Reef Ninja's 25 Gallon Cube - Updated 12/19 with new 'Scape and some growth

Finally! I didn't think I could ever be so patient! I've always wanted to setup a cube-style aquarium, and after a 6 year break from the hobby to graduate college, I thought a cube was the perfect way to come back.

Before the pics, a big thank you to the 3reef community. The internet is a big place to get tons of info, but most of the information I needed to come back came from here. Thanks!

So here's what I have so far, water added about the middle of March:

25 gallon Marineland Rimless Cube (18x18x18)
Reef Radiance DM-155 LED unit
WP10
10 Gallon Sump
All the other little stuff that I don't want to type out and you don't want to read.

With salt water just added:






This is the sump. I managed to fit ALOT of junk in just ten gallons: A heater, Mag 3, chaeto, ATO, and 5 lbs of rock! Seems to be working out pretty well too!

 

Water now cleared up a little, looks pretty good for now! Atleast until the cyce kicks in..........

 

FTS of it cleared up, about a week or two in. You can see I added of piece of actual LR to help with the cycle and add some diversity.

 

................And now the ugliness sets in. Cycle is starting to peak, this is at about 3 weeks or so.

 

I was kind of surprised at how fast it cycled, I was expecting it to take longer but it took about 6 weeks using only two supermarket frozen shrimp. Added a frag of blasto to act as a canary before making further investments!

FTS today 6/11/2014

 

So other random shots:

Canary Blasto



Learned a BIG lesson from buying this Favia. When buying online, I've always known to stay away from pics that are smothered in actinic coloring. Well, this ding-dong went to one of our local LFS, and all the lighting was RIDICULOUSLY blue. I bought this frag thinking it was an amazing steal for $40. Put it in my tank, saw it under real lighting, and learned the lesson twice. Wont be buying corals from there again.



A big appeal about starting a tank again was to have the family involved. My wife and kids saw a goby/pistol combo and we all agreed that they would be our first additions.



....And to make sure everything stays in (or atleast decrease the chance of carpet swimming), made a screen using doubled-up bird netting.

 

Heading to Los Angeles soon, hoping to bring back some more coral additions!

 

Very cool. Great great scape.

 

welcome back to the hobby! glad to hear about your finishing school - that's exciting! love the goby/pistol combo. Great looking tank. What are your plans for it?

 

Looks like a good setup, pistol shrimps are a must have in my opinion.