surfn's 50g cube tank

[surfn]

i have been in the building stage on this for a while.

at first, i wanted to do 2 tanks, each a 30g cube. one for sps, the other for zoas/lps.

here is the work on the stand

the trim work took a while, but came out very nicely.

and here is the 30g cube tank i was going to originally put on the stand.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i186/hokieatrain7/50g cube tank build/stand.jpg

 

[surfn]

well, the paint job didnt come out as desireable as i wanted it to. i put down a white primer coat on everything. then put down a black coat of latex paint on the outside.

after letting it dry for several weeks, i decided to put the 30g cube on the stand to see how it looked. when i went to take the tank off the stand, one corner stuck to the paint (actually peeled the paint off a little bit), which surprised me and i lost my grip and dropped the tank on the stand, which broke the glass in one corner. DOH!

after that, i was pretty ticked with going to a glass tank that wasn't that big, yet not being able to move it cuz its so freakin heavy.

since i built my stand 24"x24", i decided to take advantage of that and have an acrylic tank built to fit those demensions.

the tanks final size ended up being 24"x24"x20", about 50g. i even encorporated an external overflow return. it took a while to get the plans drawn up and finalized, and i had my LFS guy build it.

i just brought it home today, and i'm very impressed. its still a little dirty, and a little bit of glue residue left in the corners.....but no big deal IMO.

i figure the reason why the paint still felt sticky (even to this day), and peals somewhat, is that it must have been too humid outside when i painted it. so i put down a layer of polyurathane over the black paint which looks awesome.

if i had it to do over again, i think i would have just stained the entire stand in a black stain, used several coats, then used polyurathane in several coats. i'm not too wild about this latex paint, goes on way too thick.

here is the external overflow in the back of the tank. its exactly what i wanted. i wanted it clear on the sides so i could see in.

 

[surfn]

ROUNDED AND POLISHED CORNERS!!

 

[Kigs!]

I love cube tanks... that's my hope for a future upgrade. This is goin to be an exciting build thread Al. good luck! should you really be making another tank before you move?

 

[surfn]

Who makes that size tank?

30g cubes are made by oceanic, you can find them at petsmart or petco marked down to $90 if you are lucky to find an old black model.

i think they only make them in oak now, and cost around $200.

 

[surfn]

I love cube tanks... that's my hope for a future upgrade. This is goin to be an exciting build thread Al. good luck! should you really be making another tank before you move?

well, the plan is i'm going to have this one all set up (plumbing/lighting etc). then move it to my new place dry.

THEN move the contents of my current tanks all into this one at my new place.

i'm done with having more than 1 tank, its a PITA IMO to feed both of them, get seperate lighting for both etc.

maybe if i was settled down into a house and not planning on moving

 

[surfn]

Oh wow... I thought the top one was the 50 gallon.

nope, thats the glass oceanic 30g that i dropped and cracked.

prob for the best though, i like this acrylic one much better! i think it would have been a VERY tight fit to get all my sps in a 30g :hammer:

 

[Kigs!]

ohh..i kinda see the crack you made on the 30 now, lolz.. good move on going with the 50. it looks like your LFS guy did a nice job with it

 

[surfn]

ohh..i kinda see the crack you made on the 30 now, lolz.. good move on going with the 50. it looks like your LFS guy did a nice job with it

i dont have any pics of the crack on the 30g, b/c it cracked after the stand was painted, b/c i dropped it when it stuck to the paint in one corner.

there is a glass top that was sitting in the 30g in that pic way up top.

in the 50g, you can see a straight line on the botton on one side. and thats just a line of glue from something that got messed up during the build, you wont see it once there is sand in it.

 

[Kigs!]

I was referring to this pic.

maybe it was a reflection that looked like a crack. anyway, enough about your crack. good luck with the move and the new tank al,

 

[surfn]

yeah, thats just the reflection from the top glass sitting in the bottom

 

[revhtree]

Dang bro that is a sweet tank! You mind me asking what it cost? PM me if you need too!

 

[MarvinsReef]

looking sweeeeeet! can't wait to see it set up...

 

[surfn]

Dang bro that is a sweet tank! You mind me asking what it cost? PM me if you need too!

it was done mostly out of 3/8" acrylic, along with a 1/4" piece of black acrylic against a 3/8" clear for the back wall.

i paid about $250 just for the parts, and zoas for the labor

 

[revhtree]

Dang sounds like a pretty good deal!

 

[Raptor]

Nice! what kind of returns you using?Just the one in the corner there? A calfo manifold would be sweet!

 

[surfn]

Nice! what kind of returns you using?Just the one in the corner there? A calfo manifold would be sweet!

no idea what that is...got any links, or pics?

 

[Raptor]

Here ya go..
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2003/short.htm

 

[surfn]

Here ya go..
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2003/short.htm

oh ok, no i'm not gonna go that route. i'm gonna use a relatively small return pump, around 500gph, and then use tunze nanostreams for the majority of the flow inside the main tank.

i'm just not a big fan of putting a large flow through the sump.

 

[surfn]

here are some updates...

i have been working on a canopy, its going to be semi-closed and semi-open. its hard to describe, so i'll just show you the progress of what it looks like. i've got it all painted and just waiting for the paint to dry, then i just have to put some mesh like stuff over the sides and it will be done.