This build started off as an emergency response to a leak in my 32 gallon biocube a year and a half ago. There was a small crack in the back of my biocube that had progrfessed to the point where there was a severe leak and epoxy was no longer holding it back. So, I ran to petco and grabbed a 40g breeder and since they had the dollar gallon sale it was 50% off and I was bring this tank home within a half hour of realizing there was a leak for a mere $50. This tank is dedicated to my son Ryker. We live in NYC and I thought it would be funny to call the tank Ryker's island. When I first started the tank my wife was only a few weeks pregnant, but now he is almost 8 months old and loves to look at my corals and fish.
Here are some pics of my biocube setup with a nanobox duo
A little pic of the 40 g when the water was clear after the transfer. I had the tank on a desk, no sump, had a HOB skimmer and canister filter. No overflow or return drilled yet. I 3d printed the flow adductor return nozzle.
I needed to move the tank into the living room, so I built a stand our of a coffee table and some spare wood we had leftover from building a shed. I think it came out pretty decent. Its difficult to see but I had drilled the tank at this point and setup a sump. The tank was drilled while mostly full without any issues.
At this point I had realized that the nanobox duo was not even coming close to cutting it for lighting and that most of my corals were completely faded. I also realized that the HOB skimmer wasn't going to work for this application. So I added a few cree royal blues to my light and installed an in sump skimmer. In order to add the crees I build a floating canopy to house the lighting.
The light was still far under powered for SPS corals, so I build a 4 bulb t5HO fixture in my floating canopy and added a bunch more leds. It was finally proper lighting, but it was absolutely blinding.
So, I built a canopy to shield us from light over spill. I don't have any pictures from the inside of the canopy, but I lowered the fixture a few inches and angled the t5s from the front and the back.
After 14 months of bulb use it was time to purchase new bulbs for the t5, but I decided against it. Instead I went with 4 radion clone pucks that I purchased on ebay for $30 a piece. I wired it up with my nanobox duo and used my recently built reef pi as the controller for the light.
Here are some pics of my biocube setup with a nanobox duo
A little pic of the 40 g when the water was clear after the transfer. I had the tank on a desk, no sump, had a HOB skimmer and canister filter. No overflow or return drilled yet. I 3d printed the flow adductor return nozzle.
I needed to move the tank into the living room, so I built a stand our of a coffee table and some spare wood we had leftover from building a shed. I think it came out pretty decent. Its difficult to see but I had drilled the tank at this point and setup a sump. The tank was drilled while mostly full without any issues.
At this point I had realized that the nanobox duo was not even coming close to cutting it for lighting and that most of my corals were completely faded. I also realized that the HOB skimmer wasn't going to work for this application. So I added a few cree royal blues to my light and installed an in sump skimmer. In order to add the crees I build a floating canopy to house the lighting.
The light was still far under powered for SPS corals, so I build a 4 bulb t5HO fixture in my floating canopy and added a bunch more leds. It was finally proper lighting, but it was absolutely blinding.
So, I built a canopy to shield us from light over spill. I don't have any pictures from the inside of the canopy, but I lowered the fixture a few inches and angled the t5s from the front and the back.
After 14 months of bulb use it was time to purchase new bulbs for the t5, but I decided against it. Instead I went with 4 radion clone pucks that I purchased on ebay for $30 a piece. I wired it up with my nanobox duo and used my recently built reef pi as the controller for the light.
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