Biocube 29g Rimless Build

[The River]

Yes another one... I have built a 54g corner Biocube 29g and JBJ 28g in the past. I wanted a small AIO system due to living in a third floor apartment and the landlord needed to approve the tank being there.
So this is what I bought after taking a 4 year break from reef keeping.

 

[The River]

it had a kessil a80 and I needed something stronger... so first decision was how I would light this bad boy. Also, being newly married and having the wife only give me one condition to this venture I had to listen = the stand should be white to match the rooms furniture ;Brb

 

[The River]

so I went with a light I knew I would be happy with:

 

[The River]

now after trying the light on the tank I realized 2 issues:
1) the light mount blocks the middle chamber from easy access and equipment placement
2) the weight of the attached light felt too much for the rear glass on the cube

so my solution was to reinforce the stand, raise it 4 inches as i felt it was too low and build a stand off bracket to mount the light directly.

Here is what I came up with:

 

[The River]

Here it is after paint:

 

[The River]

I found these boot drip pans and joined 2 together that made a nice layer of protection from small spills.

I also test fitted the light...

 

[The River]

I have all dry product starting this system and had my rock cycling in a Rubbermaid container before setup. I am dosing Bio Digest and frozen brine into that container to get things going.

Here it is with the tank stand light and sand:

 

[The River]

Next up was automation and monitoring for me...

I went with Apex Jr and also used their ATK for my top off system.

The controller I mounted on the door and used white duct tape to hide the wires. I like the way it came out. I will be adding my last module on the left side top as PM2 with break out box, left the space for it but haven't bought them yet.

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R, very nice set up, I love nano tank, looking forward to seeing more

 

[The River]

I have had water in it about 2 weeks. I really like the aquascape. I left a channel in the back and have good areas open for coral growth. I plan on having a mixed setup but mostly SPS. Want to keep a light load but really be selective on the pieces I add.

Here are a few of the aquascaping the day I set it up. Sorry for the terrible pics.

 

[TheEngineer]

Nice work! Your turkey blaster clip is both awesome and ridiculous all at the same time

 

[jk_s124]

I have all dry product starting this system and had my rock cycling in a Rubbermaid container before setup. I am dosing Bio Digest and frozen brine into that container to get things going.

Here it is with the tank stand light and sand:

That looks sharp! Love the white with black accents.

 

[The River]

My next project was the rear chamber and that will get my currently where I am at on this setup.

I wanted to cover the sump area in the back. I found a new 32g LED hood that had the LED light fried in the top and bought the hood cheap so I could cut it up...

my plan is to bond some 1/4" black acrylic to the front (I left a nice tab to bond to that was part of the factory hood, see above) I will bring the front piece about 1/4" above the rimless glass and shape it to the top nicely. This will close the back area and look nice aesthetically. It also already greatly reduces the sound omitted from the equipment and water flow back there.

When this is all set, I am getting quotes now for a nice clear and mesh custom acrylic top for the rimless tank itself.

 

[The River]

And then there was filtration methods... lol

I started on the traditional Intank Media and Fuge racks with a pretty standard fuge light.

I got intrigued with Balling style methods and started to try and figure a system that could incorporate this style of reef keeping into a BioCube 29g.

This will be hard but I am going to give it a try. I pulled the media racks and dedicated my center section as a refugium. I also ordered a Kessil H80 refugium light that I will mount on that light bar facing the clear back of the refugium (updates will come when the light arrives).

 

[Haggisman14]

Super clean setup! Digging the way you mounted the light to the stand, and totally dig the paint job on the stand! Definitely following along as a fellow cube owner! Looks sweet rimeless too!

 

[The River]

For now..
Chamber 1: I have my temp probe in chamber 1, but that will contain my skimmer (thinking Aquatic Life 115) and hopefully my heater (Cobalt Neo Therm 100w, see if it fits) in the future.
Chamber 2: Refugium with 2 types of macralgae, marinepure balls and few small rocks in bottom. Kessil H80 for light... may remove the marine pure balls and just keep few rocks in bottom after hearing about their leeching issues. If heater doesn't fit chamber 1 it will go here...
Chamber 3: auto top off (neptune ATK) - probe rack temp and PH - return pump (MJ1200) - trying to decide on carbon/ GFO in this area (either bag or some kind of built in reactor on the bottom where the water enters this chamber)

 

[jk_s124]

For now..
Chamber 1: I have my temp probe in chamber 1, but that will contain my skimmer (thinking Aquatic Life 115) and hopefully my heater (Cobalt Neo Therm 100w, see if it fits) in the future.
Chamber 2: Refugium with 2 types of macralgae, marinepure balls and few small rocks in bottom. Kessil H80 for light... may remove the marine pure balls and just keep few rocks in bottom after hearing about their leeching issues. If heater doesn't fit chamber 1 it will go here...
Chamber 3: auto top off (neptune ATK) - probe rack temp and PH - return pump (MJ1200) - trying to decide on carbon/ GFO in this area (either bag or some kind of built in reactor on the bottom where the water enters this chamber)

Here is how it looks now:

In chamber 2 I have a media rack with floss then carbon then gfo, and next to that a bag with a liter of seachem matrix, I was trying to think of a way to also have a refugium. Never occurred to me to use chamber three for the gfo and carbon. Keep us posted with what you come up with in the back.

 

[seaplane]

My goodness that's a beautifully meticulous set up. I'm jealous. I have a BC29 also, my stand is more like a "junk yard" set up, lol. Looking forward to watching your mature!

 

[The River]

In chamber 2 I have a media rack with floss then carbon then gfo, and next to that a bag with a liter of seachem matrix, I was trying to think of a way to also have a refugium. Never occurred to me to use chamber three for the gfo and carbon. Keep us posted with what you come up with in the back.

Yeah that was my "normal" setup method. The Balling style tanks remove all filter pads/ socks and focus on the macro-algae consuming the phos and nitrates. Ideally there would be a much large refugium to house the macro's but that is limited on these tanks. So the idea here was to maximize the refugium section and get a light specifically designed to grow the algae.
Carbon and GFO are used on the Balling methods but as needed and after the water has been skimmed and sent through the refugium. The idea is to consume nutrients as much as possible before sending the water through these media.
I was thinking a custom box with many drilled holes, you could fill with the media and stick in between the walls in the return chamber on the bottom where the water is forced to flow through. IDK
would love to see someone that tried this because it is basically building a reactor without a need for another pump

 

[The River]

Quick update:
I have my parameters stable and finally added my first clownfish. I am running the refugium light 24/7 and keeping the tank light off until I know I am past the initial algae spike. I ended up with a lightning maroon clown and it looks happy and is eating frozen brine shrimp. I will post a pic when I can get a decent shot of the fish.
I am still working out all the details of my filtering method. Need to see how much the refugium can control this system now I have a fish and feeding in there. My kessil H80 will be here in a few days so I will update how that looks and works.