Birthday Gift - 14G Bio Cube

[BJK2]

ok, i am thinking that you are going to have a problem if u have one pump in and one pump out of he fuge... i figure that the pump won't have identical flow rates. It may be best to mount the fuge higher than the main tank, so you can use gravity as a return.

 

love the ride, looks like u have a bajillion dollars worth of planned mods? damn but i bet it'll get sideways hahaha, anyways that vid at the bottom was sweet, i love that movie

[racerfreak]

I may just end up running piping into the section without a pump or have a maxi-jet 400 pump water in and out. that or i'll have a maxi-jet 900, that pushes out a bit over doubble the flow rate as the 400, push wanter back into the tank and into the refugium.

 

As far as the car goes i'm basically squeezing out as much spare money into the car so i can compete next year.

[reefone]

if u use a pump to pump water down to the fuge when the power goes out it will create a syphen and still bring water down to the fuge until the chamber is empty.

[racerfreak]

If I don't use a pump won’t the water still syphen all into the refugium? I'm probably just going to build a little overflow box in the section and not use a pump. Thanks I totally forgot about power outages. I am also going to have shut off valves in the piping. I plan to use pvc piping instead of just regular tubing. I have a couple of questions:

 

-Is an RO/DI worth the $100-$200?

 

-Is getting a UV seralizer worth it?

 

-Is it worth it to get an ATO?

[fatboyz]

fatboyz ur semi local to mdeth and i?

 

Yea I live in St. Charles 60175

 

 

-Is an RO/DI worth the $100-$200?

 

-Is getting a UV seralizer worth it?

 

-Is it worth it to get an ATO?

 

 

Yes RO/DI is worth it. It can save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

 

IMO you don't need to run a UV seralizer. Many people with argue that it with help with parasites and many will argue that you kill a lot of important micro fauna.

 

An ATO is worth it if you go away on long trips or weekends. Also its nice knowing that its one less thing you have to remember to do. Just remember there are risks with an ATO.

[racerfreak]

An ATO is worth it if you go away on long trips or weekends. Also its nice knowing that its one less thing you have to remember to do. Just remember there are risks with an ATO.

 

-What are the risks of having an ATO?

[chaostactics]

-What are the risks of having an ATO?

 

If a snail crawls on to a float switch and causes it to stay in the "ON" position.

-Solution Snail Guard (DIY MOD)

If a float switch fails (breaks), either in the "OFF" position (your salinity increases, water level drops), fails in "ON" position (same as previous.)

- Solution Dual Float switches

 

There are probably others

[divecj5]

Hey man, like Surf said, welcome to the BC crew....lots of them around and tons with great info.

 

Looks like you are off to a great start and sounds like you are doing things right by doing the homework first and buying after. As others have said, I tossed around the idea of buying a RO/DI unit as well as a refractometer and just figured if I'm going to do it right, I might as well start off on the right foot from the start. Depends a lot on the quality of your water out of your tap, but if you check on your city public works site or EPA, you'll see that pretty much no where is there water that has 0 TDS.

 

I went with the PurelyH20 unit from their site (one of the sponsors on RC) and couldn't be happier with it. When I originally ordered from them, UPS screwed up and delivered to the wrong location somehow. After talking to the owner, he overnighted another unit that minute. Great product and well worth the cash in my opinion.

 

I ended up getting an ATO later on down the road for my 55 gallon and it's been awesome on my BC29....takes care of evaporation without a problem and it's just one less thing I have to think about during the day. It's kind of one of those "luxury" things though as it's not really necessary at first.

 

Good luck with it and look forward to seeing things progress...

[racerfreak]

For everyone wondering which RO/DI I am going with, I decided to go with the Optima Vision RO/DI system from purelyh2o.com (thank you for mentioning the site divecj5).

 

 

 

I finally hooked up power to my tank sitting in my basement. I put the stock pump in and checked all the lights and fans. I have decided that the fact that the fans turn off when you turn off the 10000k lighting is not an ideal situation. I am going to upgrade to Nanocustoms 3.24 for 14g Biocube (72 w) lighting setup and get the upgraded fans. Also for lighting I am going to use 2 10000k/Actinic 50/50's then an actinic light in the middle. This seems to be a setup that will be ideal for moderate lighting corals and inverts.

 

I still haven't gotten my fish tank stand I ordered

[divecj5]

Great choice man....I swear you'll love the unit. It's rock solid and was incredibly easy to hook up. Customer service, like I said above, is perfect.

 

Looking like this is going to be one sweet setup man....look forward to seeing it progress.

[ILM75Dodge]

Wow looks like your starting off with a good project on your hands can't wait to see how it all turns out I really like the biocube design!!

