Alex's Biocube 29

[fishfreak0114]

I have a nanobox retro large. I'm so glad I went with it, I almost didn't because of the exchange rate.  I got the bluefish controller which is IMO well worth the money because the app makes adjusting the lighting schedule/intensity/color so easy  Your gonna love the light!

[xAyanex]

1 minute ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I have a nanobox retro large. I'm so glad I went with it, I almost didn't because of the exchange rate.  I got the bluefish controller which is IMO well worth the money because the app makes adjusting the lighting schedule/intensity/color so easy

I just ordered a nanobox retro Large plus M. Do I need to order a bluefish controller? I thought Bluefish is an app used to control the lights, like something I can download onto my smartphone.

 

My lights will arrive any day, and I am super excited!

 

I am going to have to research what all corals I can have with the new lights. Currently I was keeping it to easier corals (hammer, torch, Duncan, etc.)... I would love to have a monti or something like that. Do you have any suggestions on corals I should/shouldn't get? I guess I'll go to your tank thread and see what all you have! Lol

[xAyanex]

Nevermind, the kit says it comes with a Bluefish Mini Wireless Controller. I guess I'll figure that part out when it gets here.

[Pjanssen]

Love the blenny Alex. They have so much personality. Tank looks great. Glad the chemo-clean is working for you

[fishfreak0114]

The app syncs up your phone to the controller. The controller is just a little chip. I don't think I really have any coral I couldn't have kept under the stock lights, they just have better color/growth. I don't have any SPS, I tried some a year ago but they didn't do so well  Maybe I'll try again soon, I really like the look of some of the branching montis. 

[xAyanex]

7 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Love the blenny Alex. They have so much personality. Tank looks great. Glad the chemo-clean is working for you

Thanks! That means a lot, coming from you! You have such a pretty tank!

1 minute ago, fishfreak0114 said:

The app syncs up your phone to the controller. The controller is just a little chip. I don't think I really have any coral I couldn't have kept under the stock lights, they just have better color/growth. I don't have any SPS, I tried some a year ago but they didn't do so well  Maybe I'll try again soon, I really like the look of some of the branching montis. 

I really want a branching monti or encrusting monti or something.

 

I hope the new lights help bring my plate back. It's been looking bad for a long time.

[J-Ranko]

 

6 hours ago, xAyanex said:

Newest FTS, taken 3/20/17, about 58 hours post Chemiclean administration, and about 10 hours after a 25% water change. The cyano appears to be completely gone. I have my beautiful reef tank back. =) We moved the Yuma mushroom (which came off of its frag plug) to the top rock, and the green polyp toadstool is in the sand for now.

 

 

Looking good!  Glad you beat the cyano. What part of the scape does your blenny like to perch on?  

[xAyanex]

18 minutes ago, J-Ranko said:

 

 

Looking good!  Glad you beat the cyano. What part of the scape does your blenny like to perch on?  

The large cave/hole located under the Duncan. Or on the toadstool.

[teenyreef]

Looks great, I'm really impressed how well the chemiclean worked! 

[xAyanex]

Just now, teenyreef said:

Looks great, I'm really impressed how well the chemiclean worked! 

Thanks, me too! I think the trick was really vacuuming the sandbed thoroughly and getting as much cyano out as I could before using the Chemiclean, but I don't really know because I've never done it before.

 

If I get home tonight and the tank still looks that good (aka. no cyano) I will feel truly triumphant, because before, I could clean it all away and it would be back in a matter of hours. And I'll have been gone for 14 hours, which is plenty of time!

[Thatoneomahaguy]

So I'm sure I just missed this earlier in the thread... still getting caught up... but why do you have the socks/filters over the powerheads in your tank? Don't the grates or back of the powerheads keep the little critters out?

 

Edit: Ps beautiful tank

[xAyanex]

6 hours ago, Thatoneomahaguy said:

So I'm sure I just missed this earlier in the thread... still getting caught up... but why do you have the socks/filters over the powerheads in your tank? Don't the grates or back of the powerheads keep the little critters out?

 

Edit: Ps beautiful tank

The powerheads are covered because I recently acquired a bubble tip anemone. It could potentially detach and float around the tank while it decides where to stay in the tank. I read a lot of horror stories about tanks being nuked because a nem got caught in the powerheads. And thank you! =)

[Thatoneomahaguy]

On 3/22/2017 at 2:38 AM, xAyanex said:

The powerheads are covered because I recently acquired a bubble tip anemone. It could potentially detach and float around the tank while it decides where to stay in the tank. I read a lot of horror stories about tanks being nuked because a nem got caught in the powerheads. And thank you! =)

Ahhhh that makes total sense. That would be a crappy thing to come home too. 

[xAyanex]

I received my Nanobox Retro Large Plus M kit from Dave last yesterday. Installation took about 3 hours due to a couple bumps in the road.

 

First, we removed the hood. I took out everything except for the two stock BC29 fans. This all went very quickly and was easy and straightforward. Next, we had to cut a hole in the reflector piece for the fan. We had a tough time with this. We used a razor. The hole isn't perfect-looking (the edges are a little jagged) but it does the job.

 

Next we had to drill holes in the reflector piece to mount the heatsink. We didn't drill them just right the first time, and had to re-drill them.

 

Next the video said to mount the heatsink to the reflector using the two 4-40 screws/nuts provided, but there were none provided, so we improvised using whatever we had in the shed. Attaching everything else was easy. Then we replaced the hood and I started playing with the App.

