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Innovative Marine 150G EXT: SPS Canyon


xiaoxiy

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Some of you guys may remember my SPS Canyon Nano Reef. I've had ups and downs with that tank including change of aquascape. The tank peaked around May of 2019 with a west Mariculture aquascape. The coloration of the tank was crazy, and the acropora were growing great. 

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Shortly afterwards, the tank crashed. While I was unable to pinpoint the cause of the crash, I was able to eventually get things stabilized out. Unfortunately, the damage had been done. I had basically lost half of my acropora, and the other half had completely browned out. I was pretty disappointed in myself and ended up rescaping the tank. The tank was on auto pilot. 

 

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The 34 gallon cube started feeling packed and dense, and I started eyeing larger tanks. One tank that caught my eye was the Fiji Cube 81g EXT tank. It was an aquarium kit that had the footprint of 36x24x22, and had an external overflow. I had previously only heard about Fiji Cubes in passing, but had never seen the quality of their tanks in person. After doing some research, I learned that they were based out of Minneapolis MN, only a few hours away from me. I reached out to some fellow reefers who had good things to say about the tank. After messaging them on facebook, the owner of the company replied within 30 minutes. I ended going on what felt like a limb, and ordering the tank.

 

To my pleasant surprise, Fiji Cube's customer service remained top notch. Many of my facebook messages were responded to within hours, even on weekends and some nights as well. Two weeks after ordering the tank, it was on the way to my house.

 

Fiji Cube Arrival:

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On arrival, the tank packaging looked fantastic. Everything was shipped on a pallet via Freight. The tank was protected in a well-packaged cardboard box with styrofoam spacers, which was in turn situated within a sturdy MDF container. 

 

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I was amazed by the quality of the tank, stand, sump and ATO. All five panes of the tank consisted of 1/2 inch low iron glass and looked crystal clear. The stand was made from plywood and professionally finished. Moreover, the ATO resevoir and ATO lid were also made of ultra clear low-iron glass as well!

 

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With some help from a close friend, I was able to get the tank moved to my fish tank room and immediately started working on the plumbing.

 

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Shortly after leak testing the tank, I transferred everything from my old Red Sea Reefer 170 over to the new tank. My eventual goal is for the tank to have minimal rockwork, with huge acropora colonies that occupy the top of the tank. Thanks for tagging on to the beginning of this awesome adventure!

 

December of 2019: Initial setup

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Reef Update as of 7/10/2020:

 

Maintenance Regimen:

Daily ~ 2 minutes

- Clean Glass

Weekly ~ 15 minutes

- Clean Skimmer

- Fill RODI Top off Container

- Fill Autofeeder with Pellets

- Mix up 20 gallons of fresh instant ocean salt water for auto-water change

Monthly ~ 15 minutes

- Clean and refill Kalkwasser Reactor

- Change Carbon 

- Refill Alkatronic Reagent

Automated

- Feeding via Eheim Autofeeder 3x daily

- Easy SPS Gel and EasyBooster Gel twice a day via doser

- 100% Saturated Kalk at 960ml daily via doser

- Alkalinity tested at 9AM and 9PM via Alkatronic

- Automatic Water Change at 3 gallons daily via Neptune DOS

 

Equipment List:

Tank - Fiji Cube EXT 81G Combo

Light - 

  • Giesemann Infinity 24'': Pheonix 14k Halide with 2x Blue Plus and 2x Coral Plus T5 Discontinued use on 5/21/2020
  • 2x ReeFi Duo Extremes, started using on 5/21/2020

Flow - 2x Tunze Stream 3s

Skimmer - IceCap K250

Heater - Finnex Titanium Heater

Reactor - IM Desktop Reactor running Carbon

Dosers - 

  • Coralbox Wifi Doser for ATI PRO Essentials 1, ATI Essentials PRO 2, EasySPS and EasyBooster Gel
  • Ecotech Versa for Kalkwasser Reactor
  • Neptune DOS for water change

Kalk - AVAST K1 Kalkwasser Reactor

Return - Sicce 9.0 (to pump from basement)

Alk Tester - Alkatronic

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Yes a fijicube! I've been waiting for someone to have one of their builds. I don't think they're well known but I'm definitely looking at them whenever I want to upgrade. 

 

Awesome hard scape. You gonna splurge and get some big colonies to kick start it or just frag by frag and be patient? (which I'm not) 

 

Edit: you already have some nice colonies (I looked closer) but I guess there's always room for more 😉 

 

Once you get a second let's get some closer up fts so we can see the coral! 

 

Following 🙂

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18 minutes ago, xiaoxiy said:

Thanks for tagging along guys. I'll definitely get colony pictures. For the time being, here's one of my biggest corals 🙂

 

 

 

OHHHHHHHHH YEAH

 

I have a baby OG Bounce. about the size of a dime. Can't wait for it to explode 

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17 hours ago, Tired said:

That thing looks bizarre. Can it eat, or does it just absorb? 

I've never target fed it!

