So I know i have been MIA for quite awhile but I am back now I am going to be upgrading my BioCube 29 to a 75 that I just picked up from Craig. I started the BC29 about 3 years ago and it has definitely had its ups and downs but for the most part been fairly decent. It only has a handful of corals in it right now since i am currently having a bubble algae and aiptasia infestation… >::: I have decided to not transfer any of the rock and very carefully inspect the few corals that will be transferring with the fish. I ordered 50 lbs of dry rock from Reef Cleaners and will be adding that with about 20 lbs of dry rock that i have to start with. I haven’t decided if i want to try and cook the live rock i have so that at some point i can add it to this tank or what i want to do with it.
Here is a current picture of it looking like crap
And here it was about 2 years ago when it was not neglected and unloved lol
If you look closely you can see how small the hammer, torch and frogspawn were. They were all single heads at that point. The torch is still only about 3 heads but it kept falling down and having problems. Both the hammer and frogspawn are 15+ small heads now which i think is decent growth since i haven’t done a water change in 9 months or tested anything since then either oooops
I plan on starting the 75 sumpless and seeing how long i can get away with that before i need to put a skimmer and sump on it. I have a metal halide that i am going to slap on the tank for a few hours just while it cycles and in the mean time i will be doing another LED build for this tank since i love the LEDs on the BC. This will definitely be a slow build since I am not made of money currently but I am super excited and will get some pics of the 75 as soon as the rock comes and i get it aquascaped ;D
Haha Ken I did have a horse for a little bit but I just sold her. She was an investment and i decided it was time to part with her, especially since horses make reef tanks seem cheap lol.
Got the 75 set up this weekend and its about half full of water right now. Once i get it filled and the rock comes i will get a pic of it. Just ordered half of my leds and my heatsinks for the lighting. I am going to start with 36 leds on 2 heatsinks for right now and then once i get the tank going more and its ready for some clams and sps i will probably add a 3rd heatsink for some more lighting.
I just finished building my light fixture yesterday at work and got it hung up on the tank. Still need to clean up a few wires and am waiting for the moonlights to come so i can put them on but i figured i would post a couple pics.
This shot is with all the leds on, it isnt quite that blue in person, probably close to 16-18K. Monday I will get some pics with just the blues too. It has 36 3 watt Crees, 21 being royal blue and 15 being white and will have 4 1 watt blue moonlights. I set the drivers up so i can turn on just the blues for an hour or so and then a mixed string of blues and whites and then finally a string of all whites.
I still have to zip tie a few things and put the splash guards on. Also have a few wires hanging down for when i wire the moonlights.
Here is a FTS. Not much to see right now lol. I will have to get some shots down the sides as well. I set the rock up down the center of the tank and I only put about 80-90 lbs in. I angled the rock a little bit towards the front corners so i can put some corals on the sides as well and I left enough room along the back that I should be able to put a few things back there and have them grow up from behind or you would be able to see them looking in the sides. I wanted to leave the rock work fairly open so I don’t have too many problems with flow. The heater and other crap are still in the display until i get an overflow and get the sump hooked up. Darn money restrictions…
Looks fantastic, nice aquascaping, and great job on the LED build. What size heatsinks did you go with? Any pics of the layout of the LED’s? This is the next project I’d like to tackle on my 90gal.
I ordered the 6x9" heatsinks from RapidLED because they are black anodized and came with a spot to install a splash guard as well as mount the fans. I dont really like canopies and this was a perfect solution, they definitely don’t look DIY(at least once i clean up a few of the hanging wires…) and it only cost me just under $200. When my pictures ever decide to upload to photobucket i will put a pic of the heatsink with just the LEDs before i wired it. The wiring is a little messier than i prefer to do but I only have 2 heatsinks and i have 36 LEDs which means 3 drivers so that makes it a little tricky and i wanted to have the blues and whites separate from each other. This is the 6th LED build that i have done so I am definitely starting to get fairly good at it. There are wires that go between the 2 heatsinks and i put a quick disconnect there and another between the heatsink and the drivers so that it is super easy to take one or the other down for any maintenance or anything like that. There is nothing worse than wanting to make a quick fix on something but needing a second person to take the darn things down from the ceiling… verdict_in I chose to not put optics on them for now since i have good luck without them in my 29 but later down the road i might add them depending on my par, I also might add a 3rd heatsink once the tank grows in if i decide that optics wont be enough. I do feel like a lot of people use way more LEDs than they need. I had 72 3 watt LEDs over a 7 foot tank that was about 30" deep and only had 80 degree optics on them and it was still almost double the par from the t-5s that had been on the tank.
