homer1475's Biocube 29 Build Thread

[soulpatch]

At this point in a lot of our lives I think we tend to like the project almost as much as the finished product. I know plumbing and such is something I am looking forward to and wouldn't want to miss out on that with a full setup.

in all honesty I am semi kicking myself in the behind since I was lookin forward to building my stand myself again for this tank. I had done one for my 125 that looked ok but had a lot of design flaws for my equipment. In the end this is probably the nest solution as I would no doubt have screwed up somethign with the stand build and it woudl have annoyed me but still.

Now I am moving towards how to do some cool plumbing with manifold and such as well as starting to plan out how to redo all of my electrical so that it is organized. Going to bling the stand with some LED strip lighting as well (with its own remote of course and potentially a door switch to turn on and off)


Homer - I think that 1 gallon betta tank needs a 40b sump... Just saying.

 

[homer1475]

I've honestly never even been on craigslist......

I'm with soul on liking the project just as much as the end result. I'm fairly good at a lot of things, but not an expert on anything. I did 90% of my house remodel, including entirely new roof with trusses, completely rewiring(electrician friend put in my entrance an panel), complete new plumbing, 2 small additions(including foundation, framing, siding, insulation, sheetrock, seaming and taping(finally gave up on the ceiling and hired someone to finish), painting, and trim work. We basically gutted the house and took the entire roof off and replaced with new. we turned a one season camp into a four season home. Of course I learned most of that stuff from working on and off with my brother in law whose is a licensed contractor. But my whole point was liking the project just as much as the end result.

 

[soulpatch]

I will never do drywall again. I don't mind plumbing, framing, electrical, ect but drywall hanging and especially mudding is something I will never do again. Also heavily inclined to never paint again either. I will do so once more to save costs as I want to repaint the interior of a majority of our house and don't have the funds this time to pay for it to be done but never again....

 

[homer1475]

I totally hear you on the drywall, never again will I tackle the entire house. A couple patches here and there, fine, but never an entire wall or ceiling ever again! Hanging it is easy, its the mudding and taping I will never do again.

Just finished emailing back and forth with ecotech, they are replacing the entire wet and dry side. I just have to plug in the dry side to my driver. Best part is they are allowing me to keep both parts as spares. Win Win in my eyes. I just hope it fixes the issue. Came home today to the dry side bouncing off the glass, and the wet side laying on my sandbed. I'm not worried about the lack of flow for a few hours, I'm worried about the bouncing cracking or breaking the glass.

 

[soulpatch]

in a way I think that speaks more to the cost structure that they have. One unit could probably be replaced 2-3 times for the amount they charge and they would still make a profit.

Same goes for most in the industry...

 

[ReefWreak]

Oh well, at least they're generous with warranty. They could just screw you and pocket the money, like most companies do

Homer, did you mount the wire like they suggest, having it hang from the top with an anchor ziptied above it? If mine falls off right now (now that on this new vortech I set it up by the book) it may rotate slightly off of flat with the tank, but there's no bounce or movement really, other than turning away from parallel to the glass. Just something to consider.

 

[homer1475]

I do have them mounted exactly like the directions say. the problem arises from them being so low in my tank, the wet side only slides a couple inches. So they end up being half connected(if that makes sense to you?), the magnetic force end up causing the dry side to bounce on the glass.

Now that you mention it, I do have the cord tied right above the pump so when they decouple, the dry side doesn't swing away. If this new one does it also, I'll try tying it higher up.

 

[soulpatch]

homer how are your acans doing?

 

[homer1475]

I had them hold shipping for tomorrow when someone would be home all day. They were suppose to ship last Wednesday for Thursday, but no one would be home all day until tomorrow, and that is something I would not want sitting on my porch for a few hours until I got home.

 

[soulpatch]

gotcha. I have to move my one rainbow around as it is losing some color in its one spot whereas my other two are adding color. It is weird.

 

[homer1475]

The small 3 head frag I have as my avatar has already grown 3 more heads! The other rainbow I have has healed up nicely and is starting another head.

 

[homer1475]

Just got an email from where I bought some acans from. Seems as though there was a mix up in my delivery address and UPS told them my address doesn't exist.......

Apparently "State Rt. 28" isn't a viable address, but "State Route 28" is. Silly post office not knowing Rt. is a shortened version of Route. Not the first time this has happened though, so not totally surprised

At any rate, least the corals didn't leave the shop and sit on a truck somewhere waiting to be returned to sender. They will reship on Monday since I know I will not get a Saturday delivery(they'll sit on a truck until Monday even if it was overnight). Welcome to living in the sticks!

 

[homer1475]

Everyone loves some photos. Figured out how to get the olone pics uploaded to photobucket. Mind you these are Austin Aqua Farms photos and not my own, I will take some more shots when they arrive tomorrow.





These are the 3 I picked out. Super cheap compared to every LFS I've been to around here. Even with S&H I would have payed what I payed for the three for one at my LFS.

 

[BarryV]

Beautiful Homer hope, the arrive in good shape.
I'll be waiting for your photos.
Barry

 

[homer1475]

Corals all arrived in good shape, have been dipped in CoralRX, and are in my tank getting used to things.

I do have to say of all the places I've ordered from, these guys are close to the best at keeping me in the loop on whats going on(had a huge mix up with my shipping address), and on how well they package things. All three acans were in small sealed bag(think seal a meal) with just enough water so no matter how they were tilted they stayed in water, heater pack, lots of packing peanuts, and a thick styrofoam box inside a heavy cardboard box. A packing receipt and sales receipt were also within the box.

I'll post some pics maybe tomorrow or thursday when everything opens up.

 

[homer1475]

Small update....

Noticed yesterday that I have the dreaded bubble algae!!! Just a small spot of like 3 bubbles. I'm going to siphon them out with a water change when I finish typing this out. I'll post some pics of my new acans, and a before and after of the algae, hopefully I get it all(fingers crossed)!

 

[ReefWreak]

Small update....

Noticed yesterday that I have the dreaded bubble algae!!! Just a small spot of like 3 bubbles. I'm going to siphon them out with a water change when I finish typing this out. I'll post some pics of my new acans, and a before and after of the algae, hopefully I get it all(fingers crossed)!

Yea, my alveopora frag had a bunch of bubble algae growing around it's base, and I took a dental pick from my GSP-removal-surgery kit and removed them outside of the tank, rinsed it off outside of the tank, and I haven't seen any since. And more importantly, I haven't seen any anywhere else in the tank.

Good luck!

 

[homer1475]

I promised pics, so here they are. I didn't snap any of the new acans only because of them being closed up from the water change.

Before:


After:


I did get it all, except I didn't realize I would have to scrape it off. Had the wife help me and had a continuous siphon on it the entire time, so I don't think any spores got away. If it wasn't a rock on the bottom of my scape, I would have pulled it and scraped it off outside the tank. I'm really hoping the continuous siphon got all the spores.

I did get some crappy cell pics before I did the water change, so I'll post them.

 

[ReefWreak]

Acans look great! I hope the spores and all algae are all gone!

 

[homer1475]

Ooh forgot to mention, boiling water on the aptasia, didn't kill it! I Noticed today when I was doing maintenance, it grew back. Have some aptaiaX on order.