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[Matt_]

Here's my office tank--haven't been free enough to post a thread about it until now. 33 g Oceanic, I cut a slot in the back for an external overflow. Flat back wall, no penetrations in the tank of any kind, no heaters, powerheads, etc. I wanted a perfect cube of ocean sitting in my cubicle. Here's how I did it.


You get a pretty good idea of how the overflow is constructed here. This is during taping right before I spray painted the back glass black.


Return plumbing hidden in the canopy.


The Loc-line is extended with clear vinyl tubing...


...and voila, this is what you see inside the tank.

Lighting: 4X13W PC, half actinic half 10k, on a timer.
Circulation: Mag 7 return pump through 3/4" Loc-line. I want to have two of these to alternate flow direction in the tank every 6 hours....eventually.
Skimmer: Euro-Reef ES series.
Other filtration: 100 micron filter sock, occasional activated carbon, 30% weekly water change.
Maintenance: Topoff with 2L dilute kalk solution daily, clean out filter sock and skimmer cup daily, turkey baste rocks and scrape glass weekly.
Feeding: 3-4 mysid shrimp, squirt of Cyclop-eeze, live Artemia nauplii, twice daily, 10 mL of Reed Mariculture Shellfish Diet daily (that's a LOT of phytoplankton) dripped in throughout the day, 0.5 g blended Algamac brand HUFA supplement daily, pinch of microworms (Panagrellus sp.) daily, whatever other small foods I can get my hands on.

Fish:
Cirrhilabrus flavidorsalis (red-orange variant)
Nemateleotris hefrichi
Trimma tevegae (aka T. caudomaculatum)

Corals:
Scleronephthya sp.
Menella sp.
Hitchhiking Zoanthus sp.
Hitchhiking Faviid coral.

The addition of so much phytoplankton has amazing effects on the live rock and other inverts in the tank. Sponges and feather dusters grow like crazy but there is very little nuisance algae because of the low light. I have several Stomatella varia that keep this in check, and reward me with a spawning show every few days it seems. Probably will see many many baby snails in the near future. Calcareous algae seems to grow fairly rapidly in this tank, but nothing uncontrollable thank goodness. This tank requires a lot of little work daily but is fairly easy to maintain overall.

Hope you enjoy! More photos to come in the future...

[Matt_]

Here's some more shots. Un ID'd Mussid stony coral, full tank shot,

[vitz]

[Matt_]

Trimma tevegae

[JimM]

Very nice Matt, I love the cubes.
I need to get another tank going, and it's definitely going to be a small cube for now.

Given my location, and all the power outages that happen in the winter, I'm going to be reduced to a few bluegill from the pond until we move in a year or three.

That or a coldwater setup...but chillers are $$$$$$

[SeahorseWhisperer_]

As Paris would say: "That's hot"!

How are you dripping the phytoplankton?

[Matt_]

8)
Very nice Matt, I love the cubes.
I need to get another tank going, and it's definitely going to be a small cube for now.

Given my location, and all the power outages that happen in the winter, I'm going to be reduced to a few bluegill from the pond until we move in a year or three.

That or a coldwater setup...but chillers are $$$$$$

You get a lot of power outages in the winter up there?

[Matt_]

As Paris would say: "That's hot"!

How are you dripping the phytoplankton?

Glad you asked.

I found out very quickly that the practicality of trying to drip in planktonic food is harder than it sounds. Put a jug above your tank with a hole in it, right? A really small hole drips in stuff slowly, but gets clogged easily. I'm feeding newly hatched baby brine shrimp so I need a fairly large hole. A large hole drains too fast, unless you have a ridiculously large food container. A peristaltic pump would work, but is complicated and expensive. This is a simple and cheap solution.

I have a 2L rectangular plastic container that sits in my sump right near the return pump intake. It's tall, thin, and has a little notch cut near the top. I could have used one of those juice pitchers with the pour spout, but I wanted a clear container. I have a tee off my pump output that feeds this container through rigid 3/16" polyethylene tubing with a Raindrip brand ball valve (about $1) at a rate of about 1 liter per hour. There's a small airstone to keep the water moving around. The water overflows out of the container and gets sucked up by the return pump. Simple and easy. I squirt in 5 mL of phyto every morning when I get to work and every evening before I leave. It's hard to see when it "runs out" because it's a constant dilution, but I can still see phyto after about 3 hours. I throw the BBS, microworms, and Algamac in there during the day. Another bonus is that I can dump the food out, ramp up the flow, and toss activated carbon in if I like.

Let me know if you have any more specific questions.

[JimM]

8)
Very nice Matt, I love the cubes.
I need to get another tank going, and it's definitely going to be a small cube for now.

Given my location, and all the power outages that happen in the winter, I'm going to be reduced to a few bluegill from the pond until we move in a year or three.

That or a coldwater setup...but chillers are $$$$$$

You get a lot of power outages in the winter up there?

Yep, for days at a time.

[SeahorseWhisperer_]

That really is cool. I am going to add that to my ultimate sump! Thanks!

[Matt_]

That really is cool. I am going to add that to my ultimate sump! Thanks!

I'm happy with it. Feeding a little bit at a time is the way to go IMhO. Only thing I would change would be to include a sealed top so I could really turn up the air bubbles in there. Don't forget to leave a small hole to pipette in food every day.

[adinsxq]

nice tank

[Matt_]

I added some more Scleronephthya and another Menella gorgonian this week. The purple gorgonian has grown quite a bit.

[bleedingthought]

So, any updates?

[apex003]

where's an update? let's see what's going on in the sump area...

[Matt_]

I probably will post some pics next week. I'm going away for a few days for the holiday.

[Matt_]

Here ya go...a couple full tank shots. I can't turn off the room lights in our offices easily (or at least not just to take some pictures of my tank) so it's damn near impossible to get full tank shots without using a flash. But you get the idea.

[Matt_]

A nice purple sponge that grows like mad in our coral rearing systems...

[Matt_]

The sump area, just for apex...

[Matt_]

I was trying to get a nice picture of the yellow sponge and the goby decided he would butt into the frame.