R3verb's new 60 gal Cube!

[R3verb]

So I'm sick of my 90 gallon tank, it's time for something new! We just moved and unfortunately, I lost a fish (my yellow tang) and my long spine black urchin. That leaves me with just my Clarki clown fish and my black domino damsel. It was a hard move and even though everything went up pretty quickly, I think the sand just had too much ammonia in it. They will be missed.

With only those two fish left, It gives me the option to go a little smaller and a lot nicer. It's actually a blessing in disguise since our new house is a lot smaller than our old place and a smaller tank will fit the room a lot better.

Here are the things I HATED about my 90 gallon:
-The hood was heavy and had to be lifted off the tank every time I wanted to get into the tank
-The overflow was noisy
-The stand had a tiny little door in the middle that was the only way to service anything in the sump
-You could only fit a 15 gallon sump in the tiny compartment under the tank
-No room for reactors or 2 part
-The ATO was an orange Home Depot bucket that sat next to the tank in the living room
-Acrylic, nuff said

Here is what I'm doing to fix these problems:
-Rimless 60 gallon GLASS tank with a suspended LED light fixture. This means glass (no more scratching the tank with your fingernail!), an open top so I can always easily get cleaning tools in and the suspended LED fixture means I don't have to move the hood to get into the tank. I should also get better gas exchange this way!
-Custom stand. I will be building the stand myself to match the entertainment center.
-Better overflow design. While I will still only have 1 overflow pipe, I am going to have the room to make a silencer so keep the noise down.
-Plumbing down to the basement. This should help with noise as well as ease of access to the sump. With the sump in the basement, I can go BIG (55 gallon breeder custom sump is what I'm going for) and with it being open and at chest level, It will be a lot easier to service, do water changes, add 2 part, get the ATO out of the living room and hopefully even give me room for a refugium!

I'll take some pictures and upload the design for the stand tomorrow but get ready, this is going to be a fun thread!

 

[Becky]

Sorry to hear about the death of some of your 90 gal tank inhabitants, but this sounds like an excellent project! I'm really looking forward to seeing some photos :thumbsup:

 

[R3verb]

TANK ORDERED!! Here it is:
http://www.marineland.com/Products/glass-aquariums-and-tanks/cube-column-aquariums.aspx

I also bought the wood for the stand. Once the tank gets here and I can triple check the dimensions, I'll start that build on here. More to come!

 

[Becky]

Whoop whoop! How long do you have to wait for it to be delivered?

 

[R3verb]

Tank build update! I picked up the tank last Thursday!!! IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!! Marineland 60 gallon cube. Specs said it was 24"x24"x24" but it turns out it's actually 24"x23 13/16"X23 13/16". I know this SEEMS like splitting hairs but man am I glad I didn't start building the tank stand before I measured the tank for myself! Here's a few pictures of the tank:

And my first dogfish (this is the look of a very mad dogfish)!

Woodworking project began tonight as well. Here's a few pictures of the store-bought entertainment center that I am trying to match the style of and then the beginnings of what will be the stand:

I want to make sure to capture these little details. If you look, they intentionally cut gaps into each seam. These are those little details that will make what I'm making look like it matches what I already have. Matching the glass (or getting new glass for all 3 doors) and matching the hardware (or replacing all of the hardware) will also really help with this.

The cabinet part of stand. This is all made out of a single piece of 3/4" Alder plywood. Plywood is super strong so it should have no trouble at all holding the tank up. The front of the casing will all be made out of solid Alder hardwood but I didn't get any of that cut up tonight.

It's all just held together with clamps in these pictures but I'll use a couple of Festool dominos to get a really tight fit and a super sturdy base. Notice how the top sits on top of all 3 walls instead of inside of them and the bottom sits inside of the outer walls. This means the weight of the tank will sit on a single piece of wood, a very even surface, and then the weight is distributed to the walls of the case and straight down to the floor. This should give me a SUPER strong structure. There will be some bracing on the inside of the stand as well to avoid any bowing of the top piece.

More pictures to come! Hopefully tomorrow I can get the hardwood cut to size and maybe get the case glued up!

 

[Becky]

I picked up the tank last Thursday!!! IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!

I get the impression you're a bit excited! :D

All looks excellent, I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses. Oh and I love the dogfish! :LOL: Cute little fella, what's their name?

 

[R3verb]

OK! Tank Update! So the stand is ALMOST done. The case is completely built, now I just need to sand and stain it and I should have it siting in my living room within a WEEK! Pictures to come :-D

 

[Becky]

Excellent, that's exciting news! :D Looking forward to seeing some photos :thumbsup:

 

[R3verb]

Ok, I know it's been a really long time but I've been working on the tank and not on the updates so I apologize for that. Here's the progress since we last left off:

Here's some of the up close detailed shots of the face frame and how it matches the rest of the furniture in my living room:

Next, the stand got stained, finished and put in the house!

And then finally glass and hardware were added:

And last but not least, the tank on top sitting on some neoprene rubber:

Next, it was time to build out the DREAM sump so I ordered a TON of stuff from BRS and it all came in one day. It was like fishtank Christmas 2 weeks after Christmas lol:

So after getting all of that stuff, I made a sump stand and an upright for all of the things I needed to attach to it (this is post getting painted white and while the red is drying):

And then getting the plumbing all figured out. This tank is up in my living room but I have it plumbed down to my cellar under my house. It's great because the ceiling is way too low for it to ever be a usable room but perfect for storage and fish stuff! In total, there's about 30' of pipe between the sump and the tank but only about 8' of head pressure so it worked out really nicely (plus my wife is happy because no more buckets in the living room!) The other thing that you don't see if here is that I installed a dedicated 20amp breaker that is only for the fish tank. This is a luxury but a great one if you can do it. The other 2 yellow wires go to a gang box under the tank so that I can still control my lights and powerheads with my APEX without having to buy a new power bar (think of it like making your own extension cords.):

And then finally, after having to be a carpenter, a plumber, an electrician and a painter, I got to put water into the system!!!:

And here's a few pictures of the "finished" product (I say finished because there is still a lot to do but now it's all fish tank stuff instead of woodworking, plumbing etc.)

Sorry for not taking you guys along on the ride a little more. Hope to keep updating this thread as things get a little more fishy!

 

[Becky]

That is looking awesome! I love the nice job you've done with the cabinet, it looks ace.

On a random note, I couldn't help but notice Pandemic in your board game collection - I love that game! :D

 

[rainbowreef]

I love cubes.. Great job on the DIY

 

[R3verb]

Quick update! I know these are few and far between but here it is!

There's some algae issues right now but that's going away quickly. Next up, the latest from the basement!

It's actually a little more done than in this picture but I'll get there when I get a new shot. Lastly, the APEX is set up! super happy about that. Hopefully the dKH will come up a little more and then it's time for coral!!

casey

 

[Becky]

Looking good @R3verb :thumbsup: