Project BioCube (Lots Of Pics)

[reefitup]

Well, I figured I'd grab my little spot over here in Nanoville...

I didn't post anything while the tank was in its initial start up phase. Yay, an empty tank : Things have progressed pretty well though. Having been out of the 'sport' a while, it was (and still is) slow re-learning some stuff and I'm still picking it up the more I read. Amazing how much has changed in just a short time

Anyway on with the pics.


As previously stated...yay an empty tank : and with finger prints at that! I've kind of got OCD when it comes to my tank looking clean, so I can't believe I'm even showing this pic...

Some live rock I picked up from M & M

My First Hitch Hiker I was so excited, I named him (yeah, I checked, it's a boy) ;D

Some more rock from M & M's breakdown (of his tank)

Some more live rock I picked up from ALLquatics. I finally met Carlo (nice guy) and spent a while talking with him. For those looking for rock, I picked up some nice stuff there, and good price </shameless plug> Here's a few pics of some of their rock...

Ok, Enough rock pics. Still bare bottom. Going to pick up sand this weekend I think and begin aquascaping. That rock is all just kinda tossed in there ontop of itself in no specific order. I actually have NOTHING to do this weekend in the way of work, so maybe I'll play and post some pics...

Shouldn't me much longer now on the cycle. I've been testing and keeping track of things in an Excel Spreadsheet (yeah, I'm retentive like that) and eventually I'll have enough info gathered so I can make a chart. Won't that be exciting? :

Here's where I stand so far on Parameters...

Parameter: Result:
Calcium 420 mg/l
Alkalinity 11 dkh
Salinity 1.025 or 34ppm w/refracto...(might bring it up a hair this weekend)
Temperature 79.2
Nitrite 0
pH 8.0-8.1
Ammonia 0.25 mg/l (water change scheduled this weekend)


More to follow.... Oh wait. I almost forgot the FTS. It's not much, and it will change, but it's my first FTS ;D

 

[JRWOHLER]

Welcome ...see you have two tanks what is your plan for the pair?

 

[reefitup]

Welcome ...see you have two tanks what is your plan for the pair?

The 29 will be softies mostly...zoos, shrooms etc.. I'm planning on upgrading (eventually) to the Nanocustoms 4.36...all due time

The 72 is a FOWLR tank. It's my wife's. Eventually, I hope to take it over though and turn it into a reef...muwahahaha

 

[JRWOHLER]

Cool so you are just going to swap hoods then for their modified one?

 

[reefitup]

Well, I'm more than likely going to order the DIY kit and install it myself. You can send them your hood (BioCube, NanoCube, Aquapod etc) and they'll do it for free and mail it back, but I like to tinker

I've done the PC Retros on Eclipse tanks in the past and they weren't too difficult...granted they didn't have fans. But you can go to their site and read the installation instructions. I checked them out, and it seemed relatively simple. Seemed so anyway

 

[Phyl]

LOL. Progress looks good and the presentation very entertaining. I see you enjoying playing in the graphic arts. If you've got some skills there we might be able to put them to some good use!

 

[JRWOHLER]

I have considered a couple different mods including some DIY stuff. Even going with LED lights just keep heat down. I honestly have done OK with LPS and softies so not sure I really see the need at this point.
I am not sure SPS is in the cards for me for this tank at least so thinking to just save my money and the next upgrade be a BIG one.

 

[reefitup]

LOL. Progress looks good and the presentation very entertaining. I see you enjoying playing in the graphic arts. If you've got some skills there we might be able to put them to some good use!

Always willing to help where I can

I have considered a couple different mods including some DIY stuff. Even going with LED lights just keep heat down. I honestly have done OK with LPS and softies so not sure I really see the need at this point.
I am not sure SPS is in the cards for me for this tank at least so thinking to just save my money and the next upgrade be a BIG one.

Are you running stock lights on yours?

I'm thinking about scraping off the black stuff on the back of the tank at the 2nd chamber and running it as a fuge with a small PC light on the back. I have been tossing the idea around to do that or toss a small skimmer in the second chamber. I think you can do that mod on the AP24's. I read somewhere (and posted a link here on NJRC I think) a good thread worth reading where someone used a submersible LED light and Macro's did ok, then they scraped the back, and put I think it was about a 6500k light on the back of the tank and the macro algae went absolutely NUTS.

I'm trying not to 'Frankenstein' it out too much, but I'd like the nutrient export and could almost be ok with doing more frequent water changes to make up for the lack of skimmer... of course... I'm still trying to find a reasonable way to do both too ;D

 

[JRWOHLER]

Yep I have done some of that. I removed all the stock crap in the back put in live rock at the bottom, closed all but the top overflow to surface skim better, put floss in the front half and with eggcrate created a split in the chamber with macro in the back...with LED bar. It has worked well. One LED bar burned out but the guy replaced it. I have a couple threads in Nano section. Of course the great thread was Steelhlr in Nano forum.

I am running the stock lights but with the exception of one undefined SPS that my wife picked up the swap(very cheap) I have avoided SPS.

 

[reefitup]

Similar set up here. Although the back chambers are a little different...

I have carbon and 100 watt stealth in the 1st chamber, live rock rubble and filter media in 2nd. This weekend I'm going to swap the stock pump with a MJ1200 and cut the overflow wall from 1st/2nd chamber open. It's about 3-3.5 inches, but the overflow area is only 1/2 the width. Seems to be a standard mod for them. With the MJ and opening the overflow wall, should produce some extra circulation.

 

[Hawkeye]

LOL - great thread and posts....keep them coming!

hard to tell what that snail is -but most folks get collonista snails as a hitcher.

