99g Über Cube Build Thread (pics galore)

[george1098]

Hi All
This thread will continue essential where my last one left off.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=932755

I moved in to a new place, and like any self respecting reefneck would do, I took the opportunity to upgrade. It won’t be a huge step up from my 90 gallon in terms of water volume, but it will be allot cooler than my old tank. It is a 72cm cube (about 28 ¼”) made out of 10mm glass, which comes out to just over 373L or around 99 gallons. I am building the tank myself with an external coast to coast overflow, and euro bracing. For hardware, I will list the components below:

The Brains: I am going with an Aqua Controller 3 with two DC8’s to control things like light, heat, monitor pH, ect. I haven’t really figured out all the features of this little unit yet, but I hope to put it to good use.

The Heart: For flow I’m going with two Echotech Marine Votrecs.

The Bowels: For skimming and filtration I am going to use my heavily modified ASM G-4X, which has proven to be more than powerful enough. I am thinking about adding another sedra 9000 needle wheel pump. I am also going to use a fuge with a deep sand bead, and lots of cheato. I’m probably going BB, so the sand bed will probably be a good 8” deep. I have plenty of LS from my old tank. I will also run carbon with a TLF phosban reactor.

The Bones: For calcium supplementation, I am going to use a DIY reactor ran off a Milwaukee controller. I could use the AC3 to control my effluent pH, but I’d rather use it’s pH probe to monitor the water’s pH. I also use a DIY Kalk reactor that I process all the top off through.

The Kidneys: For water top offs and changes, all tap water will be processed through my Purely H2O 5 stage RO/DI unit.

The Sun: For lighting I am going with a 400W HQI MH lamp powered by a PFO HQI ballast. I have a 14,000k Hamilton bulb on order, but I am thinking of switching brands after I get things up and running. For reflectors I have a cheapo retrofit one on order, but I’d like to replace it with a lumenarch eventually. I am also going to use a 4x 24W t-5 actinic retrofit kit for supplementary lighting.

All The Rest: 2 x 250W titanium heaters, external centrifugal return pump, a Red Sea 100mgpd ozone generator (I have not used ozone before, so I plan to acclimate my tank slowly once everything is back to normal after the move.) That’s all I can think of right now.

Here are some pics of my first day of work on the big project.

Here’s the new tank in 2D


Step one: The bottom is being siliconed to the front. The bottom will be set 5mm off the ground so the weight is supported by the sides of the tank.


Step two: The back being siliconed to the bottom.


Step 3: Side one


Step 4: Side two, almost done. The piece sticking up is the bottom of the overflow box. Since it will be a coast to coast overflow, the eurobracing won’t do anything for the back pain. This should help shore it up. The drain pipes will stick out the back of the overflow.


that’s all for now. Tomorrow when it sets up I will tip it upright and put on the eurobracing. After that I want to leave it for a good 48 hours before I water test it.