Gabe's Custom 10G Shallow Contest Cube

[gabe3eb]

Current FTS:

Almost stocked with the corals that will stay in there finally. With my new desire to add a second PAR38, and all the high end Zoas in this thing, I'm just might have to bow out of the contest shortly in favor of building my dream aquarium. Aside from the YCG, Buck, its likely that I will be getting a pair of Onyx Clownfish from a local breeder after the New Year.

22 Dec 2009

 

Vision:

• My motivation for this tank is a shallow cube with very little live rock in the main display. I will still be relying on liverock and weekly water changes for the bulk of the filtration and nutrient export. These two sentences might seem at odds with each other if it weren't for the fact that I plan to put as much live rock as possible into the rear chamber of the AIO with some nice Cheato and a couple Mangroves.
  
• UPDATE (12DEC09): OK, so much has changed over the past month and a half of planning this thing. I originally wanted to do an LED set-up, nixed it for the prices, thought about a cheap T5 set-up, then decided on the Odyssea 150W MH doo-dab. That was ultimately nixed once evil and nanocustoms came out with the wide optic PAR38s which is on the tank right now. I also am leaning towards nixing the Mandarin, as frequently time away from home would make keeping up with the rigorous hand feeding difficult. One of my LFS is getting in a very large Clown shipment from ORA after the Holidays to include nakeds, picasso's, and B&Ws. I might just end up picking up one of the pairs of designer clowns. In other words, I will probably be DQed from the contest due to budget.
  

 

Hardware Specs/Prices:

• 10 Gallon Custom Tank by PCG Aquariums (20"x15"x8" AIO, with a 15"x15" display footprint) - $47.79
  
• Lights: 20K PAR38 LED lamp with 60 degree optics - $99 (got the optics before it was an official option gratis courtesy of Nick.)
  
• Heater: Generic 50 Watt - Free
  
• Powerheads: 2x Azoo Model 600s - $20.78
  
  
• Total: $167.57
  

 

 

Livestock and Prices:

• SPS
  ORA -$10 died from slime in my main tank
  Birds Nest - $5
  Acro Frag 1 - $5
  Acro Frag 2 - $5
  Pavona - $10
  Total SPS- $25
   
   
  
• LPS
  Torch - $5
  Trumpets - $3 slime got this one too
  Duncan - $10
  Favia - $25
  Chalice - $10
  Fungia - $30
  Total LPS - $80
   
   
  
• CuC
  Snails - Free
  Cheato -$2
  Mangroves -$3 Cool idea, just hard to implement atm.
  Rock - $20
  Fromia Star - $6
  Total - $28
   
   
  
• Fish
  YCG - $8
  Mandarin - $16
  Total - $8
   
  
  
• Livestock Total - $173
  

 

Total Hardware: $167.57

Total Livestock: $141

Total Spent: $308.57

Budget Remaining: $41.43

 

 

All feedback is appreciated and I will do my best to photo-document this entire process .

[Rubicon06]

Neat tank, I like it, who is PCG?

[justkidding86]

Looking forward to seeing this one come together.

[nikeSB]

yes yes, tell us more about this pcg. lol lookin to have a tank made

[gabe3eb]

PCG Aquariums is run by Patrick1234 on this forum. He lives north of Denver and I'm in Colorado Springs. Headed that way to go pick up the tank today. He sent me those pictures yesterday before he put the finishing touches on it. I will take some more pics tonight/tomorrow.

 

Gabe

[got2envy]

Beautiful tank gabe!!

[gabe3eb]

Beautiful tank gabe!!

 

Ty .

[peewee1467]

shallow tanks are really nice. i wish i had one!!

[gabe3eb]

Well, I drove up north of Denver today, about 2 hours north to meet with Patrick from PCG to pick the tank up. It looks great and I'm more excited now than I have been since I thought of doing the contest. The only issue for me will be not going over the budget with livestock. The way the competition is set up for prices really kills me putting a lot of the zoas I already have in there. If I put all my zoas, they would be over $350 alone, lol. My Darth Mauls would set me back something like $150 for the 6 head frag. I'm going to rethink the LED option in favor of a cheaper MH setup though, that will free up about $50 of livestock.

[gabe3eb]

\

 

Looking good close to its final spot. Not sure if I will be able to buy the bulkheads at Lowes or if I will need to order them online though. They are two 1" bulkheads. Patrick also put a media rack in the middle compartment where the overflow is at.

