LED Biocube 32 - Newbie Build w/ All Costs, Upgrades & Progress Updates

[Scurvy Dawg]

Sounds familiar, see photos above...

Now if I could only figure out how to cool this thing down. Yesterday it was reading 83. I turned the heater down from 80 to 76. Today it read 83.5! Good thing I'm cycling and not steaming Nemo...

Anyone else have this issue? My office building turns off the AC on the weekend and it was low 80s in my office.

Are you running the lights?

I'm kind of interested to know how this new cube handles the heat with t the lights on. I know the older version did heat up due to the lights.

I am still in the early stages of my cycle and so I leave my lights off. I started out with my heater set at 78 and my temp didnt budge from that. I cranked it up to 80 yesterday to help the bacteria growth and it's now steady at 80.

I keep my house at 76 deg. so I am sure that has alot to do with it.

 

[ReefWreak]

If you can't keep the room below 78, you'll have a hard time keeping corals without adding a chiller. Fishes can take the fluctuations (though they'll be more prone to acquiring diseases), but corals won't.

If your building turns the AC off on the weekends, I'd consider getting a HOB chiller for the nano, something like the CoolWorks Ice Probe, or maybe a fan and ATO so you can use a lot of evaporative cooling (though the building may not appreciate the extra humidity)

 

[theprospector]

Turn the lights on and let the heat build naturally to cycle faster. It would be good for you to learn how your tank reacts to temperature change before you add fish/coral.

I have a Biocube 29 and the lights cook your tank. I always have to turn the AC on and open the top to let heat out. (I'm upgrading my lights soon.)

 

[JoshInSF]

In this case I have the new LED Biocube 32. The lights don't seem to be the issue causing the heat. My office itself gets pretty warm since it has 2 large windows facing some good sun. Actually looking into chillers at the moment and need to play with some things when I' on the office tomorrow...

 

[JoshInSF]

Nobody said this hobby would be cheap...

Here's what was ordered today:
Aqua Euro USA Max Chiller 1/10 HP $396
Maxspect XF130 Gyre $217
JBJ Nano Chiller Install Kit $19
Cobalt Aquatics MJ-1200 Pump $31.50
* Everything but Gyre is after a 10% coupon code at Marine and Reef.

I could have got away with the 1/13 chiller, but I went with the 1/10 since it gives me room to move to a larger tank with a cabinet. My Biocube is on a media cabinet with no storage.

 

[Smoke Inator]

rock on!....I added 46lbs (3in) sand, ~30lbs rock, Dr. Tims One and Only - Live Nitrifying Bacteria, and 26gal water to my 32 today....waiting 48 hours to settle out before i toss in the shrimp

 

[Mr.Fishtank]

Why may I ask are you going to run a chiller on a 32 gallon tank? I had the biocube 29 and it never ran above 78.5. Save your money on the gyre and get yourself a mp10 or jaebo rw4. The gyre is too much flow for that tank. JMO.

What type of thermometer are you using to test the temp?

 

[JoshInSF]

Why may I ask are you going to run a chiller on a 32 gallon tank? I had the biocube 29 and it never ran above 78.5. Save your money on the gyre and get yourself a mp10 or jaebo rw4. The gyre is too much flow for that tank. JMO.

What type of thermometer are you using to test the temp?

My office turns off the HVAC on weekends and it gets to around 85 in my office. Water was 84 all weekend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ReefWreak]

rock on!....I added 46lbs (3in) sand, ~30lbs rock, Dr. Tims One and Only - Live Nitrifying Bacteria, and 26gal water to my 32 today....waiting 48 hours to settle out before i toss in the shrimp

Make sure to toss out the shrimp shortly after too. Remember, while it is spiking the ammonia, you only need a tiny bit to get the cycle going in a nano. I added maybe 6 tiny food pellets when I did my cycling, cycled in the dark, and then when the cycle was over, turned the lights on. As soon as I saw the first few hairs of algae growing, I went out and got my clean up crew that day, and they mowed it all down in 36 hours or so.

Don't want to add too much waste with the shrimp all at once.

 

[JoshInSF]

Some fine stuff starting to grow in there!

