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Monochrome5's 8g Biocube Build *NEW PICS 4/18*


Monochrome5

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It's been suggested I start a build thread for my venture into the 8g Biocube Nano-reef, so here it goes!

 

FTS 4/18/2011



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Some Highlights:

 

Onyx.jpg

My "misfit" Onyx Clown - thanks to Hyperboy for the awesome fish!!

 

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Whammin' Watermelons, Purple Haze Montipora, and a little sliver of radioactive green dragon eyes.

 

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My duncan!

 

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Acan (right after he came into the tank... little PO'd here)

 

RDE.jpg

Radioactive Dragon Eyes.

 

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Insanely bright GSP (they really are this bright...)

 

Froggy.jpg

Frogspawn.

 

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First coral in this tank. 21 polyps for $8 at the LFS. Now I've got 60+ polyps (5+ new ones a week).

 

Flamingos.jpg

Pink Flamingo Zoas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Livestock:

 

"Misfit" Onyx Clown

Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish (a.k.a. Highfin Perchlet)

 

CUC: (designed by Reefcleaners)

~25 Dwarf Ceriths

4 Nassarius

3 Florida Ceriths

3 Small Nerites

1 Peppermint Shrimp

1 Blue Leg Hermit

1 Candy Cane Striped Hermit

 

 

Corals:

 

Blue Green Sympodium

Flaming Sun Zoas

King Midas Zoas

Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoas

Pink Flamingo Zoas

Fire & Ice Zoas

Whammin' Watermelon Zoas

Mellow Yellow Zoas

Random LFS Zoas

Duncan (budding new heads!)

Superman Acan

Metalic GSP (these things are insanely bright)

Red Brain

Purple Haze Montipora

Purple Sea Whip Gorgonian

 

10 pounds live rock

9 pounds live sand (Fiji pink, my old favorite)

 

 

Coming Soon:

 

Ricordias

Hollywood Stunner Chalice

More Zoas (I'm addicted)

 

 

Hardware:

 

Ordered PC-R 18w bulbs from nanotuners - one 18w Dual Actinic and one 18w 50/50 Backordered for too long. Doing custom LEDs instead

Custom LED hood designed and built by DaveFason - 18 CREEs, 12 Royal Blue and 6 Neutral White

InTank BC8 Media Rack

Dual 10w Submersible Halogen Lights for Chaeto Too much heat - moved chaeto to tank

100w Stealth Heater (Chamber 1) RECALLED

Aqueon Pro 100W Heater (Chamber 1)

Purigen 100mL (Chamber 2, middle of media rack)

Chemi-Pure Elite (Chamber 2, bottom of media rack)

Mini-Jet 606 (replaced the stock)

Hydor Flo

Filter Floss... of course

Coralife Digital Thermometer (wall mounted haha)

 

 

Thanks for taking to time to read through this small novel of text. I appreciate all the help. Any suggestions/answers/criticisms/etc are welcome :)

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PC-R bulbs from nanotuners.com

 

 

Awesome. Cheap and high output. Thanks for the tip. Which bulbs would be best?

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UPDATE: Live rock was added/scaped yesterday. Sandstorm is dying down. Anxiously awaiting my new lights (backordered from nanotuners... cry). Let the cycle begin!!!

 

Thoughts on the scape? Gives me a great frogspawn ledge and plenty of zoa mounts. I played around with building a little higher, but I want enough room for my frogspawn...

 

 

post-62768-1294440422_thumb.jpg

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Having some issues controlling my temp... last night my temp was 76.8F. Today it jumped to 82.1F and I didn't touch a thing... Running a 50W Stealth in Chamber 1 and haven't touched it. Any suggestions?

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i think you can go higher and have room for frogspawn

 

 

Not quite sure I want to go higher. I want to elevate the frogspawn on the slab on the right. I want a relatively large one, as they are probably my favorite LPS coral out there. I don't want it to get exposed during water changes, so any higher and I may have issues.

