Birthday Gift - 14G Bio Cube

[racerfreak]

Hi everyone,

My name is Fred, I'm turning 20 this month, and I have had a 20 gallon all fish salt water tank before. I just got mY 14 gallon Bio Cube yesterday in the mail . I had a choice between getting an exhaust for my 2003 Nissan 350Z Track Edition or getting an AIO tank and everything else to go with it, so I chose the AIO. This is just the start of a long project I am planning. So far I am still waiting on a stand and a couple other items in the mail. I plan to do alot of modding, even to my stand (which has not arrived yet ). I am gonna be posting pics and updates as much as possible.

 

 

This is Where The New Stand & Tank are Going

 

 

Equipment so far:

-14G Bio Cube

-The Nano Reef Handbook

-160G of Instant Ocean (can't beat only $35 and free shipping )

-2 Theo UL 50w Heaters

-2 Aquarium Cleaning Mats

-10 oz of Aquarium Sealer

-Aqua-Minder

-Fission Nano Skimmer (IDK if it'll do the trick )

-2 Maxi Jet 400 Powerheads

-2 Digital Thermometer

 

Planning to get Equipment:

-Stand

-Aqua Gloves

-Instant Ocean Hydrometer

-Nanocustoms 3.24 series upgrade kit (72w so tank has 2 50/50 10K/Actinic Blue and 1 Actinic Blue light)

-Either a 10G, 15G, or 20G High Glass Tank for Refugium

-Acrilic Sheet for Refugium walls

-Tubing

-Piping

-Moonlight

-Light to simulate sunlight for mangroves in refugium

 

 

 

 

Arrived Yesterday

 

All My Stuff so Far

 

160G of Instant Ocean

[mermaid562]

When entering the world of corals It quickly became clear that lighting is very important to keeping a reef tank. Make sure your lighting is good for the corals you want to keep. Get a refractometer to test salinity and a good water testing kit. Do a search for the fission nano skimmer, you might not want to use it. I look forward to seeing your tank grow.. WELCOME and good luck

[racerfreak]

Unpacked Everything

 

OMG so Many Bio Balls

 

 

 

Checked the Tank For Cracks

 

Using a Cup is Annoying

 

Searched for a Bucket

 

 

Washed the Random Plastic Peices

 

Filled up Random 2.5G Glass Tank

 

Stock vs Modded

 

I may End Up Using All of These (let's hope not )

 

Checked up on Tank After a Few Hours

 

Found Some Grease Floating in the Middle Chamber

[BJK2]

Did you happen to order a sweet RO unit for your birthday too? I hope so! hah that tank is going to be amazing. Please do the mod where you drill a tiny hole at the bottom of chamber two into the tank so you can put the stock pump there and have it blow behind your rocks. I wish I did this mod soo badly.

 

Anyways it is amazing, I think I would have opted for the exhaust.. but see I did my exhaust on my mustang for x-mas... guess that will be your x-mas gift!

 

Also do the fuge mod. best of luck and REEF ON!

[racerfreak]

An RO/DI Unit was my Real Next Concern. What is a good system for the price? I was looking at aqua-safe from ebay. Also what is the point of having the pump blow behind your rocks?

[racerfreak]

An RO/DI Unit was my Real Next Concern. What is a good system for the price? I was looking at aqua-safe from ebay. Also what is the point of having the pump blow behind your rocks?

 

 

Bought The tank for my refugium today for $25. I got a 15G all glass tank 24"x12"x12"

 

 

2.5G, 14G Bio Cube, 15G

 

Brush up on Some Reading

[chaostactics]

you bought sooo much crap you could have saved money on and bought useful stuff instead.

 

Let this be ... constructive criticisms.

Planning to get Equipment:

-Aqua Gloves - waste of money, if you know how to wash your hands...

That aquarium mat - waste of money, do you own a towel and a dryer?

The coralife thermometers - waste of money, very inaccurate pieces of crap, do a search on almost any reef fourm

The aquaminder - god I hope that was a freebie ... come on rich kid don't you own a cell phone with a planner?

The bio balls - Ditch them immediately replace them with LR rubble, do a search on almost any forum they're nitrate factories

Those books - All of them a waste of money, check your local library... or you know read online reefing forums...

That Hawaiian bed sheet print - ... no comment

That 350z - could have gotten a mustang for cheaper that was better

 

All in all you chose a decent tank with lots of potential, so while you're throwing money at stuff while you're at it get a computer for your tank it'll save you a lot of head aches

 

Good luck, keep your thread updated, ask questions before buying supplies. and that skimmer... about the best thing you bought, go for it.

