SCA 50 cube build

[Mr pink]

so I decided to get back into the hobby after a 5 year hiatus. I decided to go small and ease back in. I started digging through the totes of all the equipment that I’ve stock piled and pulled out some good stuff. I started it last week and it is now cycling.

SCA 50g Rimless cube with herbie overflow
SCA 17g glass sump
Waveline dc12000 return pump (running at 1/4 power lol)
AI Hydra 26 hd
Sca 301 skimmer
Apex classic
Tunze osmolator

Eventually I will add in a kalk and calcium reactor

 

[Mr pink]

so I decided to get back into the hobby after a 5 year hiatus. I decided to go small and ease back in. I started digging through the totes of all the equipment that I’ve stock piled and pulled out some good stuff. I started it last week and it is now cycling.

SCA 50g Rimless cube with herbie overflow
SCA 17g glass sump
Waveline dc12000 return pump (running at 1/4 power lol)
AI Hydra 26 hd
Sca 301 skimmer
Apex classic
Tunze osmolator

Eventually I will add in a kall and calcium reactor

 

[Mr pink]

Got my #apex programmed and mounted today. Second slide is my water change station. 90 gallons of water ready to go. 30 RO, 30 salt, and 30 ATO. not as neat as I want it, but it’s functional. Cycle is going well. Ammonia is just about zero, now just waiting on nitrites to fall. #reef #sca50cube #spstank

 

[Mr pink]

 

[Mr pink]

Installed a nest cam today so I can watch from work

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Following along!!

 

[Mr pink]

I added a wyze cam in my sump area so I can keep an eye on things while I’m away. A wyze cam is 25 bucks and the video is great quality. Can’t beat it.

The tank finished cycling last week and I added my first fish and a couple cleaner shrimp. Water parameters are holding steady and everyone is happy. I have been doing a 5 gallon water change twice a week just to be on the safe side. With my set up a a 5 gallon water change takes about 60 seconds to complete.

 

[mattzang]

following along, i have the same tank so i'm curious to see what you do with it. already jelly of your water change setup. i have to do it the old school way with buckets and it suckssssssssss lol

love the midas blenny!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Beautiful Midas Blenny! The dog is cute too watching the shrimp.

 

[Zakery Murray]

Pull out some great stuff... Poof ai hydra 26hd has appeared in my item slot XD, what type of corals you going for?

 

[Mr pink]

Pull out some great stuff... Poof ai hydra 26hd has appeared in my item slot XD, what type of corals you going for?

This is going to be sps only. I’ll see how the ai does. If it comes to it I’ll add a t5 retro kit.

 

[Mr pink]

Beautiful Midas Blenny! The dog is cute too watching the shrimp.

Haha thanks. I think he’s worried that they’re drowning.

 

[Mr pink]

following along, i have the same tank so i'm curious to see what you do with it. already jelly of your water change setup. i have to do it the old school way with buckets and it suckssssssssss lol

love the midas blenny!

Thanks! I’m excited to see what I do with it too lol. Can’t wait to start adding some coral. Post a pic of yours.

 

[mattzang]

Thanks! I’m excited to see what I do with it too lol. Can’t wait to start adding some coral. Post a pic of yours.

sorry bad iphone no filter pics. i bought that shelf rock and it's just way too big for the tank lol, your scape looks way better. i do have hopes i can eventually get one of those fathead dendro corals and put it in one or some of the shaded areas, might be cool.

i'm curious what you think about flow in the tank, do you think i should get maybe one of those icecap 1ks for cross flow? i'm testing out that green digi on the top of the rock and pointed the powerhead on the right at it for more flow, but thinking if i want to do more sps i probably need to increase the flow across the top of the rocks

and also, since my female clown likes to jump into the overflow, it gave me an idea of putting some marinepure in there.. i put a snail back there because that thing grows a lot of algae, just thinking it might alleviate some of what i have down in the sump.

 

[Mr pink]

sorry bad iphone no filter pics. i bought that shelf rock and it's just way too big for the tank lol, your scape looks way better. i do have hopes i can eventually get one of those fathead dendro corals and put it in one or some of the shaded areas, might be cool.

i'm curious what you think about flow in the tank, do you think i should get maybe one of those icecap 1ks for cross flow? i'm testing out that green digi on the top of the rock and pointed the powerhead on the right at it for more flow, but thinking if i want to do more sps i probably need to increase the flow across the top of the rocks

and also, since my female clown likes to jump into the overflow, it gave me an idea of putting some marinepure in there.. i put a snail back there because that thing grows a lot of algae, just thinking it might alleviate some of what i have down in the sump.

