Eredus' SCA 90 Gallon Cube

[Eredus]

Hello all! I've been lurking on the forums for awhile planning my return to this amazing hobby. I had to reluctantly withdraw from the hobby a few years ago when my wife and I decided to sell our old house to move into a condo downtown as I had nowhere to place it . My old system was a 125 gallon reef mostly LPS (I'm a fan). Well enough with the introduction and on to the build!

I have acquired most of the components for the build, some from the help of you kind folks on this forum! My build list is as follows:

SCA 90 gallon Starphire 'Cube' 36x24x24 with black oak stand
Trigger Systems Sapphire Cube Sump
Reef Octopus 150 SSS Elite Protein Skimmer
Reef Octopus VarioS-6 return pump
2x Kessil A160WE Tune Blue LED Aquarium Light w/ A-Series mounts
2x Aqueon Pro 150w Heaters
2x Ecotech MP40 Vortech Quietdrive

As the build progresses I plan on getting an Apex controller along with a dosing system. Also trying to determine an ATO solution (Apex PMUP or Tunze Osmolator). I also plan to plumb a manifold to feed a biopellet reactor, carbon and possibly GFO if needed.

I have also decided to use Aquaforest products implementing method 3 in their product guide for LPS and less demanding SPS. I have not fully decided on the livestock list other than clownfish are a must and probably a bristletooth tang of some sort (Kole, Two-spot, etc).
Epic photo incoming.....

My aquarium and stand are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Sump, return pump and light mounts are being shipped from Aquacave and should arrive shortly. More to follow!

 

[Txdragonslayer]

Good gear! Cheers to a good start!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Sweet! Welcome back!

 

[Eredus]

Hey guys! Time for another update. This week was slim as I had to travel for work. Its time to get back to business! Got the tank positioned in its final location. Filled the aquarium close to the overflow intake to perform a leak test.

I took a few pictures of the silicone work at the base of the aquarium. I would like some feedback if anyone thinks that this is an issue! Those slight crescents are only visible if you are looking at the base from an angle. If you look at it dead on (eye level) those curves are not visible. I am assuming that they are just a minor imperfection from the silicone smoothing process and shouldn't have an impact. Please let me know what you all think. Their size and shape has not changed since I filled it about an hour ago and will be watching closely

 

[Eredus]

There seems to be a very small leak inside the overflow box. Woke up this morning to find a puddle about the size of a silver dollar inside the overflow box. Should I be concerned?

 

[Eredus]

Leak Test 2.0!!!

Hello all! Received my replacement aquarium due to the overflow leak mentioned in my previous post. Started the leak test about an hour ago. Here is hoping that all goes well!

I also painted the inside of the stand with killz2. If the leak test goes well, I plan to have it completely plumbed by the end of this following weekend and (crossing fingers) have saltwater running in it! That's about it for now

 

[Jax5on]

Any new update? How did you send the previous 90g back? I am looking to purchase a 66g pnp and want more reviews

 

[Eredus]

No leaks . @Jax5on I had to pack the old aquarium in the box the replacement came in. SCAquariums is arranging a pick up date some time this week. Their customer service has been amazing. The replacement is excellent save a few very minor imperfections in the silicone work on the bottom exterior. After a lot of research I think this is somewhat common across multiple aquarium manufacturers to varying degrees.

 

[Eredus]

I started work on the plumbing effort yesterday by first getting the sump into the stand. I had to remove the support brace/door stop to get the sump in.

I 'dry fit' most of the standpipe work to see how it would look/ function. I made a few modifications to the 'herbie' standpipe included with the aquarium. I removed the el and created a curved section using to 45 degree elbows to gain more height with the emergency drain.

There will be a strainer on the main siphon drain.

After some trial and error my plan to plumb the sump area came to an impasse. I could not plumb a straight drain from the siphon to the drain connection on the Sapphire cube sump. I would have had to mod the sump (which I do not want to do) or turn the sump a fair amount to have them align. I could not fit the gate valve and have a nice alignment without compromising a decent layout for a manifold, so I had to scratch my initial plan and rotate the sump 90 degrees clockwise. I figured that if I was 'forced' to have a 90 degree or 45 degree series in the plumbing that I might as well make some adjustments to make maintenance easier on myself.

This makes skimmer and filter sock maintenance a little easier on me and has the return chamber close to the left wall, which will allow me to run the manifold plumbing up the left wall and ceiling of the stand interior.

