Just got a 29gal. Biocube and have some ?'s

S

suv

Guest
Like the title says
, and I have some questions.
I want so set it w/ a fuge in the back and so LR rubble, How have some of you other Biocube users set up your refugium? I asume you use the center compartment right?
Do you have a sand bed in the fuge?
Do you leave the tray in the bottom?
And any other tips to setting up and maintaining a Biocube thats different from a larger reef?
Thanks, Suv
 
mboswell1982

mboswell1982

Active Member
id recommend that you talk to rebel, nissan, nwdyr, rotary, subielover, and a few others, they seem to be the generally recognized experts on modding biocubes LOL
 
S

suv

Guest
I'm hoping some of them will stop by to read this thread
. I guess we are all aquarium junkies, I'm SO excited.
 
mboswell1982

mboswell1982

Active Member
id check out rebel's thread, nissan's thread, i know he's done the mod your thinking of, and a few of the other threads, and get them to comment on here and they will tell you exactly what u need to do, step by step
 
nwdyr

nwdyr

Active Member
well....My advice is NOT to put LR rubble in the chambers , I did it and was never more sorry! Too much junk collects in the bottom and as you can see it is a tight space and VERY hard to clean. Think like this , the whole tank is your "fuge" If you put LR in the tank and sand...there you have it! a "fuge" is great if you have a fish only tank with no LR or LS. Everything you are squeezing into that tight little hard to clean space is already in the main part of the tank
I think a "fuge" or big sump is great if it is in a separate area , a tank under your tank , so you can work in it. People usually buy the "plug n Play" bio-cubes so they don't have to do all that. My bio-cubes all did very well STOCK. As soon as I started rippin them apart....trouble. Fill it with LR,LS plug it in and enjoy! If you want to build one that's cool , just buy a tank and go for it, that's cheaper in the long run too! Good luck
 
S

suv

Guest
I just browsed through some of there diarys, and got some ideas, but will probably still need some help. The whole reason I want to do a fuge is to have some where to grow pods.
 
S

suv

Guest
Someday down the road a mandarin. But to start, after it cycles of course, a mini reef w/ some seahorses for my wife. She begging me!
 
rotarymagic

rotarymagic

Active Member
Originally Posted by nwdyr
http:///forum/post/2845749
well....My advice is NOT to put LR rubble in the chambers , I did it and was never more sorry! Too much junk collects in the bottom and as you can see it is a tight space and VERY hard to clean. Think like this , the whole tank is your "fuge" If you put LR in the tank and sand...there you have it! a "fuge" is great if you have a fish only tank with no LR or LS. Everything you are squeezing into that tight little hard to clean space is already in the main part of the tank
I think a "fuge" or big sump is great if it is in a separate area , a tank under your tank , so you can work in it. People usually buy the "plug n Play" bio-cubes so they don't have to do all that. My bio-cubes all did very well STOCK. As soon as I started rippin them apart....trouble. Fill it with LR,LS plug it in and enjoy! If you want to build one that's cool , just buy a tank and go for it, that's cheaper in the long run too! Good luck

agreed.. without REALLY good flow through the rubble, its just a detritus trap.
 
rotarymagic

rotarymagic

Active Member
Originally Posted by SUV
http:///forum/post/2845775
I just browsed through some of there diarys, and got some ideas, but will probably still need some help. The whole reason I want to do a fuge is to have some where to grow pods.
If you want to really grow pods just tmake a breeding screen cube and put rubble in it so that the pods can congregate and not get eaten till they leave the screened area.. seen it done and it works well.. squirt some phytoplankton in there lol..
Also using a separate 10gallon or two 5.5 gallons as pod cultures works too.. take a sponge filter or something like that and put a tank filled halfway with saltwater near a window so that the sun makes the water green.. then let it run for a week.. take a culture of tigger pods and dump them in.. add phyto just to keep the water tinted green.. use a brine shrimp net to collect the pods and add to display tank.
 
fish4rudy

fish4rudy

Member
There are some minor mods that I did that have worked out well. I followed the advice of several of our resident experts. I cut a larger opening at the top between chamber 1 and 2. I added a Tunze 9002 skimmer and cheato in the middle chamber. I scraped the black paint off a section of the middle chamber and used Velcro to attach a 10 watt coralife fixture to the rear of the tank to provide light to the cheato. It works well this way because it’s out of the way being that it’s on the back of the tank. I also added a small coralia power head inside the display chamber. Hope this helps. I would stay away from the live rock in the middle chamber it’s a detritus trap for sure.
In addition to the experts listed you might want to search for Joe-l's 29 Bio-cube. He had a nice set up and I got alot of ideas from him.
 
