Legend's Biocube 14

[mdavis203]

Stardate: March 12, 2009

 

I just started my BC14 today. I'm not posting pictures yet for several reasons:

1. My tank looks like crap, because I have too much rock in it. Saw a GREAT piece at the LFS and bought it, along with some smaller ones. However, it's too big for my tank. Gotta return it for a few smaller pieces and redo my reefscaping.

2. I haven't done anything yet that isn't posted in a hundred other threads in this forum.

3. My daughter took the digital camera on vacation with her this week.

 

So far, I've done the following:

 

*Removed bioballs and gave them to the cats to play with.

 

*Removed all trays in chamber 2 and threw away.

 

*Beat filter tray in chamber 1 with screwdriver until it got loose enough I could pull it out.

 

*Removed sponge and threw away.

 

*Explained to wife that the reason I was tearing up a brand new tank was that I was an Engineer, and I could make it better.

 

*Replaced stock return pump with Maxi-jet 900.

 

*Installed 75 watt Stealth heater.

 

*About 12-13 lbs. live sand.

 

*About 19.5 lbs. live rock--too much, will probably trim down to about 16-17 lbs, unless I can rearrange what I've got to look better.

 

So at this moment, I have a cold, cloudy tank with an ugly rockscape. But the heater's on, the water's circulating, and I'll rescape it later. The important thing is the cycle has started.

 

What I have planned:

 

*DIY LED lighting, basically a copy of Waterproof's build. I may go with 12 LED's instead of 11, though. But it'll be basically the same.

 

*Install StevieT's Media Basket in the second chamber. I've got it ordered, and will run Chemipure in the bottom, a chaeto fuge (with StevieT's fuge light) in the middle, and filter floss (Walmart Pillow Stuffing) in the top.

 

*StevieT's fish saver, both for keeping fish out of the back and blocking light from the fuge at night.

 

*Nanotuner's R2 moonlight.

 

* Koralia Nano pump. I accidentally ordered the Koralia 1 last week and have it right now, but it's really too big for the BC14 IMHO. I'll probably replace it with one or two Koralia Nano's.

 

My stocking plan:

 

*Tiger pistol and yellow watchman goby that I hope will pair up.

 

*Two more small fish... undecided which ones at this time.

 

*Zoas... a few.

 

*Shrooms... a few. I think they're so cool.

 

*Some LPS. I really love frogspawn, but I'm worried about the tentacles in such close quarters. Definitely a head or two of candy cane.

 

*Pulsing Xenia (that will probably never pulse). Gotta love that coral weed.

 

*Gorgonian. Not sure what color... probably yellow.

 

*SPS... maybe. Not sure if I want to deal with the calc issues. But my LED lighting should definitely handle it.

 

*Other inverts. A cleaner shrimp and a varied CUC. These guys are probably my favorite thing to watch in a tank.

 

Anyway... that's where I am now and my plans. I'd love to hear comments or feedback. And I'll post pics once my daughter gets back with the camera.

[Brian Crook]

DEFINITELY post some pics of your DIY LED build. Can't get enough of that stuff.

 

[mdavis203]

Stardate: March 15, 2009

 

Rockscape

 

After trying about a hundred ways of arranging my rock to make the big, beautiful piece work, I gave up. The pieces I bought were just way too big to rockscape with in my nano. Luckily, my LFS let me return them without any hassle whatsoever. Try that with Petblow! My LFS is awesome. Unfortunately, they didn't have any good nano-size pieces in, so I had to order some online. I ordered Liveaquaria's Nano Pack. Hopefully, it'll have some good pieces and I can get the rockscape going. I ordered some epoxy putty as well, to secure my rockscape in place, since I'll have a pistol shrimp burrowing under it.

 

I think I'm going to add a couple more pounds of sand, too. I'm worried that what I've got might not give a pistol shrimp enough tunnelling room.

 

LED Lighting Mod

 

Today, I drilled/tapped my heat sink and mounted the LED's. I used this project as an excuse to go ahead and buy the drill press from Lowes I'd been drooling over. I highly recommend a drill press for this project, unless you have an insanely steady hand with a drill. Also, while tapping, when you hear these guys talk about backing the tap out every half turn or so, they really mean it. I found this out when I broke a tap bit on the first hole. Also, use some lubricant while tapping the threads. It really makes a difference. Later in the week, I'm going to hit up Radio Shack for some wire and jacks to finish putting this together. My goal is to have the lighting mod done by the time my cycle's over.

 

The daughter got back from vacation today, but I still didn't bother to take pics yet, because the tank's kinda bare. I thought of taking pics of the lighting mod, but it look's just like Waterproof's, except I'm using 12 LED's instead of 11. I'll add some later, when she gets the 400 pics she took off the memory card.

