Battlereefs "supercube"

[MarvinsReef]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments. I really appreciate it. As far as live stock goes, I plan to have mainly SPS and chalice with a few play's. being that I am very limited on real estate I plan to only have high end pieces. For fish, plan (my wife) to have a small tang for a year until he needs a new home. Either a yellow, purple, or hippo. Again only getting a very small tang and relocate him when necessary. I would like to have one more, possibly a wrasse but I'm not 100% yet. If you guys have any ideas I'm defiantly up for suggestions.

how about a pair of designer clowns? :wink:

 

[Pkunk35]

why is your biocube so awesome? Love the mods (esp. the lighting), thanks for sharing!

 

[BattlesReef]

MarvinsReef I will have you know I showed my wife your avatar picture last night to show her how sweet your clowns are. It made me seriously think about it. I would but I just cant give up the real estate for a nem. And if it decided to relocate into my future SPS. I would not be too happy. Awesome fish though, love em.

And thank you very much Pkunk35 I really apreciate that. This is just the start though. As soon as the sump is finished I will really start making some progress. Like I said I will hopefully have some pics up tonight for you guys.

 

[Trevdawg]

Nice

 

[alberthiel]

Very nice ... congrats ... I like !

 

[tcwoodrn]

I take this thread as a challenge and I accept that challenge. The irony being that as my brother in law you'll be supplying most of the labor for my Biocube as well. Don't worry Marvin, I'm the nem and designer clowns man of the family (and led). Shawn is the t5 and chalice man.

 

[johnwah007]

looks like a lot of thought went into the tank.. good job..

 

[alberthiel]

I take this thread as a challenge and I accept that challenge. The irony being that as my brother in law you'll be supplying most of the labor for my Biocube as well. Don't worry Marvin, I'm the nem and designer clowns man of the family (and led). Shawn is the t5 and chalice man.

I guess you have a good Team together then ... Happy Reefkeeping

 

[alberthiel]

looks like a lot of thought went into the tank.. good job..

Yes it sure looks like that is going to be a great partnership indeed !

 

[BattlesReef]

Hahaha I was waiting for you to get on here Tom. Dont worry I will make your tank sweet but make sure it is just a little bit worse than mine I have completed a few more things in the past few days and thought I would share. Unfortunately I learned my sump will not be done for another 2 weeks..... so I have a lot of time to kill. However, may not be a bad thing. It will let me finish somethings that I may not have.


So turns out the return line ended up being quite the challenge, mainly I did not want to cut any of the baffles or go with a flexible line. I also cut out the stock return nozzle and replaced it with a 3/4". I used a rubber gasket instead of glue to connect the nozzle to the PVC. that way I can change it in the furture If i want. Plus I wanted to make sure water would not leak past if I have the return shut off for an extended period of time.

Next on the list was getting some electrical in the stand. I built a "switch board", I guess we will call it that, for my previous tank and I will never go with out now. It is a pretty straight forward process, make a box out of wood, cut holes to house outlets and switches, paint if desired, and connect a supply power cord. Unfortunately it is a long process lots of fabricating, the wiring is the easiest part lol. If you have any questions on doing one of these feel free to ask. If enough people want to know about it I can draw up a schematic that will help.

I wired a few different circuits in this unit. Normally i would make this much bigger and a lot more outlets and what not but I do not have the room in this build. I have a switch that I call "water change" that will shut off the return and skimmer. "Flow" obvious enough. "Misc" dont have a plan for this one yet. The other is "Stand light" I mounted a LED under cabinet light from Lowe's, $20 i think, in the stand best $20 you can spend. I think I might put some more outlets on the other side of the stand next week. I just have to make another box.

Here it is installed in the stand. I put in some 2"x2" Panduit on the back wall. For those of you that dont know what that is, Its just a plastic tray to house the wires. I hate wires running every where and if you zip tie them if you ever need to remove a piece of equipment all the zip ties have to be cut. This is the best of both worlds and looks cleaner IMO. I will be putting some more in once the sump arrives.

Just a shot with the stand light that I installed on.

Let me know what you guys think. I will try to get some more work done and share the progress.

 

[akabryanhall]

Hey man, very cool so far! If you haven't added the tang yet, I wouldn't. Not being the tang police at all, just know that in a year, you may have to disturb your rocks, fish and corals to get him out. Why go through the hassle? Just start with the family you plan to keep.
Get the designer clowns for sure. No need for a bta, they will be perfectly happy without one. Here is a good biocube stock list
2 designer clowns
Flasher wrasse
Firefish
Yellow assessor
Sailfin Blenny

You will have sufficient filtration for all 6 of these guys. If your cube was stock i would take 2 off the list.

