78 Gallon Cube - How Much Flow

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Bubbles really need calm waters or they rip & die.

[Josh23]

Thanks guys...
What size is your cube tank Tony? do you have a link to the tank setup? If your tank is running smoothly I may copy the design. Are there things you would like to change or improve?

What do you think of closed loops, drilling the bottom of the tank. Should I be concerned about the bulkheads leaking?

Ill look at smaller pump for my closed loop maybe in the 2500 gph range.

thanks for the help

Josh

[Delphinus]

No unfortunately I never detailed the tank setup in a thread. I really should have, ooops. It's a 30x30x30. I'm running a Rio HF32 as the sump return (mistake, it's too much flow through the sump and I have a bad microbubble problem - I'm considering downgrading the pump) and the main flow is 2x6100 Tunzes on a multicontroller.

Although I will be pulling the Tunzes and installing them on my 280g when it goes online. Unfortunately they are a little too pricey to have 2 sets onhand. I haven't figured out what to replace them with but it will likely involve a Wavysea waving back and forth. Might be a closed loop or it might be a Seio attached to the Wavysea.

I imagine if the bulkheads had a bead of silicone underneath there's no reason to believe they'd ever leak. But, I have to admit, I'd still be a little nervous about it. But there are tanks out there that do that.

[Josh23]

wow thats very similar to the tank Im setting up 30x30x20. How do you find the space for rockscape. Do you have any pictures? What kind of lighting did you go with? What fish and corals are you keeping?

[Delphinus]

The tank works well for its intended purpose which is more of a dedicated species tank rather than an overall reef. I have a rock pillar ("bommie") in the centre which is directly under the 250W DE halide, and my H. magnifica anemone sits atop that. There is about 6" of sandbed all around the bommie.

It's not the sexiest looking tank there ever was but here's a FTS:


It used to have more corals in there. I have a problem with hitchhiker crabs eating my zoos, so I pulled out all the corals and moved them into my other tank. It used to look more like this:


One day I hope to bring it back to something like that, but since it looks like I have to tear down the rockwork to get at the crabs, I've been putting it off until my other projects are closer to done. Moving the anemone is a bit dicey as it's quite large and .. well.. doesn't like to be moved much. The fish would have to be moved into a different system for at least a few days because when the anemone is annoyed, fish die.

Anyhow there are of course other aquascaping options. I think 30x30 offers a lot of choice. The only thing I've found is that it is a little harder getting the flow conditions right in a cube, at least with the fan shaped outputs of the Tunzes (for every piece of water pushed to one side, there is an equal volume pushed back). I kind of wish I could have more of an oscillation effect, but I guess I'd need a wavebox for that sort of thing.

[Josh23]

What fish are you currently or have you kept in that cube tank?
ill have to google a wavebox - im not aware of the product.
What do you think of ocean motions?

[Delphinus]

I've never had an OM but I think they are neat products.

This is a wavebox: http://www.tunze.com/149.html?&L=1&C...-infoxunter016
It moves water in and out of the box creating a displacement wave. Very cool effect but you need the right length of tank (I think 30" is the minimum - longer is probably better since ).

The only two fish I have in there are a Siganus virgatus (two barred rabbitfish) and a Psuedochromis fridmani (orchid dottyback).