand. Based on that I would think 2 might be too much.

[ragnas]

Originally Posted by HiImSean

so pretty much a 12x9 heatsink? how many of each LEDs are you going to use? i'd love to see some pics when you get a chance. im actually ordering my tank right now

I have 10 xp-g whites and 13 xr-e royal blues. The whites and blues will be on separate drivers.

[SWINGRRRR]

Originally Posted by ragnas

The MP-10 is awesome. I run it on about 50% reef crest mode. If you crank it too high it will stir up the sand. Based on that I would think 2 might be too much.

Sweet. With all the black Friday sales, time to do some shopping!!

[SirVilhelm]

This is really a great thread. I was planning on just getting a JBJ cube but like the DIY of this setup. Do you have a rough estimate of how much you spent on this project?

[oppih]

So what size did you drill the bottom of the cube.. 1" & 3/4"?