Hello all! I am getting back into the hobby after 6 years out. I barely got my feet wet the first go around and I'm trying to do things right this time. I decided to join the Biocube club. These tanks have always been a fascination of mine and I love the design of them.
I now have a Biocube 29 that I purchased as an established system (previously running for approx. 2 years). It has been up an running in my house since 05/13/15.
I have the following equipment in there: chamber 1- heater and Biocube skimmer, chamber 2- inTank media rack with filter floss, chemipure and purigen and inTank fuge with cheato (which has a suction cup light pointed on it), chamber 3- stock Coralife return pump with an in-line UV sterilizer, 2 Koralia powerheads inside the DT and stock lighting.
Stock list: sixline wrasse, clown fish, male blue devil damsel, olive chromis, fire shrimp, two peppermint shrimp (I saw aptasia and added these two after I set the tank up), 3 hermits, 2 bumblebee snails, 2 cerith snails and 3 banded trochus snails. I've also got many colonies of different zoanthids, two brain corals, mushrooms and a couple of unidentified corals.
I would eventually like to catch the damsel and chromis and replace them with something cooler. I had purple firefish before and I'm thinking maybe I'd like a couple of them again. I would also like to add a starfish of some kind.
I've got my own RODI unit set up to aide with water changes. I store 55 gallons of RODI water (I've got a 220 gal, 47 gal and a 20 gal fresh tank) and 20 gallons of premixed salt water. I use Instant Ocean reef crystals for this. I've got a heater and powerhead in the saltwater container to keep it ready to go.
My questions:
I just did my first media change today. The tank is clearing up nicely and I hope the water clarity improves because of this. Who knows how long it went before it was changed with the previous owner. I pulled out both inTank baskets and cleaned them up. I noticed that a brown flim had kept the light from reaching the cheato and that there was slime on parts of the cheato too. I clipped the nasty portion of the cheato and scrubbed the inside of the chamber. I put the clean baskets back in and things look good in there now. While I had the cheato out, I didn't see any pods or any other critters in there aside from tiny star fish. After I ensure that all my parameters are squared away, should I add some to the fuge myself to kick start the colony? I'm sure my sixline would appreciate this, more for him to hunt!
The stock return pump is pretty loud and the buzzing it makes is pretty annoying. What pump do your recommend replacing it with that is nearly silent? Having this tank and my 220 gallon sumped freshwater tank in my living room is getting pretty noisy!
How often should I be replacing the bulb in my UV sterilizer and the bulbs for the DT? I have no clue how old the ones I currently have on the tank are now. I would assume they are the original bulbs.
Is there a better skimmer that I can fit into chamber 1 WITH my heater? I really like the Tunze 9200 with the upgraded cup... but I don't think it will function in chamber 1. I have been having issues getting the air flow just right in the Biocube skimmer. It either won't bubble, or bubbles so much that it fills the cup with water in just a few minutes.
Any other advice for this noob is appreciated! I forgot just how much more fun keeping a reef is than boring ol' fresh water tanks. I'm already considering selling off my cichlids in my 220 to make the switch, but don't tell them that!
