My 45g Cube one year in the making

mnat

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,287
Reaction score
88
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I had a huge 17 page long thread on my local board showing the whole build process, but it was wiped out when our server host vanished into thin air in the middle of the night. I figured I should have this on 2 sites in case this ever happens again.

We moved into our apartment July 1st of 2010 and setup the tank new then, so this tank is almost exactly one year old. The tank is a standard 45g cube not drilled and standard tank.

Equipment:
Aqua C remora HOB skimmer
CPR HOB fuge
Aquatinics TX5 5 bulb t5 (bulbs back to front ATI blue+, ATI aquablue, ATI purple, Ati aquablue, ATI blue+)
MP40 (turned down obviously) was put in to replace mp20
BRS Dual reactor (added down the line) running rox carbon and BRS GFO pellets
Marine magic dual doser (added down the line) dosing alk 8.3 an calcion both from Brightwell

Live rock was all cycled and added from our 20g tank so it is now three years old. Clean up crew is a motley assortment of nassarius snails, chestnut nassarius snails (big suckers), ceriths, nerites, trochus, blue legged hermits and scarlet hermits. There are also some emerald crabs running around in there to help combat our fight with bubble algae. They will be removed when this tank is moved hopefully shortly.

Corals: From every category, LPS, SPS, zoas, and NPS. Honestly too many to list out as many of you know and will see in the pictures. SPS is probably at least 50% of the tank and doing well.

Fish: My wife keeps a detailed spreadsheet of every fish and coral purchase so these dates are pretty accurate:
(None of these guys are over 2 inches)
Pair of spawning mandarins (trained onto frozen for 2 years plus)
Pair of picasso clowns (female came to live with us in late 2008, male in October 2009)
Four barnacle blennies (April 2011)
Pair of bangaii cardinals (tank raised we got them as babies in January I think)
Sunburst (spring 2010)
Helfrichi Firefish (fall 2010)
ORA gold assesor basslet (September 2009)
Yasha goby (march 2010)
ORA neon goby
 
OP
OP
M

mnat

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,287
Reaction score
88
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
As I mentioned this tank was stocked from our 20g and 30g tanks. When we moved everything went into a rubbermaid for 2 days while we setup the tank. We added the cycled LR and poured in some Dr. Tims and viola is was stocking time.

45fts.jpg
45cfts.jpg

45center.jpg

45leftside.jpg


So I am kind of addicted to frags as you will find out. These were all the frags from our 30g and 20g moved into here. Some of these frags were moved back into the 30g (also a cube) when that was ready to go.
45fof.jpg

45fof3.jpg

45fof2.jpg

45fof1.jpg
 
OP
OP
M

mnat

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,287
Reaction score
88
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
All of these pics were taken with a cell phone. I did not buy a camera until much later and you will see the quality spike when I get started with those. Here are some pictures of the early frags.
45pdng.jpg
45purplehornets.jpg

45redhornets.jpg

45sps.jpg

45hulkchalice.jpg

45chalices2.jpg

45chalices.jpg


The tank looks a little more organized at this point:
45ftscu.jpg
 
OP
OP
M

mnat

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,287
Reaction score
88
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Just some more random shots as we progress with a big of growth:
zoa5.jpg

zoa1.jpg

hulkchalice.jpg

45organgejawbreakers.jpg

chalice4cw.jpg

45acan-1.jpg

cornbread.jpg

jan1ctw.jpg
 
OP
OP
M

mnat

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,287
Reaction score
88
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
1045topacro.jpg

My wife loves her Christmas tree worms
1045christmas.jpg

1045christmastreeworms.jpg

This is about the time I got the camera so picture quality should be better
DSC_0056.jpg

DSC_0057.jpg

DSC_0005.jpg

DSC_0077.jpg

DSC_0153.jpg
 
OP
OP
M

mnat

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,287
Reaction score
88
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yes I have some updated pictures. The orginal 45g cube was broken down and sold so I could get another one that was drilled and actually run a sump for the first time. For all of those people out there that love full reefs you will enjoy this:

DSC_2259.jpg
 

bige

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
Messages
1,232
Reaction score
14
Location
austin
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Looks really good. That spiral coral is really cool. I didn't know they were nps.
 
OP
OP
M

mnat

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,287
Reaction score
88
Location
New Jersey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thank you all.

The spiralis was moved into the 57g and it is doing incredible in there.
 

When to mix up fish meal: When was the last time you tried a different brand of food for your reef?

  • I regularly change the food that I feed to the tank.

    Votes: 39 24.1%
  • I occasionally change the food that I feed to the tank.

    Votes: 55 34.0%
  • I rarely change the food that I feed to the tank.

    Votes: 49 30.2%
  • I never change the food that I feed to the tank.

    Votes: 15 9.3%
  • Other.

    Votes: 4 2.5%
Back
Top