ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!

[ReefWreak]

Yea, I've seen the Heatsinks USA from your other posts (I forget which one, but you had a great discussion recently where you linked that site and another that sells heatsinks, I think the MakerLEDs). I would just have to measure, design, then figure out how to mount it all. I also wouldn't know what I would do about a splashguard, though fortunately I have an extra (thanks Soulpatch!), so I can play around a bit.

Anyone know a free cad program like old google sketchup (which isn't free anymore I don't think)?

I wonder if I picked up a spare biocube hood, if I cut a hole in the top, stuck in the ATI fixture mostly on top of the hood, and kept the splashguard, if that would get me better spread... infinite combinations!

 

[macrandall85]

Starting my own Biocube 29

Starting my own Biocube 29

Hi there!!

How did you get all your wiring set up for your tank!! I like how it looks and you seem to have a lot great things in a tiny space! I currently have mine set up with about 17 lbs of live rock, 30 lbs of live sand. I gutted the back and put in foam filter pads with a poly pad on top and a bag of matrix biomedia in right prior to the 3rd filter space. I also have a packet of matrix carbon instead of the black filter that came with the tank. I am interested in adding a water top of system at some point and am looking into a timing system for the lights. Did you do anything different with yours? I have only had the system set up for about 4 days. So very very new!!

Thanks
Maggie

 

[ReefWreak]

This post has most of the pictures of the wiring.

I'm a big advocate of having almost nothing in the back chambers except a skimmer. I currently have a skimmer, a marinepure block (which I'm on the fence about), and the heater/return/probes, but no additional filtration. The matrix biomedia is good, but you have to keep it clean and free from detritus, which is almost impossible. Matrix carbon is fine, but I'm skeptical about running carbon (I've never had a tank seem "yellow"/gelbstoff) or never noticed any negative effects of it.

Auto top off systems (ATOs) make life a lot easier, but aren't required by any measure.

For a light timing system, it depends what you have installed, but a standard lamp timer is fine for most lighting. For fancy effects with T5s or LEDs, the Coralux storm is a reasonably priced fancy timer, and for anything more than that, I'd recommend just going with a full controller setup. The reefkeeper lite that I have can be had for not a lot of money. It's the low end of the controller spectrum in price, but it has plenty of usable features, and is pretty bulletproof. My tank came with it, but if I had to buy one new, I'd buy an Apex system, knowing full well that I would keep it for a decade or more and buy a bunch of expansions for it.

Feel free to start a thread, and when I'm around surfing ReefCentral, I'll be sure to stop in and offer any advice I can. Welcome to ReefCentral Maggie!

 

[ReefWreak]

Also, I'm torn on that latest top down shot from you. It looks 99% amazing, 1% like a bomb went off in a small frag tank, lol. I'm siding with amazing, but it looks like if you want anything new a trim wont do it, you'd need to outright replace those guys. They're gonna turn into 1 solid giant acro entwined around each other.

I forgot to mention, that's what I was going for

At least with top down you're not seeing the clusters of bubble algae that are driving me nuts.

Ugh, looking closely at the top-down pics is making me go nuts about how it's really only a 5.5" x 9.5" square in the middle of the tank, where the actual available space is closer to 10.5" x 17". I'm noticing how the acros in the back grow forward, and get more colorful the further frontwards they get.

Also another natural experiment I just kinda put together, is that with the pattern of LEDs, and with them being so close to the water, you can actually see how similar (or the same) coral responds to different LED colors. For example, in the picture of the acro breaking the surface, it's the same coral on the left and right. But on the right, it's clustered, and growing right to the surface, where as to the left, it almost formed a basket, growing around that area. The one on the left is under a full-tilt Royal Blue LED PAR driver, where as the one on the right is under a neutral white LED, lower par, broader color spectrum. So it looks like the one on the left is actually getting too much direct light/PAR from the blue LED and is growing around the light, vs. the right side that is growing towards the lower power white LED as much as it can.

Kinda neat to be able to see this stuff with otherwise similar conditions, tank, and corals.

