Cali Kid Corals

Kevin's 60 Gallon Cade Cube

ksliech

ksliech

Supporting Member
BARcard
I set up this tank in August of 2024 after a roughly 20 year reef keeping hiatus! Throughout high school and college I worked at Aqua Dreams in Massachusetts, and had a 120G running a pair of 400W metal halides and VHO actinics (now those were the DAYS!). Today I'm running a 60 gallon cube mixed reef, with a focus on SPS. My original build thread is here, but bringing it over to BAR!

Tank & Equipment
  • Tank, stand, ATO, and sump: Cade S2 600, 24" cube
  • Skimmer: Red Sea DC 300 on Printed Reef skimmer stand
  • Roller mat: Red Sea ReefMat 250
  • Lighting: 2x Kessil A360XE Tuna Blue + 2 x 23" AI Blade Coral Grow
  • Return: Sicce Synchra SDC 6.0 running at 100%
  • Heaters: Innovative Marine Helio 400W (2 x 200W elements)
  • Wave pumps: 2 x Maxspect Gyre XF330's
  • Controller & Monitoring: Neptune Apex Pro, Trident ACM in Printed Reef mini housing to reduce noise, and a Trident NP
  • Dosing via 2 DOS-QD Dual Dosing Pumps
    • Avast K1 kalk stirrer
    • All for Reef, since kalk can't keep up with demand
    • NeoPhos
    • NeoNitro
  • Refugium: Chaetomorpha in the sump, lit at night with Tunze EcoChic
  • Auto Feeder: Avast Plank, runs once a day with TDO ChromaBoost extra small pellets
Livestock
  • Mystery wrasse (my favorite dude)
  • Mocha storm and black storm clown pair
  • Green chromis (3x)
  • Lots of acropora, including a Bali green slimer that I had in my original tank over 20 years ago!
  • Lots of zoas and mushrooms
  • Goniopora
  • Pulsing xenia
  • 3 maxima clams
  • Derasa clam

IMG_0964 2.jpeg
 
Bigfish said:
Looks great! Once I get my tank stable again I’m getting interested in having a Maximus clam! Are you using a crushed coral sand bed?
Click to expand...
I'm using a combo of Fiji Pink and TBS live sand. I go heavy on the TBS live sand in the areas where the flow is high so it stays put
 
Kensington Reefer said:
@ksliech
Welcome to our place in space, and thank you for becoming a $upporting member.
20 year old slimer, my compliments
I do love my mystery wrasse, too
Click to expand...
Thanks Erin! When I broke my tank down 20 years ago, I gave my slimer, among other things, to a buddy of mine. He kept it going ever since, and last year I was able to get a frag of it back! It's like my long lost child.
 
Here's the current state of my equipment configuration, starting with the sump.

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Space is at a premium in this little cube's stand! I removed the built-in shelf so I could fit the skimmer and roller mat sort of in the center of the sump. Re-routed the drain hose into the roller mat and it fits like a glove. I converted the compartment on the right to a 'huge where I have a lot of rubble and am growing chaeto. Dosing tubes on the left side - wish there was more flow there but it's ok. Heaters over there as well, with the temperature probe in a higher flow area behind the roller mat. Optimized the size of all the bottles I occasionally need so that they miraculously fit in front of the sump and allow the door to close. I added some LEDs around the inside top of the stand so when you open the door, they turn on. It's fantastic. I also added some hooks to the side door that can hold some long turkey basters. On the back of the tank I have even more hooks, where I keep plastic tweezers and long grabbers for quick access.

Here's the right side panel.

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I lined the whole inside of this with velcro, and that's how all these controllers and things are mounted. The wiring is still a mess, but at least all of this is hidden when you close the door. The Apex is too thick to be here and allow the door to be closed, so that brings us to the controversial (with my wife) side cabinet.

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The Apex lives in here, along with another energy bar, the Trident ACM, and both waste containers for the tridents. With nowhere else to go, my recent Trident NP purchase now sits on top. It's a mess in there. I've also got an ethernet over power adapter in there, which is how I 'hardwire' my Apex to a network switch rather than having it rely on the WiFi (which I've found to be problematic). One feature of the cabinet is that I can also kind of hide stuff behind it. So behold, my secret shame:

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I've mounted two DOS QD's to the back of the cabinet, along with the lighting power supplies. On the floor, I've got 3 dosing containers. 1 for Neophos, 1 for Neonitro, and 1 for AFR since I can't keep up with demand with kalk alone. Sitting precariously on top of them, until the next earthquake at least, is an Avast K1 kalk stirrer. I love the pH boost this baby gives, and if only I had enough evaporation to use it exclusively! I am for sure nervous about this thing all the time, since it wouldn't take much to make it fall over. The tubing that goes into the tank is rigid enough to kind of hold it in place, but it's something I want to 3D print a holder or something for eventually.

And on top:
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Kraken lid, Avast Plank auto-feeder (a true life saver), LLS in the ATO (another life saver), and a lighting rig I put together with the Kessils and A Blades. Very happy with the performance, but I do eventually want to get this into a hood or something else to make it more presentable.
 
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