Got my BC29 today......

[tangov559]

First chamber - false floor removed, stealth heater, bag of seagel, modified stock filter, widened flow from one into second chamber

 

Second chamber - Sponge to slow down the water into the second chamber and get rid of the waterfall noise, custom sapphire skimmer

 

Third chamber - Bag of purigen, Rio 6HF pump, eheim 16/22 tubing with no elbows...

 

 

just wondering if you can explain more on the bag of seagel and modified stock filter in chamber 1 and bag of purigen in 3..like why you use it and what it does?

[TEALCOBRA]

Just chemical and mechanical filtration..... The stock filter mod cleans the water and filters all the gunk thats in the water....

 

And the

 

Seagel - Premium chemical filter media blend of Seachem's Matrix Carbon and PhosGuard. SeaGel quickly removes organics, phosphate, silicates, toxic metals, and acids from any alkaline fresh or saltwater aquarium.

 

Purigen - A macro-porous, synthetic polymer that removes proteins, nitrite and nitrate, ammonia, and a broad spectrum of organics at a rate and capacity that exceeds all others by over 500%. It significantly raises redox and polishes water clarity

[tangov559]

Just chemical and mechanical filtration..... The stock filter mod cleans the water and filters all the gunk thats in the water....

 

And the

 

Seagel - Premium chemical filter media blend of Seachem's Matrix Carbon and PhosGuard. SeaGel quickly removes organics, phosphate, silicates, toxic metals, and acids from any alkaline fresh or saltwater aquarium.

 

Purigen - A macro-porous, synthetic polymer that removes proteins, nitrite and nitrate, ammonia, and a broad spectrum of organics at a rate and capacity that exceeds all others by over 500%. It significantly raises redox and polishes water clarity

 

do you have pics of your stock filter mod ? and the seagel and purigen, are those juse in a bag and then put into the selected chambers?

[TEALCOBRA]

I made a post on here about the stock filter mod with some pictures in it that will explain everything in more detail.... i think if you just do a search you'll find it...

 

Yep, the Seagel and the Purigen are both just put into bags and then put into their respecive chambers.

[Steve0420]

Should I have the puragen and seagel in wile the tank is cycleing

[TEALCOBRA]

I would probably just let it cycle for a week or two before adding any chemical filtration to the mix....

[Nano1stmr]

Hey Teal

 

I noticed you put back on your Hydro-flo ? Does it make a big difference

I picked up the Loc Line stuff today and wasnt sure if I should still try it

 

Thanks in Advance

[TEALCOBRA]

I never really HATED the hydorflo, I just hated the fact that it would move all of the sand away from the front left corner of my tank especially with the rio pump putting out more flow. Now that I can direct where I want it to go, it is back on there... I get great surface agitation with the locline nozzle, and random flow with the hydor.... works out pretty nice actually... The corals seem to like it, so I cant complain...

[TEALCOBRA]

Added my final piece to the fish puzzle yesterday.....

 

 

 

So far so good with him not nipping at any corals in the tank.... everyone says theyre hit or miss, but after talking to a few local people and a few LFS owners, they said they saw no problems with adding him to the tank, so I went for it.

 

So my tank is basically done except for some corals....

 

This means its going to be time for a NEW TANK soon.

 

Livestock:

Pair of true percs

Six line wrasse

Flame angel

Cleaner shrimp

 

Corals:

Crocea Clam

Yellow gorgonian

GBTA

neon green candy cane

frogspawn

branching hammer

torch

ricordia mushrooms

GSP

xenia

and a bunch of various zoos....

[Steve0420]

Hey Teal I got the Sapphire NanoSkimmer BC29 its been in for about 2 days and Im still getting micro bubbles anything I should try to clear them up or not enough break in time.

[TEALCOBRA]

Just give them some time, it should calm down.... Im still getting some in my custom one, but theyre not TOO bad, im giving them some more time to see if they slow down some more before I do anything.

[bonsai reefer]

Your hood mod looks good i just put a 70 mh and 2 t5's in to a 12 gal got 2 60mm vantec fans on the way that operate the higher the temp the more cfm's they flow. as soon as i get them installed qurious to see if i will need a cooler

[The Shan Man]

I am very interested in your MH mod. I did one myself on the Bio29 last weekend... I am having a problem with heat. I am going to order some faster fans. Here is a pic of what I came up with.

 

 

I really don't want to go as far as you with drilling the extra holes in you hood but if necessary I will.

[TEALCOBRA]

Is that the illuming kit you have on there ??

[The Shan Man]

Is that the illuming kit you have on there ??

