Help with cleaning/water changes of biocube 29

[hopperjl16]

So I've done my first couple water changes on my new biocube 29 (I'm a total newbie), and I'm having trouble sucking up a lot of the debris off the sand. I first blast off the rocks with a turkey baster to stir up the debris a little then syphon off the water as close to the sand as I can get without sucking up a ton of sand. Then I stir up the sand a little and continue syphoning. Is it not expected to get ALL the debris? Maybe my expectations are too high.....

Also along the lines of cleaning, today I traded out my bioballs for a setup someone else showed me on here (two large sponges set up vertically in chamber 2, topped off with a water polisher sponge, and a bag of chemipure elite at the bottom) and I was amazed at the amount of junk collected at the bottom of my chambers already! Chamber 1 I wasn't surprised, but chamber 2 and 3 had a bunch of crap at the bottom which I thought would have been pulled out by my first filter at the top of chamber 2. I ended up doing a partial water change b/c I felt compelled to syphon out all the crap I found in those chambers. Do you normally have to syphon out the chambers? Or is there another tip to cleaning those?

Any overall help with cleaning a biocube would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Joe B.]

So I've done my first couple water changes on my new biocube 29 (I'm a total newbie), and I'm having trouble sucking up a lot of the debris off the sand. I first blast off the rocks with a turkey baster to stir up the debris a little then syphon off the water as close to the sand as I can get without sucking up a ton of sand. Then I stir up the sand a little and continue syphoning. Is it not expected to get ALL the debris? Maybe my expectations are too high.....

Also along the lines of cleaning, today I traded out my bioballs for a setup someone else showed me on here (two large sponges set up vertically in chamber 2, topped off with a water polisher sponge, and a bag of chemipure elite at the bottom) and I was amazed at the amount of junk collected at the bottom of my chambers already! Chamber 1 I wasn't surprised, but chamber 2 and 3 had a bunch of crap at the bottom which I thought would have been pulled out by my first filter at the top of chamber 2. I ended up doing a partial water change b/c I felt compelled to syphon out all the crap I found in those chambers. Do you normally have to syphon out the chambers? Or is there another tip to cleaning those?

Any overall help with cleaning a biocube would be appreciated! Thanks!

Hi Hopper, I have a 29 gall Bio cube as well and can tell you what I do for my Bi weekly clean up. Maybe we can learn a lot from each other. I remove the pumps/nozzles/skimmer/heaters (all hardware) . I have a rubbermaid tub set up with SW water and white vinegar so I can clean them in. Old toothbrush the insides of the pumps. After its all cleaned, reinstall so we can now clean all the pads/floss/bioballs/Filter/ rocks/ biomedia. I just flush the media a few times thru the SW solution and shake.Put everything back in where it goes and turn it all on. I now use brush to clean all the live rock, walls, and stir up the sand. Since I have cleaned every surface the water has turned cloudy, so its the perfect time to use your garvel or powervc to clean sand and suck up everything you can from the stirrd up water. You can also you a powerheads to blow off the rocks, corners, etc.

 

[hopperjl16]

Hey Joe! So how much water are you changing out? I've been doing 5 gallons per week but I feel like I need to take a lot more to get all the debris out. And do u syphon out the back chambers? I'm hoping with my new set up in chamber 2 my cleanup will be easier back there.

 

[acidtablockshifty]

For the gravel vac I think it all depends on how fine the sand is but you want to use enough flow to pick the sand up then you can pinch the tube closed so the sand is almost suspended then just let enough water flow through that the sand doesn't move much at all, you can then pinch the tube closed letting the sand fall down and you will still have a tube of dirty water, pick up another batch of sand and repeat without say letting the dirty water go yet, that cuts down on how much time you have before you hit your water level mark.
brushing rock clean sounds like a freshwater thing to me but hey

 

[RCs reef]

Hi hopper I have a 24gal nano that I have naw added an over flow with an eshopps sump. But what I use to do with my chambers was do a clean out every month I went and bought some big cut to fit filter pad I placed that over the water supply in front of the sponges. I would change thet every 3 days depending on my water flow restriction from build up. But for the sand I use an aqueon siphon has a large tube I just let the sand tumble in it when I'm doing a water Chang sucks up very small amount of sand and the plus my water does not get cloudy at all sometimes I'll just stick the end of the house in my filter sock in my sump and I can take my time cleaning the sand and replace with New sock once done. Good flow and upgrade in filtration and few little critters to dig and turn your sand will help also. Hope this was a little help

 

[DustyXB9Reefer]

I'll just stick the end of the house in my filter sock in my sump and I can take my time cleaning the sand and replace with New sock once done.

