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Thread: Carty's 29g Biocube Build

  1. #1
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    Carty's 29g Biocube Build

    Well, I originally was planning on not starting this build thread until everything was completely finished. Personally, I get impatient when I'm reading everyone else's builds so I figured I would try and post the entire thing all at once.

    With that being said, I got impatient not posting anything about it so here we go

    First, wanted to say thank you to Insane Reef Keeper for this great tank. He gave me a great deal and the tank was just as advertised, great condition.

    Here is the tank as I got it with a couple rocks I got from Jenn (thanks!) I threw in some black sand I had from a long long time ago (fully cleaned) I decided to let the girlfriend "run" this tank. She gets to pick everything and I'll do the taking care of part.


    Over the past few months I have been doing a ton of reading about LED's and knew that I would soon be changing my current tank (54 corner) to LED. Before I made that big leap, I thought it would be a good idea to experiment on a smaller tank. I have also always wanted a tank in my bedroom, and I have heard good things about the biocube. I went looking for a BC14 and InsaneReefKeeper happened to be selling his 29 at just a little bit more than I was willing to pay for the 14, $30 more for an extra 11 gallons? Deal.

    When I got home I immediately started taking about the hood. I did plug in the lights to see if they worked first (they did) because I was just curious.

    Before:

    After:
    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  2. #2
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    Next I needed a controller of some sort. I have heard a lot about the Arduino and decided to give it a go. Why not right? It's WAY cheaper than any reef keeper or comparable product.

    I went with the DFRduino (Arduino) Duemilanove 328 by DFRobot. Only about $30 and the website I got it from was chinese. It was here in about 3 days. While I was ordering from this website I also threw in an LCD shield ($20) so I could see what was going on with my sketch (code) I will get to that later.

    Both parts:


    Arduino:


    LCD:
    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  3. #3
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    Up until this point my soldering experience was pretty crappy, so if you are thinking "this is over my head" it isn't, I promise.

    I needed a clock for my reef controller, so I ordered a RTC Clock ($15). It is a simple circuit that keeps the time for me. Cool thing about this circuit is the battery it has. Even if the power goes out, it will keep on ticking so when it comes back on, my light will pick up right where it should. The battery is a standard flat battery like you see in a watch, it will last 5 years. I opened the package and uh oh, the circuit was completely unassembled and I have never built one before. I found a picture on-line and I must say.. it was incredibly easy. A 5 minute article on how to solder a circuit and then a large picture of the RTC off the website I ordered it from and I had a completed RTC Clock in about 30 minutes.

    RTC when I got it:


    RTC Finished:


    The longest thing I had to wait for was the LED's. They took about 25 days to arrive, but with such a great price, I'm ok with waiting. www.ledgroupbuy.com is where I ordered them. My 20 3w LED's were only $105 shipped. 10 Cool White and 10 Royal Blue.

    I knew these things were small, but holy cow, I didn't think they were this small. Here is a picture next to a quarter. Notice how small the star is, the small dot in the middle is the actual LED, maybe 2 millimeter's across?

    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  4. #4
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    I ordered my heatsink from www.nanocustoms.com because I wanted to use my hood that came with my biocube. I know that evaporation is always an issue with an open canopy and the smaller the tank, the more noticeable the evaporation will be (to me at least.) This heatsink came with holes that match my screws in the hood so it will screw in right were the old light did. I spent a little bit more than a regular heatsink ($50) but again, if it fits in the hood, it will be well worth it. It came in the mail and not only was it drilled for the biocube, it also had holes drilled for the LED's (sweet) I ended up not using them, but at least I had the option. I tested it, and it does fit perfectly in the hood were the old light it. I used some thermal adhesive to glue down my LED's. I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how I wanted my LED's arranged and decided that this design would best eliminate spot lighting as well as provide the best coverage.



    As you can see in the picture the diodes are white and yellow. I assumed the yellows were blue and the white was the white. I was wrong! whoops? Thankfully the pattern doesn't matter which is which because it alternated anyways so they are same.

    If you look in the picture above, you can see the LED has a + and a - on it. The top two connectors are the + and the bottom two are the -, pretty straight forward ya?

    Here is a picture of the LED's wired together. I wired them in series +-+-+-+-+- because of all the research I did, this seemed to be overwhelmingly preferred. It has something to do with a constant current which I know is what I want so I don't ask questions.

    I left the picture for this one larger so you can see the wires closely and follow the + - + - from wire to wire if you plan on using this thread as a guide.

