My 29G Biocube Build Thread

[moore1811]

Well..
Seems the cyano battle is over, water parameters are perfect, I've got one minor plumbing issue to change and then it seems to be smooth sailing. I lost my NightSky Milli frag to RTN and the surrounding stylo and stag arco weren't looking to healthy, since my water is perfect, and I definitely have enough turnover, it was narrowed down to my leather engaging in chemical warfare. So, I removed him and returned him to LFS, and picked up two AWESOME mini-colonies of acro's. FTS and updates will be posted by the end of next week!

[Bearsareawsome]

Where did you get that outlet adapter?

[RedStangGA]

Originally Posted by moore1811

Well..
Seems the cyano battle is over, water parameters are perfect, I've got one minor plumbing issue to change and then it seems to be smooth sailing. I lost my NightSky Milli frag to RTN and the surrounding stylo and stag arco weren't looking to healthy, since my water is perfect, and I definitely have enough turnover, it was narrowed down to my leather engaging in chemical warfare. So, I removed him and returned him to LFS, and picked up two AWESOME mini-colonies of acro's. FTS and updates will be posted by the end of next week!

Glad you won this battle! Between vodka dosing and a hefty CUC addition my tank is finally coming under control as well!

[moore1811]

Originally Posted by Bearsareawsome

Where did you get that outlet adapter?

LFS

Originally Posted by RedStangGA

Glad you won this battle! Between vodka dosing and a hefty CUC addition my tank is finally coming under control as well!

Congrats! We are victorious! I was beginning to wonder if it'd ever happen! lol

[RedStangGA]

Originally Posted by moore1811

LFS

Congrats! We are victorious! I was beginning to wonder if it'd ever happen! lol

I hear ya! Have a feeling we've only won the battle though not necessarily the war . Keeps life interesting for sure though. Now I need to setup my auto feeders in preparation for vacation this summer. Oh, and I need to figure out how to dose vodka while I'm away as well!

[ange062]

Originally Posted by moore1811

Well..
Seems the cyano battle is over, water parameters are perfect, I've got one minor plumbing issue to change and then it seems to be smooth sailing. I lost my NightSky Milli frag to RTN and the surrounding stylo and stag arco weren't looking to healthy, since my water is perfect, and I definitely have enough turnover, it was narrowed down to my leather engaging in chemical warfare. So, I removed him and returned him to LFS, and picked up two AWESOME mini-colonies of acro's. FTS and updates will be posted by the end of next week!

Glad to hear!! Just remember, when it comes to reefing, nothing good happens quickly...

[moore1811]

I always wondered why there'd be fellow reefers on here with huge hiatus' between postings, and I've finally experienced that....life just gets in the way! Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and I'm happy to inform everyone that a huge update with almost all pictures should be coming soon next week. I just need a way to photograph the livestock under the LED lighting (as the intensity and saturation flares my phone) and my buddies Nikon D5100 with a macro lens should do the trick.

What I've learned/experienced to date:
-When installing new lighting it is so so so important to gradually acclimate everything to the new intensity, even when it appears to be less intense to the eye. I installed my LED kit and essentially bleached everything from the coral to the coralline. I've since turned my whites (running at 1200 mA maxed out) down literally to the lowest setting possible on the potentiometer (with the blue remaining at 100% at 800 mA). Thus far, I've only had two causalities, both were small 1" frags that I can go with out; finally the green stylo, green birdsnest, and zoas are healing nicely from the bleaching.
-My firefish has officially been KIA and God only knows what happened.
-I've finalized my filtration for the tank, I was having trouble with the water level in DT, and that'll be more clear to readers in the pictures I'll post next week.
-I picked up a Lubbocks Wrasse, which has been an absolutely awesome addition to my tank. It's even befriended my Tailspot. The wrasse has an incredibly entertaining personality and swimming pattern.
-Clowns are exhibiting mating patterns.
-I've added a couple acro species, still struggling with polyp extension, reconsidering the MP10 again for the random current and just because its cool.
-I bought a clam, then accidentally committed clamicide. I picked up a beautiful maxima, almost immediately he was placing his foot on the rock and proceeded to fall into an odd spot so (for ease and my attempt at being delicate) I was going to pick up the rock he was stuck to and gently stand him back up, BUT as soon as I grabbed him, my support hand, or finger rather, was warmly greeted by my emerald, causing me to drop the rock, and swiftly remove the byssal gland.