You should have listened on the Maxijet sizes though, you've got too much there champ

[racerfreak]

listen.... I appreciate all the help but if you have a negative comment why don't you go write it down in some book, no need to say things just cuz you had a bad day. We won't go into cars (note 2003 350z 3.5L v6 287hp to the crank 30mpg @ 60mph (i've done it) vs 2008 mustang 4L v6 210hp to the crank 24mpg @ 60mph(I doubt cuz I've driven it too), and the you say a v8 is faster, well i would hope so... and it barely makes it too (I do know)... lol ) and I'd like to concentrate on moving foward. I will amit the nano-skimmer is a pos. My real concern right now is getting good filtered water.

 

Is it worth it to get a RO/DI?

 

If so, is an ebay RO/DI good enough?

 

What is the point of putting a powerhead flowing out behind your rocks?

[ringfinger]

you bought sooo much crap you could have saved money on and bought useful stuff instead.

 

Let this be ... constructive criticisms.

Planning to get Equipment:

-Aqua Gloves - waste of money, if you know how to wash your hands...

That aquarium mat - waste of money, do you own a towel and a dryer?

The coralife thermometers - waste of money, very inaccurate pieces of crap, do a search on almost any reef fourm

The aquaminder - god I hope that was a freebie ... come on rich kid don't you own a cell phone with a planner?

The bio balls - Ditch them immediately replace them with LR rubble, do a search on almost any forum they're nitrate factories

Those books - All of them a waste of money, check your local library... or you know read online reefing forums...

That Hawaiian bed sheet print - ... no comment

That 350z - could have gotten a mustang for cheaper that was better

 

All in all you chose a decent tank with lots of potential, so while you're throwing money at stuff while you're at it get a computer for your tank it'll save you a lot of head aches

 

Good luck, keep your thread updated, ask questions before buying supplies. and that skimmer... about the best thing you bought, go for it.

You should have listened on the Maxijet sizes though, you've got too much there champ

 

Mommy & daddy didn't love you?

 

Lighten up....champ.

[avalanche1201]

listen.... I appreciate all the help but if you have a negative comment why don't you go write it down in some book, no need to say things just cuz you had a bad day. We won't go into cars (note 2003 350z 3.5L v6 287hp to the crank 30mpg @ 60mph (i've done it) vs 2008 mustang 4L v6 210hp to the crank 24mpg @ 60mph(I doubt cuz I've driven it too), and the you say a v8 is faster, well i would hope so... and it barely makes it too (I do know)... lol ) and I'd like to concentrate on moving foward. I will amit the nano-skimmer is a pos. My real concern right now is getting good filtered water.

 

Is it worth it to get a RO/DI?

 

If so, is an ebay RO/DI good enough?

 

What is the point of putting a powerhead flowing out behind your rocks?

 

Its looken good, I think every thing you've got is a good choice...besides the hydrometer, get a refractometer much easier quicker and very accurate.

 

For the RO/DI its worth it...Im looking to get one as well hopefully someone can suggest a good ebay one.

And for the power head behind the rocks its to keep pushing water back there so there arnt any dead spots, its sounded like a good mod to me, I'd hit that up if I had the BC14

 

anyways, looken good I feel like im right next to you w/ all the pics you've posted (specially the looking for a bucket ones)

 

and to NR!

 

looken forward to following this thread

[chaostactics]

All jokes aside those tanks are notorious for over heating. You've added a lot of wattage there with power heads and lights... also why did you buy an all in one tank, if you're going to run huge external systems like a fuge thats bigger than the tank its self... slow down make a game plan then get rolling from there.

[MDeth]

Hey chao...lets stick to constructive instead of ..."you shouldnt have done this...or this...youre an idiot"...

 

I doubt the OP is an idiot...unlike yourself :/

[chaostactics]

Hey chao...lets stick to constructive instead of ..."you shouldnt have done this...or this...youre an idiot"...

 

I doubt the OP is an idiot...unlike yourself :/

 

And at what point did I call him an idiot... I'm trying to help him avoid headaches down the road like a hot tub for a tank, and trying to help him lay out a game plan so he doesn't make the mistakes most new reefers do. Such as buying a hydrometer instead of a refractometer... too late for that one. Now if you want to talk about being idiotic, idiotic is making crap up and calling people names on an online forum as well as lecturing someone else on not being constructive while not contributing a single useful thing to the thread... way to go champ

 

As for the RO/DI unit it depends on what the TDS of your tap water is if you have low TDS your fine, if you have high TDS you may want to get a RO/DI unit, also you may want to get a reservoir for RO/DI water so you can have extra on hand if needed. If you don't know what your TDS is you can buy a TDS meter, have some one else test it. I also know Home Depot happens to be offering free water testing including TDS among other things (see in store kiosk) if you're willing to send in a vial of your water and wait for the results

 

A leading expert in the hobby/industry Julian Sprung use tap water directly in his system no dechlorinator RODI, why because he can and he has years of experience with the hobby and he has a big system that can handle that much water on the other hand Oregon reef got wiped out for possibly the same reason, though he attributes it to using old crappy dechlorinator in a system as small as yours dechlorinator maybe a good idea. I myself have a 55 gallon-ish system with fish, LPS, inverts, and soft corals and all I use is a reef crystals bucket full of tap water connected to an ATO the system has now been up for a year and is no worse for wear, the money spent on a RO/DI could got to a RK Jr. if you don't need the RO/DI.

