The Ultimate Cube 280g

cbort · Jun 18, 2010

Breakin Newz said:
Very nice! Can not wait to see it all together with livestock!

Question, how much do you think that tank weights? Just curious for when I get my acrylic tank made to know if I will need some extra hands...

I don't know exactly, but i don't think it weighs more than 200-250lbs. Myself and another guy picked it up over our heads to put it onto the durango, and they guy i bought it from actually lifted it by himself to put it on the stand. Its just awkward! To move it into the house i put it on a furniture mover wrapped in blankets and took it up a flight of stairs and then back down to the basement.

cbort · Jun 18, 2010

Now for the SPECS and PLANS for the new Ultimate CUBE
Tank:
48x48x28T 1/2" custom acrylic cube. The tank has an external overflow with a 2" drain and is drilled for a CL.
Lighting:
The cube will have 2-ATI 48" 10 bulb Powermodules hanging over it. 20 TOTAL BULBS !!
Flow:
The cube will be fed with a QuietOne6000 1068gph return pump, and a Dolphin 3600gph CL pump on a Ocean Motion 4-way unit.
Refugium
I will be using a 135g Oceanic tank divided off in 3 sections for macro, mangroves, deep sand bed, and small holding area.
Sump
The sump that i will be using is a 30x20x18T custom made acrylic tank. It will hold my skimmer, filter socks and the return pump.
Frag tank
I will be using my 57g custom glass 36x36x12T cube as my frag tank. It has the perfect height for a frag tank and has a lot of room for lots of frags!
Water Storage
My water storage will cosist of 2 tanks. Both are custom 45g acrylic tanks. 1 will be for freshwater storage and the other will be for mixing salt.

Vision
This tank will be located in my "man cave" in my finished basement. A fish room will be located on the backside of this room to house all filtration, frag tanks, water storage and misc. fishy items.
This tank will be viewable from 3 full 48"x28" sides. I would like each view to be a "main viewing" side. On most of my tanks i just worry about what the view from the front looks like and the sides get left out and don't turn out the way i would like. So when building the rockwork I will keep this in mind. The rock work is going to be minimalistic with lots of branches, overhangs, arches and small caves. I plan to keep it open for swimming room. The tank will be stocked with LPS, Zoas, and 20-30 fishes.

Hope to have more updates daily let me know what ya think! :)

cbort · Jun 21, 2010

First stages of the stand build are done. There will be 2 more vertical braces on each left and right side of the stand. I got all 4 corners done and wanted to see if i like the height...Turned out pretty good, i will have about 1-2 feet worth of space to work with above the tank. Not what i am used to but i will adjust to the change. :)

nayrgaijin · Jun 21, 2010

WOW! You are the king of cubes man! Such nice tanks, I can't wait to see this one :D

cbort · Jun 21, 2010

Breakin Newz said:
Very nice! Can not wait to see it all together with livestock!

Question, how much do you think that tank weights? Just curious for when I get my acrylic tank made to know if I will need some extra hands...

This tank did not weigh very much. 2 guys can handle it pretty easily. You will only want 2 guys when going through doorways and such. I put this tank up on the stand myself today...So hope that helps

cbort · Jun 21, 2010

nayrgaijin said:
WOW! You are the king of cubes man! Such nice tanks, I can't wait to see this one :D

Thanks!

Reef Dreamz · Jun 29, 2010

update time.......

cbort · Jun 29, 2010

Well...here is the update.... Not a very good one...

Rained a lot the last few weeks, then in about 3 hours we got hit with 8“ of rain. The cube is in the basement, and the basement got about 2” of flooding. Soo...We are presently sucking all the water out of the carpet. Luckily its fresh water, and pretty clear. We got a head of it and kept up on Shop Vaccing it out. It has stopped coming in and now we are shampooing and re shampooing and then shampooing again. Then it will be back to the cube!

Reef Dreamz · Jun 30, 2010

that sucks!! Well, good luck with the shop vac

chappy · Jun 30, 2010

curious have you thought of doing like 12 led spotlights instead
i mean 500 bucks in bulbs a year ...yikes

cbort · Jun 30, 2010

Reef Dreamz said:
that sucks!! Well, good luck with the shop vac

Thanks! The smell is finally freshening up! My wife got off early yesterday and Shampooed a lot of the carpet. The air is no quite so thick and the damp smell is gone! Looks like we are getting closer to having this thing kicked! Knocking on wood as i type that we don't have anymore rain! :)

cbort · Jun 30, 2010

Here is the look I am trying to achieve. with aquascaping and lighting. I think with the dimensions it should be easy and 20 bulbs of T5's no problem! Maybe a bit bluer tho.

Reef Dreamz · Jun 30, 2010

I think that is going to look great.....
I like the separated look...... curious, why did you choose this look?

Triggerman77 · Jun 30, 2010

Very Nice ! Im picking up a 240 rimless cube Hopefully end of next week. Cant wait to see that thing full of corals

cbort · Jul 2, 2010

Reef Dreamz said:
I think that is going to look great.....
I like the separated look...... curious, why did you choose this look?

I love the seperated rock look also, plus i love the depth that this aquascape gives, and thats probably why i like this look so much. I believe that this tank was actually an inwall setup. So mine will look a tad bit different since mine will be viewable from 3 sides. I will bring the sides in toward the middle a little bit so that way the rock is not so close the the glass. This tank just looks as though someone took 2 big chunks right off of the reef and dropped them into his tank. His coral placement looks great!

Greenmaster · Jul 6, 2010

cbort said:
Here is the look I am trying to achieve. with aquascaping and lighting. I think with the dimensions it should be easy and 20 bulbs of T5's no problem! Maybe a bit bluer tho.

Man there are like 40+ blue-green cromis in that tank...

I hope you can get the look your going for. I will be watching your thread... it's close to the same stage as mine.