Bio Cube Owner's Thread
- Thread starter jfro
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I got it at Lowes hardware store $10.00, flourescent light NOT xenon or haligen that way I keep the Temp. down. I just installed it, but I do have Cheato. The light is 9w so I think it's enough as you can see plenty of light shows through the glass. I hope they don't die off. lol . If you have any questions feel free.
jonnybravo22
New member
Probably would also help to change out the stock return pump for something that 'pulls harder' so the surface water is pulled into top inlet of chamber 1.
After making some changes to the flow inside my 29 I noticed lots of dust on top even though i had the return pump aimed straight up to agitate surface and I usually have the lids closed. I was confused because I have a tunze nano in there and a koralia (lots of flow for my barebottom).
Turns out the flow given the direction of my powerheads and return had created a kind of swirling vortex if you will. There was so much swirling motion that the surface water didn't want to take the detour to exit into chamber 1. Make sense?
So I redirected my ph's and return to force slightly more flow in an 'up and to the right' direction so it pushes the dust out and into chamber 1. Now it's clear skies. I still want to upgrade the stock return pump though. Any suggestions?
After making some changes to the flow inside my 29 I noticed lots of dust on top even though i had the return pump aimed straight up to agitate surface and I usually have the lids closed. I was confused because I have a tunze nano in there and a koralia (lots of flow for my barebottom).
Turns out the flow given the direction of my powerheads and return had created a kind of swirling vortex if you will. There was so much swirling motion that the surface water didn't want to take the detour to exit into chamber 1. Make sense?
So I redirected my ph's and return to force slightly more flow in an 'up and to the right' direction so it pushes the dust out and into chamber 1. Now it's clear skies. I still want to upgrade the stock return pump though. Any suggestions?
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Is anyone using filter floss? If they are what type? and where do you put it in chamber 1,2,3? I am using the bio filters that go in chamber 1 is that ok. I am getting that dust on the top layer of the water in the tank. I am wondering if adding filter floss would help. Thanks
jb61264
New member
Usually the "dust" that starts to appear is a result of using the filter that comes with the BioCube...as it collects debris, it seems to reduce flow through the top (at least that is what i've observed).
Some (including myself) have modified the divider between chamber 1 and 2 by widening the gap to increase the flow rate.
I also discontinued the use of the "standard" filter that comes with the BioCube and removed the filter floss material and carbon completely so that all that remained were the four black chambers...I then purchase HBH Aqua-Pure Cut-To-Fit Filter Pad in the Carbon and Phosphate removal versions and cut two squares of each to alternate between the four black chambers of the piece that slides in chamber one...I run them for about 7-10 days and them pull them out for 7-10 days and then replace again.
jb61264
New member
Sorry, I don't have a pic of my mod (my camera is currently in need of repair)...but its really easy. Just make a horizontal cut about 1/2" or so (make sure it is exactly horizontal with the existing cut) with a dremel cutting tool (thats what I used) and then use a small fine tooth hack saw blade and gently make the vertical cut. Be sure to brace the remaining divider (the piece that will remain after you widen the opening) between your two fingers for support so it doesn't crack (it will tend to bend a bit when you are making the vertical cut)...mind your fingers near the hack saw tho
Flightpipe
Sea Turtles Love Me......
Pics of my BC14 as promised I find aquascaping alot more difficult with the limited space compared to my 75. I am still not 100% happy with it.
Ranger Thanks for the tip on that light work perfect I removed the rubbery opaque cover from the light and superglued the glass piece in place then just taped her up!
Ranger Thanks for the tip on that light work perfect I removed the rubbery opaque cover from the light and superglued the glass piece in place then just taped her up!
Lyfey
Member
with the mod to the chamber, with the stock pump, have you noticed any difference in flow? reguardless, what you pump out, is what is sucked in. So unless you upgrade the pump, I see no reason to change the engineering of the BC.
On the issue of surface scum and filter floss. Why not lower the water level in your BC so that the surface water can flow through the overflow? Filter floss should help the problem and I would stuff that in chamber 1. The filter floss I use is out of the bag.. Looks like Pillow stuffing. I buy it at the LFS. Its pretty cheap but I know you can buy polyester pillow stuffing at a craft store for cheaper, I have yet to look for it.. since i rinse and re-use my filter floss until its pretty much nasty and not fluffy. I have yet to use it on my BC, which I am going to start soon, I use it on my HOB sumpless 125g mixed reef.
