35 gallon cube build

[nine8taco]

This is a pretty major downsize for me. Im coming from a 300 gallon DD (now in storage). This is a house were not counting on being in for very long so i didnt want to mess with trying to fill that beast and then immediately break it back down. The space that i have will fit a 20" cube 35 gallon display quite nicely so thats what im going with. The tank is a deep blue brand reef ready cube with a corner overflow. I'll be building the stand and hood as well so that will take some time as well.
Here is the stand. It looks a bit odd so let me explain. The tank is going to sit right next to the arm of my couch and we needed an end table there as well so my options were to build a stand with the same dimensions as the tank which would limit me on room underneath for filtration and such and then put a seperate end table there with it, or combine the stand and end table together which would have way more room under it. This is what i ended up doing so the tank will sit on the upper part and the lower will have granite on it to serve as the end table.

here is is in place with all of the door cutouts made.

here is the piece of granite, its very hard to see but with the light from the kessil it has luminescent blue pieces in it, i love it!

I also decided that i didnt like the amount if room the corner overflow took up in such a small tank so i took it out and im gonna replace it with a glassholes overflow
before

after

 

[nine8taco]

here is the tank after i put the glassholes overflow in and painted the back blue

 

[nine8taco]

here is the first iteration of the hood (ended up cutting it down)

 

[nine8taco]

for the past couple days ive had the kessil hanging over the tank to try and decide whether or not i could stand having all of the light spillage from the tank being open, and the verdict is in. I cant stand it, ive always had a hood, im used to having almost no light spillage into the room and i cant hang without one so ive been brainstorming ideas on how to shorten the height of the hood and this is what i came up with. By eliminating the space to hang the kessil entirely and then push it up through the top just a touch i was able to cut 4 inches out of the height and still maintain the ideal measurement of 12" above the surface. I went from 19" overall to 15" overall. im much much happier with it. It is still big for a small tank but i dont think it looks ridiculous.
heres before

and heres after

and heres what i did exactly cut a hole for the light and the cord then built a rack for it to sit in. the light is set into the rack almost entirely without blocking a single vent hole in the fixture at all.

 

[nine8taco]

here is the finished product, now the long wait for all this dead rock to get populated with bacteria and actually cycle (the rock has been in water to give it time to leech phosphates since september and i added a piece of live rock to the sump a week ago once the tank got set up)

 

[nine8taco]

heres the first additions! pair of picasso Percs! and some CUC

a diamond goby who refuses to let me take a decent pic of him.

midas blenny from the red sea!


here he is watching over the only coral in the tank (some duncans) and his new subject the picasso clown named don...don quijote that is.

 

[nine8taco]

Lubbocks wrasse

 

[nine8taco]

ornate leopard wrasse

 

[ReefQueen]

Very nice. I had exact same idea for the 8 gallon next to my couch, but couldn't find one of those old step end tables the right size (and I am not handy with wood). Love the way yours turned out!

 

[nine8taco]

Thank you! The stand wasn't bad to build, you should give it a try!

 

[ReefQueen]

Thank you! The stand wasn't bad to build, you should give it a try!

Can't I just hire you? I definitely want my next stand custom. All the stands on the market are either too plain, or too cheaply made (usually both lol). If I do it myself or have someone else make it remains to be seen. But I am definitely filing yours away for reference

 

[nine8taco]

Haha thank you but I'll have to pass

 

[tjb1993]

I have a question

I have a 35 gallon Seapora rimless 20x20x20 also. I also have a Kessil. It's the a80. What setting do I put it on for intensity, and which color? I only have live rock from my lfs in Framingham, Ma. No life yet. I am taking my time with this one. Aqua clear 30 with Chemipure bag. CPR aquatics Protein skimmer; both HOB. One power head on the upper right hand back of tank. Natures ocean live sand, about 38lbs; Lb/gallon

What setting do I use. And isn't that too many fish for such a small tank, especially those wrasse?

