Coralife biocube 29 or ... For first saltwater aquarium

[Justin144]

Ok I have been looking in doing a saltwater tank, I have years of experience with freshwater. I have done my research and read a couple books on it but I'm looking for opinions from anyone who has experience. Would the new coralife biocube 29 be the best and simplest way for me to get some experience before trying somthing bigger down the road or is there a better way ? And I wanted to do a reef aquarium if so but since I'm a noob would it be smarter for me to do a FOWLR tank ?

 

[Ericwm]

I started off with a reef, it isn't that bad. Just follow the advice here and research a lot. I personally feel that if you want a reef then go for it, you will enjoy it more so you will put in more effort and have better results.

As for the bio cube, I have no input on this because I have never had one. One thing anyone will tell you is the bigger the tank the more forgiving it is. A lot of people recommend going as big as you can afford. Trust me, you will be upgrading from a 29 in no time. It took me less than a year.

 

[Justin144]

I have done alot of research . And that's why I'm starting this thread . I wouldn't be starting this tank till probably mid winter so Im hoping to learn some more through this forum. I think I'm going to start a small reef then

 

[Justin144]

Will anyone with expierience with the coralife biocube 29 please help in this post ! Sorry to seem pushy just would really love some feedback !!

 

[Dav3]

I have a biocube 14. A 29 should be a good starter tank as it is self contained. You may need to make some modifications to the filtration system(replace bio balls with a media basket).

Light might need to be upgraded if you want sps corals.

But other than that should be good easy to work with starter tank. Others who actually have a 29 may have more input.

 

[Justin144]

Thank you !! And I know this is a stupid question but what is LPS corals and SPS corals , like what is the difference ? And is the Pom Pom Xenia a good coral for a beginer?

 

[Dav3]

Generally there are 3 categories of corals in ascending order of difficulty:
Soft
lps large polyp stony(hard skeleton)
sps small polyp stony(hard skeleton)

Xenia is a soft coral and would be fine as a starter coral.

Go to liveaquaria.com and look at their sps, lps, soft sections for examples of each. They even have a beginner coral section that contains the easier corals in each category.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

I hated my Biocube. I had the coral life one as well. The stock lighting is terrible and the fans are very loud. I upgraded the lights to and LED retrofit kit that fit under the lid but it still wasn't as nice as led's I have now. I upgraded mine to an Innovative Marine Nuvo 38. Go IM.

 

[carey]

I've had my biocube 29g for a couple years and still love it, even though I have 5 other tanks going lol.

It is simple way to get into the hobby and the tank isn't so small that you can't have several fish, if chosen correctly. It is also cheaper to go with a self contained system. The only thing you can't really grow under the stock lights are hard coral, SPS which are the thin branchy ones. The soft corals and flowy stuff will be fine under the lights.

I would recommend upgrading the back filter section from the bio balls to the media basket such as the one from intank. They even have a fuge basket too that you can get if you wanted to add macro algae for nutrient export. I run a bag of chemioure elite, purigen and a filter floss pad and change out the media about every 3-4 months and the pad a couple times a week depending on if its grungy or not. lol

For reference I have the following in my BC29g- an itsy bitsy sailfin blenny, a chalk bass, a pygmy hawkfish, a royal gramma and a black combtooth blenny. As far as coral i have maybe 20 different kinds and they are all doing well.
\
The only thing I wouldnt recommend is an anemone. I have one in there now, a red bubble tip and he is just not doing well, its the lights and I recently started running a 4 bulb t5 fixture over the cube in place of the stock hood just to see if I could get the anemone to get happy. No luck so far....

 

[Zactheninja]

I hate my biocube 14.

Its the old version that doesn't have leds, or whatever the new version does.

It was a good tank to learn the basics though.

 

[carey]

Mine is the old version as well, the top doesnt stay open by itslelf or anything, that is the only thing I dont like about it. otherwise I love it. I took it down once for like a week but missed it so much I started it up again. LOL

Great beginner tank, I don't consider myself a beginner anymore but i still love it and appreciate the all in one ness.

 

[Dav3]

I have 2 rose bubble tips in my 14 with two black ocellaris clownfish. The anemones are doing great! Growing fast. One is getting a little big for the tank.

The only negative I have with the 14 is keeping the glass clear of Coralline algae.

 

[Justin144]

Thanks everyone for answering my question!! I think once I get the money I'm going to get the coralife biocube 29 ( prob around Christmas sadly) but one more question , would a Midas blenny be ok in that size of tank ?

 

[carey]

I think he would be fine. They dont swim around constantly they kinda perch in holes. lol At least mine did.

 

[Ericwm]

I have my midas in a 29, not a bio cube, he is great. I don't know about once he is full sized but I am thinking it should be fine. Live aquaria says 30 gallons and they tend to be pretty conservative. I would just make sure there is plenty of rock work and the other I habitants are compatible.

 

[Justin144]

I have been using liveaquaria , and I totally agree that Most of the time it's liable but there's a couple of things I have seen on there that makes me think twice about them being reliable, like a fire eel in a 50 gallon tank ... But one last question , I know to get rid of the bio balls and put a media basket in place but what should I put in the media basket ? And any opinions on protein skimmers for this size of tank ? ( I know water changes are the best way but I'm looking to make things easy and take good care of everything's )