Andy's Ferrari red 8 gallon biocube

[sanddune600]

I have been begging my friend to sell this tank for about a year he finally gave me a price and I snagged it up it still needs some tuning to get everything working correctly

Tank: 8 gallon biocub
Lights: 5 cool whites 4 warm whits and 6 royal blues (I am planning on adding 6 more royal blues) these are all luxeons rebels 1w currently being driven by lm317 I plan to change that to pwm dimmable drivers.
skimmer: is a diy made from a modded ac30 pump
Return pump: Ehime
refuge: cheato with 3 rebels in the back
controller: diy hydra controller



sources for some of the diy projects to do this project
hydra controller
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783536
pwm capable drive I will probably be using
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=17956356#post17956356

 

[sanddune600]

reserved for pics to come

 

[sanddune600]

 

[duncantse]

I like that aquascape! What are you planning to stock it with?

 

[sanddune600]

its a single rock from ceramico called vida rock they hand craft and its very porous I thought it should give lots of places to put coral. I plan to have mixed with some sps lps and softies for fish I was going to put my pair of rods onyx and a single tailspot

 

[Agu]

its a single rock from ceramico called vida rock they hand craft and its very porous I thought it should give lots of places to put coral. I plan to have mixed with some sps lps and softies for fish I was going to put my pair of rods onyx and a single tailspot

A pair of clowns would be pushing it in that tank even without any other fish imo.

I like the aquascaping.

 

[1Snapple]

Vida rock is the best, Hey sanddune are you on WMAS or UTMAS?

 

[sanddune600]

I really like Vida Rock this is the first time I have used it have you used it before the salesmen told me that it shouldnt take more then a week to cycle because of how little decay that will be on it since it hasnt had any thing to die on it I used water and sand from an established tank and put the vida rock in as well as a single frag of zoas I figure by the time I finish what I am doing on the LEDs and a few other things if the frag is still alive then I should be good to start adding coral and fish in slowly over a month or 2 this will take a couple weeks before I can have time and all the parts to finish the build

 

[sanddune600]

Just finished ordering some cat4101 drivers to control the led array with my Hydra controller that I built and have had sitting for a few months I could have put this on my other tank as planned but it was so much work to change from a reefkeeper light when the reefkeeper is already set up
1 cat4101 will drive 5 cool whites at 700ma
2nd cat will drive 4 warm whites and 1 royal blue at 700ma
3rd and 4th cat will drive 10 royal blues at 700ma
I may end up lowering the amps to reduce light if its to much I am a littled worried about overdoing my powersupply this puts me at 2.8 amps with a 3 amp power supply

 

[Aaarrrggg]

Wow that Vida Rock is cool!! Wish I known about that a few weeks ago. Oh well, too late now...

 

[1Snapple]

I have used it. I have it in my pico (3g.)
it was wierd, i was getting coraline, added 2 more hermits, now I can't get coraline aglae on it....

 

[kaserpick]

I have used it. I have it in my pico (3g.)
it was wierd, i was getting coraline, added 2 more hermits, now I can't get coraline aglae on it....

If you're not getting coraline, it's most likely related to your Alkalinity, Calcium, or Magnesium. I've always noticed in my nanos that when the Alkalinity shifts too quickly, my coraline would take a hit. Hope that helps!

To the OP, I'm digging the look of the rockwork! Keep us posted. :thumbsup:

 

[sanddune600]

starting to see more diatoms things must be starting to really break down

 

[sanddune600]

Just got my dimmable driver circuit (cat4101 controlled by hydra) came in today and I installed it and its running although one of the 3 sets of LEDs wont turn off so I need to take it apart and find out where its got a crossed wire or something
\
heres a couple pics under the hood

 

[1Snapple]

The thing about my coralline is it grows on pumps and glass, filter, everything but the rocks and coral.
It even grows on frag plugs.

 

[Jadams]

very cool tank. Did your friend paint it or have it professionally done?

 

[sanddune600]

at Snapple that is wierd I hope I have coralline grow on mine

at Jadams I would say both he did it and it was professionally done

 

[skimace7]

very nice!

 

[sanddune600]

Getting some nice colors in corals especially acans my camera doesnt fully capture the colors but here are some pics anyways keep in mind all of these have been in for less then 2 months many where very stressed going in and are recovering/recovered

 

[sanddune600]