Advice Needed. 14 Gallon Biocube.

[biocube14]

I'm a complete newb in keeping a reef tank. I kept FOWLR before but this was a long long time ago. I was given this 14 gallon biocube.

I started this tank approx 2 weeks ago. My friend gave me the live rock, live sand, water, corals and a few inhabitants to start.

Are you guys able to tell me what kind of corals these are and will they do ok in the stock compact flo lighting for now? On the overhang, I glued in the coral and it went side ways after. Will it be ok in this position or it has to be upright?

Current stock:
2 clownfish
1 fire fish
1 fire shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp
5 blue leg hermits
2 snails

I was planning to sell the peppermint and get a small clown goby or watchman goby?

Everyone seems happy so far. I will continue to perform water change once a week at 10-15%.
Also planning to add in more cured live rock and add more corals throughout the next few weeks.

Any other input would be greatly appreciated. I've been reading a lot on the web but lots of mixed info. Just want some advice to get me through the first few weeks.

[biocube14]

Also whats best to fill my rear chamber/filtration with? So far it has floss in chamber 1, bioballs and floss in chamber 2. I made a DIY drip tray for chamber 2 and will be making a media basket for it today as well.

i was thinking of replacing the bioballs to some smaller pcs of live rock instead. necessary to do so?

[JmeJReefer]

Lose bio balls. Chemipure elite or purigen in a media basket works fine. There are several mods for a bio cube that have proven effective.

[JmeJReefer]

A little more live rock wouldn't hurt as it acts as a filtration method on its own. I've upgraded the pump as well.
Sweet little setup tho!

[biocube14]

Awesome thanks for the input. I'll take out the bioballs and add in some small pieces of crush coral in compartment 2 along with some purigen or chemipure

[pinkreef]

Go for the chemipure elite unless you have a skimmer, i have heavily planted
mine and to a 5 gal water change weekly. i seem to have a good balance with that. ps you have a jumper i notice, it will jump from the display to compartment two thru an opening even when the lid is closed. put something at the back of your display to prevent this (i am doing that after work today because my blenny jumped over yesterday) good luck, barb

[biocube14]

I have since taken out the bioballs and added live rock rubble/new sponge and purigen in compartment 2.

Also went to the LFS to "look around" and ended up buying a piece of live rock for the back wall of the tank for more coral placements.

Also since your post, I've put this plastic strip to prevent my fire fish from jumping into the back chambers!

[biocube14]

I was only able to find purigen yesterday. Mixing purigen and chemipure is ok? Maybe I can add that in chamber 2 as well

[biocube14]

This is what the tank looks like as of today. I'm thinking I need a little more live rock for the back wall.

[HaZRaTTy]

You need some color!!!!!!! I would of highly suggested getting rid of the bio balls as well good choice.

Rockwork is all to your liking and you will find yourself mixing and re stacking and adding and removing for quite some time.

I'm not sure what type of light you have but it looks like you have a Kenya tree or maybe colt. Do some research on your light on the tank.

Also take a look at some of the hardy easier corals. Frogspawn, Hammer, Trumpet(Candy Cane) They will add some color and are easy to keep happy!




Sorry I see that you have recently just set up your tank, have you seen any type of cycle or did you cycle before adding livestock? how are your water param's