SUCCESS!!!

I figured I would share a bit of success on my current project of customizing my Biocube 29. I purchased the tank a couple weeks ago and had planned on drilling it for a sump, upgrade the fans, adapt a full size skimmer in the back, and build hinges for the lid.

To date, I was able to get the back of the tank drilled. After 3 days of talking to oceanic, I verified that the Biocubes do not have ANY tempered glass in them (to include the bottom pane, although you would have to cut through the bottom plastic for it.

I had the guys over at alamo pets do the drilling for me and we were able to drill a 1" hole at the bottom of chamber 3 (about 4 inches above the bottom of the tank). They also drilled a 3/4" hole at the top of the tank for the return (right behind the existing return in the baffle).

I took tons of pictures of the process, unfortunately my camera corrupted the pictures and I am still in the process of trying to recover them.

In drilling the tank, we did note that the back glass is decently thick (I believe it is 3/8" thick) This means that I don't have to worry about adding any plate glass to the back to strengthen the bulkheads and I will be able to make custom hinge plates that will attach directly to the glass for the top hood without having to rely on the thin plastic that would be almost guaranteed to break after a time.

For the skimmer, I found the CPR SR3 skimmer which fits right into the second chamber perfectly. I had to add some sponge in front of the chamber 1 overflow to minimize noise, but it works great. I also spray painted the back window in the glass flat black to minimize algae growth since I am not going to use bioballs.

in all, I am excited to get this tank up and running. I hope to get the pictures and details of my mods posted as soon as possible. Maybe this will help other Biocube owners with customizing their tanks.

:-)

Jason