67 gallon shallow reef cube

[Reefinmike]

I designed this aquarium with one thing in mind- an efficient aquarium for housing all my corals. My current 20 gallon ( thread here> http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=8135.15  ) is getting to be waaaay too packed and I have already lost several corals due to being close to one another. I originally wanted to do an sps only tank, and that is out of the question now, I love my lps way too much to not have them in my main tank. I will have some sps, mainly things like pocillipora, stylophora, monti c., monti d., and some easier to keep acros.

This setup will have a lumenarc reflector hanging over it with a 400w bulb. I am not sure if this will be too bright for the shallow depth, so I got a coralvue dimmable ballast from brian (lazyliving). The ballast can dim the bulb down to 260 watts which is probably where it will stay for a while so I dont bleach anything.

My current setup (20g display w/20g fuge) will be the sump(s). The 20g display, I will convert into a fuge, and it will drain down to the sump where I will have my big ol reef octopus (not sure of the model, its 24" tall, 8" diameter, has a reef octo 3000 pump) and a return pump. As for the overflow, There is a thin slot cut near the top, and water will flow into the overflow box. I will be doing a Beananimal style overflow with one full siphon, one open channel, and one emergency. The main drain will be t'd off, giving the fuge only about 150gph flow and the rest to the sump. I am still not sure where I will put the returns, I am trying to decide whether to put them in the upper back corners along the back pane of acrylic, or on the actual lip in the back corners, with lockline aiming down.

The rock layout will be very simple, a small wall in the back covering the overflow, narrowing and sloping down towards the center of the tank, maybe a little further, and a couple outcroppings of rock, leaving lots of sand space for brains n such.

[TechGuy]

That is NICE! I love the dimensions.

As far as the lighting goes. People might call me crazy. But in the frag tank, my rack is 7-8" under the water, with a 400W 20K and 14K 8" above it. If you raise it some to cover the whole tank, you should be fine with SPS. I have only bleached a few things here and there.

[HUNGER]

nice cant wait to see it all hooked up

[Reefinmike]

I Love it too! The light is probably going to have to be a good 12" above the tank to cover it all, so I think it should be fine with 400w. Still have to take into consideration that some corals will only be an inch or two under water.

That is NICE! I love the dimensions.

As far as the lighting goes. People might call me crazy. But in the frag tank, my rack is 7-8" under the water, with a 400W 20K and 14K 8" above it. If you raise it some to cover the whole tank, you should be fine with SPS. I have only bleached a few things here and there.

[TechGuy]

I Love it too! The light is probably going to have to be a good 12" above the tank to cover it all, so I think it should be fine with 400w. Still have to take into consideration that some corals will only be an inch or two under water.

Thats true. I have played with an under driven bulb. The 14K Hamilton under driven @ 250 looks really cool. The 10K looks like a 10K still. Havn't tried a 20K. I doubt it hurts the bulbs. I want dim able ballasts

[cyberwollf]

Nice! did you build or buy it.  I like the shallowness.  If it was only 8foot long 

[Reefinmike]

Someone locally built it for me... I would be too afraid to make something that holds that much water.

[HUNGER]

naa it would be that hard

[lazylivin]

SWEET! Looking forward to seeing this thread progress. Love the tank dimensions and a 400w 20k should be perfect even for corals a few inches under the water.

[Reefinmike]

^yeah, good thing I have that dimmable ballast though!

I forgot to add the dimensions. the tank measures 36x36x12

[~reefchik~]

Ok, now that I figured out that you changed your forum name  and tracked down your tank thread....

Nice work!!   

[Reefinmike]

Im moving to a new place october 1st and first thing im doing(before I move all my junk) is set up this tank. I am going to work on building the stand this week, I think a 3'x3'x3' cube stand is in order.

and here is how cramped my tank is now, I have two frag racks in the main tank and one in the fuge. have about 10 corals in the fuge, a frosgspawn, trachyphyllia, chalice, torch, a couple lobos, couple zoos and some sun polyps. In all I have around 80-90 different pieces in a 20 gallon

[TechGuy]

I can't wait to see the new system all setup Mike!

[lazylivin]

Wow things are cramped. Looking forward to seeing your progress. 

[Reefinmike]

I cant wait either. Btw, I ended up not buying too many pieces at the swap (a small orange plate with blastos, a orange leptastrea, and a nice little pocillipora) I managed to make some room by moving my troublesome hydnophora to the fuge. Thanks for the offer to hold stuff todd/chris!

[TechGuy]

I cant wait either. Btw, I ended up not buying too many pieces at the swap (a small orange plate with blastos, a orange leptastrea, and a nice little pocillipora) I managed to make some room by moving my troublesome hydnophora to the fuge. Thanks for the offer to hold stuff todd/chris!

Not a problem man! I would trash the Hydnphora lol. Mean nasty buggers.

[HUNGER]

heck if ur going to throw it away i will take it

[Reefinmike]

I could never give away the hydnophora... sure the 6" colony only cost me $18 and only killed about $100 in other coral but it is sooo bright. Once I have my new tank set up, I will have 9 square feet of footprint to place the hydno. I threw him in my fuge about a week ago, and shortly after I got him I threw a piece of LR on top of it because it has a nice ricordea on it. I keep checking on the hydno to make sure that the tissue isnt receding.

[HUNGER]

nice

[Reefinmike]

Time for an update, moved into the new place and got working on setting the tank up. I filled it with water, threw some sand in, a powerhead, heater and a few pieces of LR about 4 days back, then today I moved the majority of the liverock and some hardy corals along with the clownfish, Hung the light, and threw a 10 gallon under as a temporary sump. The 2 20 gallons that are holding the rest of my livestock will become the sump for this system, one for skimmer and return pump, and one for the fuge. I installed the return kinda weird on the eurobrace in the back corner, for whatever reason, it seemed to work best for me, and the anti-siphon on the return is much better than the standard1/8" hole at the water line, I tapped the elbow on the top of the return and added a jg fitting with some ro tubing to another JG fitting in the top of the overflow cover. it is silent, and I always have a clear view to see it is not clogged. for the drains, I just have two 1" drains, one is the main drain which is at a full siphon, adjusted to the flow of the return pump using the gate valve, and the other sits about 2" higher and is the emergency drain. Currently I am pushing about 800gph through the system and it is silent except for slight noise of the pump. I laid the rock in a wall going on the left and back side of the aquarium, and a decent size island in the front right hand side. I still need to play around with the rocks, but I like the setup.

[HUNGER]

looks good

[Blown76mav]

Looks great, can't wait to see it progress.  Love the demensions.

[Sunny]

Nice set up.  Looks good.

[Kenn]

Looks great 

Question though ... the corners on the stand look mitered If so the mitered joint wont transfer the load straight to the floor.

Of course you probably have them braced in ways I can see 

LOVE the tank !!

[Reefinmike]

yeah, I did that

I realized the physics of it as was screwing it together that the weight was being held by screws, then I realized that I had 7 screws and a metal L bracket supporting each. Though I am planning on putting two 2x4's running front to back on the upper right and upper left side and wrapping the thing in some ply.