Help planning shallow mixed reef cube

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Eight

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Hi All,

After being out of the hobby for about 5 years ive decided to start up again. Im not up to date wit new technology etc and nedd your help please.

Im planning a shallow cube of 80 x 80 x 40cm. I want to keep it as simple as possible. Keep electricity usage as low as possible as well.
I definately want some sps, staghons and monties as well as some lps and softies.

My equipment im tninking of is the following, please help and advise.
Lighting: LED, i saw a unit at Dory pets thats 40 watts and looks good for R4500 and saw the zetlighting unit at jungle aquatics zt6500. Which one would you advise for my needs. The zt6500 is 90watts. Any other options?

Skimmer: i was thinking bubble magus curve 7?

Flowpumps: 3 x sicce nanos

I will be doing a very minimalistic scape. The tank will have a sump. Still deciding between vodka dosing and biopellets?
Will donin tank shallow sandbed.

Im looking for a second hand system if anyone know of on available in Gauteng area?
 
Since your tank is shallow. You can go with the zetlight and just raise it a bit.

Curve 7 seems like a good skimmer.

Flow, look into the Jeboa RW pumps as well. Otherwise the sicces are OK.

I think vinegar dosing is great, I know there are alot of people that swear by it. Also look into a product called Orca Bio cubes.

Good luck
 
A curve 5 should also be pretty sufficient for that size tank. Curve 7 IMO is little bit overkill. I would also recommend the Jebao RW 4 or 8, maybe 2x 4's.

Vinegar or vodka dosing seems like a lot of effort to me. I prefer to run a refugium with some caulerpa or if you can find chaeto. I use seachem matrix so I don't worry about whether I have enough live rock or not and can play around with my scape as I like it knowing that I have enough biological filtration.

I don't have experience with LED, I run t5 and works amazing for me, so can't help you out on that one.

It's so exciting starting a new tank! All of the best!


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Do you guys think the bubble magus curve 5 skimmer would work on this setup. I constantly have to hold myself back to not go bigger, better and overboard with this system.
 
Eight said:
Do you guys think the bubble magus curve 5 skimmer would work on this setup. I constantly have to hold myself back to not go bigger, better and overboard with this system.
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It depends on how large your bio load is going to be. What are your plans in terms of fish/inverts?

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Eight said:
Do you guys think the bubble magus curve 5 skimmer would work on this setup. I constantly have to hold myself back to not go bigger, better and overboard with this system.
Click to expand...
It also depends on your bio load. What type and how many fish/inverts are you planning to keep?

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Thinking of a couple chromis, a yellow eye kole tang, firefish, and maybe a pigmy angel.

Lightwise would you suggest a Zetlight 6500 or 6600?
 
Eight said:
Thinking of a couple chromis, a yellow eye kole tang, firefish, and maybe a pigmy angel.

Lightwise would you suggest a Zetlight 6500 or 6600?
Click to expand...
Thats not a huge bio lpad so you dont have to go overboard with a skimmer.

I have no experience with zetlights, I am running a 2nd DIY led on my system.

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I think the tank is too shallow. Fish tend to swim around in the bottom half of the tank. Even on deep tanks. You only leaving them with around 10cm of swimming space after taking substrate, water surface from actual top into account. I would increase the depth with at least another 5cm
 
Ok so this tank is running for about 3 weeks now. The original dimensions changed slightly.

I got a nice second hand system, display tank, stainless steel stand and sump and ATO system for a good price. The display had some scratches so I sold it and had a new display tank built.

The dimensions of the display tank are 700 x 700 with water level just over 500mm. It is a rimless tank with a coast to coast overflow at the back. Black background.

The sump is 600x 600mm. I cut out all the baffles when i got it. Had some glass cut and designed and built it how I wanted it. First compartment: filter sock and skimmer, water runs over baffle into the next compartment where thereis 1L of Matrix. Water exits the bottom into the next compartment where there is some rock. I also have a 2 little fishies phosphate reactor that I will install here if ever it is necessary. Water then overflows into the last compartment where my return pump is. Bubble magus rock 4000.

The skimmer im using is a Bubble magus curve 5 and the light is a Zetlight zt6500.

I bought some dry scaping rock from jungle aquatics and built my scape. Got a few pices of live rock to start the cycle.

Flowpumps: 2 x Jebau rw4's

Heater: Eheim 300 watt

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The tank cycled for about a week. It was fully cycled and i added a couple pieces of sps, a yellow eye cole tang and 2 orange firefish.
 
The ATO that came with the tank works via gravity feed on a float. Im very impressed with how basic and well this works. Im dosing my top off with vinegar and kalk and it drips it in slowly and at a constant pace.
 
Yellow eye cole tang. Im a bit worried as hes not really eating. Got him from Dorry pets and they had him for a while so he must have been eating there. Ive tried nori tied to the rocks, flakes and frozen.

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