Mini Reef 25g cube

[AsperUsual]

I've recently returned to reef keeping and picked up this 45cm cube. I have always loved the proportions of cube tanks so I was happy to find this one, cycled and running with no livestock, for a steal, like stupid cheap. It came with all of the original equipment that is pretty dodgy but usable while I work out what exactly I'm going to do. The Aqua one g216 skimmer, by all reports makes a better door stop, the return pump is adequate but noisy, the light sucked so I immediately replaced it with an Aipai A7 and, the drain pipe is noisy top and bottom. I love a bit of diy and tinkering so I dont see problems I see projects. All in all I love it!

The fella I bought it from also threw in some dry rock, zksj mini slim wave maker (I bought another matching one for better flow) and a small 5g AIO pico with air driven skimmer (Ill see what happens with this, probably nothing.)

I'd like to have an anemone or two, and a pair of clowns and then work out what else is compatible. Stocking may take a while as my nearest marine LFS is a 7 hour drive away and regional shipping out here is difficult at best.

 

[tzabor10]

Great start.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Wow, I could not imagine being 7 hours away from a LFS! Good luck to your tank!

 

[kevgib67]

Sounds like you are off to a great start and got a great deal!

 

[ozreef88]

Good luck! I also agree with you on the cube dimensions being aesthetically pleasing.

 

[AsperUsual]

Wow, I could not imagine being 7 hours away from a LFS! Good luck to your tank!

It has made me plan better, build redundancy, and slow my decision making down. Not a completely a bad thing! The first mushrooms made the trip (mostly) without incident and are doing alright.

Great start.

Sounds like you are off to a great start and got a great deal!

Thanks! I got a bargain which made this an easy decision to start back up in reefing.

Good luck! I also agree with you on the cube dimensions being aesthetically pleasing.

Thanks, I think I need to play with the scape a bit because of the odd shape overflow box but that might just be fixed with coral placement too.

A bit of tinkering with the tank today. Added an air inlet tube in to drain pipe which has helped with the gurgle/flushing noise. Im thinking about using the return pipe for a full syphon drain and running a return over the back glass. I'd rather not have the exposed pipework on the return but I dont like the sound of the drain so ill look at the options for a good looking return pipe and then figure out how to cover the hole in the return box.

I added a rock with 3 mushrooms on it. 2 of them were semi detached when I bought them. 1 subsequently went for a swim and settled on the sand under an overhanging rock, are they ok on the sand bed?

Nice top down view. I love looking into my little rock pool, can't wait for it to fill out...

How would you squeeze a refugium into this sump/cabinet?

Any advice on keeping anemones would be appreciated. Planning for thus to be a specific BTA and/or RFA tank. What goes well with nems as far as types of coral or macro algae? I want to come at this slowly so lots of time for research yet.

Thanks for reading.
Jack.

 

[Bck2hobby]

great score.
off to a good start.