My 74 Gallon Cube Build. Retired Reefer back at it...

VelocityTech

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Where to start?
This thread will be on my current 74 gallon cube tank, 24x24x30H. We recently sold our last tank, which was a 180 gallon.
THe 180G was plumbed to the basement, around 500+ gallons total. So, quite the downgrade. I had so much stuff, i had to give most of it away!


//******* Updated Photos ***** --> Thread Continues Below. *//

10k filter - Photo 1 -.jpg
10k filter - Photo 1 3.jpg

corals.jpg

//**** END OF UPDATED PHOTOS. Back to original Thread ***

Why we decided to to leave the hobby temporarily. Two major reasons:
#1 Career 2.0: I have laid myself off from work, and decided on a career 2.0. Wanted a change of daily life, something i was more passionate about. So i recently started Flight Training to become a professional pilot.
#2 Our prized possession fish, named bubbles ( yellow tang ), passed away after almost 15 years. He was the only guy keeping us in the larger tanks as well. We decided to switch to a smaller cube, to re home our so called Collector Hybrid Clown pair, that we won from a raffle years ago. and a few others we distributed to friends, family and online marketplace..


The 74 Gallon Tank
We picked up the 24x24x30 on marketplace of course. Used. It came with 3 or 4 corals, and a DIY stand. Great price, great people, and a good deal.
This hit us right in the middle of moving ofcourse too! SO i had to set this up TWICE! and yes a 74 gallon cube is extremely heavy lol.
Getting rid of EVERYTHING, and starting over minimal is a huge undertaking! We had originally planned to leave the hobby completely So i could focus on flight training, and yet.. we ended up with the 74 gallon! Now i'm scrounging to find water test kits, get new ro filters, etc etc. It's been a journey to say the least!

1734213437788.png


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VelocityTech

VelocityTech

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Current Livestock:
Fire Shrimp
Coral Banded Shrimp
Pom Pom Crab
Blue Devils Damsel
Hybrid Pair of Clown
Another clown
Very Cool Blenny the kids called Grumpy
a VERY fat six line wrasse
a few different clean up crew mates: Crabs, Nassarius Snails, Astrea Snails, Turbos, a few hitch hikers i need to catch im sure.
Corals:
Hammer Purple Tips
Kenya Trees
I do believe one of them is a Colt though. not sure yet.
GSP green grass of course.
Favia Red and green
Some type of Echinophyllia or Chalice or something, not sure. Its Red, Green, etc.

Current Equipment

Tank:

74 Gallon Cube 24x24x30
Single Corner Overflow, Drilled for 1" and 3/4"

HammerHead Wooden Float Mag Scraper

Lighting:
VIPARSPECTRA 150 Watt

Wave Makers:
Jebao CrossFlow 150 ( Jebaos version of the GYRE )

Return Pump:
Hygger HG-915 3000 DC

Heater:
Fluval 300 watt titanium Heater
INKBIRD Heater controller with probe

Sump:
I do have a small sump, but i need to fix a crack first. It will house a small refugium area, filter sock, and return pump.


I had some live rock left over from my old build, and i put in a few bags of live sand from petco and online. I used Caribsea. I've always had success with that.
 

kevgib67

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Favia
1734215506418.png

Hammer Kenya
1734215557288.png

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1734215828696.png




Just setup.. still cooudy>....
1734215883870.png
It’s coming together! Welcome back and good luck with your new career! My best friend was a C-130 pilot for 20 years and now flies for Delta and loves it. I’m just a cross the border in the Youngstown.
 
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VelocityTech

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It’s coming together! Welcome back and good luck with your new career! My best friend was a C-130 pilot for 20 years and now flies for Delta and loves it. I’m just a cross the border in the Youngstown.
Thank you! And that is awesome! C130s are beautiful Planes, He was lucky to Captain one of those! And wow, Youngstown is not far at all. I posted a thread about Trying to ID one of these Zoas(R2R) or mushrooms. Not sure what to do with it, moving forward.
 

kevgib67

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Thank you! And that is awesome! C130s are beautiful Planes, He was lucky to Captain one of those! And wow, Youngstown is not far at all. I posted a thread about Trying to ID one of these Zoas(R2R) or mushrooms. Not sure what to do with it, moving forward.
He originally was stationed in Vienna Ohio and was promoted and sent to Atlanta. His kids wanted to move home so he finished his career in Pittsburgh. I addressed your zoa question on that thread. I going to post some corals I’m selling cheap and if your not interested no big deal. I often give gsp, monti cap and birds nest frags for free if you are ever interested ( currently no birdsnest frags available at this time but it explodes in growth).
 
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VelocityTech

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It's kind of a bitter sweet with this large cube. In some ways it feels like i'm completely starting over from scratch. Which i am kind of am. Except for some of the live rock, few fish. Everything else is new. I was going through my test kits, and all my Hanna checker reagents expired back in 2018/2019! lol. My large tank, went 4 years without a water change, and Coral, and fish grew large and fat happy.. So Doing water changes is a PITA I must say. lol Without having everything plumbed in, and just turning a few valves and adding salt it becomes a task.. Corals and fish seem to be happy.
 
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VelocityTech

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Here is a shot of the empty sump. Replaced the return line with black vinyl, and Loc-Line. Tank is looking great! Lights are out, so i will share a tank photo later. Noticed my salinity Refractometer was out of Spec, Calibrated, at im slowly bringing the 1.20 up to a 1.025/1.026.
 

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Gjedde

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Love the tall tank. I had a similar shape yet smaller tank years ago and have been considering something like this maybe a couple years down the road. How are those vipars on that deep a tank. I always mean to take a closer loom at them but dont know anyone local that has them.
 
