New home for three musketeers - Marineland 93G cube reef build

[mimosa]

Time for a bigger tank... for my 3 clown fishes and their pal scribble rabbit, and their playground: a few acans, frogspawn (that I was lucky to win in PSAS Bob Moore frag swap), ricordeas, white tree-trunk xenias, and green/red zoos.

Got a new Marineland Cube 93G to replace my current 30G Aqueon breeder reef tank, after much contemplation. I decided on this because I wanted a deep front-to-back look, space I have for this tank setup, and there is something special about the cubes and reef setups... So, will be setting it up in the next few weeks after much planning and selection.

It will be a build around the following equipment:

• Tank: Marineland 93g cube, Starphire front, glass top, blue back (blue/black aquarium paper attached using Clearview gel), Starboard white barebottom
• Stand: Marineland Monterey, black
• Lights: PFO 400W HQI MH with 20K bulb (I also have a few 250W HQI fixtures from a prior tank with 20K Ushio bulbs, which I will use initially)
• Suplemental blue in the front: T5 VHO actinic ficture, dual-bulbs with single reflectors
• Skimmer: Precision Marine Bullet 2
• Skimmer waste collector: ETSS Compact waste collector with air filter
• Sump: ETSS UHF 72 Pro, 3/8" acrylic, fully enclosed, plumbed for external skimmer and pumps
• Skimmer pump: Pan-World 150PS
• Return pump: Pan World 40PX
• Circulation pump in tank: Vortech MP 40W

Building a sump/skimmer closet in the garage, vented outside through Panasonic ultra silent constant-on exhaust fan. All plumbing will be directed to the garage sump closet, with no other plumbing or filtering inside the stand.

A few pictures for starters:

Hopefully this weekend the sump closet will be done. I will post more pictures as time permits.

Max

 

[baseballkid5]

Where did you pick this one up? Local?

 

[mimosa]

Where did you pick this one up? Local?

Local at Blue Sierra in Renton. It was a special order (front 1/2" Starphire glass, rest of tank/stand standard).

 

[roscoe]

Gonna be a sweet build! I love the look of cubes.

 

[tike]

Sweet lookin cube! I love the cubies!

 

[JIvePhotography]

Nice! I'll be following this build for sure. I have a standard corner-flo Marineland tank and thought about the starfire glass but ended just going standard because the custom was just a lot more money. Can you really tell a difference once the system is up and going? The cube is cool though, too bad they don't have a standard cube corner-flo.

Do you have any thoghts on your rock work? Center pile, against the back, low rise? Will that glass top get salt creep and possibly prevent gas exchange? I have a metal mesh terrarium top on my tank for gas exchanges (and to also keep the prisoners from escaping into my cat's mouth) but it gets salt creep but I just wipe it off every other day.

 

[FreakinReefin]

Nice! I'll be following this build for sure. I have a standard corner-flo Marineland tank and thought about the starfire glass but ended just going standard because the custom was just a lot more money. Can you really tell a difference once the system is up and going? The cube is cool though, too bad they don't have a standard cube corner-flo.

Do you have any thoghts on your rock work? Center pile, against the back, low rise? Will that glass top get salt creep and possibly prevent gas exchange? I have a metal mesh terrarium top on my tank for gas exchanges (and to also keep the prisoners from escaping into my cat's mouth) but it gets salt creep but I just wipe it off every other day.

You should spray it with that anti-salt creep spray. That should easily take care of that problem. I use that on my plumbing unions and it works like a charm.

 

[Workaholic]

Nice choice! I'm also a big fan of marinelands new cube line.

Tom

 

[JIvePhotography]

You should spray it with that anti-salt creep spray. That should easily take care of that problem. I use that on my plumbing unions and it works like a charm.

I didn't know they made such a product. What's the brand or where can I pick some up at (LFS or online)?

 

[FreakinReefin]

I didn't know they made such a product. What's the brand or where can I pick some up at (LFS or online)?

Ummmm...let me look it up!

 

[FreakinReefin]

I use this brand I think...It's been so long since I have needed to use it so it has been sitting on my bench for a while.

 

[mimosa]

JIvePhotography: Marineland makes standard cubes, relatively recent. Smaller than 150G ones are all with standard glass. The one I have is 93G standard, except I had the front glass custom with Starphire. To be honest, I cannot tell much difference right now with the blueish light on and empty tank. As I fill up the tank, I will see if there is a drastic difference. Note also that with Starphire they made it 1/2" thick front, so it adds to the cost a bit (versus the standard 3/8" for all other sides and bottom). Regardless, I like this tank a lot because of dimensions. I am not affiliated with Blue Sierra (though I am very happy with the tank purchasing experience through the owner); if you like to check them out, they have many sizes on display there.

For rockwork, I am thinking shallow, 2 or 3 islands, with channels in between. It is interesting to see foam structures some of you have been building, but I am not planning on going that route. I prefer to be able to move things around in case I need to clean under the rocks. I will place the Vortech at the lower back wall, right by the overflow box facing front. Since this will be bare bottom, I am planning on adjusting it so that there is no detritus build-up at the bottom, with all going through the sump and skimmer.