[racerfreak]

Yea...I figured I would do alot of reasearch before I buy anything, and I think after I'm all done my setup will be outstanding. That is why I went with the biocube, some people like the other aio tanks that are a bit more pricy like finnex, which are well worth it, but i wanter a closed hood and didn't feel like building a canopy.

[racerfreak]

Ok, today I was taking the water out of my tank and after I dried it out I found a hairline scratch. It is literally a cm long and as thin as a hair. Should I call oceanic and get a new tank or will it be ok? A camera can't pick up the scratch, I have tried to se if I can get a picture of it but the glass looks fine in all the pictures.

[chaostactics]

Ok, today I was taking the water out of my tank and after I dried it out I found a hairline scratch. It is literally a cm long and as thin as a hair. Should I call oceanic and get a new tank or will it be ok? A camera can't pick up the scratch, I have tried to se if I can get a picture of it but the glass looks fine in all the pictures.

No

[divecj5]

All depends on if you really care about it aesthetically. I found that I have a scratch in one of the corners of my tank but I wasn't sure if it was there when I got it or from using a mag float.

 

As long as it's not a crack I wouldn't personally worry about it....unless you want to deal with shipping back, etc.

[racerfreak]

Ok, thanks... I really don't care about it visually and I definitely don't want to wait for all that shipping. I should have some more modd pics up soon. Thank you so much again.

[racerfreak]

Ok, GOOD NEWS... I wrote the company I bought my stand from and they said that they had lost my shipping order so they shipped it today. Now at least I know I am getting my stand finally.

 

I hooked up my tank and checked to see if the lights worked and how the stock pup ran

 

10k/actinic/moonlights

actinic/moonlights

moonlights

stock pump

 

The pump seemed crappy and I defiantly need to change the lighting

[sslak]

I have an idea for you.

 

Rather than using a pump to send water out to the sump, create a syphon. You can drill a hole through the syphon tube a couple inches below the water level in the chamber of the biocube. The holes in the tube will assure that the syphon breaks if you lose power to the return pump because the water level will drop and air will get sucked into the holes.

 

Pros:

reduces the number of pumps in your tank thus less heat issues

saves electricity

reduces noise

 

Cons:

You'll need to figure out how to start the syphon back up if power does go out (because it won't resume on it's own)

You will also need to be able to control the flow of the return pump (suggest a ball valve) because otherwise you will be pumping water into the tank faster than the syphon draws it out, thus overflowing your display while emptying the sump.

[BJK2]

A quick solution to having your fans on when your actinics are on can be done by switching the bulbs. I think the stock lights are very adequate for zoas, lps, and softies. Mine are all growing really well and look fabulous. HTH

[racerfreak]

I decided for the water flowing into the refugium/sump, I am going to build an overflow box out of acrylic and have the water siphoned out of that. This way if a vacuum is created from a power outage, only the water in the overflow box will be siphoned out. I also decided on using an Eheim 1046 Hobby Pump that pumps 80gph.

 

BJK2 thanks for the tip, I am at least going to replace the 10k with a 50/50 and replace the fans so they stay on constantly. I really think it would be best to upgrade to the nanocustums 73w, it's about $120 after shipping with what I want to do, idk if I will upgrade or not.

 

 

Here are some mods I did on the tank

 

I tried just cutting an outline but i couldn't get it to peel off

 

removed the black acrilic on the back of the tank

 

removed the divider in section one

[Gvtv44]

So THATS what the tank looks like from behind! The hammer by the tank made my spine tingle....

 

It looks like you are off to a good start Keep researching! Do a light upgrade too Check out my thread for info/ to see my tank, and why the upgrade is necessary!

Good Luck!

[racerfreak]

Love the tank Gvtv44

Yea... the hammer, lol, I used it to nock out some grading to pull the divider out. I have a lot more custom work to do ... and I still have to come up with more money for a protein skimmer, the rest of the mods for my fuge, piping, chiller(going to get the one from nanotuners, see if the guys will send me something for the biocube special order), electrical (have to have a seperate line run on it's own circuit), some filter stuff... and then I can start with the rest of the live stuff

 

I plan on doing the light upgrade and actually adding 2 more fans for all the heat... that will be a fun custom job

[racerfreak]

So Fedex delivered my stand to the wrong address so now I won't get it till Tuesday if I’m lucky

[Gvtv44]

Speaking from experience :

You dont need a skimmer.

You dont need a chiller if you have A/C

Try doing a fan mod like mine- uuber cheap, and works great- brought temp down 2-3 degrees!

GET A GFCI

Saved my life

Good Luck!

[racerfreak]

Why don't I need a skimmer?

I am just going to do another intake and exhaust fan then if a chiller isn't needed

Thanks for reminding me about getting a GFCI