Please give me your opinion on my biocube?

[davidmaguirre]

hello, I have a 29 gallon biocube that has been set up for 7 months. I didn't really do anything to it until today.. It had some live rock and a royal grandma but today I added more live rock, 3 pieces of soft coral and a skunk cleaner shrimp, 3 turbos,.. I also took out my skimmer in the second chamber and put some leds i found at a hardware store, and added some small pieces of liverock and some chaeto. My plans for it in the future are to get different types of coral mainly soft and have almost all the live rock covered in it. lol anyways, do you think i stacked my liverock ok? it's sturdy and it wont fall. please give me suggestions and let me know if i am going down the right path so far? Thank you so much! (I have attached pictures to this thread)

 

[mr_X]

did you add uncured live rock? aren't you concerned that the new rock would cause a spike?
hard to say if the rock will fall over or not. you should know that better than anyone.
does it jiggle when you touch it, or does it feel sturdy?
also, i don't think those LEDs are going to support photosynthetic creatures. are they the half watt ones?

 

[Ewatson249]

I think you will need a lot more rock than that too. I like the look of the curved bay layout but in order to have enough for a 29g I find it very hard to achieve. I went for the classic rock pile in the end! My tank is 29g and I would not go for much less than mine or else you will not have enough to maintain the correct parameters.

 

[davidmaguirre]

Thanx for the input the leds are 1 watts and there equivelent to an 80 watt halide.. the rock has been in my 125 gallon for 4 years so its fine lol I have aproximately 35 lbs. Of live rock?

 

[Ewatson249]

If that's 35lbs you either weighed it when it was wet or that is incredibly dense rock which is bad for the job anyway. I have just under 35lbs in mine and look at the difference! My rock goes all the way to the glass bottom too where as yours looks like it is sitting on the sand. You sure you haven't got something wrong?

 

[carey]

My biocube rock looks the same too though. I think it has to do with the layout. I have maybe 40lbs in my cube and this is what that looks like

 

[Ewatson249]

Ah that's interesting. I'm in the uk so maybe I'm not converting properly. I have 14kgs in mine. It is pretty good stuff tho. I experienced no cycle at all and it is really porous. Maybe I just got lucky! I must admit it would be nice to have more of a sand bed like both of yours.

 

[carey]

The majority of my rock in my cube is now base rock so Iknow hoe porous and light it was. I had about 80lbs jammed in there for awhile when I was getting ready to convert my 55g to a 125g so it was a store house for LR. LOL

 

[mr_X]

Thanx for the input the leds are 1 watts and there equivelent to an 80 watt halide.. the rock has been in my 125 gallon for 4 years so its fine lol I have aproximately 35 lbs. Of live rock?

there is no 80 watt metal halide, but there is a 70 watter, and i would want a lot more light over a 29 gallon tank than what that puts out. at least 2 times the amount.

 

[carey]

I have a 150 mh over my 20g and I find it to be adequate at best. But then again this is my first MH fixture so I might just be so used to T5's LOL

 

[Ewatson249]

I would have thought 150w mh over your 20g would be more than enough for the most high demanding corals and creatures?! This thread is really knocking my knowledge!

 

[carey]

I have mine mounted about a foot above the top water line. While I feel it's adequate I also feel I could use more light. I am hoping for a mini maxi anemone some time in the future and I don;t believe it would be enough light.

Thats just my opinion and experience though. I may be wrong. My corals have perked up quite a bit after adding the mh instead of two PAR38 LED's bulbs but I still feel it could be better.
But then again, who is ever happy 100% about their setup? Theres always something you want to be better. LOL

 

[davidmaguirre]

there is no 80 watt metal halide, but there is a 70 watter, and i would want a lot more light over a 29 gallon tank than what that puts out. at least 2 times the amount.

I'm using that light only for the refugium in the back.. I've got stock lighting on my biocube..

 

[davidmaguirre]

My biocube rock looks the same too though. I think it has to do with the layout. I have maybe 40lbs in my cube and this is what that looks like

I like how ur biocube looks!