Biocube 29 build (pic heavy)

[West1]

Soo... I sold my 300 a year or two ago due to a move. Decided to rent my house out, relocate to a better school district. With that said, once settled in I got the itch for a wet pet. Since I am now living into an apartment, I know a large volume of water is out of the question and I have always wanted to try salt.

My boy Ken hooked me up with a BC29@ a good deal, perfect size to try reefing!

Lets start in August 2016, I received the tank (wish I took pics) and went to town on the web. The first thing that got my attention was a diy rockscape out of concrete, then the diy concrete wall had me drooling! Two things I knew for sure I had to have was a silent overflow and the diy concrete. I recall Jcardona had a thread on a herbie style overflow and went to town on this topic. After hours and days of reading I was finally ready to start my journey...


First thing was to remove the BC back wall

Filtration

Concrete did not cure until December (started concrete process Octo or Nov).

Large Nanobox retro M plus w/new v.3 LEDs, love this light!

 

[West1]

Same light settings and this was taken with intense royal blues, used yellow safety glasses over my iPhone 6

And of course, my 10gl qt tank for anything new. Nanobox mini for better coral acclimation from qt to BC29.

All in all, I'll likely do a diy concrete wall with every display tank I own from now on.

Still adding stuff to the stand. You cant see the auto top off but its there. Next is my doser. Tank has been running since Jan 3rd.

Just thought I'd share since I have been MIA for a while

 

[tlindsey]

Same light settings and this was taken with intense royal blues, used yellow safety glasses over my iPhone 6

And of course, my 10gl qt tank for anything new. Nanobox mini for better coral acclimation from qt to BC29.

All in all, I'll likely do a diy concrete wall with every display tank I own from now on.

Still adding stuff to the stand. You cant see the auto top off but its there. Next is my doser. Tank has been running since Jan 3rd.

Just thought I'd share since I have been MIA for a while

Great job ☺ It is going to look awesome once the rock is covered with Corals and Coralline algae.

 

[Cohazard]

Looks good so far Eric! Funny, I am getting into salt too, setting up a 40g system, very slow but getting there.

I dig the look of the concrete background, reminds me of stuff i've seen at the LB aquarium

 

[West1]

aaaaaaand biocube cracked
Water everywhere

Not sure how it cracked. I can only think of 3 things.
1- old tank
2- concrete set with excessive pressure on the corner of tank
3- someone hit the tank on accident but there was no sign of blunt force

Sold most of the stuff and now I just have a 15gal frag tank with some firefish and a couple corals.

I cant believe how much I spent on a 30gal tank, its crazy! The amount I spent on this crap could of got me a 300-400gal with an MFK filter system lol. Last I counted, I was 2400.00 (biocube was 150.00) in and sooo close to buying a ProFilux controller. Glad it cracked before that I guess

 

[BIG-G]

Oh man Im sorry to hear that. It was coming along so nicely. Just hang in their and remember we all have set backs. At least you can use the equipment on another build.

 

[reefman]

Did you concrete the bottom? Because concrete does expand with temperature and moisture change. So if you put concrete on the bottom and u added water that changes the moisture and will cause it to expand putting more stress to the walls. Over time it will find a weak point and pop water on the floor. Sorry it happen it sucks when it happens

 

[West1]

Did you concrete the bottom? Because concrete does expand with temperature and moisture change. So if you put concrete on the bottom and u added water that changes the moisture and will cause it to expand putting more stress to the walls. Over time it will find a weak point and pop water on the floor. Sorry it happen it sucks when it happens

I did concrete the bottom. I did the bottom concrete first, let it sit for a week. Then the back wall took a week to do, let set for 2-3 weeks with a small cup of water inside (plastic bags covering the top). Bottom had a total of 1 month to set@ 1/8 inches thick. Once I did that and was happy with the results, I cured the concrete for a month, until the PH was stable at 8. Then started my cycle with saltwater etc...
I gave all livestock away that night except 1 sps coral and my dallas cowboy brittlestar, which I still have. That was easily 400.00+ that I enjoyed for a few months
I did a lot of reading on the background. Still not sure how or why. I feel I did everything correct.
With that said, I do want to try again but my wife frowns upon it

 

[BIG-G]

When I did my background for my 220 I did it outside the tank and then installed it. Used concrete and styrofoam.
Do you believe the reason it cracked was because you actually did the back inside the tank?

 

[West1]

When I did my background for my 220 I did it outside the tank and then installed it. Used concrete and styrofoam.
Do you believe the reason it cracked was because you actually did the back inside the tank?

I am not sure tbh. There are many threads in the reef forums about concrete backgrounds. I never read of any tanks cracking. I also used Styrofoam.
The crack was on the front lower right corner of the tank. I cant see the start of crack but it does reach about 3" above the lower plastic trim. IF it were the concrete, it may be due to using plastic mesh instead of Styrofoam. The builds I read stated it was safe if using a thin layer of concrete. The thickness of the glass vs. biocube glass could have played a role.
To bummed out to keep the tank, I tossed it quick as it was depressing to look lol.