 

I had a difficult time at first trying to figure out how to work the app, and got very frustrated. After I took a break, I read Dave's posts more carefully and was able to set it up just fine. I really like the lights so far, but I have had a few stumbling blocks along the way. I have emailed Dave for a number of reasons:

 

1. The moonlight is only on one side, so it only lights up about 2/3 of the tank. This is a big change from my Blue LED stock moonlights, which I really liked. I can't replicate them because of the location of the moonlight.

 

2. Two LED lights are out on the right side array. They are labeled D9 and D12 on the board labeled 000. We cannot get them to come on, even after taking the light apart again.

 

3. I kept the stock Biocube fans (which are really loud) and spliced them in with the small nanobox retro fan. However, I did not realize I wouldn't have control over the fans. I don't mind the small one running all the time (because it isn't very loud), but the stock fans don't need to run most of the time. (I probably don't even need them, I just figured it was better to have too many than not enough). I have never struggled with temperature in this tank before, so for the time being I have unhooked the stock fans.

 

Picture of the tank with just the Moonlight. It is turned way up in this picture (3/23/17):

 

 

A couple FTS's one during ramping and one a little later. All channels are at 35% for now:

 

 

 

My new Acan Coral:

 

 

My new Rock Flower Anemone, which for some reason put sand all over the middle of itself:

 

[fishfreak0114]

Love the RFA!!!

 

It took me all day to install my NB retro, I can't believe it only took you three hours!  Too bad about the non-working led's   Mine doesn't have specific moonlights, I just run blues very low. Certainly not the same effect as the stock moonlight. I also didn't add the bc29 fans. I couldn't figure out how!

[xAyanex]

1 minute ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Love the RFA!!!

 

It took me all day to install my NB retro, I can't believe it only took you three hours!  Too bad about the non-working led's   Mine doesn't have specific moonlights, I just run blues very low. Certainly not the same effect as the stock moonlight. I also didn't add the bc29 fans. I couldn't figure out how!

Thanks! I will try to get a better picture of the RFA when it's not so covered. I have no idea how much it is worth, but I paid $75 for it and they were charging a lot more for this one than the others they had (I think because the colors are so vibrant and beautiful!)

 

Yeah, I don't know what to do about the non-working LEDs, but I'm hoping Dave has a fix. I really don't want to have to send it all back to him. I wonder if I could wire the old BC29 blue LED moonlights so that I could control them with Bluefish!?! That would be cool, I really really liked the way they looked.

 

Adding the BC29 fans wasn't difficult, I just stuck the red wires in with the red wire of the nanobox retro fan, and the black wires in with the black wire of the nanobox retro fan.

[fishfreak0114]

It's a beauty.  $75 seems like a decent price, definitely good if in Canada. How big is it?

 

That would be cool if you could use the old moonlights, they're so nice and bright. I do miss them. 

[xAyanex]

It's not huge, but I don't have it in front of me. I'll let you know when I get home. I'll wait and see what Dave says about everything first.

[Weetabix7]

Your RFA is the same color as mine!!!!

Isn't it pretty??

I really love the colors on it. 

I like the new Acan too. 

I smiled when you described your misadventures during the setup of the light, cause it sounds like stuff I would do. 

Dave is a great guy to work with, I'm sure you'll get everything worked out. 

[vlangel]

Your tank looks great. You are smart to cover the powerheads. I never had a tank nuked but I did have nems get caught and injured by powerheads.

[xAyanex]

11 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

Your RFA is the same color as mine!!!!

Isn't it pretty??

I really love the colors on it. 

I like the new Acan too. 

I smiled when you described your misadventures during the setup of the light, cause it sounds like stuff I would do. 

Dave is a great guy to work with, I'm sure you'll get everything worked out. 

Yeah Dave is awesome. He emailed me back this morning and he is taking care of everything. A+++ customer service!!

 

I still don't know how to describe how big the RFA is, but it definitely is beautiful. I wish it didn't have sand on it. I will try to get the sand off when I do a water change tonight. I was just trying not to disturb it since I had just put it in the tank a day or two ago.

 

2 hours ago, vlangel said:

Your tank looks great. You are smart to cover the powerheads. I never had a tank nuked but I did have nems get caught and injured by powerheads.

Thank you!!! I saw a couple seahorses at one of my LFS's today. It was the first time I had ever truly seen one in person that wasn't in a zoo-like aquarium. Seahorses are soooo freaking cool!!!! I thought of you when I saw it.

[Weetabix7]

Don't worry about disturbing it, these things are pretty hardy!!

Just use either a turkey baster or smaller pipette to blow the sand off. 

I do it to mine all the time. 

[xAyanex]

Just now, Weetabix7 said:

Don't worry about disturbing it, these things are pretty hardy!!

Just use either a turkey baster or smaller pipette to blow the sand off. 

I do it to mine all the time. 

Oh, I had no idea you could do that!

I'll do it when I get home.  Unfortunately when I get home the tank is already asleep (so that it can be on while I am home/awake on my off days). But I will get a pretty picture of it tomorrow! =)

[Weetabix7]

Perfect!!

[xAyanex]

I am loving my Nanobox Retro lights!!! 

 

I picked up some new corals today!!! AHHH!!!

 

Not sure what this one is:

 

 

Not sure what this is either, some sort of SPS?:

 

 

Here is the third one. I'm guessing it might be a meteor shower cyphastra?:

 

 

And finally, I found some snail eggs! I'm guessing they're cerith: