A 93gal Dream Cube, Well Worth the Wait!

RandomReefer · Feb 10, 2016

Hopefully this comes through. A bit cloudy, but the Radion is mounted. [emoji4]

JenB · Feb 10, 2016

Awesome! I scored a used 93 cube and we just finished the rock work - no water in it yet but your thread makes me sooo excited for mine! Your stand is AMAZING

jrm03 · Feb 10, 2016

Great progress RR. what size drains did you utilize?
My 93G has been a 2 year process I'm slowly wrapping up. It's going to be soooo much better than my current 60 cube.

RandomReefer · Feb 10, 2016

JenB said:
Awesome! I scored a used 93 cube and we just finished the rock work - no water in it yet but your thread makes me sooo excited for mine! Your stand is AMAZING

Thanks and double thanks!! [emoji4]

jrm03 said:
Great progress RR. what size drains did you utilize?
My 93G has been a 2 year process I'm slowly wrapping up. It's going to be soooo much better than my current 60 cube.

Thanks! The standpipe ended up being 1-1/2" Durso. The drain line is 1". Pretty dang quiet so far!

Good luck on your upgrade!

FMF0331 · Feb 10, 2016

Following . . .

TreyC2010 · Feb 10, 2016

Very neat and thought out. Awesome tank!

RandomReefer · Feb 11, 2016

TreyC2010 said:
Very neat and thought out. Awesome tank!

Thanks!

Kravchak · Feb 11, 2016

This is a fantastic build, does your stand builder ship to people if they order a tank stand like yours?

Scubafrog · Feb 11, 2016

Are you doing bare bottom?

RandomReefer · Feb 11, 2016

Kravchak said:
This is a fantastic build, does your stand builder ship to people if they order a tank stand like yours?

Thanks! I'm not sure what he can/can't do, but you should definitely send him a message.

He's here on R2R under @jlanger

Scubafrog said:
Are you doing bare bottom?

I'm going to do a partial sand bed. Hopefully the flow works with me to keep the sand around the base of the rock work, but we'll see once I get it added in.

I'll add the sand after the tank cycles and nutrients even out. I'm expecting to leave the tank fallow until mid March/ early April. Just going for that very slow and methodical approach in this build. [emoji4]

Cayenne1 · Feb 11, 2016

Your furniture grade stand makes all the difference. I've seen too many 2x4 attempts that spoil so much hard work and cost.

I do have a question though. The post pictures show the tank sitting down in a stand frame that looks great. But, "when" there's a water spill down the side of the tank alnong the frame and under the tank, will that be an issue? How will water standing between the tank bottom and stand top be addressed?

Thanks

RandomReefer · Feb 12, 2016

Cayenne1 said:
Your furniture grade stand makes all the difference. I've seen too many 2x4 attempts that spoil so much hard work and cost.

I do have a question though. The post pictures show the tank sitting down in a stand frame that looks great. But, "when" there's a water spill down the side of the tank alnong the frame and under the tank, will that be an issue? How will water standing between the tank bottom and stand top be addressed?

Thanks

Although I don't expect water spills to happen over the top edges of the aquarium, I understand your concern. My water changes are designed to happen through the utilization of a MaxiJet within the sump, whereas I'll pump 15gal out and replenish with 15gal.

I don't anticipate having to move water over the edges of the aquarium itself, so I'm not sure when this spillage would occur. This is for a couple of reasons,

1) I'm not siphoning water, nor pumping water, over the edges.

2) The return chamber doesn't hold a large enough volume of water that would overflow the display tank. It would run dry and automatically shut off before the display overflows. (EcoTech Vectra pumps recognize when they are running dry and default to shutting themselves off.)

Although, if I were afraid of water spilling over, I wouldn't be too worried about standing water between the tank and stand. This is also because of couple reasons...

1) The tank sits on 2-2.5" of actual stand top (around its perimeter). So the surface area that shares tank-to-stand contact is pretty minimal.

2) As my stand builder has explained earlier, there is several layers of paint and lacquer on the stand "skeleton" that is geared towards repelling water.

So, that being said, I'm not taking any precautionary measures to protect the tank-to-stand contact area. Although if I were worried about it, a simple bead of silicon around the tank would be a cheap and viable option. [emoji106][emoji4]

RandomReefer · Feb 14, 2016

This will soon be my favorite view... [emoji7]

RandomReefer · Feb 14, 2016

I had to order a new Tunze ATO. The optical sensor stopped working on the previous one. Since I bought second hand, I couldn't make a claim with Tunze for a repair.

Other than that, ammonia spike is alive and well and the cycle is under way. I added a bit of carbon to the reactor to clear up the yellow water.

Elton20 · Feb 14, 2016

If you ever remove your cable ties to remove a singe pump or something, I would recommend retying with Velcro cable ties, much easier to manage and removeable as well.

RandomReefer · Feb 15, 2016

Elton20 said:
If you ever remove your cable ties to remove a singe pump or something, I would recommend retying with Velcro cable ties, much easier to manage and removeable as well.

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely look into them.

RandomReefer · Mar 5, 2016

The Darwins are the first to inhabit the 93gal cube. They're happily swimming around in the empty space. I'm sure they'd be much happier when the giant Sebae anemone is able to join them.