Not so 60CubeReefer's Red Sea Reefer 750XXL

60CubeReefer · May 5, 2018

And so it begins...

Coming from a 2' x 2' cube aquarium, decided to pull the trigger on the upgrade to the 750.

Still waiting on a sump (TRS44) and ATO (20ish gallons) from Crystal Reef Aquatics. ATO will be custom, to fit in the chiller chamber of the cabinet. Also will be ordering a lid from Octo Aquatics.

dbl · May 6, 2018

And a Happy Cinco de Mayo To you!!! That's quite a delivery right there!

60CubeReefer · May 8, 2018

The excitement has waned. I was trying to build the stand last night, but it looks like there are a bunch of pieces that are under the tank, meaning the tank needs to be moved twice, once to get the pieces out from under it so the stand can be built, and again to move the tank to the final position on top of the stand. Ugh, what a mess.

60CubeReefer · May 12, 2018

Spent some time cleaning up the living room where the tank is going to go. Went over to Harbor Freight and bought a few suction cups and moving dollies.

Gardeners came by this morning and I had them help me move the tank onto the dollies. Spent the last few hours putting the stand together.

60CubeReefer · May 15, 2018

Hired movers over the weekend to move the tank from the garage into the house. Took a while, but found a company that would be willing to do two guys for one hour, instead of 4 guys and a 2 hour minimum. Tank is now happily sitting on the stand in the living room. Spent some time leveling the stand (those little feet take a surprisingly long time to adjust!), and now working on getting it filled with RODI water for the leak test.

Will be a few more days yet before it is completely full with fresh water. Once that's done, I'll throw in a couple heaters and a powerhead to start mixing in salt. Still waiting on the sump and ATO from Crystal Reef. Once those are in, I'll hang the cabinet doors (provided I figure out how the hinges attach!).

60CubeReefer · May 16, 2018

Tank is about 3/4 way full. Been curing some Fiji rock for about a month now.

Picked up a Honda generator, and a tri-fuel kit (so I can run natural gas + propane).

60CubeReefer · May 22, 2018

Not much happening this week. Reached out to Julian at Crystal Reef and he said the sump and ATO would be shipping late this week or early next. Ordered salt, will probably move fish I have in QT into the tank over the long weekend, with or without the sump in place.

60CubeReefer · May 28, 2018

Did some work on the tank over the long weekend.

Adding salt.

Got the rock that was curing into the tank, as well as some of the rock from the cube that I'm taking down. Spent about 4 hours picking off vermetid snails on the existing rock--if anyone has a better idea of getting rid of these jerks (rather than sitting there with forceps manually crushing each shell) I'm all ears.

Also, have a gem tang, leopard wrasse, blue star leopard wrasse, and flame wrasse in QT.

Still need to get measurements for a tank cover, add sand, and figure out plumbing for this thing. Want to switch over to 1" all around, haven't done enough research into what I need to get. Custom sump and ATO should be shipping sometime this week; I'm currently running the tank without a sump. Hope I don't run into any issues.

PerplexyHexy · May 28, 2018

60CubeReefer said:
Did some work on the tank over the long weekend.

Adding salt.

Got the rock that was curing into the tank, as well as some of the rock from the cube that I'm taking down. Spent about 4 hours picking off vermetid snails on the existing rock--if anyone has a better idea of getting rid of these ******** (rather than sitting there with forceps manually crushing each shell) I'm all ears.

Also, have a gem tang, leopard wrasse, blue star leopard wrasse, and flame wrasse in QT.

Still need to get measurements for a tank cover, add sand, and figure out plumbing for this thing. Want to switch over to 1" all around, haven't done enough research into what I need to get. Custom sump and ATO should be shipping sometime this week; I'm currently running the tank without a sump. Hope I don't run into any issues.

Tank is coming along pretty good eh?

Loved the long weekend... I finally got around to cleaning my sump... been over a year... yuck!

60CubeReefer · Jun 3, 2018

Not much going on this weekend. Spent a few hours scouring the rock for vermetid snails--I'm determined to get rid of them once and for all. Pulled each piece out and went over every surface with the forceps (not fun with Pukani). Been pulling it every couple days to try and get them all.

Also finalized my tank lid dimensions, being built by Matt at Octo Aquatics. He did the lid on my cube and am having him do the one for the 750 as well.

60CubeReefer · Jun 8, 2018

Quick update: Have continued to pull each piece of rock to inspect and remove vermetid snails. The ones I am seeing now are very tiny, and much smaller in number. My hope is that I will at some point be able to stop doing this and not have them repopulate my tank.

Received the sump and ATO reservoir. Doesn't look like any damage in shipping, will do a leak test over the weekend. Also took advantage of the eBay coupon this week and ordered a Nyos 220 skimmer. Will be arriving next week.

Still left to do:
Organize all the cabling
Install plumbing for sump

I purchased 5 new fish, three of them didn't make it (flame wrasse, leopard wrasse, radiant wrasse), but the remaining two (gem tang, blue star leopard wrasse) are still in QT. The gem tang gave me a scare this week; found it breathing heavily and laying on its side the other morning. Might have been the Prazipro depleting O2. Did an emergency water change, dumped a bunch of antibiotics in the water, and a couple days later, does not seem worse for wear. Time will tell.

60CubeReefer · Aug 7, 2018

Okay, long overdue update. First, current full tank shot:

Gem tang safely in the tank, along with leopard, blue star, flame, and radiant wrasses. Also, first acros are in. Was acclimating on the bottom for about 3 weeks, just moved them up and glued to the rock yesterday.

Octo Lid installed. Probably going to need to order a new one if I decide to go with 4 radions.

Nyos 220 skimmer pulling thick nasty skimmate.

Janky plumbing. Should have had the sump reversed, with the return on the left instead of the right.

Still left to do: Trying to decide if I want to keep the tank bare bottom, or if I should put in 1" of sand. Also, gave up on pulling the rock to manually kill vermetid snails. Instead, I've been dosing chalk twice a day. Copperband butterfly also in QT right now, hopefully will develop a taste for the snails.

Have fish and coral orders coming in this Saturday. Ordered a few frags from WWC, as well as a rhomboid and potter's wrasse from LA. Been trying to track down a female lineatus wrasse without any luck.

dbl · Aug 7, 2018

Looking good...congrats on the progress.

tautog83 · Aug 7, 2018

How many lbs of rock is that

60CubeReefer · Aug 7, 2018

About 25 lbs of pukani, and 50 lbs of Fiji, IIRC.

tautog83 · Aug 7, 2018

Hrm I got 50 pukani and 60 real reef , I'm going to need more , grr. Iirc? Im.so close to getting mine going , it's exciting . Awesome build though love the fish selection

60CubeReefer · Aug 8, 2018

Thanks! What size tank do you have?

tautog83 · Aug 8, 2018

Same 750 xxl , all equipment ready just need to get my utility sink installed and mixing station set up. I like how they notched out the top of overflow box for the light mount

60CubeReefer · Aug 8, 2018

50 lbs of pukani is a lot, are you going for a wall effect?

Are you sticking with the stock sump + plumbing?

tautog83 · Aug 8, 2018

Nah just 2 big islands , belueve it or not one piece of rock is 20 plus lbs and I like that . Tanks in past had smaller pieces and in end its like a pile of rubble that's ready to get messed up . So that one rock is just a good base . I want the rock to come at least halfway up to the top . Yea using stock sump just switched 2 of the socks to media cups, have random flow generators