45 DD RR Cube...First Dream Build PICS!
- Thread starter FiShScaLe
- Start date
I used the acid bath to burn off a layer of the dry rock because it is possible for dry rock to have phosphates locked in it. By burning a layer off it is helping rid the rock of phosphates. Some rock is worse than others and multiple dips may be needed. It def is not necessary but just am extra step im taking to be safe.
The ATO is all hooked up to my DA controller. It was actually a lot easier than I thought. The rockwork is done and epoxied, make a really nice structure the pic does not do it justice. The tank is about 3/4 full now. Just waiting on more water which is in the process of being made. My TDS coming out of the DI is 0 im loving this unit. By morning ill have enough water to finish up and then I can get the skimmer going and help clear the tank up. Heres a shot of the rock and the tank almost full.
Be back in the morning :bounce1:
Be back in the morning :bounce1:
I think its been almost a year now that Ive been setting up this tank? Finally it is cycled and Ive got some livestock in it. As of right now I have a cleanup crew consisting of 6 nassarius snails, 6 atrea snail, 4 blue leg hermits, 4 scarlet hermits, and a blood shrimp.
Fish: Pair of true percula clowns, green chromis
Corals: 3 Riccordias, tricolor validia, monti setosa, green digiata, purple nana.
Everything is doing great all the fish are eating and the SPS have great polyp exstension and are coloring up in my tank. Im feeding frozen spirulina brine, frozen mysis, and new spectrum pellets twice a day. I plan on adding cyclopeeze and some type of coral food to the tanks diet. The tank has been set up for about a month now. Im taking it very slowly as far as adding livestock. Fish that are soon to come include a sunburst anthias, maybe 1 or 2 fairy wrasses, and a midas blenny. Maybe even a yasha haze goby pistol shrimp pair. As for corals I would like to have a bunch of high end SPS, some LPS like a frogspawn and scolys, and maybe a few zoas and some more rics. I also added some live rock and some cheato filled with pods I bought off a fellow reefer in my area. Heres some pics of everything.
Side view from the left
Side view from the right:
FTS
Skimmer after cleaning the cup but from the neck you can tell the nasty stuff its pulling out.
BRS Phosphate reactor w/ BRS phos media all set up
TLF carbon reactor w/ BRS ROX carbon set up
Pic of the fuge up and running w/ the aquaclear 70
What under the tank looks like now. Everything is zip tied and hung to try and keep it as neat as possible
Fish: Pair of true percula clowns, green chromis
Corals: 3 Riccordias, tricolor validia, monti setosa, green digiata, purple nana.
Everything is doing great all the fish are eating and the SPS have great polyp exstension and are coloring up in my tank. Im feeding frozen spirulina brine, frozen mysis, and new spectrum pellets twice a day. I plan on adding cyclopeeze and some type of coral food to the tanks diet. The tank has been set up for about a month now. Im taking it very slowly as far as adding livestock. Fish that are soon to come include a sunburst anthias, maybe 1 or 2 fairy wrasses, and a midas blenny. Maybe even a yasha haze goby pistol shrimp pair. As for corals I would like to have a bunch of high end SPS, some LPS like a frogspawn and scolys, and maybe a few zoas and some more rics. I also added some live rock and some cheato filled with pods I bought off a fellow reefer in my area. Heres some pics of everything.
Side view from the left
Side view from the right:
FTS
Skimmer after cleaning the cup but from the neck you can tell the nasty stuff its pulling out.
BRS Phosphate reactor w/ BRS phos media all set up
TLF carbon reactor w/ BRS ROX carbon set up
Pic of the fuge up and running w/ the aquaclear 70
What under the tank looks like now. Everything is zip tied and hung to try and keep it as neat as possible
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Close up of the clowns. Their color has gotten nicer and nicer everyday in my tank
Close up of the green digi.
Close up of tricolor. I just got it 2 days ago was brown and purple in my friends tank hoping it colors up in mine.
Close up of monit setosa. Ths thing is sweet.
Close up of the rics. Theres a blue one, green one, and an orange one.
I couldnt get a close up of the nana because it looked very blurry couldnt even see it. All these were taken on my iphone which doesnt take bad pics but I need a camera so I can take nicer pics. I plan on buying one by the end of april hopefully maybe sooner. Im going to take a trip to the LFS tomorrow if I get anything Ill be posting it up. I just want to thank everyone on the forums for their help and knowledge. Without you guys I wouldnt have the knowledge or as nice of a tank as I do now. If you check out my tank please leave a comment and lmk what you guys think. Thanks, Rich.
