I spent about 3 months prior to spending a single pound of my money reading books and forums. What I discovered was almost ever single fishkeeper has their own way, but I slowly identified what was accepted best practice and tried to buy a system which suited my needs (both as an experimental scientist!) and in the space and restrictions I had to set up the tank.

I posted on here about the Aqua-Medic Chromis Tank and a Betta LifeSpace 680 and then went for something entirely different and custom made.

I wanted a tank of about 60 Gallons and I rent a house, so drilling holes in ceilings for pendants is a no-no. I spotted the Arcadia Series 4 mini has legs so I decided on my lighting system. To cope with the weight of this I went for a custom 2ft cube 10mm glass tank (very pleased with this although I underestimated the size of the glass supports near the top and my overflow tank didn't fit and had to have the top support redone, but Just-Marine Farnborough sorted it out no problem). The stand was also custom made by Steelworks.co.uk.

Next was the real love or loathe bit of kit I went for a Marisys 240 and so far love it, its quiet, seems to be doing its job fine and to be honest has a decent overflow box and impeller pump so if I decide the older columnar protein skimmer isn't upto it I will make my own sump probably with a DSB or mud but reuse the overflow box and pump. I am not intending on keeping lots of fish more on that in a moment.

Have a decent Hydro Koralia 2 Powerhead and a 200W Jaeger heater. As for backings or how it looks I like the more high tech look of my tank, personal style I guess, but I adore the pumps and wires and like being able to look around the back of the rock.

Filled it with Red Sea Max salt and my own generated RO to a SG of 1.025 (measured with a refractometer) and a temperature of 25C and let it run for a week.

No problems nice and stable so added 60lbs of Carib-sand and 22kgs of live rock (including a hitchhiker crab seen on first day and not again ... yet! Its a little Mithrax crab who has avoid my baited trap and not seen since day 1, grrr!).

Everything cycled very quickly didn't measure an ammonia spike at all but still let it cycle for 2 weeks until I bought my clean up crew. I decided on a crab free tank so have 4 Mexican Turbo Snails, 10 Astrea Tecta Snails, 3 Brittle Sea-Serpent Stars and a Tiger-Tail Sea Cucumber (yes I know the dangers of these fellows but my heater is held high my powerheads all also hard to get too and I think its worth the risk).

Thats it so far future plans include a few clams and a four line wrasse, a pair of Maroon Clowns and an anemone and a pistol shrimp and yellow watchman goby, and that will be it (not heavy stocking for a 60G tank I hope), a coral free tank!

So in Summary:-

Tank 2ft x 2ft x 2ft 10mm Glass custom tank
Support Steel Custom Cabinet Frame
Filtration Marisys 240
Light Arcadia Mini Series 4 150W on overtank supports (and stick on moon lights under it)
Hydro Koralia 2 Powerhead
200W Jaeger heater
60lbs Carib-Sand
22kg of Live Rock

Live Stock
4 Mexican turbos
10 Astrea tecta
3 Brittle sea-serpent star
1 Tigertail sea cucumber
1 Mirthax crab (deceased? I hope so)

Planning on
2 Maroon clowns
1 Bubble tip anemone (going to wait several months to let the tank establish before getting this)
3 Clams Tridacna squamosa, derasa, crocea
1 Four line wrasse
1 Yellow watchman goby
1 Pistol Shrimp

I am still quite new to marine so its any of this is bonkers please let me know I am researching as much as I can but lack the experience many of you have of practical fish keeping.

looking really nice, i love the seamless cube look, id like a 1ft version of this, just as a matter of interest who built it for you and at what cost?

Theres nothing wrong with a Mirthax crab i loved mine im currently looking for another one after mine disappeared a couple of months ago, they spend most of the time munching on the dreaded hair algae if you find him you know where to send him

Hi

Lovely looking tank, cant wait to see it develop.

I have two hitchhiker mithrax crabs, to be honest they are probably the best part of my clean up crew,

Keep us posted.

Cheers

Gary

Second update...

firstly just to answer a question I got the tank from Just Marine in Farnborough, give them a call for the 12"x12"x12" tank they will be able to advise you.

