14 Gal BioCube Questions...

[djtonton]

Hello All,

I am new with saltwater and decided to set up a 14 gallon oceanic bio cube. I have taken out half of the bio bals and added Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Bio-Chem Zorb (i think this is the right one, not at home right now so im not sure on the type.) I have a heater and an extra Maxi-Jet. I have my live rock in along with my live sand. I have added 6 snails and one hermit crab (even though i paid for 6 :rolleye1: ) My water has been clear so far.

Now i have a few questions that the fish store employee did not answer for me. :sad2:
1. How long do the regular lights need to be on for then how long do the night time lights need to be on for? Right now I have my regular lights on from 8:00am - 11:00pm. From 11:01pm - 7:59am I have the night time lights on. Is this correct?
2. I had bought a bunch of Kent Marine chemicals 2 starter kits( I can give more detail when i get home on what checmicals I have. ) and Im not sure when to start adding these chemicals. I have added to detox already. But have not added anything else. The employee never even sold me a water testing kit :rolleye1: (I dont even want to talk about my experience with the fish store employee. :hmm4: ) Which i am hoping to pick up some time this weekend. I will have a picture of the chemicals soon.

I have had this tank up and running for over 2 weeks now.

Is there anything else I need to know or should do differently to this 14 gal biocube before I move on? I know a protien skimmer is probably going to be something alot of people recommend but im not to sure on which model is a good model?

Any help / suggestions I can get will be extremly helpful! I know everyone on this forum knows what there talking about :thumbsup: so I can wait to get some feedback! :beer:

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Here is some more pictures of the tank:

 

[tankjunky]

If you can swich the blue and white lights off seperatly I would have the blues on for 1 hour then both on for 10 then only blue for 1 more hour, thats what I do with my tank. If you cant then I would say 7-9 hours, but not to sure about that. And I would get rid of the bubles I dont think they look that good in a reef

 

[djtonton]

Okay with the bio cube you can separately turn on the white and the blue lights.

So are you saying turn on the white and blue lights both at the same time during the day when im not home which is 8am to about 5pm. Than when i get home turn on the blue lights and leave them on over night from 6pm - 8am next morning? And is there a way to get rid of the bubbles? The only way i can do that is to turn of the maxi-jet?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[tankjunky]

You can have the lights on any time of the day to make it better for your viewing. So saying turn the blue on at 9am, then have both on at 10am then turn the white off at 8pm then blue off at 9pm
To get the bubbles out just take that hose off the exit pipe wher it shoots the water out

 

[unbreakable]

did you go through a cycle?

 

[tankjunky]

moon lights are for over night viewing, also the bubbles can just put toxins into your tank from the air and kill everything

 

[Davidd2324]

Ok, so with me having a bio cube 14 gallon this is what I do.
At about 8 am. The blue actinic lights turn on for 30 minutes, then the white lights turn on also. The actinic and day light blulbs both stay on until about 9pm then the daylight blubs turn off and the actincs go off about 10. Hope this helps.

You really dont need to worry about a protein skimmer. Just do the weekly water changes and you will be fine. Make sure you use RO/DI water, it will help your water chemistry be in check. I would also recommend you go out an buy a good test kit. You should list the results on here so we can see. Why do you have the maxi jet in there ? Is there dead spots without it in there. The bubbles also look unattractive.

I like your rock work !

 

[jkrentz2515]

Do any of you guys by chance have the coralife power center? I cannot for the life of me figure out how to turn my actinics on 1 hour before my daylights, without having my actinics turn off when the daylights come on.

 

[tankjunky]

If its the electronic one you need two, if its the analoug one with two differents timers you can use one. But yah I got that and I found out you can only have one thing turned on at a time.

 

[jkrentz2515]

I have the analog one and can't figure it out. I'm pretty sure there is no way to do it. The guy at the LFS told me that his BC was running on the same strip and I should have no problems running my lights how I told him.

 

[tankjunky]

is it the dual analog or is it a single, because i have the dual analog and I can run lights at the same time whenever I want, this is the one I have

timer closest to the swicth is the morning/evening, top is daytime.

 

[Been_There8]

Ok, if you are talking about that little blue light being on when you turn both the white, and the blue lights off, you can unplug it, i never liked it, its the middle wire in the back, the really skinny one.

 

[AlbaTiVo]

To get rid of the bubbles you have to remove that air line you have like tankjunky said. We have our main lights on from noon-10:00pm - moonlights the rest of the time. You just make the times around your schedule and viewing times.

Steven

 

[Wooly]

Same as all above except I turn the Actinic on @ 5am and then the daylight @ 5:30. Reverse starts at 9:30. We are trying to imitate the reef that lies on the equator where there is much more light during the day. Light intensity anyway.

 

[djtonton]

The reason why I have the extra jet is so if the original one dies or clogs all my coral and fish wont die because the extra one will still be running.

Okay so I took the tube off the extra jet and the bubbles have gone away which makes the tank look 100 times better!

Tomorrow Im gonna go out and buy myself 2 timers and set that up as david had mentioned. Have the blue lights on from 8am to 9am - than the blue and white lights on from 9:01am-9pm, than the blue back on from 9pm-10pm

Thanks everyone for all the help. I will also go out tomorrow and buy myself a water test kit and post the results as soon as i get that.

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Updated Pictures

Under Blue Lights

 

[tankjunky]

Your welcome just glad I could actualy help somebody

Keep us posted with any new corals and or fish you put into the tank

 

[HaKs310]

Looks like you got everything covered. Just go ahead and remove the rest of the bio-balls and the small sponge by the return pump and you should be good.

 

[djtonton]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12642727#post12642727 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HaKs310
Looks like you got everything covered. Just go ahead and remove the rest of the bio-balls and the small sponge by the return pump and you should be good.

So I Should Remove the rest of the bio-balls, and the sponge by the return pump? Do i need to replace them with anything?

Iam going to pick up the water test kit after work here in the next couple hours and I will post my results soon!

 

[tankjunky]

A lot of people think they just collect stuff and produce nitrates and whan not but if you clean the sponges enof I dont think you will have to worry about it

 

[djtonton]

Alright Just went out and bought myself a water testing kit, and 2 shrimp, and 5 snails!

Here were my results:
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0
Phosphate - .25
Calcium - 260

Here was the list of chemicals I was sold (Kent Marine):
- Strontium & Molbdenum
- Pro Buffer dKH
- Liquid Calcium
- Iodine
- Essential Elements
- Ammonia Detox

I think my calcium level is way to low in the book it said it needed to be between 400 - 450.

Are my levels good?

Thanks!