Rajkovich207's Biocube 29 With Sump

[rajkovich207]

Hey everyone, my name is Tony. I have been on here for quite a few months and have to say, I LOVE it here! I feel like I already know many of you guys (I spend alot of my time on my phone on this sight lol) through your build threads and posts.

I started my journey in this hobby on 6/23/2011 with a 5.5 gallon tank, I was quite the noob and didnt take my time with anything, got frustrated I couldnt keep a hold on anything and took it down shorty after a 6 day power outage. on 10/10/2011, I set up my 20L, and had it up untill about 5 weeks ago. The tank did great at first but about march of this year took a turn for the worse with a mini crash that I was never able to pick the tank back up from. I have dealt with countless numbers and varieties of pests, and just decided I would rip it down and restart.

I purchased a biocube 29 a few months ago from an LFS that I couldnt pass up. I figured I would do everything on this build that I should have done in the very first place, and am going to tell myself that this is my last attempt so I do everything right... (even though I know this is a lie :wink: ). One of my ideas what to go LEDs, A member on the forum (impur (if you have a problem with your name in here bud let me know and I will have this removed)) got an LED kit from aquastyleonline for his BC29, and after flooding him with questions decided to pull the trigger. It was a pain in the rear to mount the heatsink in the hood but managed with some help from my pops. For never soldering in my life before I was quite proud of how it turned out.

I ordered 120* optics thinking I would get good spread, but after building my rockwork decided I would no longer use them due to shadows.

came home 10/28/2012 with some goodies but still needed a few more gallons of water

Then started mixing away when I had all that I need.

and the filling process began!!!

 

[rajkovich207]

Finally it was finished being filled and all perams were in line

More to come shortly!

 

[Steven R]

Nice man some great shelving are you going SPS or lps/softie? I have a bc29 with esshops rs-75 sump/fuge

 

[wysiwyg]

great looking start

 

[rako1]

Nice build tony rockwork looks great. Patience now good luck

 

[rajkovich207]

Thanks guys! I am hoping for sps dominant but havent had great luck with them in the past.
Euipment:
-custom stand 36"L x 24"D x 28"H
-biocube 29 display
-DIY 20L sump (my old display)
-Aquamedic 500 skimmer
-DIY single switch ATO
-Aqueon 2500 return
-Filter sock and fuge with about 10lbs rock and 5 lbs sand
-12 LBS SSB in display with about 28 LBS rock

With the display I have the hydor rotating nozzle, MJ900 pointing at the surface, and BB behind rock with a 200 gph to keep detritus from settling back there. in chamber 1 I will be running purigan and GFO as needed, ch 2 has my heater and a ground probe so far, ch 3 has my overflow box ( eshopps psk nano 300)
as well as the return line ran through there.

little bit of pics...
I wanted a nice open scape with alot of shelves as I love the look of them, some of you may notice a T and S rock off to the left. The T is for tony (my first name) and the S is for Shannon (my loving better half that has accompanied me all over norther IL, and parts of WI to various LFS, I love her to death and thank her every day for putting up with my obsessoin.)

Sump: Left

 

[rajkovich207]

Ok sorry about all the posts guys, my computer was going nuts...

anyways sump center

Right

and stand/sump FTS

and then Just a couple shots of whats left from My old tank break down, I have a maxi mini nem, several rics, a few differnt zoas and palys, and a couple other random things.

RPPE also have PPE ( going to collect all morphs )

Magacians

and a couple shots of my pride and joy

 

[Saltwatertaylor]

I love your rock work!

 

[rajkovich207]

I also have a purple firefish along with my corals in a temp/Q-tank, as well as several other zoas and a couple sps in my dads tank. I managed to get him in the hobby when I took him to an LFS last november and he hasnt looked back since. When I start adding things I will add a photo of each coral. At the moment have a small bag of mysis floating in the tank to bring up the ammonia. I will be using DR. tims one and only for the cycle (Im tired of pests and would rather stock my own pods and such so I will not be adding any live rock). Once the ammonia hits 1.0 ill be putting in the first half of the bottle and then will repeat a second time just to be safe.

If anyone has any comments questions or any critiques please feel free to share! I would love some feed back!
and sorry for any spelling errors in advance, I am usually on my phone lol.

 

[rajkovich207]

Thank you so much saltwatertaylor! I forgot to mention the rock came from the 20 Long and was put through a muriatic acid dip, soaked in RO/DI for a week along with 3 water changes and then epoxied together.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I love the rock work and the T & S is great!!! The clam is gorgeous!!! I'll be tagging along to follow the progress.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

I also have a purple firefish along with my corals in a temp/Q-tank, as well as several other zoas and a couple sps in my dads tank. I managed to get him in the hobby when I took him to an LFS last november and he hasnt looked back since. When I start adding things I will add a photo of each coral. At the moment have a small bag of mysis floating in the tank to bring up the ammonia. I will be using DR. tims one and only for the cycle (Im tired of pests and would rather stock my own pods and such so I will not be adding any live rock). Once the ammonia hits 1.0 ill be putting in the first half of the bottle and then will repeat a second time just to be safe.

If anyone has any comments questions or any critiques please feel free to share! I would love some feed back!
and sorry for any spelling errors in advance, I am usually on my phone lol.

Sweet tank and nice setup!! I agree next time i do a tank....no live rock. I plan on maybe going with something like this Bonsai | Aqua-Tecture to get things going. I have always wanted to do a sump on my Biocube but never got around to it...gives me a reason to upgrade LOL. Looking forward to seeing more!!

 

[revhtree]

Your aquascaping is awesome! Great job and glad to have you here at R2R!

 

[revsgirl]

Lookin' great!

 

[tcreeftank]

The LED upgrade looks like a great upgrade. Always wanted to do that to our 12 gal nano but afraid I will screw it up haha.

 

[rajkovich207]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!! The led was actually incredibly easy, you should give it a shot! If you have any questions please feel free to pm me, or contact me on this thread. No harm in a small hijack ;-) quick update, the ammonia has been stuck at. 5 ppm so I will be adding more mysis shortly. Thanks for following everyone!!!

 

[rajkovich207]

Not much to update, I finally got the ammonia up and the cycle started,come to find out I haven't been doing this right so I stalled the cycle... per instructions by some of the great people on here I will be headed to ace today if I can find the time to pick up some ammonium chloride. Also I have been getting a bit of dynos so hopefully that will clear up soon.

Also the firefish I have was fighting a bacterial infection for the last few days. He hasn't been doing good lately but was hanging in there. Yesterday he decided to venture out some and ended up getting tagged by my maxi mini carpet anemone. He got away, but sadly that was to much and he passed away about 15 minutes later :'(

 

[Pkunk35]

Awesome setup, Tony. I love the sump and LED retrofit on the biocube, its going to be a beast for you.

If you are in Chicago, which LFS do you visit? My fav was always old town aquarium but i had many friends at Old Orchard Aquarium as well, both good stores.

 

[rajkovich207]

My favorite was Midwest coral farms in highland park but sadly they closed. I haven't made it into Chicago but ill have to see if those ones are still around. According to lfsfinder.com many of the stores around here are closed :,(

 

[impur]

Wow I love your rockwork!!! Thats going to look so sweet when you get corals in there, and the TS rock is a great idea nice job!!

Did you drill the tank or are you using a HOB overflow?

Keep the updates coming!