Cubed Reefer's Custom Crystal Dynamics 183g

Orly20 · Nov 21, 2015

Haha!! Awesome!! I'm going to have to look into the Petco brand!

Cubed Reefer · Nov 21, 2015

Orly20 said:
Haha!! Awesome!! I'm going to have to look into the Petco brand!

You will not be disappointed!

sromero287 · Nov 22, 2015

Cubed reefer congrats on everything, well organization in advance along with good or excellent materials only can be leading into a magnificent reef, good luck and following your progress from Weston Fl.

Cubed Reefer · Nov 22, 2015

sromero287 said:
Cubed reefer congrats on everything, well organization in advance along with good or excellent materials only can be leading into a magnificent reef, good luck and following your progress from Weston Fl.

Thank you for the kind words! Hoping I can live up to the equipment haha, plumbing has been a nightmare as of late.

Cubed Reefer · Nov 22, 2015

She breathes! After some plumbing headaches the tank is finally circulating. I was also surprised on how long it took to install bulbs on the Spectra. Very tedious but well worth it.

2x 250w Radiums on Luxcore Super Lumens
2x 54w ATI Blue Plus
2x 54w ATI Purple Plus

As always pictures look blue off my S5 but in person it's a white 18k look with endless shimmer. Very excited.

David's Reef · Nov 22, 2015

As mention before love your aqua-scape..Cant wait to see it fully stock..

Cubed Reefer · Nov 22, 2015

David's Reef said:
As mention before love your aqua-scape..Cant wait to see it fully stock..

Same here! I have my livestock fish options already set in stone. Skimmer and gyres will go on tomorrow. Fun starts now!

Cubed Reefer · Dec 1, 2015

Starting to get all the electronics together! breakout box with float switches are hooked up and programmed, this week's crash course in Apex programming has been a blast to say the least. I found a solid wood cabinet on Craigslist for 30$ cleaned it up and was perfect size for my furniture electronic cab. Used a hole saw for the back to cut plenty of holes including the back of the drawer for tucking. Everything fits very well. mounting below and top is with industrial two sided adhesive tape. I will take pics of bottom once more cleaned up.

trinity1012 · Dec 31, 2015

wow nice build paul!!!!! I'm gonna look into that company for sure, thanks for the info!!!!

Cubed Reefer · Dec 31, 2015

trinity1012 said:
wow nice build paul!!!!! I'm gonna look into that company for sure, thanks for the info!!!!

Thank you sir, means a lot coming from a jedi like yourself. Any questions do not hesitate.

Eckolancer · Jan 1, 2016

Love the rock work! How is it attached so it doesnt fall over? rods drilled? Epoxy?

coral gardens · Jan 1, 2016

X 2 on the rock looking great

Cubed Reefer · Jan 1, 2016

Eckolancer said:
Love the rock work! How is it attached so it doesnt fall over? rods drilled? Epoxy?

I mocked all the rocks up first to see what I had to work with. I then went and picked up 1/4" fiberglass driveway reflectors($1.75 3ft) from Home Depot with a 12" 1/4" Masonry($9.99) bit. I then drilled each rock and cut the rod to the corresponding length. After each pillar had a rod in it I then started mixing my Emarco 400 Cement, and put it on the top portion where the rod was and then the point where each rock met with the rod. Let it really dry for 2 days and they are solid. I have probably 4-5 extra regular pieces and well as one pillar I did not use because did not want to congest it too much. 50Lbs regular and 50lbs of "Prime" cuts. probably could have got by with less but wanted all the options to build what I wanted. Rock comes cured and free of any phosphates and what not as they are soaked for 8 weeks prior to shipping. I can say with certainty it is true because the levels are almost nothing.

coral gardens said:
X 2 on the rock looking great

Thank you sir!

Spiderguardnano · Feb 8, 2016

updates??

i just put in my order for a custom tank from CD
what do you think of the overall quality?

we need more pics!!

Cubed Reefer · Feb 9, 2016

Spiderguardnano said:
updates??

i just put in my order for a custom tank from CD
what do you think of the overall quality?

we need more pics!!

On the topic of Crystal Dynamics. Quality is amazing. I could not be happier to be honest. Customer service is above and beyond also.

I have been in a rut as of late with work and life in general taking a larger role for the mean time. I upgraded to a ATB 1050A as I wanted to try something new while also snagging a Aqua UV 57W sterilizer. However what has kind of crippled me so far is an unknown factor but from talking with friends with great time in the hobby online and offline there is something in the water that is preventing me from skimming to a point. I have tried three other skimmers (All broken in) and what is happening is that the skimmer is not over flowing but just creating micro bubbles to the point where they over flow(Out of the skimmer drain) into the sump and then DT which is awful to look at. I have done two forty gallon water changes so far and seems to get better each time but is pretty frustrating. Reminds me of say putting something in the water like UltraLife red slime remover and skimmer bubbles out and throws micro bubbles everywhere. I believe the E-Marco cement is leaching because i never really soaked it after it cured. Because I soaked all the gravel substrate for 2 + months, at this point kinda confused and frustrated but the couple fish that are in there are doing great and are really colored up. Other than that algae has come along from the cycle finishing but cant really skim it out for mentions above. However it is definitely noticeable that the UV is doing work on the algae little by little as it is recessing and the water is crystal clear. Also have some activated carbon in there also. SKimmers socks are two 7x14 100 micron. Would love to hear any suggestions or thoughts!

jonnyu · Feb 9, 2016

Don't forget your skimmer might not have enough to stuff to skim so you have to adjust it to a high level and then you might get more bubbles than usual. If you have a low bio load like I do it's better turn off skimmer leave it for 2 weeks then turn skimmer on and adjust it and watch if you still get bubbles if will see you will get a good skim and no bubble issue till the tank is clean again. I'm running into that problem with mine with no sand, started with dry rock and seeded with fritz and 3 fish. In a 75 gallons.

Cubed Reefer · Feb 9, 2016

I hear ya Jonny thing is been like this for almost 2 months now. I also think it might be because of the not heavy bio as only 3 fish in there but skimmer does that wide open, the microbubbles exiting the skimmer that is. I might just let the uv tear down this current algae and add some more fish.