reeffin
New Member
My tank is a BioCube 29 that was given to me for free from a friend. It does have some scratches on it from the previous owner, but other than that it is a very good working tank. It came with the original lid that was badly damaged and not worth saving. I bought a new BioCube 32 lid that is the same width and depth as the 29. The 32 lid has hinges so I bought some clear acrylic and with a band saw, drill, J.B. Weld, and a half inch aluminum rod I made my own lower half of the hinge. I will provide pictures of this later as I am sure someone has run into this and would be interested in how I got around it.
For those who don’t know, a BioCube is a glass tank, with a plastic divider wall in the back where the refugium is. There it has three divided chambers, the first water overflows into it where I have a heater and a BioCube protein skimmer. This a very tight fit that I have read has defeated many people, but it can be done. This flow into the second chamber where I have both the fuge and media baskets from InTank. Water overflows onto the fuge basket first that falls through the filter floss, then the Chemi-Clean Elite and then through the Purigen. Then it rises up through the InTank media section where I have Cheato growing.
Here I did have to scrap off the black paint off the back glass on the BioCube 29. I don’t believe the newer ones have paint on them so mine is showing its age. After I got an area scrapped off where my Cheato was I connected a Nano Glo magnetic light that sits on the outside of the glass shinning into the tank 24 hours a day. Also, in this area I placed a jar of Poseidon’s Feast copepods from Algaebarn.
At the bottom flows into the next chamber to my BioCube pump and that I have connected to a UV sterilizer and then to the outflow into the main tank. I bought the UV because of an algae bloom I had over night that took me from crystal clear to zero visibility. I saw on BRSTV (YouTube) that it would control the reproduction of the bloom without harming the copepods in the previous chamber that would flow through and out to the main tank. Also, the pods are thriving in this area!
My sub-strait is Pensacola sand taken near the dunes away from the tide line. I wanted local sand but bleached of any nasties from the shoreline and this seems to have worked out fine. I bought some Aquascape’s rocks for the fish to hide in and corals to perch on.
For fish I purchased a pair of percula clownfish, a blue hippo tang, a lemon damsel, and a cleaner shrimp.
For corals I have a Kenya tree, Toadstool Leather, Finger leather to fill out the tank along with LPS Blastomussa Merletti and one head of a Pineapple Brain coral.
I also purchased a Bulk Reef Supply 5 stage deluxe RO/DI system. I had always planned on purchasing one but wanted to wait for the Christmas sale. Because I had waited, I firmly believe that the forementioned algae bloom came from purchased RO water I had been buying. I highly suspect that the company’s filters had not been changed for a long time. Live and learn!
I am also using Tropic Marine salt and I really like this product since switching from Instant Ocean. Just my opinion!
I went back and looked at when I purchased the BioCube lid, and it was on September 11th 2022 so that would be the official start of this tank! Wow it seemed like a lot longer ago.
For those who don’t know, a BioCube is a glass tank, with a plastic divider wall in the back where the refugium is. There it has three divided chambers, the first water overflows into it where I have a heater and a BioCube protein skimmer. This a very tight fit that I have read has defeated many people, but it can be done. This flow into the second chamber where I have both the fuge and media baskets from InTank. Water overflows onto the fuge basket first that falls through the filter floss, then the Chemi-Clean Elite and then through the Purigen. Then it rises up through the InTank media section where I have Cheato growing.
Here I did have to scrap off the black paint off the back glass on the BioCube 29. I don’t believe the newer ones have paint on them so mine is showing its age. After I got an area scrapped off where my Cheato was I connected a Nano Glo magnetic light that sits on the outside of the glass shinning into the tank 24 hours a day. Also, in this area I placed a jar of Poseidon’s Feast copepods from Algaebarn.
At the bottom flows into the next chamber to my BioCube pump and that I have connected to a UV sterilizer and then to the outflow into the main tank. I bought the UV because of an algae bloom I had over night that took me from crystal clear to zero visibility. I saw on BRSTV (YouTube) that it would control the reproduction of the bloom without harming the copepods in the previous chamber that would flow through and out to the main tank. Also, the pods are thriving in this area!
My sub-strait is Pensacola sand taken near the dunes away from the tide line. I wanted local sand but bleached of any nasties from the shoreline and this seems to have worked out fine. I bought some Aquascape’s rocks for the fish to hide in and corals to perch on.
For fish I purchased a pair of percula clownfish, a blue hippo tang, a lemon damsel, and a cleaner shrimp.
For corals I have a Kenya tree, Toadstool Leather, Finger leather to fill out the tank along with LPS Blastomussa Merletti and one head of a Pineapple Brain coral.
I also purchased a Bulk Reef Supply 5 stage deluxe RO/DI system. I had always planned on purchasing one but wanted to wait for the Christmas sale. Because I had waited, I firmly believe that the forementioned algae bloom came from purchased RO water I had been buying. I highly suspect that the company’s filters had not been changed for a long time. Live and learn!
I am also using Tropic Marine salt and I really like this product since switching from Instant Ocean. Just my opinion!
I went back and looked at when I purchased the BioCube lid, and it was on September 11th 2022 so that would be the official start of this tank! Wow it seemed like a lot longer ago.
