Jayson's 66g SCA Cube build.

JMLewis · Dec 25, 2015

I've always wanted to make build threads with past builds, and just never ended up taking enough pics to document them. But this time i remembered!!!

I've been reefing for about 15 years now with plenty of ups and downs. The wife, kids, and I moved almost a year ago where I had a 100g set up with fairly descent success. Not to the level I was happy with but lets just say i could keep sps alive....mostly

The plan was to rent for a year and buy a new house but that plans been put on hold for at least a year and a half from now. I've been itching to set up a larger tank and didn't want to set up the old 100g. Was never really happy with the dimensions.

During the move i ended up giving away all of my corals and fish, with the exception of my clowns and RBTA which i moved into a 20 tall that i had laying around in the garage and used a blue and white PAR 38 LED for lighting. But of course ill never be happy with just fish and an anemone, so a few months back i was able to get my hands on a Radion xr30w pro Gen 3 for a good price and snatched it up. Set it up on the 20g (a little overkill...) and started adding some corals, hammer first then some SPS. Never planned on having coral in it in the first place so its fun to see it with thriving SPS.

Heres a pic of the 20g tank as it stands today:

Anyways I've been eyeballing the 66g SC Aquariums cube for the past couple months or so, loved the 32"x 24"x 20" dimensions on it and wanted to set up my first rimless tank.

So the wife says "I can't figure out what to get you for Christmas, so what do you think about me getting you that tank you've been looking at?" The best words a reefer could ever hear!!!!! So i said "well if your sure thats what you want to get me, i guess that'd be ok" LOL!!! However at a $1000 price tag on the PNP version I refused to let her pay for it alone. Because of the 100g I had a sump, a return pump, a skimmer, all the plumbing parts, etc. Plus i live less than an hour away from them. So i contacted the good folks at SCA and asked them if they'd give me a price without the parts I didn't need and if I picked it up myself. Steve at SCA obliged and gave me what I think was a VERY reasonable price.

To help even more with the cost I decided I would cash in the change I've been saving for almost 2 years, came out to more than I thought it would considering I didn't consider myself someone who uses cash a lot. Came out to $377.00, $336.00 after Coinstar's cut.

So Wednesday with a huge smile on my face I drove out to SCA and picked it up. Amazingly enough they ended up giving me everything the PNP comes with minus the skimmer anyways.

JMLewis · Dec 25, 2015

Anyways onto the build. I really liked the fact that it came with a stand and tbh between running my own electrical contracting business and 2 toddlers finding the time to build my own stand would be just about impossible.

The stand was cake, terrible directions more of just a blown up diagram of it, but if you've ever put together some IKEA furniture its a snap. I went ahead and put glue on all of the seams with Gorilla Glue but had no idea this stuff expands as it dries so I'm gonna have to clean up some spots where it expanded out of the seams.

It feels very solid and the MDF was thicker than i thought it would be.

I've left the cabinet doors off for now for ease of access.

Brought the stand inside and threw the tank on it. I decided to go ahead and use their sump since i would need to modify my current sump for my 100g and there weren't any significant benefits to using my own.

I chose this wall since its a shared wall with the garage where Im planning on keeping the top off reservoir, 2 part jugs, and possibly the Apex. I haven't decided on that part yet.

So this morning I started the plumbing. Im really happy that SCA now drills the overflow with 3 x 1" holes. From what I understand they used to only give you one 1" hole and 1 x 3/4" hole. So my plan was to drill out the 3/4" hole to 1" and set it up as an Herbie overflow, then drill 2 x 3/4" holes in the back wall for returns. But now there's no need to. I can still set up the Herbie and use the 3rd 1" hole for the return. I'm still deciding on using the 3rd hole for a Beananimal style overflow, but that would require me to drill the back for the returns. Need to do a bit more research before I make my final decision.

Here's the plumbing i started today, nothings glued yet just dry fitted for now. Had to cut out the dividing weir in the first chamber to make room for the Skimmer.

And here's some of the equipment taking a long needed vinegar bath.

Saltwaterwill · Dec 25, 2015

Awesome build , can't wait to see what happens next...I like the 20" heights, I think it's perfect

JMLewis · Dec 25, 2015

Saltwaterwill said:
Awesome build , can't wait to see what happens next...I like the 20" heights, I think it's perfect

Thanks man, I agree i really like the 20" height.

JMLewis · Dec 25, 2015

Trying to figure out the deal with this overflow. They have an internal glass overflow encased with acrylic that has about a 1/4" gap between them. Its not sealed at the top and at the bottom are slits in the acrylic section of it. Not sure if this is intended to be some type of plenum but to me it looks like its gonna be a place for detritus to settle. Gonna do some research on this but at the moment im leaning towards siliconing it in to keep water out of it all together.

JMLewis · Dec 26, 2015

Here's a shot of the fish in the 29g Quarantine Tank. With my 100g I quarantined every fish that entered the tank, and i plan on doing the same thing for this one. I've always done 4 weeks of Cupramine followed by 2 weeks of Prazipro whether the fish showed signs of parasites or not. I take 8 days to get the cupramine to full strenght. Add 1/4 of the dosage wait 48 hours and repeat x 4. Have never had any fish loose their appetite, show signs of stress, or negative issues with Cupramine.

The clowns are in there now because i broke my own rule and added a Royal Gramma to the 20g without quarantining and sure enough everything ended up with ich... So ended up having to set up the QT and wound up getting a Redhead Salon Fairy Wrasse for this round of quarantine. My goal is to have the 66 up and running by the time they're done. The Powder Browns no longer in the QT, picked it up for a friend and is since been removed.

