Cube Tank Part II (100 CUBE)

[Nick_Kun]

The 55 is finally drained and the last 2 weeks, my buddy Josh and I have been working on this new tank. I originally purchased a 90 Cube about a month ago, built the stand and canopy then I gave it to my buddy Josh to upgrade his 60gallon SPS tank. I picked up this new tank two weeks ago, it was a cherry colored and didn't match any of my furniture so I sanded it down and painted it Flat Black. Anyways, enough chit chat. Heres the tank spec.

Update: May 22nd

100 Cube-ish (can't remember the dims now), corner overflow
2x250W 15K AND 10k XM
2x36" URI Super Actinic VHO's
2xSEIO 1500 (thanks Will) and 1x620
Euro Reef CS Skimmer
Planning to Install my SQWD soon for some xtra flow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/EndOfMay2.jpg

Heres a current pic.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/100CubeEdit.jpg

[BigAir]

Looks good. Keep posting pics as you fill it up.

[Nick_Kun]

Finally got everything in the tank and here are some updated pics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Closeup.jpg

"Close up of the front so you can see my aquascaping"

Front View
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/FrontShot.jpg

"You can see my only two fishes in my tank, I'm planning to get a harem of anthias soon"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/PlatingWall.jpg

"I made a Plating wall on the left side of the tank; Purple, Green and Red monti cap, Efflo, yellow scroll, Confusa. can't wait until it grows into a colony"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/02283dae.jpg

"Left View of the Tank. I need to start placing corals in this side"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Corner.jpg

"You can see the width of the tank"

Thats it for now.

[phishphood]

Looking good. Where'd you get those VHO's?

[Nick_Kun]

The Retro Came from DavidM but the Bulbs I got from MikeP.

[aqua addict]

VERY NICE! Can't wait till the plating wall grows. Keep the pics comming!

[WanaLeime]

DAMN NICK!!!! NICE!!!

No cycling? Im so jealous...looks great keep up the good work! I gotta come by and peeps that out when im the area.

[DaChrisDude]

I like it, looking good!

[Nick_Kun]

DAMN NICK!!!! NICE!!!

No cycling? Im so jealous...looks great keep up the good work! I gotta come by and peeps that out when im the area.


Not nearly as nice as yours man. I'm gelous of your seaswirl. Oh and yeah, No cycling. That's why I love bare bottom, my parameters are easy to maintain and I don't half to do a weekly waterchange. Maybe ones every 2.5 weeks.

Thanks for the comments ladies and gents.

[WanaLeime]

Not nearly as nice as yours man. I'm gelous of your seaswirl.

Thanks for the comments ladies and gents.

you mean the Oceans Motions...:) You can get one...Just sell me some of your frags :rolleyes: LOL...on real tip though, great job man! its great to see an aquarist with passion and dedication such as yours...keep it up!

Dennis

[Nick_Kun]

Some New Additions.

Update:
I picked up some Deep Water Acros from Will Yesterday and I also got a used
SEIO 1500 from him (I love this thing).
Got this unusual Wrasse from BR, It's called a Banner Wrasse. Wrasse that you don't normally see in this hobby (I think) but I haven't seen one of these on all the LFS that I've visited atleast.

Water Parameters:
Calcium - 460ppm
Alk - 11dkh
Amonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm
Magnesium - 1500 <---Yikes a little too high.

Anyways, here are the pics.

My Clowns Definately Love their New Home.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/ClownFish.jpg

The Banner Wrasse, also called the 1/2 and 1/2 Wrasse.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/BannerWrasse.jpg

Deep Water Acros
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Acroporapaniculata.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Acroporasuharsonoi.jpg

Euro Reef Kicks soo much ass.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/ERSkimmer.jpg

Thats it for now.

[swissfish]

Nick, that looks great.
Your reflector is more dificult that i thought it would be. But I'm working on it.

[Nick_Kun]

it's cool man. Take your time.

