Advice for Biocube

[Srkoe]

I feel I need serious help here! My Toby is in a 30g biocube. She is doing wonderful. It's just her a spotted Goby, crushed coral substrate and about 30lbs of LR. I set up the tank with the media it came with.

First chamber-sponge media
Second chamber-ceramic rings, carbon and plastic bio-balls
Third chamber-heater

Upon further research I have found that using the media that came with it is not the best for SW. I am looking for advice as to how I should set up the chambers to be more effective. I know I need to add a skimmer for one. There are skimmers made specific for these types of tanks, right, with them being all self contained? Any suggestion would be great! Should I use LR rubble in one of the chambers?

[Pufferpunk]

1st & 2nd chamber, rubble.

[Srkoe]

I also plan on leaving this a FOWLR tank, so no corals. What is a good salinity to keep the tank at? I've been using RO/DI water thus far. Since I'm not going to be keeping corals should my tap water be okay?

[Srkoe]

1st & 2nd chamber, rubble.

Cure it in a bucket, right?

[solothedrunk]

keep using the RO if you're going to keep corals and don't want to battle hair algae blooms. I don't usually disagree with PP but this one I'm gong to have to. The LR will be a detritus trap just as much in the chambers unless cleaned regularly; happened to me in my 14g Biocube. I keep a home made egg crate media rack with a filter pad on the top for crystal water and in the second chamber I keep a bag of purigen in the middle, and a bag of Chemipure elite in the bottom; in the first chamber is my skimmer. You could keep the purigen in the first intake chamber if you want if you're not using the skimmer.

I've also modded my Biocube a bit. I've cut off that little tab between the second and third tray it helps improve the flow, I've replaced the stock pump with a Maxijet 900 and for the output I used a Hydor Flo. I pulled out the false bottom in the first two chambers with a long needle nosed plyer. You could also buy this nifty small waterproof under water LED light from mediabaskets.com and put a ball of Chaeto in the middle chamber or scrape the paint off the back with a putty knife and use a fuge light there. If you use the Chaeto put a coarse sponge in the bottom intake in the third chamber to ensure that no Chaeto clogs up your pump.

1.023 - 1.025 for FOWLR 1.025 for Reef

I also plan on leaving this a FOWLR tank, so no corals. What is a good salinity to keep the tank at? I've been using RO/DI water thus far. Since I'm not going to be keeping corals should my tap water be okay?

[Pufferpunk]

I don't usually disagree with PP but this one I'm gong to have to. The LR will be a detritus trap just as much in the chambers unless cleaned regularly; happened to me in my 14g Biocube.

LOL, actually I totally agree with you & removed all the rubble from my HOB filters & now just use them for flow (if at all) but most folks insist on something so I give them the rubble advice. It seems to work well on my frag tank though, since I don't feed them much & there really isn't any detritus in there (not many frags either...).

[RTR]

Sessile inverts do need more current than filter media. many folks are so habituated to FW filtration techniques that a media-free filter makes them nervous.

Some of us don't mind it at all, I use media-free filters (commonly smallish external filters) routinely to fine-tune currents, even in FW.

[Srkoe]

I'm fine with no media. I just need help...lol! I actually have some chemi-pure but just haven't added it. I'm probably gonna start taking the media out slowly over a few weeks time so I don't crash the system. Thanks guys! I WILL NOT be keeping any corals...Ashera eats everything, so could I use tap water?

[sevenyearnight]

This depends on your tap water. Mine is "unusual". I'd at the very least find out the phosphate levels of the tap, no one likes excessive algae.

[Pufferpunk]

Yeah--if you love algae, use tap water.

[RTR]

High nitrate, high phosphate,high silicate could any or all make anyone consider some pretreatment of the water.