Bio Cube Owner's Thread

[BioCubeGuy]

Originally Posted by Coelli

It'll stay in place without it because the flow diverter kind of snaps onto the wall and the basket, holding it in place. Just be gentle when putting it on - difficult with the skimmer there. I've had to superglue mine back together twice now. >.< As for the fuge you don't *need* it - but it's a nice-to-have.

Cool, thanks. Any advise for what type of filter floss?

[Coelli]

I'm just using the cheap bagged stuff and changing it out every couple of days. When it runs out I'll pick up polyester quilt batting at the fabric store - it comes in sheets and I've seen it mentioned as working better (you can cut it to size, less loose fibers). Funny because I used to have tons of the stuff for quilting, but now I gotta go buy it.

[BioCubeGuy]

Originally Posted by Coelli

I'm just using the cheap bagged stuff and changing it out every couple of days. When it runs out I'll pick up polyester quilt batting at the fabric store - it comes in sheets and I've seen it mentioned as working better (you can cut it to size, less loose fibers). Funny because I used to have tons of the stuff for quilting, but now I gotta go buy it.

Awesome, thanks for all the help. Media basket ordered.

[Billybatz9]

What lighting does everyone use? (LEDs, fluorescent, etc..)

[Coelli]

Originally Posted by Billybatz9

What lighting does everyone use? (LEDs, fluorescent, etc..)

LEDs... but mine had already had an expensive upgrade by the previous owners. I just replaced 6 of the royal blue/cool white ones with red, green, and UV using parts from Rapid LED.

[Billybatz9]

Originally Posted by Coelli

LEDs... but mine had already had an expensive upgrade by the previous owners. I just replaced 6 of the royal blue/cool white ones with red, green, and UV using parts from Rapid LED.

I am thinking about going with rapidled, but do not know which package I shouldd get, also I don't know which is the best for my money. What color ratio do you run?

[Coelli]

Originally Posted by Billybatz9

I am thinking about going with rapidled, but do not know which package I shouldd get, also I don't know which is the best for my money. What color ratio do you run?

Mostly royal blue/cool white (since that's what mine came with). It has 12x RB, 12x cool white, 1x red, 1x green, and 4 UV. I may replace the cool white with natural white at some point (or at least some of them) and maybe some lime green. Not yet though. The Aurora puck doesn't look bad at all, especially if you have a controller, but even without one!

[Amoore311]

I have a StevesLed Retrofit. I bought the tank with it installed and it hasn't let me down at all.

[BioCubeGuy]

Just realized I haven't posted a biocube pic yet... Here's a quick pic. Just turned on the light so everything was waking up.

[ReefWreak]

After about 5 or so years out of the hobby, I'm looking forward to picking up a 29g Coralife Biocube this weekend. I started the hobby about 9 years ago with a 24g nano cube, then after a year or so of that started a 120g mixed reef (mostly SPS). I'm really looking forward to reading this whole thread cover to cover (to cover to cover, considering the splits).

Hopefully I remember some things from my years being on RC 24/7 and hopefully can contribute to this thread in a positive way as well once I'm up and running. Thanks to everyone who has thus far contributed to the thread! I've got some great ideas brewing already.

[BioCubeGuy]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

After about 5 or so years out of the hobby, I'm looking forward to picking up a 29g Coralife Biocube this weekend. I started the hobby about 9 years ago with a 24g nano cube, then after a year or so of that started a 120g mixed reef (mostly SPS). I'm really looking forward to reading this whole thread cover to cover (to cover to cover, considering the splits).

Hopefully I remember some things from my years being on RC 24/7 and hopefully can contribute to this thread in a positive way as well once I'm up and running. Thanks to everyone who has thus far contributed to the thread! I've got some great ideas brewing already.

Welcome back to the hobby! Let us know what you pick up : )

[Billybatz9]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

After about 5 or so years out of the hobby, I'm looking forward to picking up a 29g Coralife Biocube this weekend. I started the hobby about 9 years ago with a 24g nano cube, then after a year or so of that started a 120g mixed reef (mostly SPS). I'm really looking forward to reading this whole thread cover to cover (to cover to cover, considering the splits).

Hopefully I remember some things from my years being on RC 24/7 and hopefully can contribute to this thread in a positive way as well once I'm up and running. Thanks to everyone who has thus far contributed to the thread! I've got some great ideas brewing already.

Did you get your biocube yet? What are you putting in your chambers?
I am still stuck on what to put (carbon, matrix, chemi pure elite, purigen, , filter floss, etc). What do you think?

[Billybatz9]

Having that being said... what is everyone putting in their chambers? And how is your water quality, algae, etcc..?

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by Billybatz9

Did you get your biocube yet? What are you putting in your chambers?
I am still stuck on what to put (carbon, matrix, chemi pure elite, purigen, , filter floss, etc). What do you think?

I did pick up the biocube package. It's in my living room cycling. It's a complicated story of what is in it, but the point is it's there and it's cycling. It came with a LOT so it'll need a big post and some thinking through to accurately describe it.