S

suv

Guest
Thank you for everybodys help, but after thinking about it over night I have decided to just leave it alone. The whole reason I got a biocuube was for simplicity. But by the time I got home from the LFS the gears had been turning and remembering posts I had read. Mabye someday down the road I will do something w/ it. I liked fcatch's setup (seems simpple to care for). ONce again thank-you to all.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Hello SUV!
Congratulations on your purchase.
I think you will be most happy with your choice.
I believe you will be able to have a nice setup keeping the bio cube completely stock. As you already know the stock tank will limit your choices in what you are able to put into the tank as it relates to coral choices. Also the information supplied with the tank is lacking in the maintenance issues that you will have to deal with so please do ask questions and do some reading with specifics to husbandry. Things happen in a smaller tank much more quickly than you would see in your 90 gallon in terms of chemical and nutrient changes and therefore need to be monitored more closely. Cleaning filter media especially the bio balls, water changes etc. are more demanding than on a larger system because IMO they need to be done more often. They are however volume wise a lot easier to do.
Welcome to the nano tank world. As you progress in this part of the hobby keep asking questions here. There is a lot of help available. There was a comment I think by Rotary in another post wondering if there were any stock biocubes out there. Now we know there will be, at least for a little while. Until you get the modification bug we all seem to get!!!!!!
 
nwdyr

nwdyr

Active Member
good choice
I was able to keep allot of corals in my stock bio-cube , some will tell you that frogspawn or hammers wont live under stock lighting. Don'T believe it! mine lived and grew so big that I had to sell them do to a lack of room! CFL lighting is not the "best" but like I said it did GREAT for all my corals and I had just about all of them..even birds nest and pocillopora(sp) Just remember the people who build these tanks know more then all of us rolled into one
 
S

suv

Guest
Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/2846183
Hello SUV!
Congratulations on your purchase.
I think you will be most happy with your choice.
I believe you will be able to have a nice setup keeping the bio cube completely stock. As you already know the stock tank will limit your choices in what you are able to put into the tank as it relates to coral choices. Also the information supplied with the tank is lacking in the maintenance issues that you will have to deal with so please do ask questions and do some reading with specifics to husbandry. Things happen in a smaller tank much more quickly than you would see in your 90 gallon in terms of chemical and nutrient changes and therefore need to be monitored more closely. Cleaning filter media especially the bio balls, water changes etc. are more demanding than on a larger system because IMO they need to be done more often. They are however volume wise a lot easier to do.
Welcome to the nano tank world. As you progress in this part of the hobby keep asking questions here. There is a lot of help available. There was a comment I think by Rotary in another post wondering if there were any stock biocubes out there. Now we know there will be, at least for a little while. Until you get the modification bug we all seem to get!!!!!!
Yea thanks I'm excited. I had PC lighting on my 55g, and had planed on keeping some easy to care for and not so light demanding corals like I had in 55, I'm gona try not to get too carried away (I've got my 90 reef for that). I mostly got it to have In the bed room to stare @ on those nights where sleep doesn't come so quickly. My wife has decided that shee wants to keep some seahorses in it.
 
fcatch76

fcatch76

Member
Originally Posted by nwdyr
http:///forum/post/2846281
good choice
I was able to keep allot of corals in my stock bio-cube , some will tell you that frogspawn or hammers wont live under stock lighting. Don'T believe it! mine lived and grew so big that I had to sell them do to a lack of room! CFL lighting is not the "best" but like I said it did GREAT for all my corals and I had just about all of them..even birds nest and pocillopora(sp) Just remember the people who build these tanks know more then all of us rolled into one

I'm glad you said that about PC's. Everyone is always ripping them apart. Although I added a CPR fuge I still modified my BC's. My 29 has a DSB in the first compartment where I removed the false floor (also, cut the inlet to make it the entire length of the back area). The second chamber has my chem and purigen rubber banded to the false floor, then my heater and then the some filter media on top of the tray. The third chamber has the return pump (Hydor) and then the Rio (feeds the fuge).
HTH
 
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