Bbearden101 16 gal biocube

[Bbearden101]

Ok dont know if this is in the right section, but I've had a 75gal that was thriving greatly till me and my sons mom split up, and unfortunately before I could get a place to move it to it crashed due to neglect, well my fiance knew how much I loved that fish tank and missed it so for Christmas she bought me this coralife16 gal led biocubetill we get moved into our new house and I get money put back to put together a 250-300 gallon. Its been up and running since Christmas eve and letting it run its cycle. Right now I still have the stock filter, and a heater in chamber one, chamber 2 I have filter media, media bag, a bag of crushed rock and honestly probably too much cheato in the bottom but I got a softball size chunck for a steal so I took it. Anyways is anyone still running their stock filter media? I was thinking about pulling it after the cycle, and either just disposing it or swapping with another. Also dont harp too bad on the algae like I said its still cycling and ill probably wait til next weekend to throw a clean up crew in

LIGHTING-stock

FILTRATION- stock pump, bag of live rock, cheato,media bag, and global biofoan in 2nd chamber, stock filter cartridge in first for now

SUBSTRATE- went with a bag of caribsea "live sand"

ROCK- dried "live rock"

POWERHEAD- none yet I have the "wave maker" adapter on my return pumps outlet tho, but when I add coral I will probably put one in it kinda hard to judge on flow at the moment tho

[JBM]

Looks like a solid start. 

 

As far as filtration. There is no right or wrong way. Just what works for you. I've seen biocubes with 100% stock filtration that are awesome. And I've seen sumped cubes that look less then desirable.

 

Patience is key, and you will do just fine.

[Bbearden101]

6 hours ago, JBM said:

Looks like a solid start. 

 

As far as filtration. There is no right or wrong way. Just what works for you. I've seen biocubes with 100% stock filtration that are awesome. And I've seen sumped cubes that look less then desirable.

 

Patience is key, and you will do just fine.

Yea I wasn't sure how people ran these bio cubes, I didnt have any stock filtration in my 75 (of course since I ran a sump) but I did have a over the back overflow with filter media in it that came,with it

[JBM]

21 hours ago, Bbearden101 said:

Yea I wasn't sure how people ran these bio cubes, I didnt have any stock filtration in my 75 (of course since I ran a sump) but I did have a over the back overflow with filter media in it that came,with it

 

i never had a nano/bio cube long term (more than a year) but when i did. I ran it straight up, as it came out of the box. I have adapted a less is more approach since then. I ran a 5g with a hob that held nothing but filter floss, a 20 long with nothing but a hob refugium.

 

My current 80 has 1 4" 200 micron filter sock (i have more then 1, but only use 1 at a time) and a 15g refugium.

 

Your amidst your cycle, personally. Id run whatever bio media came with it. your sand and rock. leave everything else aside for when your nitrite starts to drop and your nitrate starts to rise

[Gravity]

I believe most people do the following for the biocube:

 - Remove false bottom in chamber one and place heater (sounds like you may have done this)

- Buy InTank media basket for chamber two (using filter floss/pad then any media needed Carbon, GFO, Chemiclear, purigen, etc...Typically only need filter and carbon then use others as needed. 
- Some remove sponge between two and three to reduce cleaning/maintenance. 
 

Recommendations:

- Remove rock rubble typically said to Increase nitrate by trapping detritus.

- Chaeto also probably not necessary and can be hard to grow in small area

[Bbearden101]

2 hours ago, Gravity said:

I believe most people do the following for the biocube:

 - Remove false bottom in chamber one and place heater (sounds like you may have done this)

- Buy InTank media basket for chamber two (using filter floss/pad then any media needed Carbon, GFO, Chemiclear, purigen, etc...Typically only need filter and carbon then use others as needed. 
- Some remove sponge between two and three to reduce cleaning/maintenance. 
 

Recommendations:

- Remove rock rubble typically said to Increase nitrate by trapping detritus.

- Chaeto also probably not necessary and can be hard to grow in small area

The new bio cubes come with a media basket,in chamber 2, or the one I got did. That's where I'm running top to bottom- media filter, chemipure now, rock rubble, and then chearo. I have a refugium light and everything set up now so ima take my shot at the cheato. I may end up needing to thin it out so it can continue to grow tho. I had to do,this several times in my refugium for my 75 gallon

[Bbearden101]

2 hours ago, Gravity said:

I believe most people do the following for the biocube:

 - Remove false bottom in chamber one and place heater (sounds like you may have done this)

- Buy InTank media basket for chamber two (using filter floss/pad then any media needed Carbon, GFO, Chemiclear, purigen, etc...Typically only need filter and carbon then use others as needed. 
- Some remove sponge between two and three to reduce cleaning/maintenance. 
 

