Bio Cube Owner's Thread

[Lyfey]

I wish everyone wouldnt use photobucket to post their images! The firewall here at work blocks all content from photobucket! Damn Dod computer systems lol. Just a raving rant from me hah, Does anyone know of a firewall friendly image hosting service that I would be able to use to post pictures? I seem to have no luck with that issue

I'll aplogize in advance to anyone that I offend with my complete dislike for my firewall to the photobucket services And once i set something up, I will post pictures of my setup also!
Cheers!

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

imageshack

[chrismunn]

does anybody use a JBJ A.T.O. on thier biocube 14?

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...matic_Top_Off_(A.T.O.)_System_Water_Level_Controller_Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Dosing_Pumps___Top_Off_Electric_P owered_Plug_In_Units~vendor~JBJ_Lighting~SearchStr~jbj+ato~action~view~idProduct~JB5111~idCategory~F IDPETPU.html

i want to go get one but i want to make sure it will work on my tank first.

[chrismunn]

sorry, broken link...

[jmadison]

Well its funny that I decided to post that FTS because.... its all different now! On Friday (the 13th) I had a pipe burst under my bathroom sink! By the time it was turned off I had 3-6 inches of water in my 3rd floor condo! They removed all the carpet sat, and turned on some crazy industrial dehumidifiers and I was forced to black out my tank and put the stock hood back on in hopes of keeping evap to a minimum. turns out my biggest problem was temp! It got so hot in my condo that the smoke alarms were going off! Tank hit about 91.1, but as soon as I was able to I floated ice packs and other cold stuff until I got the temp back in respectable parameters... It was a chore to move everyting to a different condo today, but I did it! Tank is back up and running and (un)fortunetly I only lost one acro! I did however lose two fish(male of my red highfin pair and a fire fish). I guess I will have to wait til all the coral isnt ****ed off looking and snap a new FTS! ((Sorry 5 line rule))

[Octoberfest]

Damn jmadison, sorry to hear that. I hate to sound like a tool but I guess it could have been worse. Hope it all works out.

[ilikelps]

Man 91 degrees! Maybe you should consider a chiller for the future.

Ben

[chrismunn]

wow, that sucks!

[chrismunn]

so i went and got myself a 150w halide and an ATO last week! i got the light, juts because , and i got the ATO because i had to take the hood off and i needed a way to deal with the evaporation.

here's what the tank looks like with the new light. its a JBJ k2 viper 150w hqi.



right now i have the fresh water resivoir for the ATO just sitting behind the tank on the floor, that will change later on. i have a 55g water storage drum in the garage ill be using but i dont feel like running all the plumbing to it right now.



here is where the top off line comes into the tank. its the clear tube. (on aside note, ill have to rebuild my swirler stein using black acrylic because now that i dont have a hood, its kinda ugly)





and for fun, here's a video. the first 2/3 of the video is with the stock PC'S and the last 1/3 is with the new halide. the transition happens when the music stops and then re-starts..

[jmadison]

Originally posted by ilikelps
Man 91 degrees! Maybe you should consider a chiller for the future.

Ben

ummm i dont think that that was the issue(lack of chiller) it soon hit 100+ degrees in my apt with 95% humidity. Otherwise i wouldnt have any issues... its 14 degrees outside LOL.


Chris- I think you'll be happy with the switch to MH! I especially loved the video b/c it gave us another glance at your powerhead rotater-thingy-majig! Looks great man!!!

[jmadison]

It's HERE!

[chrismunn]

is that for your BC?!?

[Lyfey]

Isnt that vortech too powerful for the BC? I thought it would be total overkill. Let us know how it works and how you positioned / tweaked the flow! props tho!

[MACH5]

Chrismunn: Looks like you've got every piece of equipment hooked to that little puppy LOL. NICE!!!

I also have a JBJ ATO on my 14 BC. Works great and keeps my SG completely stable. If you use the lid the evaporation rate is minimal so my 5 gal. reservoir bucket lasts a long time.

[chrismunn]

yeah ive got quite a bit of stuff hooked up to that little tank, although given the funds im sure i could find something else i dont have yet!

i still have a bit of work to do to get everything the way i want it though. right now the top off resivoir is just an old 8 gallon eclipse tank sitting on the flooor behind the tank. i have a 4 year old and a another one thats just getting ready to start crawling here soon, so that has to change! i have 2- 55g HDPE food grade drums in the garage that i use to store ro\di water. sometime prett quik here i plan on throwing that top off pump into one of them. then i just have to run some plumbing through the wall from the garage to the living room.

i also want to get my electrical situation set up to be a little more user friendly. i want to wire up a switch to my ATO that allows me to switch from one pump to another during water changes. when i do water changes with the new ATO i put the pump into the new salt water tank so that when im sihponing water from the tank its constantly being replenished with new saltwater. this way the water level never changes and none of the corals are ever exposed. you can read more about this on the last post in this thread.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...4#post14455714

i also want to upgrade my k nano to a k-1. the nano just isnt doing the trick anymore... also im tryig to aquire some new colors of montipora capricornis. it seems that my tank is so clean that im having trouble keeping my zoas happy. i think they like a system a little more nutrient rich than what i have.? the monti cap on the other hand seems to be doing so well that im thinking of adding a few SPS frags? may as well put the new light to good use right?

