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Awpong's 50g Cube - Long Overdue Update


awpong

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FTS March 2014

13518552614_7cb5338a8e_o.jpg


Display: CAD Light Artisan II 50g Cube (24" x 24" x 20")
Sump: CAD Light 18g Sump
Biological Filtration: ~45lbs of live rock, 40lbs of live sand
Lighting: NanoBox Duo
Protein Skimmer: SWC 120 Cone Skimmer
Controller: None at the moment.
Heater: 200W Cobalt Neotherm
Water Motion: 2x Eco-Tech Vortech MP10W ES + return
ATO: Tunze Osmolator
Controller: Apex Lite (Temp, pH, ALD)

Current Livestock:

  • Sanjay's Ultra Snowflake Black Photon Clownfish (Bonded Pair)
  • African Flameback Angelfish (Trio)
  • Central American Red Cardinalfish (Trio)
  • USA Tank Bred Blood Red Fire Shrimp (Bonded Pair)

Coming Soon:

  • Green Mandarin Dragonet
  • A wrasse, anthias, or maybe even a kole tang. Haven't decided yet.

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FTS January 2014 (Cycling)
IMG_0187.jpg

FTS February 2014 (First fish and coral)
FTSCardinal2.jpg
FTS Early March 2014
FTSFeb27.jpg

FTS Late March 2014

13518552614_7cb5338a8e_o.jpg

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Glad to see you getting back into it and with a Cad none the less. Good luck with the build. One thing you should consider with the Flameback Angel is they really nip at Acans. I use to have one in my Nano Cube and he was a cool fish except for the Acan piece.

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Edit: relocated first post

 

I'm finally getting back in the hobby and am currently waiting on my tank to arrive. It was supposed to be delivered today, but I losing hope by the minute.

 

ScreenShot2014-01-10at71302PM.png

 

Anyways, here's the plan so far:

 

Tank: CAD Light Artisan II 50g Cube (24"x24"x20")

Sump: CAD Light 18g sump

Lights: Nano Box Duo

Skimmer: SWC 120

Circulation: 2x MP10wES (60-70% ReefCrest Anti-sync)

Heater: 200W Cobalt Neotherm

ATO: Tunze 3155

Return: Mag 9.5

 

RODI, Reef Crystals, the basics... etc...

 

Current stocking plans:

  • Pair of clowns: normal ocellaris, nothing fancy
  • Mystery Wrasse
  • Fuzzy Lionfish (if you've followed my previous tanks threads, you'd know they're one of my all time favorite fish)
  • Harem of African Flameback angels (M/F/F)
  • Flame Damselfish
  • Pair of Bangaii Cardinals
  • Pair of skunk cleaner shrimp

ScreenShot2014-01-10at71110PM.png

 

The flame damsel and Bangaii cardinals aren't definite yet, but the others for the most part are. I'm aiming for a pretty active tank without jumpers (e.g. flasher wrasses).

 

What do y'all think? Any suggestions?

 

This is also the first tank I've set up without live rock, so I've had plenty of time to mess around with my scape before getting anything wet. As you may be able to tell from my previous tank, I love the minimalist look. However, because of the cube dimensions of this tank, I needed to design a scape with some height to it. Here's what I've got so far. Nothing is epoxied together yet, and the towel represents the tank's footprint.

 

Top Down:

topdown.jpg

 

Right:

Right.jpg

 

Right Corner:

Rightcorner.jpg

 

Front:

Front.jpg

 

Left Corner:

Leftcorner.jpg

 

Left:

Left.jpg

 

_______

 

Glad to see you getting back into it and with a Cad none the less. Good luck with the build. One thing you should consider with the Flameback Angel is they really nip at Acans. I use to have one in my Nano Cube and he was a cool fish except for the Acan piece.

 

Yea, I'm still trying to decide which coral I'm going to keep in the tank, but I've pretty much already ruled out all brain coals for that reason.

 

I've actually never had good luck with acans; for some reason my old clown used to nip at them too. It was bizarre.

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Tagging along. I'm about 2-3 months away from picking up the same setup. I'll just have to come to your thread and drool for the time being! Super digging the scape as well. Reef Cleaner's rock? Also, where are you thinking about positioning both MP10's? I saw one today at a LFS that was running a solo MP10 with great flow, so I'm interested in seeing what your thoughts are.

