Cube Newb

[Bloke]

Alright - here is a few pics of my 10g nano:

Well, I had to take this tank down. It's a long story, but the short of it is that I have three tanks at home and his little guy took up more time than the other two combined. The tank would evaporate so much water that I would fill it before work and it would be blowing air bubbles before I got home. But this thread is not for help...

Instead, I am a school teacher and am having to head back to work. I've never had a tank at work, but think that I am going to start one. The tank above is in the process of being farmed out to people and I've purchased a JBJ 12g Nanocube DX. I DO NOT want to mod the tank other than putting in a MJ1200 for the stock pump. I've never had a biotope before believe it or not and thought I would come to ask for help.

I already have a pair of True Percula clowns for this tank and that will be the bioload other than inverts.

I plan to use the water, sand, and rock from the 10g pictured above. So, my question is: it seems like everyone has modded their cubes and I don't want to get into all that. I am not interested in busting out the dremel, etc. I have a 36g and 90g at home I already dedicate time & money to. I just want a nice little biotope for the classroom with my two little Clownfish with some zoos. Yet, I want to get the best filtration I can... I can bring water to school for water changes, so I'm not worried about that... should I use everything that comes with the cube? Should I remove part of the filtration? Should I substitute nanoballs or LR rubble? Should I upgrade the pump for a MJ1200? Tell me the ABSOLUTE required mods, and don't mention lighting. The 2x24 PC lighting is fine for what I want...

What should I do?

 

[Reefergeorge]

First off great pics!
I would remove the ceramic rings and bioballs and put one of the sponges in the 1st and third chambers and rubble werever (I have mine in the first and second). As for as the mj1200 I used the mj900 do to heat issues but that is just my opinion.
Good Luck and please post pics

 

[matts125]

Looks Great! very nice little nano.
Where abouts in KS do you live? I am originaly from Great Bend...

Matt

 

[Krish]

Nice looking tank! As for filtration...Opinions will vary so you will have to go with what works best for you. For me personally, I wouldn't use any sponges (unless you are prepared to clean them every 2-3 days as they will contribute to degrading water quality) nor would I use the ceramic rings, bio-balls etc. I'd personally use a small hang on skimmer like the AqaC nano and allow the live rock to provide your biological filtration.

Just a few thoughts...Good luck with what you decide

 

[Bloke]

I want to resist the temptation to "tinker" with it as much as possibe, but there are some things I feel are "necessary" to have a successful tank.

Before I get into that, here is a picture of the normal filtration of the Biocube:

And here is a picture of the changes I want to make:

As you can see, I am going to remove the bioballs and sponge filter. In the first chamber I will put the heater and a bag of Phosban/Carbon. Second Chamber will be the fuge (more later), and lastly change the stock pump to a Mini-Jet 606 in the return section. I would put a MJ900 if I could find a way to keep it quiet. I do not want the vibration noise.

 

[blind1993]

are u going to have a protein skimmer.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Great tank!
I would lose the wet/dry filter which creates Nitrates, and replace it with a skimmer to remove the waste in lieu of convert.

Love those fish!

 

[Snowboarda42]

Maybe put a lock on the tank so your tank doesn't end up with any foreign material in it (i.e. from kids you assign homework to)

 

[theJ]

As you can see, I am going to remove the bioballs and sponge filter.

Excellent choice.

In the first chamber I will put the heater and a bag of Phosban/Carbon.

Very nice

Second Chamber will be the fuge (more later),

Very cool

and lastly change the stock pump to a Mini-Jet 606 in the return section. I would put a MJ900 if I could find a way to keep it quiet. I do not want the vibration noise.

You can use the suction cups to build kind of a 'platform' for it to sit on. I used that idea for my seios, keeps them off the glass and quiet.

Personally (im still new man) I would leave out the LR rubble. As it sheds, its going to build up detritus which will add maintenance/time to clean out frequently to gaurd against nitrate build up. You will have a good amount in the tank area anyway, a little bit of rubble isnt going to do much. A skimmer would be a good addition too!

Cool ideas, really liked the visual aid

 

[Bloke]

Maybe put a lock on the tank so your tank doesn't end up with any foreign material in it (i.e. from kids you assign homework to)

LOL - Yeah, really! That's one good reason to go with a covered tank!

