Tropical Fish Tank Lover

Excellent tank
I have been keeping fish on and off for several years now and I have to say I love this tank. I knew it was 9 gallons but for some reason I was surprised by the size of it when I took it out. The filtration system is really great and I am happy the instructions talk about SLOWLY putting fish into the tank. When I first kept fish I wasnt aware of the nitrate rise when you first introduce them to the tank..so its nice to see they bring this to light. Overall I really enjoy this tank. I do not have the stand for it, mine is just on my table. I have small-ish fish in mine, tetras and danios, so I can fit a good shoal of them with my plants.

The drawbacks are that like others have said, the pump it comes with is noisy, but that is an easy fix. And if you set it up properly, there is a wait time to get all the fish you want..which is always the funnest part! But its less of a drawback because it is the proper way to stock a tank anyway. The filtration change packets are expensive but convienient. But a remedy to the expense is just buying them bulk on ebay.

I definitly reccomend this tank to others. My sister in law has the BiOrbe and she loves that as well.

Pretty, but not worth the trouble
I bought a BiUbe in April and since then I had 4 sea anemones, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 fire shrimp, 2 star fish, 2 damsel fish, and many corals die! For starters, the light unit that comes with this tank is not strong enough for the animals. I bought both the IntelliLight and have the original light and neither work well enough to keep the animals alive. Next, it doesn't come with the other helpful accessories such as a powerhead. The cleaning for the unit is a bit of a hassle because you can't arrange the rocks anywhere near the center because then you have to move them to change the filter. I'm going to sell my unit and look towards a NanoCube. Yes, its pretty, but that's about it.

Makes a nice Nano Reef tank!!
I decided to turn my Biube into a nano reef tank. First, I pretty much gutted everything out including the filter, air pump, and and the tube the bubbles ride in. In order for this to work without the filtration unit, lots of live sand and live rock need to be added. I added 20 lbs of live sand, and 18 pounds of live rock to the biube. I then stuck a powerhead and a small heater behind the live rock in the back ( my tank sits in a corner). Last I purcahsed a Coralife Nano lighting unit with daylight & antinic bulbs. I cut and modified the top a little to get more light in the tank with the new lightning unit. I did not add a protein skimmer, so a 20% water change should be done every two weeks. I Got a good clean-up crew, and it was good to go. I love the way the live rock, and fish look in this tank. I like the biube alot and may purchase another.

Good Starter Tank
I am new to this whole fish thing and struggled my first three weeks with high ammonia levels. No fish died but I felt at first I had to really watch it... almost to the point of obsession. The people at the fish store told me I could put 5 or more fish in the 9 gallon tank... that was my first mistake. I only put three large oranda's in and I still think this tank is over crowded. Also, it is hard to find the accessories to the biUbe tank. The stand is too unstable... I ended up putting it on a table. BUT, I feel the filtration system and the sleek, tall design are lovely.
My advice if you want this tank, is to start very slow and take several days to allow the tank to cultivate the beneficial environment. Wait to put in the fish in and DON'T OVER CROWD THIS TANK...

Back to the drawing board
I first read about this thing in the NY Times and the article was generally glowing. Of course they only interviewed the owner of the company for the story. The thing that sold me in the article was that this was a super sleek design. The picture on the cover of the box certainly makes one think this as well. With just a little more effort this could have been an artful design - but the company skimped and it's really just a plain aquarium with some accessories in the box. First as pictured here the fish would die within a few hours. You need a (not included) heater in order to keep the fish in this picture. The heater is a big ugly unit that attaches via suction cups to the back of the aquarium. The round shape only makes things worse - it tends to magnify the heater when looking at the thing from the front. They skimped - a better design would have been a built-in sleak heater along the bottom of the unit. With the addition of the heater there are now 3 power cables running behind the aquarium. These seem to be artfully Photoshoped out in the picture. 3 power cables does not equal elegant design. In an all in one unit like this why not have a single power cable into the head unit - that would have been sleak. The pump on this thing is loud, as we found out there are much quiter pumps than the one that ships in the box. Loud pump does not equal elegant design. Along with the three power cables dangling off the back, an air cable also needs to dangle out there. Again you don't see this in the picture - a much better design would have been to build the airpump and air cable into the top peice of this unit.

I ended up returning it. I next went to the most reputable aquarium store in the area and had them build up an aquarium with the same specs as this one. It ended up being quiter, cheaper and in the end sleaker. I think that it is possible to make a more artfully designed aquarium, but the biUbe doesn't come close.

Oh and the NYTimes gets 1 star for their article as well.