Ludnix's 14g Oceanic Biocube

[ludnix]

PAR measurements on the biocube:

I have wanted a PAR meter for a long time. I have had custom LED lights on both of my setups and although very effective on my 120g, I only knew it would work based on other people's experiences. With my Biocube my lighting is a little more of my own decisions than other, more qualified people's recommendations. Are they bright enough? Are they too bright? I know I can't trust my eyes to judge the brightness on their own, so the PAR meter will have to come to the rescue and provide some quantitative answers.

The Apogee SQ-420.

Apogee has finally released a version of their famous PAR meters with a USB cord. This allows your PC to log the data and give live readings. I'm a total nerd so this has been my dream for ages. Previously you had to buy the meter readout device which was nearly as expensive as the probe itself. You could work around that by using a voltmeter, reading the mV output by the probe and doing a little math to convert that into the numbers we are used to, but that is a little cumbersome and leaves room for human error.

The probe itself is very solidly built, metal casing, potted bottom and screw mount for attaching to a wand. I didn't buy the wand yet since I'm only working in 12" of water, but it would invaluable in a large tank.

The software is dead simple. There was no configuring, no setup, just open the software, plug the meter in, get results. This is the software with the meter disconnected. When connected the 0.0 will change into your actual readout.

Results:

My lights were set to 100% blue, 60% white. Based on these numbers I decided to turn up my whites and get a little more intensity for some of the SPS corals. Now the PAR is closer to 600 at the surface instead of 480. I'm really happy to have the meter now, it's provided peace of mind in and allowed me to know for certain if the lights are bright enough (they were not!). It may help in the future if I get frags from other club members or give any away. We will be able to compare readings specifically and hopefully acclimate corals to the lighting of each other's tanks by placing them in identical in locations with similar read-outs.

LEDs and the SQ-420:
This is not the best meter for reading PAR from LEDs. This is due to the narrow bandwidth of the blue LEDS. Based on what I've read it's recommended that you take the readings and multiply by 1.2 to correct for the LED factor. You can also purchase a nearly identical meter which is better suited for LEDs and then no correction should be necessary. This meter is about $100 more than the SQ-420, but if you're only planning on working with LEDs it's probably worth the money. I hope to share the meter with the rest of my local club so hopefully this one will be better suited for a wide array of lighting types.

Thanks for reading!

 

[ludnix]

Had some time today to get out the microscope and play with the tank. Took a close look at some Green Hair Algae that recently cropped up after my lights out.

 

[ludnix]

Tomorrow is the two week mark from when I did the bayer dip and just previous to that was the 4-days blackout for Dinoflagellates. I think this is a little too soon to know if the AEFW were completely eradicated, this journal abstract suggests that they have 21 days of embryonic development, so I wouldn't be comfortable declaring the tank free of them for at least a month or two. Hopefully they are dead though!

I think I can confidently say the dinoflagellates are gone. I think the black-out caused them die and other algaes as well, releasing a lot of nutrients into the water. I have been doing water changes regularly since the bayer dip, but some Green Hair Algae has taken them up faster than I can remove them apparently. I'm not concerned though, algae is an easy problem compared the last two.

This green slimer is getting a nice green tint to it. It had been really pale yellow for most of it's time in the tank unfortunately. I'm hoping this is the rebound and I'll finally get some growth and color from it!

This coral looked totally dead before the bayer dip. I honestly considered not dipping it, but figured if it wasn't covered in algae it probably wasn't dead. I hadn't seen any polyps what so ever, and no coloration. It's not getting some minimal polyp extension and green coloration to the base, with a slight pink hue to the top. Looking forward to seeing what it turns out to be later.

This Millepora was not dipped, it's on a rock far away from the other acros. If they AEFW come back, this is probably the culprit. It continues to look fantastic though, I am seeing improved coloration on it so I'm continuing to hope it was never affected. You can see the GHA has completely overtaken the ponape birdnest behind it. This is my fault, I added a second powerhead to help randomize flow, unforunately I couldn't find a placement that didn't beat the ponape to death. Once the damage was done I felt it was too late to move the Ponape and have any success. I will just have to remove the peice and start over somewhere else.
View attachment 20160515_164249.jpg

 

[ludnix]

Green Hair Algae seems to be under control and more importantly, still no signs of AEFW!!!

