New Biocube 29, New to Saltwater

[tankedncarolina]

So it has been a while since I gave u an update, but my cycling has been going. I am doing a live rock curing cycle so it is taking a little while to get ready for the livestock. My ammonia has reached zero just working on the nitrite now. Patience is not my strong point.

 

[reefkeep3r]

Thats looking really nice. I am forgoing the custom stand idea and just using the stand designed for the cube. However I am planning on drilling chamber 1 and 3 with a 1" drain. I wan't to make a "herbie" style so chamber 3 will be primary and 1 will be a emergency with it set at the water height. I am debating if I want to run the stock pump with a T into the return from the sump or just take it out. I plan on having 2 P.H. on each side of the back wall to be able to create a gyre with the return in the middle towards the surface. Maybe kicking on the stock pump for increased flow every now and then. I will also be using mostly dry rock with a little live maybe. I might just run live rock in the sump. So chamber 1 will be emergency over flow to sump and possible heater depending on sump size, chamber 2 will be Intank media baskets with carbon and other media, possibly Tunze 9002 or 9004, or skimmer in sump, again need to determine sump size. Chamber 3 will be drain to sump, return and stock pump(maybe). DT will have 1.5-2" live sand and dry rock with 2 P.H. on back wall. Sump will have at least a fuge with live rock and probably cheato. Possibly sand as well, still reading pro/cons. ATO will be set up for the sump. Going with stock lighting now but will upgrade down the road. Let me know what you think or should I modify my plans. I plan on drilling in the very near future.

 

[tankedncarolina]

Sorry for the late response. I opted do do without any carbon or any other filtration like the seachem prime. I am only using the natural biological filtration from the live rock and I will be adding macro algae to help with phosphates shortly. As for drilling chamber 1 and 3, I was nervous enough drilling the one. Doing both may be overkill and I am not sure you have enough room at the top of chamber one on the back wall for a 1" drain and still get the water level in that chamber high enough to spill into chambers 2 and 3. So far the single 1" seems to be more than enough for me. I removed the stock return which I believe was rated for about 250gph. I am using a pondmaster 350gph in my sump which was a surprisingly affordable suggestion by my lfs. They use them on their display tanks and they come with a three year warranty. I believe it only ran me about 90 dollars with tax. 350 gph is a good flow rate for the 29 gallon since youre getting roughly 10 complete water cycles through the tank per hour. That is going to be enough water flow for most setups unless you get into corals that require a higher flow rate in which case I think a single mp10 on the opposite side of the tank from the return would produce plenty of cyclonic action in the water flow. And for the tunze skimmers I have read that a lot of people are very happy with them. I think I am going to go with the reef octopus bh1000 which is a hob. You should check it out. Not the bh100 it has an internal pump, I think the bh1000 is supposed to be its upgraded design.

 

[Outkast Gaming]

nice looking stand