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29 Gallon BioCube Questions

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evojoey

Hi all. New guy here. I'm a rookie in the reef tank world but have been keeping and breeding freshwater and rift lake cichlids for 15 years. I was at my LFS (The Aquarium Center in Clementon) and I met a member of the forum and she told me I should check it out, and stop fooling around with freshwater. So... here I am. However, I still like my freshies ;D. I wanted to start out on the smaller side of things but not so small that I couldn't have a variety of corals and such.

That being said, I purchased the Oceanic 29 gallon BioCube and it has been setup and cycling with 18lbs of live rock for about 2 months now. I have been noticing a lot of members have upgraded their lighting systems and pumps on these tanks. Is that something that I should look into? I'm still undecided on a stock list, but I do know that I want a pair of clarki clowns and a host anemone. I'm also a big fan of zoos. Any info on proper care and needs of these, is appreciated.

I also see that many of you are running a skimmer. Is that necessary? I am used to doing weekly water changes on all my fresh and rift tanks. If I do weekly changes on the reef tank, will that negate the need for a skimmer?

Is a chiller needed on these tanks if the lighting is upgraded? If I can avoid getting that involved, I'd like to, but will do what needs to be done for the well being of the tank and it's inhabitants.

If you can answer some or all of these questions, or tell me your own experiences with this tank, it will be greatly appreciated.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
First off welcome to the site, take a look around and you will see a ton of great tanks.

Skimmers for nanos is sort of a new thing, the old skimmers were junk, and might be worth a look at. Sapphire makes skimmers that are designed to fit in the back of your tank which is nice, the other ones will take up room in your tank.

Weekly water changes are pretty much a necessity in the nano world so i am glad you are used to them. As for the back of your tank there are a ton of different options you can choose. You might want to upgrade the return pump, not sure the size since I did not have that tank. You can turn one of the chambers into a refugium (recommended if you are not going to get the sapphire skimmer) and you can also put bags of carbon and chemi pure elite back there.

Check out nanotuners.com for lighting hood mods. You can go more pc bulbs, leds, or Metal Halide. If you go metal halide then you will probably have to go with a chiller.

An anem might be a bad idea if you are going to stick with the regular lighting, it might not be enough. Clarkii clowns also get pretty big so you can buy them small, but eventually they may outgrow the tank and they also can be aggressive and beat up the other fish in your tank. False percs or true percs would probably be a better choice, but it is your tank so that is up to you.
 
E

evojoey

Thanks for the info. I'm going to check out those skimmers your talking about. Also need to look up info on a refugium. I'm not familiar with that at all. There are a lot of options for lighting but I do like the LED because of the low energy cost and not putting off a lot of heat. The price is the only thing that would hold me up from doing them. The lights on the tank now are both Coralife 36 Watt. 1-10,000 Daylight and 1-Actinic. The pump is rated at 316gph. If I decide to upgrade the lighting to say, double the existing lighting, so I'd have 2-10,000 and 2-Actinic, would that be better suited to a anemone? Maybe I have to rethink the clowns as well. I didn't know that they were aggressive and I would like to have more than clowns in the tank. I do like black percula's as well, so maybe they will be better suited to my size tank. Thanks again.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Welcome to the club.
Read a bunch of the threads in the nano forum here including those by mnat.
Will give you a good idea of what is going on.
There are a lot of crap nano skimmers..I had a fission don't waste your money.
Before you buy ask for opinions you will save a ton.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

tagging along...i have a bc 29 - was planning on having only suncorals and some clownfish. So a regular light will be fine for me. I've seen OGII in south plainfield sell the sapphire skimmers in case you want to SEE it first b4 buying. I'd love to get one but right now my bc29 is just a temp holding tank for some clownfish i'm raising.

will you be at the march meeting? you could win a baby percula for the tank!
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
With the all in one nano systems what some people have done is put chaeto ( a macro aglae) in the center chamber with a drop in light to help it grow. Cheato will help export nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) out of the tank which is nice. I have talked to the people at my local LFS who i trust and would not sell me just anything and they said a bubble tip could do ok under the PC lights, but I don't know if they would thrive. Most people would recommed at least T5s or more. If you got LEDs that would be ok, but I know they are expensive (why I don't have them myself). Clarkiis and maroon clowns can get really big (4 to 5 inches) and would outgrown your tank. The black and white false percs would be great, we kept a pair in a 12g cube. If you are near OGII I would check out those sapphires skimmers, they really are supposed to be the best.

It is good to see you are planning out before you set the tank up, you will save yourself a lot of headaches.
 
E

evojoey

Thanks for the welcome guys. It is a nice site, and the best part is everyone is local.

Is the that meeting at Rods house? I'd love to go, but I work shift work and lucky me, have to work that weekend.

I have to do some research on cheato. I've seen it mentioned a lot on the site and I believe that my LFS has some in a stock tub.

I also didn't realize that there are so many options available to me as far a modifying the filtration system on the tank. I thought what the tank came set up for was all I could do with it. Glad to know I have a lot of options there.

