BioCube 8

[stallen]

Fantastic!! I just started mine a few days ago... waiting to get the rest of my rock to fill things in tomorrow (only have three lil rocks right now.. check it out)... then the long cycle continues...

 

and btw thanks! this topic actually got me going on my biocube, filter mods etc.

I am having trouble with the level in chamber 3 with my mj 606... it's lowww... just adding water to the chamber will work?

 

Yes, just keep adding water until it's up to the level you want it. It won't overflow.

[flyingjeff]

Yes, just keep adding water until it's up to the level you want it. It won't overflow.

 

**as long as you have widened the opening between chamber 1 and 2

[houssic]

Just started mine on April 26th. Hope that the cycle goes quickly.

 

I got the same setup as you and Chill. chaeto, 50w mod, 606 mod, live rock fuge, hydor.

 

heres a pic of my new tank.

[octoalex]

I know you guys have no room in your chamber twos, but I wanted to share that I found a good way to polish (and loose the micro-bubbles). I took at filter bag and stuffed it with filter floss. Put that in chamber 2 on top of my live rock with out the drip-tray and allowed the little water fall from chamber 1 to fall onto it... makes the system silent (if you have a lower level in chamber 2) and no micro bubbles!! Ill take a pic when I get home from vacation next week and put it in my post.

[stallen]

I have made some changes to my filtration and I'm very happy about how things are turning out.

 

For any biocube owners out there, I highly recommend replacing the top drip tray with egg crate! It has really improved flow and I can use about twice as much filter floss on top without effecting flow. I made this change about two weeks ago. I have discovered that I can wait an entire week without changing the filter floss as detritus build-up in the floss no longer causes a problem with slowing flow. Sure you may want to change it more often than weekly, but it's nice to know that you can leave it longer need be. Before this mod I had to replace the tiny amount of filter floss I was using every two days because it was slowing flow and dropping the water level in chamber 3.

 

If you decide to do the mod, you might also want to file the ends of the egg-crate down. So the egg crate sits even a couple mm lower. I think this helps improve flow even more. If anyone wants to see a pic of this egg-crate, let me know and I'll post one.

 

I thought I would also show you what i've decided to do with chamber 2:

 

 

I think having a little bit of rubble on the bottom lifts up the carbon-bag just enough to improve flow through the bag before water gets pulled through the bottom and into chamber 3. It also provides a place for pods to hang out before getting sucked into the display.

 

This could be over kill on the chemical filtration, but I want to start feeding my tank a little more heavily. I'm going to start feeding some reef-roids to my corals once or twice a week and I'll probably feed cyclopeeze a little more often too. I also might start feeding my fish daily instead of 4 days per week.

[complexchi]

I'd like to see a couple of pictures of the eggcrate if possible. thanks

also if you could talk about that thing under your tank that's attached to your two part calcium additive? Are you able to add that automatically?

[stallen]

I'd like to see a couple of pictures of the eggcrate if possible. thanks

also if you could talk about that thing under your tank that's attached to your two part calcium additive? Are you able to add that automatically?

 

I'll post a picture(s) as soon as I can.

 

You can find those dosing pumps at innovativeaquatics.com These are modified kangaroo feeding pumps. These are pumps using to tube feed people. They are expensive but very accurate at dosing small amounts. I found mine from a guy on reefcentral classifieds for about half the price. Occasionally you'll find them on ebay, but they are called kangaroo 324 enteral feeding pumps and they have to be modified in order to use the special tubing sold from innovativeaquatics.com.

 

The tubing from innovative aquatics has two intake tubes and two output tubes. I insert one tube into the part 1 bottle and the other tube into the part 2 bottle. The middle of the tubing set gets wrapped around the thing that turns on the pump. I have the other ends of the tubes going to separate areas to drip into the back of the tank. Sounds alot more complicated than it is. Really! The pump is set to run as slow as possible. The pump drips about two drops of each solution into the tank every 15 minutes or so.

 

I also diluted the b-ionic by 50% with RO water to make it weaker since the pump drips twice as fast as I want it to even at the slowest setting.

 

I'll try to post a pic of how I have it set-up to drip into the back of the tank as well.

[Fish]

When I cut the overflow wall between chambers 1 and 2 I only cut it down behind the position of the stock filter cartridge so water still has to flow through the cartridge providing the stock mechanical filtration and flow through the carbon in the cartridge. I have the grate from the bottom of chamber 2 in the top of chamber 2 in place of the drip tray and a 100 ml bag of purigen on top of that.. The purigen bag is the perfect size for this position almost as if it was custom made for that spot. Chaeto and LR rubble fill the rest of chamber 2. I'm still very new to all this all-in-one stuff but seems like a good way to go to allow for use of the stock filter cartridge. As I have it, chamber 2 is, I'd say, about 9/10ths full and chamber 3 is 3/4ths to 4/5ths full depending on whether I'm due to add top off water.

