New BioCube8, want to get it going right

T

tsr770

New member
Hello all!

I bought my wife a Oceanic BioCube8 for X-Mas this year after her seeing the cube style tanks at a few stores and saying that she would like one.

My origional plan was to set it up with freshwater, add a couple little shelldweller cichlids and let them go about their lives playing in the sand, moving their shells around, and having babies.
But now that she has the tank she is pretty adamant about having it be a nanoreef. So here we go diving into the nano world head first!:D

I keep about 500 gallons of freshwater fish, mostly Central American cichlids, so I am not 100% fish dumb. That and I have helped a couple people get a basic start up on salt water tanks, along with trolling on here for the last year or more.

So here I go on my travels into the salt water world.....

Got the tank set where she wanted it, on an end table in the living room.
Then went out and bought 10 gallons of RO water, a box of Reef Crystals salt, and a hydrometer. Got it all mixed up and put in the tank, fired it up, and whammo we have a salt water tank!:D

Well maybe more of a tank filled with salt water... lol

Went to a local Salt Water fish store, and hung out talking it up for a hour or so. The wife and kids had asked me about using sand that they had brought home from our trip to Virginia Beach last summer, and I asked them at the store... Boil it and it will be fine was the response, also gave me a handfull of sand out of one of their display tanks to help get our "special" sand kicking.

They also told me to pull out the bio balls, pointed me to a small 25 watt heater that they don't sell but a local chain store does, and I bought a pound of live rock rubble to plop into the old bioball compartment. Told me to come back tomorrow after the sand had settled and get some live rock.

So off I go, picked up the little heater, did the bioball removal, drop in the rubble, boil sand, and toss it in and let it run overnight... wow we now have something that kinda looks like a salt water fish tank!!

Went back the next day with my youngest daughter who is 4... She of course wants Nemo and wants Nemo NOW DAD!!! lol
At any rate they offered up a piece of live rock from one of their display tanks, which was way cool... Has a lot of coraline on it, 2 shades of green, pink and purple, just a small rock, like 2.3 lbs.

Brought it home, dropped it in, and wow now were getting somewhere with this little tank.. hahaha

So that is where it stands at the moment.
Probably will find some more live rock for it this coming week and get another pound or so of rubble to finish filling up that chamber.
Also I am eyeing up a maxi jet 900 that they have at a LFS, is that pump pretty much a swap in and go thing for this tank?
The stock pump says 108 GPH, and I am guessing that something in the 180-200 gph range would be better?

They tell me that something like a gallon a week should be sufficient for water changes as after the rock is all in, there may be like 5 gallons of water in the tank... Does that sound about right?
The tank has 32 watts of PC lights on it, which for such a small tank I am guessing will work for things like zoas, mushrooms, leathers?

Well thanks for reading this small novel, and thanks for all the help the site has already been!

If you have any ideas, thoughts, or anything else to help me do this right feel free to let me know!

And now for a couple pics... (Like they're not mandatory!:p )



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Looks like your off to a good start. The MJ 900 @ 230gph might be a lil much unless you are gonna replace the stock nozzle with a Hydor Flo. I would think the MJ 600 @ 160gph would be a better choice. Changing the pump is as easy as it looks. I think most people widen the water inlet between chambers 1 & 2 for a lil better flow. I am a fan of getting rid of the factory filter and putting Chemi-Pure and Purigen in a good flow area but that is just me.
 
I am starting my 14g biocube tomorrow! I have had a 55g FOWLR
for 4 yrs. I cant wait to start my nanoreef!
what is your total of liverock?
In theory you should have 8 to 16 lbs considering that the LR is going to be your filtering system. I would say maybe 10 lbs for your tank would be good. plus if you are going to get different corals you should have rocks with more height so you can place the sun loving specimens closer to the light. If you get another rock you can move the little one foward and place a taller one in the back!
I like the idea of the LR rubble in the filter compartment I might just do that!

Do you have good saltwater test kit! you will need to test for
nitrates,nitrites,ammonia ,pH and {calcium and alkilinity if you are getting corals}
 
Sperry, do you need the The purigen and chemi-pure ? I was hoping to the liverock and weekly water changes would be enough to keep the nitrates down.
 
Purigen is also a great water polisher, I have both and tell people to use both but if you had to pick I'd at least get the purigen.
 
You shouldn't HAVE to have it to keep the nitrates down. The purigen just makes the water noticeably clearer and the chemi-pure also polishes the water and helps maintain PH. Each is under $10 since that is the only man made filter media I use I think it is worth it.
 
I also have a bio-cuve 8 that I will be setting up shortly. I agree with sperry that the MJ900 may be a bit much. I'm going to go with a minijet606. Several people have built a mini-refugium in the center chamber to hold some macro alage too.
 
Great to hear that I am headed in the right direction! I will have to look into a smaller pump I suppose. What does everyone think of the hydor flo? I have seen some threads where people loved them and others where they took them off for one reason or another.
I will look into Purigen and Chemi-Pure to replace the origional filter with, and possibly see if I can talk the wife into letting me scrape on her new tank to make the refugium in there, sounds like a good idea at least.

It will probably be every bit of a month or more before any livestock is added, as I still need more live rock and chances are I wont get another fully cured piece out of their display... lol


I have ammonia and nitrite test kits from the freshwater tanks that both are compatable with salt water. I know I will need a salty PH kit, and will probably pick up a refractometer in the near future. I guess I should get the calcium and aklinity kits too so that I have them.

