My 29G Biocube Build Thread

[ange062]

As you know, I've got the same RO/DI setup and salt, couldn't be happier. It's so much easier not having to carry heavy containers of SW back and forth to the LFS, up stairs, etc etc

And on your spending list, don't forget that you will need another pretty good powerhead to mix your new SW, I use an MJ600 but would suggest a little more flow IMO.

 

[SaguaroSteve]

As you know, I've got the same RO/DI setup and salt, couldn't be happier. It's so much easier not having to carry heavy containers of SW back and forth to the LFS, up stairs, etc etc

And on your spending list, don't forget that you will need another pretty good powerhead to mix your new SW, I use an MJ600 but would suggest a little more flow IMO.

I was unaware you used the Red Sea salt, I did some research on that product and really liked what I read/others reviews all over the web, plus I have the Red Sea test kits and I'm a big fan. I should of known considering your corals look exactly like the picture advertised! :fun4:

I appreciate the heads up, I've got the old stock BC29 pump laying around which is similar in power to the MJ900-1200. Plus I still have the Tunze 6015 and Hydor Koralia 425 laying around (Total of ~1175gph of flow). I plan on getting a 32 gal. brute trash can filling it up and doing my mixing that way. I'll put each pump at 3 different levels to try and make a mini whirlpool in the middle, as well as to prevent the water from becoming stale.:thumbsup:

I'm just excited that now I'll have opportunity to do PWCs diligently because the only way I will not have water on hand is if I forgot to make some! Plus I went for the large bucket, and that salt batch should last me approx. 35 weeks.

My only concern is if I'll have enough water pressure from...really...any line in my apt. for the unit to run off of.

 

[SaguaroSteve]

Bulk Reef Supply, what can I say.....they are a top notch supplier, and from now on all my saltwater needs will be purchased directly from them. I order my RO/DI unit from them Wednesday and it was on my doorstep today, Friday. It was packed great, and after breaking in/flushing the unit I only found one tiny leak that was due to an elbow just needing a couple more turns. I hooked up the unit to my laundry room faucet down stairs and made my first gallon that read 000 TDS! Awesome! Sadly though, my time at home is coming to an end and I'll be heading back to my apt. at school for the summer and I just found out the water pressure there SUCKS. So I went ahead and purchased the booster pump and I figured while I was at it I should just get the 150 GPD water saving upgrade as well. It'll cut down on waste water and speed things up so everyones happy! I'll post more pictures of the system and my "fish room" when it starts to come together =)!
Cheers!!!

 

[SaguaroSteve]

My first ORA frags =) $100 out the door and I'm a happy camper!

ORA Cali Tort

ORA Borealis

I'll have more actual pictures, a FTS, an overview of my RO/DI setup, and my new "fish room" (kind of lol) tomorrow night!

 

[ange062]

ORA doesn't sell a cali tort to my knowledge, maybe the oregon tort? Similar growth just a darker beautiful blue. Nice score on that borealis, looks large, color and PE are great!

 

[SaguaroSteve]

ORA doesn't sell a cali tort to my knowledge, maybe the oregon tort? Similar growth just a darker beautiful blue. Nice score on that borealis, looks large, color and PE are great!

You are technically right once again :fun4:, however; in 2010, I believe, ORA lost it's mother colony of the Cali Tort and when my LFS had gotten word they took the remaining frags off the shelves and begin to aquaculture them. The frag now in my tank is a frag from a mother colony that started as an ORA frag....if that makes sense lol....similar to what happened at this farm...but either way, I don't care about the name, as long as it's beautiful and healthy!:lol:

 

[ange062]

You are technically right once again :fun4:, however; in 2010, I believe, ORA lost it's mother colony of the Cali Tort and when my LFS had gotten word they took the remaining frags off the shelves and begin to aquaculture them. The frag now in my tank is a frag from a mother colony that started as an ORA frag....if that makes sense lol....similar to what happened at this farm...but either way, I don't care about the name, as long as it's beautiful and healthy!:lol:

Very cool man, I had heard something about that but they are super-rare to come by so you got lucky! Either way, you will love the tort. I love the growth shape, color and PE on mine.

