New Biocube 29 Gallon Help

[Billybatz9]

Hey guys,

Just got myself a biocube off craigslist. Very good condition (after I cleaned it)

Anyways, I washed the little biocube powerhead it came with, along with everything else using a 1:3 vineqar/water ratio. SO everything is cleaned and ready to go. Oh, and it came with a biocube protein skimmer (its whatever).

I am adding the live rock and water wednesday because my LFS has water wednesday special - ($0.49) a gallon for saltwater.

So I only have two questions that I am really struggling with.

1. How should I setup my chambers in the back? I want a good filtration system, but I don't want to spend crazy money on it either.

2. Should I replace the lights? I am not upgrading. I am just asking about replacing.

 

[Wmich2008]

What size biocube did you purchase? I have brand new spare biocube 29 bulbs that i could send you. I upgraded to the aurora puck.

In my back chambers I have the in tank basket and tunze skimmer. It works out pretty well.

 

[Billybatz9]

What size biocube did you purchase? I have brand new spare biocube 29 bulbs that i could send you. I upgraded to the aurora puck.

In my back chambers I have the in tank basket and tunze skimmer. It works out pretty well.

I have the coralife biocube 29 gallon tank. How much would you charge for them?
And I checked that in tank media basket. It looks awesome, but I am kind of short in funds for that type of filtration

 

[Inceptioning]

I made a ghetto version of the inTank media basket with egg crate and plexy glass. Made myself a little fuge too for my tunze 9002 skimmer haha

 

[Coelli]

You can make a chaeto fuge for the back using plastic canvas and zip ties, too. I have the InTank fuge basket, but I added plastic canvas to the sides to contain the chaeto. You can get the plastic canvas at any crafts store, look in the needlework section, and cut it to size. In hindsight I should have just done that instead of getting the InTank one... even though it is pretty nice.

 

[Billybatz9]

I made a ghetto version of the inTank media basket with egg crate and plexy glass. Made myself a little fuge too for my tunze 9002 skimmer haha

What do you have in media basket?

 

[Wmich2008]

If you pay shipping, nothing. I won't use them. I have a 50/50 bulb also

 

[Billybatz9]

If you pay shipping, nothing. I won't use them. I have a 50/50 bulb also

Sweeet. THanks. What's a 50/50 bulb? Sorry. I am new to this stuff.

All I see are two coralife bulbs (acintic, daylight) and one LED strip which is good I think.

 

[Wmich2008]

50/50 is both the actinic and white in one bulb

 

[dodgerblew]

In actuality, if you can be disciplined and do weekly water changes you can get by without a skimmer. The key however is consistency. If you slack off your tank will suffer.

You can also make yourself a refugium with a hang on back power filter.

If you use your LFS saltwater, are they making it on there own? If they are you should check the TDS of their water. Many stores are not diligent on changing out their RODI cartridges and they make the saltwater with the dirty water and when transferred into your nano will not remove phosphates etc but add to them.

Lastly, if you are not certain of the bulb life I'd change them out. What's your plan for the tank and congrats

 

[Billybatz9]

In actuality, if you can be disciplined and do weekly water changes you can get by without a skimmer. The key however is consistency. If you slack off your tank will suffer.

You can also make yourself a refugium with a hang on back power filter.

If you use your LFS saltwater, are they making it on there own? If they are you should check the TDS of their water. Many stores are not diligent on changing out their RODI cartridges and they make the saltwater with the dirty water and when transferred into your nano will not remove phosphates etc but add to them.

Lastly, if you are not certain of the bulb life I'd change them out. What's your plan for the tank and congrats

I never replied to this. sorry. My plan is to add my 40 lbs of live rock that I have (after starving the damn snails that live in clear pipes). They have taken over the rocks. So right now they are in buckets. I hope to get a few corals, 2 clownfish, a goby to sift the sand, some clearner shrimp, and maybe 1 or 2 more fish that are pretty.

Oh, and I want a yellow cucumber THey look SWEET!!!

Btw, what do you recommend putting in the back chambers? I have read about seach matrix, carbon, purigen, chemipure elite, filter, floss etc. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[dodgerblew]

I ran my tank without carbon, gfo or anything for years. I also did some carbon in a sock for awhile and towards the end I ran carbon and gfo in a phosban reactor. I had the nanocube so back chambers are probably different. I had the two pumps that ran the two returns, I had an extra pump that pumped water to my chiller and I ran a Tunze 9002 skimmer which never really did anything because I did the water changes regularly.