Tuesday 8/23
# Days since water poured in: 9
# day of 21 of Red Sea Reef Mature Pro process: 6
Temp 79.9
Salinity: 1.026 d SG
Ammonia: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Nitrite: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Nitrate: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Alkalinity: 7.5dKH
PH: 8.3

 

[Therinx]

This is the same tank i forecasted awhile back and have been waiting for release. Good to see its finally out in the market. Good luck, i'll be joining you in a couple months!

 

[Scurvy Dawg]

Some fine stuff starting to grow in there!

Tuesday 8/23
# Days since water poured in: 9
# day of 21 of Red Sea Reef Mature Pro process: 6
Temp 79.9
Salinity: 1.026 d SG
Ammonia: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Nitrite: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Nitrate: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Alkalinity: 7.5dKH
PH: 8.3

Diatoms yeah! Looks like your tank is hitting it's puberty stage.

 

[JoshInSF]

Diatoms yeah! Looks like your tank is hitting it's puberty stage.

Will its voice start cracking soon?

 

[Scurvy Dawg]

Will its voice start cracking soon?

Yeah.....Plus if you don't watch out you might see it dyeing it's hair green too.

 

[urbanknight]

Why may I ask are you going to run a chiller on a 32 gallon tank? I had the biocube 29 and it never ran above 78.5. Save your money on the gyre and get yourself a mp10 or jaebo rw4. The gyre is too much flow for that tank. JMO.

I agree that the gyre is overkill. I run an MP 10 in my bio cube. I also run two 150 gyre on my 300 DD controlled by Apex. Don't dare run either at 100%. They move a ton of water.

 

[JoshInSF]

Today I tried the filter modification I found in this link to try to improve on the included Biocube thin filter pad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaeFgar2b6E

Water is flowing, but it sounds like the pump is working a bit harder and may not be flowing as fast as before. Will keep you posted...

This setup had me remove the media basket and use 2 large sponge filters plus the bag filled with a liter of Matrix biomedia, a Matrix carbon filter under the sponge where water flows from chamber 2 to 3 and a Polyfilter on top. Seems like a good setup but I wonder if I need a slightly stronger pump or if I should ditch this setup.

What are others doing for filtration?

Here are some pics:

Here's the new setup viewed from the back

Here's the Poly Filter - seems like a slower flow of water:

Diatoms in full bloom!

 

[ReefWreak]

That looks like a wonky setup. Check out this thread to see what a number of people use and recommend.

 

[JoshInSF]

That looks like a wonky setup. Check out this thread to see what a number of people use and recommend.

Thanks for that link. Looks like I need to ditch this setup...

 

[JoshInSF]

Here's some fun updates as I find more places to throw my money away on this fun hobby. I have ditched the Sponges, UV Sterilizer and small sponge between C2 & C3.

New equipment:

• I hooked up a 1/10 HP AquaEuro USA chiller. This is overkill for the BC but I bought it with the idea that it will be there for a bigger tank.
• Installed a Maxspect Gyre 130 and ordered an Icecap battery backup. I plan on having a lor of time and $ into this so want some insurance...
• Ordered Purigen and AquaMaxx carbon for my new filtration.

Items already purchased and ditched...

• Coralife Biocube UV Sterilizer
• Coralife Circulation pump
• Sponges and carmon that ReefThuz suggested

I want to upgrade the Skimmer. Some mentioned the AL 115. Has anyone used a Tunze Comline DOC or AquaMaxx WS-1. Wondering if either will fit?

Wondering if I should add an ATO or dosing pump.

Here's some new pics

Setup with Gyre and Chiller:

Cleanup crew arrived from Blue Zoo today. Here we go!

Climate device because timing a drip tube is hard...

Hello Sebastian!

 

[grandmaester]

Looking awesome! My cube is coming along as well. I went with a chiller on mine that I picked up off craigslist for 75 bucks...so far my water is staying a perfect 78 degrees instead of 86+ in this recent heat wave. The filtration setup I went with was the intank baskets with filter floss on top, purigen in the middle, and chemipure in the bottom and chaeto in the fuge with a magnetic LED light off amazon. So far so good, all levels reading zero.