What kind of cube

[Skinard]

i am planing on takeing the jump into salt and was thinking of getting some sort of all in one deal. the ones i have kinda looked at so far are the 29g bio cube, i think a 34 red sea, and a 28g jbj. which one do you prefer and why? everywere i go just seems to sell me infomation on the one they carry. i want to make it more of a reef set up with corals and such, with a few critters.

thanks Skin

[Skinard]

bump

[bosshog]

Hopefully someone will reply with more knowledge than me. I have had a JBJ 24 running for about 3 months. Keeping a few softies and a couple shrimp one fish. I've been happy with the tank so far. I also have a 17 gal home made tank. The home made one has a cheap hob and a power head in it, it's been good too. Best thing I can suggest is read all you can. Check out lots of sites like this one, Canreef, Nano-reef, aquariumpros, etc etc. Read lots, all the sites listed have threads with pros and cons on the tanks. Another good thing to do is decide what you want to keep in the tank for corals. SPS needs the most light, softies need less, that will have a bearing on what tank and lighting you choose. Good luck with your research.

Remember, read all you can find.

Welcome to the Dark Side.

Brad

Edited December 5, 2007 by bosshog

[Willfishguy]

I had the opportunity yesterday to check out the red sea and I was very impressed for the most part.

[fishytime]

Keep in mind that the vast majority of people that have these all in one tanks end up modifying them. So much so that there is a whole website devoted to selling modification parts(nano tuners).The cubes are great for convenience and looks but you have to remember that they are very much a "basic" setup.And welcome to the dark side.

[sharuq1]

Personally if I could do it all over again from the beginning I would have just bought a used setup from someone else. Just a nice drilled tank and sump. Then I could add on anything I wanted as well as do up grades on my equipment (say a better skimmer, add in a reactor, or brighter lights, etc.) without having to make holes in things.

I liked my biocube14, but it just doesn't have what I want now that I have "grown up" a bit. With a non-all.in.one system you can add pretty much anything you want later. With the all-in-one's you may end up modding things (and if you want it to all fit in there and look nice this can end up costing a whack of dough), or wishing you could mod them without say wrecking the pretty lid on it. These units also tend to have heat issues, especially the ones with nicer lighting. IMHO not going the all in one route gives much more flex for your system to go as ghetto or as tech as you want.

I have heard people say they like the jbj 24 as well as the bc29 and the red sea (which is pricey). I guess it all depends on what you are planning to put in it, how much space you have to devote to your tank system and what you think you would like down the road when you are more experienced.

I noticed on canreef someone selling a nice 16" cube, so maybe you should check it out.

Edited January 17, 2008 by sharuq1

[Oilpatch]

I have been with a 8 gal biocube for about 6 months with a big chunk of liverock in the middle and a few hermits and snails and it does pretty well but I did make a few changes (there are many many options to do). First I changed the wiring of the fan to turn on with the actinic light as that light will be on longer than the fluorescent (the tank gets really hot from the lights so you may want to consider upgrading the fan as well). I got rid of the carbon/floss filters as they are usless and just use chunks of filter floss that get replaced when required and in the middle chamber under the drip tray I have a bunch of live rock in chunks no bigger than my thumb for surface area. It works pretty well but I would recommend going as big as possible for ease of future alterations. Also an upgrade on the pump should be done as the stock one doesn't give as much flow as you might like. Hope this is helpful. There is a good place to look at different set-ups at nano-reef.com if you want.