# NEW PICS Jan.27 - SeaHorse_Fanatic's new Dual RR Cube (2' & 30") Tanks Journal



## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

*NEW PICS Jan.27 - SeaHorse_Fanatic's new Dual RR Cube (2' & 30") Tanks Journal*

So, finally got all the equipment and pieces for doing my dual teardown & new RR cube tank builds.

First of all, had to teardown my non-RR 2' cube that I've had going for about 6-7 years at least.



Replaced this with a RR 2' cube that I bought back from my friend Laurie "The Guy". This much traveled tank looks and works great. Fits exactly into the existing stand/setup but is Reef-Ready and now plumbed into the common sump (2' x 2' x 1' high) under the other cube tank.



My friend John giving me a hand plumbing the tanks together (usually I would do it but he volunteered and who am I to say No? :wink

At the same time, had to tear down my RSM 130 and tripled the volume by changing it over to a 30" x 30" x 24" semi-cube RR tank.



The stand is only 26" tall so I built a "stand" for the stand out of a 2x10 from RONA and painted black. You can see the 2x10 in the bottom right corner before I finished with the touchup painting job. Here's also the final plumbing job and it all works beautifully.



Here's the new bigger cube getting topped up with IO water.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

So I pulled an all-nighter to get the tank setups finished and to transfer in all my livestock, live rock and newly washed sand bed (was outside in shorts & t-shirt washing sand with my garden hose at 4 in the morning):redface: First pics of newly set up reef -



93g Starfire RR semi-cube (30" x 30" x 24")
Black stand with 2x10 "lift"
Custom DIY LED with 10w emitters (3 blues - 445nm & 460nm) & 3 whites (6500k; 10000k; 20000k) and a single center 1w blue LED moonlight. Its got built in timers and dimmer switches on each pendant controlling blues & whites separately.



Pic of 93g cube from the livingroom side



2' RR cube

These are pics taken on Thursday morning shortly after setup was completed. Started the teardown and new builds Wednesday afternoon. Finally got to sleep around 10:30 am Thursday.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

So it's now day 4 and I've had the skimmer running for a couple of days. Here's what 2 days of skimmate looks like with my Deltec Recirc skimmer using Aquabee 2000 pump:



Pic taken by Felicia

Here's a wider view of sump section:



Have an 18w Coralife UV sterilizer and a Jebao DC6000 return pump. Will be adding a couple of media reactors containing Hydroton bioballs and ROWA phos, as well as hanging a bag of Purigen in the sump.

Here's pics of the tanks on day 4:



From my work desk - 93g RR Starfire cube



From dining room



From living room


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Here's the new RR 2' cube - day 4



Seen over the loveseat



Seen from the couch

And here is a view of both cubes from the living room area:


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

And here's my main display reef (165g custom Starfire with external overflow on right side with custom DIY lights (28 x 10w emitters - blues 445nm & 460nm; whites are 6500k, 10000k, 20000k) and 90g wide sump utilizing a Deltec recirc skimmer and new Jebao DC6000 return pump.







Thanks for looking.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Love the dimensions of those square tanks. Looks awesome. Looking at your tanks I really wished I had gone with an LED pendant now. Maybe time for a new canopy (I can't have light spillage like the way you have it as my wife doesn't like that glare in the living room. Did you build those LED's or did your buddy do them for you?


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

WOW!!!!! very nice!!!!! John, I hope you at least got nice dinner out of this lol... I just got my lottomax tickets.. I can get 10 saltwater tanks like these and 10 apisto tanks if I win lol


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

My LED/electronics buddy built them for me. He's fraggalrock's son


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

jhj0112 said:


> WOW!!!!! very nice!!!!! John, I hope you at least got nice dinner out of this lol... I just got my lottomax tickets.. I can get 10 saltwater tanks like these and 10 apisto tanks if I win lol


He got a nice lunch (Kuching laksa), some $$ and I still owe him dinner (sushi). Diztrbds a great guy and his time & help is very much appreciated.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

Guess this post answers my private message of "you need any plumbing fittings?" =)

Anyways, threw that canister in my van this morning, I'll be working in Coquitlam tomorrow so will drop by on the way home with it so you have more work to do! =)


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks really good. Can't wait to see them in person when I collect my lights tomorrow evening.


