FijiCube 81 Gallon Build

Mppp

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 14, 2019
Messages
185
Reaction score
94
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
After many months of accumulating Black Friday (or similar) sale items I have finally taken my fish out of quarantine (30 days) and transferred them in my more than cycled display (2+ months). The plan is to go reef and soon as I have the supplements just haven't put them in tank yet. I also need to do some further research on seeding tank with copepods (wife wants mandarins).

I'd also like to thank forum member Xiaoxiy for his assistance to not only make the decision to buy this aquarium, but help me with technical questions!

Equipment:
-FijiCube 81 Gallon External Overflow 36x24x22.5 (12mm glass thickness-this is what sold me most on choosing Fijicube is the glass thickness offerings at great prices)
-FijiCube stand

-FijiCube 20 gallon sump (I know a lot of folks on site here are fans of their sumps and now I see why, great quality)
-FijiCube 5 gallon ATO and used Tunze 3155-As you can see last thing I need to set up.
-Cobalt C-Ray 200 Watt White (hard to find) light and silver arm mounting arm-Hard decision here after countless months of research I found a good article talking about par ratings and there are a few folks in forum that like them. $430 new off Ebay
-BRS 7 stage RODI Unit
-29 and 10 gallon quarantine tanks & 2 Whisper filters, 3 Hitop 100 Watt heaters ($13 a piece)
-2 Brute Trash cans for fresh and saltwater (I decided to go cheap on my mixing station as I don't mind lugging buckets and valves, piping, bulk heads, pumps money is better spent on fish and corals, but that said I admire some of your mixing stations I just needed to cut the most spending somewhere and this was it).
-Jebao DCP 3000 25 Watt 845 gph sump pump-Cheap and super quiet! $61
-Jebao OW-25 Wavemakers x 2-Cheap and whisper quiet as well! $61 also-This decision on wave makers took me forever and I read some good reviews on these lasting years, direction is adjustable and I mean how many of these can can kaput before I spend ridiculous amount of money for Quiet drives and other similarly priced wave makers (still may pony up for some one day, but these have been whisper quiet for months so not anytime soon)
-Reef Octopus Esscence 130-No opinion on this yet as I'm currently not running it really yet but purchased at a good Black Friday price and read some good reviews so hoping I chose wisely here?
-BRS 300 Watt titanium heater and controller (bought open box as they've been sold out for months otherwise). I'm a little iffy on this purchase thus far as temp has dropped up to 2 degrees F at times so I'm unsure after a few months of use if this was a good purchase.
-Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt-Read read and read on this one and although it's more expensive, but it mixes sooo easily without residue.
-CariSea Aragonite Sand (not live sand) - Bought way too much of this for my basically cube aquarium, but it's fine enough for fish to burrow in and not too fine to blow around
-Carib Sea Life Rock-Bought way too much of this as well probably using 20-25lbs and purchased 80lbs super cheap on Amazon sale just after X-Mas.
-Tank cycle products-Dr Tims One and Only Reef and Reef Vibrant

Fish!!!
All Aquacultured Fish from Live Aquaria-I could have spent easily half on wild caught fish, but I like the idea of hardier less aggressive captive bred reef safe fish.
-2 Ocellaris Clowns
-Yellow Tang
-Coral Beauty
-Orchid Dottyback
-Watchman Goby


Thanks for reading and objective feedback is encouraged!

thumbnail.jpeg thumbnail-16.jpeg thumbnail-15.jpeg thumbnail-14.jpeg thumbnail-13.jpeg thumbnail-12.jpeg thumbnail-11.jpeg thumbnail-10.jpeg thumbnail-9.jpeg thumbnail-8.jpeg thumbnail-7.jpeg thumbnail-6.jpeg thumbnail-3.jpeg thumbnail-2.jpeg thumbnail-5.jpeg thumbnail-4.jpeg
 
Last edited:

RichtheReefer21

Scrap Yard Reefer
View Badges
Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
8,766
Reaction score
49,641
Location
Western Massachusetts
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Looks like ur off to a great start. First time seeing the details of how the fiji's come set up and plumbed. Tidy.