 

 

The scape now is actually pretty wide, so I'll have a lot of room for zoas and softies/polyps. I'll get some more, better pictures up soon.

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Having some issues controlling my temp... last night my temp was 76.8F. Today it jumped to 82.1F and I didn't touch a thing... Running a 50W Stealth in Chamber 1 and haven't touched it. Any suggestions?

Either somehow lower the temp on the lights or raise the temp on heater. But 82 is a wee bit high. I look in to lowering the heat from the lights.

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Either somehow lower the temp on the lights or raise the temp on heater. But 82 is a wee bit high. I look in to lowering the heat from the lights.

 

I'm just running the stocks right now, so you wouldn't think they'd impact it too much. I'm looking into another fan right now, but I'm not very good at wiring stuff... We'll see how that goes. I also noticed I put the tank directly in the path of my heating vent (mounted on the opposite wall). I just moved the vent so it doesn't blow directly on the tank anymore so we'll see if that changes things.

 

What kind of fan would you suggest? Something to replace the two fans already in the hood? Or something additional?

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Look what came in today...

 

post-62768-1294887120_thumb.jpg

 

InTank BC8 Media Rack!!! Plus the InTank BC8 Fish Saver. No fishies jumping into the fuge for me! The center chamber of the rack will be a chaeto mini-fuge powered by dual 10W submersible halogens. Chemi-Pure Elite on the bottom, filter floss on top.

 

post-62768-1294887168_thumb.jpg

 

This media rack is insane. StevieT really knows what he's doing. I HIGHLY recommend grabbing one of these for your tank!!

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Looks like things are off to a great start man. Although I agree that the scape could be a scounch higher, I think it offers plenty of space for the coral and livestock you're looking to keep. I had a frogspawn in my 55 that started with 6 heads and ended up the size of a small nerf basketball when I sold it so they'll definitely fill up the space.

 

When I had my BC29, StevieT was just starting up his business. It sure would have been nice to use his products than cobbling the media rack and other stuff I did for the back chambers. It sounds like you're really going to like it.

 

I look forward to seeing more shots as things progress along.

 

-Adam

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Looks like things are off to a great start man. Although I agree that the scape could be a scounch higher, I think it offers plenty of space for the coral and livestock you're looking to keep. I had a frogspawn in my 55 that started with 6 heads and ended up the size of a small nerf basketball when I sold it so they'll definitely fill up the space.

 

When I had my BC29, StevieT was just starting up his business. It sure would have been nice to use his products than cobbling the media rack and other stuff I did for the back chambers. It sounds like you're really going to like it.

 

I look forward to seeing more shots as things progress along.

 

-Adam

 

 

The bigger the froggy the better! I was thinking of putting it on that slab, but I've heard they like a bit lower light. Perhaps on the right side of the tank... Kind of hard to see, but the rock underneath the slab comes forward about 2 inches. Makes a nice little perch. I'll try to get some side views this afternoon.

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I've heard they like a bit lower light. Perhaps on the right side of the tank...

 

You could place them anywhere in that tank without worrying about too much light. You just need to make sure the frogspawn is anchored securely because it has a pretty good sting to it, and if one of your snails or crabs knocks in onto one of your other corals it will do some damage.

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If you're willing to toss a dollar or two my way or return the favor down the line, I am currently using a Frag Mag (Link) to hold the Hammer I have on the back wall of my 17g. I'm thinking of moving it down into the scape so you're welcome to have it if you want That way you could place a Hammer/Frogspawn on the back wall of the BC and move it around until your heart's content :)

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You could place them anywhere in that tank without worrying about too much light. You just need to make sure the frogspawn is anchored securely because it has a pretty good sting to it, and if one of your snails or crabs knocks in onto one of your other corals it will do some damage.

 

 

I was going to superglue that bad boy down. I used to have a HUGE (about the size of a grapefruit) torch coral in an old 55 gallon reef I had, so I know all about LPS stings :) That thing would sting me, too... It actually delivered quite a nice little kick. Nice to know it'll work anywhere. I have new bulbs ordered from nanotuners. An 18W 50/50 PC-R and 18W Dual Actinic PC-R, but they won't be in until February.

