~* Jim's Rimless Biocube 29 *~

[iamjimwood]

So last week it got really hot where i live and due to poor ventilation and a crap led install (owner before me) my tank got very hot while i was away. came back and the tank water was hot to touch and everything was dead. i lost 2 Darwin clowns, a snowflake eel, my entire CUC, and what ever coral the cyano bacteria hadn't already killed. So i have taken the time to learn from each and every mistake and now i am going to give it a go again.

Spent today cleaning and prepping rock and the tank itself. It was bad. lol I took as many pictures as i could along the way. I still have a long way till i am ready to setup and start a cycle, but these tank threads have to start somewhere right?

 

~ What i got done today

* drained the tank, removed and tossed the substrate, and scrubbed tank inside out with vinegar and water.

* rinsed rock then scrubbed each rock and soaked in water with vinegar, peroxide, and red slime destroyer (for good measure )
* Scrubbed powerhead, heater, pump, and other accessories in same manor as rock

* Cut the rim off the cube and cleaned silicone for Hours.

~What i have left to do

* hang the LED light fixture (actually did this tonight)

* buy substrate

* buy and build DIY ATO.

* Media rack (I think i have one somewhere that i bought)
* CYCLE DAY!

PICS!!!

This was the tank this morning when i first got to it. Yuck!

 

After i separated the plastic cover from the hood i noticed quite a bit of water in there. had to open the light and put it in front of the fan for a while to dry it all out.

 

This is the Led light fixture that came with the tank when i bought it. the guy had it jammed inside the hood so the the three vent fans on top were covered. that is where that heat must have been coming from. so glad the light is still working after the moisture and all that heat.

 

That is my daughter Emma. she helped me scrub live rock. doesnt she look excited

We pulled the live rock rinsed it in ro water then scrubbed the heck out of each rock and put into a bucket with a mixture of peroxide, vinigar, water and red slime destroyer, then we pulled em again and scrubbed em again and then rinsed in ro again. now they are in front of a very windy fan for a few days.

 

Rim Job PICS!!!!

Just a picture of the line i cut. i used a serrated kitchen knife. worked like a charm.

Rim is off in one piece in case i want to use a hood in the future (thanks tgore)

What a ridiculous amount if silicone. two different colors and tons of it. if you are planning on going rimless with a biocube plan on hours of silicone removal.

DONE! the last two pics are of the sides where i cut. i think they look good considering i grabbed a kitchen knife and hacked away

And there it is all lonely with just a light to play with. gotta look into the cost of substrate. $20 for ATO and i will be off to cycle. Thinking maybe a week maybe two.

[tgore]

And the journey begins!!!!!! Looks great can't wait to see it with water

 

Mine just got a deep cleaning today also!!

[ihatesears18]

Looks great!

[Reefinhoosier]

Looks really good! I am interested to see the final look!!

[iamjimwood]

ok so tonight has been spent looking into the eshopps nano overflow box. i think maybe this is going on the to do list. im not sure i trust a drill and my tank together, and this seems a decent alternative

[iamjimwood]

Tonight i was going through some old pictures and found some of my first biocube 29. thought i would upload them and share.

FTS


Everyone was a beginner that didn't want to listen. For all you beginners out there DON'T PUT TANGS IN A BC29!!!!


This was Chalk Noris my chalk basslet. He was removed cuz he was a tad big for the tank, but i loved him while he was around.

 

Emerald crab hanging out.

Love this picture! my tomato clown Campari and his heteractis crispa anemone.


So what do you think?

[iamjimwood]

Update:

just bought sand from www.reefcleaners.org
thanks to the power of google i saved 5% with a coupon code too
once it gets here i am off to the LFS to get some RO and we shall start a cycle!
YAY!

[iamjimwood]

been playing with my live rock outside the tank to see if i can find something i like aqua scape wise. i think i have something. plenty of shelves for corals and caves for fishes. god i want the substrate to be delivered via teleporter so i can get this show on the road... Remember Jim patients is how this hobby works.

