12" Cube SPS Build

[Tihsho]

Hey everyone! I'm in the middle of getting everything together for my 12" Seapora SPS build. Last night I spent sometime getting my scape together with some old dry rock as well as some new CaribSea base rock. With a hammer and chisel I was able to get some pieces that mated together nicely that I've got epoxied together. I'll get a picture tonight.

Hardware:

Seapora 12" Cube
AquaClear 50
OceanboxDesign's 50w Heater with external controller
OceanboxDesign's AC50 Overflow (need to order)
InTank AC50 Media Basket (need to order)
Kessil A160WE with Gooseneck Mount
Kessil LED Controller (need to order)

Right now with the scape done I'm trying to figure out flow. Originally I was planning on going with my MAME Overflow and running this system to a mini sump, but talked myself out of it due to space (bedroom build.) Then I moved to a corner faux overflow that I designed and 3D printed to hide the intake for a canister filter so I could pack it with live rock rubble, ChemiPure and Seachem Matrix Carbon, but I ended up talking myself out of it as it required a ton of other R&D that I saw being a whole rabbit hole of its own. Then I moved to the mindset of going with an AC70, but with the limited space to place hardware, I opted to go with an AC50 instead so I could still mount the gooseneck to the rear of the tank as I'm unable to hang the Kessil where the tank is going. As I'm aiming for this to be an SPS tank, the plan is to go bare bottom so I can focus on flow and not have a cube that's a constant sand storm, nor substrate collecting detritus. That all being said, I'm trying to keep the inside of the tank very minimalistic. In the case of pumps, this is going to be hard as I'll need the flow for SPS, so I'm hoping having the tank painted black on the rear and the bottom will assist in hiding the pump(s). Now I'm just trying to figure out what pump(s) to go with.

Right now with the AC50, there will be somewhat of a gyre going on from the rear to the front of the tank, so a single direction has been taken care of. I considered looking into the Hydor Evo 180 pumps to place one beneath the OceanboxDesign's AC50 overflow (which would locate the pump to the back pane on the left hand side) to aim to the right of the tank to spiral the water and another on the higher right side aimed to the front left corner. To keep things somewhat randomized and simple, I'd run the pumps off of the Hydor controller and have them alternate flow every 10-15 seconds so that the streams would hopefully cross to cause some turbulent behavior. Would this be enough?

I've seen other methods of flow for SPS aimed cubes using either a single MP10 or a CoralBox/Jebao pump on the back pane of the tank set offset either slightly to the left or right, but I'm not sure if that flow is randomized enough.

I'll try to get pictures of the progress tonight for the scape.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Pictures?

 

[Tihsho]

This is what I've got so far. There is about 1" space on each side as to not have the rock touching the glass. There is about 3" spacing in the rear and 4" spacing from the front pane.

 

[dantimdad]

Nice little tank. Love cubes!

 

[Tihsho]

Thanks!

I'm just trying to figure out how to get the flow right without being too much. Also, with the now pending need to enlarge my frag tank, I may be stealing the light from this build to put on the frag tank which means I'll be considering other lighting options. I'm partial to Kessil, AI is nice and all, but I'm not a fan of their interface being an app. May consider going with another 160WE on this tank or may bump it down to an A80 which I think should be enough for PAR for this little tank.

 

[Reefpuck]

Looks like a fun build!

 

[Tihsho]

Thanks!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Just make sure you have enough room between the side glass and the rocks so you can get whatever glass scraper you use past the rocks without hitting them!

 

[Tihsho]

Just a mini update on this tank. I had the tank running for a week and a half with some LR rubble in the HOB just to get things going. I introduced a pair of Orange Storm Clowns and everything is going wonderfully. I do plan on removing the Clowns in the long run.

 

[Steven Garland]

I will tag along for this one,Its gonna be good. Great start so far.

 

[btmedic04]

sweet little build! cant wait to see how it progresses

 

[Tihsho]

Update:

So over the weekend I did my first in depth cleaning of the tank. With the clowns being in the tank and now providing regular waste, unlike before where I was ghost feeding the tank, I started to get into the ugly phase. A thin layer of diatom algae covered the glass, and a weird white film seemed to cover other parts that the diatoms hadn't covered. I went through and scraped the front, sides, rear and the bottom (since it's bare bottom) and siphoned most of it out of the tank. With the siphoning I did about a 50% water change. Besides that, the rock scape has started to develop some algae. During the day the algae is off gassing O2 something serious as there are always tons of bubbles on the rock as well as I can slowly see them swell before they have enough force to break the tension on the rock and float to the surface.

The biggest update for this tank though is that I finished my 3D design of my faux overflow. I took some inspiration from my OceanboxDesign overflow I'm using on my current frag tank that has a AC70, but fixed some issues that I had with the design to suit it for the tank. I'll get some pictures of this up tonight, but what I ended up going with was a design that allowed me to span the rest of the upper rear in order to provide as much surface skimming as possible, where the off the shelf OceanboxDesign skimmer would have just provided their one size design that matches the filter model. I also made sure to print the design with enough surface texture so I can hopefully get some encrusting monti's growing on it as well as a monti cap or two. I'm considering printing a mesh cover for the intake of the AC50 so I can fill part of the skimmer box with K1 media that will provide additional surface area for biological filtration, though this is up in the air. Here are some pictures of the design, in actuality this was printed in black PETG to blend in with the background:

The extra wide weir on the side (from front view) is to accommodate the frame of the filter as it sits in place. The recesses you can see in the rear are there for mounting neodymium magnets.

 

[Tihsho]

The tank is going through one heck of a bout of algae. Not sure what's going on, but I scraped the glass about 4 times one day just to see into the tank. The stuff that comes off is a film and after the 4th scrape I went through and stirred everything up and did a 75-80% water change which pulled all of the particulate out of the water column. A day or so later this stuff just came back. Currently within the filter is bio media, Nano bag of Chemi Pure Blue, and possibly some Seachem Matrix carbon (I can't remember if I put any in.) I picked up some new Matrix carbon as well as some Purigen pads, so I'm going to see how that 1-2 punch will do. The weird thing is that the lights have been off for over a week. The ambient light in the room from some thick shaded curtains seems to just be enough light for this stuff to grow.