DyrtyByrd's 40 gal. Cube

[DyrtyByrd]

Hello all, lets get started on my very first build thread!
Follow along as I share my experiences and how I went about putting together my office display.

A little back story first, this will be my second reef tank. The first was a 7 gallon nano about 12 years ago, I learned and had a lot of fun with this tank. Unfortunately life happened and I had to step away from the hobby.

Fast forward to present day. I just happened to be browsing a local LFS with my fiancé when i saw (what I thought) a great deal. An Aquatop Recife Eco 40! Stand was pre built. Included a "reef spec" light, skimmer, and all required filtration media. A few hundo's later and we were loading it in the truck. The LFS even threw in enough pre mixed salt water to fill it up!

Once I got my new toy home, I noticed the stand was a little more wobbly than I liked. I knew this had to be fixed before we got wet. The next day I was off to the hardware store to pick up some corner braces.


Six on the underside of the bottom and top panels stiffened and secured the stand to my liking.

Got the tank up on the stand, by myself because my fiancé wasn't home and I'm impatient!

(Please excuse the chubby guy reflection)

Next post, we add sand, build the aquascape and get er wet!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Nice.

Maybe take a look for the "Minimalist Reefer" thread here at R2R. It's just getting started and it some reefers who don't use all the crazy new high tech equipment... we just try to keep it simple.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hello all, lets get started on my very first build thread!
Follow along as I share my experiences and how I went about putting together my office display.

A little back story first, this will be my second reef tank. The first was a 7 gallon nano about 12 years ago, I learned and had a lot of fun with this tank. Unfortunately life happened and I had to step away from the hobby.

Fast forward to present day. I just happened to be browsing a local LFS with my fiancé when i saw (what I thought) a great deal. An Aquatop Recife Eco 40! Stand was pre built. Included a "reef spec" light, skimmer, and all required filtration media. A few hundo's later and we were loading it in the truck. The LFS even threw in enough pre mixed salt water to fill it up!

Once I got my new toy home, I noticed the stand was a little more wobbly than I liked. I knew this had to be fixed before we got wet. The next day I was off to the hardware store to pick up some corner braces.


Six on the underside of the bottom and top panels stiffened and secured the stand to my liking.

Got the tank up on the stand, by myself because my fiancé wasn't home and I'm impatient!

(Please excuse the chubby guy reflection)

Next post, we add sand, build the aquascape and get er wet!

Best of luck to the aquascape!

 

[DyrtyByrd]

Nice.

Maybe take a look for the "Minimalist Reefer" thread here at R2R. It's just getting started and it some reefers who don't use all the crazy new high tech equipment... we just try to keep it simple.

For sure, thanks for the heads up. I think we are all gadget junkies to some extent, but my wallet doesn't allow for too many gadgets lol. Ill take a look at that thread

 

[DyrtyByrd]

Best of luck to the aquascape!

thanks, this build thread is a little retrospect. I certainly could have used the luck!

 

[Ron Reefman]

For sure, thanks for the heads up. I think we are all gadget junkies to some extent, but my wallet doesn't allow for too many gadgets lol. Ill take a look at that thread

That's the cycle I went through. My tanks got bigger and bigger and they got more and more complicated with more high tech gadgets. Then I started downsizing and it got easier and easier. Now I have two 40g aio tanks with good quality lights and using filter socks and a strip of filter media to keep the tanks clean... no refugium, no sump, no computer control, no skimmer... and my sps & lps tank is doing just fine.

 

[DyrtyByrd]

Next step will be creating the aquascape, adding sand and then salt water.

I'm no professional aquascaper by any stretch of the word. My 7 gallon was literally 3 boulders laid on top of each other. Quite a bit of looking and studying only made me less sure of what I was doing and what I wanted. I decided the best way to attack this, was to just do it and figure it out as I go.

Went back to the LFS and picked up 20lbs of caribisea fiji pink and around the same amount of caribisea purple life rock. Got some grey epoxy as well as they didn't have purple.

Got it all home and went to work, in a "significate other approved" work space of course.

Grabbed an old piece of cardboard and cut it to the shape of my tank bottom, 21"L X 18"D. I layed out a grid with masking tape and started laying rock. I knew what the base would consist of since I picked up a pre made cave and a medium doughnut.


I worked on it, for what seemed like an eternity. After several adult beverages, for creativity sake, I finally came to a design that I liked!




I decided that was enough for one night. Since I didn't epoxy anything down, I marked where the pieces met and pulled it apart for the evening. Side Note: I have 4 demon cats that would have gladly kicked over my sand castle while I slept.

 

[DyrtyByrd]

The next morning I awoke, ready to glue some rocks together for the final scape!

One problem though, for the life of me I could not get anything to fit as it did the night before.

Back to square one

A few more hours fiddling and got something that resembled last night's master piece. Then disaster struck, I dropped my last nano arch. It happened in slow motion as I watched it break on the ground. This was the center piece of my scape so the only thing left to do was bust out the epoxy and thick cyano. Glued it all back together and let it sit for 24 hours.

After the epoxy cured I got back to work. Rebuilding the structure to what it was before.

Time to place the aquascape, add sand and water. I had to place the left and right bases individually and then epoxy the arch in the tank.



I added two small islands for interest and to have a place for invasive corals to grow.

Gotta love those fill lines!


Next up, Ill briefly go over my cycle and touch on a few upgrades.

 

[DyrtyByrd]

That's the cycle I went through. My tanks got bigger and bigger and they got more and more complicated with more high tech gadgets. Then I started downsizing and it got easier and easier. Now I have two 40g aio tanks with good quality lights and using filter socks and a strip of filter media to keep the tanks clean... no refugium, no sump, no computer control, no skimmer... and my sps & lps tank is doing just fine.

very nice! its easy to get caught up in the sea of aquarium equipment and every body seems to be a salesman when your researching youtube.