badmatt
New Member
Hello one and all, Welcome to Matts cube!
This will be my first salt tank I have every really set up. I have had lots of freshwater over the years... mainly discus. But i have decided to consolidate all my tanks (after my 150 Gallon discus display crashed) and just do a singular saltwater display for my living room in what I considered dead space.
I plan on having this as a mixed reef for the first little bit but will look into adding SPS at a later date to when I feel more comfortable with moving in that direction.
Tank: 50 Cube 24x24x20 Starfire front (Made by the Fish Gallery) DIY ABS overflow.
Stand: DIY baltic birch and purple heart and a lot of Formica.
Sump: DIY 1/4 Acrylic. Pretty basic. 20"x 18" x 16" Fairly large skimmer chamber.
Heater: Neotherm 200W
Skimmer: Vertex Omega 180i
Light: Radion XR30 Pro G4 with the RMS. Controled by Reeflink
Return pump: Sicce Syncra 3.5 (will be replaced later with an M1)
Water flow: MP40wQD Controled by Reeflink
Media Reactor: When I get around to it DIY
Controller: Will be a Neptune Systems Apex. I will add this around April.
Aquascape Materials
Caribsea Life rock
Caribsea Aragonite
So onto some pictures. I have been holding back making a build thread until I was comfortable with where I was at with the dry side.
I first built the sump based on me wanting a 50 gallon cube. I looked high and low for a solid direction on how to fabricate the sump I steeled on just giving the first chamber as much room so i could stuff as much as possible in to it.
The stand is pretty basic with Baltic Birch utilized. I later bonded Satin white Formica to all the exterior surfaces and trimmed the top to hide the 3/4" foam and 5mm Neoprene as this was a complete after thought and failure to plan a head on my end. The inside of the stand was also painted white with epoxy.
But this is whole system minus the door.... need to stop being lazy and hang it. Where the power bar is currently located is where the Apex bar will go.
I did the aquascape on the tank today, I am quite please to how it turned out. The Life rock is awesome stuff... and doesn't look TOO fake... the sand is just simple Aragonite... I tried to keep the scape as simple and clean as possible as I am trying to go with a minimalist style.
Under Coral Radiance setting pre programmed in the Radion at 25% intensity.
Under 5500K as my Pixel cannot mitigate the blue. At 25% intensity
From this point on when I am photographing the tank or whatever the inhabitants may be it will be with my DSLR. I have my 50 gallon water drum currently filling with RO/DI so I can mix some salt up this week and start the cycle.
Thanks for clicking on the thread and sifting through, I hope you enjoy this as much I do.
Matt
This will be my first salt tank I have every really set up. I have had lots of freshwater over the years... mainly discus. But i have decided to consolidate all my tanks (after my 150 Gallon discus display crashed) and just do a singular saltwater display for my living room in what I considered dead space.
I plan on having this as a mixed reef for the first little bit but will look into adding SPS at a later date to when I feel more comfortable with moving in that direction.
Tank: 50 Cube 24x24x20 Starfire front (Made by the Fish Gallery) DIY ABS overflow.
Stand: DIY baltic birch and purple heart and a lot of Formica.
Sump: DIY 1/4 Acrylic. Pretty basic. 20"x 18" x 16" Fairly large skimmer chamber.
Heater: Neotherm 200W
Skimmer: Vertex Omega 180i
Light: Radion XR30 Pro G4 with the RMS. Controled by Reeflink
Return pump: Sicce Syncra 3.5 (will be replaced later with an M1)
Water flow: MP40wQD Controled by Reeflink
Media Reactor: When I get around to it DIY
Controller: Will be a Neptune Systems Apex. I will add this around April.
Aquascape Materials
Caribsea Life rock
Caribsea Aragonite
So onto some pictures. I have been holding back making a build thread until I was comfortable with where I was at with the dry side.
I first built the sump based on me wanting a 50 gallon cube. I looked high and low for a solid direction on how to fabricate the sump I steeled on just giving the first chamber as much room so i could stuff as much as possible in to it.
The stand is pretty basic with Baltic Birch utilized. I later bonded Satin white Formica to all the exterior surfaces and trimmed the top to hide the 3/4" foam and 5mm Neoprene as this was a complete after thought and failure to plan a head on my end. The inside of the stand was also painted white with epoxy.
But this is whole system minus the door.... need to stop being lazy and hang it. Where the power bar is currently located is where the Apex bar will go.
I did the aquascape on the tank today, I am quite please to how it turned out. The Life rock is awesome stuff... and doesn't look TOO fake... the sand is just simple Aragonite... I tried to keep the scape as simple and clean as possible as I am trying to go with a minimalist style.
Under Coral Radiance setting pre programmed in the Radion at 25% intensity.
Under 5500K as my Pixel cannot mitigate the blue. At 25% intensity
From this point on when I am photographing the tank or whatever the inhabitants may be it will be with my DSLR. I have my 50 gallon water drum currently filling with RO/DI so I can mix some salt up this week and start the cycle.
Thanks for clicking on the thread and sifting through, I hope you enjoy this as much I do.
Matt
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