My rimless cube - 270L - Ecotech Radion LED

Hi guys

In 2010, I started my 270liter (about 71 gallons) cube. Since then, a lot has happened to my tank and I am always surprised, how many different ways there are in this hobby. I am looking at this from a German perspective and compare "my" methods to the ones, that I can find in many US-reefing forums. Especially the advised actions during the "cycling" phase are a lot different in most forums in Germany, than the ones I can find here.
So my idea is not just to give you a look at my tank today but to recap the development of the tank basically from day 1.

I have to figure out this forum first, so first Post will be my hardware:
The tank is a 65cm cube (270L) with about 45L sump.

 

"Cycling"

As you can see, I built up some pillars, DIY, with Life rock. Now, the "slow" approach begins: The most common definition of the "cycling" phase is, that you basically wait about 3 months, before adding any fish or higher corals into the tank and wait for the algeas to come and go again... yup, three months of patience...

 

After about 5 months, an anemone and a pair of clownfish moved in and they settled in great! This was proof for me, that the tank was on the way to become established:

Feedback & questions always welcome!
Recent pictures of the tank coming soon! I promise, you then the tank and its thread are gonna live up to it's promising title

Cheers

 

It looks pretty cool, mind sharing some German methods?

 

+1 on showing us the "German" specific methods.

 

Hey, welcome to 3reef! Your tank looks great! I like the aquascape!

I took the same cycling approach you did with yours. I didn't even know about adding shrimp for a cycle. I just used live rock when I first began in the hobby.

Is that an Elos tank?

 

+1 again.

 

Hi guys,
I would say, the differences of the "German methods" are quite subtle most of the time, but overall they make a difference.

Biggest thing imo is the cycle: The cycle is not finished, just because Nitrite is gone, the algea outbreak is more or less expected as part of the cycle and the advice is, not to add any stuff into the tank for ~3 months apart from a CUC. The cycle is finished, when the algeas are gone!
The shrimp is a good example. I witnessed a discussion in a german forum which went like this (paraphrased, but you get the point...):

Haha, imagine my face, when I first read through some US forums where suddenly everyone talks about adding dead shrimps, adding corals after 3 days, because the "cycle" is over... and complains about "sudden outbreaks" of algeas 2 weeks after the cycle.

Another thing thats not too common is the usage of bioballs and vinegar dosing. Overall, the most common system is a "normal" Berlin System where you use a good skimmer, a lot of LR and only little else, no mechanical filters.

Finally, some new pictures: After the anemone settled in (apart from moving 10cm to hide its foot behind the rock it was on, it didn't move at all, so I assume it's happy) I figured its time to start with LPS/SPS.
They all are doing quite well. The only problem I still have is a bit of bleaching, probably due to low nutrients. My Nitrate, Phosphate levels were almost always around zero, never figured out how to get them a bit higher safe.

 

Of course there are some fish in the tank besides the occelaris. The first is a blenny, you can see him on the pic of the brain coral in the last post. He's great. After being very shy for the first month or so, he became quite curious, always sitting on his favourite places like the brain coral where he can see the whole tank.
Then there is a sifting goby and some chromis. Thats it. so you can see i kept the bioload quite low and concentrated more on the corals.

 

Thx mate, almost overlooked your Question: The tank is a MP Scubacube marine from MP/Eheim.