Another fine BC29 Update R2D2

[Deano]

Original photo 2006

 

 

Updated photo. 01/11/2012

 

 

Hello ! New to your forum but not new to the addiction. Current tanks 135 in wall Oceanic reef tank and 45 AG show. First reef tank was a 10 AG 175watt M/H 10 long years ago. If you can make that work then your can definitally make a 135 work so I moved into the 135. So much for the bio.

 

After months of stewing over what nano to buy. I ended up with the BC29. Prefer topless, M/H and VHO but because I will be keeping this tank in my public office I thought the BC would help keep kids, cleaning people and other things out.

 

Many things going on pre water, I was hopeing to find a comperhensive list of mods, "that work". Any Ideas where to find one? Been lurking RC, RL and now your forum trying to sort it out, but digging though old post and doing searches has worn me out.

 

Building my own Skimmer, copy of the Sapphire, going well. I wish I would of pulled the Bioballs out and the BB floor before I started the skimmer I could of made the skimmer about 3" taller.

 

I think I have the lighting sorted out thanks to you guys. PC's arghh! Guess I will have to learn to like them.

 

I hate extra pumps in the real realestate and would like to put 1 in the 1st stage. Has someone done this? I am thinking I will need to increase the size of the intakes to make it work. Anyone have any thoughts on this I would be most grateful. I have a old Aquaclear Powerhead #301 setting around and it fits nicely. I know the output on this isn't much but I don't plan on keeping SPS's so alot of water movement isn't imparitive.

 

Update photo 12/12/2010

 

 

More photos at the end of the thread.

 

 

ttfn

 

Have Fun!

 

Dean

[brward5]

i think i saw something about a mod in the 1st chamber to add an additional pump on a nano-cube, havent heard of it on the bc, but dont see why it wouldnt be possible - i think the grate in chamber 1 will pull up. if you have the lighting sorted out - i like the 4.36 mod on nanotuners.com - then either a skimmer or fuge in chamber 2 is about all the mods ive heard about on this one - with the exception of drilling the tank out and adding a larger sump/fuge/etc below the tank.

~Brian

[Deano]

Brian

 

Thanks for the info. I agree that is mostly what I have found.

 

Yep the 4.36 mod is what I looking at. May wait and see how the new 70w MH retro looks once available. Kind of a MH junky.

 

Skimmer in production.

 

Sorry no drilling on this one.

 

Hear some things about cutting the transfer from 1 to 2. I don't plan on changing my stock pump at this time so this may not be needed.

 

Have Fun!

 

Dean Ladd

[POSSUM]

hi Deano! There are a lot of great threads on this site. Most of them help with mods. WELCOME!

Tealcobra has a great one going now called "got my bc29 today". Check it out

[TEALCOBRA]

Nanotuners has the MH kit out for the BC29 right now for the single 70w MH.... I was planning on waiting for the Dual HQI setup, but will be staying with the 4.36 since I am not planning on keeping and SPS in the tank.

[newtanksmell]

Teal Cobra and Robster both have threads going. I steal ideas from these two gentlemen regularly.

 

Off the top of my head, here are mods or equipment changes of which I'm aware. 99% of them can be found somewhere in this forum.

 

Chamber 1/2 Lip mod

 

Chamber 2 Conversion to skimmer

 

Chamber 2 conversion to rock/cheato (sp?) refugium or rock only for extra nitrobactor housing.

 

Chamber 1 conversion to refugium

 

Chamber 1 conversion for second pump

 

Pump upgrades

 

Hydor flow conversion

 

Tunze 6025 addition

 

Outflow to LineLoc Y conversion

 

4.36 Nanotuners lighting conversion

 

Hood/Refugium light addition

 

1.70 MH conversion Nanotuners

 

2.70 MH conversion (drool!) Not yet released Nanotuners (Let's go Chris ! We are waiting!)

 

Many of the things are listed are not true mods, but simply equipment upgrades.

