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Biocube 14g Gets Another Spin

Hello fellow reefers,

I'm sorta new here having bought a 14G Biocube from another member about a year ago. Not sure but think it was used for him so this tank has provided a lot of enjoyment. I have never owned a fish tank so been a real research project. Life happened prolonging me setting up the tank and starting cycle. That said having the time to read and run through bits in my head have been good for my understanding of the hobby.

I was able to create a really nice place for my tank in the garage, in an area that is setup so my two older girls can have a place to read and/or relax. I got my RODI unit in a working place, got myself producing clear water and did some mixing of salt to create filled tank. I used a small bottle of Tims One and Only which I think was a dud, followed by a bottle of Bio-Spira a couple weeks later. The second bottle did the job and within a day nitrites were falling fast. So far so good! I am now in a place in the cycle where 2ppm ammonia clears in under 24 hours and the nitrate clears around 24.

I fear I've gone completely nuts with gear. I spent quite a bit on a Kessil 160we tuna blue setup with spectral controller and removed the stock hood which was using CFLs and an LED strip. If anyone can point me to a good resource on tuning these lights I would greatly appreciate it. I will probably stick with zoas and LPS for the foreseeable future.

I built a little hang on side refugium to house some Marinepure media, a bit of chaeto and hopefully grow some pods that can give bio diversity and support. Really wish I had started this thread sooner so I could have documented some of that work. I also setup ATO so that I am not having to top off manually every day.

Also there was gear that I did not plan on buying... The return pump started screaming bloody murder after first few weeks :O Cleaning didn't remedy so I replaced it. Heater exploded when I took it out of water while on for about 10-15 seconds and then put back in. Whoops! Replaced with a Neo-Therm. Temp now stays dead on which seems like a huge improvement to the 3-4 degree swings I was seeing with the original heater.

Beyond that all the various additives, test kits and filtration and other exhaustible bits added up to a good chunk of change. This hobby has a bit of a startup cost :D

So now I'm eager to get some coral in. I ordered a few corals on Black Friday which should be here following Friday. I am not sure about when to add critters. Maybe I should add something to eat the algae as it is starting to come in? I installed the Chemipure Blue bag in the InTank media basket tonight assuming that it would help if I do add some live creatures. Would be open to any suggestions on fish that can go in this small size tank and are fun for kids.

Thanks for reading, here is an album of my setup:
https://imgur.com/a/xhzDzz3

I will update with more pics once I get something in the tank :)
 
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Nice setup.... i use to have a 29g biocube and the chemipure did miracles to it [emoji16][emoji16].

I would only wait until it is circled to start putting corals in... did that in the past and even hardy corals just melted away [emoji58].

Good luck, if you want some easy corals I can give you some frags... o have some toadstool and zoas frags.

Welcome to the community and consider becoming a supporting member, people are very generous and helpful here, its totally worth the $

Have fun!

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Thank you for the kind words and offer of coral! I may he confused about when adding coral can happen. I add ammonia directly and see 2ppm drop to zero in probably 4-8 hours now. Nitrites are slower to clear but still clear under 24 hours. Do you think adding the Chemipure bag last night means I am ready? Off to check out your posts [emoji2]


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Welcome! I love that little space you made for your tank and your girls.

You probably want to get a fish or two in there ASAP now that you have your bacteria established, to keep the system healthy and cycled. You need to keep feeding the bacteria with fish/food waste you just spent this time cultivating, or they die.

Also I agree you want to start relatively slowly with the coral, just a couple hardy ones to start. Pretty much everyone has losses when they start their first tank, so if it happens try not to take it too personally.

Once you become a supporting member of BAR you will have access to the amazing generosity of this group, I wouldn’t be surprised if you have more coral frags offered for free than you have space for.

Looking forward to updates!
 
Thank you for the kind words and offer of coral! I may he confused about when adding coral can happen. I add ammonia directly and see 2ppm drop to zero in probably 4-8 hours now. Nitrites are slower to clear but still clear under 24 hours. Do you think adding the Chemipure bag last night means I am ready? Off to check out your posts [emoji2]


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You can see more about it here:

Ammonia does not affect much on corals, more on fish.

The cycle is much more than just ammonia, just have to be patient (which is the hardest part of the hobby lol).

YouTube has a lot of info about it, just have to be careful [emoji16]

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Thank you both! The little ladies will be thrilled to hear we can add a fish [emoji322] will take them to Neptune after school so they can help find Nemo [emoji12] That video is really high production value. Watched it a couple times think I am more clued in than I was prior. I have some of that Marinepure media ordered that he mentions. I believe I need more surface area as my rock is not very porous. I assume that has negative effect on bio filter.


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Thank you both! The little ladies will be thrilled to hear we can add a fish [emoji322] will take them to Neptune after school so they can help find Nemo [emoji12] That video is really high production value. Watched it a couple times think I am more clued in than I was prior. I have some of that Marinepure media ordered that he mentions. I believe I need more surface area as my rock is not very porous. I assume that has negative effect on bio filter.


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Yea... that is bad... but you have some sand in the tank and it helps a little with bacteria. But with biocube, since you are not having "hard corals", a simple setup is best.

