BioCube 8 with 54Watts

[SW Steve]

Thought I would share some of my mods with you guys. Tell me what you think!

First my light mod...
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/3199/biocubetopzm3.jpg
That's two 18W 10000K (one of them is overdriven by a 36W ballast) and one 18W actinic. I upgraded the stock fans (loud 50mm fans) with 60mm fans by silenx (they move more air and are almost totally silent!). Both fans are blowing out and I dremeled new vents just above the feeder opening for air intake.

I've got a fuge in chamber two. Here is my fuge light...
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8238/dsc01569nr5.jpg
I mounted a 60mm silenx fan over that hole. This fuge light mod has no effect on water temp!
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/2363/fugelight2bp6.jpg
Then I painted it black. Here it is on the back of the tank...
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4692/fugelightxw4.jpg

Here's my clown...
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/4212/clownesa5.jpg

FTS...
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/2004/ftsel7.jpg
The tank has only been up for about 6 weeks. I'm ready for some corals! My LFS doesn't have anything I want:mad:

[BLKTANG]

verry nice clean job.

[All Delight]

Thats cool!

[Jasonf08]

How did you get the light to shine through the back of the tank? I thought it was painted?

[roader247]

Nice mod's this is what I've been looking for sw steve did you do any pump mod's I should have my 14 up by Xmas

[SW Steve]

@Jasonf08 - it is painted. I just marked the area of paint that I wanted to remove and took a razor blade and scraped it off. Once you get down to the glass, just start slicing off 2-4mm of paint at a time all the way down to the glass until you've got it all off. It took about 15 minutes. Take your time and don't feel like you have to take off all the paint in one swipe or you'll just be scratching/shaving the paint. Also, hold the razor so you are slicing the paint off and not digging into the glass. You can scratch the glass!

@ roader - I'm using the mini-jet 606 with a hydor flo. That bumps up my gph from the stock 100 gph to 150gph. Also the mini-jet is a quieter pump. That'll do for now. I have a really cool mod that I'm working on for a pump mod. It's gonna be pretty awesome if it works out. Gotta order some parts. It'll be a few weeks before that mod is in place.

If I had the 14 gallon, I'd go with one maxi jet 1200. Or better yet, I'd go with a mini-jet 606 with a hydor flo. Then I'd put another mini-jet 606 in chamber one. Cut a hole in chamber one and plump another hydor flo in between the two intake vents. That would give some nice random flo! Find out more about different mods for your tank. It's nice to be able to mod your tank when it's empty.

[momentumfoto]

can you show us a pic of your light shining through the back? Just curious.

thanks

[Jasonf08]

Hey thanks for the info. It would be nice to see the light & how it shines through. I ordered a palm light to see if if i could clip it on one of the flanges & adjust it over my chamber 1 with the chaeto. If that doesnt work i'll be scraping the back & ordering one of those dual 9 watt coralife fixtures & velcroing it to the back. How did you afix yours to the tank?

[roader247]

One more question sw steve how did you mount your hydor flo I have one but I haven't figured a good way to mount it

[SW Steve]

I don't have a pic of it shining through, but I suppose I could take a pic of it later... while I'm doing a water change tonight.

It's attached to the back with velcro. You can see the velcro in the second pic of the fuge light. The best way to do it is to clean all surfaces with alcohol. Attach both pieces of the velcro to the light, then expose the adhesive and stick it to the tank. Then don't try to remove it from the tank for a couple days to allow the adhesive some time to bond. I prefer this to clip on lights that bleed to much light. I don't want the back of the tank glowing.

@ roader - When you buy a new hydor-flo it comes with several adapters. Just pic the one that attaches to the stock outlet and push it in. I've heard from a few people that they sometimes pop off from the pressure. If that happens you can wrap ssome teflon tape around it to make a tighter fit. I haven't had to do that. I've had mine running for 6 weeks and it has never popped off.

[SW Steve]

OK, here are some pics...

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4666/fugelight1wq0.jpg

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/5516/fugelight2bx8.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1634/fugelight3hn2.jpg

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6276/fugelight4iz5.jpg

I started with a tiny ball of cheato...

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8300/smcheatoki9.jpg

and here it is two weeks later...

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1801/dsc01671cn0.jpg

You can see that it's wider and taller, but you can't see how much deeper it is. Overall I would say it's almost 4 times the original size.

[Jasonf08]

Sweet, i may scrape mine also. But i have the azoo palm light coming & if that cant fit under the hood I'll scrape the back.

[SW Steve]

I'm not sure you'll be happy with the fuge in chamber one. First of all you won't get all that much flow through the cheato. You'll only get what water is coming through the bottom intake vent. Also, as the cheato grows and gets thick the flow will slow down. When the flow slows down in chamber one the level in the display rises. When the level in the display gets too high it doesn't surface skim very well and sometimes the water will start spilling over the other chambers. You can also see in the pics above that I cut the plastic in between chamber 1 and 2. That helps improve flow as well.

For chamber one... I took out the bottom grate. Tossed in about four golf ball size peices of rubble and a 5oz. bag of chemi-pure on top of that.

For chamber two... I like having that drip tray in place. I cut a small peice of poly filter (or sometimes use filter floss) on top of that. It gets really nasty after about three days. It's a nice easy place to keep some mechanical filtration while still allowing the pods in the cheato to escape into the main display.