[justkidding86]

omg that's so sexy.... ...... .......ok off for a smoke.

[junyoungmin]

Thats a really good looking tank for the price. im gonna have to get one made next time i go up to Colorado.

cant wait to see it set up.

[gabe3eb]

omg that's so sexy.... ...... .......ok off for a smoke.

 

Lol, it makes me feel the same way.

 

 

Thats a really good looking tank for the price. im gonna have to get one made next time i go up to Colorado.

cant wait to see it set up.

 

Absolutely was. He hooked a yocal up. Even gave me some frags gratis when I made the drive up. Admitedly, that made driving home in the snow storm going 35mph (and passing most everyone at that speed) a little more bearable.

[calvin415]

Looks good, not sure the overflow is going to let much water through though. How many GPH are you planning on running through there?

[gabe3eb]

That was an original concern of mine. If you notice in the first picture up top, there were 6 slots. I mentioned my concern to him with this and he increased it to 8. 6 was supposed to accommodate around 300 gph. Hopefully I'm closer to being able to run 2x200gph pumps now.

[imcosmokramer]

really cool design. can't wait to see more.

[travisurfer]

Looks awesome.

[gabe3eb]

really cool design. can't wait to see more.

 

Your's was one of the dimensions that inspired it .

 

 

 

Looks awesome.

 

Thank you thank you!

 

I'm trying to get water in this thing soon. Just have to go get the bulkhead installed and pick up some new water. Hopefully it will still look good in a month when its full

[redkneecoral]

i like your tank. I am itching to see what you'll do next.

[JoeD]

Tank looks great.... curious to see how it works out... The mandarin should not present a problem... Mine is happy in the 12" cube with 2xday frozen mysis.... I still have a good 'pod population.... think he's lazy... my backup plan was/is to give him away if health becomes an issue.....

[asting]

just so you know, mysis eating mandarins are not the norm, and are the exception.

[gabe3eb]

Tank looks great.... curious to see how it works out... The mandarin should not present a problem... Mine is happy in the 12" cube with 2xday frozen mysis.... I still have a good 'pod population.... think he's lazy... my backup plan was/is to give him away if health becomes an issue.....

 

Exactly my plan Joe. Currently, the only frozen food I keep is Mysis anyway, but was planning on giving him a few options. If he isn't playing along after a week or two, it shouldn't be a problem to give him away to someone local. Glad to hear he is doing well in such a small space. I'm looking at a few options right now for lighting. Originally it was LEDs, but that project quickly creeps up on the $200 range. It could be done for $150, but it would be half ass and not really give me exactly what I would want in a custom LED setup.

 

The other options are the Odyssea $99 150W MH and a $50 2x24w T5HO. I'm not so sure how my SPS would do under the 48watts of T5 though. I currently keep a lot of sps under 4x24w, but I don't feel comfortable cutting the light in half. I will probably end up with the 150W MH.

 

In other news, I added water to the tank. I'm working on getting the temp up to an acceptable range to add Live Rock. Also, the Rio 600 that I was going to use to cycle the tank with pooped out on me, so I ran to wal-mart just now and got a cheap $10 HOB there. I might end up keeping it on the tank for that price to run some media.

 

First Required Photo:





And We Have Water!:

[Tigahboy]

Nice tank you got there. good luck.

[gabe3eb]

just so you know, mysis eating mandarins are not the norm, and are the exception.

Yep, I do know this, but I also know with SDT's guide to training Mandarins, you can condition them to eat Pellets and all sorts of other things. I'm going to be working him/her from live pods, to brine, to live/frozen mix of brine, and from there to an assortment of frozen foods. I have done a lot of homework on the process and what kind of results to expect. If it isn't working after a couple weeks though, he will be gone from the tank.

 

There are plenty of people that haven't read up on training them or been exposed to people keeping them successfully long term by feeding them. These people often just assume they are being responsible by suggesting against keeping Mandarins, especially in a Nano. I can't fault you for the warning, but I have done more than just see them at the pretty fish store.

Nice tank you got there. good luck.

Yours ain't too bad either!

[glennr1978]

I kept SPS under 48w of T5 light for a little while in my 20g. If you get good bulbs and reflectors you can pull it off. Just make sure you stock lower light SPS. Personally, I would still go with the 150w mh. I just figured I would let you know that it IS possible to keep SPS under just 2 T5's.