Vapour1ze's 93g Rimless Cube Build Thread

[Vapour1ze]

Well the time has come for me to get back into the hobby. I am beginning this thread to of course, document my progress along the build. I appreciate any people who want to tag along. I was previously known as "tehauthority" on ReefCentral about 6 years back.

I am going to be moving quite slowly these first few months but am very excited to see what I come up with.

I purchased a 93 gallon cube yesterday from a Chicago LFS. I will be putting this in a corner in my living room. The reason this has to go in a corner is because of a sectional that is coming later this month.

I also plan on doing an entire fish room in the basement and having that be my sump area. A large return pump will return everything to the main level where the tank resides.

Anyways, I appreciate to have some followers onboard. I'll be updating this every step of the way.

Cheers and Happy Labor Day!!!

 

[GroktheCube]

I'm setting up a 93 cube in my basement to serve as an anemone tank.

I'll be following along.

I really like the tank, very cool looking.

Any plans for lighting? I'm going to be using a single 250w Radium over mine. One advantage of cubes is that they're relatively easy to light using a single MH.

 

[Vapour1ze]

Good to have you onboard. I used a radium 20k on my previous tanks. I was going to try one of the Ecotech xr30 pros. Save on electricity and heat since it's in my living room.

 

[Joel_155]

Should be cool!

 

[Vapour1ze]

I didn't want to paint the back of my tank like previous builds, I spent too much money on this tank and didn't want to have to spent the hours scraping paint off if I ever moved or sold this thing. I decided to use window film. I'm glad my lady has patience and was willing to help out.

Before...



Coming Along...




Done...

 

[Vapour1ze]

Today I placed a fairly large order...

-Pan World 150PS (Basement return pump)
-3 Hydor Evolution Power Heads (1150gph)
-2 300w Jager Heaters
-Ranco Temperature Controller
-SpectraPure 90GPD RO/DI System
-Agriculture Solutions Refractometer

I am trying to order everything I need to get the basic plumbing done with and do a test run with filling the tank. After all of that is a success I will be mixing my first batch of saltwater and finding some live rock and the aquascaping can begin.

Of course I still need a lot, but I want the plumbing done ASAP.

Stay tuned!

 

[Vapour1ze]

Can't edit the above post, however I cancelled that order. (Except for the PanWorld 150PS) That arrived today. Today however I backordered the AquaMaxx Cones CO-2 Skimmer. Pricey. But I want it. It'll be worth the wait!

 

[GroktheCube]

Where did you buy the window film that you used? That came out looking good.

 

[whiteshark]

The window film looks great! I'm interested in exactly what you used as well.

Also, 2 300 watt heaters, that's a ton of heating potential. I dunno if I would do that. Maybe two 150s.

EDIT: Just saw your thread about the heaters. Guess you've already come to the two 150 conclusion.

 

[Vapour1ze]

I'll snap a pic of the box later on.

On a side note, skimmer has been ordered like mentioned above. I had a few goodies come in today. My Pan World and some reef crystals. I also have some shots of my future sump room in the basement. Waiting for my father to come over and help out with the roughing in. Once that is done I can begin getting everything in order. I also am going to be building a few shelves and stands in the sump room to support the tanks and other filtration media. Super excited to get everything started! I also have a very valid source on some live rock that I will hopefully be picking up once I have a sump built and can keep it in until my display is ready.

Here's some pics:

 

[Vapour1ze]

Continued...

 

[PL-Reef]

I'm tagging along Luke. I love my 93g, it's got great dimensions to aquascape in. Looking forward to seeing how your turns out. If I remember tonight I take some pics tonight for you.

 

[Vapour1ze]

I'm tagging along Luke. I love my 93g, it's got great dimensions to aquascape in. Looking forward to seeing how your turns out. If I remember tonight I take some pics tonight for you.

Glad to have you onboard!

 

[Fade2White12]

I was in a similar situation where I was *mostly* out of the hobby, and really just maintaining a fishless nano for few years. Now that I'm in a new house, I have a new setup in the works.

The setup is very similar to yours, but an 85g wide - rimless, black silicone, all starphire, the works! We also have some similar equipment choices as well. I'll be tagging along!

 

[Vapour1ze]

I was in a similar situation where I was *mostly* out of the hobby, and really just maintaining a fishless nano for few years. Now that I'm in a new house, I have a new setup in the works.

The setup is very similar to yours, but an 85g wide - rimless, black silicone, all starphire, the works! We also have some similar equipment choices as well. I'll be tagging along!

Cool! Thanks for tagging along. I wanted to do something wider but I needed the cube to fit in the living room. Very excited for the aquascape part!

 

[Vapour1ze]

Where did you buy the window film that you used? That came out looking good.

The window film looks great! I'm interested in exactly what you used as well.

Also, 2 300 watt heaters, that's a ton of heating potential. I dunno if I would do that. Maybe two 150s.

EDIT: Just saw your thread about the heaters. Guess you've already come to the two 150 conclusion.

Here's the window film I used: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Gila-3-ft-x-6-5-ft-Black-Privacy-Window-Film-PB78/100618512

I also did buy this kit as well for the application, I believe it was worth the 8$ or whatever it was. It made our lives easier applying this. - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Gila-Complete-Window-Film-Application-Kit-RTK500SM/100354790

 

[Vapour1ze]

UPDATE - Skimmer is on backorder for at least another week or two. No big deal, I don't even have anything ready. On another note, I just bought my lights! I just so happen to be hopping around eBay and saw a BRAND NEW XR30W G3 Pro. I ended up winning the auction for 510$!!!! Whether that is too good to be true or not I will not know until I have the package in hand. I'm very excited as I saved 250$ on lights!

I will begin fish room construction sometime early next week.

Amazon order has also been placed for 2x 250w JAGER Heaters and a Refractometer.

I am in the process of drawing up a sump idea for the fish room.

Also contemplating ordering the dual reactor from BRS to run inline with the sump as well.

Stay tuned!

 

[PL-Reef]

If you end up running them all the time or not, it's a great idea to have the reactors plumbed into your return pipes. That way you can throw in some GFO, carbon or whatever, whenever you need.

 

[Vapour1ze]

If you end up running them all the time or not, it's a great idea to have the reactors plumbed into your return pipes. That way you can throw in some GFO, carbon or whatever, whenever you need.

I can just split the main return line off of the pump and ball valve a few different ones right? One to the tank, one to the reactors, one to something else etc etc.. ? Just throttle as necessary to the reactors correct?

 

[PL-Reef]

Absolutely, build a return manifold that you can use if you expand your system. I went with gate valves, their better for fine tuning your water pressure.