Got my BC29 today......

[newnanofl]

Oh ok I did see that, sorry. Now after I mod the stock filter cartridge and pop out the false floor, do you place the filter all the way down to the bottom leaving more space at the top for flow or do you place it more at the top and leave the section where the false floor was open? Thanks for all the responses and sorry if my questions are so elementary.

 

I keep my filter at the top. In fact, when I made my original filter mod, I shaves all of the small bumps off that held the filter material. That was a mistake and the filter would eventually slide to the bottom. If you leave the upper bumps on the filter, it will not slide down to the bottom. I also left some small bumps on the side of the filter ribs. This holds in the filter material better. I will post a picture.

[newnanofl]

Here are a couple of pics of the filter mod. I should put these in Teals section.

 

 

[Nando7]

Newman, Ok just so I am clear, I understand how to keep the filter media in the cartridge, but I just wanted to make sure that I understood, after removing the false floor the cartridge can slide all the way to the bottom right? So when you say you kept your filter all the way at the top do you mean the cartridge or the fliter media inside the cartridge because the filter media is definitely suppose to cover the whole cartridge right? So should there be more room at the top of the cartridge or more room at the bottom where the false floor was initially? I hope this makes sense, sorry.

[Nando7]

How many lbs of LR rubble fits into Chamber 2? How high is everyone stacking the rubble in there also?

[Steve0420]

Hey TC hows the new lighting comeing along? and any luck on setting up a fuge?

[Nano1stmr]

Hey Teal

 

Got two questions for ya.

 

Any suggestions on how to Widen the Chamber 1 over flow after you have an established tank ? Wont it put small pieces of plastic in the water ?

 

I was also wondering where your sponge is in the 2nd chamber with your PS ? Is it up against chamber 1 wall down on the bottom ?

 

Thanks

[TEALCOBRA]

Sorry guys, Ive been out of state the past few days.... I havent been able to get anything done to the MH lighting setup, I should be able to get some stuff done this week.

 

As for working on the wall with an established tank, I would unplug the filter so the back areas fill with the water, and then fold up a paper towel and put that ontop of the water so all the shavings will land on the paper towels. And my sponge is against the top of the first chamber section.

[Nando7]

Teal, did you remove the sponge in chamber 3? if you did what did you put there in its place?

[basser1]

Nando7...... I removed the sponge and it is "free flowing".

[TEALCOBRA]

I took out the sponge also and have my bag of chemi-pure there so the water is forced to go through it.....

[AnotherLousy1]

TEAL, as others have said, what a GREAT thread. I just got in my Sapphire BC29 Skimmer today and am heading to Petsmart in just a short while to pick up the seagel and chemi-pure or purigen (whichever they have) and plan on widening the flow between chamber 1 and 2.

 

I'm also going to be ordering my 6HF and tubing (might be able to pick both up locally) and the plan is to order the 4.36 light upgrade from nanotuners.

 

I can't tell you enough, how much I have enjoyed reading this entire thread as it has been very informative to a newbie of the saltworld. Thanks again, and I'll keep you and everyone posted on how it goes.

 

AnotherLousy1

[dsly]

TEAL, as others have said, what a GREAT thread. .....

AnotherLousy1

 

Agreed! I've upgraded to 4.36, done the overflow mods, opened up the ventilation grates a bit, and am just awaiting my 6HF. Hard to find someone to ship to Canada. Had a buddy going to Florida this week, and he said he'd pick one up.

My one issue is overheating. With just the lights, the skimmer and the pump, the tank sits at 78. I'm concerned about summer heat. Don't want to cut the lights back too far for the corals. How hot can it get before it gets to be a problem?

TEAL: had anytime to work on the fan upgrade? Are both fans blowing in or sucking out? I think I'd try this before making the jump to a chiller. Seems that running a small chiller would be cheaper than trying to keep the house cool enough, though. Currently investigating titanium loop chillers vs. the solid state ones.

What does everyone else do?

[Nano-Newbie]

Teal and others.. I"ve read this whole thread and have not seen any mod exactly like mine. My changes have been really mild compared to most, but being new, I" want to make sure I'm on the right track. Could you please give me your advice:

 

Chamber one: bottom still in place. I have my heater and a pura pad in place of original filter.

