So I got this tank after Ch3tt posted that he got one. I loved the tank immediately ran and picked one up from the same place he just got his, birdworld. I also had always wanted a smaller cube tank because I really admired snowsfrs old CAD. So all the credit for me wanting this tank goes to those two.
I'm going to turn it into a SPS dominate tank. I'm starting over on SPS since none of my old SPS survived the crash. I still have a lot of LPS that i'm moving over to this tank but i'm going to get rid of most of it once I decide what looks best in it.
EquipmentCAD 2, 50 gallon cube with starefire glass.
CADs Sump
MP10WES with Battery backup
Custom aluminum arm from Brett that holds the Radion Gen 2
Eshopps cone skimmer
BRS Media Reatoc for Carbon and GFO
Marine Magic triple dosing Pump
APEX with WXM Module
Tropic Eden Sand
Shelf Rock
Just like how I wanted to originally do my 180 gallon design I wanted to do a very minimalistic bonsai look. I wanted to have really good circulation of water so no big mountains against the wall or anything like that. I didn't want a lot of rock because I wanted to leave a lot of swim room for fish. I'm way to attached to most of my fish so i'm going to be really packing them into this 50 gallon.
I thought about having Vida build me a rock because I had a very specific design in my head, but decided to just try and build it myself. Found some great rock MickeyB and set off to figure out how to make it work. ReefdUP suggested drilling holes and zip tying the rock together. When Ch3tt heard I was doing this he suggested using synthetic rods to help support so I did a combination. Got a base rock, and a bunch of shelf pieces and put hoes and rods down the middle. I wish I would have taken some pics of the process but I wasn't thinking Its still a work in progress but I'm happy with where its at right now.
Whats really cool is each of those arms and top piece are all on its own pivot point. So I can swivel them around however I like wherever I like.
Lots of good real estate for SPS.
The tank had just water and rock in it for about two weeks. Then I added the new sand and had that for about another 3 weeks. Then moved over some test frags for a week. Then a test fish for another week. Then last week I moved over the majority of my coral. The coral all went through a pretty rigorous dipping regiment that was a little too thorough. A bunch of pieces came out of it pretty damaged. Luckily they all recovered just fine.
Edited by Laird - June 30 2013 at 12:12pm