The Ultimate Cube 280g

[Mangodude]

Tank is looking great! This will be an incredible "man-cave"!

One suggestion, move the tv a little farther away. They light from the tank may make it hard to watch tv at night. Probably something to experiment with.

For the aqua-scaping I would go with the open look as well. It is hard to aquascape something that shape.

The lights look great! Are you going to be using the 400w halide you just bought or the t-5's? I would go t-5's personally or maybe LED's. You could use the 400w halide for the frag tank, you get LOTS of growth out of it! :dance:

Are you going to be using a refugium?

About the skimmers, I have no idea. I am currently running refug, UV (sometimes) and sock, no skimmer. The tank seems to be doing great. Other than some RTN outbreaks that have killed back my corals.

Will be following along.

 

[cbort]

I would suggest one large skimmer instead of the 2 smaller ones. What is your budget? low budget maybe a Octopus extreme cone XP 5000 (rated up to 400g) and if not on a budget maybe a vertex alpha 250 (rated to 350g) or alpha 300 (rated up to 600g)

I algo got a cube setting up its a 48x48x24 and got a thread here on large tank forum about it, please visit and make you suggestions since you have something similar

Thanks KMU-i have also been following your thread and am subscribed! I am somewhat on a budget. I just want to know what everyone's thoughts are on the subject. When talking about skimmers, has anyone used multiple skimmers to support each other? I am not going to use a crappy brand or anything. The ones i am looking at are actually made by ASD, anyone in the KC area is very familiar with his products and his work is top notch! He builds everything from tanks-skimmers-sumps-reactors.

Thanks and keep the input coming.

 

[cbort]

nice cube! cant wait to see you put water in it

My goal is the week after Halloween!

 

[cbort]

Tank is looking great! This will be an incredible "man-cave"!

One suggestion, move the tv a little farther away. They light from the tank may make it hard to watch tv at night. Probably something to experiment with.

For the aqua-scaping I would go with the open look as well. It is hard to aquascape something that shape.

The lights look great! Are you going to be using the 400w halide you just bought or the t-5's? I would go t-5's personally or maybe LED's. You could use the 400w halide for the frag tank, you get LOTS of growth out of it! :dance:

Are you going to be using a refugium?

About the skimmers, I have no idea. I am currently running refug, UV (sometimes) and sock, no skimmer. The tank seems to be doing great. Other than some RTN outbreaks that have killed back my corals.

Will be following along.

Thanks! I would love to move the TV, but its a pretty small mancave. I was lucky to get the amount of room that i did.

The aquascaping is going to be pretty wide open. I have always wanted a pair of either crosshatch or blue throat triggers, so i want lots of swimming room. I am going to only have 1 small hallow cave for a zebra eel or a dragon eel. Other than that all open!

T5's will be used on the display tank. The 7 400W MH bulbs will probably be sold for the fact that my frag tanks are all very very shallow. 250's Max.

I will be running a hell of a Refugium. I want a very big refugium stocked full of mangroves macro and deep sandbed. It will be seperate from my sump.

I have also tried no skimmer before with good results, but as soon as i began adding the large fish load, all hell broke loose. So i want a skimmer, but am contemplating goint with 2 large skimmers to complement each other.

 

[kmu]

Are you still gonna use the 2 Powermodule 10x54? thats 20 T5s in an TAI fixture, seems very bright and the color combos amazing.

The single 10x54 powermodule seems to light up the tank good

 

[skanderson]

i have a 48x48x30 inch cube and found it a joy to set up. it is in the corner and the back is hard to get to but i think the look is great. im at work so cant post any picks of the set up but will try to put some up later. i used a drill and fiberglass posts in aragacrete bases to build 2 tall towers. i would highly recommend doing that so you avoid the pile of rocks look.

 

[cbort]

i have a 48x48x30 inch cube and found it a joy to set up. it is in the corner and the back is hard to get to but i think the look is great. im at work so cant post any picks of the set up but will try to put some up later. i used a drill and fiberglass posts in aragacrete bases to build 2 tall towers. i would highly recommend doing that so you avoid the pile of rocks look.

yes do post some pictures! I would love to see it! I have always wanted a 48x48 cube, but always thought i would have a short shallow cube. When this one popped up for sale i was in HEAVEN! The height of this cube is going to be a blast to Aquascape! I have roughly 6-700lbs or rock to work with so finding the right sized pieces should be pretty easy. I have about 4 pieces that won't fit into a 5g bucket. They are pretty large pieces, so we will see what i come up with.

 

[Mangodude]

Thanks! I would love to move the TV, but its a pretty small mancave. I was lucky to get the amount of room that i did.

The aquascaping is going to be pretty wide open. I have always wanted a pair of either crosshatch or blue throat triggers, so i want lots of swimming room. I am going to only have 1 small hallow cave for a zebra eel or a dragon eel. Other than that all open!

T5's will be used on the display tank. The 7 400W MH bulbs will probably be sold for the fact that my frag tanks are all very very shallow. 250's Max.

I will be running a hell of a Refugium. I want a very big refugium stocked full of mangroves macro and deep sandbed. It will be seperate from my sump.

I have also tried no skimmer before with good results, but as soon as i began adding the large fish load, all hell broke loose. So i want a skimmer, but am contemplating goint with 2 large skimmers to complement each other.