That rock looks fine. You have a lot of LPS so you want moderate flow not too heavy. Think coverage more than power with lps. Enough flow to keep the nutrients moving but not blowing the tentacles flat. Balancing lps and sps flow can be tricky. I don’t have any experience with the icecaps. I have an mp40 on mine and once my corals start growing in I’m going to add a second. I thought about two mp10s but at 10mm we are at the limit of glass thickness for an mp10 plus the stream of an mp40 is wider. Keep in mind mine will be all sps and require a lot more flow.

I lost a pair of hooded wrasses in the overflow of my old setup. About 360 bucks worth of fish so make sure you are running a strainer on your drains! Especially with that snail in there.

I’m planning on making a cover for my overflow. one to hide the ugly white return tee and secondly to protect fish from jumping in there. Your fish stock looks a lot like what I’m planning.

Midas
Black storm clown pair
Helfrichi fire fish
Melanarus wrasse

Do you have a build thread going? Are you on the sca Fb group? There’s a bunch of 50 cubes on there

 

[mattzang]

That rock looks fine. You have a lot of LPS so you want moderate flow not too heavy. Think coverage more than power with lps. Enough flow to keep the nutrients moving but not blowing the tentacles flat. Balancing lps and sps flow can be tricky. I don’t have any experience with the icecaps. I have an mp40 on mine and once my corals start growing in I’m going to add a second. I thought about two mp10s but at 10mm we are at the limit of glass thickness for an mp10 plus the stream of an mp40 is wider. Keep in mind mine will be all a ps and require a lot more flow.

I lost a pair of hooded wrasses in the overflow of my old setup. About 360 bucks worth of fish so make sure you are running a strainer on your drains! Especially with that snail in there.

I’m planning on making a cover for my overflow. one to hide the ugly white return tee and secondly to protect fish from jumping in there. Your fish stock looks a lot like what I’m planning.

Midas
Black storm clown pair
Helfrichi fire fish
Melanarus wrasse

Do you have a build thread going? Are you on the sca Fb group? There’s a bunch of 50 cubes on there

Yeah it has been difficult to find the right powerheads for the LPS, the two I have are 500 GPH~ and seem to work well from the back. They seem to keep the euphyllia happy with some flow, but not blowing them sideways. That torch I have is insane it's so long, I had that blue green sympodium that's now on the left side above it and it gave it some good stings one day. My one mistake has been buying sicce powerheads as they all seem to come in gray. The one I have on the right which I feel blends in better is one of the tunze 6015s I think. Awesome pump.

I've lost my previous SPS attempts likely due more to new tank issues, uneven nutrient levels, things like that. Hoping I can keep this one going, my tank has been going for 8-9 months now, plus like 3-4 months my rock was in a previous tank. The vortechs are obviously super nice, but too expensive for my tastes. The icecaps are gyres so seems like they might add a nice wavemaker wide flow deal to the tank. The other I have pondered is the reefbreeders RPM, but for the cube and wide flow I'm thinking icecap will be the ticket.

I have a screen top on my tank, but with how the overflow is there's that gap and apparently my female clown enjoys taking a trip back there. I do have a strainer so she can't adventure further. I thought about making another screen for the overflow, but I wonder if she'd just wind up stuck on top of it, so catching her out of the overflow seems like the safer solution. Oddly she's the only one that has attempted jumping. And totally agree with the white piping, I should've just went and bought some black piping, but the plumbing part of it was over my head to start off with. I bought an extra tall stand so even with me being 6'4 I can't see into the overflow too easily, so that has been nice.

I went a little overboard on the old stocking.. lol. I have: 2 regular ocellaris, 1 red line wrasse h. biocellatus, 1 yellow wrasse h. chrysus, 1 bangaii cardinal, 1 orchid dottyback, 1 midas blenny, 1 lyretail anthias, and 1 springer damsel. I really like my stock and my tank looks busy, but bioload is a bit large. Aggression wise everyone seems cool with each other and I haven't added any fish in like 3 months. I was hoping upgrading to the aquamaxx FC80 skimmer would help me out, but honestly I'm not sure it does a better job than the stock SCA skimmer did. Are you going to do a refugium in that middle chamber of the sump? That's what I've done along with a tupperware of miracle mud. Really wish that section could've been bigger, but something had to give to get the thing under the stand heh.

Nah I didn't do a build thread. My ATO container casually sitting in a converted trashcan next to the tank and a mess of wiring wouldn't be pleasing to the eye :D. Hoping to find a nice end table or something to fit over the ATO and then organize my powerstrips/controllers onto that and then maybe.

I am in the sca group on facebook, along with a bunch of others. I don't really post in there, though. This site is amazing for basically any topic so this is my go to resource.

