Cloud9's: Sticks in the Sky

[cloud9aquariums]

What's up reef2reef fam!

After a big move and a long wait, the dream build is finally here - and it's time to send it!

The Backstory

In December 2023, we locked down our forever home in our dream location and you better believe an upgrade was part of the plan. Out went the 80g, and in came this beast: a 250-gallon Deep Dimension reef tank dedicated entirely to an army of vibrant, fast growing, polyp-packed SPS!

Cloud 9 Aquariums is back in full swing and this is the flagship build!

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The System


Offical Start Date: Feb 22, 2024
Tank: 250g Deep Dimension (Used)
60"L x 36"W x 27"H
– Frosted rear panel for that sleek, minimalist look

Sump: Trigger Systems Sapphire CR44
Return: Jebao MDP-13000
Skimmer: Maxspect Jump SK400
Reactor: Aquamaxx Sigma2
Controller: Full Hydros Suite (iV, x10, XP8, Wave Engine, ATO etc)
UV: Coralife Turbo-Twist 36w
Heat: (2) 300w Eheim Jager

Flow:
Maxspect Gyre XF350 (x2)
Ecotech MP40 (x2)

Lighting:
Radion XR30 G4 (x3)
Orphek OR3 Bars (x6) via Osix
- BluePlus (2)
- UV/Violet (2)
- ReefDay (2)
Mounting:
- Orphek Universal Bars w/hanging kit
- RMS Track and Slides
- Long Arm TV wall mount (2)

Rock & Substrate:
Mix of live and dry Marco rock (including branch)
CaribSea Special Grade sand (dry + live)


Filtration & Water:
BRS 4-Stage RODI Value Plus w/Water Saver (150gpd)

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The Methods

A blend of precision and mad scientist:

- Salt: Tropic Marin Pro (30g monthly changes)
- Moonshiners Method (w/ DIY tweaks)
- All For Reef + Kalk
- Ammonium Bicarbonate (dosed as needed)

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Chemistry Goals

Salinity: 35
Alkalinity: 8.5
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1400
Phosphate: 0.1–0.2
Nitrate: 10–35


Lighting PAR Targets

Upper: 450–500
Middle: ~350
Sandbed: ~250

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Photo and video updates coming soon. Coral placement, aquascape breakdown, and growth tracking are all part of the journey. Hoping to make this build something worth following—whether you’re here for the gear, the sticks, or just the vibes.

I’ll be posting full-length video updates on my YouTube so you can follow the journey in motion, plus regular eye candy drops on Instagram. But for the real growth logs, build breakdowns, and all the reef geek details—this thread’s where it’s at.

Let’s build a skyline, one polyp at a time!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Man, that lighting setup you are using is killer! How are you mounting all of those lights for your tank, and what settings are you running them at? I can't wait to see the videos and photos of your new tank!

 

[cloud9aquariums]

Genesis:
This build isn’t your typical dry rock startup that battles through the uglies we've all learned to scroll past. Sorry folks—we’ve all been there, and there are plenty of threads for that. Since this tank is an upgrade from my 80-gallon, I transferred all the rock over and added some dry rock at the base to bulk out the new structures.

The Tank:
Let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room—yeah, that tank. I’ve seen the horror stories about this dimension having failures, usually tied to non-factory stands, poor leveling, or seam issues. Since I work in construction for a living, I figured I’d do everything in my power to avoid becoming one of those posts.

The room this tank lives in was originally a garage, later converted into a family room. So, before anything went in, I opened up the subfloor and reinforced every joist directly under the tank, tying them into the concrete to give it solid footing. I also cut full-length shims to support the tank evenly and ensure it’s dead level across the entire footprint.

On the outside, I refaced the stand to better match our home's aesthetic, added interior lighting that kicks on automatically when the doors open, and installed foam flooring inside the stand—not only to help dampen pump noise, but also to save my knees when I’m down there working on the sump.

Scape:
From the jump, this was meant to be SPS-dominant. I knew I’d need a ton of flow, a blanket of light, and—of course—a steady supply of fish poo. As much as I get the appeal of bare-bottom for nutrient control, there’s just something about a pristine sand bed that’s the chef’s kiss in a display. I went with CaribSea Special Grade to keep it from blowing around too much. In an effort to save some cash, I mixed 80 lbs of dry with 40 lbs of live sand—worked out great. Once the sand was in and the gear was humming, I did the scape and transfer all at once. The existing rock already had encrusted frags and mini colonies, so it all came in seasoned and ready.

