jd-woodlands' Neptunian Cube M180 197g Build - Mixed Reef

[jd-woodlands]

After my 80g SPS tank crash due to AEFW treatment that went sideways I decided it was time to upgrade. After 4+ months of waiting it finally arrived!

Very happy with the quality of the tank, super thick glass, polished and beveled, silicone seams are all recessed with no goop overflow. Excellent plumbing and sump with lots of features. Cabinet panels are PVC so no warping or salt damage, aluminum frames.

Build List

Neptunian Cube M180 71" x 21.6" x 21.6"
Radion XR30 Blues Gen 5 x3 with Diffuser
Kessil A80 refugium light
Apex AC2 - Temp, ORP, Ph, Salinity
Apex DOS x2
Apex Breakout Box
Apex EB382 x2
Apex Trident
Apex Cor15 or 20.. need to check
BRS Mini Carbon reactor w/ Sicce Pump
Octo Classic 152-S Skimmer
Lifegard Aquatics Pro-Max 55w Amalgam UV
Icecap 4k gyre x2 w/ dual controller
GHL Propeller Breeze triple fan x2
Auto Aqua Smart ATO AWC
IM 5 gallon ATO container
Simplicity Triple dosing 6l container
APC Smart-UPS 1300
Siporax Media
Finnex 300w Titanium heater
Cobalt Neo-Therm 100w heater

stand in place

Tank and doors in place

RO water being added along with my aquascape I built (thanks BRS DIY Video!)

Neptune Apex gear installed with other misc parts, adding a few other rocks to the scape. mounted fans, tank was already running hot, dialed the return back a bit.

radion xr30 blues mounted, along with some extra gear in the sump. Cycle started with Fritz 900 Turbo Start.

cable management supplies arrived and need to start cleaning up the cables and mounting power bricks. Still need to install UV, Trident, fuge light, dosing containers and tubing.

Plan is to setup a mixed reef this time, will be bringing over my fish from the temporary tank I have setup leftover from my tank crash.

more to come as the build progresses.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Very modern and clean look. Quite impressive!

 

[jd-woodlands]

Got some cable management done, dosing tubing ran, and moved over some clowns and a couple pieces of GSP to help break the tank in.

tried installing the UV upside down over the sump, but after plumbing it in and trying a few things with pvc, I could not get the air pocket in the chamber to clear. Looks like I have room in the back left to have it stand vertically, now just waiting on tubing to arrive to hook it up.

next steps are installing the dosing container, installing the trident, and installing the UV.

lights are on AB+ at 25% for now, will ramp up when I'm ready for some corals.

 

[Susan Edwards]

sweet system!

 

[Saltyanimals]

I also have an m180. Far and few of us out there. Looks great. Stay in touch.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Any updates?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank is very nice and organized looking!

 

[jd-woodlands]

Yes! Picture updates will be coming in the next week. Have added quite a few fish + SPS + LPS. Coming along nicely so far, no coral losses yet (fingers crossed).

I had been dosing phosphates to get them off of zero, successfully achieved stabilized rate of .03-05, now tackling nitrates which were 0 as well. Dosing nitrates now to target 5-10ppm which has worked well for me.

Also figured out my Hanna Salinity monitor was always incorrect, even after frequent calibration - moved to the old school Tropic Marin Precise Hydrometer and now have correct salinity values - they were 1pt PPT off.

Refugium now established as well with Caulerpa and miracle mud base, lighting 24hrs, and growing nicely.

Also lowered my target alk to 7.5 - seeing a good response with PE on the SPS at that level and hopefully should provide more alk swing wiggle room.

Had an issue with Trident reagents, a set was reporting Calcium at 520ppm and mag at 1500+ which were impossible levels. At first Neptune Systems was reluctant to say that their reagents were bad/wrong, my other test kits were off, etc... but after those reagents ran out and new ones put in service, the values immediately came down by over 100pts on each test. After that was shown to them they happily sent out a replacement 2 month kit. Thanks for following through on that Neptune.

 

[jd-woodlands]

Photo update!

Full tank shot, all SPS have been in for about 8 weeks now, haven't lost one stick.

LPS is going strong as well, no losses yet, have an elegance that is struggling that is under low light and has been dipped. Probably ECS so we will see.

a little closer..

side profile!

mixed reef area off to the sides and the bare bottom.

SPS up close...

nice neon pink/green lobo and some frogspawn

my clam - going on 3+ years I think...

 

[jd-woodlands]

Tank parameters :

temp 78
Salinity 35ppt
Alk 7.5
Cal 430
Mag 1350
Phos .04-.08 ppm
Nitrate 10-15 ppm
12 hr photo period - Radion G5 Blues @ 70% with 600 par highest to 200
UV + Socks + Skimmer + 24/7 light refugium + Miracle mud + Caulerpa + Carbon reactor

Fish:
6 standard clowns
5 Blue eye anthias
1 purple striped wrasse
1 Watanabe Angel
1 Flameback angel
1 Powder blue tang
1 purple tang
1 maucelips tang

maintenance:
Filter sock change 2x week
15 gal water change 1x week
Trident controlled alk + cal dosing
Glass clean 2x week
Skimmer and gyres clean every 2 months
Reactor carbon change 1 month
UV bulb 1x year
Return + misc pumps clean 2x year

 

[Petcrazyson]

That Freckle Tang has got to be one of my favorite fish in there!

