Neal's Cube

P

Pallobi

CTARS, BRS & OSRAS Member
Hello everyone... Welcome to the newest version of my favorite hobby...

This will be a custom 85g acrylic cube style tank... it features eurobracing and an external 1" dual drain overflow, and 3/4" return... it will have a 40g sump...

it will be a mixed reef with more focus on SPS corals and wrasse species of fish... i will keep my beloved purple tang & orchid dottyback as well as a few other cool small fish mixed in... the bioload of this tank will exceed that of my last...

this tank will also exhibit a small island style sps reef made of what i believe is fiji rock... two large peices stacked directly on top of each other... allowing from great flow around the island and the outer region of the tank, all the way around...

i will also be using reef grade aragonite and will no longer go barebottom... it will be a shallow sand bed...

i will use 2 vortech MP40 esW's and i will also be switching from t5's to LEDs... at this moment, i have an older EVO 120 20k... i will be purchasing a new fixture in the next couple weeks, i am currently undecided on which, and as of now i am researching... one of my goals is cheap and efficient lighting... so i am going with a tank that will allow me to use a single led fixture... yes, i am finally following suit, lol, and the best part is a 1/3 the wattage and NO MORE BULBS :beer:

so thats the basic plan... over the last two years i have met alot of the club members and have learned and shared alot with you... a few of you have stood out as inspiration... a few of you have helped me out tremendously at times... the locals near me are great, Chriskid, Icycoral (mad love dude), and BubbaBob... things like that really make a difference in one's enjoyment with the hobby...

my goal here is simple... to jus get better results than the last one... i feel that would be all i can ask for... and hope for slightly better than that... with that said, im really looking forward to this one, the changes i have made, with the things ive learned, and sharing it here with you guys :beer:

any thoughts or questions, feedback or constructive criticism is welcome...

here we go :)
 
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Cant wait to see what you create Neil. I loved your last tank, it was an art piece. Im sure this tank will be stunning. Have fun with the build!
 
If your on the fence about what led to buy i would check out the maxspect RAZOR.
Getting great reviews and its very budget friendly. Cant wait for the build , love me a cube!
 
and after about one hour of setting up to come down, and about two and a half hours of transferring, draining, removing and tearing down, cleaning, sweeping, and leveling... lol... we finally have a clean canvas in which to build :)

i am in love with this stand...

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tank in place...

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vortechs mounted...

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I am also looking forward to seeing how this turns out for you. Maybe it will inspire me to start over also, lol. I know you are almost set on radions but seriously, next time you go to PC have Joe show you the different modes on the acan led fixtures over one of their display tanks and I'm almost certain it will change your mind. It definitely changed my mind. Its the one I sent you a link to yesterday and it is amazing. Now I really want to upgrade my tank to leds, lmao.
 
New tank builds are always exciting. Good luck with it, that tank is my cup of tea :)

Curious as to why aragonite substrate? Are you going for more surface area for bacterial colonization or just for a different look?

I agree with Bob on the Acan Lighting but I'm a bit biased. Radions are nice too.

Good to see you put foam under the tank. Lots of reefers forget to and have problems down the road.
 
as i was filling...

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as i was working on the plumbing, i placed my two rocks which will be my aquascape in... the top peice is actually stacked differently now, but this gives you an idea to my island centered in what will be a nice open sandbed...

<a href="http://s1071.beta.photobucket.com/user/dakobi/library/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1071.photobucket.com/albums/u515/dakobi/FD72A2B0-7886-4E44-B4C0-546C0C488CE9-1076-0000017D770A3EFF.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a>
 
and after a long day of working on it all... about 75% finished at this point... still got carbon reactors to hook up, wiring to place neatly, sand to add, and the addition of the new light... but at the moment, im quite pleased...

sorry about the blue pics... the whites on the fixture i have now arent working at this moment for some reason... but you can get an idea of what i got goin on... again, sand will be added soon...

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my2girls said:
New tank builds are always exciting. Good luck with it, that tank is my cup of tea :)

Curious as to why aragonite substrate? Are you going for more surface area for bacterial colonization or just for a different look?

I agree with Bob on the Acan Lighting but I'm a bit biased. Radions are nice too.

Good to see you put foam under the tank. Lots of reefers forget to and have problems down the road.
Click to expand...

thank you... and i actually jus really like the look and texture of the aragonite sand and a good bacterial boost most likely wouldnt hurt... i dont much care for fine sand at all...
 
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ok, so i got the white leds working... and now its much easier to take a reasonable pic, lol... so today, im quite happy with what i accomplished yesterday, and have done a couple more things this morning... it will be a bit before all the wiring and everything is organized as i feel things out as i go for the next week or two...

but here are a few pics... still need to add sand, and the tiles that are left will be removed soon... couple being sold, and i couple being remounted... any zoas/palys, chalices, favias or anything i keep other than sps will be kept on the sandbed...

also the two sps sitting atop the rock arent permanent and im most likely not keeping the candlelight acro... a friend has been holding my 9 favorite sps frags during this transition... hope to have them back and mounted in the tank in a week or so... jus wana give things with the system some time so i can make sure everything is in order first...

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eventually i will use both drains, but i jus used what i had laying around for plumbing, so for now i jus wanted to get it goin... i also need to make a couple durso pipes for the drain in the overflow... the pipe coming out to the side will be modded with an adaptor and will feed my carbon reactors which will be mounted on the left side of the stand...

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