For glass top and salt-creep, on all my previous tanks I was never happy with glass top, but this time I am determined I will make this work I want the evaporation at minimum and no moisture from the tank in the house. Regarding gas exchange, PM bullet 2 is a workhorse that takes care of that while skimming the tank (I had it before and I was extremely happy with it... amazing air flow, and skimming action, and very easy to control/maintain). I will have the skimmer air feed coming from outside of house, and exhaust air also going to outside through vinyl tubing. I plan on making this setup as neat as I could and easy to maintain, sort of like a lab :lol:

FreakinReefin: I need to check that anti-salt-creep spray. I hope it is safe to use inside the tank on the glass top. Does it say it is safe or did you have any problems with it?

All: I got all the reef equipment ready, just patiently waiting for the sump closet to be done...

 

[mimosa]

Update on "hood" to hang 400W DE pendant and lights... Still no water...

Raw wood frame:

Black spray painted frame:

Frame with 400W DE PFO pendant:

With 10000K 400W DE Coralvue Bulb - Looks like a bright sunny day in the house :

With 20000K 400W DE LSE (EBay) Bulb - I really like this bulb and look - Very crisp and bright blue:

Ballast is 400W HQI PFO.


More at my gallery: http://www.reeffrontiers.com/photos_members/showgallery.php?ppuser=3584&cat=500

 

[willandcorina]

great looking setup can't wait to see more

 

[iroll253]

So clean looking. I like the halide stand nice.

 

[mimosa]

Thanks. I just received the sump today: ETSS UHF72 Pro, 3/8 acylic. Will post a picture of the rest of the equipment, and sump room/closet. Getting ready to get all connected this weekend. Can't wait...

 

[jaysauce]

Nice tank! Can't wait to see more.

 

[mimosa]

Sump Room - Sump, Skimmer and Pumps

Tank and sump room are all setup. Some pictures showing progress... Reached the size limit with the images already on this site. So, posting small images although they do not do justice to the setup details. I will post on a different site and add links...

Sump Room: Sump, skimmer and pumps

 

[mimosa]

Tank with Water - First Day

Tank full of water, all operational:

So far lost one fish unfortunately: Powder Blue Tang. It got ick and couldn't get rid of it... I think I will stay with 2 tangs (RedSea sailfin and RedSea Purple tangs). They seem to get along very well with the Scribble rabit. Muskeeters (3 clowns) are also happy in their new home.

Tank inventory:

- RedSea Purple Tang
- RedSea Sailfin Tang
- Scribble Rabbit
- 3 clowns
- 2 pin-cushion urchins (about 3" diameter each)
- 1 long spine black urchin (love this one, great cleaner. Makes rocks spotless )
- 2 large turbo snails
- 3 red leg hermit crabs
- 2 pepper mint shrimps
- 1 cleaner skunk shrimp
- 1 fire-red shrimp


Corals:
- 2 colonies of neon green/lavender frogspawns (one traded with a PSAS member, and one got at the PSAS swap)
- 1 neon green trumpet coral (looks like an Acan, on the left of picture)
- 1 red/blue Acan (mid to large size, about 7" diameter when expanded)
- 1 red/orange/blue/green Acan (small - 2-3" diameter)
- 1 red/green/purple Acan (small - 2-3" diameter)
- 1 sunpolyps
- 1 green zoas and eagles eyes mixed zoas large colony (light green center, dark green inner circle, pink rim, and yellowish tentacles... I think the second one is Eagle Eyes... Bluish center, orange inner circle, blue rim, and yellowish tentacles)
- 1 Armour of God (AOG) zoa frag - Got at PSAS swap. It had 4 polyps when I got it, since then it quadrupled (in about a month)
- 2 blue SPS small colonies (these are very cool, great polyp extension, not sure of the name. Not a tort)
- 3 small Cali tort frags
- 1 green SPS (not sure of the name... The one on the left top in the picture. I think it is from Australia)
- 1 large colony of neon green ricordeas
- 1 pink ricordea
- 1 blue/orange ricordea
- 3 tree-trunk white/pink xenias
- Brown star polyps covering a rock
- Brown/green center polyps

 

[mimosa]

Pictures - 2010/09/16

Finally got around taking and posting some pictures, using my trusted "vintage" first generation digital point-and-shoot camera... After a few months, you can see the growth in this tank.

I also played with the lights a bit... Replaced the 400W single HQI DE with 2x250W HQI DE (all 20K bulbs). A bit of a blueness :lol:, but I like it... Well, thinking about putting the 400W back in addition to the 250watters though...

Here is the album http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g23/mimosareef/Reef/Marineland93GCube_2010/ that lists all pictures and some info on them.


Here are the actual images as of 9/16/2010:

Turning out to be an interesting multi-color danae (started complete dark brown, bleached under 400W DE, and coming back again with a surprise):