The Marisys has been a slight nightmare the pump is humming like crazy and aquarium parts are sending me out a replacement, the airstone driven skimmer also seemed to be a little bit poor given that venturis are so common so I ripped out the airstone skimmer and now have a Deltec MCE300 attached instead, this has allowed enough space to stick a Tunze osmolator top up system into the sump (I will call it a sump rather then a filter canister but its really somewhere in between), I was loosing a lot of water as its an open top tank so this is now working nicely. Also got a Eihem autofeeder so I can go on holiday this year.

I have also been through the cycling period and have a clean up crew (4 Mexican Turbos, 10 Astrea, 3 brittle sea serpent stars and a tigertail cucumber, who has hid in the living rock), the next addition was a six-line wrasse. He/she is excellent a really great addition and his antics keep me amused, he is currently king of a very large tank but I am adding some clowns in a couple of weeks so he might be in for a shock! I have just added two clams a tridacna Deresa and a Crocea (Deresa on the sandbed, Crocea on top of living rock stack so its much nearer the Metal Halide lamp, see pictures ... ).

I have ordered a anenome plastic replica to amuse the clowns when I get them too, not sure whether I and they will like it, will keep you posted, plan is to eventually make this a anenome and clam tank with the clowns, slightly worried the anenome might eat my wrasse now

OK thats all for now.

Third Update:-

Marisys Pump is now fixed, Deltec MCE 300 is now settled in after a noisy start (and a cracked perspex body which was replaced).

Got a couple of pieces more of live rock, they came from a tank which was broken up so I got a couple of corals (what are they I suspect some form of mushroom coral?) on one piece as hitchhikers (see pic)

My third clam is now in as well a Maxima (see pic). I have included a cleaner shrimp too, and now for the contentious introduction.

I ummed and arrred about getting a herbivore fish, and tangs were the only thing suitable, before the tang police get me, I have a 60g system with plenty of space about and around and through the live rock, not planning on too much more in the tank apart from an anenome and the clownfish (I might get maroons but the LFS has a lovely pair of true perculas who they have said if start hosting I can buy them with their nem), so I bought a yellow tang. She has plenty of space to swim around in, room to grow too and seems very settled.

All seems well just have to get a pair of mated clowns and an anenome.

Hi Mate,

Looking really good, I like the aquascape. I would imagine the tang will be fine, plenty of room to swim in there. Be careful when you add more fish, I have heard yellow tangs can be really vicous.

What are your future plans, nice clams by the way.

Gary

Just a bubble-tip anenome and a pair of clowns, then I am done, it was always my intention to create a anemone and clownfish tank.

My tang and wrasse have formed a real posse, hoping the wrasse is making the tang more sociable they seem to get on like a house on fire.

Other hardware plans may, or may not, include, a chiller, and possibly using ozone injection into the MCE300 with a redox controller (like to hear any people opinions of using ozone?)

And then its to let the bank balance recover, sit back and watch things develop

Gary was right the yellow tang was a nightmare when I introduced the clownfish and started attacking everything, the wrasse, the cleaner shrimp and the clowns, not good, so she has gone back to the lfs. Probably best she might of been a bit big for the 2ft cube, and I am definitely not touching tangs again.

The clowns on the other hand are Sumutra Maroons and their anenome is a red bubble tip and are so amusing.

I did get a ozone generator and an orp meter I am holding the tank at 325mV and all is looking great.

On the invert side I got a cleaner shrimp mentioned earlier and a crazy looking candy cucumber. Although the tank seems a bit empty without the tang now.

The tank is almost on track for my original plans and the tang wasn't part of the original plan so I am very pleased.

Having some trouble with algae on the sand so I might get a lawnmower blenny. I am also now wondering if some other mid-tank fish which are clam, anenome friendly might tempt me, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Bit of a bad tank day today

Been missing my algae blenny for a day or two and began to search and peer into the LR with my maglite. In one of the holes a pair of large beedy red eyes feasting upon the corpse of my beloved blenny. I began this thread with hope the crab is dead, well I can confirm today with the aid of a wooden skewer and a complete dismantlement of my LR, the crab is no longer with us.

I have replaced "algae" with "algae mark II" from my LFS and now have a complete hatrid of crabs even little cute ones that grow into unreef safe monsters.

Dedicated to "Algae" the blenny RIP ?-15/08/08