Crow's 60 gallon Marineland cube

[Crow]

Well I have gotten a little further with this build, enough to be able to start a build thread. As with all my other builds, it will take me sometime to finish as I have a very limited budget.

Below is my DIY stand, it cost me approx $100 to build, and the LFS wanted close to $300 for one very similar and much shorter. I built this one with a height of 36" (inches) so that you would not need to bend over to look into the tank (I hate that!) and also the fact that this tank will be right next to my computer desk, so sitting it would be at eye level.

Anyways, on to the stuff we all really want to see; the pictures...


My new Marineland 60g cube


Just made a simple 2x4 stand


Skinned it in red oak, this was a waste of money as I ended up changing my mind about staining the stand, and went with just painting it.
The cost for this DYI stand would of been closer to $50 if I would of went with a cheaper skin. oh well live and learn...


Finished the skin, trim, as well as the DIY door.


My original plan was to stain this an espresso color (hence skinning in red oak). But I thought I'd try a espresso paint since I wasn't totally happy with how the espresso color turned out on my 300's stand.
I think it came out pretty good, only time will tell if the paint (3 coats) will hold up to saltwater. :P

[Crow]

I got my Glass-holes.com overflow box in today, and was happy I got TWO pieces of candy! Muhahaha!


Here is my kit unpacked and ready to go, lets get to drilling!



After two coats of paint on the back of the aquarium, here is the finished product, one 700GPH overflow kit, and two 3/4" return's with dual fan nozzles.
I am planing on running the full 700GPH thru this baby, so we will see if them folks over at glass-holes are telling the truth!

[Crow]

Just playing around with the lights and camera..



My plumbing, nothing fancy. and the finished setup with water, now time to work on aquascaping idea's.

[Crow]

Picked up some dry rock locally. If there is anything that I hate in this hobby, its aquascaping!

Here is my final layout, only thing left to add is a piece of live rock I had in my 29g biocube that has an orange/red monti and a green monti. I left a spot for it on the top.

The front has a cave/tunnel, and so does both sides, going in different directions. Its not the best, but its the best I could come up with.

[Crow]

Two days ago I picked up some acrylic sheets to build a custom sump/fuge, and with having a limited space under this cube, I have my work cut out for me.

Just walked in from buying a reef octopus octx-160xs skimmer from a fellow reefer that only used it for three weeks before shutting down his system. I will post some pics soon.

[Crow]

here is an update...


Started working on my custom sump/refuge. The size is : 17x20x14


Here is the finished product, made the sump to fit my Reef Octopus 160XS


Here is the tank, filled with some dry rock and some rock left over from my 29g biocube to seed.