This is actually a really good idea but those of us with BioCubes don't normally run sumps so that doesn't really work for us.

Normally what I'll do when I do my changes is just what acidtablockshift does with pinching off the hose. Remember not to stir up the sand too much as it will stir up the stuff that has settled down that you won't be able to vacuum out. Being that my tank is only the 14, I usually have enough time when doing my water change that I can do a quick vac of the sand and then I'll stick the vac in chamber 1 to pick up the ditritus that has settled there.

 

[kendavjac]

the best way I found to clean the back chambers is with a turkey baster. I would normally blow off my rocks a couple of times each week using a turkey baster. When I did this, I would use the turkey baster to stir up anything in the bottom of the chambers. If you do this regularly, then the stay pretty clean and only takes about 1 minute to do.

 

[Jacquie Samples]

I thought it was right to leave the sump alone when cleaning the tank and changing water. I have my first chamber set with a bag of charcoal and a smaller bag of PhosGuard, both of which get rinsed off or changed monthly. My 2nd chamber has live rock on the bottom, then a layer of coarse block sponge, then the drip plate on which I have a sheet of foam pre-filter. I alternate rinsing and changing the foam every water change. In the 3rd chamber I only have the sponge at the lower opening and the power head. I really never touch the chamber when cleaning.

My LFS folks told me to avoid agitating the sand with my siphon, due to putting nitrates into ghetto water column. So, I leave it to my CUC, although I do use a turkey batter to dust off the live rocks whole siphoning.

Now I am concerned about not getting the right balance of tank cleaning done. Advice anyone?

 

[hopperjl16]

For the gravel vac I think it all depends on how fine the sand is but you want to use enough flow to pick the sand up then you can pinch the tube closed so the sand is almost suspended then just let enough water flow through that the sand doesn't move much at all, you can then pinch the tube closed letting the sand fall down and you will still have a tube of dirty water, pick up another batch of sand and repeat without say letting the dirty water go yet, that cuts down on how much time you have before you hit your water level mark.
brushing rock clean sounds like a freshwater thing to me but hey

Sounds like maybe I just need more practice with the syphon, lol. I don't feel like I'm in much control when it comes to sucking up just debris and not sand.

 

[hopperjl16]

I thought it was right to leave the sump alone when cleaning the tank and changing water. I have my first chamber set with a bag of charcoal and a smaller bag of PhosGuard, both of which get rinsed off or changed monthly. My 2nd chamber has live rock on the bottom, then a layer of coarse block sponge, then the drip plate on which I have a sheet of foam pre-filter. I alternate rinsing and changing the foam every water change. In the 3rd chamber I only have the sponge at the lower opening and the power head. I really never touch the chamber when cleaning.

My LFS folks told me to avoid agitating the sand with my siphon, due to putting nitrates into ghetto water column. So, I leave it to my CUC, although I do use a turkey batter to dust off the live rocks whole siphoning.

Now I am concerned about not getting the right balance of tank cleaning done. Advice anyone?

So I originally never gave any thought to cleaning out those back chambers. It wasn't until I changed out the bioballs and stock filter for a new setup that I saw how much crap had accumulated in the bottom of the chambers. I blame the original filter setup and I think I'll be better off now. But chamber 1 def gets a lot of debris having no filter before it.

As for the sand, I don't really have a deep sand bed but I worry about sections not getting aerated enough so I gently sift through it.

 

[Joe B.]

Hey Joe! So how much water are you changing out? I've been doing 5 gallons per week but I feel like I need to take a lot more to get all the debris out. And do u syphon out the back chambers? I'm hoping with my new set up in chamber 2 my cleanup will be easier back there.

I do 7 gallons every two weeks. I found a few 7 gallon buckets from a local home brew beer store with spikets on the bottom. I stopped vacuuming the back chambers every time because I was removing pods. So only do them every once in a while. I also started to alternate when rinsing my filter pads.

 

[Michaelrunner]

I have had my nano 28g since Dec 2015. I have never cleaned out the back chambers. I don't have bioballs. I have a media chamber. I use a turkey Baster to blow off the rocks before cleaning the tank. Then when I clean the sand I use a vacuum and pinch the tube to regulate the power of the vacuum. It's been working fine and had no problems with levels.

 

[Joe B.]

What's with pinching the tube of the vacuum? I've always just sucked everything up then rotated it at a 45 to drop it all back out. I'll have to try pinching it.

 

[Marktheshark83]

I would bother with cleaning the back and for the sand u wouldn't do that either. Let the cuc do that