14g Bio Build

Prplhz96

New member
Well, after a long two months of my 6 year old wanting a tank and me wanting a saltwater tank for over 10 years we took a little plunge into a new 14 gallon Biocube. Not much done yet, just the basics and got her all filled up minus the bioballs. Next is going to be a larger volume pump, media basket and some softies(once the tank is ready of course). Ill try and add pictures as we progress with the tank. Wish us luck!! The rocks we used were a max of base and live. The setup in the picture is not our current rock formation it has changed numerous times during the last 3 days.haha
 
First is newly setup and the second is the tank at 5 days
 

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The stock lighting isent too bad i guess, all my corals have great color and love to open up so far. This is our beginner tank, maybe in a year or so once we get the hang of all this i think we will be putting a tank in the wall. This hobby was a great choice for the entire family
 
Thanks, much appreciated. First question, do you leave the front feed flap open at all? I did some reading that some people leave it open some for gas exchange. My temps are fine with it closed but i have been leaving it cracked open to get fresh air in there. My evaporation is a lot more with it open, about 4 to 8the ounces a day
 
if you leave it closed, your evap will deff decrease. but most people do leave it open for heat reasons. now if your tanks temp is steady and never jumping past 80* then you should be ok. i would say just keep an eye out on your temp on hot days keep some frozen water bottles in the freezer just incase. since we have smaller tanks our vol. of water heats up at a much faster rate then larger vol tanks. specially with the stock pc light bulbs on the BC. one of the main things on my build was heat reduction. so i added leds, upgraded my old fans, power efficient return pump, and a mp10es so the motor would be outside the tank. Your next upgrade should deff be a ATO. those things are awesome helpers on small systems. Now as far as leaving that lil lid open ive only done that a few times within the last when its gotten really hot but close it at night because i dont want anything jumping or crawling out at night. But on a really hot day your better off just having the lights off. one day with no lights wont kill your corals, but on a plus side would help with algae. hope this helps :)
 
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