impur's biocube 29

impur · Jun 11, 2012

Well since I am setting this tank up and this contest is going at the same time, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try and win the JBJ 28!! So here is my entry.

I picked up this biocube 29 last month with stand, sand, rocks and all the equip for a pretty good deal.

So after tossing the sand, giving the rock a good scrubbing, and cleaning the tank, I started to really go to work

Installed a DJ powerstrip, and look all my crap fits in the stand! Except it leaves no room for a topoff tank, so much for having a place for my crap lol

impur · Jun 11, 2012

Finished rinsing and adding sand, now for the rock work

Then i picked up a nice piece of LR to seed the tank with, you can see the piece here

Rockwork for now

impur · Jun 11, 2012

Next I went to work on the hood. I picked up a dimmable 24 LED kit from aquastyleonline.com. I went with 14 blue, 8 white, 2 UV and Ray sent me a few extra bulbs as well

Time to gut the hood

impur · Jun 11, 2012

Mounting the heatsink proved to be harder than I anticipated. First off I totally measures wrong and drilled 4 holes in the wrong spots. After remeasuring and double checking before drilling again, I got it right. I am using 4 of the holes in the hood

I ended up using 3 small washers and a fender washer to create a standoff to keep the heatsink fins off the plastic. I just superglued them together to make mounting easier

Took me a little while to figure out the layout, then the wiring for each driver. Here is what I came up with if you can read it

And LEDs glued to the heatsink - not bad for freehand!!

impur · Jun 11, 2012

Tonight I will be wiring up the power cords to the drivers and cutting the wires for each LED. I hope to get them soldered up and the hood in place by midweek

revhtree · Jun 11, 2012

Wow great build man!

impur · Jun 11, 2012

Thanks rev

impur · Jun 13, 2012

My replacement fans came today. These are about as silent as you can get! One fan will blow hot air out, the other will be sucking in cool air

I hope to get an hour or 2 of free time in the next few days so I can solder up the LEDs. Setting up a new tank when you have a 10m old is quite a challenge!

danielsreefs · Jun 13, 2012

looks good how much you got in to redoing the lighting i been thinking of doing it on my jbj 12gal

wysiwyg · Jun 13, 2012

very nice start. good luck in the contest

impur · Jun 13, 2012

danielsreefs said:
looks good how much you got in to redoing the lighting i been thinking of doing it on my jbj 12gal

With the LED kit, shipping, fans, solder, and extension cords (the power cords that came with the kit are only 3') I'm in the lighting about $160 total.

wysiwyg said:
very nice start. good luck in the contest

Thanks!

dtpollard · Jun 14, 2012

Nice. I like the DIY.

thewackyreefer · Jun 14, 2012

Looking good, can't wait to see how it turns out!

sirevans reef · Jun 14, 2012

Looks like it is coming together very nicely!

BarbH · Jun 14, 2012

Looking like you are off to a good start, look foward to seeing this come together good luck with the contest.

impur · Jun 14, 2012

Thanks guys! After I get the LEDs finished I am going to try and come up with something that will set me apart a bit from other biocubes

impur · Jun 15, 2012

Got the fans installed and wired. Also wired up the power for the drivers. I am going to head to Radio Shack this weekend to see if i can get some smaller pentiometers. I'd like to mount them in the same spot the switches for the CF lights were. The ones that came with the kit are maybe 1/4" too big