JDK's Rimless Biocube-- AI Sol Nano powered

[JDK]

So after telling myself over and over I was going to move my entire build thread to this forum I finally am going through with it (Insomnia and nothing on TV :squigglemouth. The other two forums I am on are either filled with **** holes or playground kids. I love this forum and should have started here from the beginning. All the best vendors, corals and member tanks are here and it's about time I joined in. So here it goes..........

My first reef tank.... A rimless Biocube adventure

Tank:

Rimless BC29
-Intank Media/Fuge Basket
-MJ-1200 Return pump upgrade
-20 Lbs BRS Pukani Rock
-30 Lbs Arag alive fiji pink sand

Equipment:
-AI Nano blue w/ Controller and DIY Mount
-Reefkeeper Lite
-JBJ ATO w/ aqualifter pump MJ 600
-Ecotech MP10ES
-AquaticLife mini skimmer w/ airline mod and air control valve Hydor Slim-Skim
-JNS-VS1 skimmer (aka AquaMaxx HOB-1)
-JBJ Nano-Glo LED
-CPR Nano Reactor running GFO/GAC
-Bubble Magus Doser-- On the way!!

Others:
-American DJ 8 outlet powerstrip
-Jager 100W heater 2 Hydor 50W heaters on RKL Control
-Air Water Ice Mighty Mite RODI

CURRENT FTS:

Livestock:
-Black and White Clown
-Vivid Fancy Ocellaris
-Yasha Goby (have yet to see this fish since it dove into the rocks on day 1???????)
-Mandarin Dragonette
-Leopard Wrasse
-Fromia Starfish
-Ultra Maxima Clam

Corals:
SPS
-Tyree Pink Lemonade
-Tyree Seasons Greetings Monti
-Rainbow Monti
-Garf Bonsai
-Orange Crush Acro
-Bali Slimer
-ORA Red Planet
-Jason Fox "Unknown" Acro
-Random from local reefer
LPS
-Various Rainbow Acans
-Purple with green tips Torch
-Eyes in the Sky Chalice
-WWC Razzle Dazzle Chalice
-WWC Moonshine Chalice
Softs
-Rasta zoas Melted Away :angry:
-Red Hornet zoas
-WWC Pandora Palys
-Blue Hornet zoas
-Toucan Zoas
-La Lakers zoas
-Mushrooms: discos/rhodactis/ricordea


Cuc:
-Dwarf blue legged hermits
-2 red legged hermits
-Virgin Nerites
-Dwarf Ceriths
-Nassarus Vibex
-Pods + from reefcleaners
-Blood/Fire Shrimp for LFS

Still need to Get/Do:
-MP10 ES Just bought on its way!!
-Reefkeeper Lite w/ SL2
-DIY black acrylic box to cover rear chambers
-DIY brs clear mesh top cover

FTS 11/21/11

Diatoms gone now 11/25/11

FTS 12/19/11

FTS 12/31/11

FTS 2/5/12

FTS 3/19/12

Light arm swivels in and out

 

[JDK]

Rainbow Acan

Rainbow Monti

RazzleDazzle Chalice

Moonshine Chalice

 

[JDK]

Just ordered an Ultra Acan Frag pack from Austin Aqua Farms. Should be here next week. Will post pics when they get here

 

[JDK]

Ok so front rock has been removed. Made a world of a difference. Much more open in the front. Plenty of room for a rainbow acan garden which is the goal! Purple torch arrives tomorrow as well as a Forest fire digi frag.

Speaking of acans........ Just ordered a frag pack from Reef Odyssey

Pics of Frag Pack:

 

[JDK]

Purple Torch Coral Pic- Cant believe how neon the green tips are.

3 Heads

2 Heads died when I tried to move some rocks around. One fell on the torch and 2 heads got brown jelly :doubt:

 

[JDK]

More frags from ebay. Should be here thursday

Nuclear green mushroom

Psychadelic blue mushroom

Crazy Acan

 

[JDK]

You mentioned in one of your posts that you ditched your Jager 100w in the display tank for 2 50's in chamber 3. Was curious how you had it hooked up to your RKL (single channel, or two?), and how it was working out.[/quote]

Oh yeah forgot about that. Yeah I switched to 2 fifty watt hydor theo heaters. The temp probe is in the first chamber. Heaters are hooked up to individual modules and in the 3rd chamber. Both are set at 77 on the RKL. Have the actual heater thermostat set to 80 so they kick on and are not relying on their own internal thermostat because I dont know how acurate those actually are. Temperature is constant never moves more than .1 degrees.

I like having 2 heaters that are 50 watts as opposed to one 100w heater for protection. If one heater fails the other is still there and can keep the tank from dropping too low. Also if one heater sticks on it is not enough to cook the tank.

 

[JDK]

Fancy ocellaris and Yasha goby came in and look great. Anyone looking for fish online should order from aqualifeaquarium on Ebay. The guy is fantastic. He has GREAT prices and very healthy fish. 100% feedback on 420 transactions.