I don't think I'll really get much bigger/different response in this tank with the closed hood the way it is. Maybe if I found ways to load the hood with more LEDs in all of the non-splash-guarded places, but still only maybe.

 

[macrandall85]

This post has most of the pictures of the wiring.

I'm a big advocate of having almost nothing in the back chambers except a skimmer. I currently have a skimmer, a marinepure block (which I'm on the fence about), and the heater/return/probes, but no additional filtration. The matrix biomedia is good, but you have to keep it clean and free from detritus, which is almost impossible. Matrix carbon is fine, but I'm skeptical about running carbon (I've never had a tank seem "yellow"/gelbstoff) or never noticed any negative effects of it.

Auto top off systems (ATOs) make life a lot easier, but aren't required by any measure.

For a light timing system, it depends what you have installed, but a standard lamp timer is fine for most lighting. For fancy effects with T5s or LEDs, the Coralux storm is a reasonably priced fancy timer, and for anything more than that, I'd recommend just going with a full controller setup. The reefkeeper lite that I have can be had for not a lot of money. It's the low end of the controller spectrum in price, but it has plenty of usable features, and is pretty bulletproof. My tank came with it, but if I had to buy one new, I'd buy an Apex system, knowing full well that I would keep it for a decade or more and buy a bunch of expansions for it.

Feel free to start a thread, and when I'm around surfing ReefCentral, I'll be sure to stop in and offer any advice I can. Welcome to ReefCentral Maggie!

Thanks for the input!!! I will definitely think about doing the thread thing.. I am new to forums and such. I do have a heater but was told that the biocube runs a little warm with the stock lighting and that I may not need it. What are your thoughts based on your reef?

 

[ReefWreak]

Thanks for the input!!! I will definitely think about doing the thread thing.. I am new to forums and such. I do have a heater but was told that the biocube runs a little warm with the stock lighting and that I may not need it. What are your thoughts based on your reef?

Looks like your post hasn't been approved yet (admins have to approve so spambots don't hit us more than they already do), so I just copied the content from my alert email here.

The tank does run warm, but you need a heater to keep the tank consistent. If your temps over around the high 70s to low 80s, you want a heater so that when it would normally drop to the mid to low 70s, it'll keep the temps steady. You want your temps consistent, most importantly, but secondly importantly, somewhere between 75 and 80, with 2-3 degree F fluctuation, ideally.

Since you're relatively new to the hobby, I'm not sure how much reading you've done, but ReefCentral has a great introduction to the hobby thread with some of the most common topics around posted there.

 

[sandipan.ece]

I have been following this thread for some time and have learned from the progress. I just wanted to say thank you for sharing.

 

[ReefWreak]

I have been following this thread for some time and have learned from the progress. I just wanted to say thank you for sharing.

It's been my pleasure! I'm glad I can help others and (maybe) educate along the way, while documenting my own progress.

I'm still learning all the time from other people's threads too, from newbies starting their first tank, to people who have been reefing for decades. There's always a huge learning opportunity to learn on ReefCentral.

The best is when you've finally seen and read enough to be able to share your knowledge and/or reference people to specific other people on Reefcentral or threads that have a good amount of discussion/knowledge on them.

 

[Rakie]

I'm still learning all the time from other people's threads too, from newbies starting their first tank, to people who have been reefing for decades.

Extremely true!

Another interesting thing is to look over at FW behavior. For example, so many people say it's not possible to have more than a few clownfish -- the trick to keeping many, is what african cichlid keepers do. Add too many fish to establish a pecking order.

It's because of this I'm half considering getting about 30 firefish for my 50g cube.. Only half considering of course, but I think it could look sweet, and have enough to diffuse the 1 picks on the other problem with keeping multiples.

 

[soulpatch]

There is a large difference between a pecking order of a fish used to living in an overcrowded ecosystem with similar fish to that of a highly territorial fish which will fight to the death for a small spot to call their own.

Certain tatics work for some fish and not others. IE you would never throw in a bunch of Oscars to get a pecking order as they will kill one another unless given massive amounts of swimming room to have their own spots. Even another FW fish like the Bolivian Ram tends to not tollerate more then 2 similar fish in a tank.