[CL_]

Pictures please

[mdavis203]

Pictures please

 

I know, I know. I don't mean to be procrastinating. I'm out of town for a couple of days, but while I'm gone, I'll get my daughter to dump her vacation pics from the memory card. I'll try to get some pics posted by mid-week. Again, there's not much to see right now... a bare tank with a couple pieces of rock and a heat sink with some LED's mounted on it. But, I'll post them anway!

[mdavis203]

Stardate: March 18, 2009

 

Unfortunately, I don't have pics yet. Partly because my daughter hasn't cleaned off her memory card yet and partly because I don't have much interesting to look at yet. However, I'm updating you guys on my progress...

 

*I spent a good deal of time soldering tonight. I have all the LED's mounted and wired on my heat sink.

 

*I have built my project box (extremely similar to Waterproof's), with the exception of the fan connection. I accidently melted the DC connection for the fans.

 

*I did a bench test on the LED lights. Took a break and drank beer while the temporary blindness wore off. Here's a tip: Look away from them when you first plug them in.

 

My next step is the work on the hood. I need to mount the two additional fans and the heat sink/LED array. Unfortunately, both Lowes and Radio Shack only had shrink wrap in 6" segments. So, I either have to use a bunch of the 6" segments or go ghetto and wrap the wires with black electrical tape.

 

Another setback has been the R2 lunar light. I got it in today, and it is definitely too big to mount on the heat sink, like I had planned. I'm going to look and see if there's a way I can mount it to the hood, outside the heat sink, or I'll have to look elsewhere for new moonlighting.

 

On the plus side, my Koralia Nano arrived today. It's a size much more suited to my BC14 than the Koralia 1. In fact, I think I'm going to get another one to work opposite to it. I'll end up selling the Koralia 1 or trading it for a frag or two.

 

I promise I'll eventually get some pics up. My rock from liveaquaria is due in tomorrow, so I'll have a chance to do some rockscaping. I hope to get some pics then. In the meantime, my BC14 is still cycling with what little rock I have in there.

[jgilvey]

Cool stuff...looking at a BC14 myself. Love to see pics of course.

 

Any way you (or anyone with a BC14) could measure the actual viewable depth and height for me? I know it's listed at 16.7" deep, just wondering how much of that is the filter. Same with height, how much is canopy/base? Thanks!

[mdavis203]

Any way you (or anyone with a BC14) could measure the actual viewable depth and height for me? I know it's listed at 16.7" deep, just wondering how much of that is the filter. Same with height, how much is canopy/base? Thanks!

 

Viewable Glass

14.5" Wide

11.5" Tall

11" Deep (front of tank to where filter chamber starts)

 

These are +/- a quarter inch or so. It's a little curvy.

[jgilvey]

Thanks! It's really only 11.5" wide?

[mdavis203]

Thanks! It's really only 11.5" wide?

 

Oops... No, the 11.5" is tall. It's 14.5" wide. Sorry, I was half-asleep when I typed that.

[jgilvey]

Thanks very much for taking the time! I'm looking forward to watching your tank progress.

[mdavis203]

Finally... Pics!

 

Here's a shot of my DIY LED build:

 

 

It's very much like Waterproof's build (see link it original post) with a few exceptions. I used 12 LED's instead of 11. I wired my whites and blues through the two switches on the canopy. Also, I used two added fans, in addition to the stock ones. Finally, I installed an R2 moonlight. You can see it just to the right of the heat sink. I'd like to thank Waterproof and Evilc66 for the inspiration and their walking me through this project. I love those guys! I love the look of these lights. The brightness and shimmer of metal halides without the heat and frequent bulb changes. It's the best of all worlds.

 

Now for a full tank shot:

 

 

It's not quite as blue as this pic looks. And it's much brighter. It's not much to look at right now... just live rock. I think I've got a pretty good rockscape going on. Lots of good places for future coral placement. The rock came from liveaquaria.com. It's their nano pack. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't that much diversity in the rock. They advertised that it was a mix of different types of rock, but it appears to be all Fiji rock to me. But it is nice rock. I think I've got a good collection of hitchhikers. A bristle worm popped out about ten minutes after it had been in the water.

 

Now it's just a waiting game until the nitrogen cycle is over. I'm only about 9 days in. Three weeks or so to go. I can't wait to stock this tank.

[Minadin]

Very nice looking led setup. I like the clean mount and hidden wiring. I have enjoyed following along with your posts.

 

Give us some more pics :>

 

Thanks

Scott

[Waterproof]

Looks great! Very clean job with the wiring/soldering. It's good to hear you're happy with the LEDs. I kinda wish I had known about LEDs before my tank was socked so full. You'll have a lot of freedom with your coral selection. Blank canvas!