No skimmer. Believe it or not, the original tank has always ran without a skimmer.

I also notice a lot of detritus off of LR rubble and I also think that there will be enough LR in the display, but it's still up in the air. I will post pics of the fuge mod later today.

 

[Bloke]

Fuge Mod:

Here are the supplies required for the fuge light:
Sylvania Daylight 65k CF Bulb (13w)
Velcro
Conduit/Electrical Box 1.5"
2" Grommet
Scotch Brite Scrub Pad
Foil Tape
PC Light Clip

I did not want to take pictures at every turn of this little job, but what I did was cut the back coupling section off the electrical box with a Dremel so that it was flush with the back of the box body. Then I lined the inside of the box with foil tape (watch your fingers - this can cut). Thirdly, I cut a piece of the scrub pad to cover the rear hole. I did not want to cover the hole up with tape or grommet, but rather leave a place for heat to escape. Next, I did put a grommet in the bottom coupling section where the bulb socket will run. I used an old PC light clip to hold the socket in place. Lastly, I cut the velcro into strips to cover the face of the box (fuzzy stuff on the box; prickly stuff on the tank).

(Sorry for the pic quality - I used my cell phone for these pics.)

So far, nothing had been done to the cube itself... Next, I cut the other pieces of velcro and attached them to the BOX, not the tank. I then measured where I wanted the box to sit in relation to the second chamber, and then pressed the box against the tank (after removing the adhesive strips). The pieces of the velcro stuck to the tank wall and this gave me the section of paint to be removed. Time to go crazy with the razor blade! HINT: In order to see which best during this step, shine a light down into the second chamber from within the tank!

Once the paint was removed, I grabbed my light box and pressed it to the velcro. Viola! The room I was working in only had a corner lamp on. The light leaking through the scrub pad is actually very minimal when the room is lit normally.

 

[Bloke]

And here is a picture with the lid up looking down towards Chamber 2. That's a 13w bulb - and that's bright! You can see the bottom drip tray still in place and the upper drip tray is to the right within the tank. LR rubble will be under the bottom tray.

There will be very little light leaking into the display area since the fuge will be filled with cheato and the upper drip tray will return with filter floss on top of it.

Fuge Mod completed! Thoughts?

 

[morgan]

very cool i like it

 

[Bloke]

OK, I got the thing setup, but had a few bumps in the road...

First, I was planning on simply setting the Biocube on top of a 2 drawer file cabinet in the room, but found that the tank was wider than the file cabinet. So I looked around to find something in the room for it to sit on because I did not want it on my desk...

I have a LOT of stuff in the room and it actually looks like an antique shop at times (you ought to see it) but I had this old radio in the corner that I tried out. Before I put the tank on it I climb up on it, stood on it, rocked on it to make sure it would hold. It seemed pretty sturdy, so I proceeded to unpack stuff.

Here you can see it ready to go. I cut a piece of eggcrate for the bottom to keep sharp edges of rock off the glass as well as act as a footing for the branching tonga since it has a tendency to slide.

Here you can see a few things. First, notice Chamber 1 on the far right. The dividing wall between Chamber 1 and 2 needed to be widened by about 1/2" to accomodate a higher rated pump. (Don't comment on my Dremel work). Second, I also removed the bottom drip tray from Chamber 1 to allow for heater placement as well as a small piece of plexiglass which is covering the lower intake. I did not glue the plexiglass in place, but rather filled the area behind the plastic with LR rubble to hold it in place. I did this to restrict the lower intake to force more water through the top to better skim the surface of the water. Lastly, here you see the lower drip tray in Chamber 2 was moved to fill Chamber 2 with rubble and the tray will return as a bottom plate for the Cheato. (Check out that fuge light!)

I put about 4g of water in the tank to help weight it down and then added about 15lbs of established sand from the old 10g tank. Then came the 12lbs of branching tonga. In all, there's about 14lbs of LR including the rubble. I did not overthink the aquascaping - I was ready to get out of the room since the A/C was not on yet and because I was constantly reminded of having to return to work on Monday... <sniff>

Once the tank was filled I turned it on to make certain that everything was flowing without trouble. I had to fidget with a few pieces of the rock after moving the magnet around to make sure I had clearance on all three sides of the tank. I also dropped in the snails and hermits that used to live in the 10g tank.