- Nick

[Nick_Kun]

Everything in my tank is reacting to the larger water volume greatly and I've seen some substantial growth and better coloration in the last two weeks alone. Anyways, here's one of my favorite coral in my tank. This efflo was a solid green when I got it from will atleast 2 months ago but have since have encrusted all over the rock and its edges have turned blue and is getting brighter and brighter everyday.

BEFORE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Efflo.jpg

AFTER

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/EfloUpdate.jpg

More pictures to come.

[brandon0350]

thank for the seios. the tank looks nice. ygpm

[Nick_Kun]

Heres one more. I have more but I'm tired trying to resize them.

Oh and Brandon, I'll try and frag you a piece next week.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/EndOfMay.jpg

[WanaLeime]

Nick,
How do you keep your water so clear?

[Nick_Kun]

Hehe, your the 3rd guy who asked me that this week. To be honest, I haven't done a water change for 3 weeks now, i've only been topping off RODI and water is crystal clear. I love BB. Anyways, I just have a big bag of carbon in my sump, filter sock that I've washed probably for the 10th time now and my EURO REEF <---I love this thing.


Nick,
How do you keep your water so clear?

[Nick_Kun]

Just picked up this Orange Encrusting Monti. Really crappy picture, my clown brushed at it so the polyps are not out.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/OrangeEncrusting.jpg

[Nick_Kun]

Here is a 2 month update on my tank.

Changes:
Started dosing Amino Acids which is working out preety well. I see some better colorations on my sps and my coraline have gone out of control, it's all over the place, especially on the glass bottom. I have this purple mat around my rock work. Looks preety cool. I also changed my Metal halide bulbs into 10K C. Reeflux. All I can say is that I LOVE THIS BULB. Nice white crisp color.

I was out on vacation for up at the bay area and I was able to stop by a nice fish store called "Dolphins Pet Village". This place is awesome, a lot of rare SPS and LPS at really good prices. Anyways, I picked up a couple of SPS and here are the pictures.

Drool.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/BlueAcro-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/RedAcro.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Difera.jpg
- The Picture doesn't do this coral any justice.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/PinkPolypValida.jpg
- Same with this one.

I'll try and get some full tank shots later. Right now, I'm tired as *****. :)

[Nick_Kun]

Side Shot

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/SideShot2.jpg

[aqua addict]

what specific amino acid u using and what dosing?? thanks..great tank!

[Nick_Kun]

I use Salifert's "Coralline Aminoacids", I got it from Marine Depot. I dose about 20ml. a week.


what specific amino acid u using and what dosing?? thanks..great tank!

[tkang69]

Ok...Relatively reefer newb here. Are you saying you can run a BB tank without cycling first?

How does that work? Sorry if it's a stupid question, but hey, I'm full of em. :)

[Nick_Kun]

You will definately need to cycle. The only reason I was able to not cycle my tank when I moved from a 55 to the cube is that all of the rocks have already cycled for almost close to 6 months, but I was still monitoring my parameters everyday for atleast 2 weeks to see if there was any spikes. If you try and setup a tank, you'll definately get some PH spikes and other issues (Nitrate, Nitrite, Amonia, etc.)

- Nick


Ok...Relatively reefer newb here. Are you saying you can run a BB tank without cycling first?

How does that work? Sorry if it's a stupid question, but hey, I'm full of em. :)

[tkang69]

Ok. That's what I thought :) I do have a 36g Bowfront that has been up since Christmas, and I let it cycle for about 2 months before adding additional fish (newb mistake of cycling with damsels). I started adding corals at 4 months, and have only added a few so far:

GSP
Pumping Xenia
Mushrooms
Black Sun Coral
Fiji Toadstool

I thought I was reading that you had put up your tank without cycling it (didn't know about the move from a 55). Thanks for the explanation :)

[Nick_Kun]

good start.