Originally Posted by Billybatz9

Having that being said... what is everyone putting in their chambers? And how is your water quality, algae, etcc..?

I'm still cycling, so I have not added anything yet, however since I was ordering drygoods anyway, I've already planned out that I will definitely be running GFO (phosban, etc) for phosphate control, and maybe some Chemi-pure at some point.

I'm a big fan of keeping filtration as natural as possible, but coming from a larger tank where there was a LOT of sand bed and rock surface area for a lot of denitrification, I'm not sure how doable it will be in this smaller tank. I think the best bet will be GFO, carbon, and liverock rubble. That's effectively what I used to run with my large setup, and should be more than enough for this tank for now. I may need to change my approach, but we'll see.

I do have an Aquaticlife 115 skimmer that came with the tank, and I think I'll set that up. I know it won't be like my good old EuroReef that I had in my 120, but it'll be something, and I think it's helpful for aerating the water as well.


We shall see how my tank cycle goes. The rock that came with the tank was sitting in buckets for a month with no lid on half of the rock since the tank was broken down, about a month ago. Once set up, after 8 hours of pumps running, there was already nitrate in the water, so either the rocks are still live, or there was residual nitrate. Not sure which. The water was all the nutri-sea pre-boxed seawater stuff. A total scam, but whatever, this is NYC and I needed it all together in a hurry. I think I'll buy an RO/DI system soon though for topoff water.

Sweet tank though. Full Reefkeeper Lite setup (though no net module ), 3xEcoxotic panorama pro modules on a Current USA dimmable controller, Aquaticlife skimmer, nice Cobalt heater, 1/15hp JBJ chiller, and some test kits. Whatever was missing I've already ordered and should be here this week. I'm excited to get back into everything, hopefully this works out.

I'm still trying to figure out how to stock the tank too. I think I'm too obsessed with SPS, so there will be that. Maybe a clam if I'm lucky, and I'm thinking of flasher wrasses or something else as the main
fish species. It was either diverse wrasses, or a mating pair of dwarf angels. But who knows, we'll see how it goes.

I'm working very hard to keep to reefkeeping rule #1: Be Patient

[Coelli]

From what I understand, wrasses in a 29g with other fish can be hit or miss. There's just not a lot of space in there once the LR is in (I have about 35# of LR and a 10g water change will drop 50% of my DT's water level).

I'm running the AquaticLife 115 too. Two tips: do the airline mod if it hasn't already been done, and empty the cup with a turkey baster between cleanings rather than taking the cup off every time. Makes life MUCH easier.

Also running Purigen and Chemi-pure Elite. Water params are fairly good, a little nitrate but not much and mostly due to my overfeeding. I ran GFO (4 tsps) for the first 3 weeks to remove some phosphate before adding coral.

I had the Intank Fuge basket for a few weeks but recently removed it. The way it's shaped made it hard to get light to all of the chaeto and with such a small amount I decided I could use the space more than the chaeto.

Enjoy the new tank!

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by Coelli

From what I understand, wrasses in a 29g with other fish can be hit or miss. There's just not a lot of space in there once the LR is in (I have about 35# of LR and a 10g water change will drop 50% of my DT's water level).

I'm running the AquaticLife 115 too. Two tips: do the airline mod if it hasn't already been done, and empty the cup with a turkey baster between cleanings rather than taking the cup off every time. Makes life MUCH easier.

Also running Purigen and Chemi-pure Elite. Water params are fairly good, a little nitrate but not much and mostly due to my overfeeding. I ran GFO (4 tsps) for the first 3 weeks to remove some phosphate before adding coral.

I had the Intank Fuge basket for a few weeks but recently removed it. The way it's shaped made it hard to get light to all of the chaeto and with such a small amount I decided I could use the space more than the chaeto.

Enjoy the new tank!

Thanks for the tips with the skimmer. I've traditionally been a stickler for keeping the neck clean, since with my old ER the efficiency of it's skimming plummeted if the neck was dirty, but we'll see how it goes.

I know that overfeeding is a concern, and I will definitely not be doing that. I'm looking to keep the bioload pretty light. My first 24g I bought used back in 2005... it came with a yellow tank, and about 10 other fishes, in the 24g. As soon as I learned ANYTHING I removed most of the fishes and only kept a few small ones. It was a surprisingly ingenious setup though as it contained a ton of caulerpa macroalgae.

The idea of the wrasses was from the book "The 101 Best Nano-Reef Species: How to Choose & Keep Hardy, Brilliant, Fascinating Species Perfect for Small Aquariums" by Scott Michael. It's the only book I have in NYC for aquariums (I have a whole library at home, didn't expect to start up a tank again any time soon). There is a whole section giving some ideas on ideal setups of different sizes, including one featuring a harem of flasher wrasses. My prior idea came from the Coral Magazine issue on breeding marine fishes, where one of the articles discussed 30g being the perfect habitat for a breeding pair of dwarf angel fishes. In a perfect world I'd have time to invest in breeding them, but unfortunately I don't.

Anyway, I'll post pics soon. Thanks again for the recommendations!

