Andrej's Home Office 40 AIO Cube build

[andrejk]

I started this tank around the new year and have been cycling it with a pair of clowns transplanted from a 55g tank we took down over Christmas. (The other contents were moved to another tank.) I haven't fully decided what to do here yet. I was originally thinking SPS since my bigger tank is an LPS/Softie tank. But I love movement and have really enjoyed a few of the LPS varieties in my other tank (Acans, Duncans, various Euphyllia) so may move in that direction.

The tank is an Aquatop 40g AIO. I have a Brightwell brick in the sump along with a few media bags to give the bacteria some surface area. It has an ABS bare-bottom (sheet from BRS cut to fit and silicone glued down). The rocks are mostly Marco rocks with a few I had on hand, joined with epoxy putty into one solid mass. For now I'm using the stock pump and an old powerhead to create some (light) circulation.

The light is temporary and I just put it on last week just to carefully start moving towards giving the tank some light. I'll replace it depending on what kind of coral I finally decide to keep. I'll probably make that call later this month (Feb), get some better lights and start adding a few test coral to see how they do.

(Sorry for the bad picture.. but there isn't much to see yet anyway. )

I'm trolling these tank pages for inspiration on lighting, powerheads and coral selections. I'm also fighting the urge to just go all-in on an Apex for this tank too. (I feel like I'm living without insurance.. my phone doesn't alert me when something changes!)

 

[blaxsun]

Depending on what you go with for devices, you'll be able to control and monitor a lot remotely. For instance, if you have an AI Prime or Hydra for lighting and Nero 3/5 for a wavemaker, you can control and monitor both from an app. An Inkbird with heater can give you remote temperature readings through an app as well. And if you utilize a WiFi pump like a Sicce you'll have remote monitoring capabilities as well. All of these also give you alarm/notifications as well.

 

[andrejk]

Depending on what you go with for devices, you'll be able to control and monitor a lot remotely. For instance, if you have an AI Prime or Hydra for lighting and Nero 3/5 for a wavemaker, you can control and monitor both from an app. An Inkbird with heater can give you remote temperature readings through an app as well. And if you utilize a WiFi pump like a Sicce you'll have remote monitoring capabilities as well. All of these also give you alarm/notifications as well.

Yeah those are really good points.. on my 125 I locked in on the Apex early and just integrated everything with that, but as I thought about it, the lighting doesn't really benefit that much from being integrated there. I use the Inkbird app to run my temp control on that tank too and I'm pretty happy with that too (except when we had a cold night last month and it thought that heater was on too long so it disabled it... but much better it gets too cold than too hot, and nothing died).

I really like the AI lights.. need to look at their wavemakers too. If I was buying today, I'd probably buy the Prime 16.. seems like plenty for LPS in this 40g cube.

 

[blaxsun]

Yeah, a single Nero 3 or 5 would probably be more than sufficient. And with the Neros they run on the same app as the Prime and Hydras, and you can throttle the speed as desired.

 

[andrejk]

I don't need it yet, but I added a light! Noopsyche K7 V3s. Just running dim for now to avoid feeding the ugly brown.

separate thread on my first impressions of these lights: Noopsyche K7 V3 first impressions | REEF2REEF Saltwater and Reef Aquarium Forum

Not much new but adding powerheads this weekend (taking out the temporary one that's sitting on the bottom).