acronce Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 Wow! Very impressive work. With your original BC29 you mentioned that it was difficult getting the Hydor into the first chamber. I'm interested in doing the same thing because I'm not quite ready for an AT0, which seems to be a requirement for consistent water level in any other chamber. Unfortunately I'm not as skilled as you are with tank mods. You said it was nearly impossible to get the Hydor into chamber 1. Do you have any further thoughts or details that would make this mod more possible? Maybe the Hydor itself could be "shaved"? Note that I want to be able to put the top back on after installing the Hydor. Too bad the Hydor folks didn't make the Nano slightly smaller. I would have thought that they'd test drive their unit in popular tanks before going to market. Maybe they assumed that anyone interested in a skimmer would also invest in an ATO. One last question. Where are you hiding your stealth heater? Is it (or rather, was it) under the skimmer? Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted May 29, 2011 Author Share Posted May 29, 2011 Wow! Very impressive work. With your original BC29 you mentioned that it was difficult getting the Hydor into the first chamber. I'm interested in doing the same thing because I'm not quite ready for an AT0, which seems to be a requirement for consistent water level in any other chamber. Unfortunately I'm not as skilled as you are with tank mods. You said it was nearly impossible to get the Hydor into chamber 1. Do you have any further thoughts or details that would make this mod more possible? Maybe the Hydor itself could be "shaved"? Note that I want to be able to put the top back on after installing the Hydor. Too bad the Hydor folks didn't make the Nano slightly smaller. I would have thought that they'd test drive their unit in popular tanks before going to market. Maybe they assumed that anyone interested in a skimmer would also invest in an ATO. One last question. Where are you hiding your stealth heater? Is it (or rather, was it) under the skimmer? Thanks! It's not that hard actually, just time consuming, especially removing the silicone. The biggest problem is having access to the right tools. I did all the cuts with a 10" table saw and it was pretty hard to cut the intake grates. StevieT mentioned a cool idea that I think would work to get the Hydor in chamber 1 easier: take the magnets out of the suction cups and glue them inside the skimmer with silicone. You would also probably have to shave off the knobs that hold the original suction cups. I think that would work. I'm not sure about the top because I think the power cord for the light would get in the way. I no longer have my top to check. You would install the skimmer so the intake faces forward and the magnets are on the back wall ,otherwise they wont hold because they're too weak. You would also have to cut away a portion of the outside rim, just the inner "lip". I've kept my heater in chamber 3. I have it sitting where the blue sponge originally was. Link to comment
acronce Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 Thanks! It's not that hard actually, just time consuming, especially removing the silicone. The biggest problem is having access to the right tools. I did all the cuts with a 10" table saw and it was pretty hard to cut the intake grates. StevieT mentioned a cool idea that I think would work to get the Hydor in chamber 1 easier: take the magnets out of the suction cups and glue them inside the skimmer with silicone. You would also probably have to shave off the knobs that hold the original suction cups. I think that would work. I'm not sure about the top because I think the power cord for the light would get in the way. I no longer have my top to check. You would install the skimmer so the intake faces forward and the magnets are on the back wall ,otherwise they wont hold because they're too weak. You would also have to cut away a portion of the outside rim, just the inner "lip". I've kept my heater in chamber 3. I have it sitting where the blue sponge originally was. Thanks for getting back to me. The magnet trick sounds interesting. It would be cool if someone could try it to see how involved the mod would be. Say here's a crazy idea. Has anyone thought about turning the first chamber *into* a skimmer? I mean the chamber itself could be used as the skimmer "case". At the risk of oversimplifying the problem, all one would have to do is provide a bubble source, column, and collection cup. Looks to me like the Hydor just leverages their existing Koralia power head as the guts of the bubble source, although I admit that I've only looked at the posted pictures; haven't seen one up close. Of course there would still need to be some sort of level control in any such "embedded" solution. Still, it seems strange to me that no one has come up with an embedded chamber kit like this. Of course, I'm new to the hobby so I might be missing something fundamental. