18x18x18 AIO

[MarioDeMel]

Hi,

 

I've been in the hobby for like 3 years now and I kinda had a struggle with my 1st tank which is a custom made 140 liter Peninsula tank with 30 liter sump.

Since I saw BRS170 tank I always wanted a cube aio so I got this custom made aio for 15k Sri lankan rupees which is roughly 70 USD. And I made some few adjustments to the back filter.  

I'll be more focused on having sps dominant on this but gonna start with few lps and softies as usual. 

I used this big nice dry rock for my centerpiece which I had for sometime and small one or two more small rocks besides. Still haven't figure out on those rocks. 

And still haven't figure out which light I'm gonna use because it's hard to buy a quality light initially with the inflation of the currency we are facing. 

I've got a bubble magus qq2 skimmer running on the 1st chamber and it's sitting on a diy media rack. Which will hold activate carbon and phosband or rowaphos.

2nd chamber I'm having ceramic blocks and refugium using chaeto from my other tank.

3rd chamber will be the return pump.

 

For bottom my initial plan was to add gsp since I love the look of it in the bottom glass which I have in other tank. But in second thoughts I thought of adding sand to the bottom so it will help to stable the tank fast and gives more natural look.

 

It's been running for 2 weeks now with a few live rock pieces from my old tank and haven't added any bacteria bottles to this.

 

Please feel free to give your inputs on what should I have done more to better my journey with this. 

 

Stand will be change soon. And it will be made out of teak wood.

 

It's been running for 2 weeks now with a few live rock pieces from my old tank and haven't added any bacteria bottles to this.

 

Sorry for the picture quality.  

[MarioDeMel]

One week after setting up. 

Haven't check the parameters yet. Gonna wait little bit more.

Haven't thought about the lighting yet.

And stand is still under construction. Seems like that gonna take a while.

[debbeach13]

Looks like a great start. Have you decided yet on putting some sand in? Might as well wait until the tank is on the new stand to add sand if you're going to. 

[MarioDeMel]

10 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Looks like a great start. Have you decided yet on putting some sand in? Might as well wait until the tank is on the new stand to add sand if you're going to. 

Thanks.

Yeah I was waiting till the stand comes in so I don't have to vacuum sand which can be a big hassle. So yeah for the sand is sitting on a bag.