[tgore]

Have you got your sand in? If so how is the color and size? Was thinking bout using it for my bc29

[iamjimwood]

TODAY IS THE DAY!!

Got some water today and we are officially up and running
now we wait.

** What I did today.

~ sand rinsed and in the tank

~ rock aranged. (wish i was better at aquascaping)
~ fixed the elbow flow issue on the return line.

~ pump, heater, powerhead, new thermometer all installed.

~ re-hung my led light fixture. (what a pain in the @$$)

~ Added Stability by Seachem. LFS guy recomended it.

~ Ran my first round of tests.

sg - 1.024

ph - 8.4

temp - 80.5

amonia - 0
nitrates - 0

nitrates - 0

as expected of course

Pictures:

Holy water. a gallon of water weighs 8.4 lbs. that is 35 gallons. Carring it was motivation to get a RO/DI system SOON!

Tgore you asked about the sand i had ordered. i am very happy with both the color and the size. I took a few pics as a reference for you. hope they help.

I took out the pesky flow reducing elbow and replaced it with some free tubing from my LFS. what a difference! simple fix so glad i did it.

This is the filter side in the back. found a media rack i had in my first biocube. running just filter floss for now.

FTS

Sides

And my personal favorite... the whole tank.

 

[iamjimwood]

Ok day two of having water in the tank and got some weird findings today. first off i would like to say that both days i have tested at roughly 5 pm and will continue to test at that time from now on. i really like consistancy

so i ran my four basic tests today and here is what i came up with...

ph 7.8 ? ( was 8.4 yesterday?)
Amonia 1.0 (already on day 2?)

nitrite .25 (already on day 2?)
nitrate .5 (already?)

 

for the record i evaped about 5 cups which i replaced today with fresh RO/DI

 

so whats the deal? is this the seachem stability at work? kind confused how so much changed in just 24 hours?

any help or insight would be super cool thanks

[happyhour99]

HI

looks like seachem is beginning to work for you. Usually ammonia show up slower than that, but i'm guessing your were still having die off from your first attempt, so that sped things up.

Seachem is suppose to have ammonia removing bacteria and nitrifying, so it should act at the same to time to remove ammonia and nitrite (suppositly) and it says it has denitrifing bacteria. I say keep an eye on the levels and see where seachem takes you.

When i dose seachem, i used rather large amounts (2-3x more than it said on the bottle) mainly because the extra large bottle was 2 bucks more than the small so had a #$# ton of the stuff.

 

IMO i would keep dosing 2-3 times longer than it says to just to be on the safe side. 1 week is a very short time for a cycle. there are some reports where it stalls or does something weird and i think its because they either stopped or they had a lot of junk on their rocks.

 

Keep posting water tests. i would love to see how the stability cycles your tank.

 

Also, if you don't want to keep adding so much RO water, one thing you could do is go to a local hardware store and get some acrylic sheeting for almost nothing. Then you can drill a few holes and lay on top of your tank. that would help slow evaporation and prevent fish from carpet surfing. Its not the best looking but it would work. With LEDs there should be a heat issue, (except where the led is enclosed in the lid like your first post or the room's temperature gets hot)

 

pH (almost didn't' see that one)- your probably having a lot of bacteria grow. That is consuming the Oxygen and releasing co2. Co2 is acid and will lower the ph. Make sure to aim a powerhead at the surface to get good circulation. Otherwise, 7.8 is within range for a tank. Don't try tweaking pH levels unless they are really out of order. my tank has been at 8.0 for the longest time. Also don't be surprised if you see a white haze in your tank. thats a bacteria bloom, that probably good (ie its the stability reproducing). It will go away in a day or so.

[iamjimwood]

thanks happyhour i appreciate all the feedback. i will continue to test daily untill the amonia is gone for 3 or 4 days. after that I will prolly test weekly or so. thanks for the advise on the top for the tank but i much prefer it with no lid. as for the evap im ok with it i expected it and have ATO parts on their way to ensure a stable salinity. as for the carpet surfers... i have hard wood floors so no problems there lol just kidding. i am staying away from most gobies know to jump and far far away from wrases. as for the rest i am just praying they like their box of water enuf to not commit hairy carey.

nice to have you tagging along for my journey with this new tank. please offer advise whenever possible i am very open minded and never take things personally.

