Need advice - Upgrading New 40G Cube

[mrmatzah]

Hello everyone!

First post here but have been lurking for some time. My wonderful wife bought me an Aquatop ECO Recife 40g Cube with stand for Father's day. We saw it while shopping for some of our other pets, and I got the itch for getting back into saltwater and reef tanks (it's been a long time.). The tank itself is really solid, and the stand is great too. Where I'm running into challenges, though, is the built in pump seems lackluster, and the nano skimmer is pretty non-functional at this point.

I'm looking to upgrade both, and I'm hoping that someone here may have had a similar tank and could point me in the right direction for potential upgrades.

For the skimmer, it's just not producing any 'skim.' I've tried adjusting the air valve several times but just not having much luck.

For the pump as part of the overflow built into the tank, it seems really underpowered. I'm looking for something that will circulate the water more and provide more flow within the tank.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to adding some fish and coral in the coming months after cycling is finished.

Here's a link to the manufacturer's page if you are curious of how the tank is set up:

Recife ECO 40G Tank & Stand Combo

(AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL PICK-UP, LOCATION: BREA, CA 92821. For Local Pick Please contact us before purchasing.) Introducing AQUATOP's Recife ECO All-in-One reef aquarium systems. These aquarium kits include all the necessary accessories to provide an ideal habitat for marine fish and corals. The...

www.aquatop.com

As far as tank setup - I've got 40lbs of live sand, 45lbs of base rock, and 2lbs of live rock I bought the other day.

Thanks in advance!

-mrmatzah

 

[Ron Reefman]

To my eye, that little skimmer looks pretty neat. I'm a bit surprised it doesn't work for you. Have you given it time to 'break in'?

I won a Tunze in-tank skimmer and was sure it would end up being worthless. It even has a stupid control system for air flow, a plastic thumb screw squeezing a clear plastic air line. But to my surprise it works quite well. The tuning of the air flow is VERY temperamental and it does not like water level changes. But being careful and with an ATO it works fine.

What kind of pump does your tank have? Does the replacement need to fit in the back of the tank?

 

[mrmatzah]

Hey Ron - thanks for the quick reply. I just set up the tank last week, so I may not have given it enough time to break in. I've never had much luck with skimmers. Regarding the pump, it didn't look like it had a particular brand, although it honestly looks like a marineland powerhead. I'm not sure of the gph for it. It doesn't necessarily have to fit in the back of the tank, although the baffle is set up in such a way to hide most of the 'hardware' and equipment.

 

[Ron Reefman]

So if you do a bigger pump, how will you do it?

Maybe just going with a wavemaker in the tank would be a better option?

How about a photo?

I set up my new 90g tank and had a 900 gph return pump as the only flow for a few months. But now I have a couple of wave makers in the tank as well.

 

[mrmatzah]

A wavemaker might just be a really good option. I attached some photos, but let me see if Imgur may be a better solution.

The tank itself is coming along really nicely. I added about 40lbs of arag-alive sand, around 45lbs of dry base rock, and a couple of pounds of live rock. I just tested everything this afternoon and I'm at:

0ppm Ammonia
0ppm Nitrite
5-10ppm Nitrate
1.023 SG

I'm really excited about slowly adding fish. Now to just make up my mind on what to add... Here are some pics of the process so far:

 

[Kycelium]

I hated the stock skimmer, but after a month it has finally settled in and is producing 4/5 star skim. I want to also upgrade the return pump, however, I do love the fact that this pump 'floats' in the return chamber. I have had other pumps that rest on the glass bottom of other all in one tanks and eventually they all start to rattle/vibrate/hum.

 

[Kycelium]

Also, wavemakers are an absolute must. Once I first used one, i knew that I could never have a setup without one! Right now I am using 2 Rossmont MX1900's with the rossmont mover, and I love the ability to make them do exactly what I want, down to the minute and gph output. These two pumps were from a previous build so they are way stronger than I need, however I only have them running at 15-25% at their strongest moments.