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VelocityTech

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Here is a photo update. About Day 10. I am using the pro camera on the S24, with the 10k filter, which makes the blue lights, look white. So, that is the reason for the white wash color.



Kenya's will be replaced with other corals as the tank build proceeds on. The Zoas are still floating in the bucket, i will glue them to a rock, and place them in the sand soon. I still need to dig out the Coral Banded shrimp and relocate him before he starts attacking inverts.

10k filter - Photo 1 -.jpg

10k filter - Photo 1 2.jpg

10k filter - Photo 1 3.jpg


If you look near the top, you'll see a solo clown fish. I have two extremely fat and large clowns, that are complete jerks. And they won't let him on the rock work.
He does well defending himself but he still stays near the overflow.

So, I either get rid of the two paired jerkheads, or i trade him out. Unsure yet. I won those two Jerks together from a raffle back in 2019. They are massive 4".

They were supposedly some custom bred fancy named thing that i forget and frankly, I don't see. But i digress. They are so territorial when i'm cleaning the tank, i get constant head buts from the big female. Pucker factor is 10/10 when your not paying attention.
I guess i will hookup the tank automation/Apex gear that's been sitting in a bin for a few years.
 
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VelocityTech

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Love the tall tank. I had a similar shape yet smaller tank years ago and have been considering something like this maybe a couple years down the road. How are those vipars on that deep a tank. I always mean to take a closer loom at them but dont know anyone local that has them.
I have had many, MANY black box LED's, and These are by far some of the best i have used. I have not measured PAR, but Even the favia at the bottom will be happy it seems. I would like to add a custom diffuser, and a custom LED PWM controller to put the lighting on a ramp up and down schedule.

Something like this allows it to be controlled from your Apex: Steves LED Controller Interface 0-10v PWM
 

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Maybe on our next build ill give em a try. I like my noops but they are a bit tough to program with the app.
 
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VelocityTech

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Maybe on our next build ill give em a try. I like my noops but they are a bit tough to program with the app.
The steve's LED mod, is extremely easy to do. If you have an apex, that can be a game changer, on full light control. I would I have had a few of these lights over the past few years since they made their most recent release/update. Much better colors, and growth
 
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VelocityTech

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On another note. I do believe i will be having to remove one of these clowns sooner than later. I scooped the little guy out of the overflow earlier today, and sometime later, heard splashing, the middle sized clown, was severely chasing him around, knocking him up out of the water. Had to shut the lights out.
 
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VelocityTech

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They kept chasing him in the dark as well. Looked like a pack of piranhas, circling. the little guy ended up in the overflow. Waiting for a new 12v buck power supply to come in the mail to fix this broken Apex Neptune EB832. This will be the 2nd power strip from apex specifically the 832, that has failed me in this way.
(You can see the 12v buck converter with the yellow sticker below )
Apex=Failed-eb8322.jpg

Another View
Apex=Failed-eb832.jpg


Hammer Doing well.
hammer coral.jpg



corals.jpg
This is the one the kiddos call Grumps.
grumps.jpg
This is the almost beat up, clown fish. Now in the overflow.


clown-overflow.jpg
Agh, THese photos are embarrassing lol. Here is the beginning stages of the controller areas. I plan to frame this out just over the thickest part, and covering with a tinted glass door.( Framed out maybe 3"). Far from done.
apex-mess.jpg

Another embarrassing Photo. Here is the sump coming along. Building a probe holder, to hold the multiple temp probes, ph, salinity, orp, etc. Top off area. I am working with VERY limited space.
sump-probes-install.jpg

Here is a photo of the Hybrid Paired Clowns. That female is huge, 4" and very meaty!

hybrid_clowns.jpg

I have been trying to decide if I want to move forward with an Algae Scrubber, Chaeto, and or a small skimmer.

Keep in mind, this stand is 24x24. I have around 20" of height under there. So that leaves even smaller area for the sump. I'm wondering if the best bang for the space, would be an algae scrubber.


I am feeding pretty heavy. Phosphates are near zero. 0.02. Nitrates are 9. Waiting on the ph probes, and calcium reagent. According the API Calcium is 420, and ph is 7.9/8.0.

I would love to have a calcium reactor in there, but being there is zero real estate, maybe i will design a KALK reactor. I would much prefer a kalk reactor over putting kalk in the ATO water.


I have had the same 7" filter sock for the last 10 days. Maybe i will swap it out, although i would prefer to keep my nitrates around 8-9, hopefully there is not a huge drop with a new sock so soon.
 
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VelocityTech

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Thanks CLR2 for the reactor. Put together a diy algae reactor. Plan is to put some Chaeto on their. When I get a re supply. For now.. ugly brown can grow. Looks like some nasty algae. I have also been letting algae grow in the sump and scooping it. Since I started, nitrates dropped below 5 from the previous 13.

All other parameters are good.

1000017690.jpg


1000017687.jpg


1000017686.jpg
 
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VelocityTech

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The hardest part of this cube is dealing with this TINY sump! IM used to lots of space.

I switched gear's, and ended up installing the Vertex 180i. Good skimmer, but man, do i miss my DC Regal dead silent.

Imagine, fitting a Vertex Omega 180i into this size sump:

Clean SUmp.jpg

Sump Empty:
empty sump.jpg


Vertex 180i stuffed into Sump:
Vertex in tiny sump.jpg


Food for thought, i had to align the skimmer between the 2x4 as it would not fit below them, with only a 1/2" of space ontop.

Ordered some acrylic in. PLan to rebuild the sump.

I have an auto fleece roller, and there is no where to fit it!

Whenever i disassembled the sump, to adjust for the vertex fit.. wow, i cannot believe how many pods we're in their! Every surface, and even the water column was covered.
 
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