My Bio Cube 14g

awilliams4806

awilliams4806

Member
Alright guys and gals. First of let me intorduce myself my name is Andrew and im from houston, tx. If u need any other info on me like soical number or anything like that just ask. J/P lol.
This is my second go with SW tanks I had a 30g for about 5 years when I was younger for about 5 years. Went to college thought i had tought my parents well enough came home and was very wrong. So I gave all my stuff away lol.
I am living in an apartment now and cn not keep a big tank so I am going with the 14g bio-cube. Everything in the tank is stock, and i have one koralia 1 power head in there right now.
I have a second one but should I add it or is that one enough?
10lbs live sand 15lbs live rock
1.023 salinity
PH 7.8
Ammonia .15
Nitrite 1
Nitrate 40
Nothing live in there yet this is week 3.
My main question is where is best to go from here?
Is there anything that needs to be added?
I have pics so they will be coming thanks for hte help.
 
coral keeper

coral keeper

Active Member
First off, Welcome to the boards Andrew and welcome back to the SW hobby!! Did you do any modifications to the biocube? Like take out the bioballs and replace it with LR and chaeto, take out the filter cartridge from the first chamber and put LR in there? You can scrape off the pain in the back of the tank and put a light behind the biocube for the chaeto. Here is a drawing of my modifications on my 8 gall oceanic biocube.
 
mike22cha

mike22cha

Active Member
Originally Posted by awilliams4806
http:///forum/post/2520229
Alright guys and gals. First of let me intorduce myself my name is Andrew and im from houston, tx. If u need any other info on me like soical number or anything like that just ask. J/P lol.
This is my second go with SW tanks I had a 30g for about 5 years when I was younger for about 5 years. Went to college thought i had tought my parents well enough came home and was very wrong. So I gave all my stuff away lol.
I am living in an apartment now and cn not keep a big tank so I am going with the 14g bio-cube. Everything in the tank is stock, and i have one koralia 1 power head in there right now.
I have a second one but should I add it or is that one enough?
10lbs live sand 15lbs live rock
1.023 salinity
PH 7.8
Ammonia .15
Nitrite 1
Nitrate 40
Nothing live in there yet this is week 3.
My main question is where is best to go from here?
Is there anything that needs to be added?
I have pics so they will be coming thanks for hte help.
Welcome to the boards. The first thing you need to do right now is do some water changes and get your parameters stable.
 
awilliams4806

awilliams4806

Member
Originally Posted by Coral Keeper
http:///forum/post/2520252
First off, Welcome to the boards Andrew and welcome back to the SW hobby!! Did you do any modifications to the biocube? Like take out the bioballs and replace it with LR and chaeto, take out the filter cartridge from the first chamber and put LR in there? You can scrape off the pain in the back of the tank and put a light behind the biocube for the chaeto. Here is a drawing of my modifications on my 8 gall oceanic biocube.

ok so im going to the lfs in about an hour will they know what this chaeto is or how do I know what it is? I have not taken anything out but I will pick up so live rock stuble at the lfs when i am there so I can do this. I will also do a 5 gallon water change tonight is that enough to much or to little?
 
coral keeper

coral keeper

Active Member
Originally Posted by awilliams4806
http:///forum/post/2520308
ok so im going to the lfs in about an hour will they know what this chaeto is or how do I know what it is? I have not taken anything out but I will pick up so live rock stuble at the lfs when i am there so I can do this. I will also do a 5 gallon water change tonight is that enough to much or to little?
You can buy chaeto off this site in the live selling section.
 
awilliams4806

awilliams4806

Member
ok so i got the live rock in the back of the tank now but the lfs didnt have a lot of chaeto left so I had to wait on that. so tonight i am doing the water change and then hopefully everything will look good on the levels.
Where the levels I had this morning about right for 3 weeks?
I also just discovered my Actinic light is out. Is it possible that it has burned out in only 3 weeks? Any tips on this?
 
awilliams4806

awilliams4806

Member
ok did a water change about 2 hours ago and my new levels just taken are as follows:
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrites .25
Nitrates 20
Things look to be going in the right direction.
Should I go ahead and add some hermits? Im not adding any corals or fish untill the end of april since I will be moving soon so where should I go from here?
 
cowfishrule

cowfishrule

Active Member
Originally Posted by subielover
http:///forum/post/2520829
As far as your light, I would call oceanic and they should replace the light without much issue.

