Jason's 29g Biocube.

[JAustin]

Reactor is up and running. My alk is 8.8dkh and cal is 380. I'm running the output at about 30 drops a minute and ph in reactor is locked in at 6.7. I'll be checking alk and cal every 8 hrs to monitor changes. The reactor is fed off the manifold via 1/4 tubing. The regulator is the well known aquarium plants .com regulator and the co2 is a new aluminum 5lb tank. The reactor is a pacificcoast imports CR70 reactor filled with arm extra course media and a bit of mg media. This bad little boy recycles the co2 gas like the vertex reactors. It's not new to the carx world. Enjoy.

Pics!

 

[saf1]

Hi JAustin,

Nice looking tank. Corals are looking pretty happy as well. Funny enough I too downgraded from a 100 gallon to a bio-cube. Actually, I went down to a 6 gallon first then to the cube - lol. Rocks from previous tank went into my sons bio-cube and the then to my 6 gallon. Rest I boxed up and stored until I was able to pick back up and start over. I lost mine due to a power outage while on vacation and power never kicked back on.

Anyway a question if you don't mind? Did you actually drill the bio-cube and plumb down to the sump? If so, which chamber and was it dry or did you actually have water in the tank? This is actually something that I'm considering doing now but my cube is actually up and running now Wish I would have done it first blast it all.

Also - how do you like the controller? I've been looking at that one plus the apex. I've owned their previous one, Neptune, but my German Shepherd Dog decided it was a chew toy and it is nothing but pieces Not even sure how she managed to get it off the stand - go figure.

Both our cubes have been retrofitted with LED's. Mine is using the kit from Steve's which uses Luxeon ES series and my son's is using Rapid's which use Cree. Thus the controller question. I'm either going to go buy another one or just work off the simple DIY ones based off the typhoon / arduino builds. I think we'll get better performance when using the dimmer options via the PWM signals and I really miss the on/off pump controller while feeding.

Again, looks really nice. Thank you for sharing.

 

[JAustin]

Yes I did dri the cube with water in it. No big deal really, I drained the water out of the back section and drilled. Easy as pie. I wouldn't think twice about drilling with water in the tank. Here's the catch, you must get a drill with a clutch so that when your near completion the clutch will kick in and you don't crack the pane.

I love the RKE. I here good things about Apex but I haven't owned one so I can't tell you what one is better.

Thank you for the nice words and good luck with your setup. Hit me up if you have any more questions.

 

[JAustin]

Ca++

Ca++

Had to order a effluent chamber for my CA reactor. The ph was being driven too low for my liking. On a side note, this reactor is pumping out alk over 24DKH with an internal PH of 6.7. I'm going to be dialing the Co2 back a bit and locking in a PH of 6.8. That way I can still get good DKH out of this reactor and help out a bit with the DT's PH.

Overall impressed with the aquariumplants regulator and the Pacific Coast reactor. Both built well and working as advertised.

I will say that if any of you with a tank this small want to run a CA reactor, plan on buying a dual chamber reactor or just buy an add on chamber to your single. PH is just too easy to drop with smaller water volumes.

Happy reefing everyone.

Jason

 

[fengxzhang]

Great looking tank. I always wondered how you would build a sump for a nano...nicely done! I'm not very handy with building this kind of stuff. Can you build me one and I'll pick it up from you?

 

[rollermonkey]

I'm new to this hobby, but let me see if I got this right:

You have a 29g Biocube, but with sump, etc. you've actually got what? 60-65 gallons total?

:fun5:

 

[JAustin]

More like 45. With the sand and rock in there plus the sump is not full.

 

[Dr. Fish]

This is exactly what I wanted to do under my BC29 stand.

What dimensions did you make your sump?

 

[JAustin]

I can't remember the exact dimentions but it takes all of the space under the sump. From the door hinges to the back and side to side. I think I went 16 tall.

 

[Dr. Fish]

I can't remember the exact dimentions but it takes all of the space under the sump. From the door hinges to the back and side to side. I think I went 16 tall.

I see that your acrylic is Optix brand, by any chance is this the Optix acrylic sold at Home Depot and is .220 inches in thickness? This is what I was thinking of using.

 

[JAustin]

Yes it's from lowes and it's just under 1/4 thick.

 

[JAustin]

Last FTS before I swap over to the 40 breeder this weekend.