 

[Bloke]

Before I left I went ahead and moved a few bookcases as well as my desk and chair. Here in a day or two the tank should be a lot clearer. I'll run back up to school to check on evaporation as well as check water params, etc. and readjust the aquascaping if need be. I think all the power cables tucked nicely into the radio (the cabinet is hollow) and I've got the lights on timers so all should be well.

I guess by Monday things should be running fairly stable. I plan to run a small bag of Carbon/Phosban/Purigen/ChemiPure, etc. in Chamber 1. The two little clowns that will be living in the cube are at home in QT surely awaiting the many little faces that will be tapping the glass and yelling "NEMO!"

 

[morgan]

cool fill it with differnt coloured disc it would look really nice and they spread quickly just my 2cents
wish we had a marine tank when i went to school

 

[blind1993]

hey if u are going to add the fish add them over a vacation so that they can get used to the tank and not get alot of stress from the children.

 

[Bloke]

Morgan - I plan to add a bunch of different zoos to give it color.

Blind1993 - I teach high school psychology & sociology. The kids wont be near my desk unless I've feeling nice that day. Also, the students don't arrive until a week from Wednesday (August 15th). The clowns will be in the tank for about a week and a half before students arrive.

I dropped in some Cheato this afternoon and checked the water parameters. All looks good. My temperature is a little high (82 degrees) so I switched the two bulbs in the hood. The fans are wired to the same light socket as the 10k bulb, so when it comes on the fans do too. Basically, I took them both out and plugged them into the other's socket. This way, the fans come on with the actinic and remain on the entire photoperiod, one hour before the 10k and one hour after.

My classroom looks likes an antique shop some times. Here is a few shots of the room:

I would like to get my temparature down a little. It's running right around 83 degrees. I do NOT have a heater plugged in so i think I am going to buy new fans.

This tank has to be placed where it is. The desk HAS to be in this corner of the room because that is where the cable/phone/networking jacks are located. Furthermore, these old rooms were not wired with today's technology in mind. I have ONE OUTLET per wall, that's it. And, the Fire Marshall inspects our rooms monthly to check for violations like plugging a power strip into an extension cord or plugging a power strip into a power strip.

The stock fans (50x10x10mm) only push 5 cfm per unit. I am going to buy these Sunon fans http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/Pr...6AFCD007E9C617F and get 15 cfm per unit. That will keep things cool!

I have droppd in some food for the CuC as well as see if anything shows up in the tests, but nothing yet.

I am not sure what to expect with such a low bioload. The 2lbs of rubble that went into the tank as well as the 15lbs of sand came from an establishd tank so it might be enough to compensate for any NH3 production... Hmmm.

So far so good. I still plan to drop the fish in on Monday unless something changes.

 

[Bloke]

Alright, some of you wont like how I did this, but here goes...

I removed the stock fans and replaced them with two Sunon 50x50x15mm MagLev fans which push 17cfm each. I could have wired them to come on with the lights like the stock wiring is, but I need them to keep the tank cool when the ambient temperature in the room rises to 80 degrees. Because the fuge light runs 24/7, the tank needs to be cooled and since the A/C wasn't doing the job, these guys will.

I did not want to drill a hole in the back of the lid to run a 12v adapter into the hood since there is already a hole for the LEDs 4v adapter, which I'll NEVER use. I am not a fan of the LEDs and this tank will be lit from 8:00-3:00 and there is no need for the LEDs anyway, so... I cut the end off.

I pulled that wire out and snaked the 12v adapter through the rubber grommets and into the lid for a nice, clean, stock look. Once inside I wired everything up and plugged it in. WOW! The old fans ran around 16db and these guys run around 33db. Almost twice the hum, but it's not a problem since there will ALWAYS be more than 33db of noise in the room... it's a classroom.

I plan to see how things go tomorrow and I should drop the fish in there before the weekend.

 

[james734]

Looks good to me.. Nice DIY.