Adding sump to Bio 14

[justahobby]

I will be acquiring a Bio Cube 14 this weekend and it's in bad shape. How bad? No one would believe that the snails are still alive! WC - who knows how long its been. Could be months? The power was cut off for days, so no water circulation.

Enough w/ the horror stories. I want to add a sump to this thing. I am thinking drill the overflow chamber and the return line will fit in the cut out on the hood. I have no clue what will fit in the stand so this is purely bouncing ideas around. Anyone done similiiar things or ideas?

I can't rem. but I believe it's 2 bulbs in the hood. I'm considering 2 daylights to provide growth (frag tank in the works?) Anyone tried this? If I can keep zoas and SPS in the same tank I would be a happy man.

[dmweise]

Drilling the overflow should be fine. I had a 29 gallon BC. If was pretty sturdy. I think the 14 can handle being drilled.

[ErikH]

Try to get an acrylic sump that fills alot of space with allowance for a CFL for your fuge. Make it super snug and cram as much space as you can in there. PACK it with ROCK, SAND, and MACRO!

good to go ::does the hand motion::

[Roo&Lis]

I attempted the siphon overflow technique on my 29 and it didn't work out so well. I dang near flooded my living room quite a few times. That or it would just stop siphoning randomly. I had to do it over again I would probably it.

[justahobby]

After much anticipation I now have the Biocube under my care. I have the LR (covered in algae) in a bucket with a powerhead and a lid.The goal is to switch the LR from algae driven to bacterial driven by giving it a very low nutrient system to live in (paraphrased off this website: http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?p=109759. I will do 100% WC's once a week for as long as needed. Before placement in the new bucket each week I will dunk the LR in a separate bucket to release as much detritus and phosphate as possible, freeing up the deep pores (another paraphrase). I will do this for as little as a month and as long as a year.......jk!

The current substrate was a very coarse "sand" (more like crushed shells). I believe it was the "Live Sand" bags. I will switch the sand to an almost sugar find grade. It has a biocube skimmer that I will probably tinker with and try to mod w/ bigger air pump, bigger or more air stones. Might even make my own skimmer if I have enough free time over the Christmas break and feeling froggy. I still plan on incorporating a sump which may veto the DIY skimmer.

I am still trying to decide if I am doing a foam background.... inspiration by Mr. Cob.

[Kristy]

...and feeling froggy.

Love that!

BTW, that is pretty much exactly what we are doing in our garage with the LR from our newly aquired 75g (planning to do a FOWLR) to starve the algae of nutrients (and light). Hope it doesn't take a year, though!

[Mr Cob]

Dude...I love nanos...wish my current one had a foam background but I just use it as a macro tank to feed my tangs. Will be adding dwarfes some time soon.

To help further inspire you....did you see the Aquapod I had? It had foam. (just make sure you use an adhesive like aquarium sealant so it does not peel off of the plastic backing after time)

http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49187


Oh, and Biocubes rock because their warranty department rocks! They replace things no questions asked!!! They replaced my moonlights, ballasts and even bulbs over the course of a year.

[justahobby]

..............................

Oh, and Biocubes rock because their warranty department rocks! They replace things no questions asked!!! They replaced my moonlights, ballasts and even bulbs over the course of a year.

Unfortunately, I'm putting your testimony to the test. This is what I sent to oceanic, it will described what I have been through this evening....


Where to begin........ Last Christmas I bought my mom a biocube 14 thinking it would be the perfect all-in-one starter for her. For this Thanksgiving I visit her and inquire about the Biocube. She had neglected it for months saying she had problems with the lights, fans, etc. and had given up on it. Allow me to back track momentarily. The fan issue arose the first month of her owning it. I contacted Oceanic and was told the rattling noise was due to the fan being too close and I should go spend my money on felt pads to fix the problem. I lost quite a bit of faith in Oceanic upon receiving such poor customer service. I don't think I need to delve into the issues of what makes that poor customer service. Skipping forward, I tell her I will take it home (which entails stripping down the tank, rock, water, biocube skimmer, etc.) to fix it back up for her. The first thing I do is remove the hood to readjust the light switch that had become recessed. I take off the plexi shield and continue on to undo the first screw to the reflective shield covering the switches and fans. As I place my manual screw driver on the screw I discover the screw is not anchored in... was it broken when I purchased it?? Upon removal of that shield I find the plastic sheaths (used to anchor screws down) are broken on one fan and also broken on the light switch which is why BOTH were working improperly. Next, I discover the wiring to the light switches is corroded and fell away from its connection when I touch it.
What began as a quick readjustment quickly turned into My whole hood is incapacitated and not worthy of functioning. I am unaware of how long your warranty is, but I can assure you this experience is unwarranted and I will appreciate your quick response to the matter. My fellow reef keeping hobbyist will greatly appreciate the feedback I leave based upon this matter. Thank you for taking the time to read my troubles in full. Have a nice day.

[ErikH]

Take those dang rocks out and scrub 'em first dingle! You should come by Sunday or something.

[justahobby]

Dingle??? LOL. Sunday works for me!

[Mr Cob]

I always just called them and told them the problem... ie) my ballast is not working.... and a week later I have a new ballast at my doorstep. Same with the lights, moonlights and fans.

[justahobby]

I should've thought to ask if you or anyone knew the #. I just logged into their website and clicked on "Contact Us". If it works, great. If not, I've learned that if you don't like the answer you get, hang up and call back because it will be someone new.