 

[kungfujoe]

yeah thats pretty nice..

 

[alberthiel]

Nice work ... and a couple of ingenious ways with plumbing and electrical work for sure. +1 +1

 

[Mike&Terry]

Nice build so far and we're looking forward to watching your progress. :bigsmile:

A pair of designer clowns would be awesome in that tank and as someone else mentioned, a bta is not required. We have a pair of ocellaris clowns in our big tank that rejected a bta for a tuft of palys and they've been perfectly happy for several years.

-M&T

 

[BattlesReef]

Well today was a big day, I got my sump!!! So I should be able to fill the tank this weekend. In the past week or so, loosing track of the days now lol, I have finished the plumbing, installed my Reefkeeper, purchased and installed a Vortech MP10, finished lighting upgrade, recieved my sump, and purchased a expansion module for my Reefkeeper to monitor and control PH and ORP. I still have a lot to do, including ATO and the Calcium reactor, but we are getting close. I would like to give a huge thanks to Frank from Aquatic America he is the one who built my sump and did a fantastic job and got it done in 1/2 the time as quoted. I would recomend him to anyone looking for a sump. Thanks again! As per usual let me know what you guys think and thanks for looking.


The new MP10 ES

So I decided to go a different route with the lighting. I am 100% confident in its ability to grow almost anything I want and I am very pleased with the color. Originaly I was going to go with 4 T5's however after doing some measurements I realized It would not be possible to have that and the LED's. So I decided to have 2 10K T5'S and supliment the actinics with LED. Right now I have 2 10K T5's and 4 stunner strips. 1 - 10K + Red, 2 - Royal blue, 1- 420nm. I am happy with this combo and I am anxious to see the growing results.

The finished plumbing. Doesnt look like much but it took longer than you would think. I am happy with how it turned out.

The sump, Thanks again Frank and Aquatic America!

With the equipment I have for now.

just an overview of the stand with the sump.

A FTS of what I have right now LOL. Dont worry, soon enough the FTS will be much better.

Thanks to everyone for the coments and suggestions. Keep em coming!

 

[Reef Fever]

looks really good...glad to see someone being smart with their hard-lines. I cant tell you how many tanks I have seen with one piece hard-lines that I've had to cut through and re-do the plumbing to move crap

 

[alberthiel]

Well today was a big day, I got my sump!!! So I should be able to fill the tank this weekend. In the past week or so, loosing track of the days now lol, I have finished the plumbing, installed my Reefkeeper, purchased and installed a Vortech MP10, finished lighting upgrade, recieved my sump, and purchased a expansion module for my Reefkeeper to monitor and control PH and ORP. I still have a lot to do, including ATO and the Calcium reactor, but we are getting close. I would like to give a huge thanks to Frank from Aquatic America he is the one who built my sump and did a fantastic job and got it done in 1/2 the time as quoted. I would recomend him to anyone looking for a sump. Thanks again! As per usual let me know what you guys think and thanks for looking.
The new MP10 ES
So I decided to go a different route with the lighting. I am 100% confident in its ability to grow almost anything I want and I am very pleased with the color. Originaly I was going to go with 4 T5's however after doing some measurements I realized It would not be possible to have that and the LED's. So I decided to have 2 10K T5'S and supliment the actinics with LED. Right now I have 2 10K T5's and 4 stunner strips. 1 - 10K + Red, 2 - Royal blue, 1- 420nm. I am happy with this combo and I am anxious to see the growing results.
The finished plumbing. Doesnt look like much but it took longer than you would think. I am happy with how it turned out.
The sump, Thanks again Frank and Aquatic America!
With the equipment I have for now.
just an overview of the stand with the sump.
A FTS of what I have right now LOL. Dont worry, soon enough the FTS will be much better.
Thanks to everyone for the coments and suggestions. Keep em coming!

Very nice indeed ... that is going to be "some" build and tank !

 

[SPS Samurai]

That sump really came out clean. Especially the spacing between the baffles to allow your skimmer to be secure. When doing maintenance, the first thing I reach for under my big tank are the ball valves, so I noticed how much clearance you had between the valve and your collection cup. Great job so far, I definitely want to see the progress!

 

[alberthiel]

That sump really came out clean. Especially the spacing between the baffles to allow your skimmer to be secure. When doing maintenance, the first thing I reach for under my big tank are the ball valves, so I noticed how much clearance you had between the valve and your collection cup. Great job so far, I definitely want to see the progress!

Yes it is a real nice sump indeed and seems easy to take care of and keep clean .. fully agree

 

[tcwoodrn]

Word on the street is that this tank is full of water. Lets see it!