Please keep me posted on the refugium! :lol: it has always been one of my goals to have a large refugium on my tank. From what I have heard recently, mangroves don't do much unless you have a small forest of them. I had 6 of them in my last 120 and they did fine. I'm not sure how much difference they made though. Instead I would go for algea's like cheato, dragons breath, graccilaria, caulerpa, etc. Mangroves do create a tropical look though...

What size refugium are you thinking of doing?

I'm currently working on a 30g gulf of mexico tank with mangroves local grasses etc. and I've been experimenting with different algea's. Trying to come up with what grows best with minimal requirements. Will let you know if I find anything that could possibly help. My red graccilaria is doing quite well in my sump (it's the third colony though, the first two died). I am not sure how well it does with nutrient export but it does look cool and grow quickly!

The 400w halides should help rake in some extra cash to spend on more stuff. Always a good thing!

 

[cbort]

Are you still gonna use the 2 Powermodule 10x54? thats 20 T5s in an TAI fixture, seems very bright and the color combos amazing.

The single 10x54 powermodule seems to light up the tank good

Yes i am going with the 2 ATI T5 Powermodule 10bulb fixtures totaling 20 T5 bulbs over this cube. It should be really really bright!

 

[cbort]

Please keep me posted on the refugium! :lol: it has always been one of my goals to have a large refugium on my tank. From what I have heard recently, mangroves don't do much unless you have a small forest of them. I had 6 of them in my last 120 and they did fine. I'm not sure how much difference they made though. Instead I would go for algea's like cheato, dragons breath, graccilaria, caulerpa, etc. Mangroves do create a tropical look though...

What size refugium are you thinking of doing?

I'm currently working on a 30g gulf of mexico tank with mangroves local grasses etc. and I've been experimenting with different algea's. Trying to come up with what grows best with minimal requirements. Will let you know if I find anything that could possibly help. My red graccilaria is doing quite well in my sump (it's the third colony though, the first two died). I am not sure how well it does with nutrient export but it does look cool and grow quickly!

The 400w halides should help rake in some extra cash to spend on more stuff. Always a good thing!

Well...my system will go as follows:
First the water will drain from the tank into a smaller tank(sump) that will house my skimmers and filter socks and carbon.
Second, the water will flow into a custom acrylic shallow tank for the refugium. I am going to do a deep sand bed in this tank, and macro algae and probably a dozen or more mangroves. Then finally through a final polishing refugium with only live rock and Chaeto. At the very most i am going to have about 800gph flowing through this setup. My display tank and frag tanks will all use this for filtration.

ya let me know what kind of macros work the best!

The halides will help get this baby plumbed i imagine!

 

[tamortman]

can't wait to see it

 

[cbort]

can't wait to see it

Thanks!

 

[cbort]

Need everyone's thoughts...what would you do....?

1.)CL with up to 7000gph flowing through an OM 4-way?

2.)CL with 2 OM 4-ways with 2 3600gph pumps flowing through each.

3.)MP40x3

Dimensions of the tank is 48x48x28 with an open aquascape. Let me know your thoughts and reasoning! Thanks

 

[kmu]

I would really go with the return pump and just 2 MP60 in the display

 

[mrmikeasaurus]

1.)CL with up to 7000gph flowing through an OM 4-way?


i would go this route.. i used 2 om4 with 2 darts on my 450 and it was way too much

 

[cbort]

I would really go with the return pump and just 2 MP60 in the display

That would be really nice!

 

[cbort]

1.)CL with up to 7000gph flowing through an OM 4-way?


i would go this route.. i used 2 om4 with 2 darts on my 450 and it was way too much

I really want to try out the CL options first. Another reefer says he has the same exact pump on a 4way CL and he says his flow is really crappy on his 120g. I am not sure if thats because he doesn't have a very large drain going to his dart or what, but i would think a dart on a 4way would create tons of flow. I know of another reefer that ran the same setup on his 48x48x24 cube, and it did great.

From what i understand your inlet needs to be as large as possible in order to not restrict the Dart. I may have to ask him what size drain he is using on his CL. My tank has 2 1.5" drains for the CL. So I figure if i use 2 CL pumps i will have to get another 2 1.5" holes drilled.

Thanks for the replies and keep em coming!

 

[kmu]

I really want to try out the CL options first. Another reefer says he has the same exact pump on a 4way CL and he says his flow is really crappy on his 120g. I am not sure if thats because he doesn't have a very large drain going to his dart or what, but i would think a dart on a 4way would create tons of flow. I know of another reefer that ran the same setup on his 48x48x24 cube, and it did great.

From what i understand your inlet needs to be as large as possible in order to not restrict the Dart. I may have to ask him what size drain he is using on his CL. My tank has 2 1.5" drains for the CL. So I figure if i use 2 CL pumps i will have to get another 2 1.5" holes drilled.

Thanks for the replies and keep em coming!

The guy I bought the tank from had a Barracuda for return pump with 2 wavyseas and also had 2 dart pumps on a closed loop each with a 4 way output... So he had tons of flow and had to go bare bottom because of the sandstorms.

 

[cbort]

The guy I bought the tank from had a Barracuda for return pump with 2 wavyseas and also had 2 dart pumps on a closed loop each with a 4 way output... So he had tons of flow and had to go bare bottom because of the sandstorms.

I am also contemplating going bare bottom...

 

[cbort]

Arrived home with some goodies to get this build going!

Sump: Roughly 80g Custom made

Pumps!