Spark's 50 Gallon SPS Cube

I

innerspark

New member
Well I've been away for about a year an a half now. I had to brake down my tank in June of last year as the condo I was renting was sold out from under me and I was getting married 4 months later. So I sold all my fish and corals and moved in with the in laws as my wife and I are saving for a place of our own. Need less then say I'm tired of just having my frag tank so I've decided to upgrade it to a 50g cube to allow more water volume as I just don't have the time to manage a nano at this point in my life. So watch this thread come alive as I start building this tank out over the next month and start stocking it.

Tank, stand, skimmer, sump is all coming from a reef friend in a few weeks. Dimensions are 24x24x20 built by SC Aquatics. I currently have my big clown fish from my 75g and a small sixline that will be going in this tank. Corals I'm starting out with as they are still in my frag tank are, green hammer, Kenya trees, and blue Xenia, as well as some zoa's that are still living in there. Can't wait! It's going to be fun!
 
I know I'm still a week or 2 from getting my tank but the prep work has begone. Started painting a piece of would for all my electronics to mount to and to hide cables under the stand. Exciting time!
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Looking forward to seeing what you come up with mate! As a fellow 50g cube owner I'm always keen to see what my competi... friends are capable of :lol2:
 
Spark's 50 Gallon SPS Cube

30-40 gallons of water mixed, check! Filters in RODI cleaned, check! Picked up GFO, t5 ballast, check valve, and bulk heads from my lfs, Check! New led controller installed and working, check! Man it's been a busy reef day. Tomorrow my t-slot for my lights and 30lb of sand show up. This weekend is going to be cleaning up wiring and prepping what ever else I can before the tank comes home.
 
Your aquascape is very interesting, should look great in the tank.

I hope you're not relying on a check valve for your sump? Lot's of horror stories can be found using those.. :(
 
joshky said:
Your aquascape is very interesting, should look great in the tank.

I hope you're not relying on a check valve for your sump? Lot's of horror stories can be found using those.. :(
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It's all about redundancy and I've been running them for years without a single issue.
 
I don't know, the best redundancy IMO is a sump large enough to handle the return not running/power outage. It's your tank, I just wouldn't run one with it in a saltwater application.
 
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joshky said:
I don't know, the best redundancy IMO is a sump large enough to handle the return not running/power outage. It's your tank, I just wouldn't run one with it in a saltwater application.
Click to expand...

This is not my first reef or tank! I am sure I have had many more tanks then you have I am sure and I have never had a issue. You need to learn to stop believe everyones fish stories and find out what works for you. This works for me. Never had an issue and if you want I can show you some of the corals I have had in my last take before I had to move.

First off if you can afford it you should have your return set up with a back up power supply incase you have a power outage. Now in the case that is not long enough I always do a combination of a spear check valve in combination of enough room in my sump to hold the water that drains from my display. You should always have extra fail safes and extra back ups of everything as it will save your tank.
 
innerspark said:
This is not my first reef or tank! I am sure I have had many more tanks then you have I am sure and I have never had a issue. You need to learn to stop believe everyones fish stories and find out what works for you. This works for me. Never had an issue and if you want I can show you some of the corals I have had in my last take before I had to move.

First off if you can afford it you should have your return set up with a back up power supply incase you have a power outage. Now in the case that is not long enough I always do a combination of a spear check valve in combination of enough room in my sump to hold the water that drains from my display. You should always have extra fail safes and extra back ups of everything as it will save your tank.
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to judge you or make you upset, and I really don't know your background so I was just throwing it out there. I won't bother commenting any further on the matter. If you're going to put your build in a public forum you need to accept some criticism and advice from others and not be so quick to get defensive. Whether you agree with it or not. I don't think you attacking me was warranted at all, calm down okay? :beer:

I have battery backup on my vortechs, thanks though.

I don't see the need for a check valve if your sump has extra room for the drainage, care to elaborate on why you think this fail safe is necessary?
 
Spark's 50 Gallon SPS Cube

Pick the tank up last night and water tested it to make sure nothing shifted during the move. Started painting the inside of the stand white this am now I am waiting for the metric bulkheads to come in the mail so I can start on the plumbing.

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Updates: Sorry been a little busy and have not posted my updates here. Tank has been up and running for over a week now with no issues. My direct transfer from my frag tank worked flawlessly. I've done this type of quick cycle before using my already aged live rock and sand with no issues and had to do it again. Here are a few photos of some of the process.

Dry fit test of my return plumbing. This will be bracketed to the top of the cabinet.
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Rock scape and I decided to go with sand after all. I have a love hate relationship with both sand and bb but ultimately the wife wanted sand and I did not feel like scraping the bottom of the tank every few days to keep her happy. Lol
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Tank is wet, fish and corals have spent 2 hours in a bucket at this point... Eep got to love heaters and pumps. Also even though I rinsed this dry sand I still got allot of dust from it. How ever it did settle down pretty quickly once the system was running and all my bacteria from my rock started taking over the system.
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