ps2cho Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 I've decided to simplify my life and downsize to a biocube 29 for a while. Tank: Coralife Biocube 29 Light: Radion XR15w Pro /w Radeon tank mount Stand: DIY 3/4" Red Oak plywood stand Rock: 12lbs BRS Pukani rock Controller: Apex Lite Controller ATO: JBJ ATO & IM Hydrofill ATO Pump Skimmer: None *** Full Tank Shot *** 12/11/16 -- still cycling week 3. --- Tank stand build below on post #3 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 Did you take down the 40 breeder? Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 12, 2016 Author Share Posted November 12, 2016 Not yet, its still up. Once this tank is fully cycled, I will slowly transition livestock over (leaving ALL corals due to aiptasia and other pests), swap the tank locations, and continue the 40B in another room. I'm goign to slowly frag all the corals, and remove all rocks and let them die off from all pests outside. The 40B will continue to serve as a coral growout/quarantine with just a HOB filter plus MP40 while also housing my Kole Tang since he cant go in the 29. Once I eradicate all pests and watch for a few months to make sure nothing comes back, I will begin moving the corals over (which by then the biocube should have cycled enough for corals). Thats the general plan. I'm just OVER never ending pests. I broke down my previous tank dumping ALL the rocks, fraggin every coral, yet aiptasia STILL somehow showed up in the new tank 3 months later with NO new corals or livestock. The stuff is so frustrating to get rid of. I used aiptasia-x for months on end, and new ones pop up elsewhere. Edit: Moved tank stand to this post to keep 1st post clean. Here is the stand: -- door: -- getting there! -- finished! Quote Link to comment
Dramad1 Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Came out nice. Are you going to de rim the cube or just remove the hood the mount the light? 1 Quote Link to comment
xAyanex Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 The stand looks really nice. Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 13, 2016 Author Share Posted November 13, 2016 Came out nice. Are you going to de rim the cube or just remove the hood the mount the light? De rim sounds good but I'm concerned about it weakening the glass...not worth the risk so what I'm doing is removing the hood once my Radion arrives and I'll be doing a DIY screen to avoid jumpers 1 Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 17, 2016 Author Share Posted November 17, 2016 My Radion XR15w Pro G4 arrived today and I'm blown away at the quality of the light and how much better the LED's are compared to my 3 year old Reefbreeders photon LED! I get the Radion light bracket tomorrow and I'll show some photos! Can't wait to get the corals under this eventually! Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 12, 2016 Author Share Posted December 12, 2016 Update -- 12/11/16 Here is my sculpted Pukani rock. The hood was removed, and I used a grinder to remove the middle hood latch so that the Radeon tank mount would work. The only issue I ran into was that the weight of the XR15 made it lean forward. What I did was cut up an old mousepad and placed 3 pieces total, one on the outside, and two on the inside so that it both provided more padding (the stock mount I feel was too hard) and the thicker piece on the inside of the tank made it no longer lean forward. Worked fantastic! Tank has been cycling for just over 3 weeks now. Not quite done yet and this was after a 75% water change. The two little rocks one each side I will probably change since they are boring. I just threw them in because it looked too empty with just the one large rock. I will see how I feel. XR15w -- Used my PAR meter and at 30% intensity, I am getting 200 par at the top and 100 par almost everywhere else so the spread is awesome on the Gen4! That should be plenty of PAR to begin with to avoid any shocks for corals. 1 Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 18, 2016 Author Share Posted December 18, 2016 Tested tonight and zero nitrites, ~10 nitrates. Will do a 75% water change tomorrow and probably move the clownfish over Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 27, 2016 Author Share Posted December 27, 2016 Well I got busy for xmas, but moved the two clowns today finally! Lights off and acclimating...Next week I will move the royal gramma once the tank has been given time to stabilize. I'm hoping that the tank has cycled enough for two adult clowns by now (Tank was filled 11/12/16, so its been 8 weeks total and I did feed sporadically in between). I did as best of a job that I could try and ensure no bryopsis was transfered. I first net the clownfish into a bucket, but noticed some bryopsis strands were in the bucket. So I completely drained the water out til there was none left, then scooped up the clowns into a new bucket with saltwater from the new tank, let them swim around for a minute, then drained it again and did it once last time into a 3rd unused bucket. I'm hoping that was enough to ensure NOTHING was attached. May have been a little stressful for them, but its a necessarily evil to ensure I never get bryopsis again. 