 

[Saltyanimals]

Congrats and love the minimalistic scape. The whole "pile of rocks" has never been my thing.

My M180 is coming on a 2yr anniversary myself and so far has been holding up. The glass tends to scratch quite easily so be careful there. And one of my doors is coming off with the failure being in the PVC door itself and not a simple hinge replacement. Other than that, it's a good tank.

 

[jd-woodlands]

Congrats and love the minimalistic scape. The whole "pile of rocks" has never been my thing.

My M180 is coming on a 2yr anniversary myself and so far has been holding up. The glass tends to scratch quite easily so be careful there. And one of my doors is coming off with the failure being in the PVC door itself and not a simple hinge replacement. Other than that, it's a good tank.

Thanks - on the door issue, had a small one already with my son leaning on one, cracked the PVC And took the hinge with it. Was able to liquid nails everything back in place and can't tell anything on the repair.

once the corals grow in, it certainly won't look minimal.

 

[Saltyanimals]

Thanks - on the door issue, had a small one already with my son leaning on one, cracked the PVC And took the hinge with it. Was able to liquid nails everything back in place and can't tell anything on the repair.

once the corals grow in, it certainly won't look minimal.

Hey @jd-woodlands . How are you attaching your gear i.e. EB832 to the back inside white panel inside the cabinet? Are you driving screwed right through the back? I was always concerned with adding anything that may stress the panels thus ended up running 4 inch PVC boards which screwed into the aluminum black cabinet frame.

I added a manifold, but it continues to sag because I don't have adequate support beams to hang them on so looking for some t-slot type conversion that may attach to the existing Neptunian cabinet frame.

 

[jd-woodlands]

Just using screws through the panels. Everything is pretty secure, no issues with stuff moving. Nice idea on the pvc panels, if I ever move it maybe I'll reinforce the back panel just to save a bit of space on the inside.

It's pretty tight once all the gear is in there.

 

[jd-woodlands]

Having major issues keeping Ph up, dropping as low as 7.35. Corals are looking rough, getting STN like I have never had before.

SPS is burning tips on some, full STN on a smooth skin, and others look strange, never had this issue before.

Opened my windows and now Ph is peaking in the 8+ range, alk consumption is now slowly coming up. Hopefully the SPS recovers.

Just purchased a Panasonic WhisperComfort ERV to install to take care of air exchange in the room so I don't have to have windows open 24x7 as they partially face the street. Will update with pictures of the install once I get started.

 

[Saltyanimals]

I decided to move most my gear out of the tank cabinet to an adjacent cabinet so bit of a reorg over the past week. Now that I have the extra space, I'm going back to trying to fix the sagging manifold hence the research mode to see how folks are mounting gear inside these Neptunian Cube cabinets. I also notice the fuge chaeto light that mounts under that gravity fed ATO box. Mine did not come with the light so will have to look into where I can purchase one. i.e. TAP ?

As for pH. I'm in the same boat now with my pH ranging 7.5-7.9 on a good day. I attribute it to a combination of CaRx reactor plus recent move to biopellets to address my NO3 issues on top of a new construction home that's sealed up good. I do open the occasional window to air out, but not enough to keep the pH up. Houston weather is fine now to open a window, but no no during the summer time. =) Will be looking for an update on your WhisperComfort ERV if that helps you.

 

[nolanrobi]

Any updates on the tank? It looks amazing.

 

[jd-woodlands]

Any updates on the tank? It looks amazing.

Funny you should ask, just made some updates in the last two weeks. I'll prepare a post this week, need to get some pictures.

 

[jd-woodlands]

I'll start with some text updates, pictures to follow.

1. Ok, I stocked my tank too early with SPS (again) because I am impatient, so I lost some colonies.

2. Fast forward a bit, tank settled in, parameters good, got some modest growth. Some new frags and colonies stalled out or never grew even after many many months.

3. Wanted to go a route so I wouldn't have to water change anymore, got on reef moonshiners program for trace element replacements. This has been good and no water changes since sept 2023.

4. Nitrates and phosphates got a bit higher than I liked, started carbon dosing with vinegar. I saw some good results with lowered nitrates and phosphates, some new growth happened. Tank stable.

5. Recently pulled off the UV to treat another tank for Dinos for a few weeks.

6. During those few weeks without UV, growth explodes, polyp extension increases, colors are better. That gets me thinking, perhaps I run without UV and continue carbon dosing.

7. No negative impacts without UV for 1 month, so I stay as is. I'm a fan of simplifying and reducing equipment when possible.

8. I see the latest TOTM and say, well I am halfway there with carbon dosing, let's give the full bacteria process a try with ZeoVit.

9. Removed refugium, installed a ZeoVit reactor, got the media, and ZeoBak dosing now.

10. Realized my skimmer was undersized for my bioload (fish are now HUGE and FAT!!), so just upgraded to a used LifeReef SVS-30 skimmer (Venturi style, it's huge!). Getting that tuned in now.

11. In the initial startup / conversion phase of ZeoVit, so monitoring Nitrates and Phosphates. So far so good, values are trending down, will ideally let them settle very low, but I am not in the camp of trying to get them to 0/0. I think there should be some detectable amounts. Tying to go low but very stable.

12. Really like the idea of feeding corals via the malm from the reactor and not adding additional foods.