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 Thanks for getting back to me. The magnet trick sounds interesting. It would be cool if someone could try it to see how involved the mod would be. Say here's a crazy idea. Has anyone thought about turning the first chamber *into* a skimmer? I mean the chamber itself could be used as the skimmer "case". At the risk of oversimplifying the problem, all one would have to do is provide a bubble source, column, and collection cup. Looks to me like the Hydor just leverages their existing Koralia power head as the guts of the bubble source, although I admit that I've only looked at the posted pictures; haven't seen one up close. Of course there would still need to be some sort of level control in any such "embedded" solution. Still, it seems strange to me that no one has come up with an embedded chamber kit like this. Of course, I'm new to the hobby so I might be missing something fundamental. I think it can be done. The Hydor skimmer does use the Airo pump that is out there for sale and a bubble column wouldn't be that hard to make. I think the hardest part would be the collection cup. Anyway, update on my progress with the rebuild. I bought a hanging kit, some aluminum tubing and got my hands on a pipe bender here are the results so far: Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 Did leak testing overnight. Everything is holding fine so I will be putting everything back into the tank tonight when I get back from work. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 Curious, following along. Thanks! I hope I won't disappoint. BTW, I love the quote you have under your avatar. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 Got home at 6 yesterday and was messing around with the tank until 2:30 a.m. So tired today at work. The process and results follow. Leak testing outside: Attaching the light poles to the tank stand: End result: Since everything was being moved, I took a toothbrush to my rock to get rid of most of the GHA I had. Took forever but I think it was worth it. I also had some weird flesh-colored gummy stuff on the back of the rocks anyone know what that could be? I changed out the sand for some black stuff. I like it more so far. Having those bigger chambers is awesome. I can actually reach in there and work on stuff if need be. The only problem saw yesterday is that my return pump sucks bubbles from somewhere. I probably need another baffle in the last chamber. Link to comment
NU2REEFIN Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Nicely done. I am really likin' the rimless look. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 Nicely done. I am really likin' the rimless look. Thanks! It was a lot of work but ultimately worth it. The tank now looks closer to what a Cadlights one would look like. Still a few things left to do though: black vinyl, new light enclosure and maybe paint the poles black or get black heatshrink for them. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 One thing I was disappointed with is that it took only 22G to fill up my Biocube. By the time I put in the rock and sand, I had siphoned out about 2G so my water volume is about 20G. Pretty crappy for a "29G" tank. Link to comment
sstuckey Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Wow! I just read through this thread. I think you might be king of the BioCube Mods. Looking pretty sweet. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 Wow! I just read through this thread. I think you might be king of the BioCube Mods. Looking pretty sweet. I'd like to think so. Looks very sharp! Thanks! Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 A closeup picture of my current light enclosure. This one was made out of clear acrylic and painted. A new, better version will be my project this upcoming weekend. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 I got a coarse sponge to put in the "waterfall" area to prevent bubbles from getting into the display and that is working so far. By my calculation, the third chamber is about 1.5 gallons and daily I lose about .5-1 gallons to evaporation. Need an ATO fast. I like the idea of the new Elos one with the digital salinity probe. I don't want 100 float switches and wires in my back chambers. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted June 6, 2011 Author Share Posted June 6, 2011 The sponge solution is working pretty well, although I still get some microbubbles into the display. I'm hoping that that continues to go away as the tank matures over the next few weeks. The water level in the last chamber fluctuates too much. I need a better solution. It is affected by both evap and the amount of detritus in the poly-fil. The good news is that if the poly-fil gets completely clogged up, there is not enough water in chamber 3 to flood my tank. Lastly, I did not get around to building the new light enclosure this weekend. I just spent most of my time staring at my creation. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 Has anything changed in the controller debate, I wonder. Last I heard, Neptune overtook DA due to customer service, ease of computer programmability and iPhone app. Is this still the case or is DA more on top of their stuff? Link to comment
wtdREEF Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 This tank is freaking amazing! you have planted a seed in my head!!!! Link to comment
Thrassian Atoll Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Great looking tank! Did you ever fix the microbubble problem? Trying to figure mine out as well Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted August 7, 2011 Author Share Posted August 7, 2011 Great looking tank! Did you ever fix the microbubble problem? Trying to figure mine out as well Yeah, it seems to have gone away after the algae started growing on the back chambers. Link to comment
metrokat Posted August 7, 2011 Share Posted August 7, 2011 i don't get it, why not get a rimless tank to begin with if the plan was to gut it? Was it the BC shape that you liked? Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 i don't get it, why not get a rimless tank to begin with if the plan was to gut it? Was it the BC shape that you liked? Some people just likes to ticker around with things. I know i do, cuz i get bored very easily. Link to comment
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