14g BioCube Oceanic

Ya, you're probably right.. it's not that I don't have the money to blow.. I just don't think I have the knowledge at this point.. I certainly want to learn about this tank and what kinds of stuff I can put in there.. SW is really beautiful, but realistically i'm not ready even if I WANT one haha

On a side note.. I have a "cured" live rock here (12lbs) that the LFS sold me.. I have been testing the water and nothing out of the ordinary.. I have noticed today that there are tiny white creatures ALL over the glass just darting around.. I can't make them out they are way too tiny.. it this good stuff? I also started out with 20lbs of "live sand" I don't have any animals in there.. well I have 3 frags of coral.. which seems to be happy.. I dunno really.. what should I be doing? or watching for? I would like to buy some more corals and maybe some inverts.. not sure if I will ever put fish in here.. maybe someday..

I guess the question at hand is.. how will I know this tank is cycled? should I get some ammonia? see what happens? I don't want to kill the corals =(
 
There really is no "set" cycle time. From scratch with nothing but dead sand, water, and dead rock, it usually takes 3-4 weeks, but if you used live sand and a well cured piece of live rock, it could have a mini cycle that last just a few days to a week. Ammonia and Nitrites should read 0 when you are out of the cycle. Nitrates and Phosphates will show up though and that is what the waterchanges help remove.

Little white things are usually copepods or amphipods, both are a good thing to have. They help keep things clean and are also a food source for many things.

There are many choices on what you could put in a 14G, but the most obvious to me would be a shrimp goby/pistol shrimp pair and maybe a couple purple firefish. I would probably go with a mostly zoanthid tank for your corals. Sooooo many different colors/combos to chose from out there, easy to care for, spread at a good rate most of the time, don't require high light, and actually like less than pristine water conditions.

Observation is IMO the best tool you could use. Once you can look at your tank and tell if something is "happy" or "sad" and then run tests to figure out why, the next time you see it you have a much better understanding on what to do, or hopefully correct the problem from happening again.
 
HeHe,

Marine aquaria can bring out the "impulse Buyer" in anyone, In the future though I'd recommend going to the LFS look for something you like and then research it at home before buying it, regardless to what the LFS's staff has to say etc.

Have you been feeding the tank,or adding any source of ammonia, do you have fish in it?

Water should test

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-X
 
AquatiCreations said:
Have you been feeding the tank,or adding any source of ammonia, do you have fish in it?

Water should test

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-X
Click to expand...
I have 3 coral frags in the tank.. I have put in trace elements, iodine, and MicroVert food.. no fish.. I don't know if I plan to have fish.. I just know I want lots of corals =)
 
Speaking of coral.. can you ship coral? How do I get more? my "lfs" is more than an hour from me.. not TOO economical could I put up a WTB ad in the classifieds? Just curious how well they ship =)
 
Temptress said:
Speaking of coral.. can you ship coral? How do I get more? my "lfs" is more than an hour from me.. not TOO economical could I put up a WTB ad in the classifieds? Just curious how well they ship =)
Click to expand...


Of course, I'd recommend getting them from www.LiveAquaria.com,they have a decent selection,and the basic info you need on keeping them.
 
They ship fine. liveaquaria.com is one of the biggest places online to buy corals. They overnight them and have heat packs in the shipping containers to keep the corals warm. An hours drive in a bag or water is fine as well, especially if you put it in a small cooler. Never dump the LFS water into your system though. Best practice is to get a good coral dip, personally I use Brightwell MediCoral dip . I place the coral is a small styrofoam container that I bought at my local Smart and Final (I make and give away A LOT of frags) so I buy 25-50 containers at a time. I put in water from my aquarium and the correct dosage of dip and place the coral in that for the correct time, then have another container with clean aquarium water to rinse, then place in my tank.

See if there are any local reef clubs, reefcentral.com has a local reef club section at the bottom of the forums lists, see if there is one in your area and possibly meet other reefers living close to you that you never knew before.
 
Now about the cycle,

the practice of a fishy cycle is normally frowned upon ,but given the circumstances that you're in I'd deem it acceptable.

You can pickup a damsel, or other hardy fish to provide small amounts of ammonia,and slowly cycle you're tank without having huge spikes.
 
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...


I had a 29 BC and it did well with mixed reef but i changed the actinic out for another 10k bulb.

Remove the bio balls and put live rock rubble in there...dont have rubble? Get a hammer and make some =).

The other advise is the poorly designed filter for it...it clogs easily with dust from sand if you have fish that kick it up..(sand sifter goby was my duster).

I advise to take some filter pads cut them to fit over or under the grill in center chamber. Change that weekly and use the kind that has phosphate removing stuff in it.

As for flow...ball socket connections you can add to the return outlet to split the flow and redirect it...if you want to improve that flow just up the size of the return pump in the 3rd chamber.

Otherwise these tanks are great ..Do make sure the tank stand is perfectly level..if not you will get overflow over the back wall into the 2nd and 3rd chambers...its quarky like that.

Moonlights: put them on a timer...or add a switch to it..can find them at any hardware store...its only so yoou can view things at night..if you have nocturnal creatures.

They can be off all the time...and just turn it on if you want to see it in the dark without disturbing the kids.
 
Temptress said:
Speaking of coral.. can you ship coral? How do I get more? my "lfs" is more than an hour from me.. not TOO economical could I put up a WTB ad in the classifieds? Just curious how well they ship =)
Click to expand...


http://www.barrierreefaquariums.com/ my local store but they do ship good site to.

the tank is not LPS or SPS friendly with the lighting... with such a small tank you have to choose which ones you want..soft, lps or sps.

LPS= Large polyp stony ...hammer corals, frogspawns, gonoporas

SPS is the small polyp stony and are monti's acroporas lots of skeletal structure with tiny polyps.

Softer corals i think you can figure that out =)

its not good to mix sps with the other unless you have a larger volume of water and space ...chemical warfare can happen between corals and sps usually lose.

Honestly you should stick with Softer corals as a beginner. To have LPS and sps means upgrading.

The scale of difficulty in corals is Soft --lps--then sps... sps being the most difficult to maintain.

Now if you are adamant about going sps or even LPS...you will need to consider another tank or buying lighting for that tank to support those corals...that means removing the hood...and having a intense lighting over it. For a 14 g this is not practical though.

have any more questions go ahead and fire away...all the members here are kind and helpful. The wealth of knowledge here is great by these guys. We teach each other things quite often.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom