Shred5's 93 gallon rimless cube tank build.

[zesty]

Did you have any power outages on sunday? I got lucky and was on.

I do believe you can use a battery backup with an apex to keep the controller going, then you run a power out mode or something. However, my apex is still not setup and I don't have any battery backups. I just read it somewhere... I really can't remember, it was a while ago.

 

[shred5]

Yes my power was out for about 6 hours or so... My digital aquatics holds all settings without back up and I hope the apex does too.. It would be hard to run everything on battery backup and would drain them to fast.
The main thing would be main pump and if it was winter maybe a heater...
Apex sounds harder to install than the digital aquatics.

 

[zesty]

Yes my power was out for about 6 hours or so... My digital aquatics holds all settings without back up and I hope the apex does too.. It would be hard to run everything on battery backup and would drain them to fast.
The main thing would be main pump and if it was winter maybe a heater...
Apex sounds harder to install than the digital aquatics.

I wouldn't think you would need everything running when the power is out. Just a powerhead or two, maybe an airstone should be enough to keep the inhabitants alive until power resumes. At least, that's my understanding.

 

[shred5]

Well today I painted the bent conduit I am using for the light stand/hanger..
The stand has been painted white inside and backing was put on the tank today.,

 

[shred5]

I also ordered one of these..

 

[zesty]

Getting juicy with the hardware! I was thinking about getting one of those skimmer dealios, but currently don't have a good spot for it. I like the concept of it, very nice failsafe.

 

[shred5]

Well I got a little done over the weekend. I got the equipment board painted and a few pieces of hardware mounted to it.. I had to use cardboard cut outs of the rest of the equipment since it is still on my 75.
I picked up the pieces for my plumbing this weekend and also picked up my apex controller... I got rid of the lite and went all in on the full apex. Did some reading of the manuals for the apex and this thing is more complicated than my Digital aquatics reef keeper.. I wish DA would invest more into the online side of the reefkeeper.

I tried to put the skimmer into the sump to see how hard it would be with the cabinet not having much overhead. Was not that great. I had to tip the skimmer forward and down ands any water in it would run out into the stand. I am now looking at a vertex 130 omega... I clean my pumps every other month about.. Problem with space saver skimmers is the pump is inside the skimmer so I would have to remove the whole skimmer which is a pain.. I am looking at a skimmer with the pump on the outside so I can just remove the pump...

I have to rewire the outlet next tot the tank because it is switched. I would hate for someone to turn off my tank.. Also need to replace the receptacle because it is getting old and does not make very good contact..

Stuff that will be moved over from my 75 as of right now:. Two vortech mp40, Hydor ATO, Vortech battery backup and my skimmer. Skimmer may change and also most likely only use one vortech.
The X-inout provide a wave surge too and also with a 30 " instead of a 48" aquarium one vortech should be enough.. Eventually I want a Maxspect riptide and they look like they will provide a wider more even flow for wider tanks like cubes.

I would guess this weekend or next I will have water flowing through the tank to leak test and then it will be faster after that... I still have a few pieces I am waiting for..

Allot has come up lately.. Sandy had to leave again this past weekend.. looks like I should be having water in the tank by next weekend. Last half of July looks pretty good and hopefully things get fast tracked after adding water.

 

[shred5]

Still need to figure out what live rock to get and if I want sand.

I have bought Manado live rock before from Premium aquatics and love it and is very lite.

Also My lfs sells caries Gulfview aqua-cultured live rock.. This stuff is awsume with the amount of life, not very expensive and less impact on the environment. Downside is it can come with allot of unwanted stuff and is heavy. I also get to support my lfs which is a major plus. It also takes longer to cycle if fresh...


Real reef rock because has less impact on the environment and as long as the place has not stored it with other rock it should be pest free. Down side it is heavy and expensive, looks a little too purple at first I have used a few pieces of this before.

I might use mostly rock from my other tank.


I am leaning toward a shallow sandbed with caribsea special grade.

I also need to figure out a aquascape for my reef this will also help determine which rock to get.. My tank is going to be viewable from 3 sides which is a little more of a challenge because the tank needs aquascaping that looks good from 3 sides.

 

[s2nhle]

Tagging along as i am in the process of getting my 93g cube online. Thanks for information sharing.

 

[Reefkraz]

Love it

 

[shred5]

Well I know I have been moving at a snails pace on this.. Allot comes up in the summer and this past weekend I did not get to work on the aquarium at all..
I also ran into some snags that I am trying to work out.
I picked up a Vertex omega 130 for the reef and something was wrong with the tubing and I broke off a nipple on the skimmer for the ozone tubing, no biggie really because I am not running ozone. But still want it fixed since it is a new skimmer. .. I am working it out trying to figure out what to do about it with proline.
I bought the vertex again because of the low stand causing issues. I was thinking having a external pump on a skimmer would be easier for cleaning.. I would just pull the pump out and clean that instead of having to remove the whole skimmer to get at the pump..
Well another snag is with he vertex 130 it just fits in my sump. I can not remove the pump only without removing the whole skimmer, there just aint enough room to slide the pump off...... So I been trying into work out some of the problems.