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Tagging along. I'm about 2-3 months away from picking up the same setup. I'll just have to come to your thread and drool for the time being! Super digging the scape as well. Reef Cleaner's rock? Also, where are you thinking about positioning both MP10's? I saw one today at a LFS that was running a solo MP10 with great flow, so I'm interested in seeing what your thoughts are.

 

Yea it's Florida Reef Rock that I got from Reefcleaners.org. I bought 60lbs, but am only going to end up using about 35-40.

 

As for the MP10's, I'm not quite sure. I was wondering about that too; 24" seems awfully small for 2 MP10s. I might end up taking one of them off, but who knows. The first MP10 was from my original tank, and I got the second for free from a video contest hosted by Ecotech.

 

I need to get the tank first to see how it will work out.

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Congrats on winning one! That certainly takes some strain off the wallet haha. I'll be purchasing the CAD setup from a LFS that has one of the original ones with all the stock factory goodies. Hoping they cut me a good deal fingerscrossed ! If not I'll have to purchase one through the company. Has your ordering experience been enjoyable?

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Congrats on winning one! That certainly takes some strain off the wallet haha. I'll be purchasing the CAD setup from a LFS that has one of the original ones with all the stock factory goodies. Hoping they cut me a good deal fingerscrossed ! If not I'll have to purchase one through the company. Has your ordering experience been enjoyable?

 

From the company... no, not really -- but I also am currently in med school, so I'm very prone to stress at the moment lol. To be honest, it wasn't too bad, but nothing went according to plan. Mainly, the tank didn't ship until 3 weeks after I bought it. On their website, it says that they ship the next day of your order. I had kinda planned for the tank to arrive before I started classes again so that I would have plenty of time to set it up.

 

Next, Fedex sucks. I had to go to the warehouse to pick up the tank myself because Fedex is incompetent.

 

Anyways.... I know have the tank! Just not very much time to set it up without sacrificing my study time :'(

 

I'll post a bunch of pictures either tonight or tomorrow when the tank gets set up. I spent most of last night setting up the stand, which is worse than Ikea lol. All in all, the stand looks nice, but installation was a pain in the a$$: the instructions were very unhelpful and none of the "pre-drilled holes" were the right size, so I had to re-drill everything... without a power drill.

 

But now the worst is behind me and I'll try and get water in the system today or tomorrow. I'll at least test the tank and sump for leaks today.

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Love the scape. Did the light tree from from CAD or is it something you did?

 

Thanks! I'm not positive I'm going to stick with this scape, but I love the concept. I just wish there was more open space: it's hard to balance that out with the height of a cube. Also, I only have 24"x24" to try and get some height, so I'd need a broad base to support it regardless. I'll see how it looks when the scape is in the tank with water.

 

The tree is from CAD. Buying them saved me a lot of time, but there is nothing difficult or exciting about their design. If I wasn't in currently in med school, I probably would have made them myself.

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Running yet?

Yea, sorry. I've got my hematology final on friday, so I haven't really had much free time to take a bunch of pictures.

 

The tank is all set up and currently cycling. I had to change my rock scape unfortunately; the plumbing took up too space in the back of the tank. The current scape still has many of the features that I liked about the original scape, but it kinda makes the tank seem small.

 

I'll try and take pictures tomorrow as a study break.

 

I'm also waiting on my lights to arrive - the final piece of equipment. I ordered the nanobox duo from Dave, and hopefully he'll be shipping them out sometime this week.

 

If everything goes according to plan, I'll be able to add my CUC this weekend.

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Well here are the first pictures of the tank officially set up and running. I apologize for the glare on some of the pictures. I'm still waiting on my lights, but this is what I've got so far!

 

Front:

FTS_012014.jpg

 

Right Corner:

RightCorner_012014.jpg

 

Left Corner:

LeftCorner_012014.jpg

 

Left Side:

Left_012014.jpg

 

Top-Down (w/ pumps on):

Top_012014.jpg

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Does the door to the left of your aqaurium open towards the tank? Might want a permanent stop on the floor if it does, otherwise.....never mind<g>

 

Nice tank!

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Looks fantastic. Love, love, love the arch! Looking forward to seeing what you do with this :happydance:.

