Jayson's 66g SCA Cube build.

And I just have to mention that that Nyos Reef Cement is awesome stuff! Mixes up to a play doh consistency and hardens hard as a rock within 5 minutes. I would use this over epoxy any day.
 
Well what a day...but now she's officially alive! Need to clean up the wiring a bit and move the lights and rocks from the 20.

For now I'm planning on putting the rock that's in my 20 into the sump to seed the bacteria and hopefully avoid going through a cycle. The fish will be in quarantine for another couple weeks so ammonia should stay at a minimum. I'll likely throw in a few pellets every few days to keep the bacteria alive.

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Now I'm trying to decide on weather to put the 120 degree optics in the Radion or not. I'm kind of leaning towards going for it since the tank is 32" wide.

Also I think I'm gonna have to get a different return pump, currently I'm using an Ehiem 1262, and while it pushes more water than I even need its by far the loudest part of the setup. I don't remember it being this loud on my old 100.

If anyone has recommendations on a quiet(er) return pump let me know.
 
Now I'm trying to decide on weather to put the 120 degree optics in the Radion or not. I'm kind of leaning towards going for it since the tank is 32" wide.

Also I think I'm gonna have to get a different return pump, currently I'm using an Ehiem 1262, and while it pushes more water than I even need its by far the loudest part of the setup. I don't remember it being this loud on my old 100.

If anyone has recommendations on a quiet(er) return pump let me know.
Sicce pumps are very quite and affordable.
 
Sicce pumps are very quite and affordable.

Thanks for the suggestion ill look into those. Affordability is always nice.

I'm also looking at the Waveline DC6000 Apex Ready pump. I'd love to be able to turn the pump up or down via the Apex. But more so I'd be nice to have the ability to have the pump come on slower for the first 20 seconds or so. I didn't end up putting a check valve in the return line, so the water drains leaving the ends of the loc-lines at the top of the water level and the ends of the loc-line are facing upwards so when I turn the return pump on now it splashes a little water over the front of the tank for just a second until the water level rises back up.

I'll end up using the feed mode on the Apex at least once a day which turns off my return pump for 10 minutes. So it's a feature I'll definitely utilize. At this point I'm not even 100% sure I'll be able to control it that way so gonna have to do a bit of research.
 
Haven't updated in a while. I ended up getting the Apex ready Waveline DC6000. This thing is awesome and completely silent! I'm only using it at about 50%.

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Also built a clear screen top for the tank. I made some acrylic brackets so the top would sit recessed into the top of the tank. Not just for the looks but it also sits just above my overflow and should help keep fish and snails out of it.
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Added an LED fixture in the stand so I can finally stop using the flashlight on my phone to see what I'm doing!

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As you can see the majority of the live rock from the old 20g fit in the fuge section of my sump so I used that to seed the tank. Didn't have any type of cycle at all which I was very happy about.

Also I added a phosban reactor full of Seachem Matrix with very slow flow for denitrification purposes from day 1.
 
So my original fish a snowflake clown, a black and white phantom clown, a small regal tang and borbonius Anthia are no more. My Black and white clown that I've had is a complete ****** and ended up beating my borbonius Anthia to death...I didn't realize the severity until I took the dead anthia out of the QT and saw the damage. Needless to say I was heart broken and ticked.

So I decided to sell the clowns and regal to help fund a new pair of Borbonius Anthias. Next day they were sold and new anthias ordered. At the same time I also purchased a pair of Wyoming white clowns and decided to quarantine em together.

I used the (TTM) tank transfer method and I gotta say I love it. I used 2 10g tanks and besides making water every 3 days it was super easy. I didn't get any pics of them in the QT. But as of yesterday TTM was complete and added them to the tank.

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Nice!
 
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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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Looks great. I just got my tank and starting to plum. Where did you get the filter sock mount? And what size 4" 7" thanks
 
Yeah...time for some updates / pics. :-)

I've decided to move up to the 3rd floor so I have to downsize and went with this tank rather than the 50g cube I had last time. Got the tank just sitting in the living room...I move in 4 weeks and can't wait to get it set up in the new place!
 
Got a couple of questions for you. Are you still running the pump at 50%? How far from the top of the tank is your water level? I just finished dialing in the pump / drain. Got mine running at 54% and the water is 1 1/4" from the top. Just seems kinda low to me.
 
Jayson, do you find the water surface in the return / skimmer section looking stagnant? Over the last week or so I've noticed it. Not sure if increasing my drain flow would make any difference. I'm getting ready to finally put my dual reactor on and thought I could route the drain from it into the skimmer section to see if that helps.
 
Got a couple of questions for you. Are you still running the pump at 50%? How far from the top of the tank is your water level? I just finished dialing in the pump / drain. Got mine running at 54% and the water is 1 1/4" from the top. Just seems kinda low to me.

Hey Jim,

Sorry for the late response, works been maddening lately so unfortunately I've semi neglected the tank. Got a bit discouraged when I went against my own strict quarantine rules and added a fish without quarantine and as luck would have it, it had velvet and killed all but 1 of my fish within 3 days....

Since then I moved the lone survivor (Leopard wrasse) to the quarantine but apparently my yellow tang and Chevron tang were keeping a massive hair algae problem in check and as soon as they died hair algae completely took over. And now I'm afraid most of my corals are basically starving to death because of the algae completely ridding my tank of nitrate and phosphate.

I've been doing bi-weekly water changes of 25 gallons and taking as much of the algae out as I can each time and it's finally starring to slow down. But sadly the corals are almost pale white now.

Sorry for the long rant, but to answer your question I'm running it at 60% now for that exact reason of the water looking almost stagnant in the return section. But my water level is still about an inch and a half from the top of the glass. Here's a pic of where it is at my overflow. It's about a half inch down from the top of the overflow teeth.

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Looks great. I just got my tank and starting to plum. Where did you get the filter sock mount? And what size 4" 7" thanks

Sorry for the late response, I'm using a 4" sock. It's in the far back right behind my skimmer.

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