I have had some plumbing issues too.. The stuff sold to me to plumb the x-inouts wasn't going to work. But finding pluming to from 1.5 " nipple to 1" bulkheads is a little challenging. I think I have it worked out. I also ordered some shelving for the stand which has not shown up. Once it comes and I see how it fits in the stand I can get rolling.. But its all these little things that keep poping up....

 

[shred5]

I wouldn't think you would need everything running when the power is out. Just a powerhead or two, maybe an airstone should be enough to keep the inhabitants alive until power resumes. At least, that's my understanding.

I actually bought the battery backup for the vortech... Completely forgot I bough it.. Been sitting in a box for months..

 

[s2nhle]

Where are you getting the omega 130 from? did you get the holiday discount? I am considering it for my 93g build too.

 

[shred5]

Yea, once I fix it I might just sell it, They are sending me a part to fix it.... The skimmer would have been perfect if I had another 1" or 2" in my sump... It still fits I just have to remove the whole thing for cleaning. I was thinking of using it on my frag tanks but that is a pretty nice skimmer to use on them...

 

[SloppyJ]

Good stuff so far. I'm almost done cycling my new 93g as well. I went with the RLSS R6i and the 6000 return. Great combo and I have ZERO regrets. The skimmer is amazing. I had such a small alagal bloom on my cycle that I was second guessing myself even with good test numbers. Only thing I can contribute it to is the skimmer. Just ordered my CUC today. Good luck, I'll be following along.

 

[shred5]

Good stuff so far. I'm almost done cycling my new 93g as well. I went with the RLSS R6i and the 6000 return. Great combo and I have ZERO regrets. The skimmer is amazing. I had such a small alagal bloom on my cycle that I was second guessing myself even with good test numbers. Only thing I can contribute it to is the skimmer. Just ordered my CUC today. Good luck, I'll be following along.

Yea My RLSS has been a awsum skimmer.. It is decently built, extremely quiet, so quiet you can not tell it is running.. I dont use speed control much other than turn it off when I need to clean it. Very cool I dont have to unplug it every time I have to clean the cup... I do turn it down when I go one vacation, it skims so much it would over flow, that's why I bought the octopus collection container, the thing fills up in a few days and it is a pretty large cup.. For a 6 inch skimmer I think you would be hard pressed to find a better skimmer and more efficient..

A few minor issues I would like to see them improve on is I would like a silencer that opens up because mine clogs up and it would be easier to clean be nice if is was clear too.. I also dont like wedge pipes for adjustments which seems to be the trend, the vertex skimmer is the same. Wedge pipes are too touchy and are hard to make small adjustments..


Only issue is some have had reliability issues with DC pumps..

 

[SloppyJ]

I had an issue where my skimmer would shut off after restarting coming out of feed mode. I put it in feed mode to clean it and turn it off when it's reassembled. It would start up for about 15 seconds and then just shut off. RLSS emailed me some instructions to change a setting on the controller and it's been great ever since.

I'm curious about how you will like your ATI. I almost went with one but ended up with a Radion gen 3 pro instead.

 

[shred5]

I had an issue where my skimmer would shut off after restarting coming out of feed mode. I put it in feed mode to clean it and turn it off when it's reassembled. It would start up for about 15 seconds and then just shut off. RLSS emailed me some instructions to change a setting on the controller and it's been great ever since.

I'm curious about how you will like your ATI. I almost went with one but ended up with a Radion gen 3 pro instead.

I have been using ATI t-5 over my 75 gallon reef for several years now and love it.. I just purchased another ATI fixture to swap out my led fixture on one of my frag tanks.. I had already switched one LED out to a tek t-5 but eventually get another ATI fixture, the Tek has seen better days...

 

[Gabe]

Really exciting build. I have loved that overflow since I first saw it several years back. Also, pretty hilarious that you "found" a Vortech Battery Back-up in your house.

 

[shred5]

Well I got too do some work on the tank this weekend finally.
I ran the internet/network cable to my Neptune.
I did the electrical work, I needed to replace the receptacle and take it off a switched circuit...
I did start the plumbing too. I ran into a snag and they put one of the bulked holed to close to the side and the nut would not go on so I had to fix it and dremel out the hole a little..
This week I need to pick up a hole saw to cut a couple holes in the back of the stand for the plumbing.. I figure this weekend the plumbing should be done and I should be running fresh water through to test it. Will spend the week filling the aquarium with saltwater and putting sand in the following weekend.


I wanted to try a vertex omega 130 on my frag system and when I got it had the wrong ozone tubing packaged with it and I broke a nipple off because of it... Well they sent me the stuff to repair it and I had to fix that too... I dont plan to use the ozone so now big deal but it is a brand new skimmer so I wanted it fixed. I recently picked up a Aquamaxx CO-1 really cheap so I might run that instead on my frag system and sell the Vertex. Right now my frag system has a SCA skimmer running and it does ok..


No real pictures to show yet...