1 Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 28, 2016 Author Share Posted December 28, 2016 Spotted that I am beginning to see some green algae on the rocks, so a good sign the cycle is progressing nicely. Clowns look happy today and eat the pellets I dropped all fine. 1 Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted February 2, 2017 Author Share Posted February 2, 2017 Just a quick update...letting the tank run for a while and get happy. I installed the Hydrofill ATO today to replace the Aqualifter and its like an aqualifter on steroids. I'd never go with a regular pump as I like leaving the ATO until its completely empty. I went back and forth on Spectrapure's unit, but it was $50 more, so I figured I can give this a try and if I want the SP unit later, I can upgrade. In the interim the frag tank is almost complete. I got a fresh set of T5 bulbs today and a new Aquamaxx Q2 Letting it break in a vinegar bath. Once the Fluco has eliminated all the Bryopsis in the frag tank, I can get the sump set up on it and the skimmer will be ready to roll right away. When the frag tank is running smooth and no signs of pests, I can begin adding corals to the biocube slowly and see how they react. Quote Link to comment
scallums Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 I'm enjoying your build. Keep the updates coming. Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 Just an update on my frag tank. Things are beginning to look better now and the red slime algae is subsiding. It had an outbreak when I installed my sump and skimmer. The Biocube is going well and its beginning to look like I may be able to throw some soft corals in it soon! 1 Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted March 5, 2017 Author Share Posted March 5, 2017 Disaster yesterday On frag tank...bottom seem began to leak so I had to pull everything out, run to petco and buy another 40b (not on sale either!!), drill and rebuild it all. took me 6hrs to get it done. I really hope I don't lose any corals because of this!! 1 Quote Link to comment
xAyanex Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 3 hours ago, ps2cho said: Disaster yesterday On frag tank...bottom seem began to leak so I had to pull everything out, run to petco and buy another 40b (not on sale either!!), drill and rebuild it all. took me 6hrs to get it done. I really hope I don't lose any corals because of this!! Hope it all comes out just fine Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 Well its been 2 weeks and everything is OK. No corals lost at all.... Makes me further experimentally believe that a lot of success is based upon the live rock, not the tank or sandbed. If the rock is seasoned, you can handle a lot of stresses... Anyway -- back to the purpose of the thread: My Biocube had a purple stylophora thrown in about a week ago and its taking off! Has already begun to encrust on the rock, and is growing towards the Radeon light already. Since it was a throwaway coral, but it succeeded, I fragged two small pieces of different Montipora's from the frag tank and mounted them tonight. Let's see if these will also grow happily! Here is a current FTS. I changed the color of the Radeon so it didn't make it too blue...this is a just a tad greener than it looks in person. 2 Quote Link to comment
Oilers71 Posted June 1, 2017 Share Posted June 1, 2017 How much evaporation do you have with the top off? Quote Link to comment
neilcostes Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 Love seeing the pics of the stand being built Quote Link to comment
ps2cho Posted June 19, 2017 Author Share Posted June 19, 2017 On 5/31/2017 at 7:53 PM, Oilers71 said: How much evaporation do you have with the top off? Late reply...but I barely have any. I have a 5g water jug and it lasts me just over 2 weeks. I am having a small breakout of cyano in the tank...did a few water changes over the past few weeks, so hopefully it'll run its course and then after that the tank will begin settling in ok. I'll post some updated photos soon! Quote Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted June 19, 2017 Share Posted June 19, 2017 On 3/20/2017 at 10:48 PM, ps2cho said: Well its been 2 weeks and everything is OK. No corals lost at all.... Makes me further experimentally believe that a lot of success is based upon the live rock, not the tank or sandbed. If the rock is seasoned, you can handle a lot of stresses... Anyway -- back to the purpose of the thread: My Biocube had a purple stylophora thrown in about a week ago and its taking off! Has already begun to encrust on the rock, and is growing towards the Radeon light already. Since it was a throwaway coral, but it succeeded, I fragged two small pieces of different Montipora's from the frag tank and mounted them tonight. Let's see if these will also grow happily! Here is a current FTS. I changed the color of the Radeon so it didn't make it too blue...this is a just a tad greener than it looks in person. Was this live rock that had already been cycled for a while? Partially curious cause BRS Pukani has a reputation for leaching phosphates. Also curious why the addition of a sump and protein skimmer on the frag tank would cause an outbreak of cyano, you'd think it'd be the other way around!! Glad things seem to be looking up for you. Quote Link to comment
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