Joshnieder216's biocube 32 build

im having similar heat issues, ive been alternating my reactor and skimmer times.
reactor in the day since its quiet and skimmer at night.
still not perfect but my temp swing is not as bad.

i kill my ato, skimmer and reactor during feed times and set a delay on the skimmer of +10 minutes. i also dont let my ato run unless the skimmer is on to ensure the water level stays constant
 
When I had the skimmer in chamber 1 I was having temp swings, since moving it to #2 it's been rock solid at 78.3. I think it had something to do with flow restriction from the skimmer in #1. I thought I'd have issues again when I added the reactor but none so far.

What temp are you guys keeping your homes? Ours is at 72 now. Here's to hoping a chiller isn't in my future this summer though!

Smoke are you able to control all of those run times with your apex?


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
My wife cranks up the house beyond 72 when I'm not looking but 72 is the norm in the winter...I guess she wants to live in the Caribbean.

Trying to keep the tank at 78 is not fun, my swings were up to 82.

Apex is rock solid, wish i would have saved up and gotten the big daddy over the Jr. but, I don't see a need beyond 8 modules for the BC32. Programing hasn't been as tough as i thought...next I'm getting the 8 bar for 12 outlets total. Then the led module and the nanobox adapter.

Next year we are doing the basement and I'm planning a fish room and a 200+ gal reef!
 
Ha we really are on the same brainwave only I'm thinking the 150-160 range. I'm gonna hold off and do the full apex though. Hard to believe one these days this tank I'm putting all this work and money into is going to be a top notch QT.

I'm not sure what's causing your temp swings though. Our setups are nearly identical other than the heater I believe.


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
Ha, that's 3 of us!! Minus the redone basement... We just did a bit of work in our living room/den, and I've got a very nice place planned out for a 150+...

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with heat problems! I haven't been able to monitor all day (because work) but pulling the heater altogether from Chamber 3 seems to have me peaking < 80 in the afternoon. Concerned too about Texas heat -- I keep the house around 70-72, but the room with the tank (daughter's bedroom) I think will be warmer with all the equipment + windows. No direct ligth on the tank, but don't want to have to mess with a chiller. Owner of LFS suggested running no heater at all; saying it's really only a seasonal thing around here.

I haven't really considered the Apex, but think I might have to -- going out of town next week and just describing to my friend how to turn things off to feed a shrimp is an endeavor.

In the meantime I'll throw the ATO and Skimmer on the same power strip as the return pump and powerhead, so it's easy to flip off on days when I feed and clean out the skimmer pump.

I'm going to pull the CL skimmer and see if the increased flow from 1-2 and the Tunze in 2 will be more consistent swing wise.

How long are you guys keeping your lights off at night? I have my moonlight cycle going all night and 10 hours of daylight a day... Wondering if that + the fuge light for 12 hours at night opposite my daylight LED's could also be contributing to my heat issue.

On the plus side, I'm getting a decent bit of red coraline algea growth now!
 
I think you guys cursed me, feeding last night and my tank was at 81.4. Prob had something to do with it getting up in the mid 70s outside my house got up to 76.

We're still a couple years away from a big tank. Biggest we could do in our current house would be a 93 cube which I'm not against but we'll cross that bridge later.

With my stock lights I ran the blues from 10a-11p; sunrise 11a-11:30a; daylights 11:30a-9:30p; sunset 9:30p-10p (if that makes any sense to you) so I ran my blues with daylights and had full blackout from 11pm-10am


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
Sorry about that!! Didn't mean to curse you... But yeah, 76 inside would probably do it. This is that weird time of year for us where never quite sure if it's time to run the A/C or not.

That lighting schedule makes sense, thank you. I'll tinker with the channels tonight and see if I can do something similar. It'd be nice to track temp throughout the day as it gets warmer outside just to keep an eye on things. Don't want to do a chiller if I don't have to.

I still have a decent bit of work to do on the wife for a big tank... I've disguised this one as 'for the kids' since it's in my daughter's room.

