biocube chamber?!?! whats your setup?

rjdel1984 · Jan 18, 2017

Im currently in the process of starting my first salt water tank, which will be a reef tank!! Iv just got dry rock to play around with and build the aquascape i enjoy. I have also been doing hours and hours of research because thats the type of person i am, i hate jumping into things without proper knowledge. So to the point because im pressed for time what type of setups are you all running in your 3 chambers? I personally want to make chamber 2 into a fuge, but I also have seen you can turn half of into one with a couple after market pieces. anyhow please tell me what you guys have success with and for how long, pics would be awesome or a link to a site.

saltyphish · Jan 18, 2017

Chamber 2 I use a intank media basket with rox carbon in it. I also run a tunze 9004 in chamber 2. Chamber 3 has my heater and return pump

TikiBird · Jan 19, 2017

I'm a newbie with an algae problem, so take my setup with a grain of salt [emoji6]

In my BC29 I have the chamber on the far right with a heater. Middle chamber I have an InTank brand media rack. Chamber on the far left I have just the stock pump. I'm planning on changing things up a bit soon though, basically copying the great @helen ann's setup! So that will be adding a protein skimmer to the first chamber and changing up the media I keep in chamber 2.

rjdel1984 · Jan 19, 2017

I was wondering if putting a protein skimmer in chamber one, a fuge in chamber 2 and the heater in chamber 3 would be sufficient. Ill of course have a bunch of live rock in the display and maybe some in chamber 2, or do most suggest putting in and getting the 2 piece set from "intank" that allows you to have a media rack and a small fuge in chamber 2? Id prefer just a bigger fuge and not use media but if its a must i understand.

Scubafrog · Jan 19, 2017

I have had a Biocube 29G for a little over two years and I have a heater in chamber 1 (intake chamber), Tunze 9001 protein skimmer and inTank media basket in chamber 2, and stock pump and temp probe in chamber 3.

JUSTINSREEF · Jan 20, 2017

I have had my 29 biocube for 2 1/2 years I went with the guy from YouTube reefthuz worked out for me I had one algae outbreak but that's when it was a new tank. Haven't had algae in 2 years.

Scubafrog · Jan 20, 2017

JUSTINSREEF said:
I have had my 29 biocube for 2 1/2 years I went with the guy from YouTube reefthuz worked out for me I had one algae outbreak but that's when it was a new tank. Haven't had algae in 2 years.

Yeah, I originally went the ReefThuz way but wanted a skimmer. So I pulled out the sponges and add the inTank basket and skimmer a few months after I started the tank. I believe this was a mistake to do so early in the tank life as I have been struggling with hair algae/bryopsis for a long time. First SW tank. Live and Learn.

pdt7361 · Jan 20, 2017

When I had my BC29 up, I did my protein skimmer in chamber 1, the inTank Media basket (from top to bottom, I had filter floss, Purigen, & Chemipure) and inTank fuge in chamber 2, and my return pump and heater inside of chamber 3. For the fuge light, I used the JBJ Nano Glo LED. Here is my old thread if you want to see any of it:
http://reef2reef.com/threads/pauls-29-gallon-biocube-build.238058/

Scurvy · Jan 20, 2017

In my 32BC I have the heater in C-1, InTank rack and skimmer in C-2, return, UV and probes in C-3.

I have an extra InTank Media Rack for a BC29 I'll be selling off. Just haven't had time to post it up. Used about 6 weeks before the 32 version was released. PM me if interested and we can work it out.

rjdel1984 · Jan 20, 2017

what are the display dimensions to your biocube 32???? Thats the tank ill be buying!!

Scurvy · Jan 20, 2017

Display give or take .25" in any of these is about 20" long, 15 1/2" front to back and Height is 17".

Couple things to consider. Stock LED'sare pretty weak. If you want anything but softies and LPS at the top of your rocks you may want to consider upgrading lights. The cooling fan's also a little on the loud side. Might not be best choice for a bedroom.

I do like the tank overall. Just needed to change some things to suit my needs.

rjdel1984 · Jan 20, 2017

where did you get you light upgrades? and what did you get? can you upgrade the fan as well? I almost want to turn my empty 40 breeder into a tank if i need to upgrade all the parts on the cube lol

Scurvy · Jan 20, 2017

I got the Steves LED hood kit which has been great! Mine went into a bedroom so we wanted to keep the stock hood/look. I'm sure you could upgrade the fan but I never looked knowing we would be upgrading the light.

A 40B display and another 40B as the sump was what I wanted but my gal shot that down for the bedroom. It would probably have been cheaper and allowed more flexibility in equipment but in the end the BC worked out well for us.

Ridem32 · Jan 20, 2017

Which skimmer are y'all using?

MEhart · Jul 6, 2018

Eshopps nano skimmer fits and works well but can only go in chamber 2 (water level is low in this chamber but top wouldn’t be able to close in chamber one). I would really like to put the skimmer in chamber 1 so I can use the 2nd chamber for a refugium, but I would have to cut the lid...

Weikel · Jul 6, 2018

I have the best setup and everyone else's is crap (jk there is a million ways to do it so try some stuff out). Chamber 1 heater with temp controller probe in there ( inkbird cheap )and does the job. Second chamber goes into an intank basket they are pricy but awesome and Steve is the man. I run their floss and rox carbon and cheato in the bottom for nitrate reduction. Next to it in the second chamber I run the tunze 9001 skimmer the best for this tank imo, skims good but honestly when it's off I don't notice a difference . I really only keep it on bc i run with my hood on still (nanobox retro install for lights)and helps with o2 levels keeping my ph higher. Third I run the stock pump I feel the flow is perfect for surface agitation and flow through the cheato , I get my flow from a mp10 and korrilla. I have the intank fuge basket but honestly the media basket works just as good. If you wanted to grow a bunch of pods for a mandarin then maybe use the whole second and a fuge. As for nitrates my cheato keeps my levels to low at zero. Oh and after a while I got tired of water changes and started dosing two part with a cheap jeabo works great so far.

Dennis McGrath · Jul 6, 2018

Chamber 1 = heater
Chamber 2 = InTank basket with filter floss, micron pad, Purigen, GAC
Chamber 3 = just the pump

PepperDeath · Aug 1, 2018

i have the media rack with chemipure elite and filter floss on top and next to that i have a bubbler underneath a ball of chaeto with a light and it works amazing.never had a skimmer

tiggs · Aug 1, 2018

Warning - my Biocube 14 chambers are super cluttered..

Chamber 1 - heater, ph probe, orp probe, salinity probe
Chamber 2 - inTank media basket (filter floss / Chemipure Blue / empty), AFS on top
Chamber 3 - temp probe, dosing lines, ATO sensor and line

mjforbes33 · Aug 2, 2018

I'm currently setting up my first tank. A Biocube 32. All of my equipment has been purchased and im setting it up this weekend. I have been taking my time with it and just finished remodeling the room its going in so its been a slow process. I know i want SPS corals at some point and I know I will want to get a larger tank in the future ( i dont have the space for something larger at the moment). Because of this, I am setting mine up without the hood and went with more HOB options.

Lighting: Kessil A160

Skimmer: Reef Octopus 1000 HOB

ATO: Tunze Osmolator Nano

Media Reactor: Avast MR5

Obviously most of this will be hanging off the back rather than directly in the chambers so toward the bottom of the middle chamber i plan on going with biological filtration of some sort and going from there.