60 gallon cube saltwater reef tank build

I'll chronicle the build and upkeep on this thread.

It's a 60 gallon 24" x 24" x 24" marineland cube and stand

This is about what I'm going for...

Mostly smaller reef fish, and live corals. I've had reef tanks for decades, so this shouldn't be too much of a stretch for me. It's going to be ultra low maintenance. So literally a few minutes a month of water changes, reef cleaning equipment cleaning, etc. This type of tank practice makes it easy to go on vacation and not worry because the tank is semi automated, and just really stabile.

My tank and stand arrived at the pet store. I picked it up today. I saved hundreds of dollars even on a new tank by shopping around.



Here it is where it will be. I'll see it all the time, and it will be a focal point of the house.

The evaporation will help a humidity to the house in winter, which we all know wood stoves are good at sucking the humidity out of the house.

 

so how long did it take............... took 2 years to find a truck, I am guessing 9 months.

 

Less time than it takes to build a home in the islands.



A few weeks, really. It has to go through a tank cycle first, but it will be full of water in 2 weeks is the plan. Livestock being added is a bit of a trickier thing. You can't rush the nitrogen cycle.

This is my last tank, in it's prime. I still have it going but it's only got fish in it now. Live coral in a basement tank that you don't look at daily is a waste.

 

I've got to ask. Whats up with that collection of rocks to the right side of the aquarium?

 

There's another one behind where I took the picture by the front door.
They cover up the planters that were in the house when we moved in. There's like a floral foam under the rocks we put there. The foam is in a metal tray that sits in the top of the wood. I'll probably put orchids there as they'll take the light from the aquarium.

My wife likes the planters. I wanted to remove this one to put a bigger tank. So they stay.

Maybe after a year or 2 when my wife asks why I don't have bigger/ more fish in this tank then I can convince her to build a bigger tank.

 

X 2

 

Exactly. This is a mini ecosystem. While I'll get this tank running as quickly as I can, rushing a system like this usually doesn't end well. Either you lose a lot of $$ in livestock, or it's a maintenance nightmare, aka algae.

I have a buddy coming over this week to help me drill the tank for the overflow. That overflow will lead to the sump in the stand, and a return pump will put the water back into the tank. In the stand under the tank will be the entire filtration system.

 

I didn't know you could get live coral. I know my youngest has a saltwater tank. When he moved from Iowa City to Fort Collins, Colorado he lowered the water put it the back seat, believed he seat belted it in and off he went. All the fish survived.

 

Most corals can survive being exposed to the air as well. It occurs naturally during low tide.

 

Very cool Horkn

 

Yup!
But he is a lil distracted with other new shiny things right now...

 

He be jamming out in that new truck huh

 

I am.

It's so freaking cool. I had to take the truck into town to get a new battery for the 4runner. That battery was from 2012. it just started turning over a little slow in the cold temps. I got that swapped right before my Milwaukee Bucks started to play. It's a good thing I'm still gathering components for the tank. It's sit and wait time waiting for stuff to arrive. I need reach out to my buddy to help me with cutting the hole in the glass. I'm a bit apprehensive about that. I've never done that before. My buddy's drilled several glass table though. If you screw up, the tank is ruined.

Plus I've been fielding a ton of calls and emails about my Audi.

 

You can't go up and over the top edge with tubing and into the filtration system? Sort of a forced siphon system. I obviously don't know much about this kind of tank filtration but it seems rather chancy to drill a hole in the glass.

 

Touche'

 

You can do that, but those have a huge chance for failure when the u-tube loses suction from a power outage. A possibility of 60+ gallons of saltwater on the main floor eventually going into the basement wrecking everything in it's path is not a chance I'll take.

Drilling a tank is simple provided you know the glass isn't tempered.

 

Well thanks for the explanations wildwest and Horkn I did google it a bit after posting that comment. Yes, 60 gals would make a bit of a mess in the house if it was pumped in the wrong direction.