Braeden's 22 Gallon SPS Dominated Cube
 

Hi Everyone,

Now that I have some time on my hands, I am going to be showing my build to everyone. This is my first saltwater tank but I have done a lot of research and felt completely comfortable with setting this thing up. Currently my tank is about 2 months old but I am going to take you back to the beginning. Please comment and tell me if you see anything wrong and give me suggestions.

Frame of the stand
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/IMG_3868.jpg

Plywood for the sides and top of the stand
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/IMG_3885.jpg

Painting The Stand
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6003.jpg

Finished Stand
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6026.jpg

Siliconing baffles in 20 Gallon Sump
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6040.jpg

Finished Sump
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6100.jpg

Koralia 750 (Circulation)
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/IMG_3889.jpg

Test Kits, got calcium after I took this picture
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6017.jpg

Maxi Jet 900 (Circulation)
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6022.jpg

Eheim 1000 (Return Pump)
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6023.jpg

Bulk Reef Supply 4 Stage RO/DI Unit
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6011.jpg

Aluminum Bar for my 250W PFO Metal Halide. This was painted black and another piece was added to it for better mounting
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6079.jpg

Ready for placement in my living room
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6066.jpg

Sitting in it's permanent spot, looking pretty nice. I know It is by a window but the tank itself won't get any direct sunlight. Also I will be keeping the blinds closed most of the time.
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6085.jpg

This is up to about February 10th. Hopefully I did everything properly. I will post some more pics of the tank up and running from the last month later tonight or tomorrow. Please comment and tell me if I should change anything.

Thanks

Very nice stand you built ! You would be very proud of yourself if you see how I built my ugly stand :redface:

Thank You. :biggrin:

Filling up with fresh RO/DI water. Very exciting!!! Also got 3/4's of the rock in. Not my final aquascape.
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6112.jpg

Adding Reef Crystals Salt
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6114.jpg

Made a stand for my skimmer so that it would be sitting in the proper water level in my sump. All I did was cut a square of egg crate out to the right size, then the PVC legs, then cut and drilled some holes in them so that detritus wouldn't build up in there, then I zap strapped the PVC legs to the egg crate.
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6118.jpg

Added the live sand
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6025.jpg
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6127.jpg

Under the stand
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6129.jpg

Water clearing up a little bit
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6134.jpg

I will post some more pics later. Enjoy!

Here is where the fun part began for me. Watching the tank grow into a small piece of the ocean.

New aquascape. This I believe is my permanent scape. A new powerhead for the time being since the Koralia 750 was blowing my sand around a little. I will be putting a Koralia 550 in here along with this Maxi Jet 900. In the future I will hopefully get 1 MP10 which would be ideal since the 2 power heads that are in there now don't look the nicest.

View from my chair
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6176.jpg

View from the front. On the front right rock there will be a neon green torch coral. I will also have 2 True Percula Clowns that will hopefully host the torch.
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6179.jpg

A couple of close-ups of my rock work
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6183.jpg
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6184.jpg
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6185.jpg

The Koralia 550 is now in and I also got a fan to blow over the water surface.
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6187.jpg

Also bought a Reef Keeper Light to control my metal halide, Koralia, heater and fan. I absolutely love this thing!! It keeps my temperature perfect. Between 78.4 - 78.6
http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCF6576.jpg

Will be posting some more pictures a bit later, SPS and Zoas!! Stay tuned.

Looks great so far. How do plan to cycle?

There was an instant cycle from adding the 40lbs. of live sand. The Nitrates looked like this for the first 5 days

Day 1: 3ppm
Day 2: 2ppm
Day 3: 2ppm
Day 4: 1ppm
Day 5: 0ppm

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is a full cycle, right?

I would still wait, dont be surprised if you see an ammonia or nitrate spike.. wait your not usin any live rock? technically you have no real biological filtration, I would add a chunk or 2 of live rock even just in the sump to add the filtration, that will also ensure a cycle happens.

Yes don't count on live sand to cycle your tank. If you are not interested in damsels or clowns to cycle then a bit of rotting uncooked shrimp will get things going along with a seeded rock.

I forgot to mention, I added a few handfuls of good quality sand from an established tank about a month ago. The cycle definitely happened because I am keeping Hermit Crabs, Snails and SPS in the system right now and they are doing great. Thanks for the heads up though.