I made a short (really I promise) video of the tank as it stands now. I'm really happy with some of the coloration I'm getting out of the corals post dipping. The SPS have honestly never looked better than they do now. Filmed in 1080p so be sure to enjoy in HD if you have the speed for it!

 

[Chrisfish]

Just finished going through your thread, really nice!

 

[ludnix]

Just finished going through your thread, really nice!

Thanks Chrisfish! I've got an LED upgrade in the works so there will be some more DIY light fixture modification posts coming soon!

 

[Reef-roach]

Great video, Eric!

 

[ludnix]

Thanks Reef Roach! Haven't used video editing software since college but I think the videos are just going to get better from here.

 

[Reef-roach]

First off, I love what you've done with a 14 gallon biocube, from the scape to the equipment mods. Awesome to see you've worked out some of the kinks and livestock is responding. I'm hoping you so another video in a few months so we can see things progress.
Second, it's exciting to see someone has the tools and know-how to shoot and put together a rad video in the club! Looking forward to seeing future projects, Well done!

 

[ludnix]

Thanks again Reef Roach, I'm hoping the videos get better as I get the lower quality ones out of my system. I read somewhere you if you want to draw well you need to get a 1000 bad drawings out of your system before you work your way to the good one. I hope the number is less with videos!

 

[ludnix]

As for a little update, things are still going well! I have been slowly picking out asterina's as I find them as I suspect some of them might have munched on my Montipora and Stylophora. Algae is continuing to weaken and disappear since adding new Chemipure Elite.

I've been enjoying the coloration improving in all of my corals. The green slimer has not been green since it was given to me by Reef Roach, this is finally changing. The pictures make it look less than green than reality, but I left them uncorrected for consistency. This is just shy of a month's progress and I'm really happy to see it going in the right direction.

Plans for the future:

I would like to get the Hydor ATO system to keep salinity as stable as possible. I'm choosing hydor for their method of measuring the water level. I've used float switches in the past, but I like hydor's small sensors and magnetic attachment.

I'm also working on a new light for the tank. Things are going well currently but I'm running 100% on both blue and white with no room adjustment of color without sacrificing brightness. Now that I have PAR readings I know I can go brighter still. Here's a sneak peak of what planned:

Planning to go from the current 6 white, 9 blue all at 700ma to 10 white and 11 blue! I'll also be upping the current on the whites to a maximum of 1300ma, almost double the existing lights current. Blues will be up to 1000ma. I plan on also throwing in 2 reds at a couple UV at 300ma.

In addition this will be controlled with RapidLEDs DDC-1 controller giving me the option of a sunrise and sunset automation. I won't be running them at 100% intensity I'm sure, but I will now have the option of going brighter and getting the coloration I want.

I'm currently waiting for a drill and tap kit to come in the mail. I have a lot of solderless connectors for these LEDs which I plan to use. The heatsink I have is currently already drilled and tapped for half the quantity of LEDs as I plan to use so I will need to make some more holes! This is my first time using a tap which is exciting for me. I never went to a school with a machine shop, so I missed out on a lot metal working fun!

 

[helen ann]

Nice Build!!!
Loving the lighting upgrade.
I have only added the LEDs in the available slots already a part of the hood.

Think I will leave as is and just save that money for the BIGGER tank!!

 

[ludnix]

Nice Build!!!
Loving the lighting upgrade.
I have only added the LEDs in the available slots already a part of the hood.

Think I will leave as is and just that money for the BIGGER tank!!

I think that's a wise decision! I am only making this upgrade because a local club member was selling their 75g LED setup for $100. I had built it for the original owner about 3 years ago for nearly $700 in parts, so it was a deal I couldn't pass up! I'm using less than half of the LEDs of their build, but I'm able to get my pick of the litter this way. A brand new fixture of this quantity would have cost more than I spent on the entire tank so far!

