Author Topic: 67 gallon shallow reef cube (Read 11270 times)

Reefinmike · « **on:** August 22, 2010, 22:01:45 »

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 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2010, 22:04:36 »

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 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2010, 22:06:01 »

nice cant wait to see it all hooked up

Reefinmike · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2010, 22:15:58 »

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.

Quote from: TechGuy40 on August 22, 2010, 22:04:36

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 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2010, 22:18:33 »

Quote from: illnino on August 22, 2010, 22:15:58

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 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2010, 22:20:41 »

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

Reefinmike · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2010, 22:24:10 »

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

HUNGER · « **Reply #7 on:** August 22, 2010, 22:56:46 »

naa it would be that hard

lazylivin · « **Reply #8 on:** August 22, 2010, 23:28:58 »

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 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 23, 2010, 01:13:49 »

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

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

~reefchik~ · « **Reply #10 on:** August 29, 2010, 15:24:16 »

Ok, now that I figured out that you changed your forum name

and tracked down your tank thread....

Nice work!!

Reefinmike · « **Reply #11 on:** September 26, 2010, 18:49:11 »

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 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 26, 2010, 19:08:28 »

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

lazylivin · « **Reply #13 on:** September 26, 2010, 19:20:24 »

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

Reefinmike · « **Reply #14 on:** September 26, 2010, 19:20:53 »

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 · « **Reply #15 on:** September 26, 2010, 21:32:23 »

Quote from: Reefinmike on September 26, 2010, 19:20:53

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 · « **Reply #16 on:** September 26, 2010, 22:07:01 »

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

Reefinmike · « **Reply #17 on:** September 27, 2010, 01:08:28 »

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 · « **Reply #18 on:** September 27, 2010, 08:22:19 »

Reefinmike · « **Reply #19 on:** October 12, 2010, 20:11:02 »

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 · « **Reply #20 on:** October 12, 2010, 20:13:47 »

looks good

Blown76mav · « **Reply #21 on:** October 12, 2010, 20:20:34 »

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

Sunny · « **Reply #22 on:** October 12, 2010, 20:41:37 »

Nice set up. Looks good.

Kenn · « **Reply #23 on:** October 12, 2010, 21:16:24 »

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 · « **Reply #24 on:** October 12, 2010, 22:44:44 »

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.

kattz · « **Reply #25 on:** October 12, 2010, 23:03:02 »

Looks great! I'm more worried about the GFCI breaker the MH is (not?) attached to? That would be... shocking. It is a very nice setup. Should be quite productive!

Kev

lazylivin · « **Reply #26 on:** October 12, 2010, 23:49:58 »

Love the setup and the tank foot print. Great idea with anti-siphon on the return.

Reefinmike · « **Reply #27 on:** October 13, 2010, 00:26:21 »

kevin- are you thinking the orange thing is a gfci? its just a splitter, anyways you supposedly arent supposed to put MH on gfci. Anyways, GFCI's scare the crap out of me... cutting out all the time and whatnot. I just use a titanium grounding probe.

Brian- yeah, the siphon break works very quickly, If I had drilled on the return at the water line, it would have either been really loud and spraying all the time, or it would take forever for the siphon to break, especially since the surface area of the tank is same as a 125, it would probably flood my sump by the time it breaks.

lazylivin · « **Reply #28 on:** October 13, 2010, 01:24:31 »

I have also seen a number of them with salt creep around the little hole and on some reflectors from it. Looks like a great fail safe. Much improvement over the traditional method.

kattz · « **Reply #29 on:** October 13, 2010, 08:12:25 »

Quote from: Reefinmike on October 13, 2010, 00:26:21

kevin- are you thinking the orange thing is a gfci? its just a splitter, anyways you supposedly arent supposed to put MH on gfci. Anyways, GFCI's scare the crap out of me... cutting out all the time and whatnot. I just use a titanium grounding probe.

That was a joke...

cyberwollf · « **Reply #30 on:** October 13, 2010, 17:21:49 »

Quote from: Reefinmike on October 13, 2010, 00:26:21

anyways you supposedly arent supposed to put MH on gfci.

use arc fault breakers for lights.

slandis3 · « **Reply #31 on:** October 13, 2010, 18:35:33 »

Quote from: Reefinmike on October 13, 2010, 00:26:21

kevin- are you thinking the orange thing is a gfci? its just a splitter, anyways you supposedly arent supposed to put MH on gfci. Anyways, GFCI's scare the crap out of me... cutting out all the time and whatnot. I just use a titanium grounding probe.

