29g biocube mods

I would do the lights first. Skip on the skimmer. Complete waste of $40. Actually makes them worse IMO, as you have to remove some of the mechanical filter to install the skimmer, which doesnt work in itself anyways.

 

My aquapod had two 32w bulbs, now I have three 40w bulbs. That made a ton of difference. I feel a lot more comfortable about what corals I can keep in there now. If you do weekly water changes, I wouldn't worry about a skimmer.

 

I don't really plan on changing my lights right now. Also, I will probably skip the protein skimmer and spend the money on an auto water change/topoff system (was going to set one up anyway.)

 

I have just started working on one of these.
Things I have done so far:
1) Snagged the protein skimmer and set that up in the first chamber.
2) Removed the bioballs ( should not need those once the live rock is doing its job)

I like your idea for the middle chamber, not sure if they have modified the design but I am having no issues with flow through the back section at this time. To be fair i only fired it up last thursday so its still cycling. Key is to ensure that you have enough water in the chambers I find chamber 3's water level can be hard to read depending on where your tank is. The lid flaps are very fickle sometimes requiring a hard yank and at others fooling you so you almost pull them off I have looked at the lighting mods given my plan to keep to soft coral for now I don't think I should need to upgrade. Just my two cents. As i posted in my hello thread only issue i have had so far is with salinity and I think that I may have figured that one out now thanks to some input from these boards

 

Thanks for the info. I think with the auto water change system I wont need the skimmer though.

 

hey man, i just got a 29g cube on saturday.. so far, i have done a little moding.

1. i added Cheato under the bioballs, and added liverock crumble aswell under the balls.
2. From my local home depot, i purchased some white little cube stuff, which i cut to replace the trickler.. it has increased the flow throughout my tank and reduces the overflow into the chambers..

i plan on upgrading to a bigger air pump.. but thats about it.

I transfered all my stuff from my old 20 bowfront to it. The pH dropped, but i just fixed it with pH buffer. Everything is cycled and doing we'll.. i got some coral before my pH was higher.. it was some xenia pulsating.. doesnt seem to be doing very we'll.. but i added some bacteria and it seems to be doing better..

my tank consists of a 6 striped wrasse, true percula clown, and 2 little damsels.

One thing i will say is that sense the middle chamber is not stuffed with bioballs, you can always add other filtering things and stuff like biobags, ect.

 

Hi, could you give more detail on what you mean about the little white square stuff at Home Depot. Are you talking about eggcrate which is used in drop ceiling lighting? And what is the trickler? Thanks. I'm thinking about gettiong one of these for my daughter.

 

Personally, I picked up a CPR SR3 protein skimmer. It fits in the middle chamber and seems to pull LOTS of crap out of the water. It's a little tricky to set up but I think it works well. I check stats every night, and I haven't seen a need to do a waterchange in 3 weeks. I did one today just because it seems like the time.

 

I would just go ahead and get the new version of the biocube 29 with the Metal Halide lights, it already comes refuge ready. Pretty amazing setup!

 

I have had mine almost 6 months now. I don't use the bio balls and added an air pump until I can afford another powerhead. I added timers for the lights and an emergency backup battery air pump just in case of power outages.
I haven't upgraded any lights, and have had success with my corals and BTA except for a candycane that has died. ( but i think it got stung by the BTA and that is why it died).
I love the set up, but I know I will want to upgrade to a bigger tank because of the restrictions on the size and type of fish I can have.
Good luck however and enjoy the Tank1