luisgo Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 As part of the annual show of the largest fish forum in Puerto Rico there will be a competition in November among the members of "AMPRE" (Acuaristas Metro Este de Puerto Rico). 3 gallons cubes measuring 9"x9"x9" where prepared and sold to competitors and for the next 5 months each competitor will prepare their cubes, saltwater or freshwater. I will be documenting the progress of my cube here. Any comments or ideas are always welcome. I purchased the cube for $30 on June 7 during the monthly AMPRE meeting. Here is a photo of the cubes at the meeting By luisgon After reading about the required flow for a cube like this I finally decided to use this Marineland Bio-wheel filter. Nice flow, mechanical and biological filtration in one filter. By luisgon For the light I will use a Coralife Mini fixture with two 9 watts bulbs one daylight 10K and one actinic. By luisgon Substrate will be Caribsea Aragonite reef sand, about one inch. By luisgon Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 First thing that I did when I got home with the cube was to verify if there were any leaks. No leaks!! By luisgon The cube was placed close to my 125 reef in a well ventilated area. Heat is a problem with this kind of tank in summer. That is why a need a small fan. By luisgon Next step was a series of test on the effect of the lights and filter on water temperature. There was a fluctuation between 79 and 82F with the fan on when the lights were on. Not bad. By luisgon Now the tank was ready to go! First I painted the back with satin black spray paint. Nice finish! By luisgon Next I washed the reef sand and covered one inch of the bottom of the cube. By luisgon Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 The two pieces of wood to hold the lamp was only temporary. The lamp was placed over two pieces of acrylic attached with weld on to the cube. Here is my neighbor working the acrylic. By luisgon Here is the detail of the lamp over the new base. By luisgon This is after rock and some frags were introduced. By luisgon This is how it looks after a couple of hours. By luisgon By luisgon Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 Today I added a wood base and some other pieces to the rim. It is starting to look great!! By luisgon By luisgon By luisgon By luisgon Link to comment
da1001 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Color me impressed, very nice work so far! Link to comment
clownfish1124 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 7, 2008 Author Share Posted July 7, 2008 After a couple of days the corals are starting to look at home . Here are some closeup photos. By luisgon By luisgon By luisgon By luisgon By luisgon I will add some more corals in the next days. Link to comment
lilredneckman Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 It looks fantastic! What else do you plan on adding? Colors? Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 What I add will depend on what is available at my LFS but I am looking for mainly soft corals and zoanthids with color. Red and yellow are missing so those are the colors to look for. I will try to find small pieces to have more variety. There is still some space in the front and attached to the rock with reef epoxy. Link to comment
remedy00311 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 what brand model number is the marineland filter? i'm trying to put together a 5 gallon hex and was wondering if you can offer any help for me to get started. thanks! BTW. your cube looks GOOD!. i wish for mine to come out as clean as yours. Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 The filter is a Marineland Penguin 100 BIO-Wheel Power Filter. It produces a very nice flow for a cube this size without the need of a power head. Most important is that there is minimum heat transferred to the water. The key to a clean tank is to start with fully cured live rock and clean the sand thoroughly before it is introduced to the cube. Because I used rocks and corals from my 125 tank which is side by side with the cube, everything was very healthy and clean. Also I am changing water daily using the water from my 125 reef which has a very good filtration system. Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 18, 2008 Author Share Posted July 18, 2008 Here is an update of the Pico. Additions include a frag of yellow polyps, green star polyps and some astrea and nasarous snails. My top-off chiller combo Link to comment
jewbilee Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 hahha, I was thinking of doing something like that for a ghetto auto top off... if that just a bottle with a tube and something to control the drip? Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 18, 2008 Author Share Posted July 18, 2008 For top-off is just a bottle with a valve to control the drip drop by drop. I noticed that when water was added to replace evaporation the Xenia closed. This way changes in salinity and temperature are more smooth. Also I freeze the water and slightly cool the water, which is around 80 and 82F. Link to comment
jewbilee Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Awesome. As I said I was considering doing that for a ghetto ATO. So I'll have to play around with that setup to find the right drop rate. Link to comment
Daemonfly Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 Very nice tank, and interesting challenge. Everyone provided with the exact same tank. You expecting any decent competition from any of your fellow AMPRE members? Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 19, 2008 Author Share Posted July 19, 2008 There are eight AMEPR members inscribed in the competition. Of those only two are saltwater cubes. Some of the members are posting the progress of the construction of the cube in the AMEPR forum. The other saltwater competitor is very good at building this kind of reef cube. There will be some vendors with their cubes out of the competition. I think that what is important is to compete. I have seven aquariums and this one is a real challenge. Now everyday I wakeup and go directly to me new toy, my Pico cube. The AMEPR site is in Spanish but you can see photos of other cubes here. Sam’s Cube is the other saltwater cube. Very interesting acrylic work. http://www.createforum.com/phpbb/viewforum...mp;mforum=amepr Link to comment
travisurfer Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 You sure have one amazing tank there. Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Wow, nice pico! I'll be following along. Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 25, 2008 Author Share Posted July 25, 2008 Here is an update of the pico. Some new frags, zoas, a Candy Coral and some relocations of the star polyps and Yellow polyps. Everything is looking good. Astrea snails are keeping everything clean. Link to comment
Lizzie1324 Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Nice pico! I really want a 3 gallon. And I love those zoa's with the red skirts, very cool. Link to comment
luisgo Posted July 29, 2008 Author Share Posted July 29, 2008 Here is a webpage with a video of my Pico at utube. This video is two weeks old and doesn't includes the latest additions. http://www.prtc.net/~luisgon/luisgo3.htm Link to comment
luisgo Posted August 21, 2008 Author Share Posted August 21, 2008 Here is an update of my Pico. Now we know the date of the Cube Challenge, october 25 and 26. Getting closer! There is a new Yellow Clown Goby. Link to comment
Nick Fr. Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Wow awesome pico! Good luck in the competition! Link to comment
luisgo Posted September 8, 2008 Author Share Posted September 8, 2008 An update of the Pico. In the morning the Pico receives around 30 minutes of direct sunlight. That is the best moment of the Pico. All corals turn crazy! Here are some photos. Couple of new additions. Link to comment
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