Biocube 32

[Davisc1293]

Decided to try my first saltwater tank and went with a biocube 32 due to space issues. so far I've added the Intank media basket and modified it as well as a Aquamax ws-1 in sump skimmer to fit in the AIO unit. Anyone have any experience with either of these products? And any advise for a newbie who jumped into this and decided to research after starting and already has fish (small clown) and frags in the tank in week 2... yea ik that was not smart but its already been done.

 

[IKD]

Welcome! Looks like you got a little excited and ahead of yourself (we’ve all been there!). Since you mentioned frags, what corals are they and are you using stock lighting? You will need to watch for ammonia and nitrite and nitrate in this period to see what your cycle is doing.

 

[saltyfins]

Get yourself some good test kits...I'd stay far away from API. Welcome aboard, lots of great information here!

 

[Ajayabb]

Had the intank media basket when I had a 32. Used floss on top with bag of purigen and bag of chemipure in the other chambers. Worked great for me

 

[Davisc1293]

Thank you guys! So Far I am just using stock light. I added an inexpensive zoa frag and a GSP frag to test. I used live sand, and cured rock (already has some nice coralline algae spots all over it), and have been dosing several types of bacteria to hopefully help. The tanks been running a couple weeks and the past 2 days I am starting to see some brown diatom algae I assume. I am using Salifert test kits for Nitrate, Phosphate, calcium, and alkalinity. But, I am using the API master kit for everything else. Again thank you for welcoming me to the forum and look forward to any advice you can offer.

 

[Postullio]

Steve's leds are a great lighting upgrade made for the biocube 32

 

[Davisc1293]

I'm looking into the Steve's upgrade because I would like to keep the hood because I have lots of pets but also the a/c blows close to the tank and increased evaporation is a concern. But now water temperature might be a concern. have you had issues with the tank heating up too much?

 

[Postullio]

I'm looking into the Steve's upgrade because I would like to keep the hood because I have lots of pets but also the a/c blows close to the tank and increased evaporation is a concern. But now water temperature might be a concern. have you had issues with the tank heating up too much?

I personally never had temp issues

 

[Tankkeepers]

0 temp issues in mine I run a tetra auto set 100 watt heater at 78 degrees house us set at 75 summer 78 winter tank stays at 78 all the time I run the stock lights at full moon also 10 hours a day

 

[Tankkeepers]

Had mine 2 years

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I'm looking into the Steve's upgrade because I would like to keep the hood because I have lots of pets but also the a/c blows close to the tank and increased evaporation is a concern. But now water temperature might be a concern. have you had issues with the tank heating up too much?

Don’t bother with the upgrade. I have two led biocubes they grow any type of coral I put in them. Have a huge candy cane colony, torches, zoa, lepto, blastos, hammer coral, and leptastrea doing fine

 

[PacoPetty]

Welcome to the addiction! I have filter floss, chemi pure blue, and a bag of matrix in my basket. I upgraded the pump to a Sicce Syncra 2.0 and two Random flow generators. I use an Inkbird to monitor temp. I was good with the stock lights until I wanted to try some more difficult corals so I upgraded to Steve’s LEDs and I love them. I would make sure I was going to stay in this hobby before I made that kind of investment. Just take your time and enjoy!

 

[Davisc1293]

Welcome to the addiction! I have filter floss, chemi pure blue, and a bag of matrix in my basket. I upgraded the pump to a Sicce Syncra 2.0 and two Random flow generators. I use an Inkbird to monitor temp. I was good with the stock lights until I wanted to try some more difficult corals so I upgraded to Steve’s LEDs and I love them. I would make sure I was going to stay in this hobby before I made that kind of investment. Just take your time and enjoy!

That tank looks awesome! I'm starting to be able slow myself down a little lol but that's because I already kind of went all out. I almost wish I went with steve's but ended up with an AI prime 16 HD and have a ATO on the way to deal with the faster evaporation. I used the aquamax in sump skimmer which I broke the silencer off to butt it up against the Intank media basket which I also cut to allow the intake from the skimmer to draw water directly down the basket. All controlled through the Apex which is total overkill but strategic to convince a certain someone were ready for a much bigger tank down the road. I've wanted a saltwater tank since my first tank at 14 but was always warned to stay far away. I have 5 other freshwater tanks I've grown out over the last 5-10 years and was ready for the challenge of a reef tank but even

 

[Davisc1293]

Welcome to the addiction! I have filter floss, chemi pure blue, and a bag of matrix in my basket. I upgraded the pump to a Sicce Syncra 2.0 and two Random flow generators. I use an Inkbird to monitor temp. I was good with the stock lights until I wanted to try some more difficult corals so I upgraded to Steve’s LEDs and I love them. I would make sure I was going to stay in this hobby before I made that kind of investment. Just take your time and enjoy!

I love your clown pair I have my eye on a mated snowflake pair I've seen at my LFS for the last month or so.

 

[xtravism]

I'm looking into the Steve's upgrade because I would like to keep the hood because I have lots of pets but also the a/c blows close to the tank and increased evaporation is a concern. But now water temperature might be a concern. have you had issues with the tank heating up too much?

Wouldn’t do Steve’s I’ve heard bad customer support and it causing the hood to melt also if you don’t want temp to rise anymore then it is you won’t want to do Steve’s. But I wanna say the evaporation isn’t too bad just keep a bucket filled with rodi water and probably top it off with 1-2 cups of water at most a day pretty much could do it the same time you feed so it’s not annoying. But if I upgraded I either want to go with a Kessil 180 or 360 and the very minimum ai prime 16. And with the hood being off temps will probably lower to be more favorable for me and I rather have a problem with things getting cold then too hot cause it’s a lot more expensive or annoying to cool things down.

 

[Davisc1293]

Wouldn’t do Steve’s I’ve heard bad customer support and it causing the hood to melt also if you don’t want temp to rise anymore then it is you won’t want to do Steve’s. But I wanna say the evaporation isn’t too bad just keep a bucket filled with rodi water and probably top it off with 1-2 cups of water at most a day pretty much could do it the same time you feed so it’s not annoying. But if I upgraded I either want to go with a Kessil 180 or 360 and the very minimum ai prime 16. And with the hood being off temps will probably lower to be more favorable for me and I rather have a problem with things getting cold then too hot cause it’s a lot more expensive or annoying to cool things down.

I did remove the hood and went with a single ai prime. And got a tunze ato. In rrgards to the light i set the spectrum to 80%uv 100%rb 90%b red/green 4% white 25% even running a 30 day acclimation, i still bleached one of my corals but seems to slowly be coming back over the last couole weeks.

 

[Kyle954]

I had the leds on my 32. Loved them and so did my corals! Highly recommend upgrading if you’re planning on stocking the tank with corals

 

[xtravism]

I did remove the hood and went with a single ai prime. And got a tunze ato. In rrgards to the light i set the spectrum to 80%uv 100%rb 90%b red/green 4% white 25% even running a 30 day acclimation, i still bleached one of my corals but seems to slowly be coming back over the last couole weeks.

How do you like the ai so far glad you did the upgrade?

 

[Davisc1293]

How do you like the ai so far glad you did the upgrade?

At first I wasn't so sure if it was worth the upgrade tbh. But after a few weeks I've slowly come to realize what a difference it actually makes however evaporations has increased exponentially which is to be expected... a 2 gal jug with the tunze ato fixed that.

 

[xtravism]

At first I wasn't so sure if it was worth the upgrade tbh. But after a few weeks I've slowly come to realize what a difference it actually makes however evaporations has increased exponentially which is to be expected... a 2 gal jug with the tunze ato fixed that.

How much you think evaporates each day?