 

[SaguaroSteve]

Hey All, here's a fairly large update as promised! Starting off with the good!
FTS 5/22/12 ( I apologize again for my photography skills, I'm just ballparking the ISO, Aperture, exposure and all that because I really have no idea.)

ORA Borealis

ORA Cali Tort

RO/DI setup with 150GPD Water Saving Upgrade, Booster Pump, and float switch. I haven't started making water yet, I'm waiting on the power supply from BRS, it's been backordered for awhile and they're not sure when it'll be in again:hmm1:

My 'fish room' with all my additives, a quarantine tank, and my mixing bucket for saltwater.

For the bad, my green milli isn't looking so hot

It's at the very top of my tank, and it still has some polyps extended, but only a few and they're almost translucent. As with my other SPS their color is a bit faded. My current parameters are
PH-8
NO2-0
NO3-0
PO4-0
KH-7
Ca-400
Mag-900

I know my Ca and Mag are "low" but I didn't think it'd have that big of an effect on the milli.
I also feed the coral Phytofeast, and Coral Smoothie.....
I seem to have this problem with all my SPS where they seem to be doing fine for some time then crash, then they return to almost full health with the exception of original color.
I'm wondering if it's my lights again......the Blues are currently at 75%ish and the Whites 40%ish.....any ideas? =/

 

[SaguaroSteve]

Received the Bubble Magus Dosing pump and the install went smoothly. Still battling problems with my Milli, considering moving the guy to a low flow, moderate light area to see if that helps.

Current Parameters:
PH-8
NO2-0
NO3-0
PO4-0
KH-12.2
Ca-450
Mag-1340

I'm getting the itch to add more LR again, my first choice right now is 15lbs of BRS Eco-Rock, and I'd cure in some buckets before introducing it to the tank. I am a little hesitant to start ripping my tank apart though, and I do NOT want to have a cycle. I'm just not satisfied with how I laid everything out rockwise, guess I really didn't know what I wanted in the first place lol

 

[ange062]

Your KH is a little high, but you will get that fixed with the dosing pump over the coming weeks. IME mille's like high-flow and medium light. Light acclimation can definitely cause reduced PE. I'd also check for pests like AEFW or red bugs as that could be a culprit, they typically target the "tastiest" coral in the tank then work through them systematically. A 20-min dip in ReVive with strong turkey baster rinses may help out.

And I think the amount of rock that you have look good, as long as your system is stable since it's on the minimal side. Gives you plenty of room for future SPS growth

 

[Dozo]

Hey moore, I am in the market for a skimmer for my biocube29 and have been doing research; I really like the look of the aquamaxx hob-1. although from some of the reviews and videos I've seen of it, the skimmer seems to be a pain to break in and people are seeing very wet skimmate and having to run it all the way up or risk it overflowing. Are you noticing any of these issues? Is it skimming better than the 9002? I figure if I am going to have a skimmer that doesn't fit in chamber one, I'll need an ato too since water level is so important to intank skimmers, and I cant afford both atm..

 

[SaguaroSteve]

Hey moore, I am in the market for a skimmer for my biocube29 and have been doing research; I really like the look of the aquamaxx hob-1. although from some of the reviews and videos I've seen of it, the skimmer seems to be a pain to break in and people are seeing very wet skimmate and having to run it all the way up or risk it overflowing. Are you noticing any of these issues? Is it skimming better than the 9002? I figure if I am going to have a skimmer that doesn't fit in chamber one, I'll need an ato too since water level is so important to intank skimmers, and I cant afford both atm..

Dozo,
-Do not get an intank skimmer for a NC28 or BC29 under any circumstances. It's not that they don't work (not as well as the HOBs IMO/IME), but the two biggest headaches I found with them were:

• They take up so much of your precious space in the back chambers and they an absolute pain to work around.
• They are so finicky about water level, and in such a small body of water it's always changing. Too high of a water level and your skimmer over flows, and too little, you don't pull out any skimmate.

-And since you had said you weren't going to purchase an ATO, that strengthens the case for a HOB even more because they are, more or less, independent of the water fluctuations.