 

How's the moonlight look when it's fired up?

[TheStar]

Looks great. How would you rate the difficulty of the LED build? What did it end up costing you?

[mdavis203]

Looks great. How would you rate the difficulty of the LED build? What did it end up costing you?

 

It's not difficult at all if you're pretty good at soldering. To me, the hardest part was tapping the holes to mount the LED's, since I'd never done any tapping before. But once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. All of the tapping and soldering can get a little tedious, but I wouldn't call the project difficult at all... especially since you've got a few people here that are eager to help out and answer questions.

 

Cost? I'd say around $250 total... maybe a little more. It's a little more expensive initially than some of the other lighting choices, but once you factor in that you won't have to change bulbs but every 3 years or so, they use much less electricity, and you don't have to worry about heat, you come out ahead.

[mdavis203]

Looks great! Very clean job with the wiring/soldering. It's good to hear you're happy with the LEDs. I kinda wish I had known about LEDs before my tank was socked so full. You'll have a lot of freedom with your coral selection. Blank canvas!

 

Thanks for the compliments! I'm glad I found your post before stocking my tank, too. With this light, I can pretty much put anything in here, and I don't have the headaches or operating costs of metal halides!

 

How's the moonlight look when it's fired up?

 

I took a picture last night, but it's not really representative of what it looks like IRL. Here it is:

 

 

It's not quite as bright as it looks here. I mounted it to the right of the heat sink. I used Mighty Putty (yeah, that stuff from TV) to put two blocks of balsa in the hood to raise the moonlight to the same level as the other LED's. That stuff is actually pretty good. I also used it to mount the extra fans, since I couldn't figure out a way to screw them in where I wanted them.

[evilc66]

Nice job. Hope your happy with it.

[mdavis203]

Very happy. Now, I just have to wait 2-3 weeks to stock it. I may put my CUC in a little earlier, so I'll have something to watch and so they can be working on cleaning off the live rock.

[mdavis203]

I forgot about one other difference between Waterproof's build and mine. I have the fans coming off the same power supply as my LED's. That's really the reason I have four instead of three. I ended up with two sets of two fans in series. It would have been more trouble than it was worth to try to wire three fans into the 24V power supply. I built a job box similar to WP's. I have the power jack on one of the small sides. Then, I have one jack each for the white and blue LED's and a jack for the fans on one of the long sides. Then the two pots are mounted on the opposite long side. Everything unplugs from it, and it turned out to be a nice, clean setup. Thanks for the idea, WP.

[deepdvnarq]

I'm glad you like it! it does look pretty sweet. my bc 14 is next. i already have everything but the heatsink, which should get here on monday or tuesday.

[mdavis203]

Stardate: March 22, 2009

 

Lights are all finished, rock's in place, and we're waiting on the cycle. I'm about ten days in, and everything is looking good so far. Already, I'm seeing pods all over the glass at night. I don't have tank parameters yet, since my test kit hasn't arrived yet. But, there's really no need to test right now, as I know I'm nowhere close to being ready to start stocking.

 

I know I've said this before, but I'm extremely pleased with my LED build. Along with the perks such as low heat, low electrical usage, and long bulb life, I also have the ability to dial in exactly what color temp I want. If I'm in the mood for more blue, I turn my blues up a little. If I want more of a white color, I turn them down some. I can make the tank overall dimmer or brighter. There's just so much versatility.

[Darklyte24]

Very nice, GL to your new tank.

 

Ive been gone for a while but im looking at other peoples tanks again and am in the process of adding LED lights to my tank.

 

heres a recent pic..

 

I lost quite a bit of zoos, i think something was eating them..

 

[mdavis203]

Stardate: March 25, 2009

 

Water Parameters (using Red Sea test kit)

 

Ammonia: 0.25 ppm

Nitrite: >1 ppm (top of scale)

Nitrate: >50 ppm (top of scale)

 

Nitrogen cycle's in full swing. I am surprised that the nitrates are that high only two weeks in. I guess the live rock from liveaquaria.com had quite a bit of die-off.

 

Also, when I got back from being out of town for a couple of days, it looks like I've got a cyano outbreak going on.

[mdavis203]

Stardate: March 27, 2009

 

Water Parameters (Using Red Sea test kit)

 

Ammonia: 0.20-0.25 ppm (a little lower than last time)

Nitrite: >1 ppm (still off scale)

Nitrate: ~75 ppm (I did the high scale test this time)

 

I don't trust the nitrate test, after reading the instructions. It said nitrites above 1 ppm makes the nitrate test completely inaccurate. So, I guess I'll just have to wait until the nitrites go away before I can trust the nitrate test. I knew there had to be something wrong for the nitrates to be that high in such a young tank.