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Blink's 25 gallon Solana cube

8K views 29 replies 6 participants last post by  blink 
#1 · (Edited)
Current full tank shot as of 29 December, 2012


It's time to start up the new tank journal and it's late, expect rambling.

I bought a nice little 25 gallon AIO cube a while ago, branded as an Ecoxotic but made by Current USA and essentially a smaller version of their Solana. I like AIOs, they give me a sense of well being and relaxation. Anyhow, my wife decided it would make a nice reef tank until I pointed out that she had recently gotten a 60 gallon cube which still needed plenty of livestock.

VICTOLY!!!

The time has come to get some water in this thing so first things first, I needed a stand. I looked high and low and there was nothing I liked, or at least nothing I liked that I was willing to pay the asking price for... what do these people think they are selling? I mean $300+ for a poorly made wobbly pressboard stand? **** that, I'll make one I says which causes much eye rolling and sighing from my wife, fortunately I've built dozens of subwoofer boxes and all a tank stand is, is a subwoofer box with a door and some access holes.

After a quick trip to Home Depot and bribing the lumber attendant I had some nicely pre-trimmed pieces of 5/8" MDF (which were way way off size) Good thing I asked for generous cuts :) Tonight had me in the garage making all kinds of saw dust and getting most of it in my ears and nose.

There are no pictures of cutting or assembly because, well, I kinda forgot and by the time I realized I'd forgotten I didn't really feel like taking any... I was on a roll!! I promise there will be lots of photos coming.

The stand is mostly assembled, some screws and lots of Gorilla Glue, I tried the new white formulation, apparently it dries twice as fast as the original brown. I need to figure out what I'm doing for shelves and a door but so far it's straight and level, probably more level than this house.

I'm considering finishing it in a nice black-brown color as we have a couple pieces of Ikea furniture in that shade and it looks good. Even if I don't get a color match this tank stand is beefy enough to bludgeon the Ikea junk into dust so it'll work, or at least that's what I tell myself. But on the flipside I'm really tempted to go back to my sub box roots and use some marine grade carpet on the stand, I'd have to waterproof it but you have to waterproof MDF no matter what you do because the junk will soak spills like a shamwow. Hmm, guess I'll have to think on that... But I'm most definitely painting the interior of the stand white, I've had enough of black interiors on tank stands. The white looks good and if you put just a tiny cabinet light in there it is so bright and easy to see what you are doing.

Moving right along, I've got a pail of Fluorite dark, two or three ziplock bags of plants I've gotten recently and a whole helping of impatience.
The stand should be finished by tomorrow night and dry by Saturday morning come hell or high water, then I'll need to figure out what I'm doing for scaping since the wife stole all my prize pieces of driftwood for our new 12 long. I don't want to do lace rock again and I don't want an Iwagumi because my CPDs won't stand for it.

Guess I'd better wrap this one up for tonight.
 
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#29 ·
Updating again, you'd think I'm trying to be consistent.

CO2 has been running 24/7 at about 1 bubble per second and just showing green on the drop checker and I am impressed.

My dwarf sagitteria has shown visible growth and my pogostemon helferi has taken off!! A couple of sprigs have literally tripled in size. The swords and vals all look healthier and the HM turned into a huge bush which I've now chopped back to about 3" tall.
My java fern is even growing happily and looks great.

I'm kicking myself for having taken so long to get the CO2 running but now, even with my comparatively low light I can tell I'm going to have to do a lot of trimming and gardening, hooray!

The fish all seem happier with the removal of the furcata rainbows but I found an oto which had jumped. There is a 1"x1/4" gap at the back of the tank where the lid isn't quite snug and he somehow made it out of there to become fish jerky.

The new shamu log is in and still trying to float but I've got it wedged under the pump outflow tubes so hopefully it finishes waterlogging and sinks. Fingers crossed, I really don't want to have to screw it to a tile and tear the entire tank up just to get it placed.
 
#30 ·
I've been remiss and not keeping this log updated, so remiss in fact that this tank has been shut down for a couple months.

It was fun but my fish never really thrived in here, the plants did ok but my fish kept fading away one by one, I think because there was just too much flow and no where to hide but who knows.

The cube has been replaced by a Fluval Studio 600 which I suppose I should make a thread for but I've been lazy as hell.
Thanks for looking.
 
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