 

Thanks :)

 

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it too. Either zoas, ricordia and rhodactis or maybe some SPS. It's right under the MP10, so I'll either have to find coral that love the flow (i.e. SPS) or invert the layout of my MP10s.

 

Does the door to the left of your aqaurium open towards the tank? Might want a permanent stop on the floor if it does, otherwise.....never mind<g>

 

Nice tank!

 

Thanks! And don't worry. That door doesn't open. It's locked at the top and bottom. I tried to open it to make sure that it wouldn't hit the tank, but the locks haven't been used in so long that they're stuck.

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I'll be following this one, my new tank is most likely going to center around a harem of dwarf angels yet to be decided on the species. As for corals they are not known to nip at look into the very noxious soft corals like xenia, leathers, and mushrooms (not ricordea apparently though). Zoanthids and lps are most seen as snacks although from what I have gathered from reefbuilders is they leave hammer coral alone, go figure.

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I'll be following this one, my new tank is most likely going to center around a harem of dwarf angels yet to be decided on the species. As for corals they are not known to nip at look into the very noxious soft corals like xenia, leathers, and mushrooms (not ricordea apparently though). Zoanthids and lps are most seen as snacks although from what I have gathered from reefbuilders is they leave hammer coral alone, go figure.

 

From my research on dwarf angles, their fondness for picking at coral usually depends on the species, but especially on the individual.

 

I had great luck with a lemonpeel angel in the past, but I'm not willing to risk 3 of them in my tank this time - especially when they've got the worst reputation. That's why I decided on the African Flameback Angels (C. acanthops). The flamebacks and cherubs are supposed to have the best "reef-friendly" reputation amongst the dwarf angels. And from the accounts where the do nip at coral, it's typically either "hairy" sps (long PE), brain coral spp., or zoanthids. So I'm going to try and be optimistic about their nipping, but worst case situation, I'll stock the tank with coral they don't nip at. I love the little guys too much to get rid of them.

 

I'll probably stock the tank similarly to how it's described in this article. Just gotta adapt to their tendencies.

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From my research on dwarf angles, their fondness for picking at coral usually depends on the species, but especially on the individual.

 

I had great luck with a lemonpeel angel in the past, but I'm not willing to risk 3 of them in my tank this time - especially when they've got the worst reputation. That's why I decided on the African Flameback Angels (C. acanthops). The flamebacks and cherubs are supposed to have the best "reef-friendly" reputation amongst the dwarf angels. And from the accounts where the do nip at coral, it's typically either "hairy" sps (long PE), brain coral spp., or zoanthids. So I'm going to try and be optimistic about their nipping, but worst case situation, I'll stock the tank with coral they don't nip at. I love the little guys too much to get rid of them.

 

I'll probably stock the tank similarly to how it's described in this article. Just gotta adapt to their tendencies.

 

Another tip I heard is to add them last after the corals have been placed to alleviate curiosity of the new item in their tank. I think I saw that one on a thread where a guy kept 9 flame angels in a leather and xenia only tank... they really do make the tank coral or not lol.

 

Excited to see yours up mine has a month or 2 probably before the water is added.

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Well here are the first pictures of the tank officially set up and running. I apologize for the glare on some of the pictures. I'm still waiting on my lights, but this is what I've got so far!

 

Front:

FTS_012014.jpg

 

Right Corner:

RightCorner_012014.jpg

 

Left Corner:

LeftCorner_012014.jpg

 

Left Side:

Left_012014.jpg

 

Top-Down (w/ pumps on):

Top_012014.jpg

 

Looks great awesome scape

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Another tip I heard is to add them last after the corals have been placed to alleviate curiosity of the new item in their tank. I think I saw that one on a thread where a guy kept 9 flame angels in a leather and xenia only tank... they really do make the tank coral or not lol.

 

Excited to see yours up mine has a month or 2 probably before the water is added.

 

Yea. I'm just a little hesitant to spend too much money on coral if the angels were going to nip at it anyways. I might add an assortment of small frags to the tank first, but I'd like to gauge their tolerance before risking any real investments ($$$).

 

Unfortunately it's always a risk with these little guys :scarry:

 

Looks great awesome scape

 

Thanks!

 

Looks good. Let the cycle begin. :scarry:

 

Thanks! I'm hoping I might be able to start adding my CUC this weekend fingerscrossed

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