CubeMaster is a knockoff of some of the other quality cubes out there. For those of you interested, here is my opinion of this product. First, I received it as a gift and went to work from there. Since I was new to this hobby, I started backwards. It is a 12 gallon Cubemaster tank, complete with lights, pump and filter material. Being a total Newbie, I asked the LFS for some help, and they led me in the totally wrong direction, even stating that I did not need to remove the Carbon from the Plastic bag supplied for shipping, but after all that, I am finnally up and running.
This Cube has four(4) seperate 3x3 areas for your pump, filter media and so on. These are very small and it makes it hard for adding equip that will fit. The lighting system is OK, for fish, but not for Coral. It includes (3) 12" T5 tubes, for a grang whopping 36 watts and they run on one power cord w/two switches. Setting up each lite to turn on/off automatically is impossible. AND most importantly, there is no cooling fan installed to cool the tank. HOT, HOT, HOT. I had to add a small fan and time it to run when the lights are on...PAIN! I also had to bump up the pump to a RIO 600, as the Maxijet would not fit, and was too much for the inside of the tank. I tried to add a small skimmer and was advised to use the FISSION protien skimmer, but again, it was too big and had to put it in the tank and not in the back..Way too many bubbles, so I removed it and opted for more water changes. I have about 12 lbs LR and about 15 lbs of LS. I removed the filter stuff and have added LR to first return sump with Filter Foam insert over the return grid. The second bay I left available for a skimmer I have yet to purchase. The third bay is for my filter (M) and Carbon, both by ELOS(great product) and are changed monthly. The last is for the pump. I leave my lights on for 6 hrs and keep my fan on all the time due to the heat. If I had to do it over, I would look into a tank that has a different lighting system and a different sump set up. It really needs to have two lids(one for the tank and one for the sump area and that can also be easily removed.
MY Critters:
2 very young Clowns
6 crabs
6 snails
2 Nassarius Sanils
1 Orange spotted Gobi
All are doing very well with pH@ 8.2, Nitrites@0, Nitrates 0-5
Any questions/suggestions encouraged
Habilus