On the issue of surface scum and filter floss. Why not lower the water level in your BC so that the surface water can flow through the overflow? Filter floss should help the problem and I would stuff that in chamber 1. The filter floss I use is out of the bag.. Looks like Pillow stuffing. I buy it at the LFS. Its pretty cheap but I know you can buy polyester pillow stuffing at a craft store for cheaper, I have yet to look for it.. since i rinse and re-use my filter floss until its pretty much nasty and not fluffy. I have yet to use it on my BC, which I am going to start soon, I use it on my HOB sumpless 125g mixed reef.
Lyfey
Member
ranger / flightpipe: what mod are you talking about with the rubbery opaque light cover?
Oh and on a happy note! All three of my peppermint shrimp are still alive with my decorator crab in my BC29! I put them in on saturday and I have only seen one of them until yesterday. I fed the tank yesterday and there they came! I was kinda worried because I thought Rocky had eaten them and I saw 2 sets of shrimp molt on the substrate. They are alive and kickin! They just need to start eating that damn aptaisia! I only have 2 months for all the aptasia to be consumed until I move!
As far as mods for the BC, I am moving in mid - late may an hour away. I am disasembling my BC and my 125g tank for the move. I think my plan sofar is to put all the livestock in a giant cooler (biggest one I can find suggestions are needed!!) with the tank water / heater and a Koralia 4.
So livestock will consist of:
1x Dusemeri tang (sp) ~ 4 1/2" Sammy
2x Ocellaris Clowns ~ 3" Oscar de la nemo (m) Georgy (f) maited
6x B/G Chromis ~ 1 1/2" Chromis'
1x Argi Angel ~ 1" Cocoa
1x Six line wrasse ~ 2" Cutey
1x Yellow Sleeper Goby ~ 2" Goby (was lazarus but now goby)
2x Brittle Star's (or serpent star) Brittle stars
1x Sandsifting Star Sandy
4x peppermind shrimp 2" Peppy's
1x Decorator Crab (baseball sized) Rocky
Numerous hermits / snails / nasarrius snails
So all livestock and corals that I can fit into the cooler.
All sand will be sifted for Inverts and mixed together (bc and 125g) and put into different buckets
LR will be put into 30gal totes with some water and newspaper..
Water will be transported the best I can with buckets / jugs
tank and equipment in a friends truck.
I need suggestions! yay please help =) Oh and any mods I see fit will be made when the tank is empty and dryed and in its new location. That Includes mods on both tanks.
I also have 2 75gallon tanks with stands, One brand new (not rr) and one used RR w/ brand new stand One stand is RR ready the other is flat like a table.
The 75 rr and stand. I have a sump but no return pump yet. The lighting I bought was 48" for the 75, but I am using it on my 125g.
If anyone could help me come up with a plan better than what I already have (which is still in the early stages) I would really appreciate it. I plan on documenting the move with pictures also, to help further people who need to move. Thanks guys, I like this crew lets keep it together
Cheers
-Chris
Oh and on a happy note! All three of my peppermint shrimp are still alive with my decorator crab in my BC29! I put them in on saturday and I have only seen one of them until yesterday. I fed the tank yesterday and there they came! I was kinda worried because I thought Rocky had eaten them and I saw 2 sets of shrimp molt on the substrate. They are alive and kickin! They just need to start eating that damn aptaisia! I only have 2 months for all the aptasia to be consumed until I move!
As far as mods for the BC, I am moving in mid - late may an hour away. I am disasembling my BC and my 125g tank for the move. I think my plan sofar is to put all the livestock in a giant cooler (biggest one I can find suggestions are needed!!) with the tank water / heater and a Koralia 4.
So livestock will consist of:
1x Dusemeri tang (sp) ~ 4 1/2" Sammy
2x Ocellaris Clowns ~ 3" Oscar de la nemo (m) Georgy (f) maited
6x B/G Chromis ~ 1 1/2" Chromis'
1x Argi Angel ~ 1" Cocoa
1x Six line wrasse ~ 2" Cutey
1x Yellow Sleeper Goby ~ 2" Goby (was lazarus but now goby)
2x Brittle Star's (or serpent star) Brittle stars
1x Sandsifting Star Sandy
4x peppermind shrimp 2" Peppy's
1x Decorator Crab (baseball sized) Rocky
Numerous hermits / snails / nasarrius snails
So all livestock and corals that I can fit into the cooler.
All sand will be sifted for Inverts and mixed together (bc and 125g) and put into different buckets
LR will be put into 30gal totes with some water and newspaper..
Water will be transported the best I can with buckets / jugs
tank and equipment in a friends truck.
