Biocube 29 Upgrade

[mushlbh]

Hi Everyone,

After referring to this site for the last couple of years when making any decisions regarding my tank I have finally decided to join in on the conversation. I have been running a Biocube 29 for about two years now and like everyone else it's time for me to upgrade. Right now I am running stock everything on the tank except for a Hydor Koralia 240. I have the heater in the tank, the horrible Oceanic skimmer in chamber one with Algone, stock drip tray, Roaphos, Pura filtration pad, and live rock in chamber two, stock sponge, pump, and UV sterilizer (which I do not want to continue to use) in chamber three.

For fish right now I have a yellow accessor, randall's goby tiger pistol shrimp pair, and a sunburst anthias, the only fish I plan on adding is a possum wrasse. CUC is a tiger conch, assorted hermits, and a bunch of margerhita snails. I have had some great success with a few of my corals but at this point I am ready to take it to the next level.

These are my plans:

Chamber 1: AquaticLife Internal Mini Protein Skimmer 115

Chamber 2: InTank Media Basket with floss, purigen, and chemipure elite. InTank Fuge with live rock rubble, cheato, and maybe mangroves. For fuge lighting considering either one or two 10w underwater leds, or the JBJ Nano fuge light, any thoughts anyone??? I also would like to use the fuge to raise a copepod colony.

Chamber 3: MaxiJet 1200 pump and heater.


Lighting: I agonized over the decision on what to do for lighting. I am no electrician at all and many of the DIY kits seemed a little to technical for me. Also keeping my stock fans and moonlights working were very important. I decided on going with a very simple DIY LED kit that I found on ebay of all places. It consists of 20 3watt bridgelux leds, with the blue lighting, and daylight on seperate dimmers for light cycles. I spoke with the seller, who also builds the kits, and he seemed very knowledgeable and provided me with exact lighting specifics, The light covers all necessary nm, and with this kit the reflector can stay. I hope it is not garbage and I will keep you posted.


Any and all info or suggentions would be extremely appreciated. Below is a picture of my tank. I know I am a beginer but I have spent the last year or so learing about he hobby. My tank just doesn't reflect that yet:

 

[sponger0]

Ok my thoughts:

Sunburst anthias need a bigger tank. Please rehome this fish

Instead of the InTank stuff, you can make a media basket and fuge holder with eggcrate for $12. I did it, and it was alot more effective than the InTank stuff

Chamber 3 I would be concerned about the heater. When I had my BC29, there was always a fear the heater would run dry.

As far as the LEDs, if it doesnt come with dimmable capability, I wouldnt do it. RapidLEDs is the way to go for Biocubes. Or you can find a 24" T5 fixture. I used T5s on my Biocube and just took off the cover. Tank looked awesome. I wouldnt buy any no name lighting from Ebay with out lots of positive reviews.

 

[mushlbh]

Thanks so much. My anthias is doing great. As far as the egg crate goes I would love to see your build. Also I have done tons of research on the lighting. These seem to meet all the specs, the seller was very knowledgeable and had tons of good reviews.

 

[Hextall]

I've had my BC29 up and running for over a year, and just recently removed the fuge. It just didn't grow all that well in my tank. I had the JBJ LED light... and stuff grew in there (non-chaeto algae, cyano), but the chaeto grew very very slowly (I trimmed it once in about 10 months).

I did have quite a few pods walkign all over the stuff growing in there though. I'm not an expert by any means, but I didn't feel it was self-sustaining enough to be able to support a mandarin (which was one of my initial reasons for giving a fuge a shot).

I know there are people out there that do it, but I just had no luck with growing chaeto (I could maintain it though), so I recently switched up to the Tunze 9002 skimmer (a week and a half ago).

As for building versus buying the intank baskets... the intank baskets are very nicely put together, and do as advertised (i'm not sure how a egg crate built one can be more effective than what intank makes). You can easily build your own for a fraction of the cost though. I personally think the intank baskets are worth the cost, but everyone's mileage varies.

I also started up with chemipure elite and purigen, however I just placed an order to BRS to get some carbon and gfo to swap out the chemipure elite. It is much cheaper buying it in bulk as opposed to the chemipure elite (which works great) in the single servings size. It is a long term cost saving though, so it's a buy-it-now cost hurdle you have to get over.

I went with the dimmable RapidLED kit for the BC29 and couldn't be happier (I run it via an apex controller... the best thing I bought for maintaining my tank). it wasn't terribly hard putting together... if you can hold a soldering iron steady, you can build this kit in a couple of nights. I actually enjoyed putting it together.

 

[sponger0]

Here are links to some of my threads for my Biocube

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2059576

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2065139

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134825

 

[sponger0]

Also, unless those LEDs you are looking at on Ebay are dimmable, dont do it. You could easily wind up burning any corals up.

 

[sponger0]

As for building versus buying the intank baskets... the intank baskets are very nicely put together, and do as advertised (i'm not sure how a egg crate built one can be more effective than what intank makes). You can easily build your own for a fraction of the cost though. I personally think the intank baskets are worth the cost, but everyone's mileage varies.

This right here all depends on how much though you put into it. If you put none, then fork out the cash.

If you understand the concept of how it should work and the water flows through the chamber, it's really easy

 

[mushlbh]

Your tank looks great. The LEDs are dimmable, would not consider them if them weren't. The "blue" and "white" are also on seperate drivers to control light cycles. I understand the mechanics of the media box, but to be honest with you would rather just buy a good product if the price is right (which it is). I would also like to do some aquascaping on my tank, any tips, guides, or refrences?

 

[justhaag]

as far as led goes, i switched the lights out in my tank for 3 ecoxotic panorama pro modules and i love it. Very easy to install and you can keep your fans and moonlights as well. I also have the aquaticlife 115 and intank basket/fugeand i love it!

 

[mushlbh]

I was seriously considering those but I was told by my LFS that there had been a product recall. I'm still waiting for my LED kit, media rack & fuge, protein skimmer, and pump upgrades. So far I have just done a little maintence to get my tank ready; removed filter track and false floor in chamber one and two, aquascaped, hopefully removed a crazy oenone fulgida worm from my tank (ditched the rock I believe he was living in), and thankfully caught a PIA Gorilla Crab. . At this point a think I am 100% prepared and I can't wait for all of my new toys to come in!!!!

 

[Surfside74]

Here are my thoughts on it. I also have a biocube 29 and just recently stripped it and rebuilt it. I went with exotic panorama pro modules also. I have two of them. One is blue and white combo while the other one is just blue. Love the look and shimmer. As far as filtration and the back area, I went very simple. Chamber #1 has live rock rubble. Chamber #2 has carbon, room for a heater, and phosphate bag. Chamber #3 has a maxi jet 1200 return pump in place of the stock pump. I also have two koralias in the tank. One is a 240 and the other is a 420 I believe. Plenty of current. I do 5 gallon water changes. I do not run a skimmer nor a chiller and my temp stays about 80 degrees. Very simple design. Hope this helps you.