FINALLY back in, 7.5 gallon cube!

[Jeremy0322]

Been out of the game for a long long time sadly, but I am finally coming back. Deep Blue Professional 7.5 gallon tank, 12x12x12. It will be a slow build, with alot of questions, so I hope your all in a helping mood over the next month. For now here is a picture of an empty glass box in its new home. (Girly book isnt mine, it will sit right next to my lovely girlfriends reading chair)

Also today I found a light, random find in target, perfect fit in my opinion! A par 38 bulb will go in it which should be MORE than sufficient for anything I want to keep

 

[JoeCanada11]

Nice tank. Love the clean look of it. Welcome back to the hobby.

 

[BigAl07]

Welcome back

Good looking cube

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Jeremy - Cheers for starting a new tank thread & welcome back to RS & the game

Great pics & pretty new tank !

Can you add a link to the bulb you will be using in the new lamp? I am interested, as I have considered starting a small nano one day and like your new setup

Is it something like this?

Shop LED PAR38 Bulbs and More | Direct-Lighting.com| (888)628-8166

 

[whippetguy]

Welcome back to the hobby!

 

[Jeremy0322]

Thanks alot guys! As for the bulb link, this is what I have in mind.

Ecoxotic PAR38 LED Aquarium Lamp

 

[Jeremy0322]

Also im sure it will get asked so I will go ahead and cover a few of the bases. It will be a sump less system, at least for the time being. Mainly for space concerns but also because it took me months to convince my girlfriend this was a good idea and the last thing I want to do is complicate it further. What I am considering doing is a phosban reactor under the stand and an AC70 or something like that as a converted fuge as a HOB.

Small reef setup, a few small fish, layered so there are no disputed. Small goby/blenny, something like a hawkfish, and then some form of open swimming fish. I know that is about maxed but im confident and like to think I know what im doing. Along with that there will be the collection of small inverts that every tank has, and then soft corals. I have never been a huge fan of SPS so I wont be going that route. I think that about sums it up haha

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Cool - thanks for the link - Ecoxotic PAR38 LED Aquarium Lamp 18 Watt Red, White, Blue (6 Blue, 4 White, 2 Red)

This configuration?

 

[Jeremy0322]

Im considering that configuration just because of the red, but I wouldnt be opposed to just the white and blue. I just want to have more white than blue, I would probably go with the 12k bulb. I have been looking around for them used, because of the lifespan of LED's I think you can get away with going the used route and I could probably save 50% that way. One of the little side experiments im doing with this tank so far is to see how cheaply I can do it while still having a successful system. My stand was free, the tank was 29 bucks, and the light was 35 so far. Im not off to a bad start!

 

[Jeremy0322]

Update on the tank. Met up with a guy I found on craigslist and he hooked me up really nicely, 3 dollars a pound on rock and 10 lbs of sand for 5 bucks, all out of a system that was beautiful. Got it scaped, threw a small filter on it, and now it marinated haha Here are a few pics of the scape, let me know what you think.

Direct view from the front

Kind of a side shot from the front leaning to the left

View from the side where her reading chair is at

 

[blackwater]

this is a cool tank. like the led bulb idea. i didn't know they made those for aquarium use and fit right into a standard socket. gives me ideas of building a light fixture using sockets from a hardware store and then just screwing however many of those bulbs u need into it. do u think these could work on a larger scale ie, taller tank. or would they not be powerful enough?

 

[mcentire1123]

Great start.

 

[Willie McDaries]

hey Jeremy,welcome back to the madness,very nice looking cube you have there,can't wait to see more

 

[Jeremy0322]

Thanks everyone!

blackwater - I dont know what the depth on these bulbs would be, but I have seen setups before with DIY fixtures that use multiple bulbs.

 

[FishTaleZ]

Hi Jeremy - I really like the way that your lr is placed. Looking forward to following your journey. I will be setting up a 14g biocube soon. I had one a couple of years ago and had to break it down to move. Now I'm ready yo get in the swing of things again. Looking forward to your pics.

 

[Jeremy0322]

I need your help with something. I need a heater thats less than 9 inches long and cant seem to find one. 50w will be enough for this tank, right? Its around 6 gallons of water

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Aquarium Heaters: Hydor Theo Heater

this 50 watt one would work, or maybe even this 20 watt


Aquarium Heater: Cobalt Aquatics Mini-Therm Heater

 

[Jeremy0322]

I was looking at the Theo but the reviews I have seen have not been great

 

[Jeremy0322]

well it seems this thread hasn't been updated in forever. It seems like one thing after another came up and the tank kind of just sat in the background. After Christmas though I started working on it again and am almost ready to put the first fish in. Added a 240 GPH Hydor powerhead as well as a 25 watt Hydor heater, got test kits, added a small clean up crew with a green mythrax to take care of the algae that had accumulated, and also have a light bulb on the way.

Now all that's left is to figure out what I want to add since it is a very small tank.

 

[Jeremy0322]

Light finally came in and I do have to say I am happy with it, however I dont have any corals in the tank yet so I dont know how they will react to it. The addition of the light means the tank is ready for a fish now so that will be coming soon.