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Really nice Anthony, good job on the tanks


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

I'm such a fan of cube tank! if i ever goto the dark side again thats the route i will be taking  your cubes look excellent btw very nice aquascape!


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## gmann (Mar 26, 2013)

i dont see my wrasses i sold you =(


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

gmann said:


> i dont see my wrasses i sold you =(


Side dish to the Kuching laksa... Anthony does some mean BBQ'ing!


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

gmann said:


> i dont see my wrasses i sold you =(


My wrasse collection is split between all three reef tanks. You don't see half the fish in my tanks in these pics, especially the wrasses, Bangaiis and gobies & hawkfish. They're hiding in the rockwork.

The red wrasse is in the big tank and the yellow is in the 93g cube.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Definitely no shortage of wrasses, gobies and hawkfish lol Anthony great job buddy, glad it's all working out! Look forward to seeing them again now that it's all up and running! Love the new layouts in them as well. Looks like we overlooked hiding the overflow area on the big tank eh? Always a good time hanging out with you and a bit of a learning experience this time around...glad I was able to help out  Wish I coulda stayed and helped finish. Definitely has me itching to cross over to the salty side lol I don't reckon the Red Sea tank will be in retirement very long 

JHJ ..Anthony is one of the most generous people I have met, a great person and an awesome friend....and a great cook too lol I don't think I have even been there and not been treated to a great meal, especially when he fires up the grills. As mentioned by Kevin...."Anthony does some mean BBQ'ing!"....kind of an understatement though lol and he's lucky Im not there every day :bigsmile: He's far too good to me when I help him out, not too mention I gain atleast 5 lbs by the time I leave lol This time I gained the Red Sea tank he shut down and don't think it will be empty very long 

Thought I'd add a few pix as well, need to get some close-ups of your fish! You have so many cool things in those tanks.

my 2 favorite favorite fish from the big tank. The hard to see hawkfish in the upper left corner is cool too:









another fav, love the colors on this one.:









Anthony caught napping on the job:









Getting ready to cut his finger off:









Luckily he didn't get cut there, but he did manage to cut himself later with another tool. Weirdly the tool cut his finger better than it did the hose it was intended for lol


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## AdobeOtoCat (Dec 10, 2011)

Sweet led set up. Nothing beats custom!

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

Diztrbd1 said:


> JHJ ..Anthony is one of the most generous people I have met, a great person and an awesome friend....and a great cook too lol I don't think I have even been there and not been treated to a great meal, especially when he fires up the grills. As mentioned by Kevin...."Anthony does some mean BBQ'ing!"....kind of an understatement though lol and he's lucky Im not there every day :bigsmile: He's far too good to me when I help him out, not too mention I gain atleast 5 lbs by the time I leave lol


It's awesome to see 2 friends working together to set up nice tanks!  so are you getting a saltwater tank soon? :bigsmile:
Because of a family issue, we can no longer have BBQ at home so Anthony, don't be surprised if I show up with Chantal and Alicia at your house :lol: j/k ( I don't even know where you live though lol)


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Love the marine betta in the first of John's pics. My favorite fish in his tank I think. And these tanks are almost solely responsible for me switching over to the salty side.


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## Dawna (Jul 29, 2013)

That is one bad ass tank


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Dawna said:


> That is one bad ass tank


AKA, Anthony's "money pit".

These will hopefully be the last upgrades for a while at least. All three tanks are what I really want in terms of being reef ready and 2 out of the 3 are starfire glass tanks. Love the cubes and I don't have room in our little 2 bedroom suite for anything bigger, especially with two little girls. My days of having almost 1000 gallons of sw tanks in the house are over till we win a lottery and buy a bigger house (don't buy lottery tickets so that's a REAL long shot).

I will probably leave the big tank as my main reef and the others will have more space for fish.

