Looking for Advice...

[divecj5]

As the title says, I'm looking for advice and suggestions on nano's. I currently have a 55 gallon reef with about 5 different zoas/palys, a colony of candy cane, some rics, mushrooms, a nice acan, and a frogspawn from Rev that is about the size of a mini basketball now. I recently became engaged about a month ago and I will be moving within about 6 months. I have had my 55 gallon up and running for about 8 months now and I have loved every minute of it although there are several things that I would/want to change with my setup. I'm really just looking to get a fresh start with things and since now I have some more experience and I know what I'm interested in housing (mainly acans, rics, and zoas) I will setup for that.

As with my 55 setup, I have been doing my research on here and over at NanoReef forum to get some ideas. What I am leaning towards is getting the Oceanic Biocube 29. I am thinking about getting the Tunze 9002 skimmer (which I will need to mod the back middle compartment a bit to fit), replacing the factory pump with the Rio 6HF, and using some locline with a Y split to get some flow to different areas. I am looking to get the Nanotuners 4.36 upgrade for the lighting since it doesn't seem like the stock lighting is adequate.

Since I am still in the initial research phase, I just wanted to get some of your opinions on the Biocube and some possible other options. Other options would be the Cadlights or Finnex tanks.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Adam

 

[colinadam]

With the biocube you don't really get 29 gallons of space. If you contact Oceanic they will tell you that it is a market designation and the size of the tank is more like 22-23 gallons. Still a very nice tank though.

I have a 24g nanocube with the 108W PC nanotuners hood. Great hood and their craftsmanship is top notch.

I really like the cadlights but they are open top tanks, evaporation might be a problem.

If it was me I would get the biocube but only after finding an LFS and seeing it in person, that way you will know if you have enough room in there for your corals.

 

[MarvinsReef]

are you looking to downgrade? is that why you're looking at the BioCube?

 

[divecj5]

Thanks for the response and suggestions. Yeah, I remember seeing somewhere that the BC29 isn't really 29 gallons worth of volume. I have seen the biocube 29 in person and it's a pretty sweet little tank. I know that it will be a big adjustment just from moving from my 55. I know that I won't be able to fit the majority of my corals in the 29 so I will probably sell or trade some of them to help pay for the new tank. I hate to see some of them go but I know that having a smaller tank will be a little efficient for me since I'm not really sure yet where I will be moving to over the coming year or two.

I was looking at the .pdf that nanotuners has for their hood DIY and it didn't look to hard. I know the one you did was for the nanocube but was it pretty easy and simple to do? What sort of mods did you do to your nanocube?

Thanks for the help

Adam

 

[divecj5]

Hey Marvin....we must have posted at the same time. Yeah, I'm just looking to downgrade a bit and redo things the way that I know they should be done now. Without completely tearing down and redoing my 55, I would rather just do it now and move to a smaller tank that will be more feasible for me to handle.

I don't necessarily have to go with the biocube or nanocube products, just thought they were nice since there is so much info. out there about customizing and DIY modifications that can be made. Seem like they have good customer service and support as well.

Adam

 

[colinadam]

When I first got the nanocube I did the ICA chiller mod and the moonlights fix myself. The ICA was a poor design, the angle of it caused kinked tubing that's why they came out with the ICA 2.0 and that looks better.

For months I thought I did the moonlights fix wrong. Did it myself and sure enough it worked when the hood was off but as soon as I got the hood on it wouldn't work. Couldn't figure it out until I got the new hood and realized the transformer was bad, lol.

I had them build the new hood, no way was I going to mess with all of that. I feel that I could do it but between time and craftsmanship they have me beat. Plus their work comes with a 6 month warranty.

Do they sell complete biocubes or just the biocube DIY kit? Maybe when you get the tank you can send the hood to them to mod? Chris over there is a great guy.

 

[divecj5]

It looks like they will do complete kits for the JBJ and the Nanocubes but not for the Biocubes. They look like they are a little on the pricey side but like you said, it would be nice not to have to do the modding myself, although it might fun to learn

It looks like they only make the ICA chiller mod for the Nanocubes as well....so how did the 2.0 work out? Do you have it hooked up now or are you just saying that it looks better?

 

[colinadam]

I don't have the 2.0, honestly never needed to use the 1.0 so I didn't add it to the new hood. Just by the new design I think the 2.0 would work better.

Another option is the new JBJ Nanocube, 28 gallon with MH built into the hood if you can wait a little bit and want MH lights. Should be out within a few weeks and then we will start seeing reviews.
It's on the nanotuners site, I think it sells for $500......

 

[MarvinsReef]

I haven't been looking at the nano's out there for a while.. I'm sure there's tons of stuff you can do with them... I've had my 12g nano almost 5 years now I think.. it's been pretty good being a holding/QT/frag tank... LoLz.. it's been through a lot..

I'm sure more people will chime in here as the day progresses.. keep us posted though..

btw, you can check out the member's tank section for other people's set ups.. maybe that'll help..

 

[divecj5]

I saw that and it looks pretty sweet. Not sure if I'll need MH since I've been really successful keeping all of my corals thus far under T5 but it is definitely an option. I would be curious to see if there will be any heat issues with the lighting. Their units look to be pretty rock solid though.

So many options

 

[divecj5]

Thanks Marvin....I will definitely keep you all posted and will start up a member tank thread over here once I get going. Thanks

 

[jafoca]

I have not read this whole post, but I will tell you one thing about the bio cube 29.

The tunze nano skimmer needs completely constant water level in order to function properly. The chambers in the back of the BC, except for the first chamber, all fluctuate in level. The skimmer will not perform well if used with the standard bc 29 configuration.

Having said that, I have modded mine so that the second chamber does have constant level. It is working awesome.

Short version: don't plan on having the tunze skimmer work well in a bio cube without HEAVY modification.

 

[divecj5]

Thanks for the input coralnutz. What powerheads do you have in yours? Are they stock or maxi-jets,etc?

 

[divecj5]

Hey Jafoca, thanks for letting me know. I was reading a thread on nanoreef about that and there was some explanation about both widening the width of the middle compartment to allow the Tunze to squeeze in there and also how to widen the actual compartment itself. I'm sure I'm jumping the gun here (I should decide what I'm going to get first ) but what all did you mod on yours? What are you running in the three chambers? Thanks for the help and glad there are some people on here with some experience with that type of stuff since I'm sure you all will be a good resource in the future.

Thanks

Adam