Help with biocube 32

[Trillaman954]

just acquired this bio cube 32 for a steal and need help with what I should do. It came with sand and and dead water. Still had a dead leather coral in there I guess and some live hermit crabs and snails. The sump had those tho he in there. How should I clean this? I’m transferring my 20 gallon into this.

 

[BuddhaReef]

If you have the time, I'd fully clean it, and replace all media.

To clean it, I'd fill it up with water and vinegar and run it for a day. Then scrub spotless. If it's really gunked up, you can use use muriatic acid instead of vinegar, but be cautious. After scrubbing, fill it back up with fresh water to rinse it, then drain, and setup for the transfer.

As for the media tray, don't worry about media until after the transfer. You'll want to put floss there for a few days to catch all the particulates from moving everything over. Then you can put in things like carbon or gfo later on, as needed.

 

[Trillaman954]

If you have the time, I'd fully clean it, and replace all media.

To clean it, I'd fill it up with water and vinegar and run it for a day. Then scrub spotless. If it's really gunked up, you can use use muriatic acid instead of vinegar, but be cautious. After scrubbing, fill it back up with fresh water to rinse it, then drain, and setup for the transfer.

As for the media tray, don't worry about media until after the transfer. You'll want to put floss there for a few days to catch all the particulates from moving everything over. Then you can put in things like carbon or gfo later on, as needed.

What about all this?

 

[BuddhaReef]

Looks like carbon/chemipure, phosgard, and ceramic bio media. Personally, I would use nothing from that tank, especially if you have you own established tank with live rock. Just replace that stuff later, if and when you need it.

 

[Trillaman954]

Looks like carbon/chemipure, phosgard, and ceramic bio media. Personally, I would use nothing from that tank, especially if you have you own established tank with live rock. Just replace that stuff later, if and when you need it.

I’m guessing chempure is the orange egg looking things?

 

[Nano_Man]

Following along

 

[kevgib67]

Clean as described above. If that leather is decomposing you will want to remove the inverts before they are nuked. I based my filtration on the YouTube video Coralife Biocube Basics, Simple filter mods. Mine is over two years and is working well. I’m exhausted thinking of the cleanup ahead, good luck.

 

[Trillaman954]

 

[Trillaman954]

added 6 gallons of vinegar and tap water to the rim. I threw in there all the accessories and mesh media bags. I saved some of the dead coral peices and Mexican turbo snail shells with corraline on them to hopefully clean off parasites and toxins and add the tank when it’s clean. I found a bristleworm too and saved it for cuc!

 

[Trillaman954]

 

[Trillaman954]

This is what I’m transferring

Following along

 

[Trillaman954]

 

[Trillaman954]

 

[Nano_Man]

Looks better now

 

[Trillaman954]

Looks better now

How long is it supposed to stay in the vinegar water?

 

[Nano_Man]

How long is it supposed to stay in the vinegar water?

I would run it 24 hrs just to make sure . Then drain and rinse and if you see any bits stuck take them off . Looking good so far with the cleaning process

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I would get a Piece of Plywood, cut it out bigger than the Top, following the same lines. Paint it with several coats of Gloss Oil Based Paint. Screw it to the existing top. This will give you a ledge to set stuff down on and protect the Cabinet from spills and drips.

 

[kevgib67]

I would get a Piece of Plywood, cut it out bigger than the Top, following the same lines. Paint it with several coats of Gloss Oil Based Paint. Screw it to the existing top. This will give you a ledge to set stuff down on and protect the Cabinet from spills and drips.

Where were you when I set mine up? I wish I would have done that!

 

[Trillaman954]

It came with 2 Jebao slw 10 and 1 slw20 and a heater which I have in freshwater now.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Soak the Pumps in Citric Acid. Put just enough water in the bucket to cover the pump, then add the Citric Acid, which is in the Canning Section at most ACE Hardware Stores. Also you can get Roots Circle in nice Bulk Jars from Amazon.