Salmonshutters' 30 Gallon Rimless Cube

[phi delt reefer]

shallow tank - best advice i can give you (mine is 12" deep as well) STAY AWAY from the sugar sand.

1" of the carib sea special grade sea floor. Its the largest sand sifting safe sand and small enough that crap will stay on top of it. I have to siphon 2" of sugar sand from my tank (60lbs+) to swap in that the carib sea stuff. Its just wont stop blowing around and my tanks been setup for 5 weeks now.

 

[salmonshutters]

shallow tank - best advice i can give you (mine is 12" deep as well) STAY AWAY from the sugar sand.

1" of the carib sea special grade sea floor. Its the largest sand sifting safe sand and small enough that crap will stay on top of it. I have to siphon 2" of sugar sand from my tank (60lbs+) to swap in that the carib sea stuff. Its just wont stop blowing around and my tanks been setup for 5 weeks now.

I know, I've made that mistake before. It blew around like crazy in the 15 that i had and I hated it, it didn't help that I had a pistol shrimp that threw it around everywhere.

 

[salmonshutters]

Do you think a 700 gallon per hour mag drive pump be a good pump for a return, with enough flow to not have any powerheads?

 

[salmonshutters]

I have it almost all plumbed except for half of the sump and the plumbing from the pump to the outlets.

 

[-Logzor]

Do you think a 700 gallon per hour mag drive pump be a good pump for a return, with enough flow to not have any powerheads?

You could splurge a bit and buy a higher GPH water blaster pump. You can always throttle it back to lower the GPH and electric consumption.

For the rock towers some of the BRS reef saver rock would work well, along with a bit of their rubble rock.

I know it's all plumbed but you might want to consider spraying your PVC in the tank black with some krylon fusion paint. I know most of it will be covered with rock but the black will help conceal it. The white may stick out and attract some algae growth.

Looks great though, can't wait to see it up and running!

 

[salmonshutters]

I actually haven't glued the parts to the bulk heads yet because of that reason, I may even epoxy and sand cover it to allow it to blend in even more.

 

[alexshefchik]

Looking real good, whats the stocking plan? Lots of chalices right? Haha

 

[salmonshutters]

i plan to have 2-3 really nice bubble tips, and then mostly lps with a few nice sps up top. I'm thinking about changing the outlet to go straight back and then put a 90 degree elbow to go to the overflow, so I can have more of a l shape for aqua scaping. Which will leave more room on the sand bed for lobos and plates, and what not lol

 

[alexshefchik]

Sounds awesome so more of a mixed reef! I am too scared to have anemones with other corals or I would totally do it. I am going to follow this thread to see any tricks to keep them in place!

 

[Troylee]

looking good man almost there i can smell it...1smile1

 

[alexshefchik]

Is that the PVC cement and cleaner you smell Troy? lol

 

[Alkamist]

wow looks really good! and now looking at all these cubes its making me wanna switch my tank out for one lol

 

[salmonshutters]

I'm thinking of doing uniseals for my bulk heads on the ten gallon for the sump so i can run two side by side without a lot of space in between them. I've broken two already trying to connect them with one bulkhead so if i can find them and get them fairly soon I will do that otherwise I will be going with a 5.5 gallon with an external pump.

 

[mgdmirage]

You could cut down those bulkheads or buy low profile bulkheads, would make it a bit easier. It looks like a real tight fit.

 

[salmonshutters]

i have about an inch to work with so i don't think bulk heads will work. I'm also curious on how well the uniseals work, they look real easy to install. Hopefully they don't leak overtime or have problems with them leaking. Today I was working on covering the overflow and the outlets with sand to help it blend in more.

 

[salmonshutters]

Here is a picture of them completed in the tank. Let me know what you think, I still want to add a lock line nozzle to the end of the returns so i have some ability to change the flow around.

 

[salmonshutters]

Took some new photos today of the tank up and running. I currently sealed the bulkheads to run it without a sump due to my current budget. I'm pretty happy with how its looking now.

Here you can see the whole setup.

 

[spscrackhead]

very awesome concept. i have the same goal for my 24x24x12 rimless, nothing hanging over the top of that rimless glass. why do you have the hang on? throw a filter sock on your sump and your good. do you plan on getting a mp10?

*edit*
op just saw that about your budget. understand now lol.

 

[salmonshutters]

It has been quite a while since my last update on here. I have a few months of progress.......so here it goes.

New photos as of 9/22/13


FTS

JF Glowstick Chalice and some rastas

Front

Side

My fish : 2 clowns (1 picasso and 1 platinum)
3 Blue-green Chromis

2 clowns in the sump (2 fancy whites) May be parting with these.

I figured it was about time for an update. I rearranged the rock work last week and I'm much happier with it. I do think I could add a few more pieces however.

Front

Right

Left

Few acan frags

JF Jack-o-lantern front left, JF Glowstick Chalice center, Rastas on the right

My most prized acan, first acan frag ever and I still have it after losing half of it twice. Orginally got it from Jason and now its starting to get its green back from the lighting.

Frag of JF Glowstick chalice if someone is interested.

Brian's Baby Watermelon front left, Sickly Pink ******* front middle, Purple Erkle front right, Random Acan frags in the back.

 

[salmonshutters]

Newest Addition to the aquarium......Pipefish!


I have had him since the middle of October. Has been eating cyclopeeze since day one.

I got some new corals in today. I'm gonna give some sps a try. I have been successful with my first two frags I received a few months ago. I also got a new bubble tip anemone. It has some real bright pink tips.


New FTS

Two of the new frags one in the front and one behind.

New anemone in the middle of the other two.

Moved some frags from plugs to a new rock, have a little algae growth because the rock was dry. :-??

One of the nem.

Took some new photos to document some additions to the tank. I have been really happy with coral growth recently. I feel some of my newer sps pieces are starting to grow a bit.