Keep us updated ;)
 

Zoacoral

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 20, 2011
Messages
1,855
Reaction score
144
Location
Everywhere
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Nice setup. I've been debating on there 48g ext, havent pulled trigger yet. I would already have ordered a tank from them if there custom tanks didnt take 4 months. I already have there advanced 24" sump and it's great. You won't find better customer service anywhere.
 
OP
OP
Mppp

Mppp

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 14, 2019
Messages
185
Reaction score
94
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Looks like ur off to a great start. First time seeing the details of how the fiji's come set up and plumbed. Tidy.

Keep us updated ;)

Thanks and I had a friend do the plumbing so can’t take credit for that, but the wire management is my work (and that could be a tad tidier I admit)
 
OP
OP
Mppp

Mppp

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 14, 2019
Messages
185
Reaction score
94
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Nice setup. I've been debating on there 48g ext, havent pulled trigger yet. I would already have ordered a tank from them if there custom tanks didnt take 4 months. I already have there advanced 24" sump and it's great. You won't find better customer service anywhere.
Without looking at the 48g specs I really do wonder if the 81G is a whole lot bigger dimension wise that is so you may want to consider going bigger. I also went with Fijicube because it was the largest tank I could find 36 inches wide or smaller. We just didn’t want a 48 inch tank as it would have just taken up a bit too space in our living room. Also, can’t beat the thickness of their tanks for the price. Glad to hear you like their sump and wish I would have upgraded to 24 inch from 20 that came w package. Only mistake I made but one I can live with.
 

Zoacoral

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 20, 2011
Messages
1,855
Reaction score
144
Location
Everywhere
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Without looking at the 48g specs I really do wonder if the 81G is a whole lot bigger dimension wise that is so you may want to consider going bigger. I also went with Fijicube because it was the largest tank I could find 36 inches wide or smaller. We just didn’t want a 48 inch tank as it would have just taken up a bit too space in our living room. Also, can’t beat the thickness of their tanks for the price. Glad to hear you like their sump and wish I would have upgraded to 24 inch from 20 that came w package. Only mistake I made but one I can live with.


Only thing holding me back is the height of the 81g. I prefer shallow tanks around 16 inches tall. I had contacted them to make me that 81g but shave off 6-7" inches but was told it would take 4 months. So I'm looking at other builders as well. If there way more then the fiji cube I'll prolly just opt for the 48g ext.
 
OP
OP
Mppp

Mppp

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 14, 2019
Messages
185
Reaction score
94
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Only thing holding me back is the height of the 81g. I prefer shallow tanks around 16 inches tall. I had contacted them to make me that 81g but shave off 6-7" inches but was told it would take 4 months. So I'm looking at other builders as well. If there way more then the fiji cube I'll prolly just opt for the 48g ext.

That is a good point about the depth as I’m just under 6 feet tall and just about up to arm pit when reaching bottom of tank. For a custom tank I’m surprised you weren’t told longer and didn’t know Fijicube even offered customized options. They’re a small company and was happy with their customer support so hope you end up buying from them no matter what choice you end up with and do a build thread. (Hopefully it won’t take you 5 months to get it up and running like it did me).
 

RichtheReefer21

Scrap Yard Reefer
View Badges
Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
8,766
Reaction score
49,641
Location
Western Massachusetts
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Learned another thing today, that's sweet that fiji has options to customize.

I'll be along for the ride through your new endeavour. Best of luck
 
OP
OP
Mppp

Mppp

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 14, 2019
Messages
185
Reaction score
94
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Here is my list I ordered from BRS, but unfortunately I cannot remember what it came with from FijiCube and I looked at my old email order confirmation, but link is broken so I would email Fijicube.

