45 Gallon CUBE build

[curry76]

Sorry the pics of the light are late, I just had my first RO/DI mishap.

I forgot I was filling a 5 gallon jug (for about and hour and a half) and water spilled all over and went down inside my dryer's lint compartment. (the jug was sitting on top of my dryer)

...so I'm trying to get everything cleaned up before the wife gets home from work!:worried:

 

[curry76]

Okay, pics are finally here!

I got the water all cleaned up inside my dryer and went to work finishing the light stand.


I bought some 1/2" emt conduit at Lowes (@$1.75 for 10')
I also bought this...

I used it to bend the conduit in a couple of places and after a couple of coats of this...

...I ended up with something that looked like this...

...and this...

I drilled a hole in the arm that stretches across the top of the tank with this...

I then used conduit brackets to attach the bent conduit to the back of my stand. It looked like this...

 

[curry76]

I debated over attaching the pendant to the conduit by using the wire hanger that came with it or to just screw the pendant to the conduit.

In the end I used the wire hanger.

I have some wire showing on the conduit along with the power cord from the pendant. I have seen others do this in such a way that you couldn't see anything hanging from the light stand, but I actually like the way mine looks. I tried to twist and wrap the wires in such a way that it would look good. Let me know what you think...

Here is the tank with room lighting...

Here are some shots with the pendant...

added bonus! lol!
pic of the overflow...

and the moonlight...

 

[curry76]

So I know that initially I said I wanted a minimalist aquascape, however things haven't exactly turned out that way.


The tank is pretty small so I wanted to use a decent amount of rock, and I do kinda like how it looks now.

Tomorrow I will be going to get some live rock to seed the dry that is in the tank. I really don't want to add too much more rock or redo my scape, so do you think that I could get away with adding just a few pounds of reef rubble?

...or should I get one or two larger rocks and replace one or two of the dry rocks I have in the tank?


Also what do you guys do about lighting the tank while it cycles? Do you light it? For how many hours?

 

[curry76]

Well the live rock pickup is postponed until Sunday.

So, I got to work on the mesh top for the tank. (I just received a package from BRS which included the CLEAR mesh)

I used some aluminum window screen frame, a small saw, spline, window screen corners, and the handle of a spoon (all from Lowes except the spoon from my kitchen) to put this together.

The package of (4) corners said to allow for 1 1/2" when measuring the inside lip of the tank. My tank measured 22" so I cut the frame into (4) 20 1/2" pieces.

I stuck the pieces into the ends on the corners to make a square.


I cut a piece of the clear mesh so that about and inch overlapped all sides of the square frame.


...then i pushed the spline into the groove on the frame, trapping the mesh underneath and used the handle end of a spoon to seat the spline all the way. I then trimmed the overhanging mesh with a razor blade and this is the result...

 

[BADGUS]

Nice looking build,please continue the pics coming.

 

[curry76]

...thanks. I going tomorrow to pick up some live rock/rubble to seed my dry rock.


I will have pics of that sometime tomorrow.

 

[Anemonebuff]

Looks great.

 

[curry76]

Got this message and thought I would post it here so that everyone could see the answers.







"I m planning to get me a new 45 g cube same as yours..

I will transfer from my biocube 29 to 45 gal

hope you dont mind me asking you..

how many lbs of sand did you use it for your tank ?

I used a 15# bag. It is on top of eggcrate. I think I would like to add another couple of pounds, because some spots are very thin and you can almost see eggcrate poking through.

30 lbs rocks ? do you feel 30lbs is enuff ?

I used @30lbs of Bulk Reef Supply's Pukani DRY rock. For me it is plenty! I even am considering removing some. If you were to use live rock or another type of rock you might need more or less depending on the rock's density. The BRS Pukani rock is EXTREMELY light and porous.

how do you like reef oct skimmer ??

So far I love it! It starting producing skimmate within an hour or two and has been working great ever since.

any tips or advice me ?

I'm new to this 'reef thing' but not to aquarium keeping, so my advice would be to have patience! My experiences have told me that being patient and doing things the best way you can, THE FIRST TIME, will save you headaches, time, and money in the long run.


Also, this site is great!!! ...most people here are VERY helpful and very knowledgeable. Start a thread and post your build/setup and ask for advice along the way!


Thank you for your time!
Jake"
Thank you!

 

[curry76]

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted pics.


The only thing I have done was to buy a couple of pounds of live rubble rock and spread them around my tank, sitting them on top of my dry rock.

I have noticed numerous pods scurrying around the 'new' live rock and have started to get some small patches of diatoms, and some very small patches of what appears to be some kind of green algae.

I am waiting for my nitrite kit to come in the mail but so far my...
ammonia is down to .50ppm
nitrate is 20ppm


I will post some news pics of the rubble rock, pods, and the new algae growth sometime tomorrow.