14g BioCube Oceanic

T

Temptress

Total Newbie
Mar 12, 2009
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Minnesota
Ok, so I bought this 14gal biocube "oceanic" whatever it says, I have it up and running.. 12lbs of live rock, cured, 20lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive sand. It's currently cycling, I bought 3 tiny frags of coral for it.. I know I shouldn't have and they will probably die, but I didn't learn that til after, I drip acclimated them so at least that something.. lol

Anyway, my questions are, do I need to get a powerhead? Can you recommend one that would be good in this little box setup?

Also, I don't have a skimmer, but I'm not sure what I'm going to have/if any fish I am thinking coral and inverts.. do I need one?

And lastly, Lighting.. it comes with some lights LED moon lights, 1-24watt 10K and 1-24watt actinic bulb.. do I need to improve? I have 2 timers that I want to set up to simulate natural day cycle.. do I need a 3rd for the moon lights? or should they just be on all the time? they are tiny led lights

VERY NEW to this so ANY help would be greatly appreciated =)
 
Temptress said:
Ok, so I bought this 14gal biocube "oceanic" whatever it says, I have it up and running.. 12lbs of live rock, cured, 20lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive sand. It's currently cycling, I bought 3 tiny frags of coral for it.. I know I shouldn't have and they will probably die, but I didn't learn that til after, I drip acclimated them so at least that something.. lol

Anyway, my questions are, do I need to get a powerhead? Can you recommend one that would be good in this little box setup?

Also, I don't have a skimmer, but I'm not sure what I'm going to have/if any fish I am thinking coral and inverts.. do I need one?

And lastly, Lighting.. it comes with some lights LED moon lights, 1-24watt 10K and 1-24watt actinic bulb.. do I need to improve? I have 2 timers that I want to set up to simulate natural day cycle.. do I need a 3rd for the moon lights? or should they just be on all the time? they are tiny led lights

VERY NEW to this so ANY help would be greatly appreciated =)
Click to expand...
powerhead is optional IMO

biocube makes their own brand that fits perfectly.....

http://www.oceanicsystems.com/products/biocube-protein-skimmer.php

the lights should be fine, but i did freshwater for it so idk, i just used the moon LED lights at night
 
if you plan to keep corals then yes you will need some power heads Corals love good water movements.as far as the skimmer goes, the general concences is no not if you have live rock. Me personly id have a skimmer.
bigger is better theory..
depending on the depth of your tank, you will need to upgrade your lighting for coral.
T5 lighting would be the go for a small tank like yours.
 
Biggest problem with a skimmer is the size tank you have. Most people would tend to not use a skimmer for a tank that small for several reasons, 1. Skimmers for that small of a tank rarely work very well and 2. Skimmers take up space and when talking that small of a tank a skimmer, at least any decent one, is going to take up substantial room for at least the pump. Your better off just keeping up with your water changes than trying to find a decent skimmer for that size tank.

Powerheads.. on a SW tank it is pretty much required. On a FW tank you can do without, but for SW I would look into a Koralia2 for that size tank.

Lighting, well, you can do softies fine with that light and may be able to do a few LPS corals. For the moonlights, it doesn't matter if they are on 24/7, it won't hurt anything.
 
I am really getting into this.. I am actually considering NOT selling my 55gal setup and making it a SW tank.. but I guess I should at least succeed first with this 14g, as for water changes that's not an issue, sat is my WC day and I figured this tank would just be added right on the list =)
 
believe it or not the 55 will be EASIER to take care of than the 14
 
I am so unsure what to do haha I have a 75g that I just bought.. FULL intentions of being a heavily planted freshwater tank, mainly based aruond cherry shrimp, briggs, and a cpl school of tiny fish.. NOW i am really digging this saltwater.. man o man what to do.. So how is it easier to run a bigger one? don't you have to get ALOT more stuff? pumps and filters and all that I mean.. I have a brand new magnum 350 I just bought, along with a magnum 220 that I am in the works of fixing up but other than that I have nothing for a large SW set up.. what do I need? I need a sump thingy right? how big for 75g?
 
Bigger = more stable water parameters, but also = A LOT more $ for equipment.

I wouldn't recommend using a 75G for your first SW/Reef tank. If you did Fish Only then ok, but if you want to go reef from the start it is going to cost you several thousand dollars in equipment to do it right the first time, and it will be much cheaper to do it right the first time believe me. I spent close to $15,000 on equipment and livestock for my 29G tank when I first moved from a FO to a reef tank. I kept wasting my money on wrong fish for my size tank, bad coral selection due to lack of understanding requirements, and cheap equipment thinking I could save a buck. I spent $100 on my first Seaclone skimmer, then spend $140 on a Prizm Pro.. complete waste of $240 on crappy skimmers, ended up spending another $200 on a AquaC Remora and that finally worked out. I did this so many times.. lighting, pumps, powerheads.. some reason I was very thick headed.. and very gullible to my LFS suggestions because I was hoping they knew what they were doing.. took a little while to figure out they didn't. So if your going to do a 75G reef, your going to need as big of a sump as you can fit under the stand, tank has to be drilled or have an overflow box, protein skimmer, heater, media reactor or 2, return pump, RO/DI unit to make water, lighting (T5s and/or MHs), possibly a chiller and all that is just to get the tank up and running and at a point you can add live rock to start the cycle. Easily $2000+ worth of equipment all together and that is just the beginning. Later you can add controllers, Calcium and Kalk reactors, auto top off setups, etc.

I would stick with the 14G you have now and get a good understanding of SW before going bigger. It isn't likely your going to want SPS corals in the 14G anyway, being most beginners don't really care for the look of SPS corals, they kind of grow on you over the years, so keeping pristine water conditions isn't as big of a concern.
 
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