Bio Cube or Regular Tank
 

Hey Folks,

I am new to the world of fish and am hoping to get my tank up and started in the next few days. However i have a dilemma:

There is a $200 29 gallon biocube for sale that has fish and live rock already in it plus a few corals. Seems to have lots of algae growing in it, but i think i could clean it out.

or.. Should I start my own system.

Thoughts?

I would go with it if you are satisfied with a little nano cube for awhile. What type of algae are you talking about? We can definetely combat it or you can cure the live rock and buy some new one.

This is what it looks like

http://www.usedottawa.com/ReportSele...osition=1&hb=1

That's not bad. I would go for it. Just a little bit of hair algae but easy to deal with. Try to get it for a little cheaper. You might have to replace the light bulbs.

Now take that and turn it into this. Without the bag of doritos of course.

Attachment 8148

I believe in skimming a reef tank and I don't believe in skimmers built for all-in-one tanks (Tunze 9002 included) so I would never buy another system like that again (I had a Solana). I would always choose the drilled tank/sump even if it meant spending a bit more.

You could get a biocube 29 and drill it.
I had one that was drilled and had a 20 gallon sump. Worked well.

Just be stingy with the feeding (or maybe just careful) and you should be able to turn it around.

you must hate water changes...

I have no problems keeping skimmerless tanks as long as water changes are regular.

I've also had great results with nutrient export through controlled macro algae harvesting.

Hello Everyone thanks for the help!

So i am going with that tank, went to see it yesterday and its covered in algae (yuck). I am moving it thursday. Whats the best way to clean the tank without harming the coral or rocks. Thanks.

If there's Hair algae you'll want to do a water change and suck as much out as you can. Do that regularly, like said ealier, water changes on a skimmerless tank are very critical.

As for the algae on the glass pick up a magfloat(i believe there's one made specially for bio-cube's). Takes it off great.

My tank always looks best when I'm doing my weekly changes and my POS skimmer is doing well. I believe in both... but I personally like to skim.

I suppose with a smaller tank it's that much easier to do larger % changes too.

Would it be best to add new water to the tank or simply add the old water back in after the move and then do a water change once its all settled?

You could easily use all of the water but it might be better to just use 80 - 90% of the old and add the rest new, first water change.

On a side note, down the road if you wanted to do a small sump it would be really easy, I drilled out a bio-cube and built an OF for a fellow member here in Red Deer not that long ago.

I have been thinking about building a sump (hopefully a cheap one) i have an ten gallon tank that i thought might work well. Do you have pictures slash plans for the one you made?

I didnt take any but I will see if the guy I did it for has some to post for you.

That would be great! How big was the sump you made?

that "guy" is me! lol ill send the picks on to greg he can post them, pretty sweet work if you ask me.

Ok so here are a few pic of the cube Clay & I modified.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...R/0480448b.jpg
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...R/1dd1d3df.jpg
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...R/a07b8737.jpg

Going to use this sump

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...k/100_3485.jpg