 

[reefitup]

Actually, I think it's a herbie snail from the Herbicus Snailicus family ;D

hehe

More pictures this weekend as I place some sand and play around with the 'rockscaping'

Oh, another cool thing about that rock from Allquatics... some of it I put in the wife's empty FOWLR... and I was looking closely tonight and there's a 'wittle baby mushroom' on the rock.

Now THAT'S what I call a hitch-hiker

I'll try to get some pics of him as that rock will uh : make its way downstairs to my tank

 

[Hawkeye]

NICE! Always great to have cool hitchers. Just be warned...I got three shrooms from a fellow reefer, oh I dunno - like a year or two ago...and now they are replicating like crazy. It's like the TRIBBLES.. I swear. ;D ;D

 

[reefitup]

I could think of worse problems to have hehe...

I am thinking about some ideas for a small softie frag tank maybe..


Was just tinkering around and tonight while on the phone and I did open the 'spill way' from the 1st chamber to the second chamber. Extremely simple to do. You can see by the discoloration on the media how the water was primarily flowing to the second chamber on just the right side.

Just took a wratchet style pipe cutter and snipped the side against the back wall, and then bent it back and forth a few times and voila... Instant better flow! It's a little ugly as I made a couple saw cuts with a small hack saw blade, then I stopped and thought about it and decided I didn't want plastic debris floating around my tank

I'll clean it up eventually...

 

[JohnS_323]

NICE! Always great to have cool hitchers. Just be warned...I got three shrooms from a fellow reefer, oh I dunno - like a year or two ago...and now they are replicating like crazy. It's like the TRIBBLES.. I swear. ;D ;D

I could think of worse problems to have hehe...

I had a similar experience to Phil. I have a 12g nano in my office and when initially set it up, I put one little frilly mushroom in the botton left of the tank and one or two ugly green/brown button polyps on the upper right. The rest of the tank was filled with beautiful LPS and other softies. Within a year everything in the tank was dead except the whole left side was frilly shrooms and the whole right side was button polyps. I finally had to tear that tank down because the shrooms and polyps had a face-off and the shrooms started killing the polyps. They were definitely the titans of the tank.

It should be mentioned that those frilly mushrooms did take out a number of other prettier shrooms (of course), so your hitch-hikers may not be so aggressive but you never know.

 

[reefitup]

I'll definitely keep an eye out on it.

This morning I swapped the stock pump for with a MJ1200. Good amount of flow now! I also tossed some sand into the tank :

Tonight I plan on taking the LR with the shroom out of my wife's tank and putting it downstairs...

If the water clears up enough I'll get some pics : ((yeah, I know, start from the bottom and work your way up, but I got excited) LOL

 

[reefitup]

Oh no... The LFS sold me some stuff and said it would turn my water as clear and blue as the carribean ocean! Did I use too much? ;D

Just moved the rock down with the shroom from the wifeys tank, and it's clearing up pretty quickly Not really aquascaped, just rearranged. He's not come out yet, but when he does...I'll be waiting with the camera :

 

[reefitup]

Well, I was staring at the tank tonight...as I always do...

And I was inspired by all the pods I saw all over the tank....

I wanted to make a refugium for them. I know most of us know this little trick about turning the center chamber into a fuge, but I snapped off a few pics of it in action. I had been debating refugium vs skimmer and I think I've decided... I'll do both I found some ideas for a skimmer and will be working on that. I'll document pics, but a few extra water changes is good practice LOL

So, on with the scraping. What I found was razorscraper (2.50 at home depot) and some water (free) did the trick. I'm sure soapy water would have been better, but I'm neurotic about putting anything but R/O near the tank (yes, that's actually RO water I scraped with). This week I'll go out and get a little gang box, PC light and some Velcro and voila. Until then, I have a table with a small light behind the tank that I could use. I know it doesn't take much to get Chaeto rolling..

Little scary at first, but after I got going, I was a scraping fool. It's a little rough tonight, but it's also 12:35 and I am going to hit the sack. I'll proably clean it up a bit tomorrow and make the edges neat and purdy.... BTW, no scratches on the glass!

Now, who's got Chaeto down this way

 

[reefitup]

Almost forgot "Shroomy" as the kids are now calling it. He was the hitch-hiker on that nice Figi rock from Allquatics. Considering what this lil fella proably went through, he could probably with stand anything...even a name like shroomy ;D

When I moved him downstairs, he really opened up nicely. I have a feeling he'll open more for me tomorrow

 

[reefitup]

Houston, we have a refugium

This morning/afternoon I picked up one of these http://lightsofamerica.com/desk.htm (Model 1147TR). It's a desklamp and I have a small table behind the reef (it's in my basement facing my work area so I could care less what the back view looks like). I think it'll be decent. I may rig it up to get closer, but haven't really decided yet. Little power compact light that puts out 6500K and is $20.00. No boxes to rig or velcro.

Thanks to adesimone1 I also have some chaeto and caulerpa. We'll see how good the light helps the growth. Walmart has a good return policy if it doesn't work ;D

Excuse the salt. I was tinkering with things a little before taking the pic and I hadn't done my nightly wipedown. Tank OCD stinks! : LOL Didn't get a chance to clean up the 'scraping' either...

Parameters still look good. 0 Ammonia/Nitrites. dkh is at 10-11 (half a drop got in there :) Calcium was down to 380 and I didn't add anything the past couple days, so I anticipated that. Added some Calcium tonight.

Think I'm going to get a media bag, and take the rock in there out, add some more rubble and toss it all in a bag. Makes it easier to clean it off down the road I think.