ADHD SIDE QUEST:
The move happened during an insanely cold week. Both parties rushed the home buying/selling process, which left us with one day to move four tanks (40g freshwater planted, 180g freshwater planted, 28g reef, and the 80g SPS reef). We did our best, but we lost some of our OG fish—many of which had already outlived expectations—and a few sensitive corals took a hit when the new house’s thermostat failed and temps dropped.

Back to the Scape:
I went for two main island structures with 360° swim space for my larger tangs, plus tunnels, bridges, and nooks for the smaller fish and flow paths. My goal was tons of real estate for coral growth. The biggest challenge was integrating existing rock with established colonies—some of which were directional and immovable.

The Overall Thesis:
I love tanks that invite you to sit and stare for a while before revealing all their details. There’s something about hidden gems and peekaboo coral spots that just keeps things fun and immersive.

What’s Next:
Now that the first look is out of the way, I’m going to post a quick catch-up on everything that’s changed over the past year—major events, system tweaks, losses, and wins. After that, I’ll kick off growth logs: each coral will get a side-by-side—starting photo and current—so we’re not wasting time on barely noticeable growth!

 

[cloud9aquariums]

Man, that lighting setup you are using is killer! How are you mounting all of those lights for your tank, and what settings are you running them at? I can't wait to see the videos and photos of your new tank!

It's the combo move dreams are made of! I updated my equipment list with more specifics on the mounting but you can see what I did in this last post. 2 long arm tv mounts lagged into studs connected to orphek universal bars via hanging kit, and then the radion rms bar straddling in the middle. Currently I'm running the Orpheks blueplus and uv/violet bars 90% at peak, reefday at 50% and radions I'm running a schedule at 80% that has all blues uv violet at 100%, red green whites at 25%. The g4s get me that punch i need for the depth and the orpheks give me the pop and spread for really nice growth shape.

 

[bubbgee]

How did you like the OR3 UV bar over your tank? I am not a fan of reef day. I hope it works for growth at least.

 

[Featherweight]

Oh this is gonna be fun

 

[lubeck]

I’m in

 

[cloud9aquariums]

How did you like the OR3 UV bar over your tank? I am not a fan of reef day. I hope it works for growth at least.

It's hard to pinpoint which light is doing what specifically but the combination has been working fantastic and the orpheks bring a great glow to the tank while filling in any shadowing. I like to run a blue ramp to a blue plus look (maybe a touch more white) and then heavy blues in the evening to really appreciate that pop!

 

[cloud9aquariums]

Oh this is gonna be fun

We needed a good thread to get some of the stick heads that lurk in shadows fired up!

 

[cloud9aquariums]

I’m in

Lets gooooo! Welcome to the madness

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Any new additions to your tank recently?

 

[Featherweight]

We needed a good thread to get some of the stick heads that lurk in shadows fired up!

I have no idea what this post was meant to be... Oops

 

[cloud9aquariums]

Year in Review: The Journey So Far

As promised, here’s the catch-up post. One full year of chaos, growth, gear failures, and turning this system into a true SPS-dominated display. Whether you’re a local friend who's been following from the start or just hopped in this thread, this’ll bring you up to speed!

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Startup & Stocking Phase
(Months 0–2)

Kicked things off the cautious way—low fish stocking (moved over from previous reef), fresh water aka zeroed nutrients out the gate, so I started dosing NeoPhos and NeoNitro daily just to keep anything detectable on the charts. After two months of heavy feeding and constant testing, I brought in the cavalry:

Enter 26 chromis and 9 anthias from a month-long QT (started with 30/10)

QT was a must—uronema is a given with chromis, and I wasn’t about to risk it after this much setup

Watching that first school cruise the tank was the moment it finally felt like a reef, not just rock and water.

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Reefapalooza SPS Takeover
(Month 4)

Hit Reefapalooza NY on the last day of the show with one goal: snag some serious heat to build out the collection. By the end of the show, I struck a killer deal with the crew at Riptide Aquaculture to clean out their SPS tank.

Since I walked away with multiples, I banked doubles with a local stickhead buddy (dude looked like it was Christmas morning), and glued some of the extras together to speed up that mini colony life.
Spoiler alert: a few frags that looked the same were not... and when the encrustment touched, it was duel to the death time.

This haul gave me the perfect excuse to evict the zoa garden rock that had turned into a Pandora-only party. Tossed the 12x14 boulder down into the sump until I found it a new home, and built a fresh branch rock centerpiece for all the new frags.
If there was any doubt—this tank was now SPS dominant. No going back.

