Long time since visiting this site, sad news about one tank.

[sealevel@altitude]

Howdy all. See lots of new names here and some old friends too...

Haven't visited this site in ages, things have been going along swimmingly in the living room... tanks doing well, fish and corals thriving, when out of the blue the heater goes to crap and shoots up to 97 degrees in one day while we were at work! WTF? Lost my little firefish and two of the clowns I got from Gale (the other two are in the other tank). My treasured zoas and other softies disappeared instantly. Got another heater in there and did a water change to see what would come back. Been waiting about a month or so and watching to see. Not much except the toadstool and yellow polyps and the duncan (though shrunk to tiny little heads). Maybe some mushrooms will make it, but at any rate everything is now in the bigger tank. If any of the zoas come back then Heather at Elite can enjoy them. Nothing like a stupid little heater to completely fluff things up, eh?

Sign me frustrated. Gonna be surfing the reef galleries long and hard this coming winter, getting ideas to do something really different. Might as well, starting from scratch again.

 

[the_fish_man]

Welcome back. Sorry to hear about the tank

 

[dv3]

welcome back ...sucks about the tank ....if you haven't already done spend a few bucks on a controller for the heater in the other tank ...ok there a little more than a couple bucks but def a good ins policy

 

[sealevel@altitude]

Thanks you guys. Controller. Christmas is coming. Good idea!

You know Don, your little ID picture still scares me a little.

 

[Mckibbonator]

welcome back.

 

[dv3]

Thanks you guys. Controller. Christmas is coming. Good idea!

You know Don, your little ID picture still scares me a little.

lol...but atleast its memorable

and if you do get a controller something like a reefkeeper, apex or reefangel might be a better investment than say a heater only controller like a ranco

 

[sealevel@altitude]

Thanks Mck.

Going to start a new thread asking if feasible and how the best way to retrofit an LED system into the hood of that Biocube 29. We've been talking about it for awhile anyway, no time like the present to try it.

 

[sealevel@altitude]

lol...but atleast its memorable

Yes it is Don. I still laugh when I see it. Well, I laugh in a nervous, afraid-of-clowns sort of way. Thx again for the welcome back.

 

[bsharpe]

Sorry to hear about the heater, had a similar heat issue with the fans going out. I am starting to think that a new heater once a year might be a good idea. And checking it out in the RO bucket or somewhere else maybe a good idea before putting it in the tank.

 

[dv3]

Sorry to hear about the heater, had a similar heat issue with the fans going out. I am starting to think that a new heater once a year might be a good idea. And checking it out in the RO bucket or somewhere else maybe a good idea before putting it in the tank.

why RO and not tap? ...just wondering ...lol

 

[sealevel@altitude]

We had to clean the fan a few times, then finally replaced the stupid thing in the hood of that Biocube. It is just a year old. The replacement from last June was starting to ramp up and get noisy again... what's with the fans in those things? Like the Chevy Vega of aquarium hoods or what?!

Yes, we tested the one I put back in in a bucket first to be sure it was working properly. Now though, everything has been taken apart, cleaned and waiting for us to decide exactly what to do next. Tempted to sell it, but then again... why?

Was just reading in the DIY about KhensuRa's LED retrofit. Maybe do something clever with a new clear cover over it and the lights higher up like an HQI configuration... kinda... I think I have enough experience now to go to some higher light requirement corals and I really do like those clams... sigh.

 

[asn-naso]

What brand heater did you have? My 3 month old ViaAqua did the same thing last week. It was a warranty replacement for one that also died.

 

[Off The Deep End]

Welcome back!! Sorry to hear about the tank

 

[sealevel@altitude]

asneiman: It was an Eheim Jager. Hey, while searching LED info to replace the lights in that Biocube29, I saw you had posted where you did one. How's that going?

 

[asn-naso]

It is all finished, other then the moon lights, that I never got back to.

I ended up with 12 whites, and 16 blue's (all CREE's), and wish I didn't put so many in. I could have saved a lot of money and gone with the 20 CREE kit from rapidled. I have too much light, and have the whites running at 60% and the blues running at 70%.

I basically bought Rapid's kit, added 8 more CREE's, and went with nanocustom's heatsink. I actually have an extra heatsink that I holding onto for the "what if" scenario. If you are interested, maybe we can work out a trade?

I was also able to put everything into the hood, including the drivers. It was a tight fit, but everything is in there. If you do the same, make sure you replace your fans.