I tried the Y valve loc line and I felt like it made the overall flow to weak splitting it. So I put it back to how it was. Hopefully my powerhead will be enough to handle it.
Ill need to hunt down that sponge that was in between chamber 2 and 3.
How high do yall fill your biocubes with water? Seems like everyone fills it past the full line on the side but wondering how high everyone actually goes.
1. Keep the loc-line, at least until after you get the tank up and running (although it's easily connected/disconnected so, I guess what I mean is don't sell it/return it yet).
2. Ignore that sponge, go to petco and just buy the most porous sponge they have. I got some topfin/garbage sponge and cut it to fit. You just don't want to put filter floss in there, you want something really "breathable" so it only collects the chaeto strands (which are easy to catch as they're long and stringy).
3. Ignore the side fill lines. Those are made for the stock biocube. I know you want to run the media rack, but I don't recall if you have pulled the false floors (in chambers 1 and 2). If you have pulled them, and are not running bio balls in the back, the the fill line is useless. Assuming you have/are planning to have the inTank media racks, it's tough to say where the "Fill line" should be (and it's a bit of trial and error, because unless the pumps are running you cannot tell how far the front waterlevel really is).
From your prior post, looks like you have it at a perfect height, but I'd have to see the back chamber to be certain. The other issue is that my Oceanic biocube might be different than yours (which I assume to be a Coralife). I filled up my front until there was about 1-1.5 inches left under the front frame. Then I turned it on, which lifted the water level to the bottom of the front frame. I added more water to the front (note: not the back) tank until is was just below the "inside" lip of the front frame. This will highly depend on flow rate, but as we run essentially the same equipment, you should be close. The main thing to look for is the back chamber, you don't want to overfill that (I allow the back to be filled until its just at or just above the top hole going from chambers 2-3). I do this because I use it as a measurement for evaporation. If it goes below the gap, I add water. Simple.
Just realize, if you add water to the front, it takes a bit of time for it to get to the back. So if you add the equivalent of 1" of water to the front, it will fill the back 1" about 20 seconds later, which may make you totally miss your desired water level. I added things slowly until I hit the chamber 2/3 gap and stopped.
When doing water changes. First, I make sure my waterlevel is where I want it, if it's high, I remove water (it's rarely high). If its low, I add RODI water. Then I fill a 5 gallon bucket with mixed saltwater, take an identical empty 5 gallon. I then stop the pumps and let the waterlevel recede. I then take my mag float cleaner and position it so the top is just at the water level. I drain until the empty bucket is very close (but no more) to the level of the first 5 gallon. I then fill the tank with the new saltwater, and fill it to the top of the mag float and turn on the pumps. Nine times out of 10, I'll have extra water (maybe 1/4 gallon). And I'll add that accordingly.