I only had a little skimmer, chemipure and had carbon running sometimes.

Also dosing is must, keep the water changes since it's a small setup and you will be good.

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I have done a few changes during cycling, will do one today before add. Luckily very easy since only about 10-11 gallons.

So I would like opinions on flow. I made this vid and hope you can see the flotsam moving around. I can relocate the head.




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I have done a few changes during cycling, will do one today before add. Luckily very easy since only about 10-11 gallons.

So I would like opinions on flow. I made this vid and hope you can see the flotsam moving around. I can relocate the head.




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It might be ok.. it will depend on what you will have... sps corals like stronger flow, but zoas and some lps will do fine with lower.

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Update on fish. Took my kiddos to Neptune after school yesterday. I love that place, everyone is so passionate and helpful!

Well it turns out they did a lot of business last week and they are low on stock. They sold me on the diamond watchman goby as a great 14G first add, but they were out [emoji17] We did pick up 3 hermit crabs and an astra snail as consolation prize! They said they will have the goby next week so I get to geek out again on all the neat stuff.

The cleanup crew has been going full bore from the time I let them out. Already the glass is cleaned of algae and the rock looks bleached in parts. Bought some 1/2 mm pellets jic they eat all the bloom.

90cd10665d24ca0cbce148a0cd69cfb5.jpg



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Oooh those do look nice. Jason Fox Master matches the purple & green color scheme really well. Thank you for the warm welcome and coral tip! Btw I am calling the dragon “the cracken”. My 5yo dropped him at the store so we had to purchase him.


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Welcome! I love that little space you made for your tank and your girls.

You probably want to get a fish or two in there ASAP now that you have your bacteria established, to keep the system healthy and cycled. You need to keep feeding the bacteria with fish/food waste you just spent this time cultivating, or they die.

Also I agree you want to start relatively slowly with the coral, just a couple hardy ones to start. Pretty much everyone has losses when they start their first tank, so if it happens try not to take it too personally.

Once you become a supporting member of BAR you will have access to the amazing generosity of this group, I wouldn’t be surprised if you have more coral frags offered for free than you have space for.

Looking forward to updates!

Fully agree--really generous group of folks--with their time, expertise, and stuff
 
Chaeto arrived. Put it in the hang on fuge I built and most of it just floated out and is in the filter basket. Most strands are really small. Think I got what Algaebarn scrapped off the cutting room floor. I hope what little bits I missed do not cause too much of a nutrient spike. Media also went in, hoping it will give me some more bio filter.



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December was a busy month!

Tank seems to be humming along. Slight bit of algae on my rocks and sand bit besides that believe all is well.

My corals added in early December all seem to be growing. White Mouth Gobstoppers Zoas have gone from 3 to 6-7 heads. The hammer coral seems to have quite a bit more polyps, though size wise it is only maybe 30-40% larger. Spitfire Favia is just creeping, can see two very small new “heads?” Have formed. I need to figure out how to cut these plugs and mount these guys up. Right now they are in a cheap little ceramic rack I purchased at Neptune. Kinda funny but of all 4 corals bought early December the GSP seems to be doing the worst.

New corals have arrived just this last Saturday. Was some 40%+ dales going on right after Christmas and I grabbed a few things.

The citizens are doing well. The pistol shrimp had really moved things about, changing the landscape to his liking numerous times now.

Lessons learned...

Clean your return pump regularly. Water went from pristine to slightly colored. Some algae started forming on the glass which was a first. Water change had a very short lived effect. Put new floss in media basket. Around then I notice flow out of the spinstream nozzle is LOW [emoji848] Pull the pump and WOW that is one smelly encrusted sponge filter. Put it back in and flow is 400-500% more than before.

Chaeto in 14G probably way overdoing it. I mistakingly was using a much too large chemipure blue which was keeping nutrients too low. The chaeto just staved to death over 3 or so weeks. Also the hang on side breeder box I made into refugium looked pretty lame and the Rio pump was really loud. Lastly the dead chaeto gunked up things and required some effort to clean up in main tank.

Here is a short vid showing things:


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New montis, cyphaestrea, chalice and acan are looking good. Sample reef roids came with the shipment and the ‘cans and some other corals seem to love this stuff.

Having some issues with dinos, and maybe diatoms. Nobody seems upset but is ugly. Research shows that maybe having such an oversized chemipure could have been partially to blame for this outbreak. I am running the smaller more appropriate sized 5.5oz, though from what I read I should move to using the nano bags for a better fit. This seems to have an effect and I want to say tank is trending towards happier waters.

One exciting development is a lot of green tint taking hold on rocks and other places. Seems to keep the algae forming, and I am hoping this is early stage corraline algae [emoji2]


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Things are settling well. Green is taking over, even glass is tinting. The new corals are all looking healthy as far as I can tell and I have seen growth in all of them in past ~25 days. Could use ideas on a colorful fish that would work in this size tank. Was all set to get a clownfish but have learned recently they grow a bit too large to keep in a tank this small. Anyhow here is a vid right before lights out.




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