A.J.'s 60 gallon Aquarium Obsessed Starphire Über-Cube

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fjr_wertheimber

Okay, so for those of you who've been following along, I was the owner of The Tank Previously Known as "The Muscle Cube". Which, really, was a fantastic tank. I loved it (still do), it grew everything great, colors were fantastic... but... well, you know how it is. After a while you start looking at bigger tanks and thinking, "if only..." If only I could fit more corals... If only I didn't have to worry about getting rid of my white cheeked tang so soon... If only...

Well, I was over at a fellow reefer's house last week picking up an Aquacontroller, Jr. from him, when I spotted one of my favorite tanks, a 60 gallon cube. (Side note: I love cubes. Don't quite know why, but I think they're just such cool tanks.) Custom Ace-built overflow, beautiful shape, really exactly what I'd been looking (wishing) for. I mentioned as much to the owner who stated, "Well, I was thinking about selling it if you're interested..." After a bit of talking he offered me an INSANELY good deal for the tank, a 400 watt halide setup, tons of plumbing, sand and rock. Like INSANE deal, as in "I think I need to call a pshrink for this guy... after I get the tank to my place, of course."

So then the next obstacle came to be the lack of a stand. You see, it'd been an in-wall setup at his house. So, I posted on MAAST that I was looking for a stand. Lo and behold I got a message from another MAASTard offering me ANOTHER insane deal on a GORGEOUS metal stand that he'd had made for his 60 cube (albeit his is Starphire glass... ) that just happened to be the EXACT size I'd been looking for (24" x 24" by 36" high). OH, and then, he just happened to have a custom sump that he'd gotten from another MAASTard that just happened to fit perfectly in the stand that was exactly what I was looking for.

Okay, so tank: check... stand: check... lights: check... Skimmer? Found another MAASTard with one of my faves, a Euro-Reef RS100 at yet ANOTHER insanely good price. Return pump? Eheim 1262 at (yet again) insanely good price. Flow? Well, I've got an MP20 which is supposed to be good enough for up to a 70... but good enough just isn't, well, good enough. If only I could find someone to trade with who has an MP40w that's too much for their tank... what's that? Oh, yeah, found one of those, too.

So, here's what we're looking at so far:
Tank: Ocean View custom 60 gallon cube
Stand: Custom metal stand
Sump: Custom sump (20" x 22" x 16" with built-in refugium)
Skimmer: Euro-Reef RS100
Flow: Two Tunze modded 6025, Vortech MP40w
Return pump: Eheim 1262
Lighting: Lumen Max reflector, mogul 400w with XM 20,000K (Radium 20,000K on the way), magnetic ballast

Yes, pics are on the way shortly... Although, I might have a slight kink in the works. I'd planned on skinning the stand, but on seeing how pretty it is, I think I might have to get it powdercoated and show it off instead.

Can you say "tight fit"? LOL Seriously, I think there's about 2mm of clearance around the skimmer, if that.
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Everything packed in the car. Gotta love big American iron, I'd like to see you fit this much stuff in a Lexus! LMAO
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Keeping the live rock, well, "live".
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I got the stand powder coated at Crosslink Texas Powder Coating. I was very pleased with the job they did, they quoted me the same price that three other places did, they didn't charge me extra for a non-standard color, they mixed up a special batch just for me (they were only shooting white and beige today, so it's not like they had extra of my color sitting around), and they had it done by 1500, even though I dropped it off around 0930. A couple of small spots that need touchup, but that's not 'cause of them, it's areas that the media blasting showed some weak areas due to rust. One of the nice things about powder coating to match a car color (RAL 3002, original Ferrari Red circa the 1980s a la Magnum's Ferrari 308 GTSi) is that I can touch up with paint from an auto parts store and it'll match perfectly.
 
Stuff:
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Like I said, it's RED (btw, those are reflections, not imperfections or scratches). For some reason in the pics it looks more orange than it really is. It's much more scarlet in person:
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Okay, so a few new updates...

First off, ran into a bit of a problem. You see, the tank stand had been made to fit a rimless cube, so my current cube wouldn't fit. Two possible solutions to the problem: a) add a panel for the cube to sit on (not very aesthetically pleasing, and kind of negates the trouble of getting it all nicely powder coated, etc. or b) well, make sure the tank fits in the stand.

