My 90 Gallon SC Aquariums "Cube"

Willy315

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When I first joined this forum I was asked to show off my tank. At the time I had a Marineland 70 gallon cube on a Marineland stand, which by the way isn't quite tall enough for my liking. So here is the Marineland 70 gallon a few days before the switch.


So now on to the build of my 90 gallon SC Aquariums "cube". The tank is 36" wide 24" tall 24" deep. Not really a cube but that's what they call it. I got the tank used, so it has a few scratches and chips here and there but nothing that concerns me too much. I had never heard of SC Aquariums before getting this tank. I have to say that I am very impressed with the silicone work on this tank. The Marineland tank's silicone was horrible. I don't have a picture of the 90's silicone but I will post one later.

Here is the tank a few days after I got it. It's hard to see in this picture, but it has a center overflow.

That took up a lot of room, so after some careful cutting, I removed it. I wanted to put 2 Maxpect Gyre 130/230's on either side of the overflow. With only 36" to work with I opted for an Eshopps Eclipse large overflow. It has a width of 12". Very nice overflow with a good price. Along side of the overflow I put my 2 holes for my 3/4" return nozzles.




The tank came with the original sump that is made out of all glass. I ended up cutting out a baffle that divided the bottom chamber in half. My Vertex IN-100 skimmer with Sicce pump on it just wasn't going to fit in there. I will be using Siporax in the top chamber. I think That chamber was supposed to be for a fuge or something. One baffle got removed and the other baffle was cut down 2.5" and relocated about an inch or so. Here is a pic after all the mods to the sump. The center chamber is my return chamber. Once I get a good picture of the sump running it will make more sense of what and why I did things.

As I stated I am using a Vertex-IN100 skimmer with a Sicce PSK-100o pump. The return pump is a new Jebao DCP-6500 this is the new Sine Wave version of their pumps. It is dead silent and at 60% flow (approx 450gph) it is only pulling 29 watts. My old Eheim 1262 was pulling 80 watts.
For lighting I am using a 250W Phoenix DE. I swear by these bulbs, I have always had great success with them.
So anyway, enough rambling. Here is the tank after aquascaping with coral fully encrusted on most all the rock(no fun!).


I will get more pics of the sump uploaded tomorrow. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Thanks for taking a look!
 
Great looking tank and love the idea of switching out the overflow. I had a planet aquarium 75g that had the external overflow and loved it. Never thought of doing this!
 
Nice work. Beautiful reef!

That clam is hot. How long you had it?

IMG_0048.JPG

Not sure exactly but several years at the least.
 
Great looking tank and love the idea of switching out the overflow. I had a planet aquarium 75g that had the external overflow and loved it. Never thought of doing this!

Thanks
 
Nice man!
 
In the this picture you can see why I took the glass out of the middle of the skimmer section.


And here is an overall shot of the sump. You'll have to excuse the mess I haven't done any cable management yet.


Lastly is a shot of my Siporax section. For those of you that don't know what it is, it's a sintered glass material with TONS of surface area. This area is kept low flow(approx 80-100gph) and low oxygen to help reduce nitrates. Before I made the tank swap my nitrates were 0, I was actually dosing nitrates to get them to around 5ppm.
 
As promised here is a picture of the silicone. Very neat and clean
IMG_0053.JPG
 
I have a 90gl cube. How do you like the gyre placement on the back of the tank?

I have two little dudes at home that like to pull the powerhead magnetic off my tanks glass, and dump them into the sand. With the new build I'm trying to mount them on the back glass to avoid this. Been trying to decide between MP40s, or Gyres. I'm worried that MP40s will be too much of a cone flow and blow sand everywhere... How do the gyres perform for you?
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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