Biocube Back Walls Issue

[bbluejacket]

Hi there, this is my first post here on the threads and I'm rather excited!! Anywho, my husband and I purchased a 29 gal coralife biocube a couple months ago and did the entire cycle and already have the tank established with cleanup crews, shrimps, and we have some seahorses and pipe fish on order! Anyways, whilst installing the mini protein skimmer today I noticed that the wall that separates the second and third chambers in the back has a gap more towards the top of the wall itself. It looks like it had some sort of silicon or something preventing water from going through it but it has ruptured so the water isn't all going to the bottom through the sponge. Any advice on how to fix this?

I was thinking maybe getting a longer square black mesh sponge like the smaller one on the bottom to make sure the water going through the gap still gets fully filtered but I'm not 100 percent sure. Any suggestions would be helpful at this point. :-)

[username in use]

It may not really be an issue worth worrying about in the grand scheme of things as your rock is the real filter, and the sponge is there to just collect particulates. Can you get a photo for us to see how extensive this separation is?

[soulpatch]

There is a small cutout between the second and third chamber by design. You probably think it was siliconed off since they are a bit messy with the silicone back there. It is like an emergency drain I believe in case the bottom were to get clogged you could still supply water tot he pump in chamber 3 as 2 would overflo through that opening.

If you have the water going through a filter floss or something in the second chamber I would not even worry about the sponge on the pump. I took mine off once I put in the intank media rack. The sponges are a spot of concern as they can heighten nitrites and such int he tank if not cleaned or replaced constantly.

[bbluejacket]

Ok sounds good. I thought it was something that was faulty or whatnot lol. Right now in the second chamber it's just the carbon pack that came with the tank and some rubble down on the bottom of the chamber. I asked about chaeto algae at my local store but they told me that for my tank it wouldn't do much. I was thinking though of putting a bag of chemi-pure elite in there though. Thoughts?

[soulpatch]

I threw out the carbon for the tank. I have an intank media rack running filter floss on top, purigen in second rack, and chemipure elite in bottom. I have some chaeto coming tomorrow top add in there for my pods to live in and will be swapping out my tunze 9001 for a aquamaxx hob1 so I have room in second chamber for the algae and pods.

[bbluejacket]

We put some copepods in the tank to breed for food for our pipefish we are getting and are also getting some seahorses too. Do I even need a protein skimmer for those animals?

[soulpatch]

technically no if you do weekly water changes. The water change will remove a lot.

I am planning to have some SPS in mine as my LED lighting upgrade is coming and will need pristine water so I will have a skimmer on mine. When I go on vacation or am dealing with a sick baby I could miss one of my weekly changes and the skimmer will aid in my water quality.

[bbluejacket]

I put a mini skimmer on the tank and its already removing wastes lol. I want every possible thing helping to keep the tank constantly cleaned as I can't manage that much of a water change every week. I've got my temperature at 77.4 consistently do you think that's a good temp for seahorses? We've also got zoas, star polyps, and these stalk looking ones in the tank too. We also have tons of cleanup crew, a pistol shrimp, and a fire shrimp.