5 gallon 12"x12"x12" cube build

[Edward]

Tomorrow the build should officially start so I thought I'd give a little heads up for what is in store.


I have a glass 12" x 12" x 12" rimless cube and an LED pendant that I've had for the past several years now in storage, they were briefly set up 5 years ago or so but have since been down. My plan is to have the tank hopefully drilled tomorrow and will be keeping a 20 gallon sump under it. I'll have a skimmer and ATO system + heater in the sump but am debating on a fuge either in the sump or connected as a display of some sort outside the tank so I can have some mangroves growing and make a cool little zen acro garden in my living room. I'll be sure to post pictures as I start setting up and my plans inevitably change. This is starting to shape up pretty well in my head and I'm hoping to start a really cool little project here.






For those interested also, I am starting a 55 gallon tank tomorrow and that will be cycling. I'm using gardening soil, sand and leaves as substrate and plan to keep a tiered, heavily planted, Apistogramma tank. I'll find somewhere to put pictures of this one as well

 

[this is me]

Sounds good. I'm also a fan of planted tank. Have a 75gallon at work lobby and a 5 gallon(both planted) in my office. I used to have some red/white and black/white crystal shrimps, cherry shrimps, and amano as well but I think I only see the cherry shrimps and a couple of crystal.

I always thought of a saltwater planted as a refugium for my display at home but the wife would kill me if I put another tank besides the display tank.

 

[Edward]

I'll be modifying my plans a bit and not drilling the tank, I'm going to make a zoa garden instead....if history is doomed to repeat itself i'll be upgrading in a year or so XD

 

[Edward]

Still a little cloudy, but the cycle has started. I'm sure my scaping will change a bit in the coming weeks until I start adding livestock, but I'm trying to utilize flat surfaces in various ways so that I can have a nice little zoa/invert garden in this cube. I'm thinking some non-photosynthetics in the little cave I made, zoa's all over the place and who knows what else. We shall see where I go with this. I'll post a clearer picture in the coming days once things settle down.

 

[Edward]

Cleared up a little while I was setting the lighting timers, I tried to space the rock to give the most surface area visible from all angles while still getting ample light. These are all the visible angles right now.

 

[Edward]

Last time this was set up I had bleaching problems with SPS because of the light. I'll be installing a dimmer on the light Tuesday or Wednesday (ordered today) and the new air line tubing for my ATO will be here then as well. The tank has really cleared up, algae is starting to form as well. The tank is cycling and I won't be adding live stock for a few more weeks.

 

[s_kelley]

Huge fan of zoa garden tanks! Good choice

 

[Edward]

ATO up and running, dimmer set up. Needed to clean the glass for the first time yesterday. First coral will be the grow out paly

 

[Blitzburggirl]

So... Edward. You have a super cute dog!

Tomorrow the build should officially start so I thought I'd give a little heads up for what is in store.


I have a glass 12" x 12" x 12" rimless cube and an LED pendant that I've had for the past several years now in storage, they were briefly set up 5 years ago or so but have since been down. My plan is to have the tank hopefully drilled tomorrow and will be keeping a 20 gallon sump under it. I'll have a skimmer and ATO system + heater in the sump but am debating on a fuge either in the sump or connected as a display of some sort outside the tank so I can have some mangroves growing and make a cool little zen acro garden in my living room. I'll be sure to post pictures as I start setting up and my plans inevitably change. This is starting to shape up pretty well in my head and I'm hoping to start a really cool little project here.






For those interested also, I am starting a 55 gallon tank tomorrow and that will be cycling. I'm using gardening soil, sand and leaves as substrate and plan to keep a tiered, heavily planted, Apistogramma tank. I'll find somewhere to put pictures of this one as well

 

[Blitzburggirl]

What is the light please?

 

[Edward]

The light is a rapid led 7 bulb pendant.


That's my Arya, she's about to be 9 months old. She's a miniature Australian shepherd

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I love those little reefs. Really can get an interesting setup in such a small space. And can also showcase some neat corals that might be lost in a larger setup (like the fancy zoas).

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

Did someone say APISTOS???

 

[Edward]

A quick update, algae has overrun the tank, its very healthy, my softies I got at the last meeting are starting to spread and encrust the rocks in the tank. I'm going to give the tank 2 more weeks before I do any cleaning/maintenance because I've found with tanks this small, the less you touch them, the better off they are.

 

[Coalminer]

Photo?

 

[Edward]

Pretty dirty, need a cc

 

[reef87]

Read every single posts in your thread. Hats off to your build. Keep up the good work

Sent from my GT-I9192 using Tapatalk

 

[Edward]

Just added a cc last night, 7 new frags in the tank. I'm going to do a few experiments or pay attention to a few things in particular. I won two purple death palys at the meeting yesterday and have one at the upper most point of my tank and one on the sand bed.

The frag on the top has 3 polyps

And the one on the bottom has one polyp

Im going to be monitoring my chemical levels and growth rates in this tank with these two frags which were both fragged at the meeting yesterday by Anthony. These are perfect specimens for experimenting with healing/growth in my tank.

I've also decided to try and attempt to breed yasha gobies in this tank. I'll be posting in the next few days for what my plans are.

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That was an old post I accidentally put in my old thread from 2011 after the January 2016 meeting. There is certainly visible growth but I'm going to put a little large CC in the tank and potentially add my first fish today after I do some cleaning. Stay tuned!

 

[Edward]

This last picture is my candy cane pistol digging a tunnel behind my nassarius snail -_- unfortunately the yasha goby I purchased didn't survive the drive home but fortunately, B at unique aquaria had ordered me a trio of pistol and two gobies so I will be updating this as soon as I can make my way up there.

I have a mangrove sprout on its way, I'm going to have the plant centered in the tank on top of the rock pile

 

[Edward]

Mangrove has sprouted, hoping to coax it into growing down the top of my tank