Hi I'm Brian,

I've been keeping aquariums for a good portion of my life. My most recent move to saltwater started 6 years ago when I started my first nano tank. I've learned so much over the years from trial and error and the plethora of information available online and in fellow reefers.

I'm excited to grow my little slice of the ocean into a full blown reef. The one thing I love most about this hobby is watching the ecosystems that form all on their own and how they grow and evolve.

Although this system has only been together for almost 4 months the sand, water, and a good percent of the live rock was from my older systems. The sump also houses additional bio filtration through a refugium.

Since graduating college I've been looking to upgrade my tank, I've always had nanos as they were all I was allowed in the dorm. I fell in love with the cube style tank as it would give me the larger system I yearned for while also offering a space saving footprint. I came across an incredible deal on a majority of the tank and jumped at the opportunity.

Before the tank was even assembled I planned out everything. Sketches and trial rock stacks were created until I was completely happy. I then refurbished and resealed the tank and equipment before started the cycling process.

Filtration includes both biological and mechanical methods. The 30 gallon sump located in the stand below features a Buble Magnus Curve 5 protein skimmer, BRS Single Reactor with a mix of high capacity GFO and ROX 0.8 carbon, and my favorite the Kessil lit refugium. The magenta LED grows the chaeto like crazy, I can harvest every two weeks by removing 75%.

Reactor media is replaced every two weeks.

I am also experimenting with daily water changes of about 2 gallons.

In an effort to save energy and test out the big advancements in lighting through LEDs I decided to go with Kessil lights. This features dual A360's on top and a H150 Magenta cannon growing the algae in the refugium. I've been so pleased with the lights and can not wait to be able to save up for a controller to better mimic a natural lighting schedule.

The lights come on around 10am and turn off around 10:30pm, the H150 lighting the sump comes on at 10pm and turns off at 11am. This overlap helps to compensate for any swings that may occur.

I'm still not entirely happy with my flow and I will continue to rearrange and adjust until I feel like I am finally achieving the pattern I would like.

Between the return pump, Maxspect grye 130, and the two Tunzes I am able to create quite a bit of water movement. Now it is just a matter of adjusting it until the pattern is to my liking.