 

 

If you're willing to toss a dollar or two my way or return the favor down the line, I am currently using a Frag Mag (Link) to hold the Hammer I have on the back wall of my 17g. I'm thinking of moving it down into the scape so you're welcome to have it if you want That way you could place a Hammer/Frogspawn on the back wall of the BC and move it around until your heart's content :)

 

Always willing to toss a dollar or two around for cool reef stuff. That Frag Mag comes with a free starter coral too, right? Huh? You know you want to! Hahahaha. Just playing around. But seriously, the frag mag may be something I'd snag off of you. Not sure I'd put the froggy on there, but I may use it to isolate some GSPs on my back wall... Keep them from taking over too much of the tank hahaha.

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Water tested straight zeros for the big three. Little bit of algae growth. Started building my CUC.

 

In the tank so far:

 

4 Florida Cerith

3 Hermits

2 Nasarius

3 Small Nerites

 

 

Updated FTS:

post-62768-1295134276_thumb.jpg

 

Candy Cane Hermit (sorry it's a little blurry... he wouldn't stay still):

post-62768-1295134267_thumb.jpg

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I think I got one of those BioCubes with the faulty fans. When I turned my lights on today I got a crazy loud grinding sound. Awesome. I hit the top a few times and flipped them on and off and the noise went away, but I'm not convinced the fans are working well. Temps spiked to 83.1+ today. Not happy about that. I took the shield off and tried to reset the fans in the lid. I also cut off the metal vents around the fans to improve some airflow (though I doubt that will do much). Any suggestions?

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^ thats what i was talking about this mine they quiet down after a little bit, its reffered to as the "death noise". like i said silet x seems to be the prefered upgrade and u can get them dimmable to control how fast they spin

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mine buzz some to in my 8g BC, I also have a fully modded 29 as well. From my time working with these tanks, one thing I saw was you said you were going to use 10w halogen underwater lights, it will be a problem in that small a tank, I used 2 5w halogens in my 29 and took the temp up a couple degrees, so in an 8...it's a lot you should keep a small PC outside the tank, scrape the paint off the back...

try keeping the feeding lid open if you don't have a firefish in there yet and see how the temp changes... even 80 is ok so long as it does not fluctuate more than a couple degrees between day and night. increasing the flow on the lights would help in keeping the tank cooler like others suggested as well.

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mine buzz some to in my 8g BC, I also have a fully modded 29 as well. From my time working with these tanks, one thing I saw was you said you were going to use 10w halogen underwater lights, it will be a problem in that small a tank, I used 2 5w halogens in my 29 and took the temp up a couple degrees, so in an 8...it's a lot you should keep a small PC outside the tank, scrape the paint off the back...

try keeping the feeding lid open if you don't have a firefish in there yet and see how the temp changes... even 80 is ok so long as it does not fluctuate more than a couple degrees between day and night. increasing the flow on the lights would help in keeping the tank cooler like others suggested as well.

 

Yeah I'm guessing the 10W halogens will throw some heat. I was planning on running them at night after my main tank lights were off so that it would kind of counter them, you know? They came in Saturday but I was at work, so they're sitting at the post office until I can pick them up and experiment.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if I even need chaeto in this tank... the Purigen/Chemi-Pure Elite combo seems to be working wonders on my water quality. I'm thinking of scraping the back glass and adding one of these:

 

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/JBJ-Nano-Glo-...ght-JB10094.htm

 

Not sure if that would throw heat as well or not.

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^ thats what i was talking about this mine they quiet down after a little bit, its reffered to as the "death noise". like i said silet x seems to be the prefered upgrade and u can get them dimmable to control how fast they spin

 

Any idea if the silentX fans have the compatible plug for the BC8 control board? I am horrible with DIY projects and splicing a new connector onto fans would turn out very bad for me.

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