SPS frags came today from procorals.com

-Ora Red Planet
-Ora Pearlberry (died)
-Tyree Pink Lemonade (still brown over a month later)
-Garf Bonsai

Have a question.... Two of the frags had come off the plugs during shipping. I superglued them back on before I dipped them in Rx.

It looks like the lower part of the Garf and Ora Pearl are a little white. The two that remained on the plugs are colored all the way down and encrusting look fine. Should I be worried about the two that came off? Is the white mean that the tissue coming off?

 

[JDK]

Could you give some details on how you made that light arm?[/quote]

It is bent conduit from home depot. Check the AquaIlluminations club thread I posted a bunch there. Also think I posted it in NaturalReefs mounting arm for biocube HQI thread. Both in the lighting forum.

New fancy ocellaris is doing great. Has not eaten yet but I figure it will take a little while until he is comfortable. Still have not seen the yasha goby since I put him in the tank. Probably hiding in the caves somewhere. Also the Nuclear green mushroom that detached from its spot and disappeared has emerged! Found him in the corner today. He must like this spot so I will just leave him be:



Time for some pics of the new additions:

Starfish on glass

Starfish hanging out with Razzle Dazzle chalice

Fancy clown and Black and White

Fancy clown 2

 

[JDK]

Went to the LEAR frag swap on Saturday. It was great. Got a frag of Orange Crush that I have been wanting for a while from a local reefer. Also picked up a maxima clam from Pacific East aquaculture as they were at the swap as a vendor. Also picked up a frag from Jason Fox. Got a huge bali slimer frag for 30$ was too good to pass up for that cheap.

Orange Crush acro

Orange Crush 2

Orange Crush Frag

clam pic

 

[JDK]

So I have slowly cranked up my lights and they now run at 90% accross the board for about 6.5 hours. The garf bonsai is encrusting and coloring nicely. I did lose the ORA pearlberry and the pink lemonade is not looking so good. I am convinced at this point I had my lights too low for too long and both frags starved to death. They did NOT bleach just slowly died. I removed the pearlberry from the tank and have moved the pink lemonade to a different spot with more light in hopes of bringing it back.

Even better my rainbow acans at the bottom which I thought had morphed and lost their rainbow have almost come all the way back. My lights were just too low. Once I got up around 60-70% they began regaining color. They now look better than ever. The torch bleached a little when I first began increasing the %s but it has recovered and seems much better now.

 

[JDK]

I have decided to go a different direction with the setup of my rear chambers. I do not believe it is as efficient as it could be.

Current setup is:

Chamber 1- Hydor Slim Skim
Chamber 2- Media Basket/fuge basket with filter floss, purigen, CPE and Chaeto if the fuge Basket
Chamber 3- ATO switch, heaters

This is the new Plan:

Chamber 1- AquaMaxx HOB-1
Chamber 2- Media basket with more layers of Filter floss, Chaeto in the entire middle area. CPR nano reactor in place of the fuge basket
Chamber 3- Same

The reason for doing this is that I feel the media basket is just not utilizing the media effectively. It is doing an ok job but not enough for me. I feel the purigen and CPE are just going to waste and not living up to there potential. I plan on adding about 4 or 5 layers of Poly filter floss to really catch the detrius because 2 layers seems to still let things past. I also feel the fuge basket does not provide nearly enough flow to allow the chaeto to perform really well. The water flows through the bottom of the basket and straight through the bottom of the fuge basket and into chamber 3. It is as though the chaeto is just floating in stagnant water. Hardly effective IMO. The chaeto will be placed in the entire center of the media basket to allow water to flow through the chaeto consistently and constantly.I will have to scrape the back glass and move the JBJ nao-glo over to achieve this. With the addition of expensive sps frags to my tank I want to be as clean as possible for optimal sps health,growth and color.

The CPR nano reactor will be run where the fuge basket is now in the center chamber. This is a brand new product and I am purchasing a first run production model from a vendor called Ameka (I think thats their name). I bought it off ebay. After watching the videos of the reactor in action I believe it will increase the power of the media 10X. I plan on modding the CPR NR so that I can run both carbon and GFO in it. By using BRS high capacity GFO and ROX carbon I can use very little for the small amount of water in my biocube and limited space in the reactor. The GFO will be tumbled and the ROX carbon will be up top. To do this I plan on mounting a piece of eggcrate within the chamber of the reactor at the top. This is where the ROX carbon will sit in a media bag. By packing it tight the water will be forced upward through the carbon for maximum efficiency. The GFO will be tumbled at the bottom.

I will post pics in the coming weeks as I complete this process and review the reactor.

