buying a cube

[Dozer]

I'm going to River City Aquatics tomorrow (great store btw!) and I think I'm going to order a tank. I'm leaning strongly toward a 24" cube. I've never set up anything like this before. I've always only had standard rectangular type display tanks with the back up against a wall. I'm going to put it between my bedroom and my den (which is right off the bedroom) as kind of a room divider. The left side of the cube will be against the wall of the doorway and the other 3 sides will be open for viewing. The plumbing will go on the left side up against the wall and I was thinking I'll try and build something that looks like part of the stand that I build that will hid the plumbing.

Anyway, I'm looking for thoughts and suggestions about plumbing, height and lighting- and anything else you can think of about a cube shaped tank. I was thinking of ordering it with a couple holes in the back rather than the bottom so I can do something like a Calfo overflow type idea. Any thoughts on that? Any thoughts on height? It's the same price whether it's 25" tall or 20" tall or 18" tall or even 15" tall, so it's not a cost thing on the height.

Any experiences/thoughts on this would be appreciated before I go place my order :)

[MissT]

have you read through cpreefguy's thread?

http://www.maast.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=38565

Pretty sweet setup... That's a cool size tank.

[Dozer]

as a matter of fact I'm reading it right now. Looks really good!

[BIGBIRD123]

Mike,
You need to check out the waterfall cube they have at RC. It's viewable from three sides and the plumbing and all are at the back. If I had a place to put one....


Steve

[jtrux]

I'd go with the tallest one personally.

[RayAllen]

25" is a good height.

[ErikH]

I am buying one that is 24x24x18. :) I going to have it plumbed with a calfo. Ace made a stand that hid all of the plumbing for a tank that was given away.

[Dozer]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it! I decided to order it 24X24X24.

I need to tell them where to drill the holes on the back for drains. Any suggestions??

[ErikH]

Ace (Hobogato) should be able to tell you where. Are you doing a standard corner overflow or a calfo?

[DrMark]

Mike,
You need to check out the waterfall cube they have at RC. It's viewable from three sides and the plumbing and all are at the back. If I had a place to put one....


Steve

Are you referring to the DSA neo nano. I saw one at aquadome when visiting a couple of weeks ago. I liked it a lot. Tempted.
Mark

[clone]

get one of those external overflows like Greenmakos

[RayAllen]

excellent choise in size. I dont have a cube but my tank is 24x18x20 and yours with 24 in depth will alow for cool scaping. Id drill to holes bottom center, one for a return the other for drain. If you can go external that will leave you more room for rock and coral.

[Dozer]

thanks clone. I'm just reading his big long build thread, it's freaking amazing. I'm not going to get that fancy this time around.

Ray- do you mean the back panel near the bottom, or do you mean the bottom of the tank? I was actually leaning toward doing holes in the back panel towards the top, sort of Calfo style. Then either building a small box around it, or just putting 90 degree elbow pvc pieces pointing up inside the tank.

I need to figure out the returns too. I want most of the flow to come from tunze powerheads or a closed loop, so my plan is very little return flow. I could have holes drilled for that or just come in over the top for the return/returns...

[clone]

thats were i got the aluminum light rack idea from.
imo a closed loop woulld ba a bit cheaper.

[RayAllen]

Either will work, If you drill the bottom you can do internal durso, but you can also do the calflow style and do a external durso. Calflow is the new popular route to go.