I need suggestions! yay please help =) Oh and any mods I see fit will be made when the tank is empty and dryed and in its new location. That Includes mods on both tanks.
I also have 2 75gallon tanks with stands, One brand new (not rr) and one used RR w/ brand new stand One stand is RR ready the other is flat like a table.
The 75 rr and stand. I have a sump but no return pump yet. The lighting I bought was 48" for the 75, but I am using it on my 125g.
If anyone could help me come up with a plan better than what I already have (which is still in the early stages) I would really appreciate it. I plan on documenting the move with pictures also, to help further people who need to move. Thanks guys, I like this crew lets keep it together
Cheers
-Chris
Lyfey
Member
Oh I forgot my Skunk cleaner shrimp (Shrimpy!) He is huge, about 4-5"... He's a big one.. I also have a hitch hiker crab somewhere in the tank hes about the size of a quarter and Is some sort of black clawed tiger striped brown / white legged crab. I found my emerald crab passed away a few weeks ago along with another crab (hitchhiker) maybe it was his molt? but the emerald crab def had passed. There arnt that many corals, Jmadison has more corals in his BC than my 125 and BC together lol... So The corals and the LR that they are on, and the livestock should hopefully fit into the cooler. I plan on doing water changes 1x a day with established water from my tanks.
I had just purchased an RO/DI system and plan on to start using it this weekend, I need to go purchase salt first. Things are going good, but I def need help with planning! Thank you guys!
I had just purchased an RO/DI system and plan on to start using it this weekend, I need to go purchase salt first. Things are going good, but I def need help with planning! Thank you guys!
Lyfey
Member
Also a tennis ball sized Anenome Green bubble tipped. He isnt that healthy looking but is still doing his thing. I think he doesnt like my lighting setup on my 125g. If he doesnt like it, HE SHOULD MOVE OUT! lol.. I think that if he wasnt happy, he would move up towards the light? he is content on where he is at and I dont want to move him with my hands.
I also plan on cleaning the rocks, to the best of my ability, before transporting them. Basically just turkey baste the crap out of them and shake them really hard in the water. I should buy a Diatom filter to clean them, maybe I will... but $$ is tight. Ahhh sorry for blowin up the thread, I have alot on my mind!
I also plan on cleaning the rocks, to the best of my ability, before transporting them. Basically just turkey baste the crap out of them and shake them really hard in the water. I should buy a Diatom filter to clean them, maybe I will... but $$ is tight. Ahhh sorry for blowin up the thread, I have alot on my mind!
Flightpipe
Sea Turtles Love Me......
The Refuge light we put on the back of our tanks comes with some kind of rubber cover over the light so I pulled it off and glued on the lid then taped it to the back of my BC.
This light from Lowes.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=240014-75774-017801720501&lpage=none
Flightpipe
Sea Turtles Love Me......
Check out the pictures we posted.
1 scrap back glass in center of the middle chamber.
2 remove rubber cover and glue glass cover on the light in place
3 Tape to back of the BC where you scraped glass (seems me and ranger choose metal duct tape I just had it laying around probably best so heat will not really affect it) Try not to cover the whole light with tape so the heat will dissipate easier.
4 turn on and and get the cheato up and running!
1 scrap back glass in center of the middle chamber.
2 remove rubber cover and glue glass cover on the light in place
3 Tape to back of the BC where you scraped glass (seems me and ranger choose metal duct tape I just had it laying around probably best so heat will not really affect it) Try not to cover the whole light with tape so the heat will dissipate easier.
4 turn on and and get the cheato up and running!
Damn DODFlightpipe, I'm glad it helped you out. That was a good idea removing the plastic cover I did not think about that. Yea, I just had that metal tape laying around it works good. No I thought about mounting it to the back lid cover but I did not go that way.
Lyfey, I used to hold my water on a move the IGLOO brand they sell at Walmart the 120 quarts that is the biggest I have seen and worked great for me.
Flightpipe, Great job with the MOD it looks just like mine I took a second look make sure it was not the same pic's. lol. I am going to the LFS today and looking around to see if I find some filter floss or something. I'll let you guys know what worked.
Lyfey, I used to hold my water on a move the IGLOO brand they sell at Walmart the 120 quarts that is the biggest I have seen and worked great for me.
Flightpipe, Great job with the MOD it looks just like mine I took a second look make sure it was not the same pic's. lol. I am going to the LFS today and looking around to see if I find some filter floss or something. I'll let you guys know what worked.
as soon as I get this working, I'll put up some pics of my BC!- Status
