30 Gallon Oceanic Cube - HIATT filtration

[Ram_Puppy]

Well, every dark cloud has a silver lining they say. My apartment complex is asking me to break down my 120 gallon tank because through sume unforseen gravitational anomaly (or something more plausable) my clamped down top off hose (from the RO filter) came lose and started pumping copius amounts of nice expensive RO water into my down stairs neighbors roof. A couple $K of sheetrock cielings and drywall/pain/carpet later... everyones settled down and they are allowing me to downsize to a 30 gallon cube. The only thing I am keeping are my clowns and some feather dusters, my live rock (huge show pieces) have gone to a friend for 'rock sitting' until I have a house, and my tank will be cleaned out and put in storage this weekend.

So... the 30 cube.

It's an Oceanic Contrast Cube, cherry finish, that i got from CB Pets (thanks for getting it so fast Mark and Richard!)

Filtration is a single Rena Filstar XP4, modified. (modificaiton is cutting out the bottoms of all but the bottom basket, and zip tieing them together. it's loaded w/ 5 lbs of tribase carbon, and has a pre-filter sponge on the intake. spraybar is just under the surface, causing the surface water to 'boil' to improve offgassing and O2 exchange (I understand this is crucial.)

I put about 1 1/2 inch of sand in the bottom which is a mix of carib sea special grade, and seachem's 'silver coast' (I think that's what it's called) which is basically crushed shells) the sand has a very natural look to it, salt and pepper appearance. There is 9 lbs of live rock, which will seed another ~30 lbs of live rock which I allowed to dry out earlier this year while suffering from stupidity. I have not cured any of it, I just shoved it in the tank, arranged it and went from there.

To add some Chaos to the mix, I put in a Mag 3 attatched to a SCQD i had from an older tank. it's actually putting out quite a bit of flow and from the light sand cloud I got from adding the water, it's very chaotic flow.

Lighting, for now, is a 20K BLV HQI - 250 watts, on an icecap electronic ballast and a reefoptix pendant/reflector. right now, the light is just sitting on some 2x4's I hope to have a simple canopy built over the next couple weeks using Richards recipie for ocean cherry stain, it will be simple, clean, and open top. either hanging from the cieling, or mounted to the wall.

Moonlights are by www.thelobos.com and adjust throughout the month to imitate a moon cycle.

I have an aversion to small tanks after my 30 hex crashed a couple years ago from heat problems. so w/ just the live rock in there yesterday, I fired up the metal halide, filter, and pumps, and it only got to 76. and that is w/ the halide 2 inches off the glass top (which I will be using unless evaporative cooling becomes a neccessity, but for now, since heat doesn't appear to be an issue, I'm leaving it on to CONTROL evap.

I will be at work for another hour or so, but will take pictures when I get home and post them.

I thought i would be sad at seeing the big tank go, but I am excited about the challenge of keeping a smaller tank.

since I am using the HIATT method, I thought you all might like regular updates like Richards Seahorse thread. except, this will be a full blown reef, first occupants, marroon clowns, in a couple weeks, when I am sure all is stable, a RBTA.

[Ross]

sweet, looking forward to it. I just got my 30 cube running today also.

[cpreefguy]

Sorry to hear, but those 30 cubes are some of the coolest tanks out there
WE NEED PICS

[Ram_Puppy]

OK, Here we go. Pics!
Here's a shot from accross the room. Lights off.

Fired up the 10K Ushio. (decided to go w/ this rather than the 20K BLV puts out WAY more light.

Inside the stand. that's the XP4. Cable mess will be cleaned up w/ velcro to mount things, and zip ties for cable management this week.

Rocks, light and sand

More Rocks light and sand

A little perspective shot.


The light is messy right now, but over the coming weeks I will build a shelf into that wall that will hold the lights (moon lights too) etc. that will hide all that messiness. Shelf will be open on top for heat to escape.

we have almost completely stripped this room of furniture except for that new Futon. THis is going to be a fish/computer/library room. Walls will be painted a honey wheat type color over the coming weeks, along w/ a new desk. I might move my leather chair in here as well. anyhow, room is ugly now but were working on it. Heavy curtains will block that window off since during the summer that wall gets a western exposure. that's the only thing worrying me right now. if it becomes an issue, thankfully the tank is small enough I can easily move it accross the room.

[cpreefguy]

looks great! cant wait to see it full of corals 8)

[Ram_Puppy]

you and me both!

[Ram_Puppy]

OK, well on Sunday I tossed some sea frost in the cube (paper tube colonial feather dusters that breed like mad - good food source! ) as a biological barometer. They opened up almost immediately and have been going strong ever since.

Amonia (which is all i am currently testing for) is undetectable. (I am goign to buy a new test kit this weekend probably) so, w/ my little barometers telling me all was well I went ahead and moved over some live stock. remember, I am on a time crunch here so I am going faster than a normal tank would allow, but since this is a HIATT system, stocking on day one is reccomended.

So, heres some pics. note that hawiaan feather duster had fully come out w/in 5 minutes of being added to the tank.