 

No I got it from aquabuys... It was the 70 MH retro kit... I ran it for an hour and started to see some distortion in my splash shield... I am going to order some more fans but they are out of stock at the moment.

 

Do you know anywhere I can order a thermal cutoff besides nanotuners??? It would cost me more to ship then the item is worth.

[bonsai reefer]

No I got it from aquabuys... It was the 70 MH retro kit... I ran it for an hour and started to see some distortion in my splash shield... I am going to order some more fans but they are out of stock at the moment.

 

Do you know anywhere I can order a thermal cutoff besides nanotuners??? It would cost me more to ship then the item is worth.

 

 

 

 

 

that is the same kit I have in my 12 gallon I cut a hole in my cover and siliconed the glass plate in .So far so good I will be insatlling 2 vantec thermal flow w built in thermo stat they moove 9.9 to I think 22-24 cfm's ea I hope that will keep my tank cool enought to not warp anything and not need a cooler

[jafoca]

I don't think it is advisable to run MH with the standard plastic splash guard.

Shan found out, it is too hot and you risk fire. I decided to replace a big part of the splash guard with a glass panel, so I dremmeled a hole in the plastic one and then glued some glass in.

 

I ran into a problem however; I used gorilla glue to glue the glass to the plastic shield. After a day of running the glass cooled when the lights turned off and the panel cracked straight across! I'm happy I didn't get tempered glass as I would probably have a ton of tiny pieces in my tank wreaking havoc! Anyway, I may or may not re-do my splash guard depending on how motivated I get. It is not causing any sort of problem as far as I can tell, so the only reason to replace would be for my own satisfaction. If I do re-do it I will use silicone to hold the glass to the plastic. That shoud allow for more expansion than the ridgid gurilla glue, so keep it from cracking.

 

Anyway, I mounted my halide behind the two PC's, which isn't giving me optimal light distribution in the aquarium. I may look into changing that, maybe just modify the reflector so it spreads more to the front? My mod was done by nearly completely gutting the hood and making a heat shield out of diamond plate to which all of the lighting and other stuff can be attached. I also added 2x 60mm speed adjustable fans and I have no problems with the hood itself getting too warm. I over-engeneered the whole thing so that I can upgrade to 150 watt halide if I have the desire later on.

 

My aquarium is now completely up and running, with fuge and nano-tunze skimmer in the back middle chamber, also heavily modded. The Tunze is not producing skimmate right now, I don't know why not. I may not have it dialed in properly (adjustment knob) or it may be sitting just a touch too high, or maybe my lowish bio load and fresh water is keeping it from producing much... Idunno... If you have any ideas throw them at me cobra!

 

I am having some water-heat issues. This is probably due partially to the 70w halide (also using kit from aquabuys, no complaints), and some of the heat is definitly from my fuge light, a coralife mini aqualight, hanging on the back glass of the tank. The tank runs at 81.9 during the day and drops to 79.9 at night(held there by heater).... this is not too bad, but the room it is in is cold in the winter and hot in the summer... I may put the fuge light on opposing cycle to tank lights to battle heat, and will also be adding fans to the back "door" on the hood. I also might cut vents onto the front "door" for the air to escape from, if it can not easily get out the side vents.

 

ANyway, thought you all might want some halide mod info and I got a bit overboard! Thanks for inspiration and beta testing Teal =P

[The Shan Man]

I don't think it is advisable to run MH with the standard plastic splash guard.

Shan found out, it is too hot and you risk fire. I decided to replace a big part of the splash guard with a glass panel, so I dremmeled a hole in the plastic one and then glued some glass in.

 

I ran into a problem however; I used gorilla glue to glue the glass to the plastic shield. After a day of running the glass cooled when the lights turned off and the panel cracked straight across! I'm happy I didn't get tempered glass as I would probably have a ton of tiny pieces in my tank wreaking havoc! Anyway, I may or may not re-do my splash guard depending on how motivated I get. It is not causing any sort of problem as far as I can tell, so the only reason to replace would be for my own satisfaction. If I do re-do it I will use silicone to hold the glass to the plastic. That shoud allow for more expansion than the ridgid gurilla glue, so keep it from cracking.

 

Anyway, I mounted my halide behind the two PC's, which isn't giving me optimal light distribution in the aquarium. I may look into changing that, maybe just modify the reflector so it spreads more to the front? My mod was done by nearly completely gutting the hood and making a heat shield out of diamond plate to which all of the lighting and other stuff can be attached. I also added 2x 60mm speed adjustable fans and I have no problems with the hood itself getting too warm. I over-engeneered the whole thing so that I can upgrade to 150 watt halide if I have the desire later on.

