Mike I think it's a great starter cube for beginners and experts alike. I am personally in love with it...stock on the cube you will run into a good amount of problems such as lack of water flow, insufficient lighting spectrum and bad surface film. I have fixed all of these issues by getting the customized mod that has beefed up lighting, ugpraded the pump to a Minijet 606 with dual nozzle and also did an overflow mod...
An overflow mod: Just grate teeth on top of the grill...and cover the grill. This forces the water OVER the grill and through the teeth you just made and rids yourself of surface film...the water levels in each chamber will now differ because of the mod and water will actually now just fall right through the sponge...allowing yourself to catch more debris.
I also am now running a HOT Magnum once a month to clean out any debris that builds up every month...kind of like a vacuum for a house...you take it out when you need it. I will post more pics in the coming days and hopefully it will help shed some light as to some possibilities you can keep your cube better than JBJ intended.
But personally I think if you have the space, you should just get a tank that isn't so all-in-one. Maybe those open-top ones, a 15 gallon with a 70w MH and some actinics. I just love how compact the cube is...and because the space on my desk is so limited, I really enjoy it even more that it accomodates my space limitations. Also...my tanks need to have hoods...I have a VERY curious cat who fancies my clownfish.