Oceanic biocube 14...heating issues
 

Just bought this little 14g oceanic biocube and already I am having heating issues due to the heat coming off the lights. None of my freshwater tanks are warm, just the biocube. We live in a basement suite and it is not a warm one either.

I don't know what to do. I was hoping to have corals in there some day and now what? I can't because I won't be able to turn on the lights enough for them to live, and everything will die of heat? Is this normal for this thing??

Should I just take it back? :neutral: There was a heater in it, but I took it out after I noticed this problem.

~very frusterated :frown: I was so looking forward to starting this reefing thing...:cry:

do a few seaches for mods to the lid, a lot of people add fans to keepss theirs cooler

do not despair .. there are easy fixes for this problem

Tell us about your set up. Have you modifyied the biocube at all or is it the standard modle with the moulded black plastic lid? When you say you have heat issues, what temperatures are you reading with you lights on?

I just set up one earlier this week with a 100W titanium heater. All is fine right now. It holds 79 deg. The fans remain off when the actinics are on, but when the mainlights turn on so do the fans. Does yours do the same?
Chris

Yes, the fans go on when the 10k bulb is on and off with the actinics. There are no mods to anything on the tank. It is same as it was in the box. I have a seio pump running on it for flow, other than that, nada for mechanical devices. It is not by a heater outlet or any other hot appliances. I have 3 other tanks (fresh water) in my room, and they do not have heating issues, and do require heaters to keep that at correct temp. (From as small as a 2.5 gallon to as large as a 100g). The nano is running at 80-86 :eek: when lights are on (I have started turning them off because I am worried it will climb to greater temperature). At night it goes down to 78 or 80.

Do the pumps in these things cause heat? Would anything else cause heat? Are there water issues that can cause heat????

PS: Bought this set-up at Gold's--Hey Albert any suggestions??? I wanted to put corals in there someday...

And by the way: why is my purple coralline algae dying?? I am keeping up with lots of water changes. It mostly is dying where the light hits it and that makes no sense to me. Can you give me a clue?

~~~ugh I feel like my dream is dying :cry: please, need lots and lots of advice here.

I would say the seio would be your largest heat source. Do you think you need it?
Chris

I wouldn't be too concerned about the coraline. You won't get a good seed on coraline for at least two months after your cycling has finished IME.

FYI, the nano at the store hits 86 degrees on some days. I'd be concerned if it climed any further, but I haven't had any problems thusfar.

Lastly, the SEIO is the last thing I'd dump. More flow = less work :D One thing you could try is to just run a room fan against the tank.

Just an update. Switched the actinic and the 10 so fans are running the whole time any lighting is on. It is staying in the 80-86 degree range. Nothing dead yet, so that's a plus. Thanks for the advice!

Glad to hear!

Mine warms up fast too. I just keep the "feeding lid" open and it stays at a steady 80.

I was chatting with a fellow biocube owner who had the same problem. He found that the one fan was reversed so that instead of one fan pushing and one pulling they were both pulling air in.

x2 - only downside is faster water evaporation, about a cup a day for me.

I just recently installed the 3.24 lighting mod which increases the output to 72w with no visible increase in heat (although the lighting mod comes with 2 replacement fans and a different heat shield). My BC14 runs at about 78 degrees at night and 80 degrees in the day. I'm using a Maxi-Jet 900 as the only powerhead in the aquarium. Temperature in the house is around 18 degrees celcius.

I have a biocube 14 as well, I keep the temp at 76 with the heater and the highest during the day that it has gotten with the lights on has been 78, I haven't done any mod's to it yet, I did switch the actinic bulb with the 10k (so the fans come on with the actinic) as I have the actinics coming on about an hour before the daylights bulb and they stay on about an hour after the daylight turns off as well. Maybe try setting the temp a bit lower on the heater? I only have a 50 watt heater in mine as well.

My Oceanic 14 is maintained at 80 with no heater and is a south facing room with alot of light. I have the stock pump as well as a powersweep in there and no problems so far....best of luck with the cube

I have a 28 nano hqi I had heating issues as well. I went to canadian tire and bought a small desktop fan and mounted it on the wall to blow into the back of the tank that is open and now im at a steady 76.5 degrees. I have it plugged into the power bar to come on only when the metal hallides are on. The fan was ten dollars and is very quite. Now im not stressed out lol. If your tank is open in the back like this one it should work great. if not you may want to turn the fans in the canopy around.

Hi Kelly Check out this site www.nano-reef.com if you havnt already

:lol: This thread is from last year guys, thx though, hehe. I don't worry about heat in the BC anymore, nothing in there really. We have AC in the bedroom, so if it is warm I just open the lid a bit. I did look into the nanotuners last yr but with all the expense of the nifty things they have there I was better off just going with a bigger tank, so I did. :D I did the same thing with a fan as spanky there and have a fan on my 48g rigged to turn on when the 10k's go on-- works nicely. I saw some nice little tiny metal fans at wal-mart a bit ago. Think I might pick one up to run over the sump--when I get a sump.