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SaltyVT's 8 gallon Biocube


SaltyVT

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Just noticed this forum!!! 8 gallon bio cube, 5lbs of LR, 17 lbs of LS, 4 hermits, 1 coral banded shrimp, 2 turbo snails, one clown named Sushi!! Next step is to rid the tank of bio balls and replace with LR and mess around with the other stock internals soon. going to add corals soon!! Any other suggestions welcomed!!!

 

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howdy fellow Vt person ;)

i would ditch the sponge completely and upgrade fans to higher rpm fans

 

maybe look in to setting up a cheato slot in the back

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I'm a noob, but I understood that a hungry coral banded shrimp would rip into softies looking for food. Are you planning to target feed him?

I could be (and often are) completely wrong!

 

They look so cool I would love to have one though.

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Looking good so far, and welcome to Nano-Reef. Wow I am from Vt as well, but never heard of Dubsnorth. Is that the land of volkswagens?? Anyway, back to topic.

 

These Biocubes are great! The bioballs are great for cat toys, but that's about it. Enraged... did you upgrade your fans? I noticed another fan connector on the little circuit board. Has anyone tried to add another fan for perhaps cooling the water surface? The cube seems to cool well when the lights are on, but heats up right after the main lights and fans shut off. (no hijack intended)

 

SaltyVT... you might want to upgrade the stock pump or place another microjet in the tank for better flow. At least that is what my LFS said to do. Good Luck!!

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Yea i never heard of dusbnorth either lol!

I actually have an Aquapod 12 that i drillthe the stock ventalation out to increase circulation but thats about it thus far. As mine is at work in a climate controled office i havent had to get crazy on it yet. gotta admit those catalina gobys are looking pretty cool these days tho so i might have see if i can crank the heat down for one of those.

thinking my watchmen might have something to say about another goby tho hes a bit testy about other fish any where near him.

Salty: i would dump the stock pump

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Stock pump will be deployed!!! :D

Ahhh yes Dubsnorth land, what a great place. The land of Audis and VW's!!! Local car club. I own and owned many VW's now on to the Audi A3. My dubsnorthland is in Essex Junction!!! :P any suggestions ona new pump and mini jet??? I have been also looking at the hydor flo??? any good??? :huh:

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Stock pump will be deployed!!! :D

Ahhh yes Dubsnorth land, what a great place. The land of Audis and VW's!!! Local car club. I own and owned many VW's now on to the Audi A3. My dubsnorthland is in Essex Junction!!! :P any suggestions ona new pump and mini jet??? I have been also looking at the hydor flo??? any good??? :huh:

 

I have a maxi-jet 900 in my aquapod 12 so athat would work well with a hydor for yours..

I am in burlington.. small world

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I have a maxi-jet 900 in my aquapod 12 so athat would work well with a hydor for yours..

I am in burlington.. small world

 

 

You ever shop a GMA?? (greem mountian Aquarium)

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watch that coral banded like a hawk... they can be nasty. if he gets hungry enough, it'll go after the clown.

 

ripping into softies isn't as much of a problem as them hunting.

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watch that coral banded like a hawk... they can be nasty. if he gets hungry enough, it'll go after the clown.

 

ripping into softies isn't as much of a problem as them hunting.

 

 

I feed him flakes every other day, If comes down to it I'll give him back to the LFS!! :D

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You ever shop a GMA?? (greem mountian Aquarium)

I have been in GMA a few times but everything my co-worker has bought has died in less then 24 hours. also he seems to care less when he has corpses floating around in his tanks and that strikes a nerve with me. I shop at pet advantage and Milton mini-reef for the basics online for anything exotic.

We should engineer a group buy and save on shipping some time. My co-worker is in mid set up with his biocube 14

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I have been in GMA a few times but everything my co-worker has bought has died in less then 24 hours. also he seems to care less when he has corpses floating around in his tanks and that strikes a nerve with me. I shop at pet advantage and Milton mini-reef for the basics online for anything exotic.

