Coralife BioCube 29

[jmifland]

I just bought a Coralife BioCube 29 and I am not sure what to do with the lighting. Would I need to upgrade the lights if I wanted to keep Zoanthids/Palythoas and Acanthastrea corals?

I have two AI Nano Sol lights but I don't think it would fit into the hood without causing some serious heat issues. I would only be using one but I still don't think it would be a good idea. I would also like to keep the hood on the aquarium so now I have been looking at RapidLED's DIY retro-fit kit.

Does the lighting need an upgrade and what are the best options for lighting? Is there a way I can mod better ventilation into the hood to allow the use of the AI Nano Sol?

 

[jmifland]

Would filling the two extra LED strip slots make the lighting any better for the corals? That would pretty much defeat the purpose of using it as a night light but as long as I could keep the above corals I don't mind missing out on night viewing. Could always put in two more blues and just use those for the nice look of corals under a blue led and give complete darkness when actually going to sleep.

 

[saf1]

Does the cube need a lighting upgrade. Short answer is yes. In the grand scheme of things it is wise to upgrade the base lighting of the cubes. Those that use the standard compacts that is. The MH version, no. Someone yesterday asked a question about a LED bar and I put my reply below. The OP's question was for a 14 gallon but it still applies here although the 29 gallon retro's run 240 to 250 or so. But you get the idea never the less.

We have two Bio-Cube's in our house both 29 gallon that we converted to LED's. One used Steve's kit the other Rapid's. Both work very well but are different. Rapid's uses Cree LED's with Mean Well power while Steve's uses Philips Luxeon LED's and a Mean Well knock off and drivers. Rapid's kit is 50/50 royal blue, cool white unless you ask him to go different and Steve's is more blue than whites.

Both are dimmable via controllers and mine which uses Steve's actually goes down to 0 via PWM whereas the Mean Wells don't - they start at 15%. Both of the kits, in my mind, put out a metric ton of light. While neither of us are housing SPS my son has a rather large Rose Bubble Tip that is doing crazy well over the last two years and my tank is doing fine with a hammer, green start polyps and associated other corals.

14 gallon has some options and you could probably put together your own kit if you want. I think both Steve and Rapid offer 14 gallon kits for around 130 or so give or take. Not pushing one over the other just saying if you want a true LED system, with dimming options, it won't set you back much and will be more than enough light.

Zoas and softies will be fine as long as you don't go the route of knock off LED's. Buy Philips or Cree with a quality power source and/or driver and you will be happy. You can even keep in the Moon Lights if you want (my son kept the original moonlights. I, on the other hand, didn't).

 

[jmifland]

I have been sending e-mails back and forth with RapidLED and it appears that the current BioCube kits don't fit the Coralife BioCube, only the Oceanic. I have been told that they received a Coralife BioCube last night and are going into testing to see if they can fit an LED kit into the hood. I asked if I could be a test subject

I will most likely upgrade to their kit once it is released. I don't think there is a way to use my AI Nano Sol unless I cut out a portion from the top of the hood to allow a computer fan to draw out some of the heat. I don't really want to do that so I may end up selling them and preparing the cash for the kit they release.

 

[saf1]

If he has a Coralife then it is only a matter of time before he gets one set up. Looking at the overall tank it more or less is the same as the Oceanic kit so should only come down to heat sink mounting locations.

You pretty much gut everything within anyway since power is external.

 

[jmifland]

Yeah, it shouldn't take too long. He said they they are trying to fit everything in to the hood so they may have decreased the space available within the hood and I'm sure they have changed around the mounting locations so that is something that will need to be changed as well. I don't have my aquarium yet but I'm definitely excited to get the cycle started and that gives me a lot of time to deal with what to do for the lighting issue. I won't actually be transfering any corals/fish into the aquarium until last February.

 

[saf1]

Not sure if it matters to you or not but consider getting the dimmable Mean Wells. You can install a pair of potentiometers rather quickly and cheap to do initial control. He also sells a kit if you want but I forget the price to be honest. Only reason why I bring it up is if down the road you buy a controller, or already have one, then it will be easy to add in day/night cycles.

I use one and love it. Pretty easy to adjust a steady ramp up and down cycle rather than full ON / OFF. Seems the corals like it and new additions can be slowly adjusted to my lights vs. that of the LFS, etc.

My only complaint about the smaller all in one type tanks is water evaporation. Compared to my 100 gallon tank this one seems to make me pay more attention to it - lol. I probably should anyway, but keeping a steady water level in the back is the most difficult thing for me. The rest of it doesn't seem to be too bad.

Grats on the tank and new excitment It is a perfect fit for a small room or office. That is where I keep mine anyway, in my den.

 

[jmifland]

I have an ATO as well as a Digital Aquatics controller but I have never had to use it for light dimming. I assume it has that feature lol.

Item List From Previous Aquarium:
ATO
Digital Aquatics Controller
2 x AI NANO SOL BLUE