New 29G BioCube

Palster · #1 05-02-2009, 05:50 AM

A couple of thoughts for you. Definately ditch the Bio Balls. When you remove the Bio Balls you can disregard the fill lines on the side of the tank. Most people fill their Bio Cubes untill the water level in chamber 3 is at the 90 degree elbow where the return line goes into the back of the tank. If you do this then the tank will be almost completely quiet.

Also if you want to run Cheato in the back of the BC (most peope who do so put it in chamber 2) then you will need to scrape the black paint off the back of the tank so that you can mount a light on the back to provide the lighting needed by the Cheato. When I say scrape the paint off you only need to take off enough paint behind chamber 2 for the light. You don't want to scrape all of the paint off the back.

DACJ · #2 05-02-2009, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Palster

Also if you want to run Cheato in the back of the BC (most peope who do so put it in chamber 2) then you will need to scrape the black paint off the back of the tank so that you can mount a light on the back to provide the lighting needed by the Cheato. When I say scrape the paint off you only need to take off enough paint behind chamber 2 for the light. You don't want to scrape all of the paint off the back.

Here is the thing, from my setup, I want SR3 in the 2nd chamber along with some LR then filter media on top of the drip tray, seems like there is no more room for chaeto there, and I am not very sure how to mount the light as the tank is against the wall firmly, if I do mount light, I would need to keep the back hatch open at all times? or does the light go "inside" the tank, but it will take risk from getting wet then short circuit...I read that someone people did but no pictures at all so I don't know how ^^" But would I be able to put it in the tank like shuffle it under a rock or something and let it grow there? or the cuc is just gonna eat it all =.=?

Snaz · #3 05-02-2009, 06:30 AM

This is a great DIY fuge light for the BC29 but you would have to pull the tank away from the wall.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...&#entry1818210

There are also submersible fuge lights.

DACJ · #4 05-03-2009, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snaz

This is a great DIY fuge light for the BC29 but you would have to pull the tank away from the wall.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...&#entry1818210

There are also submersible fuge lights.

Thanks for the link ! It's so detailed too!

Anyways, so I went to LFS today, and the guy suggested that there is no need to use protein skimmer, so I just bought some LR rubble and placed Chemi-pure on top of the rubble then closed up the drip tray on top.

I did add more water to get rid of the water fall noise, but then the chemipure is now soaked in water all the time...that will be no good right? or is it actually better? and he also said there is no need for purigen, chemipure will be enough...and I stayed around a little longer after that looking around, and realized that they were out of purigen anyway...but it is true that either one will be good enough?

Brown algae is starting to grow on the rocks, I hope it's not gonna over grow too much cause I only planned to put CUC in the tank next saturday...one week of time will probably get the tank real dirty...full of slime algae eh?

Palster · #5 05-03-2009, 06:11 AM

That link explains the light pretty well but in order to make that work you would have to move the tank away from the wall but only by a couple of inches. Here is another great link for you which shows a lot of the mods that people typically do to the Biocubes.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=180788

Palster · #6 05-03-2009, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DACJ

Brown algae is starting to grow on the rocks, I hope it's not gonna over grow too much cause I only planned to put CUC in the tank next saturday...one week of time will probably get the tank real dirty...full of slime algae eh?

The brown algae that you are seeing is called Diatoms and is perfectly normal in a new tank. There are a few "Phases" that a new tank will go through and this is just one of them. My Biocube has been set up for just over a month using live rock from another tank and I am still experiencing a bit of a hair algae bloom right now. Most new tanks will also go through a hair algae phase as well.

DACJ · #7 05-04-2009, 07:22 PM

wow... I just discovered something real amazing...good or bad I am not sure but...truely amazing.

It is now two days after I place the chemi-pure elite in the chamber two, the bottle says rinse lightly before putting in the tank, but i rinsed it a little more until i made sure the water that goes through the bag is no longer black(carbon)...and this morning I woke up, and I took a peak at the stick filter to see if there was anything i need to wash off. The water was clear as crystal for sure, but as soon as I took out the stock filter, i realized that it was pure black....and i mean black!! the floss on there was pure white when newly opened from bag...now its black, I took some time to rinse, but best I could do was to get it dark grey...no more than that...this sound normal at all? or maybe the chemi-pure media bag is broken(maybe?) I haven't checked, no time.

Also, after I rinsed the stock filter, when I walk bak to the tank, it's looking a little white, as if the sand was stirred a little, not very blurry, but it does look white, compared to 3 minutes ago, it was crystal clear then...

Anything I need to worry about?

Side note, there are air bubbles on the green algae...is that the actual oxgen created by the photosynthesis process?

DACJ · #8 05-05-2009, 05:44 AM

Yay! I just did my first water test, day 6 , it was taken 1.5 hr after the floursent light went off, 30 min after the actinic light went off (actinic stays on an hour after flourscent light for me), the test result seems to be perfect,

PH 8.4
NH3/4 0 ppm
NO2 0 ppm
NO3 0 ppm

I am gonna do another test tomorrow 1 hour after the flourscent light.

According to the chart I have, I should also measure the Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Iron, Iodine, Phosphate, Silicate.....but when I asked my LFS for a test kit, he gave me " API salt water test master kit" and said that is all I need...does that mean I don't really need to worry about all that mentioned in the chart? like as long as I keep that 4 things under control, rest will be fine? or did he mean that at this point it doesn't matter, I just need to test it after I get the corals and fish?

BTW, the Diatom, or hair algae...I can't tell which is which, but anyways...brown-looking algae is starting to take over my precious white sand...it looked only a little before I left home for work, came home from work it still look okay, 1 hour after all the light went off, I looked again, it's like massive army just marched in the tank =.=" (maybe I just miss-looked when I came home) if I didn't miss-look, it's as it they were alive and all came out from their hide out in the night..... I am thinking maybe I will drop by the LFS on thursday to get my inverts instead of saturday, just incase if the diatom outgrows the tank.....

I've seen on other threads where some people's skimmer actually gets some real nasty stuff....would I be needing it for a 29g sized tank? LFS said water change bi-weekly will be good enough, a skimmer so small like CPR SR3 isn't gonna really do much in BC29...