 

Some of these conversions warrant a hard look for cause and effect i.e. temp increases associated with with heavy lighting upgrades. Living in Arizona, any light mod for me guarantees the addition of a big money chiller to avoid poached gobi with blanched ricordea !

 

Don't be afraid to do any mods that appear to improve critter heath;however, make sure you read what additional adjustments, if any, are necessary.

 

I would recommend the lip mod between chambers one and two even if you stick with the stock pump. It works well for stock or skimmer runs. Teal talked me in to it and I am much happier with tank flow.

 

The only potential reason NOT to do the lip mod is if you intended to create a refugium in chamber two. In this case you would likely want to maintain more water contact time with cheato (sp?).

 

Hope this helps. I'm new, so not trying to sound like an expert. Just trying to help as so many here have gone out of there way to help me.

[Deano]

Newtanksmell

 

Thanks for the great list that will definatly help research a little easer. Sometimes you don't know what to type in for a search so you look long and hard.

 

I will definatly be doin the skimmer in compart #2 so I will open up the 1 to 2 overflow. I am like you I bleed M/H lighting. The dual 70 system sounds pretty awsome.

 

Thanks tealcobra as I said above. duel 70's sound good to me. I am not a lighting expert ,heat, airflow, par ect ect ect. But hay if you can slam 2 70s in there how about 1 150 DE. I have seen the tread by the mad doctor/ I MH invy.

 

Possum been lurking around that tread some good things goin on their.

 

Well I am about 90% done with my skimmer. Heres a picture. Had a lot of white acrylic. I figure you can't see it the back of the BC29 so I used it. Because I was not sure how well this was going to work I scabed in a clear piece so I can see in the reaction chamber during my test runs.

 

 

Oh ! A taste of the not so nano. My 135

[skey44]

got this tank for my dad for christmas. it'll be his first saltwater setup (been thinking about it for years). im trying to do the basic mods for him before he gets it (mostly equipment stuff) think im gonna do a fuge in #2 lit from a rear light box. my main question is: where did you put your heater? i got the jager 150w for him and its 13". is the water level in one of these compartments gonna be high enough for this to fit in the rear? i was thinking about leaving the bioball floor in to screen chaeto and rock but i guess i could just install a screen over the exit. my shop has one set up and #3 doesnt seem to be high enough but you can't see #2 bc he has the stock strainer on it. thanks for any answers

[RayWhisperer]

Nice tank!

Also, that skimmer looks great!

 

I don't know if it'll help you, but I'll try and dig up some pics of another NC I did. I put a Rio 800 at the bottom of chamber 1. Really, all I did.... Was drill the false wall to the proper O.D. of the Rio's nozzle.

[RayWhisperer]

Well, I didn't have the original pics, but these should give you the idea.

Place the pump on the outside of the false wall and mark it.

Drill it.

Somehow the pic of the nozzle in the display was lost during upload. Oh well.

This is what it looks like behind the false wall. I made a dual refugium. Each chamber is on an opposite photoperiod.

 

Oh, this is a skimmer I built for the NC 24.

And the skimmate.

I'll be following along to see what you come up with.

[RayWhisperer]

Got that other pic for ya.

[newtanksmell]

Deano, very nice 135. Looks like you have opportunity to frag some things and transfer them over.

 

Skey44, I have my heater in compartment number 3. I run my water line over maxium and it's enough to cover a 100w. Some of the forum members with BC29s run them in compartment 1.

 

Ray, nice job on the pump mod !

[Deano]

Ray

 

Some work in that there skimmer, expecially the cup. Hard enough for me to make a square box. I like the pump mod, going to definatly do that. By the way nice Dewalt "go #17".

 

Skey44

 

like NTS said I will put mine in comp 1.

 

NTS Thanks for the complements on the 135. I can't bring myself to fragin the torch. I would like to see just how big it will get. MY BTA is like the USPS keeps on delivering, splits like my surgen fish AKA Purple Tang is takin a knift to it.

