12G Nano Cube Upgrade/Rebuild

jaguarmonk · 02/26/2011, 10:13 PM

I've been in the hobby on and off since 2004. Had a power outage that killed off pretty much everything I had in both of my tanks in 2008, and haven't really had much since. I've kept both my tanks up and running because I have a decent amount of live rock and sand, but haven't really had much live stock ( a few damsels and stuff...). Recently I've had the urge to get back into the hobby. I found a guy at work whose involved and through talking with him have re-sparked my interest.

I'm pretty much restarting my 12G Nano Cube from scratch, and this is going to be the build thread. Currently I have about 10Lbs of live rock in the tank and a few zoos that havent opened in a few weeks (I think this is due to the lighting, one of the CF buls burnt out, and the other is fairly old), and a couple blue legged hermits. I have order the materials to build my own LED fixture, and just removed the crushed coral that has been in the tank since 2004 today and replaced it with 10lbs of Aragonite Live Sand. Heres a few pics of what I'm working with.

This is a shot of the tank before replacing the crushed coral

Current Lighting (Burnt out bulb, and the other is a couple years old)

Top Down with Crushed Coral

Peanut Worm that I found in the Crushed Coral when I removed it

Right After Adding Sand

Couple Shots Of the Current Condition with Live Sand

I should have the stuff to build the LED fixture in a few days, and I'm picking up a few fish on Monday (2 False Perculas, and a pseudochromis). Currently Looking on input for what I should be running in the filter compartment in the back, or anything other ideas....

jaguarmonk · 03/04/2011, 03:05 PM

A few days ago I got the stuff in the mail to build the LED light fixture. I purchased a kit from RapidLED which included 12 Cree LEDs (6 white/6 blue). Here are a few pictures of the finished project.

As you may (or may not) be able to see, I added a few frags given to me by a friend (Thanks cyberwollf!).

I added a bi-color pseudochromis the other day also... but he is very shy and I couldn't get a good picture.

Last night I ordered a Koralia Nano power head to get some more flow on those frags.

Scott B · 03/04/2011, 06:15 PM

looking good, leds are looking much better than what you had! good luck

Tschupe · 03/04/2011, 07:18 PM

How much did the LEDs cost you

Misenplace101 · 03/04/2011, 08:37 PM

Looks great, did you mount the LEDs under your hood?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

jeff1974 · 03/04/2011, 09:51 PM

how well do them leds grow coral?

jaguarmonk · 03/05/2011, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tschupe

How much did the LEDs cost you

Total I spent $12

I bought this kit for $102
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-...ourself/Detail

And This heat sink for $22
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-...4.25%22/Detail

jaguarmonk · 03/05/2011, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Misenplace101

Looks great, did you mount the LEDs under your hood?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah... currently they are temporary "mounted" in the old hood.... I removed all the hardware for the PC's and have the Heatsink suspended with wire that runs through the top vents and is tied outside of the hood... its pretty ghetto. I hope to actually build something a little more permanent in a few weeks.

Higgy2010 · 03/05/2011, 04:25 PM

Good-looking avatar

I have a couple of tomata clowns and a LTA in my 40G breeder.
Once ich is treated on my coral beauty angelfish, I'll rebuild my 14G Biocube. Your thread really motivates me to do that. Keep us updated.

jaguarmonk · 03/05/2011, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Higgy2010

Good-looking avatar

I have a couple of tomata clowns and a LTA in my 40G breeder.
Once ich is treated on my coral beauty angelfish, I'll rebuild my 14G Biocube. Your thread really motivates me to do that. Keep us updated.

Thanks... That Tomato is probably one of my favorite fish I ever had. He was big and mean, but fun to watch. I lost him in a power outage when I was away at school, along with a bunch of other stuff... sad day. That tank now only contains a big damsel and a ton of live rock.

Rebuilding the Nano Cube is my way of slowly (and hopefully cheaply) getting back into the hobby.

jaguarmonk · 03/07/2011, 09:16 PM

Went to my parents house for the weekend, came home to a Cyno outbreak... and I can't seem to find the pseudochromis anywhere.

Did a quick water test, nothing out of the norm.... thinking that the psudochromis kicked the bucket over the weekend, and the two blue legs cleaned him up real quick.

Got my Koralia Nano in the mail today, set it up to put current directly on the frags/live rock, everything looks like its enjoying it... except the star polyps. I've only seen the star polyps partially open on one occasion, kinda wondering if I should move them closer to the light (The are currently on LR about an inch from the bottom)

InvaderJim · 03/08/2011, 10:29 PM

How do you like the LEDs so far? I was thinking about ditching the PC lights in my hood in favor of the same kit you bought.

jaguarmonk · 03/08/2011, 11:27 PM

I love them... They are much brighter than the PCs and the Shimmer effect is pretty cool. Not too convinced that my coral is super happy about it though, I think they kinda got a shock when I switched lights on them, still have polyps that haven't opened since the change.