    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  5. #5
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    I needed drivers to power my LED's so I ordered 2 Meanwell ELN 60-48P drivers. This seemed like a fantastic idea but later turned out to be underwhelming which I will explain here. There are 2 ways to dim an LED, Analog and PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)

    Analog involves adjusting the voltage and with this mode you can change the brightness from 1%-100%

    PWM involves turning the power on and off extremely rapidly, so fast that it appears to be dim and not turning on and off. The faster they turn on and off, the brighter the LED looks. Only electronics that can turn on instantly to 100% (like LED's) will work with PWM.

    What I DIDN'T know was that with PWM, the minimum brightness is 10% and with 20 led's that is already fairly bright. It basically defeats the purpose of the simulated sunset because while it only seems like 10%, to my eyes it looks like about 50%

    Thankfully the website where I got the drivers has fantastic customer service and is willing to swap out my driver that I didn't experiment with, the other one I'm stuck with, so if anyone wants a 60-48P, I have one for sale ($20.)

    I will now be getting 2 ELN 60-48D drivers and these are much better at the low end dimming. It won't be as seamless as the PWM, but if I add more steps in the ramp up, it will hardly be noticeable.


    Once I had everything I could begin the fun (and incredibly difficult) part. I took 1 coding class in college and got an A, but that was Java and it was 5 years ago. Turns out, sketch (arduino code) is much simpler. I wired up my RTC Clock, my Arduino, and my LCD shield to get this:



    It looks complicated, but that's because I have everything sprawled out. Once I am done with everything, it will be put into a project box with only the LCD showing. Here is the diagram I used to get everything wired together. It's a lot of wires, but if you connect the dots, this is fairly easy.

    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  6. #6
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    LET'S SEE THE LIGHT!

    First thing that needs to be done is open the driver up, there are 4 screws and they aren't hidden so this is no big deal. Inside there is a potentiometer (knob that controls the current) inside that is labelled SVR2. Turn this delicately counter clockwise until you hit resistance. The total motion of this "pot" is only about 270 degrees so it isn't far. These drivers can be adjusted and what you are doing is turning the current down so the LED's aren't over driven.

    The driver needs to be plugged in on the AC side, and on the other side, a 10v power supply (radioshack) should be attached to run the actual driver. If you can't find a 10v, use a 9v 1Amp. It's close enough.

    Once everything is plugged in you get some light.

    Here are the Royal Blues at 1% This light is very dim, much lower than any moon light. I would say that this amount of light would be hardly noticeable if turned on over the tank.



    Here are the Royal Blues at 100% This light is extremely bright. So much so that looking directly at the LED's is hard.



    On that note, I will say To Be Continued.
    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  7. #7
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    Update!

    Well, everything with the tank is nearly done. The only thing I have to do now is tidy up how the light electronics look and wait for the tank to cycle (well underway)

    I meant to post this picture earlier but for some reason I guess I forgot?? here are the white LED's on full blast


    Next was reassembling the hood, but with my LED light instead of the PC's it came with. This part of the job wasn't exactly hard.. but again, tedious wire work.



    I thought about adding in some fans to "preserve" the life of the LED's but I figure, if they burn out in 2 years instead of 10, oh well... I can't imagine how cheap these things will be by then so who cares. On top of that, I will probably have upgraded this tank by then to a newer version of the biocube/similar idea.

    here is the the light just thrown inside the cabinet. I need to clean it up and make it much more organized, but I was too excited and just wanted to see what the light would look like over some water



    Notice the "moon rock" as my girlfriend calls it haha completely white. This being her tank, she was a little mad that I hadn't gotten the colorful rock like I have in my tank, but didn't realize there was a difference between dead rock and live rock, after a 1 minute explanation, everything was all better.

    Here is the tank full of water with the light at it's "peak" for what it reaches during the day. Notice the cycle is well on it's way to making my tank a swamp for a few days. I also included a picture of what the LED's cast on the wall out of the fan vents in the back of the hood, pretty cool looking. I will get some step by step light pictures tomorrow for everyone.


    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  8. #8
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    if you look very carefully in the full tank shot you can just barely see some zoanthids at the bottom of the tank. I had a couple break off when I was fragging and I figured I would throw them in here.. worst cast scenario, they don't make it through the cycle and I lose like 3 or 4 polyps, but so far they seem perfectly fine, and wow do they look good. No matter what time of the light cycle, they glow incredibly bright. The Royal Blue LED's are better than any actinic I've ever seen. Here is a picture taken with my iphone (best ive got) with the royal blues on at about 40%.. imagine it like you see here, but even more glow in person.

    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  9. #9
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    more photos! enjoy it.

