[Fishhead Junkie]

hey scott, i have a 29 gallon cube, been up and running for almost a year. here are some things i have done to mine.

1) added to korallia jets...1 is near the top and the other i have buried near the bottom behind the live rock to keep water circulating inside all the caves.

2) i went in with some pliers into the intake chamber, took out a few plastic slats that seperate the upper and lower chamber and slid my stealth heater down in there so now its out of site and its seems to have really regulated my water temp to about a standard 81degrees. i ran my digital thermometer probe all the way over to the return chamber to get a reading of what temp the water is as it goes back into the tank.

3) i bought the oceanic protein skimmer($45), i also stuck that down into the intake chamber next to the carbon cartridge, fits perfectly so its out of site as well. not a big fan of the wooden airstone in it...doesnt last very long but i do get some good foam up in the collection chamber.

4) added some brown gutter guarding over the back chamber to prevent any jumping fish from committing suicide into the skimmer area.

you mentioned you were going thru filter cartridges really quick...how quick is quick? i know it says to change them every 30 days...i change mine 1 time a week when i do my 5-8 gallon water change. what really helps make them last longer is if you either unplug the filter pump during feeding to prevent excess food from being sucked up or get yourself one of those toggle switches like a kill switch for a car alarm and use that to turn the pump on and off so you arent reaching into your stand or under it to unplug it all the time. thats what i did. i just flick it off for maybe 10mins while i feed my fish or add phytos and then flip it back on.

sorry this email is so long but now that i have made all my tweeks, everything seems to have calmed down with less maintenance.

you mentioned lighting..i usually run the actinic lights from like 7-8am, then the brights come on from 8am-8pm, and then actinic again from 8pm-9pm. could probably reduce the brights to help stop the algae growth but i just hate messing with the timer. i am still waiting for central aquatics to send me my new replacement canopy seeing as mine isnt working properly.

hope some of this helps.

steve