jaredcoe Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Hello everyone! I'm excited to finally post my very own tank thread! After close to 3 years of planning then moving, and then moving again, I finally have a tank with water. Below are the details with a few pics. I'll be updating often so let me know your thoughts. Tank: Oceanic BioCube 29 Oceanic Stand Equipment/Filtration: MaxiJet 1200 Return Pump Hydor Koralia 750 AquaticLife Mini 115 InTank Media Basket, Fuge Basket and Fish Saver Guard Rapid LED BC 29 Dimmable Kit (10 RB / 7 CW / 3 NW) SpectraPure Refurbished RO/DI 90 GPD with 3 GAL Drinking Water Add-on and Air-Gap Faucet Mods: Removed tab between chamber 1 and 2 Airline mod for AquaticLife Skimmer Removed false bottom from chamber 1 and 2 Livestock: 30lbs of CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Livesand 40lbs mix of Liverock and Flordia Reef Rock from John at ReefCleaners.org 1 x True Percula Clownfish 2 x Emerald Crabs 2 x Peppermint Shrimp 1 x Fire Shrimp 1 x 6 Line Wrasse R.I.P. Assorted Snails and Hermits Empty Tank... RapidLED's Kit Starting to fill the tank 002 TDS thanks to SpectraPure RO/DI system RO/DI System InTank Media and Fuge Basket Live Sand Added John at Reefcleaners.org was awesome with the rock selection Finished Product! Link to comment
jaredcoe Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 Nothing really new while I'm waiting for the tank to cycle. I added some quick disconnects to the lights which makes taking the hood off much easier. Still having trouble with micro bubbles - I can't figure out where they are coming from, but hopefully once I add Purigen and Chemi-Pure to the media basket it will cut them down. The tank is running around 82 degrees with the lights on. I was hoping to keep it at or below 80 so I'll experiment with the back hood and home A/C. Here are few more pics: Moonlights From the right side From the left side Link to comment
nickjqz Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Looks good! I can't wait to see it when it has livestock. Link to comment
Singlefin Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Looks like you have some nice little caves and tunnels in your scape. Pictures can't really capture everything. I'm sure it looks even better in person. Link to comment
Blazzin Reefer Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 NIce job! I'm building a 29 HQI Biocube right now so I feel u! Link to comment
Bakenn Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Nice tank I love the lighting. What brand RO/DI system is that? Did that jug come with it? Link to comment
jaredcoe Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 Nice tank I love the lighting. What brand RO/DI system is that? Did that jug come with it? It's a Spectrapure RO/DI unit. I snagged a refurbished model for $120. The jug is a part of a 3 gallon drinking water add-on kit. You don't need it, but it allows the unit to store RO/DI water and I don't have to disconnect and reconnect it every time. Spectrapure Refurb Unit Drinking Water Add-On Kit Link to comment
jaredcoe Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 NIce job! I'm building a 29 HQI Biocube right now so I feel u! Nice looking tank yourself. I like the Tonga Branch... Link to comment
Blazzin Reefer Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Nice looking tank yourself. I like the Tonga Branch... Sweet Thanks! I like the tonga because it creates lots of places to secure coral and holes the for fish to swim thru! Plus I have all extra space in all back chambers stuffed with small tonga, perfect for packing in small spaces! Link to comment
jaredcoe Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Just tested the water and I'm cycled! Going to place an order from Reefcleaners.org on Monday to get CUC on the way. I don't have a lot of diatom bloom but figured I would get a head start. The water parameters are listed below and I'm happy with everything other than the high temperature and low calcium. I'm fairly confident that once I do a water change the nitrates and phosphates will go to zero (I also have Phosguard that I will start using) and the calcium will go up. What I am worried about is the temperature. It's stays pretty constant between 83-84 regardless if the lights are on or off. I have no heater in the tank, it's not close to a window and the house stays at 74. I may turn off the skimmer tonight and see if that helps. Is there anyone else that has a problem with heat in their BioCube? My last resort would be to put a fan in the rear chamber, but I'm not sure how to mount it. Any feedback would be appreciated on this. Temp: 83.9 Salinity: 1.023 PH: 8.0-8.2 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5-10ppm Calcium: 280 KH: 125.3ppm Phosphate: 0-.25 Link to comment
