My 60 Gallon Seahorse Cube -Completed :)

euromomtx

euromomtx

New member
I purchased my Reidi seahorses 'used' and they came complete with a 28 gallon hex tank but the tank was kind of small and started leaking so here's my upgrade!

I went with the 60 gallon Marineland Cube tank and Monterrey stand (which is very sturdy and attractive by the way!) but decided to have it custom made with a corner overflow instead of the standard center overflow.

I also had a custom sump made for it to accommodate my rather large skimmer.

I did not want any powerheads and instead opted for spray bars on top and bottom.

I think it all turned out really well. Here are a few pictures:

sumpsh.jpg


spraybarsh.jpg


shtank218.jpg


The two sides facing the corner are actually lit from behind and have translucent blue sheets on them to give that nice glow and a feeling of more depth

ledshadow.jpg


shshadow.jpg


With the shadow box thing I was also able to try out some stuff like fake mangrove roots in the distance:
mangroveroots.jpg
 
I cycled the tank using dry rock and sand with Fritz live bacteria and ammonium chloride.
Looking back at it I cycled it for a bioload of 24 seahorses instead of jsut 2 but better safe than sorry! LOL
The live bacteria handled the 4 ppm of ammonia just fine.

Pretty soon I was able to add my mangroves:
mangrovetank.jpg


I had made an acrylic rack for the mangroves to suspend them gently from the top. The seahorses liked them right away:
mangrovetabs.jpg


Then my order from Gulf Coast Ecosystems came in and I really loved all of the macro I got:
shtank030211.jpg


I especially like the golden hued ones. Makes the seahorses turn a really pretty shade. :)

Of course the seahorses are super attractive either way. Here they area eating from their glass bowl:
poppyandpatchesmarch11.jpg
 
A few things I really like about my tank:
the dimensions, the shadowbox, the circulation, the stand, the plants, my DIY CREE XP light fixture and having everything controlled by the reefkeeper

One thing I really hated was the noise the Marineland Quick Flow was making -HORRENDOUS!
Luckily another reefer had a spare Mega Flow drain pipe (All Glass brand) and it's 100 times quieter now. The Marineland people will really have to rethink that design.
 
I am using only 6 whites (3w XP) and 6 blues (3w XP)
They are on dimmable drivers and the blue are not all the way turned up. I don't want a blue look for the tank.
For whites I used 2 warm whites and 4 neutral whites (again wanting a nice warm glow for the seahorse tank rather than the typical deep sea feel).
For blues I used all royal blues but if I could do it over I'd go with a mix of royal blue and regular blue.
I just ventured into LEDs because it was so hard to find a fixture for the 28 gallon hex tank and I wanted something cool (temperature) so the DIY fixture was my first venture into LED.
I loved the shimmer and controllability so much though that I got an AquaIllumination SOL fixture for my big 215 gallon reef tank.
Once you get used to that nice glimmer it's tough to be satisfied with the duller T5 look.
Only when I got the AI fixture did I realize how different the blue LEDs were from each other.
The regular blue has sort of a greenish tint to it which would have been nice in a macro tank I think. The royal blue are actually more purple to me (which of course also looks nice on red macro)
So in retrospect I should have went with maybe 2 blue, 4 royal blue?
I am very happy with the warm white and neutral white though.
I was nervous how the fixture would adapt going from a 28 gallon hex to a 60 gallon cube with only 12 3watt CREEs but the macro seems fine with it and I am enjoying this tank without corals so to my relief it seemed to be perfectly fine.
The 60 gallon cube is only 6 inches wider than the 28 gallon hex and the spread is fine across that.
Depth penetration doesn't seem to be a problem anyway. The Profilera on the bottom is growing already so it worked out fine.
I use 40 degree optics by the way. Fixture is a little higher off the tank than normal due to the mangroves. Otherwise 60 degree optics might have been better.
 
Very good to hear. I'm planning on going LED on my 75g and this feedback is very helpful. As well I think I'm going to steal your LED/gel sheet idea as well.
 
I ordered a little bit from everywhere but I got the LEDs themselves from Cutter in Australia because I was so set on getting warm whites, etc. and none of the US stores had the whites I wanted
 
well...
the yellow macro I loved so much has changed colors and has developed red tips.
Still very pretty and healthy -just no longer yellow. lol

A huge amount of the Profilera died off and I sucked it out with today's water change. Luckily I can already see new shoots coming out of the sandbed so fresh new leaves should be covering that area in no time.

One out of the 6 mangroves is still looking droopy. That one had the most leaves so of course suffered the most from being shipped I guys. Since the other 5 are doing well I don't mind having to replace one and will just get a mangrove pod at some point.

I have some diatoms right now but nothing too drastic. water parameters have stayed perfectly stable and the seahorses are enjoying their new place so it's all good.
 
KJ
I got it from Texas Scenic in San Antonio, TX but you should be able to get them from any Theater/Lighting Supply Store or even online.
Search for 'Apollo Gel Sheets'
 
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