Newbie Setting up BIOCUBE

Can anyone out there help with the proper set up of a 14gal Bio cube. I'm not sure if the bioballs are needed, do i need a stronger pump, what is the peoper setup for each chamber etc. All advice welcome.

id take the bio balls out, youll need atleast one more powerhead in the tank for water movement, and i suggest you get a better set of lights so you can keep corals in your tank later on

Great I have another head I can place in the tank- what do you mean by better lights

like t'5s or more pc lights or a mh light

stonger lighting, the basic lighting that comes in the biocube is very weak and can barely sustain soft corals at best, id suggest taking the hood off and putting a set of t-5's on there, also taking the hood off will allow for better heat exchange so the water doesnt get too hot and also will allow you to use a better skimmer

Skimmer was just the item they were seling me to remove large particals

It is the opposite. The skimmer removes small microscopic organic particles; it really doesn't do anything for small particles.

As it is now, you can set it up with the original lights, no problem. You will just be limited to keeping low light corals, since the Bio Cube's standard lights aren't strong enough to keep most corals.

I would also recommend removing the bioballs. You can fill that chamber instead with live rock rubble. I also recommend 1 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon of the tank, so about 15 to 30 pounds should be good for your tank.

You'll have to let it cycle for several weeks before you can add any fish. And then, you are limited to one to two small fish in a tank that size.

Thanks- I removed the bioballs and filled chamber two with 1LBS of fragments - used a few bioballs to fill in the top. Having a really hard time placing the live rock- i have filled each side of the tank with rock and creates an excellent bridge between the two areas. This has left a large cave in the rear of the tank and approx 1/4 of the front of tank empty for flexibility when i start to set up the coral. I guess it is not an exact science but most of the photos i see the live rock is in the center built like a volcano- does that matter?

I realize I an limited but my idea was to take some low lying mushroom at the top and some soft tenticl and finger coral at the bottom to fill i the top.

Can you recommend a show piece type coral for the center of the tank that will survive in the cave portion of the tank but not overwhelm the entire tank.

You could put a sun coral in the cave because their nonphotosynthetic.
But they require spot feeding of each polyp.

That sweet feeding may be an issue what can i do just leave in some brine for it