Keef's Kube

[keef reeper]

A few months ago we took the decision to downsize our 180gal skimmerless reef and get a cube. During the facelift of the front room i have managed to steal a few minutes here and there and get the cabinet built.
If this post works i will upload some more pictures.




http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/cube%20tank%20098.jpg
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/cube%20tank%20095.jpg
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/cube%20tank%20094.jpg
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/cube%20tank%20092.jpg
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/cube%20tank%20090.jpg

Mark

[keef reeper]

Wahay it worked :D

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/cube%20tank%20089.jpg
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/cube%20tank%20086.jpg
[IMG]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/new cabinet 200.jpg
[IMG]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/new cabinet 0300.jpg
[IMG]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/new cabinet 0900.jpg

The tank was built by Martin at PTM and is 28" x 28" x 30"(high) and the sump is 26" x 12" x 18" (high)

Got to lay flooring tomorrow and then i can get the cabinet and tank sited and start the plumbing :dance:

Mark

[keef reeper]

dunno whats happened to the last three :wacko:

Will try again

[keef reeper]

:D

[keef reeper]

phew

[xxmattyxx]

La la la


http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/new%20cabinet%20200.jpg


http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/new%20cabinet%200300.jpg


http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/new%20cabinet%200900.jpg

[xxmattyxx]

Cuh, ya beat me by a minute :lol:

[keef reeper]

Thanks Matty :cheers:

Mark

[Esk]

Thats a samrt looking cabinet mark :thumbsup: Have you got the tank yet? :wub:

Chris

[maestro]

Nice one! I love cubes, thats going to be a chunky tank, hold over 80 gallons!

[keef reeper]

Thanks guys ;)

Yeah the tank is in the kitchen at the moment on the kitchen table which is not pleasing the wife :evil:
Also in the kitchen is a 25gallon cistern which is holding all my live rock from my last tank which some will be used for this tank and the rest is going to the very nice people :wave: who are holding my stock for me in their frag tanks (thanks Roger and Dori :thumbsup: ).

Mark

[slappy]

Looking good. Nice cabinet.
Can't wait to see your tank.

[weegaz22]

cant wait to see the next lot of piccies as im going for a cube tank next and love to see what kind of setups people run on them

are you staying skimmerless? running a mud based system? or just using LR?

[RedevanceUK]

Look really great, keep the updates coming :thumbsup:

[lukmek]

wow great job
please more pics :wub:
:thanx:
Lukmek
:cheers:

[keef reeper]

Finally managed to get the tank out of the kitchen and onto the cabinet. Had to take the door off its hinges and remove part of the door frame to get it out though :blush:

Also managed to start dry fitting some of the plumbing.

[keef reeper]

:dance:

[keef reeper]

:D

[jamie reefer]

Hi Mark

Thats looking very nice mate,keep up the hard work,ps get that top up out first thing the morning for you mate :thumbsup:

cheers Jamie

[keef reeper]

Im hoping to get it salted by this weekend so that will be great Jamie :thumbsup:


Mark

[keef reeper]

Right time for an update.

This tank for me is the anti of my last tank which at 5x2x2 was too large too noisy and took up more of my time and money than was enjoyable. So the idea with this tank is to be able to achieve all the things i wanted with the last tank but on a smaller more managable scale.............also we're getting a dog and needed the money :P

Because of the noise issues of the last tank which had mini weirs this time i have decided to go for a durso and i know that there is not the same amount of water being pumped up and going back to the sump but noise is not a problem this time which in a small front room is heaven. The most noise is coming from the Coralvue elec ballast fans which is not a lot.

I have a lumenarc reflector and a 10k 250w XM bulb with the Coralvue ballast. I have ordered a Quicktronic ballast 2x24w and will be using Deltec actinics.

Water changes were a pain with the last tank syphoning water and then traipsing around with loads of buckets so this time i have designed the plumbing so that i can pump the water straight out. I have also built a small shed for the R-O unit so that it does not have to live under the sink anymore. Now theres no more r-o pipes and buckets etc in the kitchen and i can do all the mixing at my leisure in the shed (no more wet floors and the wife swearing at me as she tries to prepare sunday lunch while i slosh salt water around ). I purchased a Rubbermaid bin on wheels so i can wheel the water around :D which has a heater and pump to pump it back into the tank with...although it seems a bit overkill with the size of change i will be doing :blush: .

