My 29 Gallon Oceanic Biocube (pics)

motorcity

motorcity

Member
I still have allot to learn about this camera but I snapped a couple shots while looking for a brown crab hitchiker I have been trying to identify. Anyhow, the tank has been up and running for a little more than 2 months so far. I WILL get better with this camera, eventually. Thanks for looking.


 
motorcity

motorcity

Member
about 30lbs of live rock, and about 20 lbs of sugar sand (i'm in the process of slowly adding more sand, I have a pistol shrimp digging tunnels all over the place)
 
sambasam

sambasam

Member
nice im in the process of getting a new biocube 29g, oh and watch out for that zoanthid at the very peek of your live rock(if its not sealed down to the rock) i would watch out because my clown likes to knock everything over i have
 
motorcity

motorcity

Member
Thanks for the tip but that zoo is super glued pretty solid. I glued it down when I was doing a watewr change so the water level was low enough that I could take a rag and get the rock really dry and the glue held real well.
The powerhead with the Hydorflo on it is a rio 800 (that was a tip from PerfectDark
) And I still have the stock powerhead also. I replaced the stock powerhead with a Rio 6HF but it was a little bit noisey so I only use that for mixing water now. I'm thinking about adding a Hydor Koralia Nano for a little more flow, I have a couple dead or slow spots I want to get more flow to.
Let me know if you have any more questions getting your biocube set up, I dont check in here everyday but I will be glad to help whenever I'm around.
 
sambasam

sambasam

Member
thanks and i will ask more if i need too. also i noticed your heater was in the display. ive heard of people sticking it in one of the chambers because they are slim and long.
 
R

reefernana

Guest
You sure have a lot of coraline for your tank being so young. How did you do that? It looks great!
 
motorcity

motorcity

Member
Originally Posted by reefernana
You sure have a lot of coraline for your tank being so young. How did you do that? It looks great!
Thanks for the compliment! I bought most of those rocks like that although it has been growing pretty good latley!
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
Very nice Motor... I like the set up and the Hydor looks like its working out well for you.... Good luck and keep it up..
 
motorcity

motorcity

Member
Well, I have ordered a new heatshield from nanotuners - the one for their 144w 29g biocube kit. I have some 16.5 inch T5 HO bulbs 18watts each(10k and actinic) with the endcaps and a 2 bulb ballast. I'm going to add this to the stock lighting on my Biocube. Its going to take a little fabricating but, if it works out ok and it looks like theres room, i'm eventually going to replace all of the PC's with T5's giving a total of 144 watts of T5 lighting. I'm going to try and document it on here in case anyone else wants to give it a try. Hopefully I will find the time to get started this weekend.
 
R

reefernana

Guest
Originally Posted by MotorCity
Well, I have ordered a new heatshield from nanotuners - the one for their 144w 29g biocube kit. I have some 16.5 inch T5 HO bulbs 18watts each(10k and actinic) with the endcaps and a 2 bulb ballast. I'm going to add this to the stock lighting on my Biocube. Its going to take a little fabricating but, if it works out ok and it looks like theres room, i'm eventually going to replace all of the PC's with T5's giving a total of 144 watts of T5 lighting. I'm going to try and document it on here in case anyone else wants to give it a try. Hopefully I will find the time to get started this weekend.
Wow, I can't wait to see this! Where did you find the 16.5" T5's? I have searched for that size many times and have found nothing under 20". And it's nice to know you can buy the heat shield seperately, too.
 
motorcity

motorcity

Member
Originally Posted by reefernana
Wow, I can't wait to see this! Where did you find the 16.5" T5's? I have searched for that size many times and have found nothing under 20". And it's nice to know you can buy the heat shield seperately, too.

http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro..._novabulbs.htm
the bulbs ballast and refector I have right now actually came from a Nova Extreme fixture, but I might buy everything seperate in the future, depending on cost. There are also a few different refelectors I'm looking at, all of which will probabky need to be cut down.
heres a link to the Nova fixture:
(edited to add, the 18" model is the one that comes with 16.5" bulbs)
http://www.**************.com/produc...0&pcatid=16770
 
motorcity

motorcity

Member
The heat shield arrived today, so heres a few pics to start with. I picked up some 16 awg stranded wire at the hardware store so I can lengthen the wires between the bulbs and the ballast. Once I opened the Nova Fixture, it looks like I can easily reuse the housing to hold 2 ballasts with the lamps removed. I'll explain later once I start gutting the canopy.
Right now, its looking like I can fit 3 of the Nova endcap/bulb/reflector combo (2 bulbs per reflector/endcap so total of 6 T5's), the stock lunar lights, and 1 of the original PC's that came with the Biocube. I might be able to get creative and replace the last PC with a T5 also, not sure yet. I want to do some more research on indivdual reflectors for each T5 but it might cost too much real estate.
Here is the box the Nova fixture comes in:

Here is the Nova fixture out of the box:

Here is the Nova fixture torn down:

Here is the Nanotuners heat shield:
 
motorcity

motorcity

Member
Ok, so over the weekend I was able to get two 16.5" T5 bulbs mounted in the canopy, in addition to the stock PC's!!!
One bulb is an 18watt Actinic and the other was a 10K daylight. There is a single refelctor that goes around both bulbs.
After finishing the job and lighting it up for the 1st time, I could not believe the difference. My corals immediatly looked more colorful/brighter and I could see detail in the live rock from across the room that I could never see before. It was well worth the time and effort. It took me almost 3 hours from start to finish.
Now, with that said, there is a couple things that I will be changing in the near future. I will add one more set of T5's (1 more 18watt 10K and 1 more 18 watt Actinic). These bulbs will go all the way in the front and the PC bulb that is there now will go where the moon lights are in the pictures below. When its all said and done, i will have 72 watts of T5, and 73 watts of PC lighting.
I didnt do a very detailed job of documenting the modifications so far because when I decide to add the next 2 bulbs, things will have to be done quite a bit differently. I will do a better job documenting in the future, for now, please take a look at the pics below and let me know if I can answer any questions.
Heat shield with all lights mounted:

Heat shield/lights mounted in the canopy:
 
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