My Biocube 29

TAMPATIM

Member
Hello,

So I am new to site and SW tanks in general. I currently have a BioCube 29 which I bought used. It has been running for 11 weeks. Cycle is complete. Current livestock is a maroon clownfish and a Valentini puffer. I also have a peppermint shrimp, fighting conch, and assorted hermits and snails. For coral I have one small Frogspawn frag. I have removed the bioballs and replaced it with an In tank media basket running filter floss, Phosguard, and Chemipure. The lights are stock CF and they are 1 year old. I am looking to upgrade and replace. I also added a Hydor Flo deflector on the return pump and a Jebao PP4 wave maker. I will add pics late today of rockwork, etc.

Current parameters:
SG: 1.022
Nitrate: 10ppm
Phosphate: 0.25ppm
Calcium: 320 ppm
KH: dKH 7/125.3

What I want to add: (over time)
-Clown Goby
-BTA
-Starfish (but I don't think that's a good idea in this size tank)

Planned upgrades:
-Steve's LED retrofit w/ moonlights
-Tunze 9001 Skimmer

So I will post pics and info as I upgrade and continue this adventure. For now my questions are:

Should I be concerned by current parameters? I am doing weekly water changes (4 gallons) and using Phosguard

Thoughts on Steve's LEDs? I plan to keep mixed corals (mostly softies and LPS) and a BTA

Do I need a skimmer?
 

mr_tap_water

Well-Known Member
A skimmer will help with your Bio load but is not essential providing you doing regular water changes,
With some of your stats if you're intending to keep corals such as LPSs and SPSs you may need to tweak your stats a bit more,
Say more on the lines of a Sg of 1.025-1.026
Phos 0.03
Cal. 420
Mag 1350


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

TAMPATIM

Member
Cheers for start a tank thread - pretty puffer !

I have & love my Steve's LEDs

Thanks. He is a good little fish. He pals around with the clown all day. Didn't expect a maroon female to be nice to anyone lol. Now I am trying to figure out the best food for him to keep his teeth filed down. Don't want to run in to issues later on.
 

TAMPATIM

Member
Welcome! We are glad to answer any questions you have!

-Jeff

Thanks. I ordered the Biocube 29 retrofit LED kit and moonlight strips yesterday. Cannot wait until the come in! Hopefully I wont have any issues with installation. That's the one thing that I'm nervous about.
 

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
Thanks for supporting a American Made company as well as a forum sponsor! I'll personally see to it that your order is expedited. I'll go and an include a free toolkit to make the install super easy. (now you'll only need a philips screwdriver).

Thanks!
Jeff
 

TAMPATIM

Member
Thanks for supporting a American Made company as well as a forum sponsor! I'll personally see to it that your order is expedited. I'll go and an include a free toolkit to make the install super easy. (now you'll only need a philips screwdriver).

Thanks!
Jeff

Thank you so much! And honestly the deciding factor when choosing between you and the competition was the fact that everything was American made!! (That and I couldn't find a bad review!)
 

TAMPATIM

Member
OK so I installed my Steve's LED retrofit last night! I am very excited! I added the moonlight kit as well but will have to take of the hood again and fix the placement of the IR sensor so that the remote will work without my lifting the hood. Really cool though with the different color options. I will work on programming the controller today after work. Hopefully I don't have too many questions. lol

Any suggestions on channel settings? I currently only have one frogspawn frag so I don't have much to overpower yet...
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Does it have 2 channels or 4?

I think I started at around 35% - 40% intensity on all channels and then went up about 5% per week until I stoped at about 55-60% intensity. Other people started higher and went higher, although I don't think I've heard of many going above 70-75%. I really decided on intensity by what level my tank was flourishing and what looked good to me.

I then really just play with the channels until I get what looks best to me. I think I may have had my whites at 50% and my blues at 60%, but I'm not sure. I'm going to go through the exercise again soon, but you probably get the idea.

Controller should be easy. Did you get hurricane or bluefish?
 

TAMPATIM

Member
Does it have 2 channels or 4?

I think I started at around 35% - 40% intensity on all channels and then went up about 5% per week until I stoped at about 55-60% intensity. Other people started higher and went higher, although I don't think I've heard of many going above 70-75%. I really decided on intensity by what level my tank was flourishing and what looked good to me.

I then really just play with the channels until I get what looks best to me. I think I may have had my whites at 50% and my blues at 60%, but I'm not sure. I'm going to go through the exercise again soon, but you probably get the idea.

Controller should be easy. Did you get hurricane or bluefish?

I got the hurricane. As for channels I assume its 2 because there is just one plug and it goes slot labeled channel 1 and 2

So channel 1 is blue and channel 2 is white?
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
fyi - you can add a @ sign and a username and it will call a member to a post like this...

@StevesLEDs Jeff is great at helping ! Congrats on the new lights, sunrise & sunset is cool !

don't know if it is of any help... but this is mine...

Typhon channels are as follows:

Ch1 - front white

Ch2 - front blue

ch3 - back white

ch4 - back blue.


Schedule is blues sunrise at 10am, whites rise at 10:30 am.

Whites sunset is 9pm and blues at 9:30.

Sunrise/sunset duration is 1 hour.……….
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I got the hurricane. As for channels I assume its 2 because there is just one plug and it goes slot labeled channel 1 and 2

So channel 1 is blue and channel 2 is white?

Oh yeah, C-130 should be 2 channel. I think probably 1 is white and 2 is blue, but the way to be sure is simply set 1 to 0 intensity while 2 is something like 30 and then 2 to 0 intensity while 1 is something like 30 and see what happens. :)

Probably that's how it is, though.
 
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TAMPATIM

Member
Now I just need to keep changing water and syphoning this damn algae in the sand. Phosphates and nitrates are both lower than last week (P>0.25ppm and N=5.0ppm)but still there. I wanna add some more corals but I'm afraid to with the current water parameters.
 
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