60 Gallon Rimless Cube Build

[mjohns27]

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of getting my first saltwater tank up and running. I am looking for advice, tips, comments, or suggestions on my setup, and have a few questions for you guys myself.
I am looking to add a variety of SPS, LPS, softies, zoas, and fish. I don't want to limit my options down the road.

Equipment:

Tank:
60 Gallon Cube from Miracles (corner overflow, 1" drain, 3/4" return)

Stand:
DIY

Sump:
Next Reef NRS 24

Skimmer:
Vertex Omega 130

Return pump:
Eheim 3000

Reactor:
BRS Dual Carbon/GFO reactor with Eheim 1000 pump

Heater:
Fluval E series 300 watt

ATO:
Tunze Osmolator 3155 with Kalkwasser for now

Powerheads:
Tunze 6045 (2)

RO/DI:
4 stage BRS 75gpd

Lighting:
Ecotech Radion G3


Roughly 50lbs of Pink Fiji sand
Roughly 35lbs of Pukani dry rock


Questions for you guys!:
- How should I seed the tank? The closest marine fish store is at least an hour away, so I was looking at adding a cocktail shrimp, any experience or comments on this method?
- Any tips/comments you have for the aquascape would be appreciated, and how I can make sure its sturdy enough for cleaning, and livestock.

Potential Stocking List (nothing is set in stone, just looking for others opinions):
Yellow Tang?
Blue/Purple Tang?
Dwarf Flame Angel
2 Black and White Clowns
Some sort of schooling fish (3 cardinals?, chromis?)
Frogfish?
Starfish

Zoas
SPS
LPS
Softies

Thanks in advance for the help, I am sure I will need it!

 

[FraggledRock]

nice

 

[thegrun]

I used shrimp to start my cycles for years, but I like to use pure ammonia now, it doesn't smell as bad and it speeds up the cycle by 4-5 days. Use pure ammonia without surfactants (available at most hardware stores, I got mine at Ace Hardware). To be sure the ammonia does not contain surfactants shake the bottle and if it bubbles up like dish soap it has surfactants in it, pure ammonia will not have bubbles. To raise 100 gallons of water from 0 to 2 ppm ammonia you would need to add 0.8 grams (8 ml) of standard 10% pure ammonia.
I like your aquascape as is.
Your tank is too small for any tang, look at a Coris Wrasse for a yellow fish.
The Flame Angel is most likely going to get very aggressive in a small 60 gallon tank as it matures and the are about a 50/50 bet as far as eating your corals.
Cardinalfish would work well. Chromis tend to kill each other off in tanks under 100 gallons. Some reefers can keep multiples in smaller tanks, but it is rare.
No frogfish, avoid starfish except serpent stars.

 

[rwb500]

with that budget I think you should get an apex controller. it would already save you from having to buy the osmolator.

 

[NySharkBait]

Sweet tank!

 

[mjohns27]

FraggledRock and NYSharkBait thanks!

rwb500 I would love to add an Apex but I am currently maxed out on my budget. Looking to get things up and running and possibly add a controller down the road.

Thanks for the info thegrun, I added a raw shrimp today. How often and when should I start testing the water during the cycle? Do you suggest adding calcium, mag, alk, during the cycle and maintaining with Kalk, or worry about this when the cycle is done?
Also, should I begin my weekly water change schedule immediately? Thanks again!

I added some more rock to the scape today, here is a picture.

 

[thegrun]

I would start testing 4 or 5 days after adding the shrimp, initially test for salinity, ammonia and nitrites. I would test every day or two, not because it is really necessary but more because it will both help you better understand the cycle and also help get you used to the testing regiment. After your ammonia and nitrites drop to zero start testing for nitrates.
I would not worry about alkalinity, calcium or magnesium levels during the cycle. Do not make any water changes until the cycle is complete unless your ammonia level gets above 8.0ppm, in which case I would make a water change to get the ammonia down to around 4ppm. Ammonia levels above 8.0 seem to lengthen the cycle.

 

[mjohns27]

Thanks for the info!
The cycle seems to be going well. I initially had some ammonia, but either missed the spike in nitrites, or they have not shown yet. I put the shrimp in 18 days ago and am now testing 0 for ammonia, 0 for nitrites, and 6 for nitrates. To be honest, I have only tested about 4 times during the process. Are these numbers normal and is there anything I should be looking for? There is a decent amount of diatoms covering the sand and rocks. I haven't been running the skimmer for the past week, due to it overflowing. I need to make a stand for it to lower the water level for the skimmer.
Thanks!

 

[mjohns27]

The shrimp I used was an uncooked shrimp from the grocery store. I peeled the tail off of it and just used the flesh part.

 

[itzonlithai]

18 days seems pretty fast for a cycle with all dry rock, but diatomic algae does mean the cycle is at least on it's tail end. One way to be sure is dose some pure ammonia (2-3 ppm) and see what your levels are the next day. If your cycle is complete you shouldn't get any readings for ammonia or nitrite.

As for your stocking list, I wouldn't place a blue hippo tang in anything less than 180 gallons, let alone a 60 cube. The yellow tang I'd hesitate to stock in a 75. 75 vs 60 doesn't seem far off, but you gotta remember that the 75 has 4 feet of swimming real estate. I wouldn't recommend any kind of tang in a 60 cube. Schooling fish tend to kill each other off in a small tank. The dwarf flame might feel a little cramped and some are infamous for picking at corals, but they are beautiful fish I can see why you'd want one.

 

[mjohns27]

Just a little update.

I have added a cleanup crew and three fish over the past few weeks and have purchased my first corals.