Chamber two is bigger so more room for cheato to grow. I pulled out the bottom tray in chamber two and put in a little rubble. Then I put the bottom tray back in place. Then I put a little more rubble and the cheato is growing on top of that. With the fuge in chamber two, you have ALL of the water flowing through the cheato. That's what you want so the cheato will remove the nasties from your water.

I was considering a fuge in chamber one at first, but I'm glad I went this route.

[saltyVT]

Stallen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:strooper:

[Jasonf08]

Photos look great. I ordered the 2 by 9watt coralife to stick to the back of my tank. I wish there was a better way to light up the chamber, but the pics you have are awesome. I would rather use chamber 2 also on my 29G, but i have done tanks without a skimmer before & i guess im spoiled & want them both, haha.

I know i'll start to have some flow problems, but i figured if i pulled enough out when i trimmed it I could keep the flow managable. Otherwise its i'll go to a CPR HOB unit.

[SW Steve]

@ Salty :bigeyes: caught me

@Jasonf08 - Ahhh... I see I didn't know you had a 29G. I think I'd do the same thing.

[Jasonf08]

Now Im torn on what light kit to get. I cant decide if i want the MH or PC kit from nanotuners. I keep leaning tworads sps & clams so i may go with the MH

[SW Steve]

I considered MH for my 8G. I know I could get one to fit, but I think it would be impossible to cool and possibly a fire hazard. I'd go with MH if I had a 29G. No more worries about lighting with MH. I'd still want some actinic under the hood with it. I'd make sure you mod the ventilation with MH or get a chiller.

Here is a pic of the new vent I put in my hood when I added the additional PC bulb...

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8360/hoodventsxm9.jpg

The stock vents in the back were also cut and opened up. Both fans blow out. Air is pulled in through the new vent up front.

[Jasonf08]

Im leaning twords the MH Kit from Nanotuners.
It comes with:
x 70w Aqua Medic 10000K HQI bulb (20000K available)
1 x 70w Sunpark Electronic Ballast (2 year warranty!!!)
1 x Anodized Aluminum Ballast Enclosure
1 x Remote Ballast Cable
1 x 1mm Hammertone Reflector
1 x 6mm Tempered Safety Glass - Heatsink cooled
1 x 140F High Temperature Cutoff (safety feature)
1 x ICA Device
Uses origional 36 watt bulb for antinic

I would like to see if i could cram in the other PC bulb for additional antinic or blue

Im leaning more twords doing a sps dominated tank.

[SW Steve]

I'd probably go with the 10000K MH over the 20000K bulb if those are your only two options, but I think some places have a 14000K bulb that you could replace it with down the road. That would be pretty sweet!

[Jasonf08]

I wish there was a place or website i could see the color difference. Ive seen the 10K vs the 14k & aggree with you the 14 is awsome. Chris @ nanotuners says he has been unable to get the 14K in the 70watt yet.

Looks like i need to save up some cash :)

[SW Steve]

I'd say get the 10000K. Then get a 14000K when it needs replaced.

[lbaskball45]

Hey question for ya, nice mod by the way. What did you do to that little guard on 1st chamber that is covering the lower intake? Did you take that out? And how did you get the water to flow from chamber 1 to 2? Because I know that they are all separate and the only wayt he water moves is by the top? Please let me know. I have a 14gal biocube.

[SW Steve]

I removed the lower tray/grate in chamber one. If you visit my thread over at nano-reef.com I have all the mods explained with more pictures...

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101001

[sma11s101]

What is that that you have the fuge light stuck in? and is that just a regular old home depot light socket you got there?

[icepick5587]

lookin good

[SW Steve]

Again, my thread at nano-reef.com that I posted above goes into more detail about the mods. So anyone interested should check it out.

The box I used for the fuge light is just called a PVC access box. I got this one from lowes, but I've seen them at home depot and other places. They are usually grey and shaped a little different. I did some cutting so the light fixture would fit how I wanted it. I also used J.B. Weld to attached some plastic on the sides so I could use 1" velcro. I also painted it with some textured black paint so it would blend in with the back of the tank.

The light socket is a porcelain (ceramic) light socket. I found this on a spot light/utility light at lowes. It wasn't very expensive, but I kicked myself later when I found at another hardware store you can buy the porcelain light socket alone for a couple bucks. Oh well, the utility light had a cord attached so I didn't have to buy one of those.

[gmy]

SW Steve.....great start in regards to your BC8 tank and mods.

Question.....when you upgraded your fans did you encounter any problems connecting them to the circuit board? If so how did you make it work?

[SW Steve]

No problems. Piece of cake for the wiring. I cut the existing wires and spliced in the new fan wires. Not much to it. Just use some wire strippers, twist the wires together and cover witha wrie nut or some electrical tape. I had to do it that way because the silenx fans (highly recommend - totally silent) that I used have a three wire connection. The BC circuit board is made for a two prong connection. Since most computer fans come with three wire connection (the third wire is just for a computer to detect the RPM of the fan) you have to cut off the three wire conection. The third wire on the fan can just be loose... wrap it with a little electrical tape.

The tricky part of my fan upgrade mod was trying to replace the factory 50mm fans with larger 60mm fans.

[gmy]

Thanks for the info....... I'm just got some 50mm fans with very cfm ratings. Hey, did you know the third connection post (which is empty) is also live but I think the circuit board blocks all three from being used at the same time.