Biocube 29 build

Thanks... I'm pretty sold on a 6-line. I was originally going to do a goby/shrimp pair, but hate to add the bioload for a fish that never is visible.

What are you doing about moonlights? Did you recycle the stock ones somehow?

one more question... do you plug the LED into the energy bar, or can you shut them off entirely via programming and plug them into a normal powerstrip?
 
Yeah, one reason I didn't buy the shrimp as in the hope that it would get the goby out more. She comes out but darts back in anytime she sees someone.

No moonlights for now. I can't imagine they make that much of a difference to the fish.

I did plug the led's into my energy bar but only because I have the ports available. You could just power strip them and control them programatically.
 
RedStangGA said:
No issues with the rapidled kit or the vdm.
Click to expand...

Still going ok? I tried to order the kit yesterday, but between the time I put it in my cart and asked a question about the moonlight kits... someone bought the last kit. I hope that person is happy with themselves for hurting me, and my as of yet unpurchased high light corals and/or clam, so deeply.

But as part of figuring out what happened when I couldn't order, I emailed RapidLED. I told them I plan on getting 12RB, 6CW and 2NW. They warned me that putting only 8 LEDs on a single meanwell driver might not draw enough voltage at low amp settings... and that the driver will flash the LEDs (apparently, it's a warning that something is screwy).

Have you had any flashing on your 8 white strand?

Any idea what the minimum voltage you are drawing from the 8 LEDs?
 
Hextall said:
Still going ok? I tried to order the kit yesterday, but between the time I put it in my cart and asked a question about the moonlight kits... someone bought the last kit. I hope that person is happy with themselves for hurting me, and my as of yet unpurchased high light corals and/or clam, so deeply.

But as part of figuring out what happened when I couldn't order, I emailed RapidLED. I told them I plan on getting 12RB, 6CW and 2NW. They warned me that putting only 8 LEDs on a single meanwell driver might not draw enough voltage at low amp settings... and that the driver will flash the LEDs (apparently, it's a warning that something is screwy).

Have you had any flashing on your 8 white strand?

Any idea what the minimum voltage you are drawing from the 8 LEDs?
Click to expand...

First that I've heard of it as they didn't give me that warning. I have had no flashing and I regularly run mine at 10%. No idea what voltage I'm drawing though. Sucks about your kit! Any ETA and when they'll have more ready?

As for my tank. It's going fairly well. Skimmer is working well. Everything is growing. Noticed some reddish tint to my sand for the first time in a week. Pretty sure that means I'm due for a water change. I was hoping that a skimmer would allow me to stretch it out to every other week but that isn't going to happen. So every week from here on out.

Six-line is still rockin and not bothering anybody. Even the goby is coming out more often.

Ordered a bunch of parts to get an ATO working finally. That'll be nice to have in place. All I need now is a pH probe and the WXM module. Thinking that should get wrapped up around black friday.

How's your tank coming along? Still fighting the slight cyano outbreak?
 
Yeah... although the slight cyano outbreak is done. It's now much more than "slight". Perfectly timed, there's a thread in the new to hobby forum about how to treat and try to get rid of it. But it also includes the use of a skimmer, and I've started a cheato inhabited refugium. so maybe I'll just accept its there for a while and think about getting a skimmer down the road. Which skimmer did you get?

I replaced my white pc bulb last friday, as someone told me that might help. not sure if it is psychosomatic, but it seems to have helped. Thanks Phil if you're watching.

The ETA on the led kit was tomorrow... but i'm not in that much of a rush as I'm waiting until black friday as well for the VDM. It's just one of those things that I had the credit card out and was ready to do it... then they give me the Heisman.

Re: flashing, he did say that he didn't know what the minimum voltage draw was... just that it is somewhere less than 24v before the driver starts flashing the LEDs. so obviously, at your 10%, its' still drawing enough. You do only have 8 LEDs on one driver, right? you didn't mix in a couple blue ones so you'd have 10 leds on each driver.... right?
 
Yeah, I'm going to go the refugium route as well. I got the Aquatic Life 115 skimmer. It may not be the greatest skimmer but after 2-3 weeks it started pulling some fairly green gunk. It fits, barely, in the 1st chamber too which is convenient.

As for the LED's I do run 8CW on one string and 12RB on the other. I'll probably add some more color down the road someday. Or not, and just upgrade to a bigger tank. But I'm happy with the color and growth I get. RB only gives fabulous colors if unnatural. In this case, it's all about me ;). Visitors love the color as well.
 
Update:

Green Bird's Nest added
Frogspawn added
Purple Hammer added
Blue Ricordia added

Cleaner Shrimp added

I love the new corals. Especially the bird's nest. The cleaner shrimp has already given the goby a once over. Hopefully the other fish will make use of his services as well.

Tank is coming along nicely. Still need to make brackets for my floats for ATO.

Switched to Reef Crystals. I've read some good reviews on it and a LFS had a black friday sale. I got one box and one bucket for $95. It should last me for two years of water changes though I certainly plan on upgrading before then!

Skimmer is kind of flaky. Works well sometimes and other times just bubbles with no foam. I'll keep experimenting with it though.
 
Update:

Green Bird's Nest added
Frogspawn added
Purple Hammer added
Blue Ricordia added

Cleaner Shrimp added

I love the new corals. Especially the bird's nest. The cleaner shrimp has already given the goby a once over. Hopefully the other fish will make use of his services as well.

Tank is coming along nicely. Still need to make brackets for my floats for ATO.

Switched to Reef Crystals. I've read some good reviews on it and a LFS had a black friday sale. I got one box and one bucket for $95. It should last me for two years of water changes though I certainly plan on upgrading before then!

