BioCube 14 Plumbed into 75G Show tank

Recently I got tired of topping off water on the only reef system in my house that didn’t have an auto top off system set up. That would be the nice little BioCube 14, which has remained mainly stock, with the exception of upgrading flow, and creating a fuge in the 2nd rear chamber. My requirements for the plumbing of the tank, were mainly to share the great water qualities of the 75G, as well as benefit from the 75G’s auto top off, reduceing my weekly workload even further.

To the right is a nice little google sketchup drawing showing the estimated heights of where I wanted the bulkheads to be added. Originally I planned on 1/2″ bulkheads, and during the build out, upgraded them to 3/4″ bulkeads.  As you can see in the picture, the bulkhead in the second chamber is lower than the bulkhead in the third. I set the one in the third higher, incase the flow was too strong, and needed directing, as well as to mitigate any issue of backflow if either of the pumps were shutoff. what also is not pictured is that the bulkhead in the third chamber, is positions way left of center, due to the outlet into the display of the tank, I wanted to keep from  having any restrictions of flow, etc.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I have, as I did this mod on the fly, with about 1/4 of the water still in the tank’s display. To keep glass dust from getting into the back chambers, I cut pads, and wrapped them with filter floss to give a nice tight fit in the back chambers while I dremeled. When working with this glass, it’s imperative that you go very slowly, and keep vibrations and heat down to a minimum. Cutting the holes for the bulkheads to size took about 1 1/2 hours total. Better to be safe than sorry. After the bulkheads were cut and everything fit, I bolted the bulkheads down, inlets on the inside.

Fitting the bulkheads after that was simply a matter of figuring out how flow would be entering and exiting. I decided on 1/4″ water tubing for the water into the BioCube via the third chamber bulkhead, and 3/8″ water tubing for the water return to the sump of my 75G. My decision on this was solely based on the fact that I already had 1/4″ tubing run for the calcium reactor, and it was quite simple to throw a T in place and a ball valve after.

My 75G has a Blueline Aqua 20 as the return pump, which feeds to the tank, the calcium reactor, and now the 14G Biocube. At the current rates, this rotates out the water volume 320 times every 24 hours, as well as always keeping the level correct in the 14G as well, and saving me time running up and down the stairs with a gallon bucket every day(Colorado is a very dry climate). The drain from the Biocube returns back to the Refugium, so corals, water quality and all benefit immeditately from skimmer, calc reactor, etc.

Tags: Auto Top, Backflow, Biocube, BioCube Mods, Bulkhead, Bulkheads, Chambers, Floss, Fuge, Google, Google Sketchup, Holes, Inlets, Plumbing, Pumps, Reef System, show tank, Tight Fit, Vibrations, Water Qualities, Water Tubing, Workload