32 gallon Fiji cube Nano Build Thread

[DustinR]

Hi everyone! This is my first saltwater tank. I wanted to start a thread to detail the project, post pictures, discuss livestock, coral, etc. and learn from all of the experienced reefers in this community!

Here's my equipment so far:
- 32 gallon Fiji cube rimless AIO tank
- Quanta Helix 3 light bar (White+)
- ATO - planning to manually top off for now
- Marineland precision heater
- cheap basic hygger wave maker
- Aquatic Life RO Buddie 4-Stage RODI Filter

I started the tank on 8/16/2025. I arranged the hardscape, glued everything together with reef safe epoxy and cyanoacrylate super glue. I tried to incorporate a lot of hiding places, tunnels, and caves for the future inhabitants. I included a few pictures! Let me know what you think about the arrangement. The tank is currently cycling, and I'm *impatiently* waiting to start adding some fish and soft corals!

My current livestock plan is the following, and I'd love to hear your thoughts

Clean up crew
- Asterina starfish
- Sexy Shrimp
- Porcelain Crab
- Coral banded shrimp
- hermit crab of some sort
- Nassarius snails
- Sea slug of some sort once i have more algae

Fish
- Chalk Basslet or Lantern Basslet or Cherub Angelfish (Cherub angelfish is probably least likely option of the 3)
- Exquisite Purple Fire fish
- Tail Spot Blenny
- Royal Gramma or possibly orchid dottyback (i've read the dottybacks are quite aggressive)
- McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
- Green Mandarin Goby (captive bred)

This will be a macroalgae and soft coral tank as well (hence the white lighting for the macroalgae).

Let me know what you think! I'll post an update in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for reading

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you know the length of the tank? I'm wondering because the flasher wrasse might not do well in that tank if it isn't wide enough. @i cant think can give you more information on wrasses! The rest of your stocking list looks fine (I agree that the dottybacks can be aggressive)

 

[i cant think]

Hi everyone! This is my first saltwater tank. I wanted to start a thread to detail the project, post pictures, discuss livestock, coral, etc. and learn from all of the experienced reefers in this community!

Here's my equipment so far:
- 32 gallon Fiji cube rimless AIO tank
- Quanta Helix 3 light bar (White+)
- ATO - planning to manually top off for now
- Marineland precision heater
- cheap basic hygger wave maker
- Aquatic Life RO Buddie 4-Stage RODI Filter

I started the tank on 8/16/2025. I arranged the hardscape, glued everything together with reef safe epoxy and cyanoacrylate super glue. I tried to incorporate a lot of hiding places, tunnels, and caves for the future inhabitants. I included a few pictures! Let me know what you think about the arrangement. The tank is currently cycling, and I'm *impatiently* waiting to start adding some fish and soft corals!

My current livestock plan is the following, and I'd love to hear your thoughts

Clean up crew
- Asterina starfish
- Sexy Shrimp
- Porcelain Crab
- Coral banded shrimp
- hermit crab of some sort
- Nassarius snails
- Sea slug of some sort once i have more algae

Fish
- Chalk Basslet or Lantern Basslet or Cherub Angelfish (Cherub angelfish is probably least likely option of the 3)
- Exquisite Purple Fire fish
- Tail Spot Blenny
- Royal Gramma or possibly orchid dottyback (i've read the dottybacks are quite aggressive)
- McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
- Green Mandarin Goby (captive bred)

This will be a macroalgae and soft coral tank as well (hence the white lighting for the macroalgae).

Let me know what you think! I'll post an update in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for reading

I would drop the Flasher wrasse as the tank length is unlikely to be suitable - these guys want room to swim, short term a 3 foot tank will work, but long term most of the species want a 4 foot tank or longer to truly swim in.
Alternatives to look at would be species from the Wetmorella genus and Pseudocheilinops ataenia.

I’d also drop the basslets (Lantern and Chalk) as they will become quite boisterous towards Firefish and other basslets (Grammas & Dottybacks fall under this).

Also, I would drop the seaslug idea - if you get a species which eats algae, the macros will most likely be killed as well. I’d maybe reconsider the Boxer/Banded Shrimp and go for a Blue Boxer/Yellow Boxer Shrimp as these are more peaceful and stay smaller. I have a rather large, nasty Boxing Shrimp in an 8 foot coral tray and this thing is a good 3-3.5 inches long. I don’t believe it’s fully grown either.

 

[DustinR]

Hi everyone! This is my first saltwater tank. I wanted to start a thread to detail the project, post pictures, discuss livestock, coral, etc. and learn from all of the experienced reefers in this community!

Here's my equipment so far:
- 32 gallon Fiji cube rimless AIO tank
- Quanta Helix 3 light bar (White+)
- ATO - planning to manually top off for now
- Marineland precision heater
- cheap basic hygger wave maker
- Aquatic Life RO Buddie 4-Stage RODI Filter

I started the tank on 8/16/2025. I arranged the hardscape, glued everything together with reef safe epoxy and cyanoacrylate super glue. I tried to incorporate a lot of hiding places, tunnels, and caves for the future inhabitants. I included a few pictures! Let me know what you think about the arrangement. The tank is currently cycling, and I'm *impatiently* waiting to start adding some fish and soft corals!

My current livestock plan is the following, and I'd love to hear your thoughts

Clean up crew
- Asterina starfish
- Sexy Shrimp
- Porcelain Crab
- Coral banded shrimp
- hermit crab of some sort
- Nassarius snails
- Sea slug of some sort once i have more algae

Fish
- Chalk Basslet or Lantern Basslet or Cherub Angelfish (Cherub angelfish is probably least likely option of the 3)
- Exquisite Purple Fire fish
- Tail Spot Blenny
- Royal Gramma or possibly orchid dottyback (i've read the dottybacks are quite aggressive)
- McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
- Green Mandarin Goby (captive bred)

This will be a macroalgae and soft coral tank as well (hence the white lighting for the macroalgae).