The sump has some chaeto and a mce600 and a Ehiem 1260 as a rtn. The live rock in the tank is suspended on 1/2" slithers of pipe under the eggcrate. The return comes over the side of the weir and down to the bottom of the tank and an elbow directs it under the crate to hopefully flush all the rubbish out.

From the downsize i have my 6100 stream kit in the tank which i thought might be a bit overkill but at the moment is doing a outstanding job :evil:

Its going to be mainly sps and i would really love to achieve that "thicket" look in the long term.

The tank has finished its cycle this week which was earlier than expected and the stock i have in a hospital tank being copper dosed for whitespot is not quite over yet so thats been a bit of a pain but sorted now.

Thanks for looking

Mark

[keef reeper]

:thanx:

[keef reeper]

:thanx:

[classyash]

Looks good so far :thumbsup:

[keef reeper]

:D

[dapex]

Can I ask where you go tthe rubbermaid bin from, as thats seems to be a good idea, What plumbing did you do to allow you to pump the water straight out of the sytem??

Chers


Dave

[keef reeper]

Hi Dave,

The bin came from a shop in Cornwall called macsalvors and set me back £20 although i have since found them in Trago mills for £12 i think it was <_<

I can isolate the water from the return and have it pump through the tap with the ehiem hose on the end on the top right of the sump picture,this also doubles as a sort of throttle if i want to reduce the flow from the return to the tank.

Mark

[TiTAN]

GREAT SETUP.........I will doing somthing very similar in the next Month but without the Sump, Somthing like Tim Hunt has.

Are the Streams OVERKILL??
Do you have any pictures of how you setup the LR?
Are you going BB?
The Skimmer, how it is performing?
How does the 250W MH affect the Temp?

Sorry for all the Questions......

Great Tank BTW!

TiTAN

[wayne g]

lovely set up!
:wub:

[keef reeper]

Thanks for the comments guys :thumbsup:

At the moment Titan the streams are pulsing at 100% and although the test will come when i start adding my stock i think its fine. I will add a couple of pictures so you can get an idea :evil: :evil:

Sorry but i havent got any pictures of building up the live rock :blush: i was going to drill holes and use rod but after talking to a few board members i decided to just stack it.....carefully :D .

Yes the tank will stay bb.

Its a new skimmer to me but not having any stock yet its not working very hard so i will reserve judgement.

Temperature has been pretty stable at 25-26 but the lights have only been on a week and we havent had any really hot days in that time so fingers crossed. I still have three clip on fans left over from my last tank if i need them ;)

Mark

[keef reeper]

:D

[keef reeper]

:wave:

[Andythescientist]

Looks really nice :)

Can't wait to see some critters in there :)

[keef reeper]

Thanks Andy :cheers:


My clowns will be coming out of qt this Sunday and going in :dance: and also my clean up crew that i have to pick up from their "holiday home". At the same time i will collect my Regal angel :wub: :wub: as he is the next for qt and the copper treatment.

Thanks
Mark

[Esk]

Hi Mark hows the tank doing now? Have you managed to transfer all your other stock into the tank yet?

:cheers:

Chris

[keef reeper]

Sorry Chris missed that one :blush: everything has been moved over now although the people that were looking after my stock for me suffered with a heater sticking on and a couple of my acro's started to bleach :( but they are coming back to health now.......just a bit smaller :P


Mark

[keef reeper]

:D

[Esk]

Lovely Regal :wub: sorry to hear about the acros :( hope they recover well. Looks like you are having a bit of a problem with bubble algae :huh: have you got any mithrax (emerald) crabs in there? Ive just started getting a few small bits around my tank and have noticed my mithrax has dissapeared :( will have to pick some up soon :rolleyes:

:cheers: for the update :thumbsup: have you got any recent full tank pics :blush:

Chris

[Trigger lover]

tanks coming on nicely :thumbsup:
keep up the good work

[The Escaped Ape]

Very nice. I'll be keeping an eye on this. :thumbsup:

[keef reeper]

As i no longer have the time to properly look after this project i have decided to sell. Please check out the equipment and livestock for sale sections for details. Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

Mark