Tschupe · 03/10/2011, 08:47 AM

Can you show how you mounted it to the hood

Tschupe · 03/10/2011, 10:17 AM

OOPS. You already answered my question. Nevermind

jaguarmonk · 03/10/2011, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tschupe

Can you show how you mounted it to the hood

Here I figured I'd post a couple of pics so we could all laugh about it...

The only supplies I used were two pieces of twisted pair cable out of an old piece of CAT5e I had laying around, and the plastic box my iPod Touch came in.

In other news, I took the splash guard of last night because I noticed that the inside of it was really dusty. While cleaning it, I noticed that the heat sink for my LEDs was really hot... So i decided I should probably do something about that.

I had previously cut all the wires that powered the old PC's but they weren't taped or anything, and I didn't leave myself much to work with, so I opened up the Ballast Box and actually disconnected the power lines for the ballast and wire nutted the lines coming from the plug. Now the only thing in the big ballast box is the transformer that powers the Fans, and the old LED moon lighting, which are still in the hood, but need moved to a new location where the heat sink doesn't cover them up.

Tschupe · 03/29/2011, 09:50 PM

Update?

jaguarmonk · 03/29/2011, 10:56 PM

Things are going good... my cyno problem disappeared, and the polyps that wouldn't open before are now opening. I put some cheato in the back with an underwater LED, and added a banded coral shrimp and a lawnmower blenny. I also took some PAR readings....

I post some pictures and the PAR readings (tomorrow?), once I find the scrap piece of paper that I wrote them on...

In Summary, everything is going great!

jaguarmonk · 03/31/2011, 10:07 PM

Alright... Here we go. I'm not really completely sure how accurate these par readings are, I borrowed my friends PAR meter which is kinda a DIY device.

heres a few other pics....

rkesling · 04/06/2011, 09:05 PM

Great build! Tank looks great, lights seem bright. Nice work

duncantse · 04/06/2011, 09:22 PM

Nice tank! You have a lot of salt on your hood though. Might wanna clean that up.

02/26/2011, 10:13 PM	#1
jaguarmonk Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cedarville, OH Posts: 89	12G Nano Cube Upgrade/Rebuild I've been in the hobby on and off since 2004. Had a power outage that killed off pretty much everything I had in both of my tanks in 2008, and haven't really had much since. I've kept both my tanks up and running because I have a decent amount of live rock and sand, but haven't really had much live stock ( a few damsels and stuff...). Recently I've had the urge to get back into the hobby. I found a guy at work whose involved and through talking with him have re-sparked my interest. I'm pretty much restarting my 12G Nano Cube from scratch, and this is going to be the build thread. Currently I have about 10Lbs of live rock in the tank and a few zoos that havent opened in a few weeks (I think this is due to the lighting, one of the CF buls burnt out, and the other is fairly old), and a couple blue legged hermits. I have order the materials to build my own LED fixture, and just removed the crushed coral that has been in the tank since 2004 today and replaced it with 10lbs of Aragonite Live Sand. Heres a few pics of what I'm working with. This is a shot of the tank before replacing the crushed coral Current Lighting (Burnt out bulb, and the other is a couple years old) Top Down with Crushed Coral Peanut Worm that I found in the Crushed Coral when I removed it Right After Adding Sand Couple Shots Of the Current Condition with Live Sand I should have the stuff to build the LED fixture in a few days, and I'm picking up a few fish on Monday (2 False Perculas, and a pseudochromis). Currently Looking on input for what I should be running in the filter compartment in the back, or anything other ideas....

03/04/2011, 03:05 PM	#2
jaguarmonk Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cedarville, OH Posts: 89	A few days ago I got the stuff in the mail to build the LED light fixture. I purchased a kit from RapidLED which included 12 Cree LEDs (6 white/6 blue). Here are a few pictures of the finished project. As you may (or may not) be able to see, I added a few frags given to me by a friend (Thanks cyberwollf!). I added a bi-color pseudochromis the other day also... but he is very shy and I couldn't get a good picture. Last night I ordered a Koralia Nano power head to get some more flow on those frags. __________________ "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right..." Current Tank Info: 75 gal mixed Reef, EcoTech Radion XR30W gen 2 LEDs, Aqueon ProFlex Sump Mod 4, Neptune Systems Apex Controller, Reef Octopus NWB150 Skimmer

03/04/2011, 07:18 PM	#4
Tschupe Registered Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: chandler, AZ Posts: 1,144	How much did the LEDs cost you __________________ TIM Current Tank Info: 29 biocube. Rkl with alc. mp-10. DIY CREE LEDs. Tunze 9002. 10 gallon with kessil 150 ocean blue

03/07/2011, 09:16 PM	#11
jaguarmonk Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cedarville, OH Posts: 89	Went to my parents house for the weekend, came home to a Cyno outbreak... and I can't seem to find the pseudochromis anywhere. Did a quick water test, nothing out of the norm.... thinking that the psudochromis kicked the bucket over the weekend, and the two blue legs cleaned him up real quick. Got my Koralia Nano in the mail today, set it up to put current directly on the frags/live rock, everything looks like its enjoying it... except the star polyps. I've only seen the star polyps partially open on one occasion, kinda wondering if I should move them closer to the light (The are currently on LR about an inch from the bottom) __________________ "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right..." Current Tank Info: 75 gal mixed Reef, EcoTech Radion XR30W gen 2 LEDs, Aqueon ProFlex Sump Mod 4, Neptune Systems Apex Controller, Reef Octopus NWB150 Skimmer