Close up of the green digi.
Close up of tricolor. I just got it 2 days ago was brown and purple in my friends tank hoping it colors up in mine.
Close up of monit setosa. Ths thing is sweet.
Close up of the rics. Theres a blue one, green one, and an orange one.
I couldnt get a close up of the nana because it looked very blurry couldnt even see it. All these were taken on my iphone which doesnt take bad pics but I need a camera so I can take nicer pics. I plan on buying one by the end of april hopefully maybe sooner. Im going to take a trip to the LFS tomorrow if I get anything Ill be posting it up. I just want to thank everyone on the forums for their help and knowledge. Without you guys I wouldnt have the knowledge or as nice of a tank as I do now. If you check out my tank please leave a comment and lmk what you guys think. Thanks, Rich.
Good luck with your build! What MH bulb are your using?
Reminds me of my tank
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1979334
Reminds me of my tank
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1979334
rajkovich207
New member
Just a quick warning, my dad has one of those gramas. A few days ago he put in a yellow coris wrasse only to have it killed by the gramma, maybe we got a bad one but he's a bit of a terror. Great build and gl!!!
Thanks for the tip. I bought him last out of all my fish so Im hoping he doesnt turn into a terror. Usually when you add a fish like that though last they are fine with other tankmates. I maybe plan on adding one more larger fish who put him in check if he gets out of line lol. Thanks alot Rajkovich I appreciate it I put a lot of hard work into the build.
Here is about 4 days of skimate. SWC makes a really nice skimmer Im very happy with it. The fish and coral all seem to be doing great. What Im not happy with is my overflow on my marineland 45g cube. First off there are slits in the bottom of the overflow and on the top making it so that the overflow does not surface skim. Im also unhappy with their return on the system, the locline sticks out of the water sucking in air causing a ton of micro bubbles. One good idea is that the overflow has a removealbe face sow what Im going to do is get some black silicone and silicone the bottom openings on the overflow so water can only go through the top causing it to surface skim. As far as the return Im going to cut out the top most portion of my return plumbing, cap off the PVC coming out of the bulkhead, and run PVC straight up and over the top of the tank for a new return. Does anyone know where I can get black PVC?
Ty it seems to be. Cant wait til I get some extra cash for some corals. Last night I was inspecting the tank with a flashlight and noticed there are about 1000 tiny pods all over the glass. Seems the cheato I bought to seed the tank worked :celeb2:
Quick update. Everythings doing great, corals are very happy coloring up and encrusting over their plugs. I had a very large pod outbreak making the water look cloudy due to how many were in the water column but they are dieing back and its clearing up. Also the little bit of diatoms and film algea on the glass has cleared up the tank looks spotless, havnt even had to clean the glass in a couple days. Ill be attending a frag swap very soon so ill hopefully be bringing home some nice stuff. Here are some pics for now.
FTS1
FTS2
Monti digi, grown a bit but got very fuzzy over the last couple days
Monti setosa starting to encrust over its plug. Theres a coral behind it starting to color up and turn purple but I dont know its name.
Cleaner and my royal gramma who has gotten very fat.
Heres just a small amount of the pods I had all over my tank. For some reason they were attracted to the flashlight I put on the side of the tank.
FTS1
FTS2
Monti digi, grown a bit but got very fuzzy over the last couple days
Monti setosa starting to encrust over its plug. Theres a coral behind it starting to color up and turn purple but I dont know its name.
Cleaner and my royal gramma who has gotten very fat.
Heres just a small amount of the pods I had all over my tank. For some reason they were attracted to the flashlight I put on the side of the tank.
I capped off the line going into the return in the overflow that came with the tank and made my own over the top return out of pvc. Im guessing you have the same tank and same problem with bubbles coming from the locline? Make sure you mark out other areas where bubbles are coming from before going crazy over the loc line.
EWC88
New member
I am actually looking at buying a 45g cube from someone, and I wanted to see what other people did to them on here and I saw a lot of people mentioning the bubbles in tank. I haven't got the tank yet, still debating while the seller is on vaca. I just hate air bubbles and don't want that.
vmacisback
New member
Awesome build so far
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