Here is the pic of the heatsinks before i wired them. I didnt get any pics after i wired them because i wasn’t liking how messy it was.
The white starboards are the whites and the black are the royal blue, hard to see because of the glare on the second one
I have a paint jpeg that i could send you if you really want to see how i laid out the blues and whites and wired them but its a little hard to comprehend (it worked in my head lol). Its a little too ghetto looking for me to post it for the public to see …lol
So i have been trying to come up with a stocking list for this tank and i’ve come to the conclusion that a bigger tank is definitely needed lol…If all goes as planned I want to be upgrading this tank in 2 years or less. At least a 180 if not a bit bigger.
So these are definites…
Pair of clowns, not sure what type yet
Hippo Tang
Yellow Tang
Purple Firefish
The most likely’s…depending on how i feel the bio load is doing
Midas Blenny
Blue Reef Chromis
Green Clown Goby
six line wrasse
3 lyretail anthias
Want I would like as well but i think probably wont work
Yellow Eye Kole Tang - I think 2 tangs might be pushing it, although the tank in the lobby at my work is a 55 and has 3 tangs in it and they all seem quite happy…not sure if im willing to take that risk…definitely need to make up my mind soon on that one since i want to add all the tangs at the same time. The only reason I would consider 3 tangs for this tank is that it has so much open swimming space and open rockwork. There is no rock touching the glass anywhere and there are many cut-throughs in the rock. Niger Trigger - this would one would definitely have to have a tank upgrade in the near and definite future before i would consider it
and a variety of shrimp and other clean up crew
I like pushing the envelope on what you can have in a tank but at the same time I dont want the tank or fish to suffer because of it. I realize that is a lot of fish for a 75 and i doubt i will get all of them in this tank.
[quote=“ponies99, post:12, topic:5764”]
I like pushing the envelope on what you can have in a tank but at the same time I dont want the tank or fish to suffer because of it. I realize that is a lot of fish for a 75 and i doubt i will get all of them in this tank.[/quote]
Typical reefer, sounds like you need to upgrade before it gets a chance to cycle ::
but seriously, its off to a great looking start, nice clean and pest free GolfC
First resident in the new tank He is very excited about all the caves and holes, took forever to get a pic of him because he was consistently zipping in and out of holes in the rock work.
Six line wrasse (purchased from the Fish Bowl)
Clean up crew has been ordered and will be here at the end of the week. Hopefully I can move the corals next week, just waiting for some of the diatoms to die down or for the snails to start getting ahead of it lol
Courtney, did you go with one of those “pre made” cleanup crew that was built for your 75 or did you go w/ a custom purchase? Hermit or no hermits? I’ve looked at those pre-made’s but they always seem like an overdose of snails…then again, the minimal snails I have are not keeping up w/ algae on the sand. They do a great job w/ the rocks but the sand…not so much. Reef Cleaners?
I ordered a premade crew from reef cleaners but only got one for a 30 gallon tank and then added a few extra hermits. I like hermits because they are cool to watch lol, they do kill snails sometimes but I think they are cool enough that I just buy more snails. I didn’t want to get a huge pack to start with since I don’t think there is that much for them to eat. I’ve never had a problem with algae on the sand when all my parameters are in normal ranges so not sure to help you there. Then again i’ve never had huge algae problems in any of my tanks so not sure how to fix them (other than the bubble algae). I do think some of those premade crews are a bit overboard on cleaners and you end up losing a lot so I figured I would get a small one and can always add more later if I need them.
Nice upgrade!!! I had to go from a 75 gallon down to a 29 Biocube, due to relocating from NC to DE. I guess I can at least have a tank here though. Definitely better to have something rather than nothing. Enjoy that space!
I am going to be upgrading my BioCube 29 to a 75 that I just picked up from Craig. I started the BC29 about 3 years ago and it has definitely had its ups and downs but for the most part been fairly decent. It only has a handful of corals in it right now since i am currently having a bubble algae and aiptasia infestation… >::: I have decided to not transfer any of the rock and very carefully inspect the few corals that will be transferring with the fish. I ordered 50 lbs of dry rock from Reef Cleaners and will be adding that with about 20 lbs of dry rock that i have to start with. I haven’t decided if i want to try and cook the live rock i have so that at some point i can add it to this tank or what i want to do with it.
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