The new cube! 60g BB SPS reef

[BCT182]

I decided to downsize from my 210, to a 60 cube. The idea was to have a smaller body of water, so that I could dose and test and do water changes on a much smaller scale. I am over the need to have every fish I've ever wanted all in the tank at the same time, and I wish to focus more on SPS corals.

The tank is a glass 60 gallon cube, 24x24x24 and it came with a decent canopy and stand. I wanted to have the system completely contained to below the tank inside the stand. This proved to be more difficult than I had expected. The canopy is far too short for a halide, however I had planned to continue with LED, so the canopy is minimal but still functional.

I drilled the tank and installed a glass-holes.com kit with the overflow box and cover. I picked up 1/2" thick white starboard with the UV protection and siliconed it down in place at the bottom of the tank.

The light is a Ecotech Radion which I am very impressed with so far. Picked it up at Barrier Reef and am very, very pleased.

The flow is generated with two Ecotech mp10wES and with the current aquascape and lack of corals, is more than sufficient flow.

The sump was actually a 6 chamber holding tank for fish. DBMreef and myself cut some of the dividers out and added a couple to create a sump that houses a large chamber for the skimmer and a small chamber for live algae. A final chamber holds the return pump. The sump is 21"x21" and the inside of the stand is 23"x23" so I really used as much space as I could possibly take.

The skimmer is a un-modded MSX Cone S mini, which I plan to mod with a better needle wheel and a more advanced bubble plate.

I was able to squeeze in a BRS carbon reactor and American DJ powerstrip.

I soaked all the rock in bleach, soaked it in fresh water and let it freeze solid, and rinsed several times over the course of several weeks.

I picked up a Tunze top-off, and have the top off container next to the tank fit into a cube in the neighboring Ikea stand.

Pics to come...

 

[TJL]

Very NICE Bret, cannot wait to see what you can do with this lil' cube.

Cheers, Todd

 

[BCT182]

Thanks Todd, here's the pics!

 

[TJL]

Man thats going to sweet once you have a few SPS colonies in there. Great aquascape to work with Bret.

Cheers, Todd

 

[BCT182]

Thanks! It's actually only four rocks. No avalanches and if I ever need to dig around it won't be too much to just remove all the rock.

 

[jmp21677]

I am getting ready to move and I'm going to tear down the 90 cube and restart from scratch. How are the lights? Is it just a cluster of LED's in each reflector? What kind of container are you using for the auto top off?

 

[BCT182]

I'm very happy with the lights. Its too soon to know how they compare for growth, but they are asteticly pleasing and very well designed. I am impressed with the software too.

The top-off tank was a food safe food tub I found that fits in the cubby hole.

 

[DolphinLVR]

Looks awesome Brett!

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[y2says]

Looking good

 

[Krish]

Looking good Brett!


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[Darthv247]

nice tank. should be a stunner. but i wanna know how u got bobby flay to come look at it !

 

[Chichas01]

looks great! What % are you running the Radion at? I'm looking to get 2 in the next couple of months to replace my lighting.

 

[BCT182]

I'm running them at 100% for 5 hours and then drop the green, white and light blue LEDs before I get home from work.

 

[eww]

Nice set up Brett. Very clean and classy. Skimmer fits just right too

 

[JJMoneyman]

Great looking setup!

 

[Chichas01]

I'm running them at 100% for 5 hours and then drop the green, white and light blue LEDs before I get home from work.

Did you start them out at 100% or ramp up slowly over a couple weeks?

 

[trido]

Great looking set up Brett. I know where your coming from when it comes to the lack of space in the stand. A big difference from the 210's we used to run.

 

[cadillactattoo]

beautiful set up , im actually picking up the same tank , sent you a pm about your sump maybe we can do a grow off , ? im probally going to go ai sol on mine but currently setting a 250 w halide

 

[Katchupoy]

Brett, very cool setup. So what happened with your 210? What about your corals in that tank?

 

[BCT182]

Did you start them out at 100% or ramp up slowly over a couple weeks?

The few corals I did keep were under my prior LED lighting and then 400w halides while I was set things up, so I went straight to 100%. I think in all reality a Radion is close in par to between 175w-250w SE halide bulb. Probably no acclimation really necessary.