Ok. That's what I thought :) I do have a 36g Bowfront that has been up since Christmas, and I let it cycle for about 2 months before adding additional fish (newb mistake of cycling with damsels). I started adding corals at 4 months, and have only added a few so far:

GSP
Pumping Xenia
Mushrooms
Black Sun Coral
Fiji Toadstool

I thought I was reading that you had put up your tank without cycling it (didn't know about the move from a 55). Thanks for the explanation :)

[Nick_Kun]

Last week of June Shots. I adjusted the blue and white balance.

Update:
Everything is doing good in my tank, my caps are growing crazy. I added a yellow tang to my collection. I now have a pair of clowns, Pink w/yellow tail anthias (can't remember the name) and the yellow tang I got from harod.
I also added a auto top off system from www.autotopoff.com and another SEIO 1100 from someone at the swap, I can't remember his name.

Water Parameters:
Cal. - 460ppm
Alk - 11dkh
Magneseium - 1300
Amonia & Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 10ppm
Salinity - 1.027

Enough chat, here are the pics.

--- Full Tank Shot ---
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/June27Full.jpg

"Notice my new PURPLE and RED coraline substrate" :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/BBStag.jpg

"I got this frag from Harold, he hooked it up"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/YellowTang.jpg

"This guy eats like a pig, he ate all of the red algea's that I have growing in my tank"

[Nick_Kun]

I forgot this one. You can see my dual MH setup. I also forgot to mention that I reaquascaped my tank, I added more rock son the right hand side.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/TopDown.jpg

[adampweiss]

That's a really cool top view! It's going to be awesome when the bottom glass is completely purple. How do you like that ATO system? I need to add one to my system.

[Nick_Kun]

the ATO works like a charm. A lot of people in reefcentral uses the same one. Yeah, I think that coraline will betaking over the bottom and back glass.


That's a really cool top view! It's going to be awesome when the bottom glass is completely purple. How do you like that ATO system? I need to add one to my system.

[Nick_Kun]

2.5 Month Update

Major Changes:

- I'm slowly thinning out my SPS collection and adding in some Zoanthids and rare LPS. I'm getting tired of trying to maintain them.

- I'm switching my bulbs into the bluer spectrum, going for some 12K reeflux, so if anyone is interested on some 10K reeflux, let me know.

- I added a harem of Purple Fin Anthias (3 females and 1 Male). They look sick schooling.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/PurpleFinAnthias.jpg

- Thinking about adding SSB but I really love my coraline covered bottom glass.

More Pictures comming up soon.

[da6d2003]

Welcome to the land of sand. :)

Very cool tank. I love the down view.

[Nick_Kun]

Decided to Stay BB. I'm trying to grow a mat of zoanthid on the bottom glass.

Here are some new pics pieces I picked up at Harolds a couple of days ago.
This was taken with just the VHO actinics on. Sorry for the crappy pics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/BabyBlueZoo.jpg
Combo rock with some nice green skirt, baby blue inside with peach mouths and some neon greens.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/PinkZoos.jpg
Two kinds of Pinks. One with grey skirts on the left with pink center and Pink with cream green skirt on the right. I have some other zoos but there are the only pics that turned out ok.

More to come.



Welcome to the land of sand. :)

Very cool tank. I love the down view.

[aqua addict]

wait......will that actually happen? i've never seen a carpet of zoos before. is it easier then using sand?

[Nick_Kun]

Not my tank but I want my zoanthids to grow on the bottom glass like this picture.

http://www.critter.net/~brokken/zoamatt.jpg


wait......will that actually happen? i've never seen a carpet of zoos before. is it easier then using sand?

[jrjuiliano]

Interesting. Makes me wonder if you have to put a small frag of it in different locations on the bottom to get them to spread out enough...

You looking for just one type of zoos on the bottom or all different types?

[Nick_Kun]

It will take time but I'm hoping to spread different varieties of zoos all over the bottom glass.


Interesting. Makes me wonder if you have to put a small frag of it in different locations on the bottom to get them to spread out enough...

You looking for just one type of zoos on the bottom or all different types?