I haven't pulled the trigger on a reactor or the LED insert yet, but those are next.
 
So this happened

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Very cool watching these guys work together. I had a goby in a previous tank but never goby/shrimp duo. I'm calling them Happy and Shooter.

Also RIP Captain Skinny Legs (the cleaner shrimp my son named) completely my fault. I added some new frags after a Bayer dip and I assume there was leftover residue on the frags or my hand because within an hour of adding them he was tits up. Everyone else was fine and next time I'll add a 3rd bowl instead of just 2 after the bayer.


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
Thanks so much for all the updates, I am following your thread closely!

I love the goby and shrimp, can you tell me what types they are?
 
Ha I'm not sure how closely I'd follow. It's a yellow watchman goby and candy pistol shrimp. They didn't pair up the first day and I actually had to fish the goby out of chamber #1 when I got home from work on day 2. After I rescued him though they had found each other and sharing the same cave within an hour. I just happened to be looking at the tank when they met up, super cool.


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
Well too late, I'm watching you lol. I love those little guys and love that they seem to be getting along. :) Super cute.
 
have you had any issues with the foam wanting to float? nice set up



None at all but I did a checker pattern with an entire tube of aquarium safe silicone. Also there will be places close to the rocks that aren't sealed off completely by foam, I made sure to get silicone beads all around those places so nothing could crawl back and get stuck behind the egg crate.


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
Got a replacement shrimp last night, my son finally noticed he was gone and had a meltdown. We're up to "Captain Skinny Legs II" haha.

Getting some brown algae on the larger rock in the sand bed, it's not terrible but I'm not digging it. Been dragging my feet on buying a phosphate test kit so I picked up the Red Sea algae management kit last night.

I'm also cut back my light schedule from 13 to 12 hours (including ramp time) and I'm prob due to change the carbon/gfo in the reactor.

I find it hard to believe I'm having a phosphate issue with my fuge skimmer and gfo but without testing who knows. I'll try to get some results up after work today.

By the way, some new frags too...pics when everything's open.


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
Got a replacement shrimp last night, my son finally noticed he was gone and had a meltdown. We're up to "Captain Skinny Legs II" haha.

Getting some brown algae on the larger rock in the sand bed, it's not terrible but I'm not digging it. Been dragging my feet on buying a phosphate test kit so I picked up the Red Sea algae management kit last night.

I'm also cut back my light schedule from 13 to 12 hours (including ramp time) and I'm prob due to change the carbon/gfo in the reactor.

I find it hard to believe I'm having a phosphate issue with my fuge skimmer and gfo but without testing who knows. I'll try to get some results up after work today.

By the way, some new frags too...pics when everything's open.


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude

How quiet is the fan in the Steve's LED. Been holding off buying it until someone else has one installed. I have the fan on the stock hood dead silent right now with a retro fit fan and don't want to install new lights with a noisy fan since my tank is in my living room.
 
How quiet is the fan in the Steve's LED. Been holding off buying it until someone else has one installed. I have the fan on the stock hood dead silent right now with a retro fit fan and don't want to install new lights with a noisy fan since my tank is in my living room.



Mine is in my living room also about 4-5' from my recliner. There is a hum but I haven't narrowed it down to being the fan, skimmer, pump, reactor or a combination. To me it isn't bad but I'm also one of the fortunate ones who's stock fan was quiet. Overall I have 0 regrets with the leds though, by far my favorite tank mod. Corals are loving it.


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
Thought the tank looked good last night after cleaning the glass and a little routine maintenance so I snapped a few pics. Sorry they're crappy iPhone pics, my wife's the family photographer. Maybe someday I could afford to commission her.

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Oh, almost forgot...we got a "guaranteed to eat frozen" mandarin. We'll see, I have my doubts but the lfs said they'd take him back if showing any signs of not eating...


"Yea, well, that's like, your opinion man" -The Dude
 
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