O.K so I have finally decided what setup I am going to build. I was originally going to do a 30long but couldn't put down the halides for T5's. I was going to have to use a two bulb fixture because of the length and that was going to bust the budget. So I decided to go with another cube because I could use a single hqi and it would stay within what I wanted to spend.

So the first and most important thing was to get a tank. I picked up this cube with a 1in bulkhead already drilled locally locally. Then I needed a stand. I decided since I do general contracting to just build it myself. Now that my stand is built I think I am going to build my own sump 16x16x14. That should work out to just below 15g. I am having SWC drill two more bulheads for a return or CLS.

Anyway here is what I have been doing for a couple of days.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/stand002jpginternet.jpg

Here it is done just need to fill the holes, sand and stain. I am going to match the maple finish on the cube. It was about $50 in materials

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/stand003jpginternet.jpg

Ohhhh very nice!

it would stay within what I wanted to spend.




Famous last words.

Looking good. I love a good Nano.

Famous last words.

Looking good. I love a good Nano.LOL, I know it never ends.

Looking good. What watt MH are you going to use?

I'm probably going to run the 150w sunpod although, I have been tossing around the 250w. I just worry about the heat with a 250 on such a small tank. I'm trying to stay away from a chiller. We will see, I am going to get the tank cycling and then buy the fixture so alot could change in the next few weeks I guess.

Nice Job

That is a really nice stand!! what woods did you use?

Really like that set up you are doing. Please keep info coming on what you like and dislike as I may do something like this in the future. I have the 90 gallon and Nano but this one is pretty cool.

Joe

That is a really nice stand!! what woods did you use?LOL, I went cheap. Its mostly pine but all stain grade. Like I said it was about $50 with material including hardware.

Ok thanks and it looks really nice

O.K. the stand is almost done. I am painting the inside. I picked up a mag 5 today and found a rubermaid tub thats going to work perfect for a sump untill I get one built. It is 50qt which works out to 12 1/2 gallons. I had two 1" bulkheads drilled and am going to run a scwd and split the returns. I am picking up a coralife 65 skimmer at the meating. This should get me by untill I can upgrade.

The plan is to run a 20" 150w sunpod. I am going ahead and getting the tank up and cycling while I find a light. Anybody got one used?

I will get some more pics up in the next couple of days.

That skimmer should be all you need on that size of a setup. I would, however, do a fishing line mod to the needlewheel impeller. Take some 4 lb. test and weave it around the needles.

Sweet, thanks. You wouldn't happen to have a link to that mod.

I have the greatest wife in the world. I got home from work today and she said go ahead and order the sunpod. Whoo hoo. That was the missing piece of the puzzle. I will be up and running by this weekend hopefully.

Here is a more current pic. I picked up my light at the meating and started dry fitting everything. I also got some black acrylic and am going to spend the day constructing the overflow. I also picked up a skimmer at the meeting.

I stained the cabinet a color called parchment and painted the inside black. I still have the doors off untill I get it plumbed but you can get the idea.

Ok I am thinking about my water movement. As stated above I am running dual returns with a squid and a mag 5. I am thinking about 2 koralia ones on the front sides pointed back toward the center.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/30cubedryfitting001jpgint.jpg

I think you should go with two Koralia 3 in the front. At least go with the 2s. I don't know if you've seen those things in action but they more or less stir the water so you can get away with more water movement with out damaging any corals with a direct flow powerhead.

What fixture did you end up getting the 150 or the 250? I had a 250 on top of my 30 and bought a chiller but rarely used it.

Do you have a good top off system yet?

Check out my old thread. I don't have the system anymore but a member of ARC does.

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2045&highlight=finnex

I tossed around the Koralia 2s also. I guess I could even step up to 3s and run corse substrate. I need to check the size of the three I cant remember how big they are.

Sorry I forgot. I went with the 150. I also need to try and keep the running cost down. I am going to get the JBJ ato

Sorry I forgot. I went with the 150. I also need to try and keep the running cost down. I am going to get the JBJ ato

Good choice. I love the JBJ ATO I use. I even use it on my 120 I have now. I even built the stand so it would hold a 10 gallon for the RO.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e370/perrythompson/New%2030%20Gallon/DSC01375.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e370/perrythompson/New%2030%20Gallon/DSC00011.jpg

O.K. I just got finished building the overflow with 7/16 black acrylic bonded with weld-on. I still need to cut it down to length.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/overflow001jpgint.jpg

Sweet, thanks. You wouldn't happen to have a link to that mod.

I don't, but all you do is weave 4 lb test through the impeller.

nice job. not bad for your first time building an overflow.

I don't, but all you do is weave 4 lb test through the impeller.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6/super-skimmer-mods-93649.html

I am spending the weekend putting everything together and wet testing. I changed what I wanted to do for the overflow and built just a small box. Asked my wife which one she liked and she said the small one. I just installed my bulkhead fittings and overflow box. I have everything here now including sand so it will get filled tommorow. I picked up a scwd and some 3/4 lockline. Although my returns are 1" bulheads all the plumbing will be in 3/4.

Looking good. Good luck with the plumbing. I'm still not done with mine yet.

I have all the pieces I just need to get it together :confused2: I am going to do the external durso

O.K its ready. I will have it cycling tonight:yay:. I have 30lbs of rock sitting in buckets ready to go in and some live sand.

WOOT!!! Its cycling

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/oceaniccubebuild013jpgint.jpg

Awesome! Looks really good!

Awesome! Looks really good!Thanks, I will get my doors on my cabinet now that all the plumbing is done

Looking good.

Very nice. I love the overflow you built. It looks professional. I made my own as well and its not pretty... :)

Very nice. I love the overflow you built. It looks professional. I made my own as well and its not pretty... :) Thanks, I actually made about 4 of them trying to perfect it. The others are happily being used in other reefers tanks.