Special ordered a med. sized long horn cowfish for my "showcase" fish for the 2' cube from Paul at Oceanic Corals out in Aldergrove. The Porcupine puffer and Clown tang are the "showcase" fish in the 30" cube, although I'm probably going to add a Marine betta or two to the cubes eventually. Just love those Marine bettas :bigsmile:


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

I must say, the pictures just don't give justice to the real thing. Seen them setup today and didn't want to leave, but had to pickup my son from school, made it with 1 minute to spare. Plus I conned Anthony into feeding me some Curry by doing my best Oliver twist impression... he didn't buy it though told me looked like I had eaten more then my fair share on a few occasions =)


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## Dawna (Jul 29, 2013)

SeaHorse_Fanatic said:


> AKA, Anthony's "money pit".
> 
> My days of having almost 1000 gallons of sw tanks in the house are over till we win a lottery and buy a bigger house (don't buy lottery tickets so that's a REAL long shot).


HA, you will never know. Maybe one day you come across a lottery ticket without a name and you decided, heck why not keep it a a good ol' beep in the machine. Then KABAM! You win the lottery. If my foresights are right, you'd better split a portion of that money! Just kidding


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Here you go:



Clown tang from Bblinks



Small school of YTs





Sohal


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Long nose hawkfish

Some coral closeups:











My blue Maxima clam:


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

More Yellow tang pics



Doliatus rabbitfish from Bblinks





My Marine Betta (eats flakes, pellets, FD shrimp & mysis)



My Dendro farm


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Fox coral



Frogspawn with photo-bombing yellow canary wrasse

And this is what I see when I'm working from my home office/desk :wink:


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks really good. As was said, even better in person.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Very nice pics Anthony. better than vanaqua

Sent from my LT30a using Tapatalk


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I really like that footprint of the cube. Surprise surprise since the same footprint as mine.  That's the size I want to start a reef on. Since I have some experience plumbing my cube, now I just gotta figure out the sumping part and then it'll be a reef in my office.


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> I really like that footprint of the cube. Surprise surprise since the same footprint as mine.  That's the size I want to start a reef on. Since I have some experience plumbing my cube, now I just gotta figure out the sumping part and then it'll be a reef in my office.


I'll have mine going soon and it's sumped so it won't be a problem to get yours done.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

target said:


> I'll have mine going soon and it's sumped so it won't be a problem to get yours done.


Yeah, the tough part is $.  Getting a cube like that together I would imagine is close to $5000 just to start. I know how much I've sunk into my discus cube, so I can imagine how much more it is to run a reef. Good thing is I already have a Vortech and two Tunzes.


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## AsianFlyingPanda (Jan 10, 2014)

That tank looks amazing! Sigh... one of these days when I have enough $$ I'll switch over and start a reef tank. For now, I'll just stick to planted tanks


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Very nice rock layout. That 30" cube is a beauty. Any idea how many gallons it holds?


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Yeah, the tough part is $.  Getting a cube like that together I would imagine is close to $5000 just to start. I know how much I've sunk into my discus cube, so I can imagine how much more it is to run a reef. Good thing is I already have a Vortech and two Tunzes.


bah, it's only money. It grows on treees right? 



AsianFlyingPanda said:


> That tank looks amazing! Sigh... one of these days when I have enough $$ I'll switch over and start a reef tank. For now, I'll just stick to planted tanks


Do what I've done. Sell off everything you don't need for a reef and use the money to fund the new set up.


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## cadillac_jack (Jul 12, 2013)

post #5 pic #2 what is that black and white spotted fishie


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## cadillac_jack (Jul 12, 2013)

some of those planted tanks probably cost as much


AsianFlyingPanda said:


> That tank looks amazing! Sigh... one of these days when I have enough $$ I'll switch over and start a reef tank. For now, I'll just stick to planted tanks


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

cadillac_jack said:


> post #5 pic #2 what is that black and white spotted fishie


are you referring to the one below? If so thats a marine betta.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Reckon,

The 30" cube is 93g reef-ready and is actually a semi-cube (30" x 30" x 24" tall). Its Starfire glass (clearer than reg. glass) and runs to a 2' x 2' x 1' sump.

Definitely uncommon tank/sump sizes but works well for my situation/room. If you want to check out the tanks in person, let me know.

Anthony


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Yeah, the tough part is $.  Getting a cube like that together I would imagine is close to $5000 just to start. I know how much I've sunk into my discus cube, so I can imagine how much more it is to run a reef. Good thing is I already have a Vortech and two Tunzes.


