wallet
New Member
Hello, wanted to share one of my tanks that’s been running for about 5 months now.
System Overview
My original premise of this tank was to do something new and give something of a tide pool aesthetic. It’s a 15” Imagitarium Cube hard plumbed to a small ~3g sump. I built a custom stand with some minor improvements from the stand I built for my 40b but same basic design. I used some nice cabinet door hinges and some nice trim which gave it a nice finish.
Plumbing/Sump design
It may have been a little over kill to hard plumb a sump for this size tank but I was really trying to achieve a seamless simple design to elevate the look of the tank.
Im using an eclipse s overflow with two returns utilizing wye check valves on each.
In the sump I’m using two cobalt heaters, two sicce return pumps and a small skimmer that is rarely used. I used the glass lid that came with the sump as a baffle that I siliconed in place. I generally only use filter floss if needed. I also have a slim acrylic ato reservoir that fits neatly beside the sump in the stand keeping everything very sleek on the exterior.
Aquascape
I wanted to do something new and decide to go for a more vertical aquascape maximizing the space.
I drilled a hole through the entirety of the central column and used an acrylic rod to keep everything stable. For some added safety I also put black egg crate underneath everything so the glass wouldn’t crack if something fell. I somewhat regret this decision because given the amount of sand I used there are times it is visible when the sand gets stirred up.
Flow/Lighting
At first I just used spare equipment I had lying around with a kessil a80 and a small sicce powerhead. I eventually upgraded the light to an a160 and replaced the sicce with a jump gyre mounted vertically giving better flow to more areas of the tank.
Cycling and Live Stock
I decided to do a fishless cycle using the Dr Tim’s method and added a pair of clowns a month or two after starting the cycle.
Everything had been going smoothly so I started to add some macro algae. This was probably a little premature though as there wasn’t much of a bio load or nutrients for the macro algae’s to uptake.
This tank had kind of become a good place to put any soft corals I had that either weren’t doing well in my sps tank, (my zoas in particular), or some pieces I had that I thought would fit nicely. I put a nice hammer, a couple torches, and all my zoas in and they took off.
You can also see some uglies starting to pop up.
I then took a liking to the look of the euphyllias and got myself a nice green bubble coral.
I also added a damsel that was getting picked on in the big tank and he integrated with no issue.
Maintenance
This tank has become one of my favorites just because it’s been very easy as far as maintenance. I just a weekly water change, feed, and fill my ato. I rarely test, the most consistent testing I do is salinity weekly whenever I do my water change.
That sums it up for now. Thank you for reading and hope you follow along. Thanks!
System Overview
My original premise of this tank was to do something new and give something of a tide pool aesthetic. It’s a 15” Imagitarium Cube hard plumbed to a small ~3g sump. I built a custom stand with some minor improvements from the stand I built for my 40b but same basic design. I used some nice cabinet door hinges and some nice trim which gave it a nice finish.
Plumbing/Sump design
It may have been a little over kill to hard plumb a sump for this size tank but I was really trying to achieve a seamless simple design to elevate the look of the tank.
Im using an eclipse s overflow with two returns utilizing wye check valves on each.
In the sump I’m using two cobalt heaters, two sicce return pumps and a small skimmer that is rarely used. I used the glass lid that came with the sump as a baffle that I siliconed in place. I generally only use filter floss if needed. I also have a slim acrylic ato reservoir that fits neatly beside the sump in the stand keeping everything very sleek on the exterior.
Aquascape
I wanted to do something new and decide to go for a more vertical aquascape maximizing the space.
I drilled a hole through the entirety of the central column and used an acrylic rod to keep everything stable. For some added safety I also put black egg crate underneath everything so the glass wouldn’t crack if something fell. I somewhat regret this decision because given the amount of sand I used there are times it is visible when the sand gets stirred up.
Flow/Lighting
At first I just used spare equipment I had lying around with a kessil a80 and a small sicce powerhead. I eventually upgraded the light to an a160 and replaced the sicce with a jump gyre mounted vertically giving better flow to more areas of the tank.
Cycling and Live Stock
I decided to do a fishless cycle using the Dr Tim’s method and added a pair of clowns a month or two after starting the cycle.
Everything had been going smoothly so I started to add some macro algae. This was probably a little premature though as there wasn’t much of a bio load or nutrients for the macro algae’s to uptake.
This tank had kind of become a good place to put any soft corals I had that either weren’t doing well in my sps tank, (my zoas in particular), or some pieces I had that I thought would fit nicely. I put a nice hammer, a couple torches, and all my zoas in and they took off.
You can also see some uglies starting to pop up.
I then took a liking to the look of the euphyllias and got myself a nice green bubble coral.
I also added a damsel that was getting picked on in the big tank and he integrated with no issue.
Maintenance
This tank has become one of my favorites just because it’s been very easy as far as maintenance. I just a weekly water change, feed, and fill my ato. I rarely test, the most consistent testing I do is salinity weekly whenever I do my water change.
That sums it up for now. Thank you for reading and hope you follow along. Thanks!