[nanonan]

Here's my BC 8g





~ 2 months old

[chrismunn]

thats pretty.

what is that coral above the GSP?

[nanonan]

its a type of leather,

Its neon green when the actinics are on, pretty cool with the current hitting the polyps.
thanks

[nanonan]

[jmadison]

Originally posted by chrismunn
is that for your BC?!?

As a matter of fact... it IS!!! Installing now...

[jmadison]

Originally posted by Lyfey
Isnt that vortech too powerful for the BC? I thought it would be total overkill. Let us know how it works and how you positioned / tweaked the flow! props tho!

Thanks! Naw, shouldnt be that bad at all, its the MP20 not MP40. Rated at a max of 2000gph. I am currently running 2 Koralia 2's which is ~1200gph without probs. Ive found people using them in 20gals so it should be fine. I am bout to install it, and i'll get back to yall all about it!

[jmadison]

Does anyone know the glass thickness for the BC29?

[jmadison]

I like it! Havent got it fully dialed in, but its great! I am running in reefcrest mode, on full power without any probs. Updates tomorrow.

[Lyfey]

Jmadison where is the Vortech positioned? I am only running the stock pump for flow in my bc29. I am going to add a k1 shortly... should I go with 2 k1's? I have about 35 lbs of LR and about a 1 1/2" sand bed that is the black aragonite Caribbean live sand. It has big black rock chunks mixed into the substrate. I currently have an aptaisia problem in my Biocube. I found a piece of live rock in my 125 gallon mixed reef tank that had a monster aptaisia residing in it. On that rock was also my circular frag of green zoos. I bought the frag with about eight heads on it. It bloomed pretty nicely to about twenty or so heads then started to die off a little. Noticing the aptaisia also, I put the piece of LR into my BC. I put the saucer sized piece of LR in the BC to contain the potential spread. So far no sign of aptaisia in my 125, but it’s all over the place in my Biocube.

The BC is pretty much set up for my decorator crab (crabby) haha. He's about 4 inches sitting normally. I feed him mysis once a week. I also have a few rogue snails and hermits in there also.

A few corals are in my tank. A circular frag of green zoo's that apparently got eaten one by one each day. They have disappeared completely. A nice size portion of xenia and a frag of purple zoo's that are pretty big, about fifteen polyps. Each polyp extends at least an inch from the base and have a size, of about a dime. I also have a rock that has a few rogue cloves and a nice size farm of these purple daisy looking corals. I'll def get some pictures up this weekend for sure! I've been posting here but not any pictures!

Onto the aptaisia problem. The mother of them is one that is about 2 inches tall and has the mouth size of about a quarter. Since I quarantined the seen aptaisia I have had little babies pop up all over the place. I was thinking about putting a handful of peppermint shrimp in there to clean it up. But I think my decorator crab eats peppermints. The other option is an aptaisia eating fish, or Joe’s juice. I don’t like the whole idea of Joe’s juice, but ill do what I have to, if needed. Suggestions?

Oh BC29:
50w Rena heater in chamber 2
Middle chamber completely empty even false floor
Stock lighting
Stock pumps

I bought it at pet smart for 289 dollars, and wanting it originally as a qt tank, but turned it into a refugium themed nano. I have a nice size ball of chaeto in the tank itself and it has been growing nicely and has bits of balls on the substrate, its unique looking, that’s what I was going for. Stocking list will probably be 2 gobies (when I add more sand) or a pair of naked clowns or snowflakes. Still up for grabs though. I am moving in two - three months so I do not want to make any purchases until I am set up in my new apartment. I might even Use my BC when I move for my fish from my 125. Moving is such a pain when it comes to this hobby, I have had to do it once already, but I had nothing at all basically, was just starting out. 2 Ocellaris Clowns, 1 Blue Hippo Tang and about 15lbs of LR in my 75. Bought my 125 and set it up in my new apartment and transferred the contents (only a 10 mile move) this upcoming move will roughly be an hour / 44 miles.

[jmadison]

Originally posted by Lyfey
Jmadison where is the Vortech positioned? I am only running the stock pump for flow in my bc29. I am going to add a k1 shortly... should I go with 2 k1's?

The vortech is positioned about 3-4" down and about 5-6" from the back on the left side. That side is facing the wall where i have my tank. I can still see that side, but it's most def not a problem for me to have it positioned there. I used to have 2 K2's... so by no means would 2 K1's be a problem for you. I don't know that you'd need any more flow than 1 K2 or 2 K1's for what you're trying to accomplish. I used to have one of mine (K2) under the return angled up aimed at the front glass in the center about 3 inches down, and the other was on right side against the plastic about 5" down aimed into my rock for dispersal of flow. Hope that helps!