[Shultz]

Some of you that know me will also know me shutdown my old tank about a year ago now, after 4 years in the hobby I had fallen out of love with it. Since getting rid of just about everything I have popped into the forums just to take a peek at things & in the end the draw to dabble again has resulted in this new little cube.

Knowing how things ended last time I have taken a totally different approach this time, gone firstly are all the gadgets & automation I had, also so has the size as this new little 12” cube coming in at around 22 litres after displacement is a hellva lot smaller. These 2 things alone should make the difference from last time, keep costs & time spent alot lower. It also will make me think alot harder before purchasing. Knowing all reefy types love pics I’ve been taking a few as I’ve set it up to wet (pun) your appetites, so less waffle & a few to go with

My little empty cube in all its glory:



Shelton.

[Shultz]

First job was to paint the back; I’d already decided I wanted this black, so 4 coats from a Wickes Matt black tester pot (87p!) I was pleased with the look:



Shelton.

[Shultz]

Next I turned my attention to the filtration side of things, I’d read good things about a little HOB filter that could be picked up via fleabay for under £15.... When I first started looking they were out of stock, but I got hold of one a couple of days before the tank was ready. The throughput is claimed to be 600lph, so that gives me in theory x28 turnover in the cube, whether I’ll need to add a small powerhead in the cube is yet to be seen, but not a problem either way. I used parts of the sponge filter to make padding for the filter to sit on & stop it touching the back of the tank because although this is a really quiet filter & thought it would help? It also makes sure the inlet pipe sits as close to the back wall as possible.
Copying good ideas by others I removed the other sponge & carbon filters, the idea being to replace them with some cut bits of eggcrate I had in the shed, once up & running one side will be filled with zeo stones & the other side will have a small filter bag filled with purigen and possibly carbon. Of course you’ll see later I’ve a couple of small kgs of LR & some live sand as well to complete the filtration, but more about that later



Shelton.

[Shultz]

I’ve used the smallest heater available (to my knowledge) in a Newattino Plus 10w heater, this is set internally at a fixed 26C & sits nicely in the filter just cutting a small slot in the lid to get the power cable out.



Shelton.

[Shultz]

The lights I’ve managed to pick up secondhand & are 2 x 18w Wave Solaris PC’s which should be more than enough lighting I’ve modded the reflectors as they were just a painted surface inside & not reflective at all. All I did was buy a arcadia T5 reflector & cut it to size to fit inside the solaris ones. Next thing was a wet test/clean of the tank, I had to wait a week as the tank was delivered almost after being made & had a sticker giving a date not to fill before, so over the sink for a couple of hours testing

Wet time:



Shelton.

[Shultz]

Having sat OK without any leaks a final clean & dry & it was ready to be wet for all the right reasons. So off I went to the LFS to get sand, water & a couple of small bits of live rock. After a bit of fudging about I got it looking roughly how I wanted it. The live rock is just 2.5kgs worth & leaves room at the front for some corals. I only used half a small bag of sand & its about 1cm deep as its more for decoration than anything else.

After the filter floss had worked its wonders I was looking at this:



Time to let it settle now, got ideas for stocking so will get this updated, but that’s it for now folks

Shelton.

[Social D]

Just amazing to think you can have a tank soo small .. Nice project

[ben]

nice work. very interesting. looking forward to the updates

[lindsay]

Very good ,i will keep an eye out for the updates .

[Shultz]

Thanks all, won't be long before it has some nice frags in it

Shelton.

[Shultz]

First inhabitants are 3 sexy shrimps, best of a bad bunch of photo's:



Shelton.

[CurvBall]

Shultz, on May 3 2009, 11:31 AM, said:

Having sat OK without any leaks a final clean & dry & it was ready to be wet for all the right reasons. So off I went to the LFS to get sand, water & a couple of small bits of live rock. After a bit of fudging about I got it looking roughly how I wanted it. The live rock is just 2.5kgs worth & leaves room at the front for some corals. I only used half a small bag of sand & its about 1cm deep as its more for decoration than anything else.

After the filter floss had worked its wonders I was looking at this:



Time to let it settle now, got ideas for stocking so will get this updated, but that’s it for now folks

Shelton.

Loving the style you're going with... in hindsight I should have opted for something similar - oh well, there is always the next tank.

[Desmo Pete]

Looking very nice. Cant wait to see some frags in there.

[Shultz]

Added some nice pulse the other week:



Shelton.

[Shultz]

A few more macro's:







Shelton.

[Shultz]

And a couple more............





Shelton.

[Shultz]

Last one for now, Black sun coral waiting to be fed!



Shelton.

[pete1234]

a full tank shot with some stock would be nice

[Social D]

Stunning macros

[CurvBall]

This little tank looks amazing - so clean and elegant.