Let me know what you think! I'll post an update in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for reading

I would drop the Flasher wrasse as the tank length is unlikely to be suitable - these guys want room to swim, short term a 3 foot tank will work, but long term most of the species want a 4 foot tank or longer to truly swim in.
Alternatives to look at would be species from the Wetmorella genus and Pseudocheilinops ataenia.

I’d also drop the basslets (Lantern and Chalk) as they will become quite boisterous towards Firefish and other basslets (Grammas & Dottybacks fall under this).

Also, I would drop the seaslug idea - if you get a species which eats algae, the macros will most likely be killed as well. I’d maybe reconsider the Boxer/Banded Shrimp and go for a Blue Boxer/Yellow Boxer Shrimp as these are more peaceful and stay smaller. I have a rather large, nasty Boxing Shrimp in an 8 foot coral tray and this thing is a good 3-3.5 inches long. I don’t believe it’s fully grown either.

Awesome! I also really liked the yellow banded possum wrasse. That's a great alternative! Thank you!

Do you think the chalk or lantern basslet would work if I dropped the royal gramma and replaced it with the orchid dottyback, a flame hawk fish, a long nose hawk fish, or maybe a damsel?

Do you think the cherub angel is a better alternative to the basslet?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[DustinR]

Do you know the length of the tank? I'm wondering because the flasher wrasse might not do well in that tank if it isn't wide enough. @i cant think can give you more information on wrasses! The rest of your stocking list looks fine (I agree that the dottybacks can be aggressive)

The display of the tank is 24 inches wide, 16 inches deep and 16 inches tall.

@i cant think made some suggestions including the yellow banded possum wrasse which I also really like. So win win! Thanks!

 

[i cant think]

Awesome! I also really liked the yellow banded possum wrasse. That's a great alternative! Thank you!

Do you think the chalk or lantern basslet would work if I dropped the royal gramma and replaced it with the orchid dottyback, a flame hawk fish, a long nose hawk fish, or maybe a damsel?

Do you think the cherub angel is a better alternative to the basslet?

Thanks so much for your help!

The cherub may be a better option, but for me personally I’d look at the fishers or yellow fin angel as they are much smaller and will likely be suited better to your tank.

The basslets will likely harass any other smaller fish you add to the system unfortunately. They also get quite large.

 

[DustinR]

Awesome! I also really liked the yellow banded possum wrasse. That's a great alternative! Thank you!

Do you think the chalk or lantern basslet would work if I dropped the royal gramma and replaced it with the orchid dottyback, a flame hawk fish, a long nose hawk fish, or maybe a damsel?

Do you think the cherub angel is a better alternative to the basslet?

Thanks so much for your help!

The cherub may be a better option, but for me personally I’d look at the fishers or yellow fin angel as they are much smaller and will likely be suited better to your tank.

The basslets will likely harass any other smaller fish you add to the system unfortunately. They also get quite large.

Ok sounds good! I will start with the firefish, tail spot blenny, and the wrasse. I'm planning to culture copepods for the mandarin goby, but I will still wait to add him until the tank is more established. The potential basslet, hawk fish, or angelfish I will wait on to see how things go.

 

[ISO6425]

Hey - was was strongly considering using the same Fiji Cube 32 Gallon AIO as you're going with. I'm following your story so i can see what sort of complications and solution you encounter. One question I had was: What additional equipment are you planning on adding onto the AIO? I've seen a few others mention adding a skimmer, specifically the Icecap K1-Nano skimmer to the back chamber. I didn't see a skimmer on your list. Is there a reason why one would be considered needed versus just relying on the AIO media basket? I also considered using like a Oase Biomaster Thermo to account for filtration and a heater, but go with a standard non-AIO 30 gallon tank (Its more comfortable for me coming from fresh). Thanks and GL with build.

 

[DustinR]

Hey - was was strongly considering using the same Fiji Cube 32 Gallon AIO as you're going with. I'm following your story so i can see what sort of complications and solution you encounter. One question I had was: What additional equipment are you planning on adding onto the AIO? I've seen a few others mention adding a skimmer, specifically the Icecap K1-Nano skimmer to the back chamber. I didn't see a skimmer on your list. Is there a reason why one would be considered needed versus just relying on the AIO media basket? I also considered using like a Oase Biomaster Thermo to account for filtration and a heater, but go with a standard non-AIO 30 gallon tank (Its more comfortable for me coming from fresh). Thanks and GL with build.

Hi! I don't have much experience yet, but I'm pretty happy with the tank. I may end up with a protein skimmer. I'm just keeping it relatively low tech at first to keep costs down. I'll add it if maintenance becomes too difficult without it. I'm also starting out manually topping off.

My idea was to include some macroalgae to help with consuming excess nitrates and hopefully decrease the need for a protein skimmer.

Im actually not using the media basket that the tank comes with. The compartments of the basket are actually quite small. I'm just putting all my filtration media in filter bags (carbon, bioballs, and filter floss) and essentially layering them in the chamber.

As for the heater, you can just throw that in the return pump compartment of the aio chamber. Keeps it out of sight. That's working well for me so far. The temperature stays accurate and stable.

My issue with canister filters (like the Oase one you mentioned) is the flood risk. I live in an apartment with people below me and I want to minimize the chances of any accidental flooding.

 

[DustinR]

I received my Quanta Helix Lights and finalized my hardscape! Everything is looking good and cycling is going well.

 

[reef-geek]

What is the build quality of the aquarium and stand?