like-fish Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Just tested the water and I'm cycled! Going to place an order from Reefcleaners.org on Monday to get CUC on the way. I don't have a lot of diatom bloom but figured I would get a head start. The water parameters are listed below and I'm happy with everything other than the high temperature and low calcium. I'm fairly confident that once I do a water change the nitrates and phosphates will go to zero (I also have Phosguard that I will start using) and the calcium will go up. What I am worried about is the temperature. It's stays pretty constant between 83-84 regardless if the lights are on or off. I have no heater in the tank, it's not close to a window and the house stays at 74. I may turn off the skimmer tonight and see if that helps. Is there anyone else that has a problem with heat in their BioCube? My last resort would be to put a fan in the rear chamber, but I'm not sure how to mount it. Any feedback would be appreciated on this. Temp: 83.9 Salinity: 1.023 PH: 8.0-8.2 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5-10ppm Calcium: 280 KH: 125.3ppm Phosphate: 0-.25 i have to run mine with he back hatch open. If i dont it gets up to 82 or so. before my LED upgrade it ran at 82 with front and back hatch open. Keep an eye on your salinity as evaporation speeds up alot with a hatch open. Best of luck to ya! Link to comment
jaredcoe Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 i have to run mine with he back hatch open. If i dont it gets up to 82 or so. before my LED upgrade it ran at 82 with front and back hatch open. Keep an eye on your salinity as evaporation speeds up alot with a hatch open. Best of luck to ya! Thanks Like-Fish. I ran the back hatch open today and it didn't seem to help. I'm going to crack the front hood and back tomorrow. With your led's, do your fans blow in or out? Link to comment
jaredcoe Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 So, since I started the thread I guess I should at least keep it moderately updated... Last week I put in 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 emerald crabs and a six-line wrasse and CUC from Reefcleaners.org. All was well until Thursday at 7:30pm when my daylights go out and the moonlights kick on. When my daylights go out I also have my Hydor stop. Well, when I noticed the lights go off I also remembered that I hadn't fed yet, so I walked over and manually switched the timer on. When I did my Hydor came on, but it started spinning backwards! Sucking instead of blowing! As my luck would have it Mr. Razz was sucked through the pump and beat up pretty bad. He did manage to live for another 24 hrs but died sometime the next night. Now I'm fishless yet again. I read a few posts from others who had this happened. The general consensus is the pump can start in reverse, but if kept clean, should hit some "back spin preventer" and fix itself. I've decided to just run it all the time until I can come up with a way to narrow the slots on the front guard. Such a horrible way for a fish to die! Might be an interesting topic "The worst way you've ever had a fish die" On another note, everything else is doing great. Will replace Razz soon and also going to place an order from The Reef Gardener. R.I.P. Razz-a-ma-tazz Link to comment
Degener8 Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Sorry to hear about the fish death. I have the same issue with my Hydor pumps but i dont have any fish small enough to go inside em... I guess i should clean em more anyways but they are on all the time unless i feed so i just make sure they are blowing correct when I am finished. Link to comment
jaredcoe Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 New pics! After the wrasse death-by-powerhead incident I decided to put a clown in. He's a little larger than the wrasse, plus rarely goes near the pump. Everything is the tank is doing really well so I placed an order on Reefgardener.com that will be delivered tomorrow. I've read some really good things about Morgan so I'm sure I'll be happy with my first coral order online. Below is the order summary: 1 x Liam's Orange Green Clove Polyps 1 x Larry Jackson Tricolor 1 x Rare Bicolor Frogspawn 1 x Green Star Polyps 1 x ORA Glowing Green Birdsnest 1 x Deep Blue Sanctithomae Mushroom 1 x Tyree Jesus Stag 1 x Baby Pink ricordia 1 x Reef Gardener Rose Garden Pocillopora 1 x Orange Eye Zoanthids I also found a local reefer on craigslist and going on Saturday morning to pickup some Xenia and a Trumpet. Be looking for pics over the weekend, but for now enjoy some animal photos... CUC from Reefcleaners.org. John is tha man! Hermit Schnapps the Peppermint Shrimp Omen the clownfish. Seriously he's hard to get a decent picture of.... Link to comment
jaredcoe Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 New Corals!!! Received my order from Morgan at Reefgardner on Friday. I couldn't have been happier with the ordering, shipping and quality of the coral. Water Parameters as of 4/1/2012 PH: 8.0 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Phosphate: 0 Calcium: 320 KH: 9 So here's my dilemma.. I've been trying to get my calcium up to 400-420 but my KH is rising as well. My concern is now keeping the KH from rising above 9. The rise in KH is most likely to my do a recent water change and I've also started dosing with Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium. I'll wait a couple of days and check the parameters again. Pink Pulsing Pom-Pom Xenia. Larry Jackson Tricolor Tyree Jesus Stag Trumpet Green Birdsnest Frogspawn Zoanthids and Ricordia Thanks for following along!! This post brought to you by Coullion the Fire Shrimp. Link to comment
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