[Nick_Kun]

Here are some more from this morning. Enjoy. Excuse the coraline, they are covering my bottom glass. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/FrontAugust.jpg
Full Tank Shot

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/RightMiddleAugust.jpg
Bottom Right

Corals in this Picture
2 Colonies of Rare Neon Green Sarco Leathers
Hammer Coral
Frogspawn
Zoos from the previous pics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Hammer.jpg
Close up of the Hammer and Frog

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/EncrustingLeather.jpg
Does anyone have an ID on this Encrusting leather growing on the rock.? It has bright pink polyps, it's growing like crazy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/XeniaOverflow.jpg
I'm hoping that the xenia would grow around the overflow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/BottomMiddleAugust.jpg
Bottom Middle. There will be more zoos there in the future. I can't wait for Reefapalooza.

[WanaLeime]

Damnnnnnn, looking good nick!!!!

[Nick_Kun]

Damnnnnnn, looking good nick!!!!
Thanks man, it's still a long progress. Oh I still have to see your tank man.

[Nick_Kun]

Got rid of more my SPS and got some more Zoas.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/KiwiStar.jpg

[Nick_Kun]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/RadioactiveZoa.jpg

[Nick_Kun]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/PinkLemonade.jpg

[Nick_Kun]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/NewZoos.jpg

[Nick_Kun]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/NeonGreenSarco.jpg

[Nick_Kun]

New Pics Will Be Up On My Website. Check My Sig.

[Nick_Kun]

I've been debating lately wether to downgrade into a smaller tank or just quit the hobby all together. Sigh!!!! This is probably the last update this year, I'm just going to let everything grow. I've finally have everything stable and everything is very little to no maintenance now other than top off and feeding with the occasional supplements. Anyways, i've finally converted my tank into a mix reef. Zoos, LPS and softies on the left and SPS on the right. I'm probably won't be adding any more corals to this tank unless I find some supe rare zoos or something. Anyways, enough chat, the pics are below.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/August20FullTank.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/TopDownAugust20.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/FrogTorchHammer.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/ZooandClam.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/CandyCaneandClam.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/ClownsHosting.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/ZoosGalore.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/PinkZoanthid.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/emorocker84/Geocities/August%2020/StarFish.jpg

[da6d2003]

Looks great! If you're getting burned out, letting things grow out is probably the best answer. Until you get the bug again that is.

Thanks again for the trade.

[chilly05willy]

Looks good Nick :) love the aquascaping

[aqua addict]

don't u dare quit...this is one of my favorite threads to watch!!! very nice looking tank!

[Nick_Kun]

Thanks for the kind words fellas. I will definately miss this tank when I move next spring. For the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this tank until the move. It's going to be a sad day when I break this sucker down. But once I'm settled, I'm planning to get a Super Cube...hehe, it has a nice ring to it.

- Nick


don't u dare quit...this is one of my favorite threads to watch!!! very nice looking tank!

[Nick_Kun]

Someone Make Me An Offer For This Tank Setup Minus The Livestock. I Really Need To Downgrade To Smaller Tank!!!!!!!!! Or if anyone wants to trade for a 72 Corner or 60 Cube. I'm willing to trade.

[KingRB]

I must have to see it in person. But it looks fake. When i looked at the first pic i didn't even think there was water in the tank..

Why don't you have any crushed coral or sand on the bottom?

[KingRB]

Never mind.
I only seen page one of this tread. the first pics when you started it up looked fake. Looks nice know that i see page 4...

[Nick_Kun]

Thanks.


Never mind.
I only seen page one of this tread. the first pics when you started it up looked fake. Looks nice know that i see page 4...

[DaChrisDude]

Bummer, sorry to hear you're gonna take 'er down...

[Nick_Kun]

SORRY TO SAY BUT THE CUBE IS BROKEN DOWN AND A NEW PROJECT BEGINS. :(


Bummer, sorry to hear you're gonna take 'er down...

[tammy3770]

great tank, I like the BB