Bulk Reef Supply
1” SCHEDULE 80 90° ELBOW SLIP X SLIP

202471$2.09 Ordered: 4
Shipped: 4
$8.36
Bulk Reef Supply
1” SCHEDULE 80 PIPE

202701$9.99 Ordered: 3
Shipped: 3
$29.97
Bulk Reef Supply
1” SCHEDULE 80 COUPLER SLIP X SLIP

202561$2.49 Ordered: 2
Shipped: 2
$4.98
Bulk Reef Supply
1" X 3/4” SCHEDULE 80 REDUCING COUPLER THREAD X THREAD

202577$4.49 Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$4.49
Bulk Reef Supply
3/4” SCHEDULE 80 STRAIGHT BARB X MALE THREAD

202656$1.19 Ordered: 2
Shipped: 2
$2.38
Bulk Reef Supply
WHITE SOFT SILICONE TUBING 3/4" ID

207892$7.69 Ordered: 2
Shipped: 2
$15.38
Bulk Reef Supply
RATCHET CLAMP FOR 3/4” TUBING

203071$1.19 Ordered: 4
Shipped: 4
$4.76
Bulk Reef Supply
3/4" PIPE ADAPTER SPIGOT X BARB

207926$4.99 Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$4.99
Cepex
3/4” CEPEX BALL VALVE

202400$22.99Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$22.99
Bulk Reef Supply
3/4” SCHEDULE 80 90° ELBOW SLIP X SLIP

202470$1.79 Ordered: 4
Shipped: 4
$7.16
Bulk Reef Supply
3/4” SCHEDULE 80 COUPLER SLIP X SLIP

202560$2.49 Ordered: 2
Shipped: 2
$4.98
Bulk Reef Supply
3/4” SCHEDULE 80 PIPE

202700$8.99 Ordered: 3
Shipped: 3
$26.97
Bulk Reef Supply
1” SCHEDULE 80 TEE SLIP X SLIP X SLIP

202631$3.49 Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$3.49
Bulk Reef Supply
1” SCHEDULE 80 CAP

202711$3.49 Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$3.49
Bulk Reef Supply
1” SCHEDULE 80 90° ELBOW SLIP X SPIGOT (STREET)

202475$2.99 Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$2.99
 
OP
OP
Mppp

Mppp

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 14, 2019
Messages
185
Reaction score
94
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
After many months of accumulating Black Friday (or similar) sale items I have finally taken my fish out of quarantine (30 days) and transferred them in my more than cycled display (2+ months). The plan is to go reef and soon as I have the supplements just haven't put them in tank yet. I also need to do some further research on seeding tank with copepods (wife wants mandarins).

I'd also like to thank forum member Xiaoxiy for his assistance to not only make the decision to buy this aquarium, but help me with technical questions!

Equipment:
-FijiCube 81 Gallon External Overflow 36x24x22.5 (12mm glass thickness-this is what sold me most on choosing Fijicube is the glass thickness offerings at great prices)
-FijiCube stand

-FijiCube 20 gallon sump (I know a lot of folks on site here are fans of their sumps and now I see why, great quality)
-FijiCube 5 gallon ATO and used Tunze 3155-As you can see last thing I need to set up.
-Cobalt C-Ray 200 Watt White (hard to find) light and silver arm mounting arm-Hard decision here after countless months of research I found a good article talking about par ratings and there are a few folks in forum that like them. $430 new off Ebay
-BRS 7 stage RODI Unit
-29 and 10 gallon quarantine tanks & 2 Whisper filters, 3 Hitop 100 Watt heaters ($13 a piece)
-2 Brute Trash cans for fresh and saltwater (I decided to go cheap on my mixing station as I don't mind lugging buckets and valves, piping, bulk heads, pumps money is better spent on fish and corals, but that said I admire some of your mixing stations I just needed to cut the most spending somewhere and this was it).
-Jebao DCP 3000 25 Watt 845 gph sump pump-Cheap and super quiet! $61
-Jebao OW-25 Wavemakers x 2-Cheap and whisper quiet as well! $61 also-This decision on wave makers took me forever and I read some good reviews on these lasting years, direction is adjustable and I mean how many of these can can kaput before I spend ridiculous amount of money for Quiet drives and other similarly priced wave makers (still may pony up for some one day, but these have been whisper quiet for months so not anytime soon)
-Reef Octopus Esscence 130-No opinion on this yet as I'm currently not running it really yet but purchased at a good Black Friday price and read some good reviews so hoping I chose wisely here?
-BRS 300 Watt titanium heater and controller (bought open box as they've been sold out for months otherwise). I'm a little iffy on this purchase thus far as temp has dropped up to 2 degrees F at times so I'm unsure after a few months of use if this was a good purchase.
-Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt-Read read and read on this one and although it's more expensive, but it mixes sooo easily without residue.
-CariSea Aragonite Sand (not live sand) - Bought way too much of this for my basically cube aquarium, but it's fine enough for fish to burrow in and not too fine to blow around
-Carib Sea Life Rock-Bought way too much of this as well probably using 20-25lbs and purchased 80lbs super cheap on Amazon sale just after X-Mas.
-Tank cycle products-Dr Tims One and Only Reef and Reef Vibrant