[Coelli]

I think the wrasse issue will mostly come up if you're trying for a community tank. There was a book about nanos I read (can't remember the name right now and I'm on my phone) that hailed the six-line over and over, but when I did some forum research there wasn't a lot of good to be said for them. I'd love to add a McCosker's myself. For now I'm sticking to a YWG and a royal gramma and ultimately a pair of clowns - though I'm upgrading to a 40B soon anyway (my BC's glass is etched and cloudy )

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by Coelli

I think the wrasse issue will mostly come up if you're trying for a community tank. There was a book about nanos I read (can't remember the name right now and I'm on my phone) that hailed the six-line over and over, but when I did some forum research there wasn't a lot of good to be said for them. I'd love to add a McCosker's myself. For now I'm sticking to a YWG and a royal gramma and ultimately a pair of clowns - though I'm upgrading to a 40B soon anyway (my BC's glass is etched and cloudy )

That's a great point. Wrasses have very distinct personalities though depending on the specific species (and individual too!). 6-lines do have a bad rap, and well deservedly as well, both in the forums and in my experience. I had one in my old 120g SPS reef, but fortunately there was a TON of rock for all of the inhabitants to share, and the 6-line was one of the smallest fishes I had.

Most of the flasher wrasses I thought would be peaceful. Now I've looked at some of the threads and am having serious second thoughts... I don't want any drama. We'll see, ideally I'll see if I can request from a store or online store a specific mix of already acclimated wrasses of specific genders (i.e. a harem) and see what that runs.

[BioCubeGuy]

Originally Posted by Billybatz9

Having that being said... what is everyone putting in their chambers? And how is your water quality, algae, etcc..?

Chamber 1 : Aquaticlife 115 skimmer

Chamber 2 : InTank Media basket w/ Filter floss, purigen, Chemi-pure elite.
InTank Fuge basket w/Chateo, live rock

Chamber 3: JBJ NanoZapp UV sterilizer.

Water is crystal clear. Very little algae if any.

[Rotorocious]

So I'll share my tank I guess and my problem.
I have the coralife bc29. About two months in. Cycled. Using the lfs rodi saltwater for now. I've got the intank setup with the floss/purigen/chemi and some chaeto next to it. Chaeto has only been in there a couple weeks.
Upgraded return pump and 425 nano power head in the tank as well.
Aquatic 115 skimmer in chamber 1. Skimmate is always tea colored but watery.
Ai hydra fitted to the stock hood.

Been having nitrate issues since the cycle. Done several water changes and they never go down. Even after a 50% water change. I blast the rocks and crevasses with a baster before water changes and vac the sand bed.
I've got about 16lbs of LR with a decent cuc, hermits,snails, conch. Only have a shrimp, chromis and a gobi in there right now.

Me and my lfs are baffled to why the nitrates aren't going down. They are typically in the 30-60 range. Orange color always. What could I be missing?
Everything seems fine, water is clear , my couple soft corals seem ok. I feed twice a day a small amount, always gone within a minute. I just recently started to melt/rinse the frozen mysis shrimp before feeding.

Ph about 8.2-8.4
Ammonia 0-0.25ppm
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30-60ppm
Salinity 1.024
Phosphates 0
Calcium 320ppm
Kh- 9.9dkh

[ReeferDale14]

Hey Guys,

I'm going away for a few days, can anyone suggest an automatic feeder that will fit my biocube 29? To feed my fish pellets and/or flakes

[AngelandNathan]

Has anyone replaced theirs and know what size they are? I want to replace the originals but don't know exactly what to buy I am currently looking at the Vantec Stealth fans but don't know the size are they 60mm?

[neck]

I got these a while ago but eventually removed the top completely.
So yea 60 mm.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835191005

[Rotorocious]

Originally Posted by Rotorocious

So I'll share my tank I guess and my problem.
I have the coralife bc29. About two months in. Cycled. Using the lfs rodi saltwater for now. I've got the intank setup with the floss/purigen/chemi and some chaeto next to it. Chaeto has only been in there a couple weeks.
Upgraded return pump and 425 nano power head in the tank as well.
Aquatic 115 skimmer in chamber 1. Skimmate is always tea colored but watery.
Ai hydra fitted to the stock hood.

Been having nitrate issues since the cycle. Done several water changes and they never go down. Even after a 50% water change. I blast the rocks and crevasses with a baster before water changes and vac the sand bed.
I've got about 16lbs of LR with a decent cuc, hermits,snails, conch. Only have a shrimp, chromis and a gobi in there right now.

Me and my lfs are baffled to why the nitrates aren't going down. They are typically in the 30-60 range. Orange color always. What could I be missing?
Everything seems fine, water is clear , my couple soft corals seem ok. I feed twice a day a small amount, always gone within a minute. I just recently started to melt/rinse the frozen mysis shrimp before feeding.

Ph about 8.2-8.4
Ammonia 0-0.25ppm
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30-60ppm
Salinity 1.024
Phosphates 0
Calcium 320ppm
Kh- 9.9dkh

Oh, everything's good now. Some vodka dosing helped a lot

[Zwickm]