Not sure what OGII is so I don't know where it is. I'm guessing Oceans Gallery II? I'm in south Jersey about 10 minutes from the Aquarium Center.

Is there a T5 mod for my hood? I didn't see on on nanocustoms or nanotuners.

I appreciate all the advice. I'm glad I asked too before jumping in. I would have been out a lot of money by now and I probably would have taken the tank down. I am ready for a fishkeeping challenge though and it looks like I'm on my way.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Usually other members give away cheato, I know I do. And I know a few down south have done so also, I am central NJ 07739. Put a feeler out someone will give you some I am sure. The MODS are typically something like what I did with my nano which was remove all the filter mediums they provided, built a shelf out of egg crate(light diffuser for overhead cealing lights, put in a small light for cheato, some filter floss, rubble live rock, and some sort of phosban in a bag hanging in the other chamber. Take a look around you can do a lot of different things, LED lights are becoming more common especially for the refugium idea in the back. That is also a possibility for your lights. Expensive but at the same time less heat then power compact, T5 are nice alternative.
 
E

evojoey

I have a pretty good idea on what to do with the filtration system now. One question I have is, can I take the divider out of the first chamber and put my heater in it? That would get it out of the main tank. I also see people blocking off a couple inlets on the botton strainer to get better top skimming. Adviseable? I have eggcrate so I am going to do a tray of that, with rubble rock, filter floss and cheato. Then I'll do the bag of phosban. As far as the filter pad in the first chamber (filter floss/carbon). Should I leave that in there or use something else in it's place? Can I put a bag of carbon in the 3rd chamber along with the phosban if I do remove it?

What would be an good pump to upgrade to from the stock return pump? Should I take off the 90* elbow on the return line and connect it directly to the return port?

I have decided to do zoos, mushrooms, acans and frogspawn or hammer coral. Will I be ok with the stock lighting until I find the funds to upgrade to LED's in the future?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but I want to get it right the first time.

Thanks again, Joe
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
If you can find a way to fit the heater in the back chambers, I would do it. Makes your tank look much nicer and less of a chance you will nuke anything in the display. I use filter floss as well just make sure you change it out weekly or more frequently then that as it does a good job of trapping stuff, but it can get really nasty over time. My tank is much smaller (12 gallon) but my back chambers go like this: 1st chamber is filter floss, second chamber is carbon and chemi pure elite, third chamber return pump and heater. The 12g does not have the room or trays that the 29 gallon has.

The corals you listed you should have no problem with. I have kept all of them in my 12g which has similiar lighting. The only one I struggled with was the acans which I stopped putting in there.
 
E

evojoey

Great, thanks. I figure I'd start out easy for my first corals and go from there. If I enjoy it and figure out how all these corals thrive, I can expand. I guess it's a good thing that my favorites are zoos. I wouldn't mind having a tank full of them. ;D One last question is on the return pump. Should I stay with the stock pump or upgrade. If I do upgrade, what should I go with? Thanks, Joey
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
I don't have the 29 gallon so I don't know what the stock pump is or what the favorite upgrade is. I know for the 12g the maxi jet 900 is the preferred as the 1200 gives off to much heat. The other route you could do is not upgrade the return pump but get a powerhead to provide for flow. You can look at an mp10 or a koralia 1 or 2 depending on what you want to keep and what sort of money you want to spend (personally I love the vortech but they are pricey). The koralia evolutions are just coming out now and sound promising.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

MJ 900 puts out almost as many GPH using a lot less watts compared to the MJ1200. Off the top of my head it is 8.5 vs 12 and about 230 GPH vs 260 GPH. But the Koralia is like 300 GPH at 8W. I have one nice little pump, only downside is no screen on the intake. For smaller tanks it is good to keep all energy usage to a minimum. mnat spelled out the powerhead situation pretty well for you.
 
E

evojoey

Well I started upgrading the cube. I wound up buying the skimmer for the biocube. I've done some research and found that it's a decent little skimmer for the money. If it doesn't perform well, I'll upgrade. Also picked up the UV. I got a good deal on them as a set so I went with it. I ordered the hydor pico 1200 pump and hydor nano 285 powerhead. Bought some rubble rock, phosguard and carbon too. Still in the search for chaeto, but I did pick up a submersible light for it. I'm off to a good start. Thank's again for the help.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Sounds like you got a lot accomplished. Which skimmer did you buy the saphire? Couple pics would be nice right about now. ;D
 
E

evojoey

I didn't get the saphire. I just got the Oceanic model made for the cube. That and the UV were a package for $79.99. Seperate they would have cost me $105. So I saved myself $25. I'll upgrade to the sapphire if the BC one doesn't perform well. I'll try to post picks when I get home from work. I couldn't even upload an avatar so I haven't had much luck with the whole picture thing on this site.
 
E

evojoey

I'll give it a try. I'm gonna make a reef run to The Hidden Reef today after work. When I get back I'll try to post some of my terribly taken photos.
 
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