[BJK2]

Ok back to constructive criticism.. enough with the differing opinions.

 

first off that Z is the only one i'd take, although being a ford fan I would have gone for the 300 at the crank V8.... that's a whole different topic we can discuss later hahaha.

 

back to the reefs. This is going to be kick ass, that sump/fuge is going to be insane and will keep your tanks super stable.

 

As for RO/DI I would go with the coralife model 50 gpd. I bought this one and it works spectacularly at a good price. It is a high quaility item with a coralife warantee to back it up incase of a problem.

 

as for the pump behind the rocks, it will elimate any dead spots and create some neat random flow through them.

 

overheating shouldn't be a problem if you have almost 30 gallons worht of water. My tank was hitting 84 degrees (biocube 14) but it was because I was running a maxijet 1200, since I downgraded to the MJ 900 it is running at 79 degrees.

 

any more questions feel free to ask on here, if you feel like ur gonna get flamed or bashed by some of the newbs just private message me.

 

I also know from mdeth that with that lighting mod your tank will run cooler than stock because of the increased flow path and rate of air through your hood from the new reflector.

 

and really I strongly advise getting the RO unit and using that to make your water for the system rather than using tap, it will be the best thing you can do for your tank and yourself.

[racerfreak]

I want to thank everyone so far for their help (even the guy who woke up on the wrong side of the bed)

 

So thank you everyone, I do know a refractometer is excellent, I just didn't know if it was worth the money. I want to clear up some things.

 

-I do know about overheating and I'm going to be upgrading my lights and fans through nanotuners.com

-Also I am probably going to add 2 more fans into the tank

 

-I did buy a 15 gallon tank for a refugium, however I'm not planning on putting 15 gallons of water in the tank

-I plan to put 5-10 gallons of water in the tank

-My main reasons for having an external refugium is: more water = greater stability, more filtering = cleaner water

 

Here is my idea for the refugium:

 

 

If anyone has any more comments on an RO/DI or other ways to purify water at a reasonable cost it would be much appreciated

[surftaco]

Looking good dude!

 

Welcome to the BC crew!

 

"the non haters"

 

Can anyone say poonstang lol! Isn't that a me too car?

[BJK2]

and our faithful leader Surftaco!!! hahah

 

ok so racerdude, how is the overflow gonna work? jw... that fuge is going to be awsome.

[surftaco]

and our faithful leader Surftaco!!! hahah

 

ok so racerdude, how is the overflow gonna work? jw... that fuge is going to be awsome.

 

 

LOL

[BJK2]

Fred, I just realized that you are only a year older than me! hahah crazy I always think 20 year olds r oldies.. ok so question, do u make payments on your car?

[fatboyz]

As far as an RO system goes I would look on ebay. A buddy of mine got a nice 70 gpd with DI for $70 with shipping. There is a lot good deals out there you just have to look. Am also wondering how the overflow is going to work?

[BJK2]

fatboyz ur semi local to mdeth and i?

[Darklyte24]

GL, dont rush. get a bday ticker when u start the tank. keep track how long u had it etc. check mine out too!

[racerfreak]

Haha... I'm not rushing; I don't think I’ll have my tank, with just salt water in it, till November. I hope you guys can wait. I have a lot to do, such as getting a electrical line run so I don't light the house on fire. Also I have to build the refugium and run all the piping and do so many things, but it'll be worth it. That ticker thing is a great idea Darklyte24, and I like the Bio Cube setup of yours too. Yea BJK2, I do make payments on the car but i got it used in mint condition.

 

I was looking at these RO/DI Units on ebay

 

Aqua-Safe

 

pure water club

 

 

Here is my current plan for my tank and refugium:

[BJK2]

looks like a cool plan, but are you going to go with an overflow or a pump pushing water out then it flowing back in?

 

thats cool on getting it used but mint! gotta love them. my 91 stang was used but still mint hahah, not as mint as urs im sure. damn i want to see more pics of ur ride!

[racerfreak]

I'm not to sure how well an overflow would work with the bio cube, so i'm gonna go with a pump that pumps water to the refugium and also back into the tank to create more water flow. The return from the refugium is gonna flow into the middle section.

 

you gotta love used cars in good condition. Hever is my cardomain page:

 

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2620488/1