Fortunately I was able to get most of my stuff either used, on sale Boxing Day or through a Jebao group buy (thanks Frank). My LED was custom made by a friend and all the rock, sand & livestock came from existing tanks.

If you want to discuss costs, set up, etc. please feel free to contact me.

Anthony


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

target said:


> bah, it's only money. It grows on treees right?


Not in my backyard. Trying to plant that one.

That marine betta is a beaut. Looked at it after Daniel talked to me about it and I googled it up. Fantastic looking creature.

That Starphire glass was an option I had to remove when I got Jeff at J&L to get my cube built as it put me over my budget. How I wish for it now.....


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

This tank is amazing! Could pretty much put it on display at the aquarium! One day I hope I can have a salt water tank that's awesome like that  Until I actually have lots of money.. I'll stick to my Africans =P


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

SW is definitely an expensive addiction. This spring/summer I will probably have another open house/BCA bbq for members who want to pop by and talk fish/corals with other addicts.


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## AsianFlyingPanda (Jan 10, 2014)

target said:


> Do what I've done. Sell off everything you don't need for a reef and use the money to fund the new set up.


Lol, even then I think I'm still a few grands shy of a setup from scratch.  But it will happen one day, I will go SW!



cadillac_jack said:


> some of those planted tanks probably cost as much


Yes that's true, especially when a lot of gadgets and aesthetically pleasing materials are used. I've spent about $2k on my setup, but that's forgoing a few "wants" for just the "needs."


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Day eleven and everything seems to be doing fine.

The only casualties were a couple of sps frags (fell down into the cracks and RTNed before I could rescue them) and one small sps colony. None of these corals though were from the original two tanks but were transferred from the main 165g. Probably had a harder time adjusting from a long term stable environment to the new tank all of a sudden.

Probably the Dendros and the zoas have "enjoyed" the switch over the best out of my corals. The zoas because they were in my other sump/frag system for a couple of months waiting for the switchover. The other corals and clam, though, are doing fine as well, thank goodness.

Most of the fish seem quite happy with larger, more spacious accommodations. 

Got a new flame hawk and a couple of blue-eyed cardinals from JCharles's tear down.

Have a new 3-4" cowfish for the 2' cube on special order.

Now looking for a nice Marine Betta or two and long nose hawkfish to add to each cube. If anybody has one available, please pm me.

Thanks for looking.

Anthony


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

So stayed up all night again, but this time to redo my aquascaping on my main tank, a 165g full reef with 90g wide sump. I also added a couple of large media reactors into the sump with Hydroton so I can sell off some of my spare Live Rock to create more space for a bigger skimmer and the media reactors.



Here's the open sand bed section I just created by removing the smaller rock structure that occupied this area before:





Here's the 93g (30" cube):





And finally the 2' RR cube:

P1270147_zps9f92f514.jpg Photo by SHFanatic | Photobucket





Both reef tanks are only about 2 weeks old and the final result of my latest upgrades.

Thanks for looking.

Anthony


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Looking good. I have a pretty good idea where the extra rock is going. :bigsmile:


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

Beautiful setups Anthony! Can't wait to see them in person... I should have listened to you guys n set up the 135G as FOWLR. You have an awesome collection of fish there!


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## AWW (Apr 22, 2010)

Great looking tanks Anthony! That marine betta is gorgeous.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

All I can say is wow...
Thanks for the awesome pic of ur awesome tanks!!!


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

AWW said:


> Great looking tanks Anthony! That marine betta is gorgeous.




Just for you


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

AWW said:


> Great looking tanks Anthony! That marine betta is gorgeous.


My favorite fish in his tank. Going to have to try and get one for myself.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

One more pic of the re-aquascaped 165g main display tank.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

any update on your tanks Anthony?? I hope everything is good ( I have not seen you here or canreef often).  I(and other salty newbies) need more guidance from you


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Sorry, been a busy summer doing projects in the backyard and around the house. 

Tanks have been taking a backseat when it comes to my time, unfortunately. Going to do some water changes next week and probably redo a couple of the tanks.

Anthony


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