Biocube 32g Startup/Lighting Question

zromano · Dec 2, 2018

Hey everyone, new here at R2R. Been lurking on the forums in preparation of my reef tank build for the past couple weeks. Really great info here and I appreciate all the insight everyone has done.

I bought the Coralife Biocube 32 yesterday, tossed in my live rock and live sand and got the water salinity where it needs to be. I'm a little confused on the light settings for the tank. Heard people say that you should let the lights run full blast all day, others say it's beneficial to make it natural and have the moon phase during the evening. Any advice on this?

Secondly, I'm trying to jump start my system and get things rolling a little quicker. I tossed in some Seachem Stability to get things going. It reads on the back saying that fish can go in immediately if you dose for the following 7 days. I was going to wait 3-4 days and then bring some fish in but my nutrient measurements are telling me I'm just at the start of my cycle.

My pH is right about at 8.4 if not a tad higher so realizing I may need to lower that. 0 nitrates and 0 nitrites and ammonia is found between 0-0.25 ppm. Should I test the tank in 3 days again or just bring in the livestock at that time?

Thanks for any help.

Barry_Cuda · Dec 2, 2018

I'd be very skeptical about that "insta-cycle" claim from Stability. I used that product with both my DT and fish QT, and have NOT seen any signs that livestock could have survived in the tanks right away. DT took 3 weeks to cycle using aquacultured rock, and I'm going on 3 weeks in the QT waiting for the cycle to be complete despite using rock from the already-cycled DT AND using Stability. Unless Stability contains another ingredient similar to Prime to neutralize the ammonia, which I don't think it does, the tank isn't ready to support fish until it can properly process the associated wastes. Don't necessarily take my word for it - I'm a newbie myself - but that's my take.

cromag27 · Dec 2, 2018

if your rock and sand were truly “live” then you may not have a cycle at all. what test kits are you using? was the rock and sand pulled from an established tank?

a lot of people will run blues for sunrise and sunset, and whites/blues during the day for about 8 hours.

i have the same tank and i love it.

Ron Reefman · Dec 3, 2018

Corals need 5 to 8 hours of intense light. More hours than that are not harmful, but also not very useful if at all since photosynthesis shuts down after 5 to 8 hours. Use more blue than white. The zooxanthellae (algae) inside the coral do photosynthesis using mostly blue spectrum light. Ramping lights up and down is fun for us as it 'feels' more 'natural', but your fish and corals really couldn't care less! The same can be said for moonlights. They may look OK, but the corals don't care unless you are really crazy and follow the cycle of the moon for the month and are hoping to get some kind of coral spawning (not 100% impossible... but 99.9% extremely unlikely).

Welcome to R2R and best of luck with the new system. BTW, take your time and do NOT try to rush things. A good tank takes a minimum of 3 to 4 months to mature at the very short end and some take a year or more to mature. BTW, cycling the tank is just the first step toward a mature tank. You are likely to have algae blooms and maybe even bacterial blooms before things settle down.

SPR1968 · Dec 3, 2018

Firstly welcome to R2R it’s great to have you with us!

I wouldn’t worry about messing with the pH as yet otherwise you may cause issues, and with possible test error margins it’s more than likely ok anyway

I’ve just read the Instructions on Stability which looks like the normal bacteria in a bottle to cycle the tank straight away, so just follow the dosing instructions. You can add fish immediately as long as you keep adding it and I guess it contains the bacteria needed. I’ve personally used ATM Colony, which is ‘similar’ to great effect.

On the lights, as said above you need enough for the corals and I personally have sunrise at 11.30am and off at 10pm using the following but it’s all personal preference. I go blue in the evening because I prefer that. These are the Red Sea Reef Spec settings:

zromano · Dec 3, 2018

All great information here - thank you guys. Tested my tank again today and got another ammonia reading - just above 0.25 PPM and below 0.50 PPM. No nitrites and no nitrates. Because of the holiday coming up I'm either going to add one single fish (and probably a small cleanup crew) this week or I'm not going to add anything until after the new year.

cromag27 said:
if your rock and sand were truly “live” then you may not have a cycle at all. what test kits are you using? was the rock and sand pulled from an established tank?

a lot of people will run blues for sunrise and sunset, and whites/blues during the day for about 8 hours.

i have the same tank and i love it.

Using the API Saltwater Master and Reef Master test kits. Spent money on them because I think testing the water is really important - even if there's inaccuracies.

Ron Reefman said:
Corals need 5 to 8 hours of intense light. More hours than that are not harmful, but also not very useful if at all since photosynthesis shuts down after 5 to 8 hours. Use more blue than white. The zooxanthellae (algae) inside the coral do photosynthesis using mostly blue spectrum light. Ramping lights up and down is fun for us as it 'feels' more 'natural', but your fish and corals really couldn't care less! The same can be said for moonlights. They may look OK, but the corals don't care unless you are really crazy and follow the cycle of the moon for the month and are hoping to get some kind of coral spawning (not 100% impossible... but 99.9% extremely unlikely).

Welcome to R2R and best of luck with the new system. BTW, take your time and do NOT try to rush things. A good tank takes a minimum of 3 to 4 months to mature at the very short end and some take a year or more to mature. BTW, cycling the tank is just the first step toward a mature tank. You are likely to have algae blooms and maybe even bacterial blooms before things settle down.

Really useful info. I'm bookmarking this page so that when I finally get some corals in the tank I'll have this. Thank you!

SPR1968 said:
Firstly welcome to R2R it’s great to have you with us!

I wouldn’t worry about messing with the pH as yet otherwise you may cause issues, and with possible test error margins it’s more than likely ok anyway

I’ve just read the Instructions on Stability which looks like the normal bacteria in a bottle to cycle the tank straight away, so just follow the dosing instructions. You can add fish immediately as long as you keep adding it and I guess it contains the bacteria needed. I’ve personally used ATM Colony, which is ‘similar’ to great effect.

Thanks for the advice. Going to go to my LFS tomorrow hopefully and try to see if I can get a clownfish to place in the tank. Want to be considerate of the fish and not put it in an environment it's suffering in but also don't want to wait if I can do it now without having a fish suffer.