inD Creation’s 30g Shallow Cube Build

inDcreations · Oct 14, 2019

Hey reef2reef, this is by far my favorite reefing message board so I’m excited to finally add my own build thread to it! I have never done a build thread so here goes...

This will be on a 30g rimless Glass tank with a minimalist filtration system. We haven’t decided on fish stocking so suggestions are WELCOME! (Although my 3 year old daughter will have veto rights on all suggestions). We likely make it a softie/nem tank.

Proposed Equipment List

Nanobox Reef Duo LED - Dave has been amazing to work with, he color matched our custom lighting fixture with our aF⁴ autofeeder prototype. The light and fixture is amazingly well made and SOLID. Definitely not a plastic toy. It was easy to program with the bluefish wifi chip and the fan is silent in our TV room.
ICECAP 1K Gyre - hidden behind our filter box. Great Flow, great controller...but kinda noisy. It’s been running in the tank for about 3 weeks during cycling and even at about 20% it’s STILL loud. I had an older larger version on my 180gal and I hoped this smaller pump would be quieter but unfortunately it appears that won’t be the case. The flow is amazing though!
Smart AWC Touch - I’ve never used one of these, but I’ve become a huge fan of auto water change systems with my past two systems. First I hate water changes and second I think the small but frequent changes are beneficial to the system! We also already have a waste drain plummed into the tank area so it was a no brainer to go with another AWC system. Previously we accomplished this with an APEX in basically the same way this system works so I’m hoping this will work well.
FIJICUBE 20G box - This is a temporary part of the tank, eventually we’ll implement are own MAME style overflow to feed our custom built algae scrubber but for now this will house the custom algae scrubber. The thing is really well made, the first one was damaged in shipping but FIJICUBE just asked for a couple pictures and shipped out a replacement immediately! Great customer service.
inD Creations aF⁴ Auto Frozen Fish Food Feeder - Still unavailable to purchase, but will fully automate nearly two weeks of frozen feedings on a tank this size (half cube per day) but I may do two quarter cubes per day instead.
Cobalt Neotherm 75w Heater - It’s...well its just a heater. It looks cool, that’s important to me I guess.

Might be hard to tell, but the tank is perfectly level in both directions! The 60gal cube that previously occupied this spot was not level...Don’t mind the sad attempt at 3D printed rock...

Rock work, not going bare bottom just haven’t added sand yet.

I’m looking for some advice getting the coraline growth jumpstarted and the cycle! What have you guys used that works? I’ve never done a tank started with 100% dry rock. Any fish suggestions for a 30gal are highly encouraged. Comments and concerns and questions are welcome as well.

Thanks for checking it out. Will keep updating as we go!

-inD Creations