[iamjimwood]

Todays test results are in... *drum roll*

ph 8.0
Amonia 1.0

nitrite .5
nitrate .5

not much change.
ph found a happy medium at 8.0 and nitrite seems to be up from yesterday. also i tested later today cuz i was helping my mom out at her house.

[iamjimwood]

was going to post test results today but lost the paper i wrote them down on .
either way still got ammonia and nitrates and nitrites. noticing a small amount of algae growing on the rocks and substrate.

god waiting is boring. i want to buy my CUC already!

"All we need is just a little patience"

[tgore]

Just caught that you had an anemone. How did it do in the BC29 Really want to get a bubble tip or something in the future. Did it ever move much or bother your corals?

[iamjimwood]

Hey people my daughter just joined NR! she is startin a 10 gallon reef makes me so proud! lol

 

either way check it out and help her... NooB!
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/330847-emmas-first-tank/

[ihatesears18]

Hey people my daughter just joined NR! she is startin a 10 gallon reef makes me so proud! lol

 

either way check it out and help her... NooB!

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/330847-emmas-first-tank/

just replied

[iamjimwood]

HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY!
you will see why i am so excited a bit further down in the post.(ill bet you can guess)

Forgot to post yesterday's test results so here they are,,,

 

ph 8.0
Ammonia .25

nitrite 2.0
nitrate *tested twice*
160 & 40 (then gave up)

then today i tested and here are the results

ph 7.8
Amonia 0 <---- YAY!!!

nitrite 2.0
nitrate 80

 

[ihatesears18]

huzzah!

[happyhour99]

1 week and the ammonia's gone, nice

and your well on your way with nitrite from what i can see with nitrate. Cool, looks like the seachem stability is working. Congrats

 

Make sure to shake the bottle #2 of the API nitrate test kit and then shake the vials for a minute and then wait 5 minutes (A PAIN I KNOW) but otherwise you get inconsistent results. Sadly Bottle #2 is not a solution but a suspension which is why you need to shake. If you don't shake it, it will mess up your entire kit permanently

[iamjimwood]

yea thanks for the advice happyhour. i thoroughly read the directions even though i have used their test kits before. you can never be to educated.

So CUC?

im thinking its that time

[iamjimwood]

Just caught that you had an anemone. How did it do in the BC29 Really want to get a bubble tip or something in the future. Did it ever move much or bother your corals?

sorry tgore i completely missed this post.

 

as for the nem in the BC29... although i have seen BTAs thrive in these tanks i had no luck. my bta lasted about 3 weeks (which it spent wandering and stinging corals) before it split into two, then one decided to commit hairy carey via my powerhead. i could have used a nylon over it but honestly that would have just turned into a nitrate farm. regardless tank went nuts after that so i did a few LARGE water changes and things stabilized. Then the same week the other one found its way through the little inlet slots in the back where the water enters the back chambers. i found him sitting on my filter floss alive but not happy... i turned him in at my LFS that day and swore off nems for a long time. (haha a few months is a long time in my fish tank world)

 

My buddy at my LFS recommended a seabay anemone. the longer tentacle one (H. Crispa). my tomato clowns began hosting it in 3 days time and it never moved an inch. had to remove it after about a year cuz it ate a feather duster and i think a hermit or two that went missing. it got very big in the end.

[iamjimwood]

Large algae bloom Going on... still 0 amonia. Thinking maybe time to order a CUC? anyone disagree?

[iamjimwood]

alright here goes...


ph 7.8
Ammonia 0

nitrite 2.0
nitrate 160

 

so although my ammonia has been at 0 for a while now nitrate and nitrite are both hanging where they are? should i do a water change to bring them down? seems strange they arent changing. getting quite a bit of algae on the rocks and i would like to get a CUC in there to get rid of it. looking for advise here. this is the first time i have actually used dry rock. always bought established rock and used that.