I have my system setup on 2 gfci breakers. I also use ground probes to help pick up any stray voltage.

Reefinmike · « **Reply #32 on:** October 13, 2010, 18:53:45 »

more pics to come shortly, added a small yellow tang and 5 chromis earlier, about to add some more fish and all of my corals.

HUNGER · « **Reply #33 on:** October 14, 2010, 13:43:55 »

cool cant wait to see

kattz · « **Reply #34 on:** October 14, 2010, 21:21:03 »

I saw it today. Really nice tank, Mike. Frags are very happy here; eating well and stretching out!

Kev

Reefinmike · « **Reply #35 on:** October 16, 2010, 18:16:45 »

well, everything is in place and happy. I need to find a way to keep critters out the overflow slot, two days ago I found my tiny shrimp goby made its way to the sump, but a chromis was not so lucky and didnt make it past the gate valve. last night I found the energency overflow was going and my clownfish made its way down to the gate valve. I opened it and he was looking bad. today he was all better though! im thinking of just putting some eggcrate in there to keep most fish out. If a chromis goes down every once in a while and becomes giant nassarious food, im not too heart broken.

I got around to taking some pics earlier and it isnt easy to capture the depth of the tank, and the camera sucks and makes everything look blue. Its amazing how full of corals the tank is and how I managed to fit it all in 20l at one time. Current fish list is: Small Yellow tang, talboti damsel, 4 chromis, lg pinkspot watchman, shrimp-ray goby, perc clown, and I decided to risk putting my mystery wrasse in. The mystery has never shown any signs of jumping, and I cover the tank at night.

There are rock walls on the left and rear sides with a bridge that spans from the back left corner down to near the bottom front right corner. I really like this layout, but I think I will probably move the bridge because the best view is coming from the right panel which isnt the main viewing panel

Reefinmike · « **Reply #36 on:** October 16, 2010, 18:18:19 »

wow the depth is really deceiving in these pics. for reference in the last pic, the wellso is about 16" back and the rocks behind it are about 30" back from the front

lazylivin · « **Reply #37 on:** October 16, 2010, 21:08:14 »

Oh wow that is really nice, the added depth gives it a more natural reef look. Nice job!

Reefinmike · « **Reply #38 on:** October 16, 2010, 21:46:46 »

yeah, that is my favorite thing about the tank, it seems much more natural and open than the standard rock wall. Its really almost one of those "you have to see it in person to get it" kind of things... pictures (atleast from my camera) cant do it a justice. My big wellso is loving all the extra space/light, he is bigger than ever now!

HUNGER · « **Reply #39 on:** October 17, 2010, 10:29:26 »

very nice looks over stocked allready

Reefinmike · « **Reply #40 on:** October 20, 2010, 01:24:37 »

Got 5 new corals today, all for between $20 and $25. Three of them were "scratch n dents"

nice little brain, has some potential

anyone know the name on this one?^^^^^ I had it on the tip of my tongue and forgot, think it begins with a "M"

scratch n dent lobo. were 3 heads, one good, one hurtin, and one dead. chopped the dead off.

nice little brains, the one on the left is pretty nice, odd coloration. The one on the right is difficult to get a picture of, it is mostly purple/brownish with some green, I bought it because it looks like it has a LOT of potential and can turn out really nice given the right conditions.

Reefinmike · « **Reply #41 on:** October 20, 2010, 01:52:28 »

for reference to how off the colors are because my crappy cam/abilities, in the last pic, the lobo in the background, the outer rim is actually a hot metallic pink and the inside is a teal color.

HUNGER · « **Reply #42 on:** October 20, 2010, 08:14:27 »

Sunny · « **Reply #43 on:** October 20, 2010, 09:54:53 »

That is a really nice tank. You did a great job with the rock work. Corals look nice.

~reefchik~ · « **Reply #44 on:** October 21, 2010, 17:32:57 »

Looking really good, Mike.

Reefinmike · « **Reply #45 on:** October 30, 2010, 17:19:06 »

Finally got around to finishing off the stand yesterday, now all I need to do is paint the half inch ring of unpainted ply that goes around the tank very carefully. Also ordered a reefkeeper lite for temp control and just to simplify thing and a new MH bulb.

HUNGER · « **Reply #46 on:** October 31, 2010, 01:14:46 »

looks great and full

2024 Ohio Reef Frag Swap

Author Topic: 67 gallon shallow reef cube (Read 11270 times)

slandis3