Simon's 60 Cube Reef

[Mr. Wiggles]

Hi everyone! Unfortunately I only began taking pictures of this tank by the time essentially all the hardware was in place. I will say it's been fun to put together!

This is my first tank after being out of the hobby for 5 or so years. Finally settled back down post-college, so naturally I drifted back to dreams of coral. My plans are to turn this into a mixed reef; the aquascape kind of necessitates this I think, since some portions of it are very much shadowed (though the picture makes this issue look way worse than it actually is).

I just had to have a full arch haha

Anyways, it seems taking pictures with all this blue is an art in itself, but I think you get the idea. Here's a closer picture of the aquascape itself:

Anyways, for gear I've got the following:
Lighting - Atlantik V4 Compact
Flow - RO Octopulse 2 X1
Filtration - Small sump with refugium and a lil' Innovative Marine "ghost" skimmer...not heavy hitters, BUT I did get an AWC system in place which I'm excited about! Planning to change out around 2 gallons a day, bit by bit.
Also, got an ApexEL, so this will be my first time using a controller.

Here's a picture of the basement:

The sump is a bit smaller than I'd like, but I only paid $40 for it and I think it'll work all the same. Anyways, I don't think there's much room for an upgraded skimmer so here's hoping what I'm doing will be enough.

Upgrades I'd like to get down the line:
1. Automated dosing
2.More flow, probably
3.A better refugium light (at the moment I'm using a light I'd used for hydroponic vegetables, shielded with a piece of acrylic. I'm actually pretty curious to see how it works for algae, but even if it's good, I'd like something completely waterproof).

Another goal for this tank from the outset is to try to mimic a natural food web as much as possible...I'm sure this is a goal for many, but I kind of see it as a whole project: starting with dry rock, can I piece together something as complex as a reef food web? Sounds like a fun challenge! I just ordered the "Ultimate eco pack" from Algae Barn, which seems like a good start, and I'm hoping to try my hand at cultivating different live foods. I figure the best way to encourage a healthy microbiome for a human gut is to eat a diverse diet, so why not try that out with my livestock? I read an article a few months ago where it was found that wild reefs that received more bird poop had higher coral growth rates...maybe I should buy a parrot lol

Anyways, any tips on that or otherwise will be much appreciated. The tank is now filling...slowly...so stay tuned for updates, thanks!

 

[Greatdane]

That’s beautiful rank would love to see that in progress

 

[SPR1968]

That all looks very nice Simon and great pictures!

And welcome to R2R as well by the way!

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

That’s beautiful rank would love to see that in progress

That all looks very nice Simon and great pictures!

And welcome to R2R as well by the way!

Thank you both!!

Tank is now full and heating up!

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

Well, the tank sprung a leak out the bottom, so had to backtrack unfortunately. Would resealing the bottom edges with silicone do the trick, assuming there’s no crack?

In the meantime I set up a bin with water, heat and flow, so I can continue the cycling process.

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

welcome back to the hobby. nice little system, hope that leak is now under control!

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

welcome back to the hobby. nice little system, hope that leak is now under control!

Hey, thanks for reminding me about this! Yes the leak seems to have been fixed - 3 weeks now with water in it after resealing it, so I'm getting pretty confident. Thankfully, I kept the rock cycling in a tub while I was leak testing, so I was able to get some clowns in there shortly after setting it up.

Also set up a metal rack next to the tank to store all my electronics. Don't want to risk getting them soaked!

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

Update: My nitrates have remained at 4-5ppm for over a week, even when I fed extra just to see what would happen. I thought this was really strange, especially since I wasn't getting any algae on my rocks. Actually, I had the beginning of a diatom bloom, but by the next day it was gone! Well, I ended up testing nitrites and found that they were still detectable. Since the test for nitrites shares 2 out of 3 reagents with the nitrate test kit (red see marine care) it occurred to me that maybe those 4-5ppm were actually nitrites. Did some more digging, and decided to cut my AWC system and turn off the light to my fuge, since I thought maybe I've been removing that trace amount of nitrite each day such that there's not enough to feed the cycle. Meanwhile, I've been absorbing my phosphates out of the water via the fuge, and I just learned phosphates are necessary food for Nitrobacter - I love how much you learn in this hobby haha
Anyways, starting to get some brown on my rocks again and nitrates are finally climbing. Hopefully this process will be over shortly so I can turn on my lights to the fuge again and not risk starving the macro in there for too long. Maybe I'll just ease into it with a few hours of light at first and go from there.
Lesson learned: filtration goals during a cycle are different from filtration goals thereafter.

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

My foray into promoting nutrient buildup has come and gone, with success I'd say. I subsequently added a new aquatic friend: a two-spot bristletooth tang! He seems pretty happy so far, picking at the rocks all day and otherwise eating well.

Also, a bit difficult to pick out in this photo, but I've been noticing splotches of purple and red all around the rock work. Tried scraping it off but it wouldn't budge, so happy to report that I'm fairly certain coralline is beginning to take hold way earlier than expected! To be fair, I did buy a piece of live rock utterly caked in the stuff.