Hi gang. New member long time lurker, Thought I'd share my tank.
Right now I'm running a 25 Gal 18x18x24 sumpless cube.
I got into the hobby in 2011, when I purchased a 12 nanocube off a local news affiliate's popular classified site. That little tank had a steep learning curve and I dealt with any number of outbreaks and crashes. I gradually started to figure things out and in the spring of 2016 I decided to upgrade to a bigger tank.
In the end of my time with that little AOI tank, I didn't have much use for the back chambers. Any filter media seemed to get real nasty real quick, and I didn't notice much difference whether or not I was running any of the popular nano filter media products. I was also partially inspired by the old hippy dude that owns a local LFS who has several systems going on 20 years running without sumps, with nothing but heaters and powerheads. Not the cleanest, most modern looking tanks, but they have a cool, natural look about them and are all incredibly stable.
Eventually I opted to just put some equipment in the corner of a Mr. Aqua 25 cube and call it a day.
For two years I had the clown and blenny for fish, and the duncan, acan, and candies for coral. The Corals all grew from 1-2 heads, so I've had growth, but I had really been treating it more like a fish tank than a reef tank.
When we bought a new house in November, I was confronted with whether or not it was worth keeping and moving the tank. I came to the conclusion that, for the move to be worth it, I would have to step up my game a little bit and challenge myself to create a better environment for coral growth.
I bought a hanna alk checker, and got to business testing and dosing, then started adding corals. That stylophora(Maybe pocillopora?) in the center went in in december as a tiny frag. Then came the monti down to the right, then the acro up high in back and the birdsnest just to the left of center, then the chalice and hammer, and most recently that cyphastrea on top of the pointy rock.
Caring about coral growth and maintaining good conditions have reinvigorated my interest in the hobby, and seeing growth, -specially in SPS-is super rewarding.
Current Fish: Clown, Yellow Eye Combtooth Blenny, Scissortail Dartfish
Inverts: 2 turbo snails, 4 Scarlet hermits, one candy pistol (I've had 2 hi fin red banded gobies, but both dissapeared so I haven't tried again. The scissor tail actually chills by the shrimp's den and they interact a little bit, which is cool and weird).
Equipment:
-AI prime HD
-Tunze 9004 Skimmer
-2 current e flux 1050 pumps flowing directly into eachother up top at 50% and 60%. Crashing them into each other creates a cool, fairly random flow pattern.
-Eheim Jager 100W
-Smart ATO micro
-Kamoer X1 dosing alk
Here's the view when you walk into the room:
I run a glass lid, which I know is unpopular, but I live in high desert and my evaporation was out of control without one. It was annoying and felt wasteful. Now it takes me about 2 weeks to go through 2 gallons of top off water. I also like that the lid and associated condensation work pretty well to obscure the mess of equipment in the back right corner.
I'd rather look at this:
Than this:
View from my desk:
Under the stand is my top off bucket, electrical stuff, e flux controller, and dosing pump with alk in a bicycle bottle cage:
Clownfish in its duncan:
Acan:
My first acro encrusting nicely:
Thanks for lookin' everybody. I'll try to keep this updated.
Right now I'm running a 25 Gal 18x18x24 sumpless cube.
I got into the hobby in 2011, when I purchased a 12 nanocube off a local news affiliate's popular classified site. That little tank had a steep learning curve and I dealt with any number of outbreaks and crashes. I gradually started to figure things out and in the spring of 2016 I decided to upgrade to a bigger tank.
In the end of my time with that little AOI tank, I didn't have much use for the back chambers. Any filter media seemed to get real nasty real quick, and I didn't notice much difference whether or not I was running any of the popular nano filter media products. I was also partially inspired by the old hippy dude that owns a local LFS who has several systems going on 20 years running without sumps, with nothing but heaters and powerheads. Not the cleanest, most modern looking tanks, but they have a cool, natural look about them and are all incredibly stable.
Eventually I opted to just put some equipment in the corner of a Mr. Aqua 25 cube and call it a day.
For two years I had the clown and blenny for fish, and the duncan, acan, and candies for coral. The Corals all grew from 1-2 heads, so I've had growth, but I had really been treating it more like a fish tank than a reef tank.
When we bought a new house in November, I was confronted with whether or not it was worth keeping and moving the tank. I came to the conclusion that, for the move to be worth it, I would have to step up my game a little bit and challenge myself to create a better environment for coral growth.
I bought a hanna alk checker, and got to business testing and dosing, then started adding corals. That stylophora(Maybe pocillopora?) in the center went in in december as a tiny frag. Then came the monti down to the right, then the acro up high in back and the birdsnest just to the left of center, then the chalice and hammer, and most recently that cyphastrea on top of the pointy rock.
Caring about coral growth and maintaining good conditions have reinvigorated my interest in the hobby, and seeing growth, -specially in SPS-is super rewarding.
Current Fish: Clown, Yellow Eye Combtooth Blenny, Scissortail Dartfish
Inverts: 2 turbo snails, 4 Scarlet hermits, one candy pistol (I've had 2 hi fin red banded gobies, but both dissapeared so I haven't tried again. The scissor tail actually chills by the shrimp's den and they interact a little bit, which is cool and weird).
Equipment:
-AI prime HD
-Tunze 9004 Skimmer
-2 current e flux 1050 pumps flowing directly into eachother up top at 50% and 60%. Crashing them into each other creates a cool, fairly random flow pattern.
-Eheim Jager 100W
-Smart ATO micro
-Kamoer X1 dosing alk
Here's the view when you walk into the room:
I run a glass lid, which I know is unpopular, but I live in high desert and my evaporation was out of control without one. It was annoying and felt wasteful. Now it takes me about 2 weeks to go through 2 gallons of top off water. I also like that the lid and associated condensation work pretty well to obscure the mess of equipment in the back right corner.
I'd rather look at this:
Than this:
View from my desk:
Under the stand is my top off bucket, electrical stuff, e flux controller, and dosing pump with alk in a bicycle bottle cage:
Clownfish in its duncan:
Acan:
My first acro encrusting nicely:
Thanks for lookin' everybody. I'll try to keep this updated.
Last edited:
I love the duncan colony center piece 