We should engineer a group buy and save on shipping some time. My co-worker is in mid set up with his biocube 14

 

 

Sounds good to me, everything has been going good with the 8 gal. I need to add some corals to my 2.5g soon. I have 5 lbs of tonga branch coming this week!!!!!

Gary (GMA) is a good guy, knows alot about reefs. I thinkthat the Pet advantage has really stepped up there game as far as tanks/set ups go. Wheres this milton place you talk about???

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I think Milton Mini Reef has the best corals around. Bruce and Trudy are real nice too. You can find it next to the Milton High School, attached to Price Chopper?? I can't remember exactly which grocery store it is but turn left (if you are coming from Burl) at the only traffic light in town and you will see it. There is another pet store right across the street from the High School, but that one doesn't carry much for SW.

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So I got the Tonga rock ito the tank finally, Not very pleased. I knew it was a shot in the dark getting rock off the internet. I was able to fill my tank up with another five pounds into it. I placed a small chunk in the 2.5g too. I was able to smash up a couple pounds and place it in the 2nd chamber. Great tonga in the chamber!!!! I need to place it around better but heres a cole of pics of it........

 

 

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Did you make any other modification to the rear chamber besides the addition of the LR? I have the same tank and thinking of doing the same.

 

So I got the Tonga rock ito the tank finally, Not very pleased. I knew it was a shot in the dark getting rock off the internet. I was able to fill my tank up with another five pounds into it. I placed a small chunk in the 2.5g too. I was able to smash up a couple pounds and place it in the 2nd chamber. Great tonga in the chamber!!!! I need to place it around better but heres a cole of pics of it........

P1010503.jpg

P1010506-1.jpg

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Did you make any other modification to the rear chamber besides the addition of the LR? I have the same tank and thinking of doing the same.

Haven't yet. Thinking of what to do nex!!

 

Heres some really quick pics sorry for the reflects, it was a sunny day today! :P

 

 

 

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Honestly i wouldn't worry to much about the rock so long as the shape is easy to attach corals to.

I ordered Marshall Island, Tonga shelf, and kaleina live rock and have it arranged with a mini cove the rock is simply beautiful in my eyes and there in lies the problem I don't want to cover it up!!! the purples and lavenders and reds that are starting to come back are gorgeous it seems like a crime to cover it even with the most wonderful corals!! My tank has been up almost 4 months and all i have is a couple of shrooms, a pink zoo, a pink and orange digi..

I have one flat that is going to be covered with something but as to the rest of the tank i just do not want to cover it up..

Next tank is going to be cheap Hawaiian baserock with just a few pounds of show rock!!!

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Love the setup. I added the cleanup crew to my own Biocube 8 this weekend.

 

I have a few questions about your rig:

 

Did you remove the stock filter cartridge that came with the unit?

 

How is the temperature stability? Did switching the lights have any effect? ie fan only runs with one fixture?

 

Did you decide on an upgraded pump?

 

Thanks, and again, the setup looks great

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I decided to break up most of it an stuff into the two chambers, Leaves more room for corals. Just picked up some candy coral and frilly leather for my 2.5 from the Pet Advantage this weekend!!

 

 

 

Flyingjeff::

So far: removed bio balls in place for LR rubble. I just took out the filter cart. for filter floss at the top and a large piece of LR. I just ordered a maxi jet 900 to replace the stock one. I added a Hydor flo today. I saw that others had switched the placement of the lights. I would suspect that the point would be to have the fans on as long as possible. Say the 10k on for ~8 hrs the atinics on for ~10, takes more heat away caused by both light.......i would assume?? :huh: Next need to add purgen or something, need to research it better??? :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, I just sorta dug out th sand a liitle near the intake to keep some out if it goes back o well!! Not really alot has gotten back there seems to stay were I put it!!

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Just added the Maxi Jet 900, what better flow!!!! The only problem is that the front corner's sand bed is being moved back due to the higher GPH. Overall it adds a way strong current!! :)

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  • Christopher Marks changed the title to SaltyVT's 8 gallon Biocube

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