[RayWhisperer]

Thanks guys...

I just realized, those were two different skimmers. Look at the collection cup. Oh well, they both worked, but kinda temeremental to water levels.

[Deano]

OK we now have an operational skimmer. $20.00 not including the old RIO 600 I had laying around. OH! $30.00 if you count the 15/16 reduced shank drill bit I had to buy to drill the pump hole. Humm! bets the heck out of $100.00 and shipping.

 

Heres a picture!

 

Have some micro bubbles, which should go away after the skimmer breaks in. Still will need to do some tweaking on the water level in the reaction chamber. But I will wait until I get the BC wet to do that.

 

 

Whachya lookin at, me?

[RayWhisperer]

Nice job on the skimmer.

[Deano]

Nice job on the skimmer.

 

Thanks Ray

 

Forgot to drill the breather holes in the lid of the cup. Once I did that the micro bubbles cut down to almost nothing and the skimmer kicked in to high gear.

 

I have the skimmer in my quarantine tank. Right now I have a blue/green damsel in there that got hit by my marron clown ( sha can be real B*$%#! some times) by straying to close to her Bubble tip. The damsel wasn't lookin to good but it seems to be coming around.

 

Ok next order of bis. pump in chambr 1.

 

We got about 3" of snow today and the BC is at the office (things kind of slow) so every one is gong to be freakin out when I fire up the drill and dremel tomorrow.

 

Didn't want to bring the tank home the old lady would of wigged out if she found out I spent $380.00 for a new tank and stand just a few weeks before X-mas, if you know what I mean.

 

 

How about these little jewels, I will be adding a few of these to the new BC. I by corals like these at the LFS with a couple small heads on them for $5.00 to $10.00 let them grow for a year fragem like theres no tomorrow and take'm back to the LFS and sell'm back to them for $30.00 - $40.00 bucks each. Just doin my part to save our Oceans and feed my reef addiction.

[Deano]

I am making some slow progress on my tank.

 

Not being a big fan of sand bed maintance and with my 10 years experiance in this hobby detrius builds up under your rocks is a killer and over time this will start causing big time troubles with nutrient build up. With the faux SB you simply blow the detritus off the SB with a powerhead.. I made the partial faux sand bed mixing a 2 part plastic resin with aragonite sand. It’s hard to see but when I made the faux sand bed I set my base foundation rocks into the sand bed before it cured. This made an impression of the rocks so they set into the sand bed and are rock solid. The area in front of the Faux sand bed will be the same sand as the faux sand bed. Which will be easy to vacuum as needed.

 

 

 

I also fired up the lights for the first time and the fans are way to loud. I want to know if the 4.36 nanocustom mod is as loud as the stock fans. I am very disappointed in the fans in the top. Has anyone found fan mods that are quieter or would the nanocustoms mod be quieter?

 

Here is my electrical bank and timers. This has 2 GFIC's

 

 

Bottom line need to quiet the fans any suggestions pleassse?

[RayWhisperer]

I'm not sure of the size fans you'll need.

 

For a NC, it's 60 mm... I just buy quieter fans from newegg.com. They list the db rating of each fan.

[TEALCOBRA]

They are 60mm fans..... the upgraded ones from nanotuners are actually louder because theyre trying to remove heat from 4 bulbs instead of 2.

[Deano]

They are 60mm fans..... the upgraded ones from nanotuners are actually louder because theyre trying to remove heat from 4 bulbs instead of 2.

 

Thanks! I figured that was the case. Nanotuners offers 2 fan options standard and increased air flow. They state that the increased flow is louder. Has any one tried there Thermal flow fan? This fan is suppose to change RPM's as the temp rises.

 

TC do you still have the stock fans laying around do they have any thing on them that states the dBA rating, cfm and RPM or simply a model? I should be able to google the model and get the specs. Sorry not ready to tear my canopy apart just yet to find out.

