Biocube 29 help

[Surfside74]

Hey everyone,

I took a break for a few years from the hobby but missed it so I am back. I just acquired a biocube29. I stripped it down, removed the stock lighting and filtration. I am retrofitting the hood with LEDs. I like the look of them and the lack of heat they generate as I have also removed the stock fans. The question I have is this: skimmer or no skimmer? Here is what I have done so far.

I have a couple of inches of sand bed, some base rock, and plan on adding live rock in as soon as I get my lights running. I have also added a koralia nano on the opposite side of the return pump.

In chamber one, I have filled it with live rock rubble for filtration.
In chamber three, I have the stock pump and some more live rock.
In chamber two, I currently have a bag of carbon and plan on adding more live rock or possibly a media chamber.

I plan on doing a five gallon a week water change and am going to go full reef setup. I would like to hear your thoughts and ideas on this matter as to whether a protein skimmer or not is really necessary.

Thanks,
Rob

 

[Fish_wiz2]

If you are consistent on weekly waterchanges, then a skimmer will not be necessary. It is more of a safety net for people like me who are inconsistent with waterchanges I currently run a tunze 9002 on my 29g BC and love it.

Also, i would recommend removing the rubble in both back chambers as they are detritus traps and could end up creating more waste. The media rack from inTank for the middle is nice and i have one too.

Good luck, Wiz.

 

[Surfside74]

So you think the rubble in the back isnt a good idea? You like the media rack? What would you put in chamber #1 and 2 besides the media rack?m also, what do you have in the rack? Thanks for your help.
Rob

 

[Fish_wiz2]

Ive had personal experience with the rubble. End result, it was removed. If it works for you, in no doubt, keep it. Ive just had bad luck.

Here what i have:
Chamber 1: Heater, probes (for my Apex), and thermometer.
Chamber 2: Media rack, tunze 9002.
Chamber 3: Return, ATO floats.

My rack as we speak has just floss in it. But i want to add chemipure and purigen when the funds allow it. I have dropped too much into equipment for this nano...

 

[uxdesigner]

I ran Chemi-pure Elite in chamber 2 w/ Purigen in chamber 1 with great results. How's that skimmer work on this tank? I ran a Nano Glo with Cheato in chamber 2 instead of the skimmer.

 

[Tinpanva]

in my 29 I have the supply and return lines to my HOB-1 skimmer in chamber 1, chamber 2 has the media rack with poly floss, purigen, & chemi pure elite and I also have the fuge rack beside that with chaeto in it (no rubble or sand) and lastly in chamber 3 I have my osmolater (ATO), heater, return pump. She's crowded back there! But its all working out very well. It makes it easy to suck out the detrius once a month or so.

 

[Sparks82]

I actually managed to get the Hydor slim skim nano in chamber 1 on my Coralife 29. The catch was I had to take off the mounting brackets. I just used a zip tie to keep it from sinking.

 

[debincalif]

I have mine set up like this:

Chamber #1: Heater
Chamber #2: In Tank media basket (filter floss, Purigen, ChemiPure Elite), In Tank fuge basket (LR rubble, chaeto)
Chamber #3: Stock return pump

I ran a skimmer (Koralia Nano Slim Skim) for a while, but took it out when I put in the In Tank baskets. Since doing this, my P04s are always at 0, even if I don't get around to water changes as often as I should... and I'm a heavy feeder.

That being said, I also have 25# live sand and about 35# LR.

 

[sponger0]

I had my Biocube 29 perfect. Chamber 1: Acquaticlife 115 skimmer, Chamber 2: Media basket made of eggcrate and held chaeto and Purigen, Chamber 3: heater and pump.

I also adding in a reactor and ran the pump from chamber 2 and returned water from reactor into Chamber 3.