My Biocube 29 Build (sump,Leds,etc)

Fishinfool · Jun 7, 2010

Well I probally should have started this thread a long time ago but here it is. I had the 29 running a few years ago and had to break it down. I have had it up and running again for a little over four months. The only mods I did before to it was I cut the wall down from chamber 1-2 for flow. Here are pics of the tank when I first set it up again:

These pictures were taken on 3-3-10. I started adding livestock next.
I had originally planned on doing just a Zoa/Paly garden but there was some Frogspawn in my LFS show tank that had been catching my eye for a while and I finally talked them into fragging a piece for me. I also picked up a beautiful 6 yr old maited pair of true percula clowns. Here are some pics:

It was time for me to buy new lights so I had an extra Current fixture with 2-40 watt PC bulbs and a cool white led so I decided to modify my hood to fit the Current bulbs, moonlight,ballest, fan, and two upgraded Biocube hood fans. Total it gave me 152 watts of lighting, which was a huge improvement.

I then started to add some higher end zoa and paly. Darth Maul, Chromis, Eagle Eyes, Candy Apple Redds, X-Men, mint chocolate chip, were my first ones. Also some GSP

I then decided to put some Chaeto in the second chamber with a light so I went to home depot and got a 9watt undercabinet light and a 2-gang electricial construction box and built a light. I used Velcro to secure it. I had a poly-filter with some LR rubble on top of the grate in the 2nd chamber with my chaeto and light on top of that. I also put a Maxijet 1200 in the chamber for some added circulation. The macro grew very fast in there!

inTank · Jun 7, 2010

Very nice

Fishinfool · Jun 8, 2010

I added a lot more zoanthid and palys and then as I got crazier, I decided that I need more space for frags,skimmer,macro, and I really wanted all of my wires and timers off my living room floor(not to mention my wife REALLY wanted everything off the floor

). I have a closet behind my tank and a room that we are currently using for storage so I decided to get a 20 gallon sump and put everything in the wall. I put two holes in the wall from the living room
to the closet, one for power and one for water. Then in the closet I knocked the back wall out and cut the center out of two cabinets and mounted them to the wall of the closet. So my electricial and sump are all in the closet and two cabinets on the other side of the wall. Also ran a dedicated breaker for all the fish tank stuff.

I ended up doing a HOB overflow because I didn't have anything to put my livestock into in case I screwed up. I used two utubes with aqua litters hooked up just in case.

I did a Cree LED fixture for the sump/frag tank. I used 12 XR-E LEDs 6cool white, 6 royal blue. I also used Meanwell drivers and a universal AC adapter with 3,6,9,12 volt selections wired inline for my dimmer. I mounted everything in a old current fixture and it is screwed into the top of the cabinet.

Fishinfool · Jun 8, 2010

I added a lot more zoanthid and palys and then as I got crazier, I decided that I need more space for frags,skimmer,macro, and I really wanted all of my wires and timers off my living room floor(not to mention my wife REALLY wanted everything off the floor

). I have a closet behind my tank and a room that we are currently using for storage so I decided to get a 20 gallon sump and put everything in the wall. I put two holes in the wall from the living room
to the closet, one for power and one for water. Then in the closet I knocked the back wall out and cut the center out of two cabinets and mounted them to the wall of the closet. So my electricial and sump are all in the closet and two cabinets on the other side of the wall. Also ran a dedicated breaker for all the fish tank stuff.

I ended up doing a HOB overflow because I didn't have anything to put my livestock into in case I screwed up. I used two utubes with aqua litters hooked up just in case.

I did a Cree LED fixture for the sump/frag tank. I used 12 XR-E LEDs 6cool white, 6 royal blue. I also used Meanwell drivers and a universal AC adapter with 3,6,9,12 volt selections wired inline for my dimmer. I mounted everything in a old current fixture and it is screwed into the top of the cabinet.

Fishinfool · Jun 8, 2010

Here are some current pictures of the display

I have more pics to come! My plans I have in the works are a Reef Keeper Elite controller, and Cree LED light setup for the Biocube 29 hood. I should have these two upgrades up and running in the next month so stay tuned for some more pics on the build and the controller install. I hope everyone enjoyed!! I promise I will be better about keeping up with my build

Fishinfool · Jun 8, 2010

Here are some current pictures of the display

I have more pics to come! My plans I have in the works are a Reef Keeper Elite controller, and Cree LED light setup for the Biocube 29 hood. I should have these two upgrades up and running in the next month so stay tuned for some more pics on the build and the controller install. I hope everyone enjoyed!! I promise I will be better about keeping up with my build

corbinwaltz · Jun 8, 2010

Nice looking cube! What do you think of the Cree LED's? I've been thinking of setting up a fixture over my Solana but wasn't sure how well they'd perform. What kind of growth/color have you been getting? Oddly enough, I had plans to put them into an old current light just like you did.

Fishinfool · Jun 8, 2010

I am really pleased with the color I get from the Cree XR-E LEDs. I have only have the light up and running for a couple weeks now so not sure about the coral growth. Here is a pic of the power adapter I used for my dimmer on my lights.