[stallen]

Well, if it is working for you that is great. Most of us on this forum that have the BioCube no longer use the stock filter cartridge (unless it is a modified stock filter cartridge). They get pretty full of detritus within about 3 days and then it just sits there in your tank until you replace it. They are too expensive to replace every week. I wouldn't want to leave all that fish poo in there longer than that. Maybe I'm too meticulous with my mechanical filtration.

 

Most BioCube 8 owners are using the drip tray for filter floss since it is so cheap and easily replaced. Before I replaced the drip tray with eggcrate I had to replace the filter floss every 2-3 days because as the filter floss becomes dirty it starts to clog the tiny little vents on the stock drip tray.

 

Now with the eggcrate mod I can go a week without any effect on flow. I could go longer than that, but I don't want dirty filter floss in my tank any longer than that.

 

Yes, purigen is the perfect size for chamber 2. Mine sits very nicely in there as well. Just farther down towards the bottom. It probably gets more flow through the full length of the bag down there as well vs. just one end of the bag if it was sitting on the drip tray.

 

I also like the product chemi-pure. It is a high quality carbon product that the manufacturer claims to last 4 to 6 months. However, I change it every 2 months and rinse it every couple weeks during a water change. The 5oz bag is the perfect size. Although a little harder to find than the typical 10oz bag.

 

Hope this helps.

[Darklyte24]

a little video would be awesome if possible.. chemipure puregen?.. all these diffrent things

[KMP]

hey guys, great thread.

 

i just got a biocube 8 - $99 new at a grand opening. it's in the office now w/sand and water running. have a few questions:

 

- does anyone know how much ghp and watts the stock pump is? or what type?

 

i also want to swap in a mj900 (assuming 1200 is to much) and want to make sure that you guys are only using parts 1,2,3 (diagram on page 6).

 

- are you putting any type of screen over the inlet?

 

also,

 

- how do you disconnect the stock tube from the output. pull up or pull towards the back.

 

and last but not least; has anyone put a submersible 10w bulb in the fuge area (2nd chamber). saw that was being done on the 14g's.

 

thanks.

[Darklyte24]

i have a BC 14 bought the MJ 900 and it has too much flow.

my stock pump is around 138GPH, the mj900 is like 250?..

where did you get your tank from? We just had a Grand opening in sacramento CA..

check your manual too there is info on the pump etc

[KMP]

^ got it at fish planet. same place?

[Darklyte24]

ya ive been going there for the last 2 months i thnk now.. they kept saying they were going to do the grand opening when they got thier sharks.. which they got about a month ago!!

 

I just bought a clown, some green zoosfor 20$, 2 more hermits there Friday and the clown just died.. i also had a clown from them about a month ago and it died after 3 weeks.. I think they have new store syndrome or something. snails hermits from that store is fine though.

 

Did they have anything else on a good deal? They had a coupon for freshwater fish and some other small thing.. Didnt bother to go saturday. I did goto exotic aquarium on Franklin BLVD though. I bought a pink zoo there for 30$

 

do you have aol aim?

you can IM me, my sn is the same as here.

[KMP]

sent pm so we don't hijack the thread. sorry fellas.

 

would still appreciate any help you can give on above questions.

 

kenny

[houssic]

hey guys, great thread.

 

i just got a biocube 8 - $99 new at a grand opening. it's in the office now w/sand and water running. have a few questions:

 

- does anyone know how much ghp and watts the stock pump is? or what type?

 

i also want to swap in a mj900 (assuming 1200 is to much) and want to make sure that you guys are only using parts 1,2,3 (diagram on page 6).

 

- are you putting any type of screen over the inlet?

 

also,

 

- how do you disconnect the stock tube from the output. pull up or pull towards the back.

 

and last but not least; has anyone put a submersible 10w bulb in the fuge area (2nd chamber). saw that was being done on the 14g's.

 

thanks.

 

108 GPH

 

I used the sponge that came with the biocube8 for a week just to be sure that nothing big got into the pump from my live rock.

 

I pulled towards the back. Mine was not too hard to pull off but i did put it back on pretty hard and the next time i tried to remove it it was a little more difficult so i don't think it will break if you pull hard. You also could use some needle hose plyers and pry it off that way. that may be easier with the added leverage.

[stallen]

i also want to swap in a mj900 (assuming 1200 is to much) and want to make sure that you guys are only using parts 1,2,3 (diagram on page 6).

 

- are you putting any type of screen over the inlet?

 

I think it is a good idea to upgrade the pump. I would suggest one of two options.