I need to come up with some ideas for my sump. I basically want to fit a skimmer, refugium and some sort of ATO resivior in this tiny stand LOL. What I have is working but would really like something baffled with a bubble trap.I also need to figure out what to do with the micro bubbles for now.

I was looking at one of the pics from post #29, and is that a SQUID you have plumbed in the return? Good idea. Do you need a lot of pressure to run that?

Tank looks great. I am setting up a 20" cube acrylic frag tank with a 250 watt Sunpod, but I will be doing mostly acros in there. I'll start my build thread soon.
Dave

Yep thats a squid. I have 2= 3/4 inch returns it switches between. It really dosn't create any back pressure. I know it takes more to open up my oneway than to run it. I am using a mag5.

On another note I have switched over to a baffled acrylic sump. Its a little taller and dosn't take up the whole bottom of the stand. I am going to plumb a 2.5 aga aquarium into my sump for a fuge and put it on a shelf in the stand. I will get some more pics up soon.

I also did some water testing this morning.

ph 8.3
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0-5 ppm

On another note I have switched over to a baffled acrylic sump. Its a little taller and dosn't take up the whole bottom of the stand. I am going to plumb a 2.5 aga aquarium into my sump for a fuge and put it on a shelf in the stand. I will get some more pics up soon.

Small tanks definitily have their challenges regarding equipment placement. My main tank is an oceanic 120 and I could not get all my equipment under it. Fortunately I have a space behind the wall I could locate it. My sump is oversized at 36"x18"x18".
Dave

I changed around the rocks some to get an idea of the aquascaping I am shooting for. I just piled them there but you can kinda see what I am going for. I figure I will stack them from the back corner out the back and left side because it is against the wall. I wish I woulda painted the left side also.

I also finally got the doors on. My wife was gonna kill me if they didn't get put on. I still need to paint the backs.

Anyway here are some pics. I picked up this sump and repaired it. Corvettechris might remember it. It fits my stand really well and fit my needs. I am having a 2.5g aga drilled as we speak with a 1/2 inch bulkhead for a fuge. I am going to use a minijet to power it and will be building a mini overflow for it LOL.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/oceaniccubebuild031jpgint.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/oceaniccubebuild035jpgint.jpg

OK i started adding some livestock. I have a long way to go but picked up some nice stuff at the meeting

Here is a new full tank shot. Got some new corals and moved some from my other tank. Its starting to look like a reef tank

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/fulltankshot001.jpg

Man, those clown have a really nice color to them.

Man, those clown have a really nice color to them.Thanks, I think the black background really makes the color pop. I also just got a new camera so I will be getting some more pics up.

OK I moved all of my corals from my biocube so I could start building a 40 breeder. The tank is a little packed but after I got everything in I like the look. Here are some shots I took playing with the camera today.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard138.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard153.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard163.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard171.jpg

Ok so I finally got off my rear and got my fuge installed. I also did the fishing line mod on my skimmer. I picked up one of the drilled 2.5 gallons from where they kept the clean up crews from Cap Bay. I picked up a minijet pump there also. I just built a shelf and am running the 2.5 g just like a reef ready tank. Here are some pics. I gotta clean up some wiring but I will do that tomorrow when I install the DJ power strip I picked up at the meeting. Here are some pics of the progress.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard033.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard046.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard047-1.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard056.jpg

Yesterdays project
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard060.jpg

lol, I gotta' say it scares me to have a water pipe run directly over a power source. Tank looks great though!

lol, I gotta' say it scares me to have a water pipe run directly over a power source. Tank looks great though! I thought about that also but I thought it would probably be worse in the bottom of the stand if I had a flood. believe my there is no other place it will fit. My stand is packed to the max now. I guess its one of the risk if you play with fish tanks.

I've gotten shocked a few times, be careful and wear rubber soled shoes!

Its on a GFCI also.

I got my RODI in today :thumbs: . I am so happy not to have to make water trips anymore. I set up a little "station" in my garage. I am using and 18 gallon rubermaid tub with a float switch. I put it next to my washer and it made all the connections super easy because I had the standpipe and cold water right there. There is also an outlet right there so I can run a powerhead and heater in my mixing bucket.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard074.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard067.jpg

nice.

Thanks man, I have plans on upgrading to a 250w as soon as my bulb comes in.

dud your pond in pic looks great.i need to come by and see it before it gets to cold. maybe we will grill some cheeseburgers or something somwtime soon.

Here are some new shots. I upgrade to a 250w PFO pendant abot three weeks ago. I am running a Pheonix 14k the colors are amazing now. I'm still playing with the white ballance so I get more true colors in my Photos but not there yet.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard325.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard333.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard347.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard342.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard336.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard348.jpg

Played around with the camera today. Here are some pics I took of the cube
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard763.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard754.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard740.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard731.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jetskiking/othercard753.jpg

John, my stand looks different then that one... I'm trying to get the new tank done... I wanna have everything ready for saltwater after I get home from Xmas vacation...

That clam is hideous let me have it

John, my stand looks different then that one... I'm trying to get the new tank done... I wanna have everything ready for saltwater after I get home from Xmas vacation...Thats fine I plan on building a matching stand and an under window bench seat to house the sump for both systems

That clam is hideous let me have itIts a zoa predator. I have detached it from that zoa colony a few times for it always to find its way back

Ah alright, you'll just have to buy the stand too... I don't wanna get stuck with the stand.

Ah alright, you'll just have to buy the stand too... I don't wanna get stuck with the stand.thats cool :up:

Sounds good. I picked up some more stuff for the 30 cube... I can't spend any more money. I need to stop going to fish stores... crap I work at one...