Bio Cube 29 gallon Good or Bad Idea

[Aluvion]

I have been out of reefs for 10 years, and want to get a little salt back into my life. I have seen the Bio Cubes, and they look like a good setup, when you add the skimmer, but I am wondering about the balance issue. Sometimes smaller tanks are harder to keep balanced. Does anyone have any experience with these tanks?

Your thoughts would be approciated

 

[kitsapdan]

The bio-cube can be a great tank. You can find skimmers built for it or modify it to hold a hang on back skimmer. If you keep your load low (small fish and not a lot of them) it is easy to balance. I have a bio with two clowns. I also put one more light in it so I have 108watts instead of the 72watts so I can have more and different corals.

 

[Shane and John]

My son John...age 11...has a 29 gallon bio-cube in his room..this is his tank that he does all of the maintaining of...he has a rbta hosting a gold striped marroon.a nickle sized regal blue tang...He has a blue spot goby with about 25 lbs of live rock...3 inch sandbed with a Korelia nano power head...He has been able to keep a few corals..which include small zoo's,ricordea,and a Kenya tree...There are many options when it comes to modifications....I would Highly reccomend this tank...I would only use RODI water as cleaning can be a bit tricky...Hope this helps ya out...Shane

 

[BCT182]

I noticed on my aquapod that evap was an issue. As the water level chaged, so did the tuning on the skimmer. As long as you could drill and setup a sump below it should be alot easier/

 

[warforged]

I have that biocube 29 gallon. My advise on having one is to mod it some.

Remove the plastic bio-balls..replace them with live rock rubble and other media...the filter pack that comes with them would have to be changed almost every few days cause they get cloggy some and slows flow which causes an issue with the water level overflowing into the other chambers.

I suggest using some foam media ..take the original plastic filter..gut it...cut the ribs out..and just cut a piece of foam to fill it...the flow is much better.

I personally removed the drip tray form bay 2...and put a foam wall 2 layer between the flow intake and bay 1....then a purigen bag...and then live rubble all the way down.

the oceanic bio cube skimmer is really crappy....if you want to do the most efficient route with the cube...

I am next buying a CPR SR3 skimmer its made to sit in bay 2...cause im sick of weekly water changes.....

Nanoreef forums talks about many ways of modifying the bio cube if you want to read up more.