 

[Mr pink]

Yeah it has been difficult to find the right powerheads for the LPS, the two I have are 500 GPH~ and seem to work well from the back. They seem to keep the euphyllia happy with some flow, but not blowing them sideways. That torch I have is insane it's so long, I had that blue green sympodium that's now on the left side above it and it gave it some good stings one day. My one mistake has been buying sicce powerheads as they all seem to come in gray. The one I have on the right which I feel blends in better is one of the tunze 6015s I think. Awesome pump.

I've lost my previous SPS attempts likely due more to new tank issues, uneven nutrient levels, things like that. Hoping I can keep this one going, my tank has been going for 8-9 months now, plus like 3-4 months my rock was in a previous tank. The vortechs are obviously super nice, but too expensive for my tastes. The icecaps are gyres so seems like they might add a nice wavemaker wide flow deal to the tank. The other I have pondered is the reefbreeders RPM, but for the cube and wide flow I'm thinking icecap will be the ticket.

I have a screen top on my tank, but with how the overflow is there's that gap and apparently my female clown enjoys taking a trip back there. I do have a strainer so she can't adventure further. I thought about making another screen for the overflow, but I wonder if she'd just wind up stuck on top of it, so catching her out of the overflow seems like the safer solution. Oddly she's the only one that has attempted jumping. And totally agree with the white piping, I should've just went and bought some black piping, but the plumbing part of it was over my head to start off with. I bought an extra tall stand so even with me being 6'4 I can't see into the overflow too easily, so that has been nice.

I went a little overboard on the old stocking.. lol. I have: 2 regular ocellaris, 1 red line wrasse h. biocellatus, 1 yellow wrasse h. chrysus, 1 bangaii cardinal, 1 orchid dottyback, 1 midas blenny, 1 lyretail anthias, and 1 springer damsel. I really like my stock and my tank looks busy, but bioload is a bit large. Aggression wise everyone seems cool with each other and I haven't added any fish in like 3 months. I was hoping upgrading to the aquamaxx FC80 skimmer would help me out, but honestly I'm not sure it does a better job than the stock SCA skimmer did. Are you going to do a refugium in that middle chamber of the sump? That's what I've done along with a tupperware of miracle mud. Really wish that section could've been bigger, but something had to give to get the thing under the stand heh.

Nah I didn't do a build thread. My ATO container casually sitting in a converted trashcan next to the tank and a mess of wiring wouldn't be pleasing to the eye :D. Hoping to find a nice end table or something to fit over the ATO and then organize my powerstrips/controllers onto that and then maybe.

I am in the sca group on facebook, along with a bunch of others. I don't really post in there, though. This site is amazing for basically any topic so this is my go to resource.

I actually don’t feel like the sca 301 will do enough. So I did order a new skimmer. Space is limited so I Went with the RO essence 130. It has some really good reviews and seems to pack a punch for a skimmer with such a small foot print.

Yes I have a fuge set up in mine with some marine pure cubes and chaeto. I got a twist in led that seems to be kicking butt. It’s basically the same led as the kessil grow light but only 50 bucks.

 

[Mr pink]

This is the light it puts out

 

[mattzang]

I actually don’t feel like the sca 301 will do enough. So I did order a new skimmer. Space is limited so I Went with the RO essence 130. It has some really good reviews and seems to pack a punch for a skimmer with such a small foot print.

Yes I have a fuge set up in mine with some marine pure cubes and chaeto. I got a twist in led that seems to be kicking butt. It’s basically the same led as the kessil grow light but only 50 bucks.

that's probably a good choice. I didn't really know which one would be best between the bubble magus, aquamaxx, and reef octopus. Went with the cheapest. It's probably fine, I just don't know what I'm doing. I liked the simplicity of the stock SCA one, only one knob to twist to tune lol. the 8 x 8 area was kind of limiting especially if you wanted to oversize it.

I upgraded my fuge light recently to a plain white one and it seems to be growing chaeto pretty well. I found a tiny little powerhead that I need to install hopefully to get the chaeto to tumble a bit. Problem being, now I'm seeing algae issues all over the sump and protein skimmer ;Rage;Rage;Rage;Rage. spread probably too wide. may I ask where you got your light and lamp? I went to home depot and they only had these giant metal ones and a large plastic one. what you have is really what i was looking for!

 

[Mr pink]

I have always used a twist PC light to grow chaeto. But brs put out a pretty good video showing the difference of quality and quantity of chaeto growth between each type of light. They all grow it, but with the limited space I wanted to have as much nutrient export as possible without spending 250 bucks on a kessil.

I got my light on amazon.

KINGBO Gooseneck Clamp Clip... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072N2TBMN?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

150W LED Grow Light Blub Full... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J6B3J4R?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share