Chelsey's 100 gallon Cube Tank Build

[Chelsey]

I'm upgrading from my 40 gallon breeder with 40 gallon sump to a 100 gallon cube and thought it might be fun to have a build thread

I ordered the tank from glass cages and will be picking it up Jan 20th or so. I decided to eurobrace it to prevent fish from jumping out and I decided against starphire because when I looked into it a little bit more I found that some people had problems with it scratching easily and chipping, and with my track record with cracking tanks (two 12 gallon NC, 1 24 gallon NC, and a 40 breeder sump) that probably wouldn't be the best decision.

I'll be using my 40 gallon breeder sump for this tank as well, but I'll be adding baffles to it like I had in my first sump before it blew out for no apparent reason.

I'm going to use my Deltec ap600, Eheim return pump, Aquacontroller jr, and phosban reactor from my 40 breeder for the cube tank, but I'll need to buy a few more items. I'm going to go with two 175s so that I don't have any dead spots in the tank where I don't have enough light. I'm going to build a suspended canopy to house my MH and the VHO supplementation that I'll be using eventually. I placed my equipment order today via thereefstop.com and will be getting the following:

1 x GEO Calcium Reactor 612
1 x Neptune pH Probe
1 x PFO 175 watt Dual Metal Halide Ballast
2 x 14K 175watt Metal Halide Bulb - Iwasaki
2 x Lumen Bright Reflector - Large

As soon as I have plans drawn up for my suspended canopy and stand I'll post them here I kind of have a fish list in my head, but it'll be a while before I am able to get any additional fish to put in it

 

[Paintguru]

So the overflow is within the tank? A humble suggestion....if at all possible, put it outside the tank. I have mine inside my cube and it takes up too much space. Of course yours is bigger so it may not matter. Looks good though.

 

[Chelsey]

I'm too nervous about it being on the outside of the tank. For one thing I would have to make my stand bigger, and for another they won't silicone it on for me and I'm not an expert in siliconing, so I'd rather it just be on the inside.

 

[Carolina Frags]

Nice tank .I just bought this 100 gal cube from a guy in a local club.Pick up Sunday.

http://rasoc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7455

Happy building!

 

[Chelsey]

Just a relatively small update:

My equipment arrived at the beginning of this week and everything got here in one piece. However, I still have to get the CO2 tank and my Gen-X CO2 controller with solenoid (I ordered it, just have to wait for it to get here )

Chad and I will be picking up my tank from glass cages at the MTRC frag swap

The suspended canopy will likely be finished and all lighting installed by the end of this weekend, and I'm supposed to have a buddy come and help build my stand at the beginning of next week.

I decided to buy marco rock for my tank and ordered 50lbs of Fiji Dry Rock and 25 lbs of Tonga shelf rock. Apparently they're having a bit of a problem getting customs to clear their rock, so I haven't gotten it as soon as I would've liked (I ordered on Dec 30th) but as long as it gets here relatively soon I should still be in good shape. My plan is to plumb the tank, get the sump set up with all equipment running (skimmer, Ca reactor, etc) and then add the marco rocks to the tank with NO SAND in the bottom. I'll have a whole lot of flow in the tank as the rocks are curing/cycling to blow any crap that is in the rock out. I am hoping that by doing this and skimming heavily I'll have nice clean rock without the massive phosphate leaching, and by having the Ca reactor on I hope to have decent coralline growth started by the time my rock is cured.

At the recommendation of several area reefers I will be adding various organisms from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms (http://www.ipsf.com/index.html) to help with biological filtration and increase the life in my live rock. I'll be adding these after I add the sand (which will be after the LR is done doing its thing) but before I add any coral, fish, or inverts. I will be incredibly nervous between the time I pull the sump from my 40 breeder and when I transfer everything over because I won't have anywhere near the filtration that I had prior, but I'm hoping that with twice weekly water changes I won't have too much of a problem. However, just to be on the safe side I'll be putting all of my most prized coral specimens in Chad's tank so that I can be sure I won't lose them

 

[Chelsey]

Here's a crude idea of what the suspended canopy will look like:

 

[surfn]

if you end up doing the 36"x36", make sure you leave it as a complete open top that you can walk all the way around.

i have a 24"x24" that i can only access from the front, and its very difficult to reach down to the bottom in the back of the tank.

 

[Chelsey]

I'm not sure that I know what you're saying. The tank is going to be viewable from 3 sides and as a result I'll be able to access it from 3 sides as well. I think that's what you're saying...right?

