I Am A Big Winner!!!

[Ron Guiness]

Wow I don't get to say that to often, but its true.

So About 2 weeks ago my wife was looking for something to do over the weekend, living in the Rockford IL area now we are in short supply of things to do, found the Midwest Fragfest. So we went. We got there a bit to late to hear any of the speakers but we had plenty of time to look around at all of the products and all of the frags.

I have a 55gal set up but no coral in it because we may be moving back to Michigan very soon.

So instead of buying or receiving any frags (some people were giving them away while teaching you how to frag yourself!) I bought about 50$ in raffle tickets thinking full well I was not going to win anything. A lot of great products were up for grabs but I had my eye on 2 of them. One was a 22 gal zero edge very cool, the other was a 29 gal biocube. After hanging around and hearing them call off all the numbers for the other items we put in for but didn't win they started calling the numbers for the big 2 prizes.

I went home with a new Biocube, a heater, and $130 in gift cards for some really nice local stores. And it only cos me $60 all together.

I used the gift cards and bought some really nice looking base rock and live sand and I am now cycling the tank.

I have been reading up on a lot of the mods people are doing to their Bios like lighting mods or switching the lighting around, making the back a fuge, getting rid of the bio balls and adding Live Rock, changing the pump and adding a more powerful one......

My question is which mods are ultimately necessary, and which are good ideas, to keep a nano reef, I don't really want to mod to much if I don't have to since the wife decided this one goes into the bedroom and if its to loud I wont be able to sleep. Also if you could point me in the direction of a post or site with the how tos of these mods that would be awesome.

Other then that now I'm back to the waiting game. I almost forgot how exciting it is to start a new tank, all the possibilities, you just want to jump right in. Man I can't wait!!!

P.S. If any of you are out there Thank you Rockford Reefers for putting on a great event. I wish I knew about you guys sooner.

[Phurst]

Congrats, that's awesome!

There are a zillion-and-one mods for the AIO nanos. It's really going to depend on what you're going to do with it . The only mod I would ALWAYS recommend is getting rid of the bio-balls, foam blocks and whatever else is in the rear chambers. Some people add more LR rubble back there, but in my experience, they trap just as much detritus as the bio-balls. If you have sufficient LR and LS in the display, all that other junk back there is unnecessary.

That's not to say that space is a waste, it's not. Instead, use it to house your heater, chemical filtration, a skimmer, convert it to a fuge, etc. There are lots of options.

Decide on what you ant to do with the tank, and we can give some ideas on what other mods might be beneficial.

[Ron Guiness]

Thanks, I am for sure getting rid of the Bio-balls and I totally forgot about the sponge, thats gone too.

Right now I have about 10-11 lbs of Base Rock and 2 medium sized bags of live sand, sorry forgot the weight of the bags. I really don't want to much more if any more rock in the display but if it is necessary its no problem.

I really want to use this tank for mainly corals.

Other then coral I was thinking a cleaner or other shrimp, sand sifting star, perhaps a brittle star, a few snails, an anemone, one to two fish, really want it for a Mandarin. All this is pending the research I need to do as this will be my first attempt at coral and I don't want to much of a bio load from the fish and inverts.

I guess it comes down to coral, a cleanup team and mandarin for sure and an anemone and clown on the maybe side.

My wife works at a book store so she is bringing me home a few books specifically on nano reefing, but any wisdom, posts, or articles you guys could point me to would be greatly appreciated.

Think I want to start a tank journal with this one.....guess there is some more reading for me in the photo how to guides!

Gotta get ready for work so I guess more reading tomorrow. This thing still has me pretty giddy like a kid with the big present for his birthday!

[Ron Guiness]

One more thing I forgot about. I have read mixed reviews about the skimmer designed for the BC29. What do you think about it? Is it worth it or should I scout around for another one?

[Phurst]

Hmm, well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're probably going to want to rethink your plans.

The stock lighting on these is not nearly enough to keep an anemone, and the tank is not nearly large enough for a mandarin or sand sifting star. Mandarins feed on pods, and there's just no way to maintain enough of a pod population in a 29. Most people reccomend a minimum of 75 Lbs of live rock and a system that's been up and running for 6 months to a year before adding a mandarin. I'd definitely scratch that one off the list. Same basic situation for the sand sifting star. They eat microfauna in the sandbed, and require a deep, large and well established sandbed. Even then, most end up starving inside a year.

Snails, crabs, shrimp, a brittle star and 2 or 3 small fish sounds like a good stocking plan though.

As for corals, again, the stock lighting is pretty weak on these units. You'll be fine with most of the lower light requirement corals though. Xenia, mushrooms, zoas, palythoas, leathers, star polyps are all fine, along with several other lower lighting corals.

As to the skimmer, I'll leave that so someone who might have used the Oceanic skimmer. There are others that will fit back there that have pretty decent reputations though.

[Psychojam]

Hi Ron.

Congrats on your prize! I have a biocube 14, and I've done well with very basic mods.

First off, I've replaced the stock pump with a maxijet 900 (for me the MJ 1200 cause a heat issue, but may be fine for a BC 29). I've removed the BioBalls. I have a Sapphire Aquatics skimmer in the 2nd chamber (the company has gone out of business). I also have a plastic strip that i salvaged from a 10 gallon aquarium cover along the back edge of the display area to prevent my clown fish from exploring the back sump area.

The stock lighting has been adaquate for my mushrooms, zoas, xenia, candy cane, open brain and torch coral.

I agree with Phurst's assessment of your original stacking plan.

