Brief Intro

R

Robb

Reefing newb
Hi, I am new to SW tanks and this amazing Hobby! I am just starting my first SW tank, it is a 14G Biocube, but currently only has live rock. I am in the process of cycling my tank, it has now been one week since I began and have yet to see a spike in Ammonia as I have read this is suppose to happen. The only thing is I bought all previously cured rock, so maybe that is preventing or post-poning the spike. Either way I am going to give it a few more weeks until i begin to add a small Cleanup Crew. My current Readings since I would assume you would like to know this are:
PH 8.0 (ordered drops online to fix this should be in by monday next week)
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates- 0
Nitrites - 0
Calcium - unknown (in process of getting calcium test kit, also ordered online)
Alkalinity - Unknown (same reason as above).

I have much experience with other animals and I am looking for a new challenge, which is why I am getting into this hobby.

My current Animal collection contains the following:
1.1 Frilled Dragons
1.0 Red Tail Boa (Hypo - Salmon morph)
0.0.4 Tarantulas (P. metallica, B. smithi, G. Pulchripes formerly G. aureostriata, and C. fasciatum)
The animals I know the most about are the tarantulas, I have had over 30 tarantulas in the past 6 years and was forced to sell many of them as I recently moved across the country. Although it may be a long shot, if anyone out there wants to know anything about tarantulas perhaps we could swap info... a little quit pro quo.

Anyways That sums up about my entire life! Sorry for the long post, but I am excited to get further into this hobby!

Robb
 
Your pH is perfectly fine -- I would not add anything to change it. 8.0 is great. Anything between 7.8 and 8.4 is good, and your pH will fluctuate throughout the day, being the lowest in the morning when the lights come on and the highest when the lights go out at night.

It sounds like you're off to a good start. If you used all cured rock, then there's a good chance your tank will not cycle at all. I'd wait one more week to make sure that's the case, but if after two weeks you still see no ammonia or nitrites, then you should be good to add your first animals.

Welcome to the site!
 
Ok Thank you for the advice! I will post a few pics of the setup, let me know if anything should be changed or added based on your opinion. Also I have only tested the PH at night, so maybe I will do a test tomorrow morning before work to see if it is lower. To be honest I am not quite sure what I am going to put into the tank since it is very small I am limited to the fish I can safely out in it. Any suggestions on what you or others have done would be greatly appreciated! Here are the pics.

DSCF1788.jpg


DSCF1789.jpg


Also I forgot to mention that my salinity is at 1.024.

Thanks, I appreciate any advice given... including criticism.

Robb
 
Very nice so far! In a 14 gallon tank, you are restricted to keeping 1 or 2 small fish. Gobies are an excellent fish for small tanks. You could keep a clownfish or two if you'd like, or a cardinal fish... Firefish are another excellent choice (purple or red).
 
Bifferwine said:
Very nice so far! In a 14 gallon tank, you are restricted to keeping 1 or 2 small fish. Gobies are an excellent fish for small tanks. You could keep a clownfish or two if you'd like, or a cardinal fish... Firefish are another excellent choice (purple or red).
Click to expand...


I saw for the first time purple firefish at the store, those guys are COOL!
 
Hello and welcome to the site Bro...glad to have you. Your tank is looking good thus far. I think you may be happy with a pair of percula clownfish. They don't hide and are active.
 
Thanks to everyone that did respond, I appreciate the help and suggestions! I have done quite a bit of research prior to purchasing the tank, and I am well aware Tangs should NEVER go into a 14G tank lol. I was thinking about maybe a pair of clowns, then a small cleanup crew (1 cleaner shrimp, 2 hermits, and a few snails). What I am not too sure about since there is nto much info on it online, is putting low light coral into a small tnak like that. Is it possible with the above listed fish? I belive I read that some fish should not be placed in Reef tanks as the Coral can sting them. This is something that if I plan on doing it, it will be a few months down the road once the tank is properly established, but i wouldn't mind learning about it in the meantime. So I guess my questions would be:
1. What kind of low light coral could safely be placed in that tank?
2. Probably a dumb question but I honestly cannot find info anywhere explaining how to do this, how do you put the coral in the tank? This is probably very wrong, atleast it sounds very wrong, but the only thing I have read is you break off pieces of the coral and glue them to the LR. Is that the only way to place coral in the tank?
3. also I am very aware that I should be getting a wave maker to help simulate the ocean current if I decide to do Coral (I have read Koralia pumps are pretty good), but for this what is the best size wavemaker for a 14G? Is 400GPH too much? And would I need one if I turn this into a FOWLR tank?

I am really enjoying this hobby, and I can already see a basement full of tanks in the near future! But regardless I would like to try my luck with a small tank before I spend the big bucks on a 90G.

Thanks,

Rob
 
Welcome aboard Rob.Thats a great looking tank so far.
To really answer you question on low light corals,we really need to know what kind of light you have or are thinking about using.
On coral placement,their normally already attached to something.Could be a plug or disk,a lot of time a piece of rubble.Just figure out where you want it placed and put it there.Theres no need to frag new additions.
For a flow,I think that a couple of the Koralia Nanos would be about right for your tank.
 
Thanks for the advice it is much appreciated... Currently I have the standard lights that come with the Bio-cube, and was hoping to stick with low light corals since I have heard they can live on the basic lights given in the bio-cube. I believe and I am not sure but the lights are 10,000k Actinic and 10,000k Flourescent for 48 Watts. Again I am probably wrong on this... but I am still learning about the lights so I am more than likely wrong. Also I do not have the box with me since I am work and just going by memory.

Rob
 
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With it being the standerd top and lights for the bio-cube,you'll be fine with things like mushrooms,xenia,leathers,some LPS corals.Just stay away from kenya trees.They become weeds.
 
Lol it is funny you mention Kenya Trees you must be psychic or something I was just about to ask about them! But yeah I will be doing alot more reasearch before I decide to get into Coral, that is months away! Thanks again for the advice I appreciate it!

Robb
 
Kenya trees are like the plague. I started with one tiny one in my old 240 gallon tank. Three years later, out of sheer desperation and with no other choices, I ended up boiling every rock in my 240 on my stove to kill all of them. They were a forest that killed all my other corals. Stay away from them!!!

The light in the BioCube will be sufficient for you to keep lots of corals out there (I have a 12 gallon BioCube myself).

Good first corals are zoanthids and mushrooms. You shouldn't have to break a piece off of any new coral you buy -- they generally tend to be small when you buy them so that they can grow out in your tank. Like Yote said, they will come already attached to a piece of rock or a plastic/ceramic frag plug. Just place the rock where you like it, or use some two-part epoxy putty to hold the plug in place.

Clownfish will be perfectly fine with corals.
 
Thanks for the advice! I will be looking into corals more and more over the next two months to ensure I know everything I need to prior to getting involved with them. Out of curiosity what do you have in your 12G? Like what kind of corals, fish inverts etc. Also did you modify your 12G in anyway, lights, pump, etc?

Thanks again for the advice!

Robb
 
Right now, I don't have anything in my BioCube! It's in storage in my shed!! Mine is not modified -- I bought it used from someone on this site. I never used the bioballs or ceramic filter media that came with it.

I do have a 10 gallon tank set up right now, and it has one fish (a royal gramma), a few snails, and many different colors of ricordea. It's a simple tank (you can see pictures in the CONTESTS forums on here).
 
I cant keep xena's for some reason. every time i get some the die :frustrat:. Why is this, can someone tell me
 

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