This following section is where I will get a few giggles from the community for lessons learned I'm sure of it. First mistake was that I was using ABS bulkheads that honestly I thought were PVC and for the life of me could not figure out why it was taking such a long time for the solvent cement to bond. After looking at my BulkReefSupply receipt and a little bit of handy dandy forum searching, I discover that they make a transition cement for that very purpose and that while my PVC cement wasn't necessarily ideal, should work just fine for the amount of pressure in an average aquarium system. Second mistake, well maybe more of a 'I'd rather error on the safe side of things' moment - the bulkheads I was using were slip x slip. I was getting ready to cement union connections to the pvc short sections from my bulkheads when I began to think. "What am I going to do when one of these bulkheads has an issue like a bad seal or damage?" I would have to cut away and redo a fair amount of plumbing and the idea of using cement underneath the stand was not at all appealing. I decided to tap the brakes and slow down a bit. After some more research I decided to scrap the bulkheads I was currently using and get schedule 80 slip x thread bulkheads instead. This will allow me to perform any maintenance on the overflow/underside/bulkhead section without the need to scrap and replace partial pvc unions, bulkheads and possible standpipe sections.

It amazes me that regardless of how much research I do that little surprises pop up like this. The only thing I can do is research, consult the forums and think critically before moving forward Good thing I have a great worksite supervisor that keeps me in check -

 

[blesk]

Looks nice I have similar dimensions 36x30x22

 

[Eredus]

Finished assembly of the @AVAST Marine YOU Built MR5 media reactors today. Very nice kits!

Assembly was very straightforward and component quality was top notch After letting the cemented components cure overnight I finished final assembly this morning and thought I would post pictures of them.

 

[marspeed]

nice tank I just ordered one what are the dimensions of the over flow I'm trying to build the stand before it gets here


marc

 

[Eredus]

The overflow is 11.25" x 5.5"

 

[Eredus]

Woohoo just finished the plumbing! Will be getting this tank wet tomorrow and hopefully no leaks from my handy work .

 

[marspeed]

nice plumbing and thanks for the dimensions

 

[Eredus]

ITS ALIVE!!!!!

Hello all! Time for a build thread update. So this past weekend I filled the aquarium up with RO/DI water and gave the plumbing a leak test. All was good and that gave me the go ahead to get live rock and start aquascaping! I chose Reel Reef Rock from Real Reef Solutions. This stuff is amazing. Messed around with a few configurations on the dinning room table with towels giving me a rough approximation to the internal dimensions of the aquarium:

Decided to move this exercise to the aquarium itself to further explore my options:

After locking in my decision, (my wife helped me out a fair amount with some of the overall placement) I glued the major supporting structures and Tonga rock together using Ecotech Coral Glue. That stuff worked out quite well!

After all the glue cured (I let it set for about 2 hours) in went the sand. I used one bag of Tropic Eden Reeflakes 30lb Live and one bag of Tropic Eden Reeflakes 30lb dry.

It took about 2 days and rotating filter socks to get the aquarium to clear. After which I attached one of my @AVAST Marine M5 media reactors with 2L of Siporax and set to very low flow. I also added 1L of @Aquaforest Life Bio Fil right before the return section inside a Seachem 'The Bag'. I have dosed 4 drops of @Aquaforest Bio S for the last 4 days.

I currently have no Ammonia or Nitrite and have 2ppm Nitrate. I'm not really sure given all of the 'live' media I have added if I will actually observe an ammonia spike. You may notice that the water level in my sump is a little high. I am allowing evaporation so that my salinity rises slightly (it is almost at 35ppt) then I will maintain a decent level in my return section with daily top off until I purchase a controller (still debating between Apex or Profilux).

Let me know what you think of the aquascaping! I may add a few more pieces of live rock I'm not sure yet. I really like it aesthetically but I'm not sure there is enough territory for the fish. My wife and I tried to make it pleasing to view from all 3 panels as we will be enjoying the aquarium mostly from our desks . I would like to thank @premiumaquatics for having everything I needed this weekend and being very helpful.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Nice build, any updates? I'm planning a build with the same tank and sump.

 

[!Jonathan!]

Any updates?

 

[a4edwin]

What made you switch out the 160’s for the 700?

 

[a4edwin]

What made you switch out the 160’s for the 700?

 

[Eredus]

I switched them out as I like the spectrum options available to the ap700. Unfortunately my ap700 overheated and no longer functions. I just replaced the light with an Ecotech Radion 30w G4 and I absolutely love it.