And a quick explanation of leaching phosphate would help me. That made me nervous. I didn't cure my live rock.

 

[tjb1993]

I have a question

I have a 35 gallon Seapora rimless 20x20x20 also. I also have a Kessil. It's the a80. What setting do I put it on for intensity, and which color? I only have live rock from my lfs in Framingham, Ma. No life yet. I am taking my time with this one. Aqua clear 30 with Chemipure bag. CPR aquatics Protein skimmer; both HOB. One power head on the upper right hand back of tank. Natures ocean live sand, about 38lbs; Lb/gallon

What setting do I use. And isn't that too many fish for such a small tank, especially those wrasse?

And a quick explanation of leaching phosphate would help me. That made me nervous. I didn't cure my live rock.

Also new here and to salt life In general. Had a 30 gallon Nano that didn't go so hot last year. I added too much too fast.

Great set up. The carpentry is very impressive.

 

[nine8taco]

If you have live rock you shouldn't need to cure the rock. I started out with dead (dry) rock that was once live rock. So when the rock gets wet again all of the organic matter inside the rock begins to break down which causes the leaching of nutrients, mainly phosphate into the tank which can fouls your water and make keeping things alive or thriving difficult. Like I said tho you shouldn't need to worry about that.

The kessil I have a controller and I ramp up from the lowest power and color settings up to 80% color 80%power and then back down to off over a 12 hour light cycle.

The fish thing is debatable. The leopard wrasse would benefit from a larger tank (setting up the 300 gallon tank I have storage pretty soon) unfortunately though that is a non issue as I lost both the lubbocks and then the leopard wrasse in close succession to each other from flukes, despite my best efforts to treat them.
IMHO it's all about husbandry, if you take good enough care of your tank (testing, water changes. Etc..) and have the proper filtration you can often get away with a slightly higher than normal bioload. (My above statement is made with the caveats that you add said bioload very slowly to a mature tank and that the fish you're adding are suitable for a tank this size and will mesh well with the other tank mates)

 

[savetheocean]

So cool!

 

[nine8taco]

Thank you!

 

[tjb1993]

If you have live rock you shouldn't need to cure the rock. I started out with dead (dry) rock that was once live rock. So when the rock gets wet again all of the organic matter inside the rock begins to break down which causes the leaching of nutrients, mainly phosphate into the tank which can fouls your water and make keeping things alive or thriving difficult. Like I said tho you shouldn't need to worry about that.

The kessil I have a controller and I ramp up from the lowest power and color settings up to 80% color 80%power and then back down to off over a 12 hour light cycle.

The fish thing is debatable. The leopard wrasse would benefit from a larger tank (setting up the 300 gallon tank I have storage pretty soon) unfortunately though that is a non issue as I lost both the lubbocks and then the leopard wrasse in close succession to each other from flukes, despite my best efforts to treat them.
IMHO it's all about husbandry, if you take good enough care of your tank (testing, water changes. Etc..) and have the proper filtration you can often get away with a slightly higher than normal bioload. (My above statement is made with the caveats that you add said bioload very slowly to a mature tank and that the fish you're adding are suitable for a tank this size and will mesh well with the other tank mates)

I have another question

Is this light strong enough for a 35 gallon? How is everything growing? Isn't 12 hours too much light?

 

[nine8taco]

I have no issue growing anything in my tank. Although admittedly i havent put any challenging sps in this tank its all lps and softies at this point. Youre correct, 12 hours is probably a bit much but i like the tank to be on when i wake up and also still on when i get home for a couple hours so it is what it is.

 

[tjb1993]

Another question; you seem knowledgable, kind, and quick to answer.
I see these amazing, crusty tanks covered in corraline and they just look so reefy. Do I not scrape the lightbrown algae that accumulates on the sides of my cube? What about the layer of algae that grows between the glass and the substrate; which eventually turns emeraldgreen and dark purple?