03/08/2011, 11:27 PM	#13
jaguarmonk Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cedarville, OH Posts: 89	I love them... They are much brighter than the PCs and the Shimmer effect is pretty cool. Not too convinced that my coral is super happy about it though, I think they kinda got a shock when I switched lights on them, still have polyps that haven't opened since the change. __________________ "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right..." Current Tank Info: 75 gal mixed Reef, EcoTech Radion XR30W gen 2 LEDs, Aqueon ProFlex Sump Mod 4, Neptune Systems Apex Controller, Reef Octopus NWB150 Skimmer

03/04/2011, 06:15 PM	#3
Scott B Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Utah Posts: 176	looking good, leds are looking much better than what you had! good luck

03/04/2011, 08:37 PM	#5
Misenplace101 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Northshore Posts: 418	Looks great, did you mount the LEDs under your hood? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

03/04/2011, 09:51 PM	#6
jeff1974 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 91	how well do them leds grow coral?

03/05/2011, 04:25 PM	#9
Higgy2010 Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Laguna Hills Posts: 250	Good-looking avatar I have a couple of tomata clowns and a LTA in my 40G breeder. Once ich is treated on my coral beauty angelfish, I'll rebuild my 14G Biocube. Your thread really motivates me to do that. Keep us updated.

03/08/2011, 10:29 PM	#12
InvaderJim Coral Junkie Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Gainesville, FL Posts: 1,163	How do you like the LEDs so far? I was thinking about ditching the PC lights in my hood in favor of the same kit you bought.

03/10/2011, 08:47 AM	#14
Tschupe Registered Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: chandler, AZ Posts: 1,144	Can you show how you mounted it to the hood __________________ TIM Current Tank Info: 29 biocube. Rkl with alc. mp-10. DIY CREE LEDs. Tunze 9002. 10 gallon with kessil 150 ocean blue

03/10/2011, 10:17 AM	#15
Tschupe Registered Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: chandler, AZ Posts: 1,144	OOPS. You already answered my question. Nevermind __________________ TIM Current Tank Info: 29 biocube. Rkl with alc. mp-10. DIY CREE LEDs. Tunze 9002. 10 gallon with kessil 150 ocean blue

03/29/2011, 09:50 PM	#17
Tschupe Registered Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: chandler, AZ Posts: 1,144	Update? __________________ TIM Current Tank Info: 29 biocube. Rkl with alc. mp-10. DIY CREE LEDs. Tunze 9002. 10 gallon with kessil 150 ocean blue

03/29/2011, 10:56 PM	#18
jaguarmonk Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cedarville, OH Posts: 89	Things are going good... my cyno problem disappeared, and the polyps that wouldn't open before are now opening. I put some cheato in the back with an underwater LED, and added a banded coral shrimp and a lawnmower blenny. I also took some PAR readings.... I post some pictures and the PAR readings (tomorrow?), once I find the scrap piece of paper that I wrote them on... In Summary, everything is going great! __________________ "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right..." Current Tank Info: 75 gal mixed Reef, EcoTech Radion XR30W gen 2 LEDs, Aqueon ProFlex Sump Mod 4, Neptune Systems Apex Controller, Reef Octopus NWB150 Skimmer

03/31/2011, 10:07 PM	#19
jaguarmonk Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cedarville, OH Posts: 89	Alright... Here we go. I'm not really completely sure how accurate these par readings are, I borrowed my friends PAR meter which is kinda a DIY device. heres a few other pics.... __________________ "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right..." Current Tank Info: 75 gal mixed Reef, EcoTech Radion XR30W gen 2 LEDs, Aqueon ProFlex Sump Mod 4, Neptune Systems Apex Controller, Reef Octopus NWB150 Skimmer

04/06/2011, 09:05 PM	#20
rkesling Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: East Coast USA Posts: 162	Great build! Tank looks great, lights seem bright. Nice work

04/06/2011, 09:22 PM	#21
duncantse Fish Advisor Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 1,604	Nice tank! You have a lot of salt on your hood though. Might wanna clean that up.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Sky Reef's Nano Cube Mod Diary (JBJ Nano Cube 28-Gallon HQI)	SkyReef	Do It Yourself	10	06/23/2013 09:40 PM
Kidninja's 12 Gallon JBJ Nano Cube DX	kidninja	Nano Reefs	349	03/21/2013 12:48 PM
Hello! Just wanted to show you how my nano is doing! :)	urkinduhdorky	Nano Reefs	0	07/07/2010 06:31 PM
Need suggestions on how revamp nano-cube 28. with extra parts	hermeez	Nano Reefs	1	06/16/2010 10:56 AM