Fiji cube 81 ext upgrade

ks2509

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After about 3 years with AIO tanks my wife and I have pulled the trigger on a bigger tank.

We currently have 2 reef tanks. One is a waterbox 20 nem tank which is trucking along well. The second, the one I'm upgrading from, is a aquatop reclife 40 aio. I have had it about 2 years now. We just want more room for fish and corals. After alot of back and forth between waterbox 100.3, redsea 425, sca, and planet aquariums I finally settled on the fiji cube 81 ext. Main reasons I have chosen this were the sump, external over flow, dual returns, and price point.

EQUIPMENT:
Fiji cube 81
Fiji 24 sump
Varios 6 return pump
Finnex 300w titanium heater
Tunze nano ato
Hydra 32 HD x2
AI Nero 3 x2
Skimmer undecided between rsk300 and great white 5

The tank will be a LPS dominant tank, the wife and I enjoy our torches and trachys. I will be making every attempt to make this tank as simple as possible I do leave for work for long periods of time so can't have it to complicated don't want my wife to have to deal with alot of in depth stuff all the time. That being said I will have a controller at some point but haven't decided which one yet. I'm planning on taking the set up slow with a long cycle trying to be patient with this tank. All of the equipment I have picked after alot of research and past experiences with the products on current tanks. I'm undecided on the skimmer mainly because I haven't ever had a big skimmer or a sump to hold one for that matter. I am between the Redsea RSK300 and the Dalua Great White 5. I would love suggestions or reviews on these two or like skimmers in same price points.

First big step is getting an electrician to run a 20 Amp circuit to the living room. We have an older house and alot of things plugged in already in the living room so don't want to push my luck.

That's all for now I'll post pictures along the way. Thanks for reading.

IMG_20210409_104532_714.jpg
 

Devaji

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nice I have there peninsula nano AIo for a few years now. I was looking at the 81 ext for a seahorse build a while back....I have a tank problem I want about 10 but you know time and $$ haha

anyway congrats post pics when you get it.
 

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Congrats on the new tank!
 
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ks2509

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Just returned from my LFS the tank has been ordered. Chose to upgrade the sump from the 20 to the 24 in sump.
 
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ks2509

ks2509

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nice I have there peninsula nano AIo for a few years now. I was looking at the 81 ext for a seahorse build a while back....I have a tank problem I want about 10 but you know time and $$ haha

anyway congrats post pics when you get it.
I have been eyeballing this tank for close to a year now. Just haven't had the money or time to set it up. It will probably go pretty slow due to money at first but we will make due.
 

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I have been eyeballing this tank for close to a year now. Just haven't had the money or time to set it up. It will probably go pretty slow due to money at first but we will make due.

I hear that my new build took 2 years just finished the cycle so I get it.
 
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ks2509

ks2509

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So while at the LFS getting food I was looking at fish and thinking about Stocking the new tank.

Current stock:
Tomini tang
Black ice clown
Clown goby
6 line
Stripe blenny
Pygmy hawk fish
Yellow corris wrasse

All of these will be making the move over. Looking for one more smaller tang, small school of fish (4-5), one or two gobies and wrasse or wrasse pair.

For the schooling fish I was thinking either purple fire fish, 2-3 more stripe blennies, or chalk bass.

For the wrasse I really like the solar wrasse and had thought about a male female pair of fairy wrasse.

Lastly the tang. I'm not looking for anything that will get to big I plan on keeping this tank for a while and not upgrading. So what ever it is will have to be smaller. If u have any suggestions please let me know.
 
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ks2509

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I'll be following along with you, I placed my order for the 81 EXT and upgraded 24 sump earlier this week as well. Lots of similar equipment too.
Spoke with my lfs yesterday hopefully the tank is here by Tuesday. Also have been looking at some ideas for cable management. Should be cool if I can make it work.
 
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ks2509

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Update:

Received word today the tank shipped yesterday and should be here Friday. If that holds true I will start mocking up the plumbing and what not while I wait on electricians to come run my new outlet.
 

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Spoke with my lfs yesterday hopefully the tank is here by Tuesday. Also have been looking at some ideas for cable management. Should be cool if I can make it work.
Dropping in with cable management ideas. I just set up the Fiji 32ext this past weekend. I am using their matching cabinet. Below are some items i used to keep things clean with the smaller space I'm working with.

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Dropping in with cable management ideas. I just set up the Fiji 32ext this past weekend. I am using their matching cabinet. Below are some items i used to keep things clean with the smaller space I'm working with.

4-21-2021 6-05-46 PM.jpg


20210418_094849.jpg


20210418_093759.jpg
That's a very clean setup
 
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ks2509

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Dropping in with cable management ideas. I just set up the Fiji 32ext this past weekend. I am using their matching cabinet. Below are some items i used to keep things clean with the smaller space I'm working with.

That's the same power bar I ordered. I have a couple ideas for cable management I'm gonna look at before finally moving the tank into the house.
 
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ks2509

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Got my wifi power strip and return pump this week as well as a couple pieces of marcos shelf rock. Started playing around with the scape a bit. There are a couple extra bits I will use to make an arch on either the left or right side. Tank was delayed in ky over the weekend but tracking says should be here tomorrow hopefully.
 

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ks2509

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Tank is here.
Lfs owner helped me get it to the house today. First impressions are great. Packaging is very good. Happy surprise is it came with the 1200 gph over flow instead of the 800 that I was expecting. I don't plan on having a turn over that high but having the extra emergency over flow is a bonus. Wasn't sure what exactly to expect for plumbing parts for the kit but wow very nice to have a nice gate valve and quick couplers. I'll finish unboxing and start doing the stand this weekend and post more pictures.
 

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Devaji

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Tank is here.
Lfs owner helped me get it to the house today. First impressions are great. Packaging is very good. Happy surprise is it came with the 1200 gph over flow instead of the 800 that I was expecting. I don't plan on having a turn over that high but having the extra emergency over flow is a bonus. Wasn't sure what exactly to expect for plumbing parts for the kit but wow very nice to have a nice gate valve and quick couplers. I'll finish unboxing and start doing the stand this weekend and post more pictures.

odd question but how was the tank shipped? in box or the the cardboard box in a box type of thing?

this just got me thinking I might want to upgrade my nano peninsula but I LOVE it sooo
 
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