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Dosing Drama & Equipment Fail (Month 5–6)

Things were cruising… until they weren’t. Discovered three cracked dosing heads on the Hydros X10, which was running my auto alk testing via the iV. That meant:

Alk data was useless

Kalk dosing was jacked

And worst of all… it leaked into the stand while we were out of town
Cue the Hydros alarm—and one very stressful vacation moment.


This kicked off a string of recalibrations and second-guessing every parameter. I spent a solid week dialing everything back in manually while scrubbing kalk crust out of the stand.

Moral of the story: trust, but verify—especially when your gear fails quietly. These dosing heads were silent but deadly.

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Nutrient Rollercoaster (Oct–Jan)

October hit, and nitrates flatlined. Green millies started losing polyp extension, some things were fading, and it was clear the tank was starving. I started feeding like crazy but also had to run GFO to keep phosphate under 0.2, but nitrates still wouldn’t register.

At the same time, I realized the Myagi tort I had up high was getting cooked under the high PAR and the colors were garbage. So I fragged the colony and moved a Humilis into that spot.
Flow was also starting to lag behind coral growth, so I cranked up both the gyres and MP40s to make sure I wasn’t creating any dead zones.

Meanwhile, my sand-sifting goby vanished, and cyano started creeping in. That was the last straw.

Siphoned everything out

Started dosing Ammonium Bicarbonate

Added a new goby


Still kept GFO running to try and balance out the chaos. The tank was eating like a champ, but the readings weren’t budging.

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Spathulata Crash & Recovery Pivot (Jan–Feb)

Just when things started to look stable, my Spathulata RTN’d out of nowhere. Nutrients were still low, but I was finally getting some nitrate readings— it may have been too little too late. On top of that, I caught an alk swing caused by a miscalibrated tester probe. Thank you weekly manual checks.

I corrected it over a few days, but sometimes it’s the combo of events that delivers the final punch. Classic reef tank move. So here is the last photo I have of it in all it's glory. RIP

Then came the dino bloom, right on schedule after the cyano fade. I dropped in a 36-watt Coralife Turbo-Twist UV, and thankfully it knocked them out fast.

By mid-March, nitrates were up to 10 and I turned off ammonium dosing completely, and for the first time in months… everything looked clean and stable.

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Rock Shuffle & Light Upgrade
(Mar–Apr)

With things finally stabilizing, I turned my attention to layout and growth. The blue digi (bottom left) was taking over everything in its path, so I hacked it back and did another rock rearrangement to free up space and improve flow paths.

But something still felt off…
Growth in the center zone was lagging, and a quick check with the PAR meter confirmed the issue: a 100 PAR drop right under the center crossbar. Shadow zone.

And of course, the only logical solution was… more light. *Evil laugh*

I added a 4th G4 Radion, rotated them all sideways, and immediately saw a huge difference. The spread across the width of the tank is way more even now, the old dead zone is gone, and I'm punching solid par from front to back.

This change was intended to fix the center—but it’s probably one of the best tweaks I’ve made to the tank overall.

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For the Reef Nerds Who Made It This Far...

If you’ve read this whole saga, you’re my kind of reef keeper. After dodging a few bullets and patiently waiting for that long-awaited growth spurt, the tank’s finally starting to reward the grind. Color’s coming alive, flow is dialed, and the fish are vibing.

Finally time for a few shots in both blues and natural daylight to show where things stand today.

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What’s Next:

Now that the timeline’s caught up, next post kicks off the growth logs. I’ll be doing side-by-sides of each coral with time-stamped progress shots—no “trust me it’s growing” energy here. Let’s see what’s thriving… and what’s free loading.

 

[cloud9aquariums]

Any new additions to your tank recently?

I'm to the point where new additions either mean kicking out (rehoming) corals that aren't doing it for me or getting 3D creative. "Acrylic rods enter the chat"

I'll show some new snags soon and my way of stacking sticks when space is at a premium!

 

[Featherweight]

Good job sticking with it. The results are excellent.

 

[cloud9aquariums]

Good job sticking with it. The results are excellent.

I see what you did there
The biggest take away from my other reefs has been that persistence pays off. Each tank will have its trials, you just course correct as needed and wait for the next thing.

 

[ReefLaw]

Any updates on this tank? Also, what sand sifting goby are you using?

 

[cloud9aquariums]

I've got a gold head sleeper goby and he's an absolute beast at keeping the sandbed turned and pristine. The only downside is that i have to blow off my chalices occasionally that he covers throughout the week.

I have to do an update and start on colony shots this week because I may or may not be adding another 10-15 sticks and have to reset a few colonies that have grown out of control in order to fit them... anyone looking for a basketball sized Milka stylo?!

Any updates on this tank? Also, what sand sifting goby are you using?