Recommendations:

- Remove rock rubble typically said to Increase nitrate by trapping detritus.

- Chaeto also probably not necessary and can be hard to grow in small area

My refugium on my 75 gallon I had live rock in, and didn't run into a problem, but I also vacummed out it every week during my water change, so I tried taking the same concept and shrinking it some, but like I said I have no clue about these nanos never had one so if y'all have experience on it im all ears

[NanoRox]

looks like a good start.  I have had my Biocube 14 up for 1 1/2 years now.  I've gone through several filtering iterations.  I have been trying to grow chaeto in chamber 2 with a grow light and its living but not thriving.  It grows green slime algae better than the chaeto.  I've toyed with the idea of rigging a home made algae reactor in chamber two since the slime algae grows so well and accomplishes the same thing.  Will see.

 

Anyway, looking forward to watching your progress. 

[Bbearden101]

10 hours ago, NanoRox said:

looks like a good start.  I have had my Biocube 14 up for 1 1/2 years now.  I've gone through several filtering iterations.  I have been trying to grow chaeto in chamber 2 with a grow light and its living but not thriving.  It grows green slime algae better than the chaeto.  I've toyed with the idea of rigging a home made algae reactor in chamber two since the slime algae grows so well and accomplishes the same thing.  Will see.

 

Anyway, looking forward to watching your progress. 

I've read of people putting tape on the light to try and,cut down the slime algae Idk how well it works

[NanoRox]

49 minutes ago, Bbearden101 said:

I've read of people putting tape on the light to try and,cut down the slime algae Idk how well it works

I have a fuge light on the back of changer 2.  Im feeding it light.  lol 

[Bbearden101]

1 minute ago, NanoRox said:

I have a fuge light on the back of changer 2.  Im feeding it light.  lol 

I have one,too, but I've read about people that have a problem with green slime algae putting tape on,the light I guess to try and dim the intensity down some, I haven't done it im just running straight light to the back. All my parameters looked good yesterday so I did my first water change I didnt notice any slime growth on,the media basket but I'm also just getting through my cycle so that's likely to change in the next few weeks

[Bbearden101]

Got a couple black ices added in

[WV Reefer]

2 minutes ago, Bbearden101 said:

Got a couple black ices added in

Very nice! 😀

[Bbearden101]

8 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Very nice! 😀

Thank you, got them for 20 bucks each

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, Bbearden101 said:

Thank you, got them for 20 bucks each

That’s a steal!

[Bbearden101]

1 minute ago, WV Reefer said:

That’s a steal!

Vwry much so had to scoop them,up when he told me the price, got the rose tip bta for 35 dollars as Well 

[ECLS Reefer]

3 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

That’s a steal!

Mine were $150 for a pair, on sale! That IS a steal.

[Bbearden101]

2 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Mine were $150 for a pair, on sale! That IS a steal.

Dang that's crazy I know online the retail for 70-85 each so when he said the price I had to jump on it

[JBM]

there was a mollusk and a sea cucumber..............................

 

 

 

nice fish

[Bbearden101]

Well just got in town from work and noticed a algae bloom, so first off messed with my lighting schedule thinking that was it. Still trying to find the sweet spot with these lights. Well needless to say it’s water change day so I was pulling everything out of chambers to clean them and noticed one of my turbo snails had crawled into chamber one and died so that explains part of algae bloom. Well while having everything pulled out of chamber one I took the opportunity to pull the false bottom out of chamber one. Well let me tell you anyone that says just stick your hand down there and cut it out must have small hands. I ended up having to use a long kitchen knife, and the handle on a long wooden spoon to push on the outside right part (If your looking at the display) with a little force it popped out so if anyone is looking to do this and has moderately big hands this is how I would advise to try it.(almost got my hand stuck a couple times trying to stick it down there lmao

[JBM]

yikes

[Bbearden101]

Well moved this last weekend everything seemed to of went smooth fish might of got a little sea sick on the way lol everyone seems to have settled back down and adjusted nicely. No different than the trip from the pet store