Thats all for now check back soon! Cheers!

[RedStangGA]

Sorry to hear about the firefish and clam. A clam is on my to do list but I just don't have the space.

And I hear you about the long hiatus! Looking forward to the pics!

[ange062]

Bummer to hear about your losses, but unfortunately it's a normal part of the hobby. The LED bleaching is so common, I wish that all fixtures would come with a big WARNING sticker saying "hey, this is going to bleach all your corals so start LOWWWWW intensity", lol. I did the same thing when I got my LED fixture.

[moore1811]

Originally Posted by RedStangGA

Sorry to hear about the firefish and clam. A clam is on my to do list but I just don't have the space.

And I hear you about the long hiatus! Looking forward to the pics!

Thanks! You can always make space

Originally Posted by ange062

Bummer to hear about your losses, but unfortunately it's a normal part of the hobby. The LED bleaching is so common, I wish that all fixtures would come with a big WARNING sticker saying "hey, this is going to bleach all your corals so start LOWWWWW intensity", lol. I did the same thing when I got my LED fixture.

I'm considering making a Public Service Announcement for reefers to make them aware lol. When you say low, you and I mean lowlowlowlow, my whites are literally a nudge away from being off.

On a different and happy note....
Do I need it? No.
Do I think it's cool? Absolutely.
Do I want it? H*LL YEAH!

Just bought my MP 10, it'll be here next week, I can't wait! Hopefully that get my acros to quit being so stingy about their PE!

[RedStangGA]

Sweet! You'll love it for sure!

[moore1811]

Well, lets call this a teaser, I'm a complete noob to photography, so I attempted to get a FTS with my buddy's Sony A100 (feel free to leave tips about photography tanks lit by LEDs) and it turned out ok. It's a little more blue than in person and like I said I'm just ball parking the settings.



Regarding other news, it helps when you and your roommates are both D1 football players, because we moved the stand and all (600lbs+) out away from the wall with no causalities. I did this because I'm pitching the Tunze 9002 for these reasons:

1. It takes up SO much room in the second compartment and makes everything fit too crammed for my liking.
2. It's really touchy, and very sensitive to the water level, and in such a confined space to get my skimmer, media basket, heater, ATO float, reactor pump, and return pump at the right functional water/physical level is a real big PITA.
3. And did I mention it takes up way to much room.....

To replace the Tunze is the AquaMaxx HOB-1 (thus why I needed the extra clearance on the back. It'll arrive mid-week along with the MP10, needless to say I'm pretty excited. A fellow reefer on here who has been a great inspiration/help to myself (S/O to ange062) has had great success with the above equipment and the TLF reactors so I'll take his word for it. Thus I'll have a skimmer independent of water levels, a lot more room to space out my equipment in the back and I'll be able to lower the water level in the back for the media basket to properly be able to filter out particulate from ~98% of the water column.

In the meantime I'm trying to clean up my tank but my Clownfish have engaged project DEFCON 1 on my hand. The mating/sexing behavior is pretty cool to watch though. Anyway, like I said before, any tips on taking pictures is greatly appreciated and as soon I get the hang of it I'll start turning out photos.

Thank you all!

Steve

[moore1811]

After a little editing, finally got it to look similar to in person...

[RedStangGA]

Looks nice. How do you like the TLF 150?

[moore1811]

Originally Posted by RedStangGA

Looks nice. How do you like the TLF 150?

I love it, I run Phosguard and Carbon in mine and I've had great results. I actually took it off for awhile because I had to address a different problem, and in that time some GHA popped up, so I put it back on and a few days later it was zapped and gone! Highly recommend it! I know a lot of people that run two, one GFO, one carbon, but I run mine together with no issues whatsoever.