Skimmer is kind of flaky. Works well sometimes and other times just bubbles with no foam. I'll keep experimenting with it though.
 
Have you started testing and dosing calcium/alkalinity? I've been testing, and it has basically stayed the same for a while. but I bought some Kent nano dosing 2-part, and put in 5mls of each on wednesday morning (sunday do water changes).

But it has increased the coralline algae growth quite a bit.

Curious if you've started dosing/testing.


Also... I think I'm abandoning the chaeto route and will install a skimmer in chamber 2. How often do you have to empty your skimmer cup (what's the volume of the cup?)? I'm looking at the tunze 9002 with the intank cup that'll let me close the top. I have a heater and pH probe in chamber 1, so I don't think I could fit the same skimmer you have there. Chamber 3 has temp probe, return pump and float switches for ATO.
 
Hextall said:
Have you started testing and dosing calcium/alkalinity? I've been testing, and it has basically stayed the same for a while. but I bought some Kent nano dosing 2-part, and put in 5mls of each on wednesday morning (sunday do water changes).

But it has increased the coralline algae growth quite a bit.

Curious if you've started dosing/testing.


Also... I think I'm abandoning the chaeto route and will install a skimmer in chamber 2. How often do you have to empty your skimmer cup (what's the volume of the cup?)? I'm looking at the tunze 9002 with the intank cup that'll let me close the top. I have a heater and pH probe in chamber 1, so I don't think I could fit the same skimmer you have there. Chamber 3 has temp probe, return pump and float switches for ATO.
Click to expand...

Not dosing or testing for anything really. I check ph and nitrate about once a month. I'm a bad parent.

Not thrilled with my skimmer. Worked great for a couple of weeks and now it's hit or miss. Bubbles but doesn't foam. There are some mods to it that I'm looking into.

FWIW, I have my temp probe in chamber 1 with the skimmer. Beginning to wonder if the MP10 is messing with water level by changing its intensity. But yeah, heater won't fit.

Ok, so I go look at the skimmer cup and it's all foamed over. Go figure. I did raise it up last night so maybe I just didn't have it high enough or bumped it down when emptying the cup.
 
Ok, some updated pics with the iPhone:
FTS

Goober, Frogspawn(knocked over), and Purple Hammer

Green Bird's Nest and Green Hammer

Blasto's, Blue Ricordea, Cleaner Shrimp, and Chalice



All I have for now. Better ones will have to wait until I can borrow my wife's camera.
 
Nice... I really like the birds nest. That'll be the first sps I get when I install the LEDs.

Are you leaving the frags on the plugs?

One unsolicited suggestion regarding taking rics off plugs... get a small PVC coupling piece, maybe 1.5", jam it in sand. put some rubble in pvc, then rics on top. then put some netting over the top and secure with a rubber band. I got the netting at Joann's fabric in the fabric section. after a couple of days, the mushrooms will attach to the rubble, and then you can glue the rubble pieces to your live rock. looks a little better than the frag plugs.

Other corals are easier to glue directly to rocks.
 
Hextall said:
Nice... I really like the birds nest. That'll be the first sps I get when I install the LEDs.

Are you leaving the frags on the plugs?

One unsolicited suggestion regarding taking rics off plugs... get a small PVC coupling piece, maybe 1.5", jam it in sand. put some rubble in pvc, then rics on top. then put some netting over the top and secure with a rubber band. I got the netting at Joann's fabric in the fabric section. after a couple of days, the mushrooms will attach to the rubble, and then you can glue the rubble pieces to your live rock. looks a little better than the frag plugs.

Other corals are easier to glue directly to rocks.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I pretty much plan on leaving frags on plugs. Eventually they'll grow over the disc. If I was convinced I could safely remove them without harming the frags I'd probably take them off.

Thanks for the tip on the ric's. I'll probably be ditching the kenya tree and putting another piece of rock in that I can have a small ric garden grow on.
 
RedStangGA said:
If I was convinced I could safely remove them without harming the frags I'd probably take them off.
Click to expand...

Every frag I've gotten so far that's been on a plug is glued on... so you can pop the glue off the frag either with a little torque or break the seal with a razor blade.

Of all the things this hobby forces me to be patient for, I've drawn the line at waiting for frags to grow over plugs. Stupid slow growing frags why you no grow faster!
 
Oh hi... me again.

So I started my LED kit last night... and I basically copied your pattern (looked pretty good). the only difference is I have two natural whites (kiddy-corner in the middle "aisle").

Wired everything up, including multimeter, driver, and 2 3vAA batteries for dimming... and the blue string worked great.

when I connected the white string, at about 0.20 amps, it started flashing. The guys at RapidLED warned me against this... did it evern happen to you? I'm not sure how sensitive the SRV2 screw is, and I plan on setting it at 100% from the VDM. Just curious if you ever ran into slow flashing of the LEDs?

apparently it is caused by less than about 22v draw... below that the driver starts flashing as a warning. any suggestions?
 
Never had the whites flash. But I used the apex for my testing. A quick test to make sure everything came on and I soldered it up and then adjusted the pot for the blues. The whites I left turned all the way up based on the readings I got on the blues. Testing the limits of my memory at the moment though!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I tired reading through the thread to find the answer but I came up with nothing lol. So did you just pitch the brown polyp colony?

Thank looks great though, is the six line behaving with all the other tank inhabitants?
 
I tired reading through the thread to find the answer but I came up with nothing lol. So did you just pitch the brown polyp colony?

Thank looks great though, is the six line behaving with all the other tank inhabitants?
 
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