Biocube 32 with sump - skip cycle?

[nickng]

As for sumps, I used the eshopps nano cube. It’s great except for one major drawback. The under channel below the skimmer section is impossible to clean. I end up having small feather duster worm living down there. A better sump would have been the Fiji cube 15, where one can diy a wall to split the large sump for a separate refugium and skimmer. Or the bashea ss Mano. Personally I prefer the Fiji because the location where the filter floss/sock holder is perfect for inserting a klir d-4 v2 fleece roller.

 

[nickng]

Problematic area in the eshopps sump that is hard to clean out. The flow direction in the refugium section is really good. It spins the chaeto like a ball naturally.

 

[nickng]

Similar sized Fiji cube, can easily add a wall with holes in between to create a separate refugium and skimmer section

 

[I.love.blennies]

Thanks, Nick! This is priceless advice. I really appreciate it.

I don't really want the higher turn over rate, but it seems that if I want an overflow with 3 ports (to do a beanAnimal setup) all of the commercial options require the two holes for that. Perhaps there's a reason here. Maybe the beanAnimal is overkill for a tank this size. Do you feel your overflow setup has kept you happy? One less pipe would be nice, as well.

 

[nickng]

Oh if you want to do the bean animal. Then the Fiji cube is perfect. There’re two drain pipes side by side at the filter section, you can always put the 3rd pipe ie the emergency at the skimmer section

 

[nickng]

Thanks, Nick! This is priceless advice. I really appreciate it.

I don't really want the higher turn over rate, but it seems that if I want an overflow with 3 ports (to do a beanAnimal setup) all of the commercial options require the two holes for that. Perhaps there's a reason here. Maybe the beanAnimal is overkill for a tank this size. Do you feel your overflow setup has kept you happy? One less pipe would be nice, as well.

My herbie overflow can actually handle a very large flow rate. I actually have to throttle the flow a lot with the gate valve. I am running my DC return pump ( a sicce SDC 3.0) at 95+%. The flow rate is definitely much more than the 300gph flow rate of the original coralife supplied pump. I don’t even need to use any wave maker and the surface agitation is so strong that the light shimmers on the sand.

 

[nickng]

I suspect the bean animal is for higher flow rates. I recently acquired a 100 gallon IM100 ext tank and it uses a bean animal to get higher than 1000 Gph flow. For everything I have seen available in the market ie redsea, innovative marine, Fiji cube, waterbox etc, all use herbie style for tanks 80 gallon and below. Bean animal only at 100 gallon and above.

 

[nickng]

In case you’re are wondering about overflow noise, mine is absolutely silent with the simple modifications I did to the weir. In fact the foaming sound of the bubbles in the skimmer is way louder than the overflow…