[moore1811]

Watermelon Zoas

Green Stylo, recovering from bleaching

Before

After

[moore1811]

YES!

[Veganbrian]

Nice tank! Let me know how you like the mp10. I've been debating on getting it for a while.

[moore1811]

Loving the MP10 so far the wave (short pulse setting) is awesome! So here's my news:

• Radion coming soon, I figured since I'll eventually get one, I should just get it over with and enjoy it for as long as I can!
• Secondly, I'm not adding anymore livestock (we'll see) for a few years. I'll be moving in a year or two (graduating from college) and my plans are to "sell" back everything to my LFS for store credit and move my currect BC29 tank/equipment dry and turn it into a grow out/frag tank once I settle into my final"ish" destination.
• When this happens I'm either going to get a 60 gal cube (with sump), or 38 gal Nuvo (run it as an AIO), and using the equipment (HOB-1/Tunze 9002, MP10, misc powerhead/pumps, heaters, ATO) I've already purchased to start over! I plan on stocking a pair of Platinum clowns for sure!

[moore1811]

New Toy =)

Breaking it in per Ange062's instructions

So here comes the part where I try and find a spot for it in the back of the BC29, my initial plan is to have the intake in chamber 1 and the return spilling out on top of my filter floss in chamber 2. I'm pretty sure I'll be doing some "modifications" to the hood so I can still fit in on...fingers crossed pictures coming later!

[Enavas]

I like your toy and wish you luck on putting it in.

[moore1811]

So I ended up putting the intake in chamber 2, and the return in chamber 3.

Top down, the other hoses are for my reactor and ATO


After I was happy with that I let the cutting begin! So we went from this:

To this:

To this and a happy Steve:



On a side note, my SPS are starting to hint at awesome PE, I attribute this to the Coral Smoothie I'm been broadcast feeding them, and because of the results I'll continue to do so!

Cheers!

[ange062]

Pretty sweet to see that the HOB-1 works well on the BC29! Looks like a pretty easy mod to the hood. Tank is looking great, but I am just going to go ahead and call BS on your not adding any more livestock!!!! hahaha

[moore1811]

Originally Posted by ange062

Pretty sweet to see that the HOB-1 works well on the BC29! Looks like a pretty easy mod to the hood. Tank is looking great, but I am just going to go ahead and call BS on your not adding any more livestock!!!! hahaha

Thanks for the kind words! I'm pretty happy it turned out as planned! You're probably right about adding things. I'll AT LEAST wait till I'm 150% happy with everything currently in the tank and have figured out my dosing needs. I really shouldn't add anything though, I'm currently in college and will be moving in the next two years to God knows where, then I'll be going through the academy which is 20 weeks long, and I'll be posted somewhere in the State of Michigan. So the less I have to move/lose in transport the better.

The mod was easy in terms of work, just some cutting, however, if easy is used in conjunction with structural stability then not the case. I ended up having to cut the entire back off, more or less the whole length of the skimmer, cut off the left hinge, and then the top part on the lid, which now lifts off rather than flip, but no biggie. Would I suggest it to other reefers, absolutely, the skimmer is built like none other, assembly and break in was a snap. I'll give my full review in a couple weeks.

For now....(sorry about the dirty glass waiting on my scraper to come)...I've moved things around since, but snapped these quick pics while I had the nice camera. Still getting the hang of the whole photography thing!





I've proofread this post multiple times, praying to God I don't find another typo.... -_-

Cheers,
Steve

[moore1811]

Much to my dismay, I'm spending yet more money, because I'm sick and tired of carrying buckets back and forth from my LFS. So these should be here mid next week. On a side note, the saltwater hobby is not college student friendly, my mother worries about me spending all my money on booze/going out, well he biggest concern should be the 29gal. saltwater tank in my apt.
Cost's
MP10: $236.05
HOB-1: $200.69
Supplements/Misc.: $103.55
RO/DI+Salt: $289.98
Total:$830.27

I guess in a positive light, however, I will be able to use able the above for a very long time/for my next tank....