Here is a link to the CPR reactor. Scroll down there is a video at the bottom of the description showing the reactor in action. (video shows running biopellets which I do not plan on doing)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CPR-Nano-Reactor-T...d-/390393422369

 

[JDK]

Very happy with the purchase of my new CPR nano reactor. Currently running GFO and algae on back wall and cyano are rapidly going away. Much more effective than Chemipure elite running passively in the InTank media basket. Much cheaper as well. Link to product here:http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=297856

Had to remove the InTank fuge basket to fit the CPR. I planned on doing this anyway as I feel the chaeto is not receiving enough flow just sitting there. I removed the purigen (waste of $ IMO does nothing), and Chemi Pure Elite and now run the entire center of the media basket with Chaeto. This allows all the water to flow through the chaeto as opposed to around it. This also allows me to run 4 pieces of Poly Filter floss instead of 2. This is having a great benefit as well. I honestly think if replaced frequently the Poly Filter is more effective than the purigen at removing waste and lowering nitrates.

Some new Pics:

 

[JDK]

Water change day today. Did a full range of tests tonight because I decided to switch salts from Kent reef salt to Red Sea salt. Not Red Sea Coral Pro just regular Red Sea (DKH is way too high for my liking in RSCP). Kent reef salt had some really high Calcium levels which is not bad but I was paying for 50 gallon jugs and the 175 gallon Red Sea is more economical. Also like the noted K levels and natural origins of this salt. I also purchased the BRS starter kit "recipe 1" from my favorite supplier bulkreefsupply.com. 50$ and I have enough to last me a long long time (free shipping at 175$ including the salt is a great deal). Much cheaper than buying ESV or other 2 parts and 50 gallon jugs of Kent salt from petco. It came today and will begin using this to dose the tank as my corals and clam are eating up ALK and CAL much more now that things are growing. I go through about 1.1 DKH and 10ppm calcium a day. Will begin dosing to keep this steady. Would love to have some dosing pumps hooked up to the Reefkeeper but that will have to be down the road $$$$.

Test results a few hours after WC-

DKH- 8.5
CAL- 410
MG- 1275
PH- 8.0 (recipe 1 and new salt will hopefully start to bring this up goal is 8.2-8.3)
N03- 0.2-0.5 ppm !!!!! Lowest reading ever and feeding more than ever!

CPR nano reactor is probably the best purchase I have made to date. Cyano is dying off and glass needs to be cleaned once a week instead of every day. Corals love the cleaner water too polyps are out and growth has resumed on my Garf bonsai. I ordered BRS Rox8 carbon and plan on running that in the reactor with the GFO. I have a piece of poly filter in the bottom of the reactor that the GFO sits on top of. Above the GFO I have 2 more pieces of poly filter to catch any fines that may exit the reactor. I plan on running the Rox carbon in between the two layer of filter floss in the top of the reactor. This is why I chose ROX carbon because you only need 2 Tbsp for 22 gallons(BRS calculator). Will probably do 3 Tbsp though.

I have also been using Brightwells Microbacter 7 every day to help with the cyano. The idea is that the bacteria in the MB7 will out compete the cyano. It is definately working. Between the MB7 and the new reactor running gfo cyano is rapidly dying. Sand is much cleaner and more white as well.

Another great benefit of the MB7 is that for the first time EVER my nitrates are below 1 ppm. They are about .2-.5 right now. Before I could never get them below 2-3 ppm even with 50% water changes. I have done nothing different other than the MB7 and the reactor. I actually feed heavier now than I did when the N03 was higher. Very pleased with the MB7 and recommend it to anyone with cyano or high nitrates.

Newest purchase should be here in the next couple weeks. Aquamaxx HOB-1 skimmer. I love my hydor but I need more power. I want to feed more and would like to be able to skip a water change if I want to. I have read great reviews of this skimmer and will post pics when it gets here.

After reading and reading and trial and error think I have discovered the ultimate biocube 29 filtration method....... (more to come later)

PS- New frags coming Thursday- 2 of the same coral to cover my bases in case of problems. Also orded 2 mushrooms (blue disco and zebra disco). All frags from AustinAquaFarms (ebay)

 

[JDK]

New PICS----


Pink Kiss

Rainbow 1

Neons

Rainbow 2

Dragon Rainbow

Rainbow 3

Rainbow 4

Cherry Red

Top Down Shot

Mushroom Mountain

Rainbow Monti Spreading

Garf Bonsai encrusting!

 

[JDK]

My new fish- Leopard Wrasse!

 

[JDK]

Have been looking for my last few pieces of SPS and I wanted them to be top dog frags. Was specifically looking for Strawberry Shortcake acros. Finally got one along with 2 other frags I love!


Blue Polyp Nasuta

Nicks Purple Passion

Strawberry Shortcake

Thanks Nick from Reef2Reef.com!

 

[JDK]

New skimmer- JNS VS1 (aka Aquamaxx HOB-1)

Looks like Optimus Prime is attacking my reef

 

[Starblenny]

That's a sweet looking tank. You got me sold on the CPR reactor vs Chemi-Pure Elite

 

[mic209]

How has the AI Nano been? Any growth shots?