Biocube 29 light replacement help

[Lucangiolig]

I'm new to the hobby and just getting my feet wet with a saltwater tank. I currently have a 125 gallon freshwater. I've done tons and tons of research and I'm looking to do a reef tank with a few fish. LPS, Zoas, mushrooms and eventually SPS. With all the reading I've heard many people have had to change the lighting in the biocube because they don't do well with coral. I had a couple ideas of what I want to try but not sure which would be best.
I bought a Current USA Orbit Marine LED Saltwater Reef Lighting System due to the high reviews and the light output.
I want to keep the lid to minimize evaporation and keep any fish from jumping out.

Here are my ideas

1. Remove stock lighting but keeping the fans and cut the sides of the plastic cover so there is just enough room to place the led inside while trying to keep it clean and dry.

2. Remove stock lights and cut half the plastic lid to keep the fans covered but have plenty of room for the led. - worried about corrosion with the wiring and any metal from the evaporation.

3. Removing the plastic lid, stock lighting and fans, and removal of anything that would corrode, then placing the led on the rails of the cube.

Let me know what you think, certainly open to other ideas.

Thanks!

 

[cougareyes]

BC29 with stock lighting. There is alot you can do before you upgrade your lighting, you won't be able to do sps or a clam but most everything else. You can see even with the stock lighting the rocks are covered in coraline. There is alot you can learn and see what you like. You will get nicer colors and growth with leds, the 2nd pic is after 2 years I upgraded to a maxspect razor 70w nano.

 

[JC Slater]

Hey there, Im, well was, in your boat with the BC29. Looks like you have a solid plan though. I actually dont know anything about that light as when I researched mine I looked at the LED retro fit kits. Can you install that light in the hood and keep the splash guard in place? If you can, it should keep all the electronics covered and dry. Im personally fond of the stock lid and wanted to keep it in place. Lost of people like taking it off though and I would image if ya did that, may as well go with a Kessil or something like that.

I ended going with the Steve's LED extreme SPS 14k kit. I got the one completely assembled with the controller. A little pricy but installation was rather quick and smooth with very little modifications done (I had to cut a piece of the splash guard and cut some holes in the intake fan grate). Its quite, I was so tired of the loud stock cooling fans. Also that sucker IS BRIGHT! I think I started mine with 30% Blue/White and it was too bright. Im running 20% white and 26% blue for the last 6 weeks now. I even lowered it some after introducing some new SPS pieces to acclimate them about 4 weeks ago. All the corals I had in the tank prior to the LED light started growing they seem really fast compared to the stock lights. I saw more growth in 2 weeks with the LED then I saw in 7 months with the stock light on a green candy cane coral I have on the bottom third of my rocks. And while my RBTA was living ok with the stock lights, man he's lovin the LEDs. So big and bubbly, he even moved down the rock stack a few inches from where he was for about a month or so living under the stock lights.

Anyways, lots of options you have depending if you want to go lid-less or not. Good luck with which you decide!

 

[Lucangiolig]

I ended up removing all of the lights then measured where I would put the LED. I then used a torch to heat up a screwdriver and melted the plastic where the bars on the LED would lay. Looks really good and will keep everything dry.

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