Good luck!
HTH

[Ron Guiness]

Thanks guys, and Phurst I don't mind the bad news, I really prefer the bad new to a broke bank and nothing to show for it besides shattered dreams.

Today I have removed the bio-balls, the sponge, and the carbon filter. I also widened the gap between the area that housed the carbon filter and the area with the bio-balls.

I have been working nine hours lately and will continue to for quite awhile i think But it does give me time to think about what I am going to do with this tank.

Plus its going to be a good 3-4 months before anything gets a new home in my Cube. I waited about 4 after my 55 cycled and have had great success with it, so I want to duplicate that with the Cube.

I have Also started going back and listening to all the old episodes of this podcast and another reef based podcast....I do have 9 hours a day to fill.

First I thought with the Mandarin I would use my fuge in my 55 that has been up for about 2 years to supply food for it, but I think I will wait and just add one to my 55 later on.

I have also been thinking about some of the mods I want to do and I figure since I won this prize I could afford to put some money into it.

I have seen a mod to add Metal Halide that is specifically for the BC29 it ran at about $300. I need to do a bit more research on it though because I am kinda worried about the heat being emitted from it with it being that close to the corals and critters. I believe the kit also has new fans to install to help keep cool but we will see.

If that seems like a bad idea the list of the things in your tank Psychojam sounds like it would be nice too. Do you have any pics of yours on here? I didn't think of fish making their way into the back area of the tank so that will be another little project.

Do you guys know anything about Purigen for filtration? I have never used this but it seems a lot of reefers swear by it.

I have also ran across someone that said that they heard of a computer program that keeps track of your water test data, graphs it for you, and tells you if things are in a red zone. Have you heard of this?

Anyway thats about it for now I am making up a "What to do, buy, research list" right now. This weekend I will try to start taking pics and start a tank journal.

Thanks again Ill keep posted on anything I find.

[Phurst]

I had a MH light over my 12 gallon nano and heat was not an issue, but it was also an open top tank, and plumbed to a sump. I know there are people who have used the MH retrofit kits and were quite happy with them, but I believe most of them have had to use a drop-in chiller. Chillers for nanos aren't terribly expensive, and are fairly efficient to run, since many are based on a peltier device. If you really want to have an anemone/clown pair (which, I personaly think look GREAT in a nano), then these are options you'll have to investigate. You can get loads of good ideas and equipment at nanotuners.com and nanocustoms.com. They both have all KINDS of good stuff just for nanos.

There's no harm in leaving the carbon in there. I run carbon 24/7 on all of my tanks. I've not tried Purigen, but I too know a lot of reefers who swear by it as well. I've been thinking about picking up an extra phosban reactor to run some in. if I do, I'll surely post my opinion.

Oh, I forgot to ask. is there any cured live rock in there with your base rock? Even if there's just a little bit, it will be greatly beneficial for seeding the base rock and the sandbed.

I'm not aware of the software you mention, but it seems like an Excel spreadsheet could be easily set up to do the same thing.

[Ron Guiness]

I believe it was nanotuners.com that I found the retrokit at. It was a bit more expensive then I had originally thought, instead of $300 it is more like $500. I think that just gives me a bit of a goal to save up for. Plus it should be a good time trying to explain to the wife why I'm spending an extra $500 on my small tank. I haven't been to nanocustoms.com yet but I will be checking that out right after this.

I have never used carbon in a salt tank yet my only experience with carbon comes from fresh water tanks. Should I change out the carbon filter more regularly in a salt tank? I was also thinking, depending on how much room I am going to have in the read compartments of my tank after all is said and done, about putting some Cheato back there. It seems like pods love to breed and hide in that stuff and I say the more pods the merrier.

I have a few pieces of live rubble I am going to put in in a few days. I'm just waiting until after I bond my base rock together and let it cure for a few days.

I also have some more reading material coming in a few days. I just ordered Advanced Marine Aquarium Techniques and Marine Chemistry: A Complete Guide to Water Chemistry in Marine Aquariums! I am also looking for one more that I forgot the name of but it was all about nano reef keeping.

On a completely different topic have you had a chance to play with a Solaris LED lighting system yet? OH MAN way cool!!! Way expensive.....But WAY COOL!! I need to look a bit more into them but Im thinking the that might be my next major purchase for my large tank.

Well thank you again I'm headed over to the sites you mentioned to look at some more stuff.

[Phurst]

There are a couple of Solaris users on here. CarmieJo is a big fan, I know.

If you really want a MH setup, you can look at some all-in-one units that replace the stock hood completely. You get more evaporation, but it really helps to keep the temps down, and you can usualy find them with T5 actinics and moon lights for less than the $500 retro kit. the Sunpod units are particularly popular.

The current thinking on carbon is that it's exhausted in a matter of days, but myself and most other people I know tend to change it out monthly.

Turning a rear compartment into a fuge for cheato is a fairly common, and seems to yield pretty good results for most. Pods are good, for sure, but nutrient export and lower nitrates and phosphates are even better . It seems like a pretty simple thing to do as well.

I take it you're a muscle car fan? Do you have a project car currently? I'm a total car nut

[CarmieJo]

Congratulations on your big win! You have been given good advice so far. If you like the flowing look of an anemone you could consider an Euphyllia. I have a torch in my 54 (about 1/2-2/3 of the way to the bottom under my Solaris G series) and a frogspawn in my NanoCube24 under the stock PC lighting.

In both of my tanks I run a little carbon (couple Tbs.) in a mesh bag. I change it out every week when I do water changes.

[CarmieJo]

I use this Aquarium Manager free download. Will help you maintain your marine / reef aquarium much easier by logging down the varies important water quality parameters of your aquarium then