Soulpatch's build thread (ongoing)

soulpatch

soulpatch

New member
OK so I will warn you before you invest a ton of time. This is the initial post for my build of my coralife biocube 29. It will be long. I currently have the tank up and running but a lot of the cooler items are yet to be added (unless there are more then a few posts in this thread lol).

About me: I am an analyst so while you would think that I would take my time and analyize things before diving in you are wrong. I track my motorcycles and play various sports so I have a stubborn head, am used to throwing away money on hobbies (though I never crashed and had to go to hospital with fish tanks. My last wreck at the track cost me well over 10 grand and a year of riding).

For fishkeeping I have been an avid freshwater tank owner. I have done everything from goldfish, koi pond, living stream set up with fish and amphibians, african cichlid, SA cichlid, and am currently in a planted tank phase for my daughter as seen below:




Current tank: My current set up is a coarlife biocube 29 and it is set to be a mixed reef tank. My current inhabitants are:

2 clowns
1 six line wrasse
1 jester goby
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
5 hermits
multiple snails (zebra, dwarf cerriths, ect.)
20 pounds of live rock
40 pounds sand
Chateo in rear with some pods growing

corals:
malasian hammer
frogspawn
hairy mushroom
polyps
and one other that was thrown in with three pieces scattered in my tank. Not a polyp but unsure what it is.

Equipment:
Cobalt 150 W heater
Jabeo RW4
Tunze 9001 skimmer
InTank media rack

I am currently running chemipure and purigen with some filter floss in the media rack. I change out the floss pretty frequently as I catch food and other material. I do have an RODI and water change station as well with a Brute 32 Gal container, 100 w heater, and a marineland mj1200 pump to aid in mixing.

Setting it all up (growing pains):

So I got the tank, squeeled like a kid on Christmas, got dirty looks from the wife and ran to my new basement family room to begin setup. I cleaned out the bioballs, set up the stand, and filled the tank with fresh water to test for leaks. Next day I drained the tank and refilled with RODI to rinse just in case. Pump was turned on to ensure it worked. Went to turn on the lights and the actinic was blown out. GRR... Commence wife shaking her head.

So that Friday I started the RODI unit to fill the Brute trashcan with water. It was done Saturday morning so I went to that Pet Place and purchased some real reef bio rock so that I did not get any bad hitchhikers to worry about. The wife also liked the purple color and wanted it no matter what I told her about it not mattering once the tank settles and things grow to cover the rocks.

So I go home with 15 pounds of rock, sand, API test kit, and a few other things. I get the rock into the tank with the sand and water and let everything settle for the remainder of the day. Sunday I went down to try my hand at some aquascaping.





I found that I needed more rock as I was unable to do what I wanted and also decided that I would want to epoxy the rock and not drill them in case I wanted to move things later I could break it down easily. I added some Ace Hardware ammonia to kick off the cycle and walked away for a day.

I tested for ammonia the next day with my API kit and got nothing. I dropped in some more ammonia and continued to test till I found a reading. Nothing. The kit was not reading correctly so I overnighted in another from Amazon and set aside this kit. Next day same thing with no pings on ammonia so eturned and overnighted another. Same thing on third kit even when dropping in straight ammonia so I sent it back to amazon and overnighted in a red sea kit which IMMEDIATELY gave results.

My cycle completed after about 3 weeks where ammonia and nitrites were 0 even after I dosed ammonia they were zero again in less then 24 hours. So time for some hardy livestock. I went out to get 2 clowns, six line, shrimp, and some CUC. (I went with sole intent for CUC but the wife had other ideas and I am smart enough to listen when spending a couple hundred in few weeks). I also placed an order from reefcleaners for chateo, pods, and some dwarf snails.(AWESOME VENDOR BTW)

So tank was set up and live stock was drip acclimated as I redid the aquascape and epoxied everything...







After about 2 weeks I decided to get some corals. I found a local reef only shop and picked up some polyps, hairy mushroom, and something else he threw in. I went to That Pet Place this past weekend for their 25% off livestock and bought a frogspawn and malasian hammer to bring me to where I am now:







For equipment issues I have a tunze 9001 that I put into chamber 2. I would top off water nightly to a set mark but could not dial in this skimmer over the course of a few weeks. It is VERY picky as to water level and a mm here or there caused it to produce nothing or swamp it. It woudl do skimmate only a very short period of time. I am not happy so I decided to order in an aquamaxx hob-1 which will take some retrofitting but I will go through it.


Never one to be patient I decided to make some serious buys when I got an unexpected bonus. Items coming in this week:

Aquamaxx HOB-1 skimmer
Tunze nano ATO
Float cut off for RODI
Rapid LED Aurora light kit
moon lights
upgraded fans
Apex with Lab grade PH
connects for Apex to Rapid LED
Neptune AFS
Michael Kor purse
Michael Kor wallet
Northface jacket


Oh the last three were for the wife so that I could get my items. LOL. Have to play the game....

So this weekend will be a major upgrade to the tank to prepare it for more LPS. I am going to steer clear of SPS for a while until I get get the suppliments and dosing down. I have the reef test kit and will be checking in on the water now and adding what is neccessary. With the low grade of LPS I have now and weekly water changes with reef crystals I am good for a while. I figure by April (my birthday month) I will ask for a Neptune DOS for dosing or water changes.

So stayed tuned as more is coming and the tank will be growing out. I am going to a frag swap in 2 weeks as well to hopefully get some more LPS. I also discovered Live Aquaria will do Saturday delivery even for their Diver Den items which is dangerous. So some aussie corals will be coming my way next month when I can sneak them in with the wife working Saturdays....
 
