Chad and Maddie's 50 cube reef

[Wags]

Hello,

Here is our tank thread hope you enjoy! Please comment on anything we enjoy hearing feedback and any suggestions are welcome.

Aquarium: 50 cube rimless 24x24x20

sump: 10g
fuge: maybe not sure if we have room?
skimmer vortex
lights: Ecoray 60d LED
Circ.: Ecotech MP10
live rock: 60 lbs
sand: 40lb fiji pink
water: RO w/ instant ocean salinity at 1.024

We mixed up the water and got the light mounted over the weekend. Will add pictures later. Any advice on clean up crew? want to stay away from crabs.

Cheers,
Chad and Maddie

 

[TJ's Reef]

That is an awesome dimension Cube Tank and will be fun to fill/aquascape. What is the stocking plans Fish and Coral wise ???

I take it you are another Northwester as your Avatar shows my other life passion "The Pursuit of Salmon"

Cheers, Todd

 

[Wags]

Minnesota born and raised! We head over to Two Rivers, WI for a salmon trip every summer, such a blast. For stock list we are thinking:

2 clowns (percula or ocellaris not sure)
1 basslet
1 lawnmower blenny
x chrmois (maybe not sure)
1 dwarf angel
1 mandarin Dragonet (once we get an establish pod pop.)

This is what we are thinking but need to do a lot more research. We plan to start with just the clowns after we cycle and add CUC!

 

[Wags]

Progress

Added the aquascape last night, used live rock from our old 15 and a 9lb fiji from our lfs. Looking for something a little different not sure how much I like it. Wanted a lagoon feeling with a large calm are in the middle. Let me know what you think!

parameters:

ammonia- 1ppm
nitrites- 4ppm
nitrates - 20ppm
ph - 8.0

hopefully in a few weeks can add the CUC.

 

[juggalogentry]

thats gonna look very nice once its overgrown with coral

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Wow nice pictures. It's looking great already. Looking forward to the future pictures :typing::bigsmile:

 

[Eienna]

*waves*

 

[CastAway]

Beautiful start. Tagging along.

 

[fishroomlady]

I think the scape looks great! welcome to the forum!

 

[Wags]

Thank you all for all the amazing advise. We are absolutely thrilled with our tank and are trying to be as patient as possible! (I think we can all agree its not easy). With that being said we are excited as our diatom bloom is starting to come down and our nitrites are dropping. Maddie is glad as she did not like the look of the "rusty" rocks. We added some cheato to our refugium and hopefully helped jump start the pod population (want a mandarin down the road). We are monitoring parameters and hope to add our first fish within the next 2 weeks. They currently are

amonnia: 0ppm
nitrites: 1ppm
nitrates 20ppm
ph: 8.1
salinity: 1.025

We are thinking of adding a pair of clowns to start things off! Any other suggestions regarding adding our first fish?

Here are pics of the tank now:

cheers

 

[kevantheman35]

Your truely lucky to have a girlfriend that likes the tank as much as you

 

[Wags]

Well thank you she is great! I think I got her hooked when she saw the clowns and pink monti at our lfs. We know have both in our tank. Hoping everything goes well. All the paramas seem to be great: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates (doubt its true but thats what my test reads) alk 9, ca 350

Ill post pictures of them all tomorrow!

 

[kevantheman35]

Great! Following along. I'm starting a new cube too

 

[Wags]

Awesome Kevan! if you have a tread post it and we will make sure to follow

 

[kevantheman35]

Sure do check it out guys. I have a lot of family and friends in Minnesota. Great place https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173973

 

[Diamond1]

Good stuff! I love the dimensions on your tank and the aqua scape looks great.
I've always wanted to do a cube tank but never did. Maybe the next one i do will be a cube.

 

[Wags]

Honestly at first I wasnt too excited about the cube idea. Now I love it and it fits perfect in our tiny apartment. Left lots of room to aquascape.

Any suggestions for a CUC? Would like to go mostly snails, maybe a few hermit? Will be buying them tomorrow.

 

[Diamond1]

I use turbo snails, nassarius snails, astrea snails, an emerald crab, a pepermint shrimp and blue leg hermits. I'm not a big fan of the hermits. They like to bulldoze through my zoas and cause them to close up, most open right back up but i still don't like them irritating the corals that way.

 

[Wags]

I use turbo snails, nassarius snails, astrea snails, an emerald crab, a pepermint shrimp and blue leg hermits. I'm not a big fan of the hermits. They like to bulldoze through my zoas and cause them to close up, most open right back up but i still don't like them irritating the corals that way.

that is what I have read about the hermits. May stay away for awhile. I like the look of the emerald crabs so I think Ill get one of those. I also have some strands of cheato that make their way into my DT. will anything you listed munch on that?

 

[Diamond1]

None of those will eat cheato that I've seen. I have a fuge full of cheato and the snails in my fuge wont touch it.