Biocube 29 Back Chambers

[NoxAeternus]

Hello all,

I've had my first tank (a biocube 29) for about a month now. I've been reading a lot of threads across various forums, advice from a couple fish stores around me, and decided that the tank needs something more than stock. I'm looking to see what you all think are some good mods for the tank.

For the first chamber, I heard that it's probably best to ditch the stock filter and replace it with something. Would live rock rubble be a good choice here? If so, how much would I put in, and about how high should I fill it? Are there any other options?

The second chamber I'm going to be putting in a sapphire skimmer, but am not sure how much room it leaves. Should/could I put something else in here as well?

For the third chamber, are there any upgrades I can do for it? Is the single sponge that comes stock with it enough? Are there any other things that could be better? I don't think I'm going to be replacing the stock pump for now unless I hear some really convincing arguments, since what I've read thus far hasn't made me think I need to.

Thanks for all your advice!

 

[slumpysix]

you can pop out the floor in chamber 1 and put a 50W heater in there with a bag of Chemi-pure. You can cut out the floss and charcoal from the stock filter and just use filter media on it to remove debri from the tank, change this media weekly. Keep the floor in chamber 2 for your skimmer to sit on. Nothing else will fit inside chamber 2 with the skimmer. Pull out the stock sponge in chamber 3 and discard it. You can upgrade your pump with a Maxi-jet 1200 or add one on top of the stock one and use tubing and loc-line fittings to go over the back edge of wall into tank. Keep up on weekly water changes with about 5 gal. of R/O salt water for your changes. I have my stock pump in and added a MJ 600 inside the main tank. HTH..