Nano's 35g Cube
 

Hey Guy's its that time of year, where I get the itch to do something.
So I bought a use 35 gallon cube tank! I am hoping to do something truly
elegant, and different with the aquascape, but I need some suggestions.
its 24x24x15 so my height is a bit limited, but I am thinking 2 pillar
structures, one larger one in the back corner, and a smaller on middle
or front corner area. Both would have some shelves coming out of them.
Again open to suggestions

Equipment

Lighting
AI SOL super blue
AI controller
Still thinking of refugium light, most likely small t5/CFL supplemented with my old nano leds strips

Skimmer
Tunze 9002

Powerheads
2 Koralia 240

Custom Oak Stand built by yours truly (had some wild cherry I was going to trim it with, but decided against it), Custom AI mounting Arm being built By Greg(Thanks So much!!), not sure if I'll paint it white to match the SOL or black to match the eurobracing. (again open to suggestions)

Still figuring out the sump/fuge (will update)

The DT will be all Dry rock for aquascaping reasons, and all my live rock
will go in the sump, all though I might put one or 2 small chunks in the DT
temporarily.

I have 2 ocellaris, one bangai, one scooter blenny, that I plan on putting
in, and am looking at maybe 2 more fish, so suggest some! I want some
nice color but also functional fish (i.e. pest eaters)

Current CUC consists of
1 emerald crab
4 Hermits
2 Astrea snails
2 Turbos

Will update with pictures this weekend! But for now help me out with some aquascaping suggestions please!

Well, finally out of the 16g. It's about time :mrgreen:
Ha, honestly that didn't take you long. I kinda had a feeling this was going to happen when you found out your 20 was only a 16 or so.
Good upgrade.
You could ask Carrera75 if he'd send you some pics of his old Solana 34. I saw it before x-mas and thought it was nicely done.

thanks greg I will do that, yeah this tank is just too small,
its starting to come together only to get torn apart :lol: but
I secretly love cube tanks, and I think if they are done just
right they can be more appealing then long tanks. but it all
comes down to the rock work. I want it to be open, but have
the pillars for them to swim around, the main thing is creating
or the illusion of it. I just have a few more things to work out
i.e. sump, return pump, and plumbing, and I'm glad I'm getting
so much help fro all of you on here, cause I honestly would
what to do for mos of it!

If you don't already have this link Head Loss Calculator, you do now. There are some other calculators too on the lower left. Site is finicky though. I just tried it and it won't load. Happens from time to time. The site is deathly slow, so I never chat there :razz:

lol wow it is slow! I have 60mbps and its like a friggen snail! I have had time to type this whole message and its still not loaded. lol

It's up now

lol they try to make it easy for idiots like me for making a calculator, yet, I still dont know what I'm looking at. lol i'll figure it out. I cant believe it has all those pumps loaded in to the program to! thats neat thanks gregzz

So today I picked up everything I was getting built, and had ordered, Thanks Martin for the AI, and stand up friendly service!
Spent the better part of the day hanging out with Greg, and Martin as well, as we tackled the tank build.
I will post photos below!
First off, you can see I have joined the sump club! Thanks for the know how and the help on this Greg!
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2554.jpg
Here is a FTS of my hand built oak stand, came out nicely!
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2549.jpg
And The Cream of the crop!
I designed an AI mount, and Greg helped me make it a reality, thanks to him as always for all the support
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2553.jpg

All that is left at this point Is to make my stand pipes, and plumbing, as well as find a 400-800gph return pump, and I'm ready to rock.
I will post some better pics in a bit, companies here so I can only be absent for so long :lol:

Bump for Greg, better pics tomorrow.

Nice job on the stand Ken, looks great :thumb: can't wait to see it all together & salty.

