Hey guys!! I still somewhat new to the hobby (only been doing this for about 2 yrs) but due to a recent move had to get rid of my old aquarium and set up a new system. We sold our house and the had to live in a hotel for about a week. Needless to say we needed a new tank ASAP as we had all our livestock in a cheap AIO walmart tank. Luckily, I live 40 minutes from WWC and was able to score an awesome deal on a Planet Aquariums Crystaline 24 which included tank, stand, and a Trigger Systems 20" sump. 
The down side was the delay in the closing of our new home, lack of adequate equipment, and, since I lost all my live rock, the time needed to cycle the new tank with dead rock meant I lost some livestock. We lost our Lawnmower Blenny, 2 Trochus snails, and some Hermit Crabs. Made for some bad nights with our middle boy. Looking at the bright side, we still have our Black Ocellaris Clown, 2 Fighting Conchs, and a single Hermit Crab. With that we start our new build and hopefully have an awesome little reef in the future.
Now for the build...
Approach:
This is my first sump set-up so I did some research.Went with the keep-it-simple approach while adopting the advise of the BRS and WWC method from their videos. However, on a much smaller scale.
My adaptation will look like this:
Cycle tank (NO DT LIGHTS) => Set up a refugium and give the fuge a head start to out compete the display algae => Add current livestock and DT lighting => Let things stabilize and start adding coral
Display Tank:
I did a quick aquascape with some dead dry rock and added some aragonite substrate for my conchs. Not 100% happy with the aquascape. Will probably add some more height via some pillars or maybe some branching coral rock. Open to suggestions here.
Sump:
I did a really simple plumbing job after picking up an Eheim 2100, 2 Finnex 200W heaters (wanted a back up), and some Fluval BioMax Rings (kept in a mesh bag). I dialed in the Durso and now it's nearly silent. Next, after the I got the nitrates to about 10ppm, I picked up some chaeto, a cheap PAR38 LED grow bulb, and a clip on light fixture. Put the light on a cheap Christmas light timer and have been ramping on the duration it is on at time over the last few weeks. The light comes on at 7p and now runs for 7 hrs shutting off at 2am.
The chaeto has been growing ok with this lighting set-up. Eventually I'll upgrade to something like a Kessil H160 Tuna Flora or the H380. For now, I needed to get this set up running within budget and a reasonable amount of time to keep as many of the current livestock alive.
Livestock:
After what seemed like forever I added my current babies into their new home. After acclimation in a bucket of course.
My chaeto is doing such a good job with nitrates and phosphates I have to feed the conchs algae wafers. Luckily they took to them quite well.
Little hermie hiding in the upper right edge of the rock!
DT Lighting:
So far the chaeto in the sump has had no competition since I've held out on lighting the display tank. i wanted the chaeto to actually start showing signs of growth before adding competition for nutrients. However, it's now time to get the display lit. I did a ton of research and searching. I kept swinging between Kessil A360WE, AI Primes, and Orphek Atlantiks. My previous tanks were all T5 set-ups using ATI Blue and Purple Plus combos. This time I wanted to try LEDs. I didn't want a lot of shadowing and would probably need 2 Kessils to even out spread or if i wanted to add SPS later. After some serious searching I found an Orphek Atlantik V2 with controller on this forum for $325. That was an awesome deal. I made the purchase a few days ago and should hopefully get it soon. The seller was awesome and already emailed me the instruction manual and adjusted the program to acclimation mode so I can hit the ground running on arrival. Thanks again to vetteguy53081. These lights will not create any shadowing issues and will be plenty powerful should/when I decide to add SPS to the cube. My plan it to eventually upgrade the V2 to V4 gen2 specs but for now they will be more than sufficient as my tank is really just a FOWLR set-up for now. Once the display gets lit it'll probably hit a bit of an ugly phase and i may even need to upgrade the fuge light for the chaeto. We'll see but it's very likey. Not a huge deal as I spent <$30 on the bulb and fixture combined. I'm actually looking forward to a bit of algae in the display as it'll mean I can stop adding algae wafers and maybe get another Lawnmower Blenny and some trochus snails for the glass.
Next steps:
-DIY mounting bracket for lights:
-Skimmer and a sump baffle to separate fuge from skimmer
-Add more fish hiding places and improve aquascape by adding more vertical features
-Add one or two more fish like a Royal Gramma, a Firefish Goby, or if there is enough algae a Lawnmower Blenny.