 

My aquarium is now completely up and running, with fuge and nano-tunze skimmer in the back middle chamber, also heavily modded. The Tunze is not producing skimmate right now, I don't know why not. I may not have it dialed in properly (adjustment knob) or it may be sitting just a touch too high, or maybe my lowish bio load and fresh water is keeping it from producing much... Idunno... If you have any ideas throw them at me cobra!

 

I am having some water-heat issues. This is probably due partially to the 70w halide (also using kit from aquabuys, no complaints), and some of the heat is definitly from my fuge light, a coralife mini aqualight, hanging on the back glass of the tank. The tank runs at 81.9 during the day and drops to 79.9 at night(held there by heater).... this is not too bad, but the room it is in is cold in the winter and hot in the summer... I may put the fuge light on opposing cycle to tank lights to battle heat, and will also be adding fans to the back "door" on the hood. I also might cut vents onto the front "door" for the air to escape from, if it can not easily get out the side vents.

 

ANyway, thought you all might want some halide mod info and I got a bit overboard! Thanks for inspiration and beta testing Teal =P

 

Can you please post some pics of what the splash shield looked like after you glued the glass to it???

 

I agree about the reflector it does seem to concentrate in one area. I might have to mod it as well. I have placed in in front of the PC lights. I can see the difference in between the front and the back of the tank.

[jafoca]

Can you please post some pics of what the splash shield looked like after you glued the glass to it???

 

I agree about the reflector it does seem to concentrate in one area. I might have to mod it as well. I have placed in in front of the PC lights. I can see the difference in between the front and the back of the tank.

 

I can't really take a picture of it right now. Basically I cut a rectangular hole out of the shield that was a bit smaller than the panel of glass I intended to use. Then I laid the glass inside the splash guard and the two overlapped about an inch all around, so i did a really sloppy glue job on that overlap.

[Brian Crook]

I can't really take a picture of it right now. Basically I cut a rectangular hole out of the shield that was a bit smaller than the panel of glass I intended to use. Then I laid the glass inside the splash guard and the two overlapped about an inch all around, so i did a really sloppy glue job on that overlap.

 

lol the way you wrote that makes me laugh. But seriously, Im sorry to hear that the glass ended up cracking.

[jafoca]

lol the way you wrote that makes me laugh. But seriously, Im sorry to hear that the glass ended up cracking.

 

I blame the glue honestly.. Once applied it likes to expand. It may be strong as hell, but it is not easy to work with.

 

I actually don't mind it cracking i guess... I was aware it could happen, and it did so in a neat fashion, so whatever. I don't even know if it is avoidable. The halide may just be too close to the glass.

[The Shan Man]

I can't really take a picture of it right now. Basically I cut a rectangular hole out of the shield that was a bit smaller than the panel of glass I intended to use. Then I laid the glass inside the splash guard and the two overlapped about an inch all around, so i did a really sloppy glue job on that overlap.

 

How thick of glass and should I get tempered?

[jafoca]

my glass is 1/8" i believe. I don't know if tempered is a good idea or not. Perhaps somebody who knows about glass can chime in.

 

If it is going to crack like mine did, then tempered = big mess in your tank as it will shatter into thousands of pieces.

[The Shan Man]

my glass is 1/8" i believe. I don't know if tempered is a good idea or not. Perhaps somebody who knows about glass can chime in.

 

If it is going to crack like mine did, then tempered = big mess in your tank as it will shatter into thousands of pieces.

 

The glass that came with the kit is tempered... I am going to ask someone at the store the knows glass. I am on my way there now.

[dsly]

'TEALCOBRA' date='Oct 17 2006, 07:30 AM' post='926205']

After trimming down the edges of the tank and baffle i have between 3 3/4" and 4" and the cup at its widest (the way top part) is a touch less than 3 3/4". Fortunately where the cup fits its only like 3.5" and I have zero clearance issues... I could actually make it all the way down the chamber with the cup now that ive clearanced that area, but it would be a tight fit. Roger vitko said that Tunze is actually making a smaller cup for the nano model and it should be out shortly... theyre just working on their nanostreams right now. the smaller cup is the same width as the unit, 2.2" or so... theres pics on reefcentral in the tunze forums, look for the nano doc 9002 skimmer thread and youll see the prototype pic...

 

 

Many thanks to you Teal! Have watched this thread with great interest. Got the BC29 Dec. 26, did the mods to the first flow gate, and today put in the Tunze 9002. Your pics were a great help! Everything is in, water levels adjusted, now to see what generates! Ordered the NanoTuner's light upgrade to 144w. Should be here next week. And I thought I spent a lot when I had a boat....