What is the best way to get the coraline to take off in the tank? I am guessing that it has a lot to do with the calcium level?

This morning I also saw a couple pods on the rock, so they obviously came in with it. I am guessing that they are probably in the sump area with the rubble too since they said they stock their LR tank with them. When I finally do get more LR in the tank, should I buy like 50 and stock the tank with them? The store I was at sells them, says they need a hour notice so that they can catch them though.

I was also wondering about my sand bed, it varies from probably 1" down to as little as 1/2" in places... Should I pull the live rock out and put some more in? Or is that enough?
 
Before we even get to the specifics, you better prepare yourself to spend more $$$ than you have anticipated for saltwater reefing. I'm not kidding you, it is a money pit. I would say you will probably dump at least $500 into that little tank within the year. So be prepared to spend if you really want a saltwater tank.

With that out of the way, first of all, ask a lot of questions on this forum before you spend your money because the LFS will say just about anything to get you to buy something. They do have wonderful tales though...mostly tall ones. I personally prefer a 50w heater. Since you are a FW tank owner already, you know it is always good to oversize. The name of the game for SW is stability. So the first thing you need to realize that everything takes time in SW. The bacteria needs to grow in the rocks and sandbed before anything live can be put into the tank. Read up on the nitrogen cycle and get a good testing kit for nitrites/nitrates. Whatever you do, do not succumb to your kid's begging of putting Nemo into the tank until it is ready, or Nemo will be getting a ride down the porcelin bowl. Then I would get an auto topoff system to keep the water level stable and automate the evaporation topoff chore (unless you enjoy adding water by hand and not being able to go on vacations).

Let the tank stabilize and have beneficial bacteria before you can start loading your tank. There are so many ways to run a saltwater tank, that there is no 1 good way of doing it...although most will claim their method is the best. You need to decide how are you going to export nutrients (fish poop and other nasties) out of the tank. Some will tell you to run a deep sand bed or grow some macroalgae in the back compartments or get a skimmer. They all work, but I keep it simple. I'm just going to keep a low bioload, run filter floss, have rock rubble some chambers in the back, and do regular WATER CHANGES. I don't want to harvest macroalgae every week or run a deep sand bed (which traps nitrates IMO). I just keep a thin sand bed for the look. That's about it. Most importantly is to keep the tank stable via water changes, auto topoff, and heater/chiller.
 
I am on my 2nd try with the HydorFlo. Originally I installed it after I had my corals in place and took it back out because it blasted them as it turned. Recently I took my tank down and redid it, placed the Hydor before the corals so I could arrange them better and now I really like it. I have it on a MaxiJet 1200 in a JBJ 12gal Nano. It reduces the flow quite a bit but still rearranged some of my sand. No sand storm though, just gave it a more natural look. That is why I suggested using it with the MJ 900.
Dont worry about not getting live stock soon. See if you can find a local reef club to get some coral frags from. Take your time and get your rocks all situated, add some corals then put the fish in so they arent dodging rocks if you decide to re-aquascape.
There is a product called Purple Up that is supposed to make coraline grow if you have some on the rocks already. I have started using it but it hasnt had enough time to do much. I think just keeping calcium up would do about the same thing and not cloud up your water like Purple Up does.
You have a store that sells live pods? Very lucky, they are impossible to find here and ordering them on line cost a fortune. They should come in on your rock and multiply but adding some wouldnt hurt anything.
I like 1-2in of sand but it is a personal preference thing. If you might get a goby or something that likes to burrow you would want it deeper. Some people run tanks bare bottom.
 
cost and time are something that I am not really concerned with.. so thats kinda covered... no stock in the tank untill it is good and ready for it if it takes $500 and 6 months then thats what it takes... lol
Right now I am on Dr. F&S filling up a shopping cart with things I will need :)
Which test kits do you guys suggest? There are about 5 different brands on there lol
First off is a new hydrometer.. this deep 6 thing sucks balls, gunna stop in and pick up something different tomorrow... One time I test it and it says 1.028, 5 minutes later it says 1.016... yeah not gunna cut it.

As for top off water, I added 1/3 cup tonight and it broght the level in the sump back to where it was on Saturday when I first started it up, so thats not too bad I dont figure. Gunna look into a DIY top off setup later tonight though.
The wife has a 3 day weekend coming up, so maybe we can finish up the live rock buying. It is her tank, so I am going to make her pick what she likes for it, hopefully I like it too.. lol
 
I like the Red Sea individual test kits. I started out with the Master test kit but always run out of one thing before the others and ended up with the individual kits anyway. Get a refractometer, $45 at F&S. I had a Deep 6 read low when I was still very new. I knew something was wrong but didnt know what. Of course no stores were open to test my water. Lost several corals and kicked off a major algae episode. I havent done the auto top off thing, I get my mom to stop buy when I am gone. Have a fill to here mark in an out of the way spot.
 
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals are my test kit of choice! I managed with a deep6 hydrometer for 4 years but now that i am getting into corals ,a refractometer will probably be my next investment!

Well the biocube is up and running as of 10:00 tonight, I m psyched!

tsr770, I swear i have twin to your first rock plus a 12 pounder ,about 14 inches high by 8 inches wide with several perfect "shelves" for my stuff . Not much color but the shape makes up for it!
 
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