Chamber two: (this is where I think I've done something different) I removed the grid at the bottom and added LR up to the water line. I then put a mesh bag with a dozen or so bioballs that I can easily remove and rinse. On top of that I have about 3 or 4 inches of floss an then another Pura pad on that.

Chamber three: I still own the stock pump although I've ordered the Rio 6HP which I'll install and enlarge the the opening between one and two to compensate.

 

I have probably 25 lbs of LR in the tank and now probably another 3 lbs. in chamber two.

 

I clearly do not have a protein skimmer but a heck of a lot of filteration.

 

Okay.. what's in my tank.. the 25 lbs of LR, a bunch of hermits, Coral Banded Shrimp (yeah..mistake), various soft corals (shrooms& Buttons), small Yellow Tang, Barnacle Goby , Yellow Clown Goby, Arrow Crab, Pink Pencil Urchin, and various snails.

 

Being a Newbie.. The Protein skimmer intimidates me a bit. I'm thinking my current set up is okay.. but I'd be interested in getting your thoughts. I don't know much about Protien Skimmers. I see that one for BC's on nanotuners and might buy it if you tell me my Chamber two arrangement is a mess. Also, I'm considering removing Chamber one's bottom and getting more LR down there. I figure more LR is better right? Agree?

 

Thanks for your help.. Nano-Newbie

[TEALCOBRA]

Im currently looking at chillers too incase I cant pull off the MH lighting hood that im working on. So far Im thinking the JBJ Nano chiller.

 

Nano-Newbie, Your setup sounds fine..... You could cut the wall between 1 and 2 now just to allow more water to flow into your second and third chambers, and I would just yank the bioballs, theyre not really needed since you already have LR in that chamber.

 

Only other thing (man I hate sounding like the tang police) you shouldnt have a tang in a nano. They need WAY more room than a nano provides, they should be in atleast a 75 gallon or larger setup.

[newnanofl]

Newman, Ok just so I am clear, I understand how to keep the filter media in the cartridge, but I just wanted to make sure that I understood, after removing the false floor the cartridge can slide all the way to the bottom right? So when you say you kept your filter all the way at the top do you mean the cartridge or the fliter media inside the cartridge because the filter media is definitely suppose to cover the whole cartridge right? So should there be more room at the top of the cartridge or more room at the bottom where the false floor was initially? I hope this makes sense, sorry.

 

Sorry Gang, I have been out of town for a few days as well. Let me address this based on the mistake I first made. When I first did the filter modification, I removed the original filter media on the outside of the filter by slicing off all of the small round bumps on the one side of the filter. This then expose the carbon pellets on the inside of the filter. This was a mistake because the small bumps are used to hold the filter at the top of the chamber. Otherwise when you remove the false bottom, the filter does slide completely down to the bottom. I went to the LFS and bought replacement filters and then peeled off the fliter floss, dumped the carbon pellets, and removed the ribs. You can shave off the little round bumps from about the first rib down to the bottom of the filter. You only need to keep the bumps at the top. This gives the filter a slight interference and it does not slide to the bottom of the chamber. The pain is trying to clean off the bumos to remove as mich leftover filter media as possible. If ound out that if I use a wire brush and light pressure, you can get most of it off.

 

I hope this makes sense.

[xmen0075]

I just got it in today, and wanted to know when I got to buy the LR and LS for it this weekend if there is anything I should be looking for that might be a deal breaker. The LR and LS are from established tanks, and I just would have to end up with a bunch of LR and LS that is no good for some reason.....

 

On a side note, I found a good use for the bioballs.... My African Greys love to chew 'em to pieces.... Well atleast the one does, the other one could care less.

 

 

 

 

Totally off topic--but I love your birds... African Greys rule!!!

 

Nice tank set-up---

[newnanofl]

Im currently looking at chillers too incase I cant pull off the MH lighting hood that im working on. So far Im thinking the JBJ Nano chiller.