    Here are the lights at 10%, 50% and 100%. If you'd like, I can do the blue and the whites separately as well

    10%


    50%


    100%
    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  10. #10
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    Holy nitrogen cycle batman!!
    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  11. #11
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    It's been a while since I have cycled a tank, so refresh my memory..

    My tank is clearly in full algae bloom. I tested the water tonight and everything was 0's, does this mean my cycle is done and I just have after effects now? as in time for a clean up crew?
    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  12. #12
    Assistant Moderator rayme07's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Carty View Post
    It's been a while since I have cycled a tank, so refresh my memory..

    My tank is clearly in full algae bloom. I tested the water tonight and everything was 0's, does this mean my cycle is done and I just have after effects now? as in time for a clean up crew?
    First off great looking tank and light system it makes me want to build one myself!

    How long has your tank been up and running? If its only been running a few days I think that the cycle just hasn't started yet, you may need to put a piece of raw shrimp for a day or two or a pinch of flake food in there to start the cycle. Also I would keep your lights off during the cycle so you don't get that algea bloom like you have. It will die off but will come back once you turn the lights on again so make sure you have the cleanest water when you do your water changes with 0 nitrates. Its good to see you back!
    Ray or Raymond
    There is no elevator to success in marine tanks. You have to take the stairs.


    Raymond's 30 gallon tank
    Raymond's 60 gallon tank


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  13. #13
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    I wasn't clear in my post.. I saw the cycle already.. now my numbers are 0 again. It's been about 2 weeks in total since I threw in the shrimp. I dose with microbactor 7 daily as well to hurry it along. I got the spike in ammonia, then nitrates.. etc, now Im at 0 everything. Cycle over? My clean up crew will be here friday... I was thinking that would be no problem. Tested again today, still reading 0 everything.
    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  14. #14
    Assistant Moderator rayme07's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Carty View Post
    I wasn't clear in my post.. I saw the cycle already.. now my numbers are 0 again. It's been about 2 weeks in total since I threw in the shrimp. I dose with microbactor 7 daily as well to hurry it along. I got the spike in ammonia, then nitrates.. etc, now Im at 0 everything. Cycle over? My clean up crew will be here friday... I was thinking that would be no problem. Tested again today, still reading 0 everything.
    oh ok haha, yea your right it does look like the cycle is over.
    Ray or Raymond
    There is no elevator to success in marine tanks. You have to take the stairs.


    Raymond's 30 gallon tank
    Raymond's 60 gallon tank


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    Master Reefer Small Fry's Avatar
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    Led Lighting System- To Do List

    Siick build
    Will be following
    Josh

    Small Frys 120

    Fish- 1 Percula Clown, Black fin Shrimp Goby

    Clown and Goby are just chilling in the NanoCube 12

    120 almost ready for re-cycle


  16. #16
    Master Reefer Carty's Avatar
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    The clean up crew just arrived as always, john at Reef Cleaners did a fantastic job. Will be posting pictures in a day or two to show algae progress.

    One more thing. I didn't mention it in the build so far, but I have made a few modifications to my BC. First off, I cut out the flow restrictor in the first chamber. I don't see a need for it, and all it did was stop my tank from surface skimming. It took me a day or two to realize why I had crap floating on the surface, but I noticed that the water level was just above the top slits for my overflow. Flow restrictor got cut out, water level dropped about 1cm, and problem solved. The water is still higher than the glass, so everything is all honky dory. Another modification was gutting the middle chamber. There is usually a grate, some bioballs, and other mechanical filtration in there. I completely emptied it, put in some LR rubble, a bag of matrix, and a bag of purigen. This tank isn't running a skimmer of any sort. Lastly, I upgraded the return pump with a maxijet. Much better flow all around and I would say I don't even need a powerhead. The return follows the glass all around the tank, and using pellet food, I checked to make sure there are no dead spots.
    70 Gallon Reef System
    29 Gallon Reef System

    "It's not about what you know, it's what you notice."

  17. #17
    Master Reefer gimmito's Avatar
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    Cool tank.

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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    Nice build. I hope you ordered twice the parts you needed. You know once she gets it full it's not going to be enough and you'll need to upgrade..lol. Good to see a new project.

  19. #19
    Master Reefer boyesreef's Avatar
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    glad to see a fellow bio-cuber
    we are all on the long road to our dream tanks, im going slow and enjoying the journey!

  20. #20
    Grand Master Reefer CarmieJo's Avatar
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    Great build! Your LED's look fantastic!
    Carmie


    Only disasters happen fast!





    Carmie's 54 Corner Tank
    Carmie's Cube


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