Custom 150 Cube 36x36x28

[swilliams2207]

Minor update. Lotta growth all around… esp the few SPS. Eliminated more waving hand anthelia. Seems impossible to get all of it. It just keeps coming back and one head turns to several seemingly overnight. Alas… things are still sailing smoothly.

Also, slimeball spongodes is so underrated!! This is the first frag I got a few years ago and it recently exploded in growth the last few months.

 

[swilliams2207]

Been a minute. Tank overall has been in good shape with a minor occurrence that caused some corals to die off. I’m not sure if it’s coral warfare but I did have a minor cyano outbreak that I’m in the process of dealing with. I’ve been blowing off rocks and manually removing. Also dosing some bacteria and coral snow treatments along with carbon/GFO and big water changes.

Also dude another coral reorg. My GSP consumed and killed one of my favorite SPS corals. Don’t know what it is but it’s an old muted green I’ve grown from a frag. This was the start of my cya I issues so I don’t know if the die off caused it. I’ve divided the tank to keep SPS away from leathers and invasive corals.

A few shots. I also dude a deep clean and replenished some sand that had blown away. I don’t love the bright white sand but it is what it is. I thoroughly rinsed it before adding so it wouldn’t introduce a cloud of “dust”.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Your tank is looking fantastic! I like the two island approach of your aquascape!

 

[swilliams2207]

Your tank is looking fantastic! I like the two island approach of your aquascape!

Thank you! There are certainly some tradeoffs with placement and real estate but I think it’s interesting

 

[swilliams2207]

Lots more growth and changes here. My biggest and most recent updates from a tech perspective consits of reorienting my sump. I flipped it so my drains are now going straight down into the "back: of the sump and moved my return pumps to the front. I planned everthing in advance and glued up as much as I could beforehand. Basically had to drain the sump, cut and refit the existing plumbing to flip flop everything. I think this is a lot better (and simpler) and allows me to access my return pumps much easier. Also, im assuming my drains being shorter and straight down allow for better drainaige and less microbubbles. The other benefit is any leaks will now drip directly back into the sump.

I was dreading this task but glad I got it done. Luckily I had extra pipe from the original build and was able to be creative with my cuts so I could reuse everything I needed. In other news, I gave the sump a good cleaning before reassembling. I've realized the downsides of a cube reef make for limited under cabinet space/config options. I wish I could fit the 40 breeder the other way but it's a few inches short. If I had the budget I'd build a custom shape sump. I'm just not sure if it's even worth it at this point.

Lastly. I removed my skimmer entirly. it BARELY pulled any skimate and really only took up space. I feel like my reef mat puts in absolute work and collects so much ****. I'd be curious if anyone runs both. I bough my skimmer second hand and it never really worked the way I had hoped.

EDIT: should I move the green discoma watermelon mushroom rock on the left to the center and fill in the gorge with lower light corals? Im debating keping the vally but stacking rocks to replace the sand and open up more opportunity. Could be interesting. I'm also worried about the mushrooms taking over on the SPS side. I would replace that rock with new clean rock and reattach the purple stylo.

 

[swilliams2207]

Welp, for better or worse, I decided to reset the tank. I liked my old scape but it wasn’t the most functional in terms of coral placement. I basically ran out of space and corals that would fit would largely be out of sight.

I decided to remove everything, drain all the water, remove the sand, and add everything back with new sand and a massive water change.

Prior to this, I missed a few water changes because my DOS was on the fritz. Some of my SPS had some mild setbacks. Nothing crazy but I was in need of some major maintenance.

I also took the opportunity to do some significant pruning of my leathers. They were far overgrown and taking over half the tank. I liked the look for a while but I want to pivot to more SPS and other LPS and soft corals.

The new scape is more generic. I also tried to retain some of the original positioning of the right side of the old scape so I wasn’t starting entirely from scratch during an already stressful project. I wish I could have done some sort of shelf on the right but the clam is massive and wouldn’t fit anywhere else.

I wanted more negative space and more of a side viewing experience of the tank. This also makes glass cleaning a lot easier not fighting with rocks along the glass.

I already added a few new hammers and a few new SPS. I still have a lot more space to add new frags - so I ultimately accomplished my goal and look forward to keeping things interesting. Excited to see this tank fill in.