New Plumbing for Cube

I ordered some ball/socket pieces from Marine Depot and constructed something that looks like this for my Cube:

It fits over the outtake on the back wall of the Cube. The ball/socket plumbing is pretty cool it can be bent in different directions to direct flow and the black tubing blends in with the back of the tank.

My hope was that this would allow me to get some nice flow throughout the tank, add some surface agitation, and avoid putting another PH inside the tank. I had replaced the stock pump with a minijet 606 (160ghp) but find that the flow is not as strong as I'd like it to be. Anyone have any suggestions on a stronger pump that will fit in the back of the cube? Thanks!

Maxijet 600 will fit on an angle without having to do any mods.

Thanks for the reply. I have a MaxiJet 600 too, but I'm pretty sure that it has rougly the same output as a the Minijet 606 --> about 160gph. I was thinking something closer to 300gph in order to get some flow going through the 4 outlets in the plumbing. I wonder if the Maxijet 1200 is much bigger than the 600. . . .

Yea the 1200 is bigger, it won't fit unless you cut one of the baffles. But, the maxijet 600 can handle more head pressure so it should give more flow than the 606.

The Rio 800 will fit in there. Thats the highest flow pump that will fit.

Thanks much for the info john and reefinspired! I'm not too sure about the idea. Even with switching out to my Maxi-Jet or a Rio 800 do you think that my flow will be too dispersed to do much good? In concept I liked the idea. In execution, I don't know.

Thanks again!

Yeah it might be too dispersed.

Heres what i did.

I have two rio 800's :|

I have one plumbed to the center of the tank where it runs thru a T fitting to two of those adjustable outlets, like you have on the lower right of your device.

I aim them at the side walls and it creates a nice flow thru most of the tank. Both sides of the tank get flow.

But the lower back wall collects detris.

So I plumbed a fitting that aims the flow to the lower back wall. That pump turns on for

10 secs every 30 secs and creates a counter current to the main flow. kinda like a wave maker.

The Rio 800 does 211 gph.

That might seem like alot of flow for the nano cube but the main pump has a foot of head plus two 90"s so its around 150 gph.

I like your mod. How does it attach to the outlet nub on the back of the tank. Also what size Loc-line is it? Could you perhaps post a picture?

reefinspired,

Thanks much for the description of your setup. Sounds like you get some great, varied flow. Sounds like you have the whole tank covered. if i had the courage/skill to put a hole in the back then I think I would've done the same thing had I known what you'd done. Given I've spent the bucks on my these parts I think I've gotta find a creative way to use one pump in order to make use of what I have.

cseeton,

I'm at work right now but will try to get a pic posted. The 3/4" Y fitting just fits over the existing outlet, although not completely. I think if I can just hone out a tiny bit I can get it flush with the back wall. The LocLine is 1/2" and the 3/4" Y fitting's two outlets are 1/2". I'm dissatisfied with flow right now but if I had some more flow I think it would work well. The 2 side outlet pieces and the 1/4" inch nozzle on the left hand side make for some neat ways of re-directing flow. I've just gotta decide on the means of substantially increasing flow (I like the flow rate that reefinspired has. Any ideas/suggestions are welcome.

I remember seeing one of those in college. :

I remember seeing one of those in college.

LOL, didn't see the resemblance until you mentioned it.

I wasn't able to get a good pic of the plumbing in the water (it blends in too well with the back of the tank. I used some sandpaper to hone out the fitting that attaches to the back of the cube. Now it is a tight and flush fit on the stock outlet. I'm still working on the flow problem but may have a fix. Will update as I work on increasing the flow.

I have significantly increased my flow with my new plumbing and it has been in place for 3 days. I put an Aquaclear 402 PH (~270gph) from the LFS in the back. It sits in the 3rd area and connects directly to the 90 degree joint that connects to the outflow. I now have nice current throughout the tank without adding another PH inside the tank or drilling a hole in the back. No change at all in tank temp. Also, the flow is much more diverse (my clean up crew isn't buffeted around the way they were when I had the MaxiJet 600 in there). The black pipe blends in so well that I haven't been able to get a good picture of it and about 1/2 of it is hidden by the LR. It seems that the corraline growth on my LR may have accelerated with the increase in flow as well.

I have two maxi jet ph400 in my tank and i have a 1200, and they are the same size!

Moa, does the stock pump output hose fit well with that loc-line? I want to get some of that loc-line to help re-direct the flow in my cube, but I do not want to have to drill or cut the back partition in any way (since my tank is already established).

I still have not found the best way to do this. I want either something that fits over the stock return nozzle/nub, or something that I can hook up to the pump hose, and run OVER top of the overflow, back into the display area.

Any suggestions?

The Loc-Line doesn't connect to the pump output hose. The Loc-Line connects to the plastic outtake "nub" that is a part of the back wall of the cube. I don't have anything going over the top of the partition.

I bought my stuff thru Marine Depot. I used a 3/4" male fitting (part #LL1319) that then snaps onto a 3/4" Y piece (Part # LL1323) that reduces into two 1/2" outlets. Then I just connected 1/2" Loc-Line the way I wanted it.

The male fitting that connects to the back wall of the Cube didn't quite fit flush over that nub thing on the back wall so I used some sandpaper and honed out the inside until I got a tight fit that fit over the nub completely and was flush with the wall of the cube.

I've had my Mexican Turbo crawling all over the Loc-Line, including on top of the flare nozzle, and it doesn't budge a bit. Great surface agitation, nice mixed flow. Just need to make sure that you have something that can make up for the power lost due to any extra head length from the Loc-Line.

Moa, so you got this part, and put it right over top of the stock "nub" on the back wall of the cube? http://marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idp...dproduct=LL1319 (I did catch the part where you said you had to "hone out" the inside of this fitting).

If so, I think I'm going to get some loc-line and do just about the same thing you did Thanks

yep, that's the piece and it fit nicely over the stock "nub" on the back wall of the cube after the sanding.

Thanks Moa! I'll check my LFS for this piece this weekend, and order from marinedepot (man, I'm making them rich!) if they don't have it.

Moa,

Just finished the mod. Thanks!

Now I don't have that da** trench on the right side of my tank and my tank circulation is much improved!

Have you ever noticed that the print sales add from JBJ has a loc-line diffuser attached and no trench in the bottom sand?

Thanks again.

Cool deal! Glad it worked out. Hadn't noticed that in the add though. BTW, I switched back to a MiniJet 606, the flow from the other PH was too much for my corals. Seems to be ok flow.

Has anyone tried this with the new 24 gal nano cube? I was wondering what size power head I should use? Please advise...thanks.