Reefermike's 45 shallowcube

[ReeferMike]

heres a little breakdown of my latest project- a 24x24x18 cube tank. just last fall i downsized my 110gallon sps reef to a 15gallon nano, keeping alot of my monties and zoanthids but pretty much getting rid of everything else. then last month decided the nano was too small and that i wanted something in between. thats when i decided i wanted to do a cube.

my goals for the tank were that i wanted a mixed reef, and that i really wanted to emphasize simplicity. i dont want corals that are extremely demanding, nor do i want a fully automated tank. you'll find no reactors or controllers or refugiums... just light, flow, sand, rock, and a skimmer.

keeping with the "back to basics" ideology, i built the tank sumpless with with a custom in-tank surface skimmer/bubble reducer box that i built for it. the heater, thermometer, skimmer, return pump, and ato sensor all fit back there.

theres about 1-1.5" sandbed with approximately (i honestly have no idea but guessing) 30pounds of figi liverock.

livestock:
sunset monti
superman monti
rainbow monti
green, purple, and red monti
pink smoothy digi
purple digi, red digi
fuzzy blue acro
light blue staghorn
green trumpet
plating hydnopora
frogspawn
bambam zoos
fire and ice zoos
carlitos alein eyes
tubs blues
purple deaths
stinky pinkys
aogs
blue ricordia florida
orange ricordia florida
sure i missed something......

ocelarris clown
banded shrimp (oldest living inhabitant... had him since i started in 99)
emerald crab
snails

equipment:
sundial 4x24w t5ho fixture
remora skimmmer
ato with reservoir
powerheads.

[ReeferMike]

heres a few pics of the build-up. first a couple old pics to show what most of the corals have been through in the last few months.

my old 110 in its glory:


the 15gallon nano:


the 45gallon homecoming;


getting to work on it.... gluing up the in-tank sump.

[ReeferMike]

got the back and the acrylic cover painted, and a frame built for the stand


then started finishing the stand. the dresser in the first picture is what im using as inspiration...sort of. it wont be as elaborate, but hopefully will look similar when im done. still a work in progress!


im using red oak stained with 2coats of red mahogony and 3 coats of satin polyurethane. got the door built and installed


underneith the tank is home to the ato reservoir, ato unit, and an aqualifter. besides that is storage and i can fit just about everything under there.

[ReeferMike]

heres the rear "sump" section in action

[ReeferMike]

and finally a few full tank shots:

from the front


left side


right side


front again

[Mike]

Nice tank MIke

[thefishgirl]

Not only are the contents of the tank beautiful, but what a great build! Thanks for sharing the pictures!

[jojo22]

Thought I already posted here BUT:

That's one heck of a build!!

[ReeferMike]

figured id make a little update to show the tank after a year. theres been no changes at all to the original equipment and livestock that i started out with. only a couple waterchanges, and not much maintenance besides cleaning the glass and top-offs(with tapwater). needless to say the tank is not prestine, but does still seem rather healthy. in the last few weeks ive been bitten by the bug again and i have a few ideas to turn this little tank back around.

surprisingly ive gotten some growth, even though color has faded and the growth has been extremely slow. its kindof cool though you can pick most of the corals out in the 110, then in the nano, then when this tank was started, and how they look now.





sunset monti versus purple digi= sunset won

[jimsflies]

Looks great! Thanks for the update!