17 hours ago, Matteo said:

OHHHHHHHHH YEAH

 

I have a baby OG Bounce. about the size of a dime. Can't wait for it to explode 

Just give it time and it'll get huge!

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

So glad to see this canyon scape making a comeback....these are the exact same rocks that you took out of the ELOS, right?  They look almost identical, just in a bigger space.

The rocks are different but similar in aquascape design. I actually had to make a completely new set of rock structures, as I had taken the old structure completely apart.

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GetPsyched2124

I've been planning on getting a fiji cube tank sometime next year after I move. i've heard nothing but great things and the setup you have is awesome.

 

where did you get those rocks? I like the flat ridges and edges that they have throughout.

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22 minutes ago, GetPsyched2124 said:

I've been planning on getting a fiji cube tank sometime next year after I move. i've heard nothing but great things and the setup you have is awesome.

 

where did you get those rocks? I like the flat ridges and edges that they have throughout.

Two Little Fishies Staxx Rocks!

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  • 1 month later...

Nice , I picked up a new Fiji 54G several months ago but its still dry.  I agree that they are a very well made tank. Mine has the external overflow and its a thing of beauty. The silicon sealant is perfect too.

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  • 4 weeks later...
15 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

massive flow with those not one, but TWO, giant tunze's?

Each one is on for 6 hours alternating.

12 hours ago, Matteo said:

Damn. And rocking a metal halide! 

I love the halide.

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18 minutes ago, xiaoxiy said:

Each one is on for 6 hours alternating.

I love the halide.

Old school af haha. 

 

Many years ago I had a biocube I was rocking a 150watt Viper 2 Halide. 

 

For the sake of nostalgia would be fun to have one again over a frag tank or something 

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On 3/1/2020 at 12:05 PM, Matteo said:

Old school af haha. 

 

Many years ago I had a biocube I was rocking a 150watt Viper 2 Halide. 

 

For the sake of nostalgia would be fun to have one again over a frag tank or something 

The halide seems to make the acropora flesh thicker and deeper in coloration, kind of hard to explain. The downside is it shoots out blinding light spill from the side, and the spectrum doesn't make the acros visually appealing. The tank coloration really becomes vibrant in the evenings with just my T5s on (2 Purple Plus and 2 Blue Plus). 

 

I've come to realize that the hardest thing about reef keeping is to ignore the compulsions to upgrade/fiddle with the system. I'm still struggling with these urges despite the tank hitting its stride and doing well.

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mitten_reef
20 minutes ago, xiaoxiy said:

The halide seems to make the acropora flesh thicker and deeper in coloration, kind of hard to explain. The downside is it shoots out blinding light spill from the side, and the spectrum doesn't make the acros visually appealing. The tank coloration really becomes vibrant in the evenings with just my T5s on (2 Purple Plus and 2 Blue Plus). 

 

I've come to realize that the hardest thing about reef keeping is to ignore the compulsions to upgrade/fiddle with the system. I'm still struggling with these urges despite the tank hitting its stride and doing well.

What color temp on the halide?  I can imagine the 18-20,000 kelvin bulb would make the tank looks really crisp. 

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2 hours ago, xiaoxiy said:

The halide seems to make the acropora flesh thicker and deeper in coloration, kind of hard to explain. The downside is it shoots out blinding light spill from the side, and the spectrum doesn't make the acros visually appealing. The tank coloration really becomes vibrant in the evenings with just my T5s on (2 Purple Plus and 2 Blue Plus). 

 

I've come to realize that the hardest thing about reef keeping is to ignore the compulsions to upgrade/fiddle with the system. I'm still struggling with these urges despite the tank hitting its stride and doing well.

So true. I gotta remind myself my tank doesn't need as much intervention as I give it haha. 

 

Maybe a single blue led strip to help with pop? 

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4 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

What color temp on the halide?  I can imagine the 18-20,000 kelvin bulb would make the tank looks really crisp. 

Pheonix 14k run on this old ass M80 halide ballast. 

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1 hour ago, Matteo said:

So true. I gotta remind myself my tank doesn't need as much intervention as I give it haha. 

 

Maybe a single blue led strip to help with pop? 

That's the plan down the road. Gotta choose between Sbreef, reefbreeder and orphek. 

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22 minutes ago, xiaoxiy said:

Pheonix 14k run on this old ass M80 halide ballast. 

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That's the plan down the road. Gotta choose between Sbreef, reefbreeder and orphek. 

Okay yeah you should definitely get a 20k bulb and use the T5s for your whites. 

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13 hours ago, Matteo said:

Okay yeah you should definitely get a 20k bulb and use the T5s for your whites. 

After I run out of Phoenix bulbs, I’m gonna give the Giesemann Megachrome Crystal a try. Shame they don’t make double ended radiums.

 

The tank video I posted earlier is a pretty accurate representation of what the Phoenix 14k looks like when driven by an m80 ballast. It’s a crisp, bluish white. 
 

I’ve tried other bulbs in the past including the Giesemann Megachrome coral (14.5k), which was waaay too yellow.

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  • xiaoxiy changed the title to Innovative Marine 150G EXT: SPS Canyon

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