 

 

From Nanotuners web>

Cooling Fans

 

Standard Flow - Our standard airflow fans are an upgrade to the stock fans in the Nanocube and Aquapod systems. Each nanocustoms system is tuned to provide temperatures at the optimal temperature for PC bulbs (105F).

 

Increased Airflow - This is an upgrade to our standard airflow fans. They spin faster and provide better airflow to the canopy, which results in lower canopy temperatures in higher ambient room temperature conditions. Although these fans provide increased cooling, they put out slightly more noise.

 

Ray: Newegg offers the same 60mm themal flow fan as well, much better price then nanotuners. $12.00 including shipping. Any opinons on the this type of fan or experiance?

 

 

I suppose it dosen't matter in the end anyway because ultimitly once the canopy reaches max temp the fan is going to run full tilt anyway producing 33.5 dBA.

 

Looking at Vantec RPM spec at 40 c this fan is going to turn around 3000-3500 rpm meaning a dBA of around 30. Hummm! makes me wonder what the dBA is on the stock fans. TC? see question above. My guess 26dBA ish in the 2000 rpm range. BUT, If 2 thermal controlled fans can keep the temp across them both in the 25-30 c range then this thermal fan would only be turning the same 2000 rpm and putting out 19dBA per specs. Now that sounds promissing. Any opinions on this theory?

 

 

Model

Brand VANTEC

Model TF6025

Spec

Type Case Fan

Compatibility Case

Fan Size 60mm

Bearing Type 2 Ball

RPM 1900-4200 RPM

Air Flow 9.9-24.2 CFM

Noise Level 19-33.5 dBA

Power Connector 3 / 4 Pin

Color Black

Physical Spec

Dimensions 60 x 60 x 25mm

Features

Features Temperature Control Sensor Adjusts Fan Speed Automatically

Low Power Usage and Low Noise Level

Double Ball Bearing For Extended Life

Package Contents

Package Contents Case Fan

Bolts

 

thanks guys I appreciate all your input.

[RayWhisperer]

Sorry, never tried the Thermal flow.

[Deano]

Sorry, never tried the Thermal flow.

 

No problem I apprecite the help and the info on Newegg. At least if I decide to give it a try it won't cost me an arm and a leg just an arm.

[stallen]

I recommend silenx fans. http://silenx.com/ixtremaprofans.asp

 

They are expensive, but they have the best dBA to CFM ratio out there. I have three of the 60mm X 60mm X 25 mm fans on my system (two in the hood and one on my fuge light). They are completely silent unless you put your ear within a couple feet of them. Only 16dBA! They move more air than my stock 50mm fans did, but they don't move as much air as some louder fans. Basically if you get something rated < 20dBA you'll probably be happy with the noise level. My stock 50mm fans had a dBA of about 25.

 

My second choice would be panaflo fans, but with a reohstat so you can adjust the RPM/noiselevel.

 

On a final note, you would be even better off if you can mod 80mm silenx fans to fit. Even less noise than the 60mm with nearly double the flow!

[Deano]

I recommend silenx fans. http://silenx.com/ixtremaprofans.asp

 

They are expensive, but they have the best dBA to CFM ratio out there. I have three of the 60mm X 60mm X 25 mm fans on my system (two in the hood and one on my fuge light). They are completely silent unless you put your ear within a couple feet of them. Only 16dBA! They move more air than my stock 50mm fans did, but they don't move as much air as some louder fans. Basically if you get something rated < 20dBA you'll probably be happy with the noise level. My stock 50mm fans had a dBA of about 25.

 

My second choice would be panaflo fans, but with a reohstat so you can adjust the RPM/noiselevel.

 

On a final note, you would be even better off if you can mod 80mm silenx fans to fit. Even less noise than the 60mm with nearly double the flow!

 

Thanks! after researching your suggestion I order 2 of the 60mm 16dBA models.

 

I will update my resutls once I get them installed.