Pecking order works for some breeds though as Africans are a prime example in FW. Darts, Geos, Bass, and many others are totally fine with it but be very leary painting with a broad paintbrush as you are attempting to do.

 

[ReefWreak]

Thanks for clarifying Soul, I know you have an extensive background with FW.

I also think that the clownfish ball only works when they're juveniles, I think over time they'll kill each other off if kept that close together long term. Similar to the impression of "schooling chromis" that persists in the hobby. The reason your chromis school is always getting smaller over time, and never actually lasts, is because chromis naturally live in coral heads, but when left in the wide open, they'll school up, but be very agitated and aggressive with each other. They end up pecking each other apart until there is only one chromis left. I didn't realize it at the time, but I did see it happen in my old 120g tank.

 

[soulpatch]

Take clowns for instance. You can get them as juvies and they will work IF you have enough room for them to have their own location to protect. IE if you see BRS harem tank they all seemingly have their own nem with space around. Still you are pushing the limits and one bad personality in the tank will quickly erode the balance into mayhem.

 

[Rakie]

You're spot on Soul, I agree with everything you say! Which is why I was saying it's such a gamble, because I haven't seen anyone try it yet.

Take clowns for instance. You can get them as juvies and they will work IF you have enough room for them to have their own location to protect. IE if you see BRS harem tank they all seemingly have their own nem with space around. Still you are pushing the limits and one bad personality in the tank will quickly erode the balance into mayhem.

This is also not only true, but evident within the BRS videos themselves. Of their 30-ish fish, 2 were bullied to death, and 1 was saved from being bullied to death. So far they haven't mentioned a complete Alpha, but they definitely singled out the weakest of the group.

 

[soulpatch]

Yes they put too many in the Harem tank to start though it DOES work should you have the space for the clowns and more importantly a "home" for each set.

I think for the most part marine fish don't really go by the pecking order rules. At least not what we tend to keep. There are either schooling fish that are fine (anthias for instance) or there are solo animals that have their spot in the reef. FW is unique since it is a lot more community based fishwith no real sense of a home.

 

[Ritten]

I just got my biocube yesterday. I wanted to thank you for all of the great information in this thread.

 

[ReefWreak]

I just got my biocube yesterday. I wanted to thank you for all of the great information in this thread.

It's my pleasure, I can't wait to see your build thread come along. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or post in the nano reef area and I'll do my best to reply.

 

[Ritten]

thanks so much! I made a note in my aquarium log that I can pm you, I appreciate that.

 

[soulpatch]

Ritten there are a couple threads you should bookmark as whatever route you go one of us 3 have done it ourselves. There is my biocube thread which is no closed since I sold it but tons of pages of setup, Homer's build thread, and of course Reef's here.

Us 3 are on pretty frequently though I will admit homer and I dont come to the nano forum as much anymore but a simple PM to us will also get you an answer.

 

[ReefWreak]

Here are the links for the threads:

Soulpatch's 29g build

Homer's 29g build

And just to throw in another link, this tank is a bit bigger, but it is one of my tank idols who I have met in person and seen the tank in person, and it is amazing, and he has an interesting approach for his tank design and maintenance.

I have a lot of other bookmarks, and pictures of other tanks, so I always have somewhere to look towards for info and experiences. Actually, I should start reading up on some 210-300 gallon tank builds to get an idea of what I should be planning out....

 

[ReefWreak]

Finally threw my Korallia nano in the back left, blowing across the top of the back, left to right.

I want to test my hypothesis that the reason SPS in the back right corner don't do well, is because they don't get enough flow.

I had moved the right MP10 closer to the back, hoping that it would channel more water back there through a different circulation pattern, but ultimately it just ripped the flesh off of some SPS it was pointed at, and I'm not totally convinced it made a difference. So hopefully this change will help, and I've moved the MP10 back to the position it was before, which is blowing directly at the other MP10. They're both synced, with the right side as the primary and the left side the slave, and on the Ecotech program recognizing that they're on opposite sides of the tank.