New Biocube 14gal

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niteowl03

My wife bought me a 14gal Biocube for my birthday today, my first saltwater tank and when I got it home I was excited to find it already had a Maxijet 900 installed, came with a heater, and a Koralia Nano!! I am looking to get some live rock and sand tomorrow(hopefully from a member) and begin to cycle the tank. I have spent the last 2 days researching this tank and just have a couple of opinion questions if anyone is interested!! I am committed to doing this the right way(slowly) so I am in no real hurry.

1. The tank has 6 lights in the lid, 2 LEDs and 4 (CF?) bulbs, 2 white and 2 blue, each switch controls 1 blue and 1 white, I am unsure if this is correct or not, I read somewhere it is better to have the blues on about and hour before and an hour after the whites?
2. Is the 4 CF lights correct or has this hood been upgraded? I cant find a straight answer online.
3. Any thoughts on using the Catalina Natural Seawater at least to get the tank started cycling
4. There is nothing in the middle section of the back of the tank... is there anything needed outside of some rubble rock?
5. The wife wants a clownfish and a goby or 2 and I will probably put some leathers, zoas, and SFS in there. Anyone see a problem with this?
6. With this bioload can anyone recommend a CUC? I am looking at 1 snail per gallon and some shrimp but being new in this world I am unsure which ones.

The way I'm going about setting up my tank is in this order:
1) Add sand, rock, water, and salt and let it cycle
2) Add CUC for 5 days
3) Add corals
4) Introduce fish to aquarium.
Does the above sound like a good plan or should I change somethings around?
 
Congratulations and welcome to the forum! I don't know much about nanos so I'll let someone with some expertise in that area answer your nano specific and stocking questions.

If you get established rock, sand, and water, it will help speed up the cycle process and the order you have listed for setting things up looks right to me. If you don't already have them, some test kits would be good along with a refractometer for monitoring your salinity.
 
Got the tank setup tonight, with some live rock from AKDFW, sand and water from True Percule... waiting for the sand to settle so it can be more clear. Now just get to wait on the tank to cycle.
 
I would add fish before I add corals, fish can handle a newer system and having fish will allow the bacteria to grow on the rocks. Corals, in my opinion, should be the last thing added.

To answer some of your questions:
1) I have a 29G with two PC (power compact bulbs) so I woul think this is either a better version of the 14g or an upgrade. If it were me, I would move the bulbs around to get the 2 blue on the same swtich, so you can do what you're discussing above (actinics on an hour before the normal lights).
2) Not sure, see above for discussion.
3) again never used it
4) I have a media basket in the middle section for holding media bags, it's really up to you what you want to put there (read the nano forums for all sorts of ideas, including rock rubble; although I don't love rock rubble in a place that can accumulate detritus).
5) I don't see a problem with the livestock or the corals, although SFS?

As an aside, looking at the picture, I would move the rock to get more room near the glass. If it's so close, you won't be able to clean the glass on the sides.
 
I have rubble rock on my 29g bio and I'm going to do a 8g bio and I have a 10 gal with HOB filtration. I also have a protien skimmer on my 29 and I took off lighting and put a 20" sunpod on it and I run Purigen bags in first chamber (from front the far right one) in the back and it makes a world of a difference.
 
Just dont rush it!
Patience is a must, before you go out spending the money!
Get your parameters perfect then venture out to livestock!
Have fun!
 
@niteowl03 wrote:
1. The tank has 6 lights in the lid said:
I'm a little late on this, but I can answer the above questions (I just bought the same tank):
1 and 2) The tank comes stock with 1 white bulb, 1 blue bulb, and the moonlight LED's. The LED's are always on (assuming the cord is plugged in). The other two bulbs are each controlled by their own switch. If you have 4 CF bulbs, then your hood must have been upgraded at some point.

4) The middle section is where the bio balls are located. Since they've already been removed, you don't have to worry about doing that. [smilie=smile.gif] I'd recommend the media basket at mediabaskets.com. It's made just for this, and give you a place to put chemical filter media and macro algea. There's a lot of good stuff at that site for all-in-one tanks like these.
Click to expand...
 
I had one with stock lighting and was able to grow zoas and tons of LPS. The only modifications I did was a light on the back for macro algae, rubble rock instead of bioballs, and purigen.
I was really impressed with the tank, but wanted more space so switched to the next one up after 10 months.
 
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=180788..........here is a awesome resource guide for Biocube owners. It will answer alot of questions. Seems like I'm only about 2 weeks ahead of you on your build. I just set up my biocube.
 
Nanoreefs has some good stuff on it, I have a thousand or so posts over there. Main thing as was mentioned above "Purigen"!! There is no reason not to add this stuff it is awesome. Nano tanks are difficult to keep stable, some add sumps to nano's. But if you will get a ten dollar bag of this stuff and either recharge or replace it when it turns brown you will enjoy this experience alot more. Definately can restack the rocks, I use acrylic rods and epoxy/superglue gel. You can get creative with it as you aren't dealing with the kind of weight you would in a larger tank, and the acrylic rod is almost invisable under water. One great option if you want SPS is to replace that stock lighting with T5 or LED, I prefer nano T5s myself. Main thing is too enjoy it and try to keep it as stable as possible, and change water regularly. Good luck
 
Just thought I'd post a few of the rock stacks I was referring to
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The first two are done by drilling holes in the rock and pushing the acrlic rod through it, i think there were 2 or 3 2ft pieces of 3/8"(you can buy it on ebay) the last one is a pico I had before we moved and all the live rock was glued together.
 
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