Going Slooooow... LQT's Oceanic BC29 Build

[LQT]

Well Guys,

After an 8 year hiatus from the hobby, I decided to jump off the deep end and get back in. I wanted to go small and manageable, get quality gear (as to not have to buy stuff twice) and above all else, I wanted to take my sweet *** time putting it all together. I picked up a used Oceanic BioCube 29 and stand off of Craig's List for a great deal and off I went.

My apologies beforehand for the crappy cellphone pictures.

Equipment List -

Lighting -
Nanobox Large LED Retro - 4 channel LED control, moonlights and fan control
Bluefish Mini LED controller
My Oceanic splashguard DIY - http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2557971



Circulation -
2 VorTech MP10 wQD's
ReefLink wireless controller
Vortech Battery Backup



Chamber 1 -
Seachem Matrix BioMedia in a filter bag
RS-1 temperature probe
AquaticLife 115 Protein Skimmer w/ airline mod

Chamber 2 -
InTank Media Basket w/ floss, Purigen and Chemipure Elite
Intank Fuge w/ chaeto and a bag of Seachem Matrix BioMedia underneath
JBJ NanoGlo fuge light

Chamber 3 -
Aquamaxx Fr-s nano media reactor currently running BRS 0.8 Rox carbon until the need arises to use my Aquamaxx high capacity GFO
Tunze 3155 ATO optical eye and backup float
Cobalt Neotherm 100 heater contolled by a ReefSafe Solutions RS-1 temperature controller
Cobalt MJ1200 return pump fed into the dual LocLine mod



Cabinet Organization -

Above
LED striplight
2 Power strips with individual breakers
Controllers for MP10's, Tunze 3155 ATO, RS-1 temp controller
ReefLink

Below -
LED striplight
5.5 gallon AGA aquarium for ATO with DIY hinged lid
Battery backup

 

[LQT]

This time around to avoid unwanted hitch hikers and pests, I wanted to use all dry rock and dry sand, so I ordered 20# of CaribSea special grade dry aragonite sand, 30# of Reef Cleaners dry rock and a 200 gallon box of Reef crystals salt. In mid January, I got replacement prefilters, DI resin and a new Dow FilmTec 100 gpd membrane for my old RO/DI unit. Gave it a test to see if it still worked after all these years and success... 0 TDS water!

Splashdown happened on January 26th 2015 with a large piece of raw shimp and a small bottle of BioSpira to kick off the cycle. After about a week, I was advised to take out the piece of shrimp by ReefWreak (thanks ReefWreak!) as it would take forever to breakdown because of the size of the piece of shrimp.

Here it is in the foreground on the right.



It took about the 20 days to complete the initial cycle and zero out my ammonia and nitrite. To confirm the completion of the cycle, I picked up a bottle pure ammonia and dosed the tank to 2 ppm to see how long it would take to zero out the ammonia and nitrite. It took another 6 days to get my system to zero out ammonia and nitrite over a 24 hour period. Cycle complete!

After a 4 week quarantine on March 8th, I added a pair of True Percula clownfish at 1.5" and 1.75" in length and a small 2" purple firefish. For the first week in the quarantine tank there was nonstop nipping and fighting between the clowns. I thought for sure the smaller one was toast. They have since bonded and play nice.





Here is a FTS of my tank and where it currently stands.
My parameters are

Salinity: 35ppt Red Sea Refractometer
pH: 8 Red Sea
Alkalinity: 7.5dKH Hanna
Ammonia: 0ppm Red Sea
Nitrite: 0ppm Red Sea
Nitrate: 5ppm Red Sea
Phosphate: 0.03 ppm Hanna



General maintenance thus far has been a 5 gallon water change on a weekly basis since completion of the cycle. I'm looking to add one more fish, either a Yellow Assesor or a small Royal Gramma, not sure yet.

As far as corals go, I'm not sure if I am going to do a mixed reef (softies, LPS and SPS) or full blown SPS. In preparation for that decision, I just scored a less than 1 year old lab grade Neptune Apex Controller for a pretty killer price. Should be delivered early next week. If I go full SPS, I want to get the Neptune DOS dosing system with reliable and precise stepper motors.

Either way, I will be running the tank with just fish for the time being to be sure that I could could keep my parameters in check and stable before adding corals.

 

[Rakie]

You're off to a hell of a solid start. Looks like you really did your homework and won't have to replace items.

 

[LQT]

Thanks! I learned that the hard way the first time around in this hobby.

 

[ScoobaSteveCT]

Great setup so far-Nice and tidy. I was pumped when I saw that you will be using two mp10's

When or how often do you plan on replacing/recharging the Puragen and Chemipure Elite?
How often will you replace the floss held by the InTank chamber?

