Diggman's BC29 journal (currently out of commision)

[diggman08]

i know i know. i havent had time to get to the lfs for my RO water, and im not using tap water!!.. so hopefully ill get over there this week, i might do a 30% change

[diggman08]

bumpity

[spanko]

Lookin good friend. How do you like the lights? You got a 50\50 and an actinic right? I got another 10k and an actinic. I can see some of the zoanthids changing colors already. I can see my Monti-Cap growing too where I could not before.

[diggman08]

yeah i got another 50/50 and actinic , i like it alot.. i hope to see some good colors coming out my corals soon.. hey spanko i have rio6hf but am not using it. i have my fac.pump in.. the rio is brank new, but its alot noisier, ive wedged it everywich way.. does ur pump make a little noise?

[spanko]

I have the Rio in the 3rd chamber. No attachments for the suction cups just the pump. I don't have any noise issues, but have heard of people saying they had vibrations. Just have to move it around a little, it really does fit in quite nicely on an angle right at the bottom next to the comparment where the sponge is.

[diggman08]

ok ill try it without the attatchments that might work for me,, you have one in ur tank too?? i was thinking of a koralia or nanostream in tank, but i dunno if its gonna give to much flow.. got a FTS?

[spanko]

Here is the full tank. At that time about 2 weeks ago I had an AquaClear power head in the tank with the Rio 6hf replacing the original pump. I have since put another Rio 6hf as the power head in the tank. So I now have 2 Rio's 350 gph each or 700 gph turnover. Total real volume of water in the tank and compartments is about 22 gallons after taking into account the displacement from the rock and the fact the a 29 gallon oceanic bio cube only hold about 26 real gallons of water empty I have about 30 times turnover in tank.

 

[wabbit]

Diggman, do you have a FTS with the new lights? I am thinking about getting the 4.36 upgrade for my bc29 and your choice of bulbs is what I was thinking of getting.

[diggman08]

lookin good Spanko,, man how do u keep ur glass so clean ,,,, i have a hard time keepin mine clean at the very bottom..

 

BEFORE

AFTER

 

Not much to her yet. Gettin all my mods finished first, so when i doo looadd up on corals they will thrive

 

here u go wabbit

[spanko]

Your lights reall put some more blue into the tank. Mine actually added a lot of white. Hope that the added white does well for my monti cap and the small pc of acro (one brandh) that I am experimenting with.

[diggman08]

yeah im glad i didnt get 2 actinics, it would be way to blue.. i think this setup is a good median... im thinkin with your 2 10k's, your corals will grow pretty fast.

[spanko]

Did the Rio work without the suction cup attachments?

[wabbit]

Thank you. I like it!

[diggman08]

did a 3g water change today,, spanko what do u use to clean ur glass around the sand at bottom.? im scared to get my magfloat that close...

[spanko]

a small scrub pad from the lfs. It gets you hand wet but it gets the bottom and the rounded corners in front that the mag float cn't get.

[diggman08]

dude the pump works great now, thanks for the tip. its quieettt....i cant seem to get the surface agitated good though.. i have 3 pieces of loc-lin on each side,, should i take it down too 2

[spanko]

Ah peace and quiet on the reef. Life is good.

I not sure what you mean about the locline. Do you have a Y connector on the output? If you do aim one down and one up towards the surface. That should do it. Do you have a powerhead inside the tank?

[diggman08]

no but i plan to get one, prob a koralia or tunze,,, yes i have the Y connector.. heres a B&W pic how i have it set now... see how long mine are.

[noobwithatank]

this may seem dumb but where does oneget one of those "Y" connectors

[diggman08]

i picked mine up at the lfs. make sure you get the Loc-Line brand, little more $$$$ but worth it.. "

[POSSUM]

Love the tank so far Diggman

[diggman08]

thankx possum, now that i have the light mod checked of the list... now its either a fuge or skimmer in chamber 2... hmmmmmm??what to do what to do

[diggman08]

why do i stil have the little white copods in my tank??? shouldnt they have died off by now

[divecj5]

Hey man, great looking tank. I have a BC 29 as well that has been running for about a month and two weeks now (haven't added any corals or fish yet).

 

I see that you did the 4.36 update and I am getting ready to do it myself. Other than following the directions (I am not going to be soldering), are there any things that you ran into that weren't in the directions or things that you needed to buy from Lowes, etc? I just want to make sure that I don't screw anything up and want to make sure that I have everything in hand ready to go when I start the mod.

 

How long did it end up taking you to complete? Thanks for any help.

 

Adam

[spanko]

Here's my tips after doing the upgrade.

 

 

Nano Reefer

 

 

Posts: 451

Joined: 1-February 07

Member No.: 25,698

 

 

 

 

Just installed this upgrade. It took me about 4 hours to complete from getting tools together to putting tools away and everything in between. It could have been faster but had a few stumbling points from some missed details in the instructions. Thought I would post my experience with this upgrade to help others get through it easier.

 

1. There are two yellow ground wires that are disconnected during the tear down stage of the hood. The instruction no where tell you to hook them back up. I hookd them to the bottom of the new heat shield where the bulb clip nets are.

 

2. You are told to hook the power supply for the new fans in the wrong configuration. Instructions say hook solid black wire from supply to the black wire from the gray cable and the black with the white wire from the supply to the white wire from the gray cable. I did this and the fans did not work. I switched them exactly opposite and the fans kicked in.

 

3. If you buy the moonlight upgrade it does not tell you how to install it at all and on the heat shield I had to drill my own pilot holes to mount the bulb clips, and drill holes to run the power supply cable through to hook up the light.

 

4. I recieved no instruction in the package at all but luckily they are available for download on the website.

 

All in all not too bad but Nanotuners could benefit their customers by upgrading their instructions some. I understand that you can send your hood into them and they will do the upgrade for you at some cost. Maybe they should try to follow their own instruction so that they can see some of the flaws.

 

As for the finished product I am totally satisfied. I put the lights in with the a 10,000k light in the front position, an actinic in the next position back, a 50/50 in the third, and an actinic in the back. My choices for the upgrade lights was the 50/50 and an actinic. Plus I got the moonlight upgrade, and the upgraded fans with the variable speed controller.

 

Lighting is noticably better with more blue in it than originally. Look more light the color you get from MH. I have not changed my lighting schedule (actinic on 10 hours daylights on 8 hours and moonlights on 14 hours).

Bob Fenner from WWM said I did not need to change this schecule but that I sould watch my soft corals to see if they start to color morph and adjust from there if need be. I will keep an eye on this. Hopefully the color morph if any will be for the better.