What's up sd reefs!, new to the forum. I'm located in north county. Currently I am running a bq29 hqi mixed reef. This is my second sw tank. My last tank was a 60 gal mixed reef and was up and running for Aprox 7 years. I moved and had to part it out. I was out of the hobby for about 5 years and then decided I wanted to run another tank. Because of all the advancements in the nano world, I decided on the bq29 to help w/ the expense of starting it all up. Well I have already tripled if not quadrupled my spending cap. Lol. I'm sure many of us have.
I have joined nano reefs forum about a week before my initial set up. I spent most of my time off work browsing there forum, reading up on all the new advancements and any and everything possible. So much has changed since owning my last tank equipment wise but the basics are basically the same with a few exceptions like dsb, bb's. it's a whole new world IMO for the nano's. I remember anything less than 55 gal was not recommended when I first started. Now their are pico tanks, nano tanks etc that many enthusiast are running successfully. It's awesome IMO. Since being from San Diego, I figured I'd join a local forum to learn and share info, opinions, likes and dislikes, help others local to me, and meet local reefers. Glad I found this forum and thanks for having me.
So my tank; biocube29 hqi (mixed reef)
Tank has been running for 2 months now, I had a 3 week cycle. Started with 30# premium live rock, 30# ultra white live sand. Using Red Sea coral pro salt mixed @ 1.025 @79*f. Tank temp was up and down while cycling, I have been able to maintain it with in 1 degree for the last month. It took me switching a few things around equipment wise and lighting schedule.
I started w/ upgrading the return pump to a Colbalt mj1200, I cut the tab between chambers 1&2 for more flow and to accommodate my intank media basket. I'm running cpe and purigen w/ filter floss in the media basket. I removed the sponge between chambers 2&3 to prevent waste build up and having possible nitrate spike. I ran my lighting during my cycle to reduce die off on lr. Ran for 7 hrs a day and ran in the evening to help w/ tank temps since the end of summer was fairly warm and the stock lighting is hqi bulb. It gets rather warm. Lighting ran from 3pm -10pm. I was running two hydor 425's for flow but have since swapped them out for an mp10 to reduce tank temp even further. It has reduced my tank temp by 2 degrees having the motor outside the tank. Great upgrade and awesome piece of equipment IMO. To help with my tanks temp issues even further, I contacted Dave Fason at nano box and purchased a new full spectrum 4ch led set up. Took two months to build but is now finished and in the process of being shipped..... To be continued....., battery is about to die......
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