150g Cube Build

[reef’r]

Awesome. Your LPS and softies are really nice also!

 

[Timrpn]

very nice tank, i have a 120 cube, that looks similar, just wondering what you use for flow? placement?

 

[Timrpn]

Any updates on this tank? Curious what you use for flow and where you have them located in the tank

 

[Dorado]

Sorry about being so unresponsive, I have been very absent from the forums lately and the hobby for that matter. The tank is doing really well but it has been on autopilot which I think has made me loose a little bit of interest in it. I loved getting it to this point with all of the tinkering and projects but I think I'm a bored now that my tank is pretty balanced and I don't have much room for more coral.

Beautiful tank and SPS growth is amazing! Do you trim to avoid coral warfare or leave it be?

Thank you. For a long time, I tried really hard to keep everything happy and would constantly trim to keep everything alive and well. I've been a more hands off lately, letting colonies do their own thing. Unfortunately, I've lost several colonies mainly due to shadowing, but I'm liking the more natural look of the larger colonies. I just had way too many frags in a small space to keep long term. Surprisingly coral warfare isn't a huge problem in my tank and things don't seem to sting and kill each other, but instead just slowly grow over each other.

 

[Dorado]

Corals growing wall between each other

 

[Dorado]

Awesome. Your LPS and softies are really nice also!

Thanks! I've all but gotten rid of my softies. I had three large rocks on the sand that were covered in zoas and ricordea. They got out of hand and started spreading and free floating so i decided to get rid of them to make more room for LPS on the sand. I'm focused on gonis, acans and blastos

 

[Dorado]

Any updates on this tank? Curious what you use for flow and where you have them located in the tank

Sorry to leave you hangin for so long. Flow is the major component in my tank that has become a challenge as of late. I started off with an MP40 on the back wall on one side of the overflow and a vertical gyre on the other side. Overtime as my SPS has grown I have slowly added 4 Tunze 6095 nanostreams to each corner pointing inward. Even with everything at 100%, I'm starting to get dead spots again and I'm looking into a 7th powerhead. I like the power of the MP40, but even with the directional adapter, I just can't get it pointed where I'd like. I'm considering trying an octo pulse or maybe just another nanostream. I've also toyed with the idea of creating a closed loop

 

[Timrpn]

Sorry to leave you hangin for so long. Flow is the major component in my tank that has become a challenge as of late. I started off with an MP40 on the back wall on one side of the overflow and a vertical gyre on the other side. Overtime as my SPS has grown I have slowly added 4 Tunze 6095 nanostreams to each corner pointing inward. Even with everything at 100%, I'm starting to get dead spots again and I'm looking into a 7th powerhead. I like the power of the MP40, but even with the directional adapter, I just can't get it pointed where I'd like. I'm considering trying an octo pulse or maybe just another nanostream. I've also toyed with the idea of creating a closed loop

interesting about flow, I only have 2 Neptune WAV pumps on back wall. 1 on either side of overflow. I am finding it difficult to fine tune it. Even when I have it at like 5% i find that it is too much blowing across to the front of the tank and creating back flow and the corals at the front of my tank seem to be getting over blown, just can't get that nice sway of back and forth so to speak.

 

[Dorado]

interesting about flow, I only have 2 Neptune WAV pumps on back wall. 1 on either side of overflow. I am finding it difficult to fine tune it. Even when I have it at like 5% i find that it is too much blowing across to the front of the tank and creating back flow and the corals at the front of my tank seem to be getting over blown, just can't get that nice sway of back and forth so to speak.

Having power heads in all corners pointing towards the center on a random schedule has worked the best for me. It keeps the turbulence in the center and not on the sand and at the glass.

A picture of the front nanostream pointing towards center

Just a quick FTS

 

[Timrpn]

Having power heads in all corners pointing towards the center on a random schedule has worked the best for me. It keeps the turbulence in the center and not on the sand and at the glass.

A picture of the front nanostream pointing towards center

Just a quick FTS

Thank you,

I may have to try and move mine both to the rear and point towards the center which would be the back of the rock work, it may help.

 

[Yanir34]

Your tank looks amazing !!!
can you give some details about:

Lights- what is your bulbs combination?
what about the LED's ?
what is the schedule for your lights ?

Calcium reactor and Kalkwasser: what type of media are you using ?

What about refugium? do still run it ?

 

[Dorado]

Your tank looks amazing !!!
can you give some details about:

Lights- what is your bulbs combination?
what about the LED's ?
what is the schedule for your lights ?

Calcium reactor and Kalkwasser: what type of media are you using ?

What about refugium? do still run it ?

Thanks Yanir

The bulb combination from front to back:
Actinic on-11:00/off-9:00
Blue plus on-12:00/off-8:00
Purple plus on-10:00/off-10:00
Coral plus on-12:00/off-8:00
Blue pluson-12:00/off-8:00
Blue plug on-12:00/off-8:00
Coral plus on-12:00/off-8:00
Purple plus on-10:00/off-10:00
Blue plus on-12:00/off-8:00
Actinic on-11:00/off-9:00

Then I have an aquablue special on both sides. 11:30 to 8:00
I have 3 Orphek OR3 60 bars. The two on the sides are blue plus’ and the one in the front is a daylight 2:00-8:30

I use caribsea ARM, I know a lot of people don’t like it but it’s been working well for me. The kalk that I use is bulk reef supply brand.