Fish!!!
All Aquacultured Fish from Live Aquaria-I could have spent easily half on wild caught fish, but I like the idea of hardier less aggressive captive bred reef safe fish.
-2 Ocellaris Clowns
-Yellow Tang
-Coral Beauty
-Orchid Dottyback
-Watchman Goby


Thanks for reading and objective feedback is encouraged!

thumbnail.jpeg thumbnail-16.jpeg thumbnail-15.jpeg thumbnail-14.jpeg thumbnail-13.jpeg thumbnail-12.jpeg thumbnail-11.jpeg thumbnail-10.jpeg thumbnail-9.jpeg thumbnail-8.jpeg thumbnail-7.jpeg thumbnail-6.jpeg thumbnail-3.jpeg thumbnail-2.jpeg thumbnail-5.jpeg thumbnail-4.jpeg
Updated photos (still struggle with taking photos )
 

Attachments

  • C8E3E2D6-D8E3-4925-BD17-1981FACDCA1D.jpeg
    C8E3E2D6-D8E3-4925-BD17-1981FACDCA1D.jpeg
    105.2 KB · Views: 55
  • 08820E89-174E-4B3B-B620-498FC5B74CDD.jpeg
    08820E89-174E-4B3B-B620-498FC5B74CDD.jpeg
    165.3 KB · Views: 71
  • 6D258C0A-4E76-49FA-AFE7-18215A62DE66.jpeg
    6D258C0A-4E76-49FA-AFE7-18215A62DE66.jpeg
    199 KB · Views: 59
  • 45527B9D-E280-4C7D-B144-5A6ECB0C39AA.jpeg
    45527B9D-E280-4C7D-B144-5A6ECB0C39AA.jpeg
    179.8 KB · Views: 51
  • F3AA8C74-84B2-4614-80AA-7E0792238791.jpeg
    F3AA8C74-84B2-4614-80AA-7E0792238791.jpeg
    174.9 KB · Views: 50
  • 8C78E4B1-564D-4962-8897-CB2705DA56C8.jpeg
    8C78E4B1-564D-4962-8897-CB2705DA56C8.jpeg
    165.5 KB · Views: 45
  • 9022E16C-48E6-43F6-9F0C-8382987F8E4E.jpeg
    9022E16C-48E6-43F6-9F0C-8382987F8E4E.jpeg
    197.9 KB · Views: 54
  • CCE41881-1FE6-443D-B4BF-53C15D61A965.jpeg
    CCE41881-1FE6-443D-B4BF-53C15D61A965.jpeg
    123.6 KB · Views: 56
  • 0C816068-7478-49F5-97FA-328199DDA159.jpeg
    0C816068-7478-49F5-97FA-328199DDA159.jpeg
    104.9 KB · Views: 55
  • 2BD2C580-5410-4C9F-8419-1B0FDC50E4A6.jpeg
    2BD2C580-5410-4C9F-8419-1B0FDC50E4A6.jpeg
    115.4 KB · Views: 58

Aquatic acrobat in your aquarium: Have you ever kept an eel?

  • I currently keep an eel in my tank.

    Votes: 26 14.1%
  • I have kept an eel in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 32 17.4%
  • I have not kept an eel in my tank, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 29 15.8%
  • I have no plans to keep an eel.

    Votes: 94 51.1%
  • Other.

    Votes: 3 1.6%
Back
Top