 

[Rakie]

Thanks! I learned that the hard way the first time around in this hobby.

I too came back after a long absence from reefing, unfortunately I had to learn this lesson 1.5x.. Just came back and already wishing I got a BC 29 instead of a 14g, and a ReefBreeders Nano-Lite instead of my Par38 LED bulb from RapidLED (it's nice, all CREE, etc... But it's a 20w screw in bulb)

 

[LQT]

When or how often do you plan on replacing/recharging the Puragen and Chemipure Elite?
How often will you replace the floss held by the InTank chamber?

For now, I'm just gonna go with the manufacturer's recommended 3 month intervals for both. I'll keep testing and if things get out of whack, I'll swap them out sooner. The carbon in the reactor will get replaced every 2 weeks. The floss I swap out every 2 to 3 days, depending on how clogged it gets.

 

[LQT]

I too came back after a long absence from reefing, unfortunately I had to learn this lesson 1.5x.. Just came back and already wishing I got a BC 29 instead of a 14g, and a ReefBreeders Nano-Lite instead of my Par38 LED bulb from RapidLED (it's nice, all CREE, etc... But it's a 20w screw in bulb)

Yeah, this time around, I wanted to make sure I got quality, reliable gear that would be transferrable or at least hold a decent resale value if I ever upgraded. Again, I don't have a problem waiting and am perfectly happy taking my time. When things are rushed in this hobby, bad things happen.

 

[ScoobaSteveCT]

Thanks for the response.

 

[Sweeper65]

How do you like the protein skimmer? It might be to soon to tell but I am concerned the small cup would need emptied to often. I would like one to be able to go a week between emptying.

 

[LQT]

The skimmer has finally been running for the past 3 weeks with real "life" in it. It's finally starting to produce darker skimmate. Still watery as compared to a real in sump skimmer, but for my purposes, it will suffice. I wanted the first chamber to be used for the skimmer so I could use both the media basket and fuge basket in chamber 2. I empty the cup about once a week at this point. When there was no life in it, the cup would fill more often with next to clear watery skimmate. With feedings and bioload in the tank, it's finally dialing in.

 

[NETSECPRO]

What controller did you get with your lights? Did Dave get you the Bluefish or Storm? Also, if Storm, what settings do you use?

Thanks!

 

[homer1475]

How do you like the protein skimmer? It might be to soon to tell but I am concerned the small cup would need emptied to often. I would like one to be able to go a week between emptying.

With a heavily stocked "cube", and the AL115, I dump my cup about twice a week. Sometimes 3 or 4, depending on how much food gets uneaten by my corals(I have a couple NPS corals and what they consume varies).

 

[LQT]

What controller did you get with your lights? Did Dave get you the Bluefish or Storm? Also, if Storm, what settings do you use?

Thanks!

I got my Nanobox Retro with the Bluefish controller. I run my lights currently at 30% blue, 15% white, 40% UV and 30% cyan... Not sure how that translates to the Storm controller equivalents. Once I add coral, I'll ramp it up over time in order to acclimate the corals slowly.

 

[LQT]

So my used Apex and WXM came in today. I'm not gonna lie. I'm feeling a bit intimidated with setting this up and programming everything...

 

[gmhammes]

Just got my apex as well. Not bad to set up but can get as complex as you need it to. Great for beginners and pros.

 

[homer1475]

Took me quite a bit to wrap my head around the programming, but actually getting it setup was a breeze. What was screwing with me was the duplication of the outlets(physical and virtual). Just go slow and check out the neptune forums if you run into problems. Pretty helpful group over there.

 

[LQT]

Thanks for the encouragement. Timing wise, I probably won't be able to set this up for a few weeks... I hate tax season! :headwally:

 

[LQT]

Been about a month and a week with just fish in the tank and regular weekly water changes... three months total since the tank has been wet. Still haven't set the Apex up as yet. However, I'm finally zeroing in on stable parameters in preparation for coral. As of today's testing:

Salinity - 1.026
N03 - 0ppm (Red Sea)
P04 - 0.02 ppm (Hanna)
Alk - 6.7 dKH (Hanna)

Alk has been hovering between 7.5 to 6.4 using Reef Crystals. N03 has been at a high of 10ppm to finally 0 ppm today and P04 has been at a high of 0.11 ppm down to 0.02 ppm today... all of this is post cycle with three fish and moderate feeding. The chaeto in the refugium has doubled in mass since I put it in.

Slowly getting there!

 

[Rakie]

Looks solid. You're probably ready for a starting coral to test the waters, so to speak.