Bio Cube Owner's Thread

[k9gunner]

Rjwilson, what lighting do you have in there?

[Justinandkrista]

HaKs310 i just found that out, Thx. Its like 60 bucks tho for the kit. Do you know if its easy to install.

[chrismunn]

well, for those of you having trouble with your stock fans it looks like you can replace them pretty cheap. heres the link to the fan selectionat nanotuners

http://www.nanotuners.com/index.php?...72fff9e796168f

[unbreakable]

chris, is that for the 14g ?

[mksalt]

Here are a few shots of the fan I use. It really helps keep the heat down. Got it at Dr. Foster.

Excuse the dirty hood....

[chrismunn]

i couldnt tell you which fan will fit in which model bio cube, but there are 2different sized fans. 60mm and 50mm. in that link you can get the fan for the 8g, 14g and 29g, but it doesnt say what size each fan is.

if i had to guess ide think that the 14 has a 50mm and the 29 has a 60mm....

do you have to keep the back lid open to use that fan?

[unbreakable]

i think youre right. i ordered that nano koralia for 19.99 right now at marine depot. that was the cheapest ive seen it at. dr fosters they wanted 23 bucks or something

[redwarrior77]

I have water and sand now!!! (Does that mean I have a "real" tank yet? LOL!)

A couple of very quick questions for the biocube experts. I'm thinking of getting 1 or 2 koralia nano powerheads for my 14g. I have no idea where to place them and if I just need 1 or if I should get 2. I already seem to have pretty good flow with the stock pump, but I'd like to augment it as well as have a spare in case anything bad should happen to my main pump so that I could keep my tank going with 1 while I work on the other. What do you guys with 14g recommend?

[unbreakable]

i replaced the original pump and i think i replaced it with a maxijet 900, but cant remember. the original pump was crappy and ended up breaking.

you can get 2 koralias if youd like, but ive seen most people with only 1 nano koralia. right now i have a koralia #1 on the right side of the tank on the inside, but its rather large so im going to get the nano koralia

good luck with your tank, theyre really awesome

[redwarrior77]

Ok...I think I'm going to order 1 koralia nano and see how that does. I'm also planning on ordering test kits and considering getting some purigen. Those of you who use it, which chamber do you put it in? I'm considering either in a filter bag in the chamber with the stock filter or a smaller bag where the sponge was by the pump...ideas? I'm keeping the bioballs where they are until I get some live rock rubble and a light for macroalgae, then that will be my middle chamber.

[unbreakable]

dont waste your time with the live rock rubble or bioballs. when i had live rock rubble in my 20g sump it collected a huge amount of detritus. just put chaeto back there if you want to pods and starfish to keep multiplying. i have a crazy amount of pods and litle starfish growin in the DT, but i only have 1 baby onyx in there too

i also ordered the purigen since ive heard people liked it, so next week ill be getting it in along with the nano koralia

[chrismunn]

i want a second koralia nano in my 14. i have only 1 right now.

can you keep macro algae in chamber #2 without any mods for lighting?

[unbreakable]

i not sure if you can, because i dont think the light really lights the chambers back there.

its really easy to do the fuge mod anyways. you just get a razor and scratch off the back paint on the middle chamber, then you go to like home depot and in the lighting section they have the little lights.. you can then make a box for it and attach it to the back. its either that or find a skimmer to put back there. id go with the skimmer over the chaeto

[chrismunn]

since im planning on keeping some dirty clowns i will opt for the skimmer over the macro but, the skimmer goes in the first chamber so i could still use the second chamber for macro. we'll see, im not to keen on taping a light to the back of my tank... it'l probably look a little tacky

[nanoreef25]

ugh i guess im going to have to mod the darn thing to keep the temp down which is insane cuz its completely stock

[jkrentz2515]

Originally posted by nanoreef25
ugh i guess im going to have to mod the darn thing to keep the temp down which is insane cuz its completely stock

Where do you live and do you run the air conditioning during the summer? You won't need to do much, either a fan blowing across the top of the water or floating an ice bag.

[nanoreef25]

Floating an ice bag seems like it would be a pain but yeah i live in Florida and we do run AC but it still gets pretty warm like 77 in the house during the day. I was thinking more along the lines of putting fans blowing directly on the water which will make my evaporation rate go down the toilet.

[Justinandkrista]

ice cubes top off and chilling

[chrismunn]

top off in my bc14 is almost nothing at all! with the lid closed its about 1 cup a day at the most. 1 cup of ice cubes unfortunatly wont lower the temp but a fraction of a degree im afraid. i dont run my AC while im at work and the temp regularly goes above 85+. when im at home with the AC on all day the temp in the house is at 75, and the temp in the tank is about 82. unfortunatly those temps are considered high, but im not putting an ugly fan over my open lid tank. the reason i like this tank is because its stream line and looks nice as a single unit. in my situation the only way i have to manually control the temp is to mod the hood or back glass by drilling a couple of holes to pass tubing through so i can hook up a chiller. blah

[mksalt]

Just having the back lid open keeps the tank running cooler.

Say hello to a chiller...

[HaKs310]

Originally posted by Justinandkrista
HaKs310 i just found that out, Thx. Its like 60 bucks tho for the kit. Do you know if its easy to install.

Yeah they're pretty much plug and play. I bought their 72w Retro which basically comes with the 50mm fan kit but I opted to get a variable voltage adapter.

Chris,
Yup, the 14g uses 50mm fans and the 29g uses 60mm fans. 82F isn't considered high and is actually the most widespread temp in coral reefs. My 14g's temp was staying stable at 82 but would hit 86 on hot days. Main reason I got the Biocube was because of the sleek all in one look so I really didn't want a fan blowing across the top with a half open hood.....so I got a chiller. Temp now stays stable at 79.3-79.5

[chrismunn]

82 isnt high, but above 85 is, and thats where the temp stays when i have my ac off during the day. what chiller are you using on yours haks310?

[HaKs310]

Yeah, my cube would stay stable at 80-82 degrees but would hit 85-86 on hot days so I went ahead and got a chiller.

JBJ Nano Arctica. Very easy to install, just had to dremel a small section from the back canopy, about a 1in x. 75in. Believe they are going to discontinue them pretty soon.

[unbreakable]

yeah mine is in the 80s, even when i had a 28g open top with MH it was around 84-85. id be worried if it went over 85 though..

does anyone know what fans fit in the biocube14?

[nanoreef25]

thanks every one i have convinced my dad to run the A/C at 77 and im leaving the lid open and its been pretty stable at about 80 so thanks again to all