The door is a little bit out of square lol but you can't tell unless you stare at it hahaha. I'm hoping to mount the ARM on tomorrow for a dry run. :lol:
I can't wait to get this thing wet. :wink::twised:

I didn't think the overflow I built you turned out that bad that you had to hide it behind the AI Sol boxes :razz:.

looking good can't wait to see aquascaping

LOL no I realized that when I posted the picture. I'll post again tomorrow with better pics once the inlaws give me some breathing room!!:lol:
Can't wait either, its going to be a tricky one for sure! I want to try to steer away from the classic, cube "pile" look. hopefully next weekend I can get the plumbing done, and maybe the aquascape too

I like this set up, looks really good! Can't wait to see it wet!! Congrats!

Thanks me too! I've been losing sleep over it lol just itching to get it going!

I know exactly how you feel...:lol:

The stand looks good :thumb: love the tank size, cubes are awesome! :biggrin:

So I got the light mounted up, and stand drilled for plumbing today, as you can see the end result is very clean, no wires showing, I am very happy with this result
Full tank shot, tanks a bit dusty ATM, but look how clean it all looks!
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2556.jpg
A few closer shots of the arm, and mounting unit
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2558.jpg
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2559.jpg
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2562.jpg
Underneath with the sump
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2561.jpg

That looks Sweet Ken, looks like you might have to shorten the bottom of the light arm a bit once you have it all dialed in.


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Yeah I'm thinking so, dont want it to be to close to the sump lol, get a bunch of salt creep in there and that would suck!
The wife's digging it, I got the nod of approval lol so this is a bonus as well, cant wait to get into the living room, and junk the old nano

Aqua scaping started! I went for an open look with lots of swimming room, and shelf work on the rocks, a few hidden tunnels built in! Very happy with the result so far
Full tank shot
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2566.jpg
One Island
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2567.jpg
Side view, including other structure
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2568.jpg
corner shot
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2569.jpg
View from other side
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2571.jpg
Top View
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2575.jpg
corner shot
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2576.jpg

only took about 2 1/2 hours! I must say I like the BB look, but I'm not sure I'm ready to ditch the sand bed

Some pretty neat pieces of rock you have there Ken.

Theyre all smaller pieces epoxyed together to make larger ones

That's what I figured, you might want a nice flat round piece in the front left corner for zoa frags :biggrin:

Yeah that's what I'm thinking am then I'm just going to toss ric's all over and some orange monti up top some where.. lots of dreaming lately lol I got it all planned out i think.

Looks really good
Can't wait to see it covered in goodies

i like it that is what mine is going to look like I hope once i get one but its 30x30x24

looks good too simple and sexy

Personal preference :wink:
Go with 1" sand
Bare bottom looks OK, but, well, I say use sand
Or, just use sand :mrgreen:

Looks good

Really like the pared down look of your mininal aquascaping. I suggest you go BB for awhile and see how how you like it. You can always add a sandbed of any depth later. I love my BB 25g. I should do a video of what I siphon out of it weekly. You'd be stunned - and I don't have any livestock that did not come with the rock.

Thanks Bev, lots of thought went into it! I might go bb.. we'll see! I like it, but I still love my sand beds lol.. I guess I'm just strange that way:lol:

I really hate my white sand beds in my 165 & 116 but like the black sand in the frag tank so much that the 300 is going black.

I'm thinking I might use aclear rubbermaid food container, to make a mini in sump fuge. just to hold Chaeto in. The wife and I are really thinking about going BB atleast temporarily, maybe I'll just grow zoo's on the bottom pane lol

I love the rock u chose each look like a piece of art... Black on black looks slick but the sand really gives it the pop factor in my opinion.

Thanks bud I really appreciate that! :)
its a PITA to sit there and hold rock while epoxy dries,
but the result is well worth it :)

I like the look too, very open, but plenty of spots for goodies........are you planning on seeding it with any live rock?

Thanks :) I plan to fill it with goodies! Yeah the sump is going to be full of it. I will have a few small pieces in the DT for a few weeks as well

So the tank is in the living room now and it looks like a bomb went off in my house to move things around lol. The plumbing is dry fit, I am missing one or 2 pieces that can be added at a later date like the cap for my durso stand pipe and some lockline
but thanks to Steve at red coral for getting me what I need plus some nice Ric's
here are some plumbing pics
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2590.jpg
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2589.jpg
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2588.jpg