Yep, still running the refugium on a reverse schedule 8pm - 10am. I cut it back to softball size every two weeks when it fills the refugium wall to wall

Let me know if you have any other questions, happy to answer

 

[Yanir34]

Thanks Yanir

The bulb combination from front to back:
Actinic on-11:00/off-9:00
Blue plus on-12:00/off-8:00
Purple plus on-10:00/off-10:00
Coral plus on-12:00/off-8:00
Blue pluson-12:00/off-8:00
Blue plug on-12:00/off-8:00
Coral plus on-12:00/off-8:00
Purple plus on-10:00/off-10:00
Blue plus on-12:00/off-8:00
Actinic on-11:00/off-9:00

Then I have an aquablue special on both sides. 11:30 to 8:00
I have 3 Orphek OR3 60 bars. The two on the sides are blue plus’ and the one in the front is a daylight 2:00-8:30

I use caribsea ARM, I know a lot of people don’t like it but it’s been working well for me. The kalk that I use is bulk reef supply brand.

Yep, still running the refugium on a reverse schedule 8pm - 10am. I cut it back to softball size every two weeks when it fills the refugium wall to wall

Let me know if you have any other questions, happy to answer

Thank you for that info !

so ,I counted 12 T5 bulbs ?

2 of them are aquablue special , 2 coral plus, and the rest is blue/actinic/purple ?

I forgot to ask you how high did you hang this lights setup above water surface ?

in my tank I have only T5 bulbs , it's ATI power module 10×54w .no LED's.
bulbs :
5 blue plus
1 KZ coral light (full spectrum)
2 coral plus
1 actinic
1 purple plus.
I hang the fixture 15 cm above water surface.

by the way , my current setup was inspired from your old tank , back in 2007 ...you won in TOTM in zeovit forum. if you remember, you installed 7 (!!!) aquablue special bulbs, and 3 blue plus .

I'm noticing that you moved to the blue side spectrum, in your current setup .

 

[reef’r]

Hey @Dorado coming back to your thread with some more questions lol what are those single bulb t5 fixtures you have? I’m tossing around the idea of ditching the radion I have in the middle of my 4 bulb aquatic life fixture in order to add 2-3 more t5 in its place and I’m thinking those single fixtures are the answer. Thanks!

 

[Dorado]

Apologies, I didn’t see these questions

so ,I counted 12 T5 bulbs ?

2 of them are aquablue special , 2 coral plus, and the rest is blue/actinic/purple ?

I forgot to ask you how high did you hang this lights setup above water surface ?

yes, 12 T5s total and that is my bulb quantity. The top of my canopy is 12” off the water line, so the bottom of my lights are about 10” off the the waterline

by the way , my current setup was inspired from your old tank , back in 2007 ...you won in TOTM in zeovit forum. if you remember, you installed 7 (!!!) aquablue special bulbs, and 3 blue plus .

I'm noticing that you moved to the blue side spectrum, in your current setup .

i had a tank back then but I never officially won any TOTM. As a joke on my RC tag I put “2020 TOTM” or something like that.
Looking at my bulb combination, you’d think my tank was very blue but it isn’t. I’d describe it as a crisp white with a hint of blue. Sometimes my photos look a little more blue than they really are. I never have liked the super blue look.

Hey @Dorado coming back to your thread with some more questions lol what are those single bulb t5 fixtures you have? I’m tossing around the idea of ditching the radion I have in the middle of my 4 bulb aquatic life fixture in order to add 2-3 more t5 in its place and I’m thinking those single fixtures are the answer. Thanks!

Those single T5 bulbs are just retrofit kits. It’s just a couple light sockets some wire and a ballast, old school style. It works well for me because I have a wooden canopy but I think you’d have a tough time if you have a lighting rack

 

[Dorado]

On the topic of lighting, I’ve been considering completely changing my lighting system. I don’t have a real reason other than to be quite honest, I’m kinda bored of my tank and have nothing to tinker with. Sure there are some spots in my tank that are getting pretty shaded from coral growth but I keep wrestling with the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
I’m kinda thinking about trying out the quanta atlas with a few helixes. What do you think? I don’t want to mess with a good thing but I also think this change might get me more engaged again

 

[ben townsend]

Dude.. totally unrelated to your question but this tank is epic! Just went through the whole thread and this is such a beautiful tank! Well done, following to see what happens with the lights!

 

[Dorado]

Dude.. totally unrelated to your question but this tank is epic! Just went through the whole thread and this is such a beautiful tank! Well done, following to see what happens with the lights!

Thanks Ben, I appreciate it

 

[D_Reep1106]

Surprised we don't see more tanks this size. I am building one this summer. 36"x36"x30" thinking of going bare bottom for it. Read through the thread and its great info.