Braeden's 22 Gallon SPS Dominated Cube

[Aquaticguy11]

Hi Everyone,

Now that I have some time on my hands, I am going to be showing my build to everyone. This is my first saltwater tank but I have done a lot of research and felt completely comfortable with setting this thing up. Currently my tank is about 2 months old but I am going to take you back to the beginning. Please comment and tell me if you see anything wrong and give me suggestions.

Frame of the stand


Plywood for the sides and top of the stand


Painting The Stand


Finished Stand


Siliconing baffles in 20 Gallon Sump


Finished Sump


Koralia 750 (Circulation)


Test Kits, got calcium after I took this picture


Maxi Jet 900 (Circulation)


Eheim 1000 (Return Pump)


Bulk Reef Supply 4 Stage RO/DI Unit


Aluminum Bar for my 250W PFO Metal Halide. This was painted black and another piece was added to it for better mounting


Ready for placement in my living room


Sitting in it's permanent spot, looking pretty nice. I know It is by a window but the tank itself won't get any direct sunlight. Also I will be keeping the blinds closed most of the time.


This is up to about February 10th. Hopefully I did everything properly. I will post some more pics of the tank up and running from the last month later tonight or tomorrow. Please comment and tell me if I should change anything.

Thanks

[Casey8]

Very nice stand you built ! You would be very proud of yourself if you see how I built my ugly stand

[Aquaticguy11]

Originally Posted by Casey8

Very nice stand you built ! You would be very proud of yourself if you see how I built my ugly stand

Thank You.

[Aquaticguy11]

Filling up with fresh RO/DI water. Very exciting!!! Also got 3/4's of the rock in. Not my final aquascape.


Adding Reef Crystals Salt


Made a stand for my skimmer so that it would be sitting in the proper water level in my sump. All I did was cut a square of egg crate out to the right size, then the PVC legs, then cut and drilled some holes in them so that detritus wouldn't build up in there, then I zap strapped the PVC legs to the egg crate.


Added the live sand



Under the stand


Water clearing up a little bit


I will post some more pics later. Enjoy!

[Aquaticguy11]

Here is where the fun part began for me. Watching the tank grow into a small piece of the ocean.

New aquascape. This I believe is my permanent scape. A new powerhead for the time being since the Koralia 750 was blowing my sand around a little. I will be putting a Koralia 550 in here along with this Maxi Jet 900. In the future I will hopefully get 1 MP10 which would be ideal since the 2 power heads that are in there now don't look the nicest.

View from my chair


View from the front. On the front right rock there will be a neon green torch coral. I will also have 2 True Percula Clowns that will hopefully host the torch.


A couple of close-ups of my rock work




The Koralia 550 is now in and I also got a fan to blow over the water surface.


Also bought a Reef Keeper Light to control my metal halide, Koralia, heater and fan. I absolutely love this thing!! It keeps my temperature perfect. Between 78.4 - 78.6


Will be posting some more pictures a bit later, SPS and Zoas!! Stay tuned.

[Snaz]

Looks great so far. How do plan to cycle?

[Aquaticguy11]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

That last photo is a great shot! Are you going to raise the fry? The babies are soooo darn cute!

Thanks! Yes I am planning on raising the fry. I have a 10 gallon sunlit tank that has a deep sand bed, chaeto and some rock in it. I can't wait to see the little guys swimming around in the males mouth!

[Aquaticguy11]

Update:

Some more bad news in the way of live stock. My female clownfish decided that she wanted to jump out just like her husband did. Greattt.... I think I am going to stay away from clownfish for a while until I get some kind of screen on my tank.

Some good news is that my male Bangaii is still holding the eggs and we are now at day 16. Hopefully he will hold them for the remaining few days.

I set up a ten gallon tank with mature tank water, some chaeto from my fuge, and a deep sand bed about a month ago and this will be the new babies home. I have some brine shrimp eggs and a hatchery ready to go and will see if I can raise these little guys.

[brizzo]

Any updates on this cool build?

[Aquaticguy11]

Shut it down about 9 months ago. Playing hockey and going to university. I didn't have enough time or money for it any more.