-I have had the Aquamaxx HOB-1 now for awhile and I'm extremely pleased with it. I got it for the sole reason I was tired of fighting the adjustments of the skimmer due to the water level and the efficiency of my media basket (for the skimmer to work the water level ended up being too high in the basket). I even have an ATO, as well. The HOB-1 was recommended to me by Ange062, and as he had done, I simply ran hot freshwater thru it for ~45min's and that broke the skimmer in. I've had it pull some rotten smelling crud out of my tank, however, I tend to always skim a little on the wet side, but I've never had any problems of it overflowing or anything like that. The only con IMO is whenever the pump loses its prime (the first time you start it up or in the water level drops WAY low in the tank) you have to re-prime the pump by putting the air hose in a cup of tank water until it primes, which really isn't a biggie.

-Finally I had to cut the hood to make it fit with the hood on. It took me all of 10 minutes with a sharpie and a hand hack saw.

-All in all, I'd highly recommend, as I knew a few friends who would too.
There's many different HOB skimmers, obviously the HOB-1 but there's another one on the market that's the same thing. I can't recall the name but someone on the NanoReef forum just pointed it out.

Anyway, I HTH!

 

[Hyskulhero]

Hey moore, I am in the market for a skimmer for my biocube29 and have been doing research; I really like the look of the aquamaxx hob-1. although from some of the reviews and videos I've seen of it, the skimmer seems to be a pain to break in and people are seeing very wet skimmate and having to run it all the way up or risk it overflowing. Are you noticing any of these issues? Is it skimming better than the 9002? I figure if I am going to have a skimmer that doesn't fit in chamber one, I'll need an ato too since water level is so important to intank skimmers, and I cant afford both atm..

I have the Aquaticlife 115 skimmer in chamber one of my BC 29 HQI, and with the airline mod (real easy to do), you don't have to worry about the water fluctuations. Skims pretty good too. Just a heads up.

 

[SaguaroSteve]

I have the Aquaticlife 115 skimmer in chamber one of my BC 29 HQI, and with the airline mod (real easy to do), you don't have to worry about the water fluctuations. Skims pretty good too. Just a heads up.

I did the airline mod on the Tunze 9002, while it keeps water out of the airline, the skimmer's skimming ability is dependent on the water level, that's why Tunze puts the line on the side of skimmer designating where the water level should be...I can't speak for the Aquaticlife 115 but the Tunze will only fit in chamber two and along with a media basket in chamber two it's a PITA.

 

[Hyskulhero]

I really like the 115. With the airline mod you don't have to worry about the water level, and youll have room for the Intank media basket + fuge in chamber two so you have lots of chaeto. In chamber 3 I have my heater, and the tunze 3155 ato ( thing is awesome ), which is a must have IMHO due to the smaller tank. Anyway, tank looks awesome Moore keep the updates coming as my tank is still cycling and I need inspiration lol.

 

[SaguaroSteve]

Cleaned the entire apartment top to bottom today and changed my tank top to bottom today!

• I removed the large brown polyp colony...
• Moved the ORA Borealis and tabling sp. Acro to their final locations which I'm super happy with!
• Moved all but one of my Zoa colonies (4) into the "Zoa Garden".
• Trimmed my GSP way back.
• Made room for ~8 more SPS frags/colonies...GIVE ME SOME IDEAS!
• I've got "Clam Field" all planned out where I'll have a couple Maxima's.
• Then I have one rock that I'm not sure what to do with LOL.
• A MAJOR rescape, well at least in my eyes.

Well anyway caught my Tail Spot nipping corals over and over for the last week, so he'll be turned into store credit soon. As well as I'd like to git rid of my Lubbock's Wrasse for a Six Line.

I also highly recommend D-D Aquascape Aquarium Epoxy. Stuff works like a dream, so moldable, and it's tacky so you don't need to use any glue. Plus, you can accelerate the curing process and it's a perfect match IMO to coralline.

I wanted to take a but of pics for you guys, but everyone is pretty p***ed about the changes lol so I'll get some up soon as everyone is happy again!


Cheers!
Steve

 

[ange062]

Look forward to seeing the rescape dood, sounds solid!