Nick is the warranty guy
1-800-255-4527 Ext. 1234
you'll just need to get him a copy of your recpt.
(just did this with one of my ballasts.)
 
coral keeper

coral keeper

Active Member
Originally Posted by COWFISHRULE
http:///forum/post/2521661
Nick is the warranty guy
1-800-255-4527 Ext. 1234
you'll just need to get him a copy of your recpt.
(just did this with one of my ballasts.)
Can they also replace moon lights? 1 of my moon lights is kinda dead.
 
halostalker

halostalker

Member
NICE umm ur on the right track keep doin a water change every week about 20 percent its the best thing u can do for ur tank=P
get ur salinity to 1.026 and PH to 8.3
yea take it slow b/c u will be rewarded at the end=P
yea go ahead and add a hermit or a snail do one a week=P if u want get the nicer ones like a scarlet or a electric blue hermit=P
go ahead and get ur self a hermit and a snail=P
if u need more info i just started a nano too and go check out my diary=P
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/305358/halos-28jbj-reef-invert-nano-diary
 
awilliams4806

awilliams4806

Member
ok so i have a question i hope someone can help. Im thinking of doing the upgrade to the lighting through nano tuners. The PC upgrade is only 80 and the HQI upgrade is 350 is that extra 270 worth it? Oceanic says it will be 3 weeks before they get the ballast and then they will ship it to me so I could send my canopy since i am already without lights and there are no fish in the tank i would be fine. I just need a little help if possible.
 
halostalker

halostalker

Member
well depends on what u want, HQI is prob the best thing u can do ur corals would love it and ur tank would look alot better but it comes with problems like u might have to buy a chiller if ur room temp get hight then X b/c then ur tank would get over 80.
but i would deff go for the hqi b/c u won't need to upgrade for the future and u don't have to worry that ur corals not geting enough light, plus the wave affect from the lights are sick
 
awilliams4806

awilliams4806

Member
ok well I guess if im going to upgrade I will upgrade all the way. I just did my weekly water change of 5 Gallons. My levels are getting better but I still can not get the Nitrates to 0. PH is 8.1, ammonia and nitrites are at 0 but my nitrates stayed at 20.
Any advice on what to do? I added 5 hermits last week on sunday. Im starting to see some goldish brown on the glass so I am thinking about getting a snail, which kind should I go with? I appreciate all the help so far. Everyone have a great night and a happy easter.
 
halostalker

halostalker

Member
nice i guess u got high nitrates b/c of ur LR, like i got really nice already cured rock so i have no Nitrates in my tank. i would keep doing water changes best thing u can do and 5min before u remove the water stir up everything in the tank with ur hand like try to make all the dirt into suspension so some can go in ur filter where idk wat u have but i only use filter floss and then u should do ur water change.
Also stir up the top layer of ur sand just to keep it clean.
if u want to go OD do wat i do, i remove most of my small LR and i make sure everything under it and around it goes up and into the filter and then i do a water change and put everything back.
yea the brown is normal its called diatom algae and u will love it it will cover ur glass in 2 dayz and in 4 u won't eb able to see into the tank hehe this is normal for the first couple of weekz then it will turn green and then u will have more purple.
yea go ahead and get urself a couple of snails try to get some turbo snails b/c they are the best.
keep up the good work and drop by my diary and see how my tank is doin. u will see exactly what steps ur tank will go threw.
 
chromiumlux

chromiumlux

Member
Hello
I'm new to this board and looking for others with 14g biocube.
As far as lighting is concerned, did you check your ballast? My daughter had the same problem and we switched the ballast to check.
Neither here nor there, I have a 14g biocube. I've done a few mods which seem to be the way to get these small cubes reef ready.
1. I upgraded to Nanotuners 3.24 lighting mod with variable fan control. Makes a big difference, but it depends on what you want to keep as to what you upgrade to.
2. I removed all shelf trays from rear compartments for better flow.
3. Added the biocube skimmer to chamber 1--overflow
4. scraped paint from back of chamber 2--center chamber for fuge light. I will only be keeping chaeto in this chamber as I have enough LR in DT. Plan to go with the 5.1 zled fuge light from NT--A bit pricey, but it will fit nicely with velcro and does not add heat to the tank.
5. Upgraded return pump in chamber 3 to a MJ900--just fits at a slight angle and increases water flow.
6. I also removed all bioballs ( they make good cat toys ) and the little blue nitrate factory sponge before I cycled this tank.
7. In the display tank I added 3 nano koralia pumps for improved flow throughout the tank and rockwork--these little pumps are awesome for creating good wave action.
8. I use a refractometer for SG, Pinpoint thermometer, and Pinpoint Ph probe.
9. 3 1/2 inches live sand and about 18 lbs Fiji,Tonga,Kaelini LR.
All my lighting and fans are on timers to emulate sunrise/sunset/dark period.
I dont have any photos yet, and I'm not sure how to upload.
Lets kick it!
 
awilliams4806

awilliams4806

Member
Well I just ordered new lights. I went ahead and got the 150W MH sunpod.I should get it this week by friday and then I'm going to add the chaeto to the second chamber.I know this will add to the heat and evap. So will adding that 2nd korila 1 powerhead help with that? Should I be able to keep just about anything in there now? I'm wanting a clam and a BTA in the future. Any comments or sugestions would be awesome.
 
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