My 112G Cube Build Thread. I'm baaaaaaack!!

[MrSandman]

Well, its been a little less than a year that i have been tankless and i must say that i'm itchin' to get back in the game. I promised myself and many others on here that I would start a build thread once i had my mind made up, so here it is. I regretted not doing it for the last tank, so hopefully things work out this time. I plan to keep this thread up to date and have it serve as the documentary for my tank build. I hope to get some good feedback from everyone that subscribes!

For those that may not know, my other tank went out with a bang (more like a firesale) as we sold the house it was in and we didn't have the next house lined up yet....so it had to go. Details can be found here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2207905

Here is a picture of it before the corals decided to really take over:

My old tank was a 36" x 24" x 20" Leemar rimless starphire tank.
I really liked the width and only wish it was deeper front-back to give more aquascaping options.

I wanted my new tank to be more cube shaped, with a front to back depth of at least 36" to allow for some more interesting aquascaping.
I also didn't want it to take up too much wall space either.
What's funny is that every house we looked at i was always envisioning where the new tank would go. I guess that's how you can tell the difference between a hobbyist and an addict.

So after a little less than 1 year, we've found a new house, did a little remodeling to it, and have a spot for the new tank all prepped and ready to go!

Below are the new tank specs:

-Leemar 36" x 36" x 20"
-Rimless
-Starphire on 3 sides
-Beveled and polished edges
-Black backing
-Centered Trapezoidal overflow
-Herbie drains
-Black silicone
-3 holes drilled in the overflow (for 2 1.25" bulkheads for the drains, and a 1" bulkhead for the return)

Below is a conceptual picture:

Tank was ordered from Aaron at SPS Coral Store who was pretty patient with me up to this point. I got it from him because his prices were excellent and he was the most responsive to all of my emails and questions. Great service so far!

 

[bullitr]

Great start Ramon
Great choice of choosing Aaron from the get go too!

 

[MrSandman]

The stand will be made of steel and powdercoated. I'm not sure what color to powdercoat it but the choices i've narrowed it down to are: Black, White, Red, or Yellow. I'm sort of leaning towards the white, but thought that red might look pretty sweet too. Any suggestions?

The stand will also have heavy duty, stainless steel adjustable feet mounted to the bottom along with tabs for mounting the wood skin, and a DJ powerbar to the inside.

I decided to go with the feet as the tank was going to sit on a spanish tile floor and i was a little concerned about the level. I also thought it would be easier to keep clean, especially when there are minor spills when working around the tank.

The stand will be 36" x 36" x 34" tall. The 34" height was chosen based on the height from the ground up to my armpits once a 20" tall tank was placed on top. This would make it easier for me to work around the tank without having to get a stepladder each time.

Below is a conceptual photo of how i expect it to look with the tank on top:

The stand was also purchased through Aaron at SPS Coral Store.

Pickup for both the tank and the stand is about 6 weeks from now.

 

[MrSandman]

Great start Ramon
Great choice of choosing Aaron from the get go too!

Thanks Lawrence. Yeah, Aaron has been great. I just wish his shop wasn't so freakin' far away.

 

[bullitr]

He is far from me too but its worth it.
Also I feel guilty everything I buy or ask something from him since I feel like he is not making any money from me, he is just doing it for a favor.

He have the best customer service hands down and best reefer around period.

 

[MrSandman]

I also ordered the sump this week from John at Advanced Acrylics.

I was looking for a sump that had a skimmer chamber, a refugium chamber, a return pump chamber, and an area for the heater.

Below is a conceptual drawing that i sent over to John:

The right side is the skimmer chamber, the left is the refugium, the center will be where the return pump will go. The chamber in the front is what i call the settling chamber, where the heater, float switches, probes, and any other stuff would reside. The interior baffles would be black. Although i didn't draw it in, the refugium will output into the front chamber with the overflow teeth only taking up the left half of that baffle/wall.
The over/under baffles leading to the return are about 6" wide and will have shelves for a carbon filter bag and a sponge.
With all of the carbon group buys and the endless supply of carbon that i have on my garage, i figured it would be much easier to run my carbon this way rather than running a carbon media canister. Swapping out carbon literally takes minutes or seconds, rather than the 15 minutes it would take me to clean out and replace the carbon in my BRS media canister.

The overall dimensions of the sump will be 24" x 30" x 18" tall.

John is also making me a custom container for my 2-part liquids (3 chambers) as well.

John's shop is quite a ways away but luckily his father has a restaurant close by in Wilmington where i can pick it up when he's done. It should be done next week. Will post pictures when it arrives.

 

[MrSandman]

He is far from me too but its worth it.
Also I feel guilty everything I buy or ask something from him since I feel like he is not making any money from me, he is just doing it for a favor.

He have the best customer service hands down and best reefer around period.

Yeah, no kidding. I couldn't believe how much cheaper his tank quote was compared to some other shops. Maybe it's a good thing he lives far away. :lmao:

 

[MrSandman]

Here is the confirmed equipment list (all from my last tank):

Apex Controller with 2 powerbars
ATI 8 bulb Powermodule T5 fixture
SWC 160 skimmer
3 BRS dosing pumps
1 250W Ebo Jager heater
2 MP40 Ecotech Vortechs

Below are unconfirmed equipment which i have from my old tank but am unsure if i want to use them here:
GEO Kalkwasser Reactor
GEO dual chamber calcium reactor
1/4HP Tradewinds Chiller

Things that are undecided:
Return pump - I'm seriously considering the Waveline DC-5000 submersible pumps. These things are only 40W at max. speed so they are very appealing.