What do you guys think? I'm open to suggestions and advice on my current path. This is only my second marine system, my first sump set-up, and my first cube. Lots of room for growth. Looking forward to the skimmer, aquascape, and fish suggestions.
Thanks for stopping by!
The down side was the delay in the closing of our new home, lack of adequate equipment, and, since I lost all my live rock, the time needed to cycle the new tank with dead rock meant I lost some livestock. We lost our Lawnmower Blenny, 2 Trochus snails, and some Hermit Crabs. Made for some bad nights with our middle boy. Looking at the bright side, we still have our Black Ocellaris Clown, 2 Fighting Conchs, and a single Hermit Crab. With that we start our new build and hopefully have an awesome little reef in the future.
Now for the build...
Approach:
This is my first sump set-up so I did some research.Went with the keep-it-simple approach while adopting the advise of the BRS and WWC method from their videos. However, on a much smaller scale.
My adaptation will look like this:
Cycle tank (NO DT LIGHTS) => Set up a refugium and give the fuge a head start to out compete the display algae => Add current livestock and DT lighting => Let things stabilize and start adding coral
Display Tank:
I did a quick aquascape with some dead dry rock and added some aragonite substrate for my conchs. Not 100% happy with the aquascape. Will probably add some more height via some pillars or maybe some branching coral rock. Open to suggestions here.
Sump:
I did a really simple plumbing job after picking up an Eheim 2100, 2 Finnex 200W heaters (wanted a back up), and some Fluval BioMax Rings (kept in a mesh bag). I dialed in the Durso and now it's nearly silent. Next, after the I got the nitrates to about 10ppm, I picked up some chaeto, a cheap PAR38 LED grow bulb, and a clip on light fixture. Put the light on a cheap Christmas light timer and have been ramping on the duration it is on at time over the last few weeks. The light comes on at 7p and now runs for 7 hrs shutting off at 2am.
The chaeto has been growing ok with this lighting set-up. Eventually I'll upgrade to something like a Kessil H160 Tuna Flora or the H380. For now, I needed to get this set up running within budget and a reasonable amount of time to keep as many of the current livestock alive.
Livestock:
After what seemed like forever I added my current babies into their new home. After acclimation in a bucket of course.
My chaeto is doing such a good job with nitrates and phosphates I have to feed the conchs algae wafers. Luckily they took to them quite well.
Little hermie hiding in the upper right edge of the rock!
DT Lighting:
So far the chaeto in the sump has had no competition since I've held out on lighting the display tank. i wanted the chaeto to actually start showing signs of growth before adding competition for nutrients. However, it's now time to get the display lit. I did a ton of research and searching. I kept swinging between Kessil A360WE, AI Primes, and Orphek Atlantiks. My previous tanks were all T5 set-ups using ATI Blue and Purple Plus combos. This time I wanted to try LEDs. I didn't want a lot of shadowing and would probably need 2 Kessils to even out spread or if i wanted to add SPS later. After some serious searching I found an Orphek Atlantik V2 with controller on this forum for $325. That was an awesome deal. I made the purchase a few days ago and should hopefully get it soon. The seller was awesome and already emailed me the instruction manual and adjusted the program to acclimation mode so I can hit the ground running on arrival. Thanks again to vetteguy53081. These lights will not create any shadowing issues and will be plenty powerful should/when I decide to add SPS to the cube. My plan it to eventually upgrade the V2 to V4 gen2 specs but for now they will be more than sufficient as my tank is really just a FOWLR set-up for now. Once the display gets lit it'll probably hit a bit of an ugly phase and i may even need to upgrade the fuge light for the chaeto. We'll see but it's very likey. Not a huge deal as I spent <$30 on the bulb and fixture combined. I'm actually looking forward to a bit of algae in the display as it'll mean I can stop adding algae wafers and maybe get another Lawnmower Blenny and some trochus snails for the glass.
Next steps:
-DIY mounting bracket for lights:
-Skimmer and a sump baffle to separate fuge from skimmer
-Add more fish hiding places and improve aquascape by adding more vertical features
-Add one or two more fish like a Royal Gramma, a Firefish Goby, or if there is enough algae a Lawnmower Blenny.
What do you guys think? I'm open to suggestions and advice on my current path. This is only my second marine system, my first sump set-up, and my first cube. Lots of room for growth. Looking forward to the skimmer, aquascape, and fish suggestions.
Thanks for stopping by!