 

I have installed a chiller on mine. I live in South Florida and my temps started creeping up to 82 degrees when I got warmer outside. I keep the house at 78 degrees. I only have a temporary setup because I have a Pacific Coast CL-280 chiller from a previous tank. I am thinking about going with a smaller chiller because a) the one I have is very overkill for the size of the tank and a little too large to fit underneath.

 

I used my original stock pump in chamber 3 to flow water through the chiller and returns back into the same chamber. It is working well and it is keeping the temps down. I am now running at about 77 degrees. I only need to keep the water levels above the pumps. I am considering a couple smaller chillers as well. I am trying to decide between the 1/15 HP Current USA Prime Mini-Chiller, Corallife 1/10 HP Aqua-Chiller, and the JBJ nano Arctica chiller.

 

I am open to suggestions and recomendations.

[TEALCOBRA]

Totally off topic--but I love your birds... African Greys rule!!!

 

Nice tank set-up---

 

Not off topic at all..... Well maybe a little bit, but I love my crazy little birds and can talk about them all day long.

[Nano-Newbie]

Teal:

 

Thanks for the comments. Yeah.. my LFS told me a Tang would be fine in my BC. I know not to ask him for advice again. He's doing real well, but I'm going to have to find him a new home.

 

As far as my set up goes.. so I didn't screw anything up by removing the grate at the bottom of Chamber two? It seemed like an easy way to get more LR in there, but I was worried I'd screw something up.

 

As far as the bio-balls go, yeah.. I know they're pretty worthless, but I thought it might cut down on some of the waterfall sound I've been reading about with the drop from Chamber one to Chamber two. Besides, I don't have any parrots!

 

Thanks,

 

Nano-Newbie

[newnanofl]

I have been told that tangs do not do well in small environments. It was suggested to me to place Tangs on something that was 60+ gallons. Therefore I never tried.

 

THe only thing I took a chance on was a Sweetlips Clown. Unfortunatly that experiment was unsuccessful. The fish seemed fine one evening an the next day he was not.

[TEALCOBRA]

The sweetlips is not actually a clownfish that I know of. If you go to liveaquaria they say that the spotted sweetlips should be kept in a tank no smaller than a 150 gallon.... might be a reason for his decline in such a short timespan.

[apologeticlies]

hey TC, what was that final fix for the saphire aquatics micro bubbles problem. i have some pretty bad bubbles... just looking for a little help.

[newnanofl]

hey TC, what was that final fix for the saphire aquatics micro bubbles problem. i have some pretty bad bubbles... just looking for a little help.

 

I had two initial problems when I put in my saphire. First, it takes a couple of days for break-in. I have been running mine know for about a month and it works fine. Next, I started my tank with tap water and conditioner. There is something in the water conditioner that caused mine to foam very much. I had about an inch of foam where you should only have about 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch. Kyle at Safire recommended doing some water changes. It took me about 3 5 gallon WC to get the skimmer to a normal foam. Now, the skimmer works great and removes a lot of stuff from the water. The skimmer gets some micro bubbles when I ad some stuff to feed my SPS and anemonies, but that only lasts for about an hour. I have been turning it off when I feed them and I have no issues.

 

I would also recommend contacting Kyle at Safire. He was gret when helping me out. He is very customer service oriented.

[apologeticlies]

I had two initial problems when I put in my saphire. First, it takes a couple of days for break-in. I have been running mine know for about a month and it works fine. Next, I started my tank with tap water and conditioner. There is something in the water conditioner that caused mine to foam very much. I had about an inch of foam where you should only have about 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch. Kyle at Safire recommended doing some water changes. It took me about 3 5 gallon WC to get the skimmer to a normal foam. Now, the skimmer works great and removes a lot of stuff from the water. The skimmer gets some micro bubbles when I ad some stuff to feed my SPS and anemonies, but that only lasts for about an hour. I have been turning it off when I feed them and I have no issues.

 

I would also recommend contacting Kyle at Safire. He was gret when helping me out. He is very customer service oriented.

 

 

Thanks. There isnt anything in the water that creates the bubbles. I use RO/DI. Maybe it will just tanke a little while to break in. I guess I'll start worrying if it stays this way. Thanks!

[newnanofl]

Hey Teal,

 

Any updates on your MH hood project???