 

1) MJ606 with a hydor-flo. This will give you more flow (and less watts/heat I think) than the stock pump and it will be nice random flow.

 

2) MJ900 with three outputs. This will give you even more flow (but more watts and possibly a little more heat). This will be more predictable flow, but still more random than the stock duckbill. I found that the MJ900 with the hydor-flo was too much flow in my front left corner where I have my xenia. My xenia was getting blown to bits! That is one of the reasons I went with my three duckbill design.

 

This is my latest on my output:

The output starts with a "T" connection attached to a "Y" which has a duckbill flare on each. The third duckbill flare is attached to the other "T" output and pointed straight down so that back corner gets some flow.

 

- how do you disconnect the stock tube from the output. pull up or pull towards the back.

 

Pull towards the back. You might need a flathead screwdriver to help get it off (be careful though).

[stallen]

Here are some pics of the eggcrate drip tray mod:

 

 

 

 

Here are some more pictures of my dosing pump set-up:

 

 

The pump says it is running at 1ml/hr, but that is if it had stock tubing. Even though the pump says it is running at 1ml/hr this modified tubing has a smaller diameter than the factory tubing so it runs at 0.3ml/hr for every 1ml/hr pump setting. (i.e. if the pump is set for 2ml/hr it will actually be running at 0.6ml/hr and so on)

 

To further confuse you. I have the b-ionic diluted to half strength with RO/DI water. So when the pump is set for 1ml/hr it is dripping 0.3ml/hr but my tank is really only getting .15ml/hr of b-ionic and .15ml/hr of RO/DI water (out of each tubing). So in a 24 hr period the tank gets 3.6ml of each solution.

 

 

I drilled holes in the back of the tank that are just big enough for the tubing to slip through. Then I used small zip ties to keep them from getting pulled out. The tubing drips from above the water level for two reasons. The part one solution gets calcified around the tubing if it is submerged in the tank water. And, there is no chance of siphoning the tank water if the tubing ever breaks.

 

The "two-channel tubing" sets can be found here: http://innovativeaquatics.com/Pages/access.html

 

Again you have to use the Nautilus II pump at innovativaquatics.com for this tubing. Otherwise you can get a Kangaroo 324 pump (medical enteral feeding pump) that requires some modifications inside the circuitry to keep the pump from alarming when it uses modified tubing. I can tell you how to do these mods if anyone wants to know.

[Darklyte24]

you have a biocube right?.. and you have the water almost totally full on all chambers?

[stallen]

you have a biocube right?.. and you have the water almost totally full on all chambers?

 

yes and yes

 

I have a fuge in chamber 2. Cheato is not gonna live very long if it isn't totally submerged. If you have chamber 2 full then chamber 3 will be almost as high. This means more volume of water in the tank as well.

 

This has been working for me for about 7 months and quite a few other BC8 owners in this forum.

[Fish]

Stallen,

Have you calculated your daily evaporation rate? I was just thinking that if you diluted your b-ionic some more you might be able to dial in your dosing to be close to your evap rate. Although I suppose you'd have to use bigger dosing bottles to keep up. never mind. Just thinking out loud

[Darklyte24]

with the pump off, where is the water level in the main tank?

 

mine has just under a inch.. should i ad more water?..

[stallen]

Stallen,

Have you calculated your daily evaporation rate? I was just thinking that if you diluted your b-ionic some more you might be able to dial in your dosing to be close to your evap rate. Although I suppose you'd have to use bigger dosing bottles to keep up. never mind. Just thinking out loud

 

Not a bad idea. I have given that some thought but with this closed top system I don't have hardly any evaporation. I sometimes add maybe a cup of RO/DI in the middle of the week, but I usually just make up for any evaporation during my weekly water change. I use a refractometer and make my new water with a SG of about 1.0245. I maintain a SG at 1.025.

 

with the pump off, where is the water level in the main tank?

 

mine has just under a inch.. should i ad more water?..

 

That sounds about how mine is. When I do water changes I turn on the pump when I have enough water in chamber 3. Then I keep adding water with the pump running and fill it with as much water as I can until the level in chamber 3 in just below the output elbow. If I have any left over water, I wait 5-10 minutes or so to make sure everything has leveled out before I toss out any left over saltwater. Basically I just make sure everything looks at the right level with the pumps running.

[Fish]

I usually just make up for any evaporation during my weekly water change. I use a refractometer and make my new water with a SG of about 1.0245. I maintain a SG at 1.025.

That's a great idea. I also like the idea of making up your SW in advance to be a little less than you anticipate you will need but a little higher S.G. than normal and then dialing in the proper S.G. by dilution rather than trying to dial it in by having to add more salt.

[autoponicz]

hey stallen....i noticed u have the same type of digital timer i got.......do u know if it can control 2 devices at different time settings?