Which choice did I go with? Ummm...
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Still need to clean the tank, do all the plumbing, etc. The poor fish/corals/inverts will have to put up with at least one more day of their mini-cages.
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Mmmmmm... Starphire-y goodness...
 
Figured I'd recap for those new to the thread the current equipment list for the AO60gSU-C:

Tank: Aquarium Obsessed 60 gallon custom Starphire cube (24"x24"x24"), 1/2" Starphire front and sides, 1/2" back, 1/2" smoked glass overflow, 3/4" glass bottom, and two 1" bulkheads (Did I mention how crazy heavy this tank was for its size?)

Stand: Custom steel framed stand, powder coated RAL3003 (original Ferrari Red) by Crosslink Powder Coating in Pflugerville, TX.

Controller: Backlit Aquacontroller Jr. by Neptune Systems with pH probe, temperature probe, serial adapter, and DC8

Skimmer: EuroReef RS100

Sump: Custom 21"x22"x16" sump by Ram (ReefOne)

Lighting: 400 watt Metal Halide (XM 20,000K SE bulb), Lumen Max reflector, (can't remember what brand of ballast, I'll get it when I get home) magnetic ballast (Note: I intend to change the bulb to a 20,000K Radium when I can)

Flow: Vortech MP40w, Two Tunze Nanostream 6025 with shroud mod

Return pump: Eheim 1262

Moonlights: Fishbowl Innovations Moontube MC-3 Moon Controller System with lunar cycle control

Plumbing: All Schedule 80 PVC, two 1" drain lines and 3/4" return with Locline

Top Off Device: Top-Off.com AutoTop Deluxe with Aqualifter pump
 
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Just need about 5 more gallons of water and I'll be set. I'm LOVING the action of that MP40w on this tank, you can actually watch the wave move along the three visible walls. Oh, and even with the still-cloudy water I can tell that the Starphire glass is awesome.
 
The water is still a little cloudy, but WOW, that glass is sooo beautifully clear. It looks like I could reach through it and grab my fish...
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Nice look.

Why did you go ridged pvc when flex would have taken some of the pressure away from the returns?

Can't wait to see the next steps
 
Looks good AJ. I've been following your post on MAAST. I really like the powder coated stand. Hopefully it won't be too loud for you with the sump open like that.
 
@Glenn wrote:
Nice look. Why did you go ridged pvc when flex would have taken some of the pressure away from the returns? Can't wait to see the next steps said:
Thanks, glad you like it. Quite honestly I went with rigid rather than Spaflex just 'cause I prefer the look of rigid PVC.
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OK, I love the choices on the sch 80 pvc contrasting with the stand and the red on the ball valve handles. I would add a blue led stuck to the bottom of the tank to cast light on the sump.

Do you have a mesh mod on the skimmer pump? I really like the layout of the sump and I'd like to understand the logic a bit better on how the flow goes and what is feeding what.
 
Thanks, Dheere. I like the idea of the blue LED under the stand, but I've actually got a fluorescent grow light under there for the macro algae now, so you'd never see the blue light. :)
To answer your question about what goes where in the sump, there are two 1" returns from the tank. One feeds the refugium, closed about 3/4 of the way, the other one feeds the same chamber as the skimmer. I haven't modded the skimmer at all, it's bone stock, but it makes beautifully thick, nasty gunk, so I'm pretty happy with it as-is.
 
Okay, so to stave off death threats and jihad fatwas from other reefers about my light being too high off the tank, I remounted it lower over the tank. I was a bit worried about temps spiking, but then realized that my tank temp was actually artificially high 'cause my heater was stuck on and once I remedied that the tank now stays around 77 degrees without a chiller. w00t!! I also learned that if I plug just one more thing (like, oh, say, a 7" cooling fan) into the power strip it trips the circuit breaker. Talk about right on the ragged edge!

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Ok, Please don't take this the wrong way you have a very nice setup that you spent a lot of time and money on making look beautiful (one I would like to see in person)... but then you leave junk scattered around the tank?

Don't let the surounding environment take away from your awesom tank.
 
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