Note that with my new place i have made a very conscious effort to keep electrical consumption down to a minimum. All recessed lights inside the main living areas and bedrooms are LED and almost all of the lights outside are LED as well. Unfortunately, I'm still not sold on LED lighting for the reef, so i'm sticking to T5's for now. Anywhere else i can cut down on electrical consumption on the tank, i will seriously consider.

I am hoping to get by without a chiller on this tank and just use fans. Worst case, i'll have the Apex setup to send me an alarm if it ever hits a high temp. Since i have a Nest thermostat, i can always kick on the A/C from anywhere with my iPhone. At least that's the plan.

That's it for now. I'll try and post pics of the future tank location later.

 

[bullitr]

I have speedwave dc 5000 pump its is great pump for the price its quiet too and changing flow with a push of a button is great.The max wattage in my tank is 50 watts because of the height of the tank and some resistance from the wye to the skimmer But I am only using 34 watts ( 4 bars ).
It's not red dragon DC quality pump though.
Same as the jebo wp its great but I don't know if it will last long ( 5 years or so)

 

[xxvietxjustinxx]

How exciting! I'm glad you're documenting this build. I feel bad for killing most of the corals you gave me in my most recent crash when I upgraded to a bigger tank. This new tank looks great though, love the dimensions.

 

[Catchoftheday]

Welcome back looking forward to watching your build

 

[Anemone]

Welcome back Ramon! I'm going to watch this thread very carefully, as I want to go with a larger cube as my next tank as well (the 65 gallon anemone tank will be going here sometime in the next few months as my house remodel moves into that area).

Kevin

 

[reefish123]

Awsome start, I too have similar set up as you im in construction. Maybe you should look at my build and get an Idea ilof what you can do or do differently. Tagging along.

 

[Celebes]

Hey Ramon! Been a long time. Glad to see you're getting a tank set back up!

I tried sending you a PM (but don't have enough posts) and emailing you (but the email I have is old/no longer used) so here I am making my very first post on RC to say Hi! LOL. This is Michelle from Jim's btw.

Gonna be tagging along to see your new build!

 

[solitude127]

About dang time.

 

[s2k]

About time! I almost got you a t-shirt that Richard designed..

 

[MrSandman]

I have speedwave dc 5000 pump its is great pump for the price its quiet too and changing flow with a push of a button is great.The max wattage in my tank is 50 watts because of the height of the tank and some resistance from the wye to the skimmer But I am only using 34 watts ( 4 bars ).
It's not red dragon DC quality pump though.
Same as the jebo wp its great but I don't know if it will last long ( 5 years or so)

What other pumps did you consider besides the speedwave? What's the difference between the Speedwave, the Waveline and the Diablo DC pumps? They all look pretty identical from the outside.

How exciting! I'm glad you're documenting this build. I feel bad for killing most of the corals you gave me in my most recent crash when I upgraded to a bigger tank. This new tank looks great though, love the dimensions.

Hey Justin....that's a bummer. Tank crashes happen. Having good friends in the hobby make it easier to rebound from those things. Give me a couple years and i'll have more frags for ya. :lol:

Welcome back looking forward to watching your build

Thanks!

Welcome back Ramon! I'm going to watch this thread very carefully, as I want to go with a larger cube as my next tank as well (the 65 gallon anemone tank will be going here sometime in the next few months as my house remodel moves into that area).

Kevin

Hey Kevin. Thanks! Its good to be back. Are you moving the legendary breeding ground for the ever elusive RBTA from way back in the day?

Awsome start, I too have similar set up as you im in construction. Maybe you should look at my build and get an Idea ilof what you can do or do differently. Tagging along.

Subscribed! Man, there are alot of similarities. Can you hurry up on the build? I need some ideas!

Hey Ramon! Been a long time. Glad to see you're getting a tank set back up!

I tried sending you a PM (but don't have enough posts) and emailing you (but the email I have is old/no longer used) so here I am making my very first post on RC to say Hi! LOL. This is Michelle from Jim's btw.

Gonna be tagging along to see your new build!

Michelle! What's up! Yeah, when i moved i also shut down my old email address. Get some posts up so i can send you a PM! Been meaning to stop by and pay you guys a visit. Maybe this week.

About dang time.

LOL. Get that truck ready!!!

About time! I almost got you a t-shirt that Richard designed..

Hey, what are you doing on this forum? Shouldn't you be spending your free time on a baby forum researching baby monitors and cribs? :lol:

 

[lowbudget]

welcome back ramon...... toan do you think its time hahahahahahahaha

 

[dorkymk3]

Nice looking forward to the new build.

 

[cali_reef]

Nice plans so far. Where in PV did you ended up?

I am running two AI SOL with four 24" T5 over my 145G cube tank (36x36x26) since Sep and the water temp have not gone over 81'F. It was 80'F today because I forgot to open the windows while we were out, no AC in my house.