 

[ludnix]

Drilled and tapped the rest of the LED mounts on the heatsink. I just marked the new hole locations with a sharpie and then drilled and tapped the holes using a cordless drill. I got the drill bit and tap on amazon for ~$5. Normally you want to use a small tap wrench to thread the holes, I just carefully used the cordless drill. I used a large drill bit afterwords to chamfer the holes to match the stock ones, this will make the screws find the holes easier.

The new holes are shiny, the old holes probably have thermal paste in them or maybe the aluminum is a little oxidized. A drill press would have been great, but ultimately proved unnecessary.

My LED layout, alternating blue and white just like the previous post's picture.

I applied some thermal paste to the underside of the LEDs to let them transfer heat to heatsink easier. I then screwed down their connectors and wired them in series. There's 3 strings, Blue, White and Red. The red connectors had to be modified to fit, their diode is huge compared to the CREE's white and blues.

Preparing to install the new light. Here's the old light on top, new on the bottom.

Installed and we have light!

I took PAR readings of the tank before the swap and after. This let me match the PAR levels as closely as possible to avoid light shock and bleaching.

The range of PAR looks wider on the new lights, but I think that's just measurement error.

I'm really happy to have it installed and running. Looking forward to tweaking it until I've got it all dialed in. I'm currently using and old RapidLED DDC-01 dimmer for the lights. This is the cheapest PWM dimmer ever mass produced if I'm not mistaken. It's going to do the trick for now, but I'll be saving up for a BlueFish controller in the near future, this one is pretty feature-lacking.

 

[ludnix]

Giving the corals more time to adjust to the new light before messing with the intensity and spectrum. I'll try and wait another couple weeks at least before making any changes, I would like to retest the PAR and adjust brightness accordingly.

I decided to mount the Whisker coral to the rock and took a picture of it. It's one of my favorite LPS despite being so common.

 

[Ljaus]

Nice looking nano! Great to see you keep working through your problems, persistence is paying off!!! Also good to see a bit of diy in action. New led's look much better

 

[ludnix]

Nice looking nano! Great to see you keep working through your problems, persistence is paying off!!! Also good to see a bit of diy in action. New led's look much better

Thanks Ljaus, I enjoy a good project and agree the tank looks much better under the new lighting. I am looking forward to being able to test things out on a wider range and see what really best for everything.

 

[ludnix]

Picked up a new Zoanthid frag from the LFS Fin N' Feather. These were labeled as Vulkan Blood Zoanthids and are new one for me. They had a great yellow tint at the shop under T5, though they are significantly greener under my lighting. The photos do not capture the yellow at all for some reason, I suspect the lack of warm white lighting is limiting that coloration from showing up for me. Loving them all the same, they were well encrusted onto their plug and readily opened up for me minutes after being in the tank, and within an hour of my handling and gluing into their final location. I would normally allow them acclimate on the sand, but the PAR is about the same in their new location,

I would be lying if I said the Star Trek name wasn't a part of my decision to purchase them.

 

[ludnix]

Couple of cellphone pics from today. I lowered the brightness on my LEDs after accidentally knocking over the Bonsai. It had better coloration on the underside than the top, which means it's too bright! Now running at 5% white 65% blue. Already seeing some coloration improvements, but I'll get the PAR meter out later and get some useful numbers.

Cellphone white balance is crazy so I had to desaturate and turn down the blue on all the photos to make them as close to real as possible.

Top down view:

Purple rim monti:

Halimeda:

Currently dosing kalkwasser for top-off and 3ml of Kent Nano-Reef Part A and Part B daily. This seems to keep my alkalinity around 7dkh. If I skip a day it drops between 6.5-6.8dkh which I'm trying to avoid.

Future plans:

• Replace rapidLED controller with a Bluefish controller. Will allow for much more customization of lighting schedule. I'm currently just running the lights without any automated dimming due to controller limitations, I would like to instead have a higher peak intensity during high noon and lower the intensity the rest of the day.
• Replace ELN-60-48D drivers with LDD-1000HW. This will allow for even lower dimming settings on the LEDs. The ELN drivers just shut off around 15% or lower dimming. The LDD drivers with Blue fish should allow for a much more realistic sunrise and sunset.
• Install a Hydor Auto Top off for Kalkwasser top off.

 

[Ljaus]

Looking awesome! I've being eying off a sumped 24 gallon cube just not sure about it