 

[Chelsey]

I've got another small update

Chad and I built the suspended canopy on Friday and it got its first coat of paint last night. I'm giving it another coat today and probably a third sometime, then I'll be posting pics

 

[143gadgets]

Awesome! I am looking forward to this setup. Love the dimensions!

 

[Chelsey]

I have finally taken pics!!!

As I mentioned before, Chad and I built the suspended canopy Friday. Well, it's had 3 coats of paint + time to dry, so I decided to hang the lumenbright reflectors. Greg (a reefing buddy) also came today to build my stand for me, and while he made a quick trip to Lowe's I took this pic of the stand. It's not done yet and will be skinned and painted on top of what Greg has left to do, but I wanted to post a quick pic

Canopy:

(Please excuse the mess and the STO cage)

Stand:

 

[Chelsey]

I also forgot to mention that there are spacers between the reflector and the piece of wood on the canopy that they're attached to as a method of fire prevention (better to be safe than sorry!), which is why the reflectors are not "flush" with the canopy.

 

[Chelsey]

Tonight I found exactly what I was looking for to mount my suspended canopy. I wanted something that could be easily moved up and down, without having to stand on a chair and move chain around (I am lazy). After looking and becoming frustrated because I was unable to voice exactly what I was thinking, voila! I found what I was looking for!!! I will be the first to admit that it looks a bit ugly in this picture, so I kind of want to see it in person before I order it, but I'm hoping that maybe I can paint it to blend in with the ceiling a little better.

Light Hanger

 

[Chelsey]

Here are the pics!

View from the futon, which is right across from the tank:

View from the hallway, and my doorway:

View from the kitty litter box (my cat will thoroughly enjoy the new tank placement) :

Please excuse the calcium reactor box, Chad was messing with my new toy

 

[revhtree]

I love it!! I especially love those corals and fish in it. You know they'll die without water right???

 

[Chelsey]

Oh really? I guess that means that I shouldn't have put my picasso clowns in there

 

[Chelsey]

Here's the schedule:

Tonight/Tomorrow - silicon baffles in sump (emptied it earlier today)

Next weekend - drill holes in the stand where the overflow is, plumb tank + sump, and depending on when my marco rocks arrive (if they ever do) I'll be filling it with water and putting the rock in

Rock process - once the rock gets here I'll fill the tank and sump, make sure the skimmer is running, and blast the heck out of the marco rocks with tunzes to get all of the junk out of the rock. I'll stay barebottom at that point in time to prevent things from settling in the sand and the sand being blown around by the tunzes. I'll have a few pieces of rock from John's tank to help "seed" this rock.

One week after adding rock - I'll be checking on the parameters and seeing how clean the rock is. If it passes inspection I'll be adding my sand, with some of John's sand to help seed it. I'm fully expecting this to start cycle #2, so...

One week after adding sand - provided the cycle is done I'll be adding critters from ISPF and Inland aquatics to get a jumpstart on the biological filtration/making sure my rock and sand is live.

One/two weeks after adding bugs - I'll be putting in corals. Zoas first, SPS probably a little bit later

One week after adding corals - It's time for my fish to move into their new home!

Once the sps start to encrust on the rock - I'll move my cleanup crew (or what's left of it) from the sump into the main display tank and will buy whatever else I need to clean up stuff. I know this seems a little backwards, but one of my pet peeves is painstakingly placing my corals only to have them knocked over by stupid snails!

A few weeks after that I'll probably add my lavendar tang and will slowly add the remaining fish

I have about another month, maybe a little longer, until I have a functioning reef tank

 

[Chelsey]

Well, it's a little cold to go outside and hose down my sump, but we did manage to get the holes drilled in the stand and foam today. Later this afternoon I'll be going to a graphics store and getting some black vinyl sticker stuff to put on the back of my tank (instead of painting it). I also found out that my rock will make it to Marco rocks Wednesday and they hope to ship it out that day or Thursday (which is good, because I've been waiting forever! )

 

[Chris2222000]

Thats going to be an awesome tank, my next tank will have the cube "ish" shape. Lots of aquascaping possibilities, btw how is the craftmanship from glasscages? Im looking at different possibilities for a custom tank and so far they seem to have the best price.
Thanks
Chris

 

[Chelsey]

In the words of a friend, my tank is built like a brick "poo" house (insert 4 letter naughty word in place of poo) I am satisfied with the work that they did. The things that you've read about them being slightly sloppy with the silicon is true, but it only took 5 minutes with a razorblade and honestly I'd rather them do an overkill job than an incomplete one. There is bracing everywhere and the glass is very thick...I'm satisfied with my tank completely