Sponge Bob pineapple courtesy of my 4 year old daughter.

JMLewis · Dec 28, 2015

Had some time to get some more plumbing done today. At this point ive used none of the plumbing that came with the tank, down to the bulkheads. I've read too many times about their bulkheads leaking so didn't want to even bother taking a chance and picked up new ones.

With the plumbing they provided they had it set up to have the return plumbing coming up through the center bulkhead. The way im setting it up is for an Herbie overflow so ill have 2 drain lines and i didn't want to have to plumb around the center return line to have both drains going to the same section of the sump. I decided to move the return to the left bulkhead and use the center and right bulkheads for my drains. So to do this I had to get a bit creative, but I think it came out great.

Here's a pic of the plumbing parts they sent for the center return and the new return plumbing, im not worried about cleaning off the barcodes or any of that since i plan on painting all of the plumbing in the overflow box black.

And here's it in the overflow.

The Herbie drains.

JMLewis · Dec 28, 2015

I originally wanted to run 3 ball valves off of the return line for reactors but decided to just install 2. I had originally planned on using non union ball valves but changed my mind since unions let me turn the barb valves from side to side, and if i decide to change the type or size of valve on the end of them it would be no sweat.

The return plumbing is just dry fit for now, I still need to clean it up but this is where its at. If anyone has any suggestions or critiques feel free to let me know. Im no expert so always up to suggestions.

This is what im using for all my connections, so far im impressed makes for a really strong bond, when i push the connections together you can see where some of the pvc has become so mooshy it scrapes a thin layer pvc down into the connection. And the cleaner itself takes off anything printed on the pvc with ease. Feeling hopeful for no leaks.

TheEngineer · Dec 28, 2015

I have a 50g SCA cube and really love it. Wish they had done three holes when I got mine. I wound up doing the same things with my plumbing as you did and ran an extra line up and over the back for the return.

Your plan looks great. I personally would ditch the check valve. You can just adjust the locline high enough so you don't drain more than the sumo can handle.

Saltwaterwill · Dec 28, 2015

Hey what size holes for plumbing did they provide you with? Plumbing looks neat.

JMLewis · Dec 28, 2015

icecool2 said:
I have a 50g SCA cube and really love it. Wish they had done three holes when I got mine. I wound up doing the same things with my plumbing as you did and ran an extra line up and over the back for the return.

Your plan looks great. I personally would ditch the check valve. You can just adjust the locline high enough so you don't drain more than the sumo can handle.

Yea I was pleasantly surprised, from the other builds I had read they just came with a 1" and a 3/4" hole. I actually had already purchased the glass hole saws to drill for returns and make the the 3/4" in the overflow to a second 1". So when I opened it and saw 3 x 1" I was excited.

I agree with you about the check valve don't really see a need for it since the lock lines sit so high up won't siphon much, I'll probably replace it with a ball valve but move the manifold line above it.

Saltwaterwill said:
Hey what size holes for plumbing did they provide you with? Plumbing looks neat.

They give 3 x 1" holes in the overflow. And thank you.

revhtree · Dec 28, 2015

Cool build so far!

JMLewis · Dec 28, 2015

revhtree said:
Cool build so far!

Thanks Rev. Not the most complex build but it's been fun. Enjoying having a diary of sorts for the tank. Really regretted not doing this for past tanks.

JMLewis · Dec 28, 2015

Picked up a couple things today. I planned to use Carib Sea Reef Grade sand but couldn't find it locally. I did however find Carib Sea Aragonite, which to me looks like the same stuff without the fancy name. If anyone knows differently please let me know. Hopefully the larger size will help me stay away from it blowing around much.

I plan on keeping it fairly shallow and vacuuming it when I do water changes.

Also the wide angle lenses came in today for my Radion. Not 100% sure I'll really need em since the tank is only 32" wide. So we'll see.

JMLewis · Dec 30, 2015

It's alive!!! Well sorta

I finished up the plumbing tonight and filled er up for a leak test. The Herbie overflow is dead silent! I'm really glad I put in the gate valve to fine tune it.

I did however find a small pinhole leak in the "T" for the return in the overflow box. To fit the 1/2" female adapter into the 3/4" "T" I used a Dremel to sand down the female adapter. Not sure if it makes the surfaces Un-bondable or if maybe I just gouged it a little to much in that area but either way it looks like I'll be remaking this piece tomorrow.

Also found out that side to side it's perfectly level but front is 1/4" lower than the back so I'll need to shim it up a bit.

Tomorrow I'll be picking up my newest resident for the QT, and believe me it's a good one! I'm very excited!

Final plumbing:

There's water in it!

JMLewis · Dec 30, 2015

Well I promised a new fish and here it is!

Meet Mr. Borbonius Anthia! Had my LFS bring one in for me and picked him up this morning before he was even put into their tanks. I drip acclimated him for just over an hour. I've wanted one for years so I'm so excited to finally have one!

I couldn't get a great picture of it so hopefully quantity makes up for quality

Dropped a bit of mysis in and he was eating right away!

JMLewis · Dec 31, 2015

In other news, replaced the plumbing where the leak was, now leak free! And got her level.

Unfortunately the items I ordered for my rockscaping won't be here until the 4th, which isn't really bad in the big picture but I'm just getting excited to get this guy fired up.