Well today was Christmas for me. I got a bonus last week and decided to order in some parts. They finally all came today and I will have to find some time this weekend to start to install and layout the wires and such. Going to be a bit of a stretch to get it done this weekend but I will try. At worst I want the lights and fans installed. I might take a bit longer to hook up the apex as I want to ensure I have the wiring all layed out well in my limited space in the tank.

Here is my goby who has finally decided to be more friendly. (forgive the glass as Sunday is tank cleaning day around here) He seems to like coming out by the hammer to eat and he is working the sand perfectly to keep it as clean as possible between my cleanings.



My daughter decided she wanted to help unpack. I thought she was as excited about the aquarium items as I was but then the truth came out as she really just wanted a packing peanut...







So here are what came in the mail!!!!

Rapid LED Aurora kit with the drivers:



rapid led Moonlight kit since I will need to get rid of the led in the hood now with the rapid install:



New fans to ensure that everything stays cool when needed:



Tunze nano ATO and a cut off for my RODI station to avoid floods...



Neptune Apex with lab grade PH probe, AFS, and the cables to control the Rapid LED kits



Aquamaxx HOB-1 Not quite sure what all mods I will have to do to make this work so stay tuned on that front:

 
OK so the Rapid LEDs aurora puck, moonlights, and fans are in. I stripped everything from the hood and put all new stuff in. None of my switches work on the hood anymore but I left them in there so I didn't have a hole. I will note that I think the heatsink plate for the lights was a bit off in the holes drilled but I got it to work. The puck was easier then I thought to wire and the instructions given by Rapid LED are on point. I have them wired basically until tomorrow when I can wire up to the Apex.

Here are some work in progress pics:

Hood off the tank



Splash shield off showing the components about to be stripped



Lights and reflector out



Hood emptied



Here you can see the madness. The heatsink, puck, fans, and moonlights are installed



Here are al the drivers



Closer pic of the new hood



moonlights on



Here all the drivers waiting till tomorrow when I wire up the apex

 
So I have been slacking in updates. Since my last update I have:

Hooked up and programed the apex for basic items
mounted the energy bar, control, and display portion to tank
mounted Jabeo wavemaker controller
got a new few new frags


Things left to be done this weekend:
Install the RODI cutoff on the Brute tank
Install the ATO
Cut the center hinge and some of the hood off so that I can mount the Aquamaxx HOB-1
Buy frags at frag swap.


Now I know no one cares for the updates so much as pictures. Here are 4 pics of my frags though I have just fed the tank and have not yet cleaned it this week so please excuse the food in the water and the bits on the sand...

New Polyp:



Malasian Hammer:



Frogspawn



And my current favorite. My Aussie torch

 
OK so I did some more work today on the tank.

First and formost it was a water change day so I got that squared away. I am going to look into purchased the DOS unit so I can automate my water changes and make it even easier on myself. That is upcoming though probably next month.

Installs done today:

Aquamaxx HOB-1
Tunze ATO
Neptune AFS

New Inhabitants:
Branching Hammer

Here is the AFS mounted to the front of the hood:



Nothing to say about this for the most part as it is pretty straight forward. I did however go in and code for my pumps and skimmer to turn off when I enter feed mode.


Aquamaxx HOB-1:

OK this was a pain to install. I had a few obstacles to overcome. First and foremost it will not fit without a good chunk of the hood cut out. In this pic you can see that I removed the rear door and the cuts I had to make:



I have the intake drawing from the first chamber and the output back onto the top of the intank media rack. This results in zero bubbles PLUS it is dead silent.



I also had to deal with the portion that has the screws and tightens to the lip o the tank being damaged. When I opened the box I noticed a hairline crack in the acryllic but did not think too much of it. As soon as I started to screw the screws however it quickly seperated with just me twisting and not even tightening the screws. I tried to glue it back on but do not have strong enough epoxy and thus for now it is semi unstable. To rectify the situation I used the magnet from the Tunze Skimmer which is disturbingly strong. It is holding the skimmer like a champ right now.

In this pic you can see the ATO return which I have held with the included lip holder as well as having it below the semi repaired screws on the Aquamaxx.




Here is a current FTS though I did not clean the glass today. I have a ton of pods on the glass and wanted to let them scoot around for a bit. My clown has barely messed with them nor has my 6 line suprisingly. They eat a few but not many.



Hard to see most of the polyps as they all decided to close up for a bit after all the workings on the tank. The Frogspawn and Branching Hammer are nto fully out either in this pic.
 
Forgot to add next up.

I need to actually hook up the pump for the ATO at is disconnected right now. I have a container but did not finish it off yet.

I need to hook up the LEDs to the Apex for dimming

PH prober from the apex needs to go in as well.

Cleaning up the wire job in my cabinet. It is a bit of a mess as I was trying to get things running and was not terribly concerned for looks at the time but it is now bothering me so I will have to play with it some.

I also need to label my powerbar. Its not a huge deal but labeling it would allow me to avoid logging onto fusion to see what is in what plug.
 
soulpatch, you might find the AFS puts out too much food for a nano. I don't have enough of a fish load at 9 fish to make a go of it. It really disappointed me because I was really counting on using it. Even on the lowest setting.
 
No issue with the small bit of food I load into it. It could empty it all in one load and that would be fine. I load in the food the morning feed the night before. My lights go on after I am at work so want my fish feed then and I feed more when I get home
 
\Clownfish/ said:
I love your aquascape soul! What kind of fish do you plan on having?
Click to expand...

The fish are already in there. I have a clown (one died a week after I brought it home for some odd reason), 6 line wrasse, and a jester goby.

I will add another clown later but that is basically it.

The tank is more of a coral tank then anything else.
 
Coming along nicely! I really like checking out what others are doing with biocubes.......and stealing....errrr, borrowing their ideas :)
 
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