saleenpwr88
New member
I think I'm going to use a 20H for my skimmer and return pump and then eventually I want to plumb in a 10 gallon tank next to that as a fuge.
Saleenpwr88s 70 gallon cube build
- Thread starter saleenpwr88
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rocke_reef
New member
where are the rocks?
saleenpwr88
New member
Rocks are drying in the basement...rinsed them off just to try and get the loose stuff off. Thanks again. After rinsing them individually I was able to really see how nice the rock is, I like how they are more flat than round. LOTS of spots for coral!
I'm going to do the aquascape dry as well since I'm really particular about it...figure it will be easier before water goes in the tank.
saleenpwr88
New member
Thanks! The overflow is from glass holes. I'm really happy I went with it instead of getting the RR tank since it takes up ALOT less space. To be honest though if you have any skills with acrylic would could probably make the box for half as much.
rocke_reef
New member
That's what nice about dry rock.
Dre59
Z&P Addict from IL
I know now where now to get the overflow box for my future set up.. Thanks! Your thread might give others some great ideas with this :thumbsup:
Skills with acrylic don't mix with me.. you should see my sump :lolspin::lolspin:
saleenpwr88
New member
Gotta love Premium Aquatics...ordered this stuff Sunday, had a change and emailed them late Sunday night, they got the email, updated the order and I still got everything today. Not sure how they do it but in this order was 2 40lb bags of sand and a bucket of salt and the shipping still was only $10
saleenpwr88
New member
And then I finished my sump as well...just needs to dry. Might be able to do a freshwater test this weekend!
saleenpwr88
New member
Got yet another delivery today! Stepped up to a big boy refractometer HA...have always used the swing arms just because even though they might be off they are usually pretty consistant and I think that can be just as important. Got some new RO/DI filters as well.
saleenpwr88
New member
Tank is also all plumbed and currently I'm fresh water testing it. There is a little drip leak on the overflow but once I drain it I'll be able to tighten it up. NOT happy about the noise from the overflow though. I'm thinking my pump might be a little too much. I was planning on running pvc with a couple elbows but ended up just running tubing so there isn't much restricting the flow, it basically goes from the pump straight up to the elbow on the bulkhead. I have a valve on the return so I can play with turning it down and see what happens. I'm also hoping the denser salt water will help and then after some algae builds up that might help as well. If it comes down to it I'll make it a Durso but trying to avoid that. Sump is perfect size to handle a power outage and everything fits. Got lucky on leveling the tank as wel (at least I think so). Left to right it was perfect, and I only had to shim the front about 1/8", used composite shims to avoid any compressing. Hopefully I'll have the rock and sand in by the weekend and then start filling with RO/DI water but since I only get about 20 PSI from my lines it takes a long time! Apparently photobucket literally just went down because I uploaded the pics but just tried to paste them in here but it's down? I'll post some tomorrow.
saleenpwr88
New member
Pics I wanted to post yesterday:
saleenpwr88
New member
So at first I wasn't going to buy new filters for my RO/DI unit...the meter was reading 004 so I was just going to fill the tank thinking it would be OK still for a little longer. I had to buy some GFO from BRS so I did ended up getting new filters anyway. Glad I did. The PSI I was getting was 20 before I changed out the filters and now that I changed the filters it jumped up to 40! Making water is much faster now.
saleenpwr88
New member
So here is my first aquascape in this tank. It wasn't exactly what I envisioned when picking up this rock but I'm still pretty happy with it. Lots of open spaces and LOTS of flat areas for corals which I'm really happy about. Water won't be ready probably for another day so I still have some time to make some easy changes being everything is still dry. It's 60 lbs. of rock and about 60-70 lbs of sand. I went with Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand. There are definately better looking sands but this stuff is a larger grain then most and you can hit it pretty hard with flow and it doesn't blow around as much. What do you guys think? Any suggestions?
saleenpwr88
New member
Well when the power went out for a week I lost all my corals unfortunately and the tank crashed! So now I have mostly frags but parameters are good and my dosing is pretty much dialed in so the tank is doing pretty good again. I can take some pics tonight.
saleenpwr88
New member
Here is a pic of the with the stand and canopy. I had to build the canopy because the light spill over was even worse than it looks now when just the pendant was hanging. At night it was hard to watch the TV on the other side of the room because of the light reflection. I don't like the way I hung it though and want to change it. The mounts are adjustable but I don't like how bulky they look. I'm going to either hide them inside the canopy if I can or go another route.
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saleenpwr88
New member
And here is a closer FTS, I'm bad at pics but this has a little more detail. I'm just using one SE Radium bulb on a HQI ballast but I keep bleaching almost anything I put high and towards the middle of the tank so most of my frags are back on the sand bed coloring up. I'm hoping they acclimate to the light eventually. Fish are 2 Percs, Yellow Eye Kole Tang, Flame Angel and an Arch Eyed Hawk. And for flow I'm up to 1 MP40, a Koralia 3 and a Koralia 4. Plus my return which is probably around 500GPH after the head loss.
saleenpwr88
New member
Nothing special right now but if eveything stays stable for the next couple months I know it will start to fill in. My skimmer is doing a great job keeping the water clean and I do feed on the heavy side almost everyday. I probably wouldn't ever buy another skimmer with a Sicce pump though...even though they work VERY well, when they don't start up after a shut down it can be a CHALLENGE to get them going again. I spent a half an hour the other day after a water change trying to get the pump going again...I was about ready to throw the thing out the window!!! 
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