10 Red Leg Hermits, 10 Blue leg, 10 nerite snails, 4 cerith snails
Blue Cora Goby (feeding frozen brine shrimp once daily)
Hippo Tang (will move to larger tank in time)
Cleaner Wrasse

Pink and green Goniopora (feeding reef roids 3x/week)
Torch Coral

Questions:
- How does the placement of the corals look? Both are receiving pretty good flow. How can I tell if they are bleaching, or receiving too much/not enough light?
- How do I control the hair algae issue? Phosphates are at 0, nitrates 4ppm. It is covering the rocks and sand. Will a larger clean up crew make a difference?
- There are small white specs appearing inside the tank on the glass and overflow column. They do not come off easy with normal glass cleaning. Just wondering what they are.

With such few livestock, will calcium and alk be maintained through regular water changes? At what point would you recommend adding Kalkwasswer to my ATO?

 

[Omie]

Nice job... Looking good!!!

 

[GilliganReef]

Your CA, Mag, and Alk I wouldnt start worrying about dosing or anything quite yet. Start maintaining a daily log of your measurments for those three. Once you start noticing you need to start dosing then start. I have a mixed reef with LPS and softies. (frog spawn, hammer, favia, trumpet, Duncan, GSP, and 3 different zoas) I still yet need to dose. I have 40B with 20G sump. In a week I would notice my cal drop from 430-420, mag 1340-1330 and my alk stays between 9-10 in week. Once you start noticing these to start droping quickly in day to day then worry about dosing.

 

[GilliganReef]

- How do I control the hair algae issue? Phosphates are at 0, nitrates 4ppm. It is covering the rocks and sand. Will a larger clean up crew make a difference?

think of your clean up crew of just pooping and adding to your nitrates and Phos. So no I would not add more clean up crew. IF you are seeing GHA then most likely you have phos and the algae is eating it up so it is hard to read. get a Hanna Phos low range checker. Best way to battle GHA is keep up with your water maintenance . Get a phos reactor and lights out. Nothing going to magically eat all your GHA you need to find the source which is feeding it and kill that. Also maybe two times a week pluck out as much algae too. Maybe less feeding to every other day or find out whats leaching your phos. Good luck!

 

[owen386]

Tank looks awesome! I was thinking of this size tank ended up going with a 58 gallon 36 x 18 tho still love the cube!

Good luck with the Goni not exactly a beginners coral IMO

Small white specs on the glass is coraline algae absolutely normal keep it or get rid of it your choice

 

[GilliganReef]

I bet the white things are Spirorbis. Nothing to worry about.

 

[Stephen302]

Looks awesome! Great aquascape!

 

[mjohns27]

Thank you for all the advice and the warm welcome to TRT! Hopefully I can get the GHA under control and keep adding more pieces slowly. I hope to add two black and white clowns next, followed by a yellow tang, a dwarf flame angel, and two cleaner shrimp, all over a long period of time. Would some sort of sand sifting goby be likely to jump with an uncovered tank? Any other sand sifting invertebrate you can suggest?
I would like to add an SPS or two sometime in the next month or so, once I see my water is stable. Any suggestions?
There is only roughly about 6 inches of water above the highest rock where I want to grow lots of SPS. Is this enough space for the corals to grow over a long period of time? The light is hanging about 10" above the water.

 

[mjohns27]

Just looking for some advice and opinions on the current health of my corals. My GHA has cleared up significantly. I have a blue hippo and a yellow tang (will be moving these to a larger tank as they get too large), a green clown goby, and a cleaner wrasse, which all seem to be happy and doing well.
I have a goniopora which seems to have pretty good polyp extension, but maybe not as much as I have seen in the past. Do corals vary in how much the polyps will extend day to day? It is placed on a flat rock about half way up the tank.
My doughnut coral seems to be pretty healthy as well. It is placed near the bottom third of the tank. It gets quite large during the day, but I have noticed some very small white flesh looking spots around the outside of the centre part of the coral, very small but I am not sure what this is.
I have had a pagoda cup for a little over a month now. It was pretty healthy for the first week I had it, but since, it has significantly declined in health. There are still polyps as seen in the picture, but about half of the flesh (not sure what else to call this) has completely deteriorated. The polyps don't really completely close at night, but barely open during the day. It is about a third to half way up in the tank. Is there hope that it can make a recovery?
I am feeding the corals reef roids about two to three times a week. My lights come on at 7am, very low actinics, and ramp up by about 10am until about 6pm, and the actinic blue lighting ramps down until about 9pm, where the very dim blue and purple lights come on until 12am. I have a radion gen 3.
I am new to the hobby and not really sure what medium/high flow looks like for example, or how to tell if the coral is healthy or dying.
Any advice or comments would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[mjohns27]

Just a few updates on the tank.

Copper Band Butterfly
Algae Blenny
Emerald Crab
Sand Sifting Star
Yellow Tang

Frogspawn
Kenya Tree
Mushroom Leather
GSP

I lost a hammer coral and a nauty spiral monti unfortunately. Do you guys think this is because my tank is not ready for SPS since it is new?
I also have not seen my algae blenny in a few days, he has been way less active in the past three weeks or so, any ideas as to why?
I have a fair bit of cyano growing, I have just been doing water changes and siphoning as much out as possible.
I feed frozen mysis, brine, and new life spectrum sinking pellets, once a day, or every other day roughly. The coral get reef roids 2 or 3 times a week.

ANY SUGGESTIONS OR ADVICE IS APPRECIATED!!! Thank you.
Sorry for the poor quality photos, all I have is an iPhone.