Hey all! I am starting a new build so I thought to document it! I got sick a while back and ended up selling my reef tank and giving a lot of stuff away:
http://www.reefedition.com/reef-spotlight-bret-hartmans-120g/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/harts-acro-growout.176670/page-2
and converting it to FW with an automatic drip system for pretty much no work on my part as I was not home much. I am still a bit gun-shy of a large reef system but had been kicking the idea around of a nano – I have a jellyfish cubic 20 but while jellies did great they were just too much daily work for me as I found they did best on live baby brine and hatching those daily wasn’t much fun. The commercial foods, besides sunset marine frozen baby brine, were just too messy. I put a really nice Duncan from divers den in there and it seems to be doing ok, but it’s really not the vision I had for the system.
Well I have a friend who is a local reefer and he happens to have a marineland 24” cube and a bunch of equipment. He is going to trade me the jelly tank for a bunch of gear! I say trade, but he is really generous and pretty much giving me this extra gear he has picked up from all over the place. How amazing is that??
So anyway let the ordering begin! 1st up is the stand. The tank had a homemade one, but it looked a little rough so I went to my LFS and asked about 24” cubes stands, they have the marineland and deep blue professional. I saw the maineland has an open top, which seems crazy for a rimless tank, so I ordered the DBP stand. Bonus it was on sale and cheaper than the marineland at $175. Works for me! I have never tried building a stand and I feel like for that price it saves me a lot of aggravation.
I will put some pics later, I don’t have the tank or stand yet, but got 1st BRS shipment including skimz up21 sump, and it looks really nice! Cube tanks are hard to get good sumps, the filter socks are not in the most handy spot, but it’s a tradeoff for size and I am really happy with it for 200 buck range. The built in ATO reservoir is nice, I don’t know how long 3 gallons will last though. Also snagged BM T11 doser, I plan on using it for CA, ALK and vinegar with MG done by hand and a brightwell block for bacterial in the sump as I might have a minimal display. I run BB and have some white starboard on the way, I will have to ask for help to cut it for the overflow, that stuff is really tough.
Got a bunch of plumbing coming as well. I don’t want to use the stock stuff, I want to run a herbie with the two holes, I then plan on drilling a hole in the overflow section (behind the overflow corner in the glass) and running lockline out the front of the overflow like stock. I plan on masking the overflow section and painting black on the outside with black PVC return pipe, I think that should look clean, and my goal is to have the tank have visual interest from all 4 sides which I think I can do with the above steps which is a cool benefit of a side overflow vs external or rear. I have only done black backgrounds with rectangle aquariums which really are all about the front view, so this should be interesting and a fun change for me to try.
I don’t have too much now, but I hope to keep updating!
Oh and my GF glofish tank for fun:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/33g-cube-glofish-tank-well-there-is-some-salt-in-the-water.281108/
http://www.reefedition.com/reef-spotlight-bret-hartmans-120g/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/harts-acro-growout.176670/page-2
and converting it to FW with an automatic drip system for pretty much no work on my part as I was not home much. I am still a bit gun-shy of a large reef system but had been kicking the idea around of a nano – I have a jellyfish cubic 20 but while jellies did great they were just too much daily work for me as I found they did best on live baby brine and hatching those daily wasn’t much fun. The commercial foods, besides sunset marine frozen baby brine, were just too messy. I put a really nice Duncan from divers den in there and it seems to be doing ok, but it’s really not the vision I had for the system.
Well I have a friend who is a local reefer and he happens to have a marineland 24” cube and a bunch of equipment. He is going to trade me the jelly tank for a bunch of gear! I say trade, but he is really generous and pretty much giving me this extra gear he has picked up from all over the place. How amazing is that??
So anyway let the ordering begin! 1st up is the stand. The tank had a homemade one, but it looked a little rough so I went to my LFS and asked about 24” cubes stands, they have the marineland and deep blue professional. I saw the maineland has an open top, which seems crazy for a rimless tank, so I ordered the DBP stand. Bonus it was on sale and cheaper than the marineland at $175. Works for me! I have never tried building a stand and I feel like for that price it saves me a lot of aggravation.
I will put some pics later, I don’t have the tank or stand yet, but got 1st BRS shipment including skimz up21 sump, and it looks really nice! Cube tanks are hard to get good sumps, the filter socks are not in the most handy spot, but it’s a tradeoff for size and I am really happy with it for 200 buck range. The built in ATO reservoir is nice, I don’t know how long 3 gallons will last though. Also snagged BM T11 doser, I plan on using it for CA, ALK and vinegar with MG done by hand and a brightwell block for bacterial in the sump as I might have a minimal display. I run BB and have some white starboard on the way, I will have to ask for help to cut it for the overflow, that stuff is really tough.
Got a bunch of plumbing coming as well. I don’t want to use the stock stuff, I want to run a herbie with the two holes, I then plan on drilling a hole in the overflow section (behind the overflow corner in the glass) and running lockline out the front of the overflow like stock. I plan on masking the overflow section and painting black on the outside with black PVC return pipe, I think that should look clean, and my goal is to have the tank have visual interest from all 4 sides which I think I can do with the above steps which is a cool benefit of a side overflow vs external or rear. I have only done black backgrounds with rectangle aquariums which really are all about the front view, so this should be interesting and a fun change for me to try.
I don’t have too much now, but I hope to keep updating!
Oh and my GF glofish tank for fun:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/33g-cube-glofish-tank-well-there-is-some-salt-in-the-water.281108/
