What a day!

As most of you know I downgraded my 125 gallon to a 29 gallon Bio Cube.  I have been in the process of making it "not so stock".  I added an Auto Top Off, Sapphire Aquatics Skimmer, and today a light upgrade from Nano Tuners.  The upgrade came as a kit and took nearly 7 hours to build. It consisted of a 150 watt HQI fixture, along with 2 ballasts fot the stock PC's.  I started around noon and just got done about an hour ago.  The kit came with awesome instructions but still I could not believe how long it actually took to do.  I pretty much had to build 2 ballast boxes from scratch  and wire all of them up along with a couple extra fans and LEDS.  My biocube looks AMAZING!  Now I just need for Fall Fest to hurry up an get here so I can get to stocking!
Pics to come.

 

I was actually so busy building the damn thing I didn't have time to take any pics during the build. As soon as I get my new bulb I'll take a few shots.

 

I got the 20k Radium bulb installed today and it looks great! I'll take a few pictures later tonight and get them posted. So far I am very happy with this setup, I should be able to grow just about anything in it.

 

To be honest I think it is almost impossible to keep a Bio Cube w/o a chiller unless you either run your AC at all times and never let your ambient temps in your house get above 75. Another option would be to run a bunch of fans but evaporation would be crazy. Even before I did the light mod my tank would fluctuate from 77 to 84+ daily because of ambient temp swings.

I am still waiting for my chiller to get here, the metal halide has been running for about 4 hours now and have only had a 2 degree temp swing.

 

Finally got some pics.
Here is the fixture installed in the hood.  I had to wire EVERYTHING myself as well as build 2 separate ballast boxes.  Every connection is soldered and heat shrunk which was the main reason it took 7 hours.  The system has 2 fans that blow directly past the bulb and 2 other fans that circulate air through the hood.

Here is a picture of it ON.

This is a pic before the upgrade with just the 2 36 watt PC's

Here is a pic with the 2 36watt PC's and the 150 watt 20k Radium

The pics don't really do it justice at all but I am super happy with it.  With the added fans the tank actually stayed below 82 with the HQI installed.  I just wish my chiller would get here so I can keep everything below the 80 degree mark.
Now it's time to get some coral!!!

 

Heh, I know, Like I said the pics don't do it justice. I guess I could have posted a completely overexposed pic. In reality it's actually atleast 2x brighter and a little more blue.

 

Well today I hit a little "bump" in the road. Turns out the chiller I bought isn't coming. The guy I bought it from on RC is a scammer! Right before the upgrade he "sold" a bunch of equipment to several people and never shipped it to anyone. He pretty much used the whole RC upgrade so he could collect peoples money, the after the upgrade all the PM's or "evidence of the transaction" more than likely would get deleted.

Luckily I paid with a credit card through PayPal so I just had to call my CC Co. and they credited me back the funds.

So I am in the market for a chiller again, I may hold out until I can find a steal of a deal, as it is right now my tank is running cooler than ever because of all the fans in the hood..

On a positive note, my MP10 came today, what a nice piece of gear!