New Biocube 32

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

Hello reef fam, I’ve been a member here for a few years now but sadly I haven’t posted very much. Right after getting my first attempt at a reef set up (40b tank) unfortunately my family went thru some turmoil. I won’t get into that in here but the facts are I had to tear it down and for the last few years I’ve been waiting to try again. Now I am at that point finally and I hope this go is able to run its course and I hope to share it with you all. With that said let’s get into what I have thus far.

Stock BioCube 32 LED
BioCube stand
20# Caribsea life rock
20# Caribsea special grade
100w titanium heater w/ InkBird controller
EcoTech MP10

Right now the tank is cycling. I did the initial fill up with Nutra-Seawater to help get more beneficial bacteria to work along with the live sand and biospira.
I’ve been told by numerous people that I don’t need to wait for cycling and with modern tech fish in cycling is the way to go but I’m old skool. I’ve got 2 shrimp in a bag with the lights out and letting nature do it thing. I’m a week in and when I check I have ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate showing so I’m heading in the right direction. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be showing you guys a nice successful 32 gallon BC. I know that I am a newbie and I am 100% open to all constructive criticism and I will always be open to taking help and advice from those of you out there that are already successful. I look forward to getting comments and using them to make this a successful venture.

Unfortunately right now my lights are off so it’s super hard to get a go picture but I’ll put up something just for a beginning reference point. I look forward to building this tank and I hope to get more positive feedback moving forward than negative, lol.

God Bless
Semper Fi

 

[vetteguy53081]

This was my first tank and I find it generous for its size and easy to maintain

 

[McCarrick]

I agree with letting the tank cycle before adding anything (I never fully trust the instant start bottles). Just test until your parameters for Ammonia and Nitrite are 0 and Nitrate is <10 ppm and you should be good to go! Keep us posted!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Best of luck with the tank!!!

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, I do appreciate it. I do have a quick question though. I normally do a controlled ammonia and Dr. Tim’s/BioSpira cycle. But this time seeing as how I was in no rush I did the “raw shrimp” route also using the bacteria additives. My question is this, my raw shrimp inside there “baggie” has a pretty good size bacteria bloom growing around it. Do I need to remove the bacteria bloom or is that where the actual ammonia is coming from? This is the first time I used the raw shrimp method so I haven’t seen this before. Thanks for your help/advice in this case.

 

[lubeck]

IMO if you are seeing a bloom from the shrimp already you can take the shrimp out. It’s done it’s job. No need to take out any bloom. THe point is for the bacteria to grow and start the cycle.
not sure how many days the shrimp has been in there?

I would keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrates now.

Thanks for the kind words everyone, I do appreciate it. I do have a quick question though. I normally do a controlled ammonia and Dr. Tim’s/BioSpira cycle. But this time seeing as how I was in no rush I did the “raw shrimp” route also using the bacteria additives. My question is this, my raw shrimp inside there “baggie” has a pretty good size bacteria bloom growing around it. Do I need to remove the bacteria bloom or is that where the actual ammonia is coming from? This is the first time I used the raw shrimp method so I haven’t seen this before. Thanks for your help/advice in this case.

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

IMO if you are seeing a bloom from the shrimp already you can take the shrimp out. It’s done it’s job. No need to take out any bloom. THe point is for the bacteria to grow and start the cycle.
not sure how many days the shrimp has been in there?

I would keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrates now.

Thanks for the reply man, Saturday would be two full weeks that it was in there. My plan was to pull it out over the weekend but I figured there’s never anything wrong with asking. As for testing when I checked it on Sunday I had a little ammonia and nitrite but my nitrates were starting to come on pretty strong. I think is almost at the point of done but I won’t know for sure until I check it this weekend.

 

[nuxx]

Looking good!

 

[brandon429]

your cycle was done a while back, we already track using digital kits how long biospira takes to work, what you're seeing is the massive lag time from non digital kits.

still, no rush, but waiting longer can't make your tank any safer for fish/hope that helps to know. specific disease preps/fallow and quarantine and very high quality feeding and water care make the tank safer for fish now, your cycle was done a while back. as in 5 days after you added the bottle bac.

updated cycling science is now an exact start date for bioload carry vs a long open-ended wait, the reason is that you can cleanly move from cycling concern and into fish disease preps if you know the date your cycle was done.

the bottle bac completion dates have been derived in other posts using seneye, that's how we know it was ready by day five.

you don't have any ammonia issues that' s just the common reading those kits give for most tanks. nitrite no longer factors in reef tank cycling, it's literally ignored, and nitrate when tested digitally/accurately is for color tuning of corals it too has no bearing on your cycle completion date. this only sounds crazy because updated cycling science is like fiber internet, and old cycling science is like dialup. same ends, different speed.

what you are after is safety of fish, that carry ability is already set and does not get stronger by waiting longer, but its ok to wait longer anyway. the biggest change nowadays is the required disease preps, independent to cycling

skipping them gets you an entry into the disease forum by month 8 after stocking. / see the forum for examples

very nice tank, very nice setup, that degrading shrimp provided nice carbon for your bottle bac and some ammonia at the start too, well done. cycle=done already.

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

your cycle was done a while back, we already track using digital kits how long biospira takes to work, what you're seeing is the massive lag time from non digital kits.

still, no rush, but waiting longer can't make your tank any safer for fish/hope that helps to know. specific disease preps/fallow and quarantine and very high quality feeding and water care make the tank safer for fish now, your cycle was done a while back. as in 5 days after you added the bottle bac.

updated cycling science is now an exact start date for bioload carry vs a long open-ended wait, the reason is that you can cleanly move from cycling concern and into fish disease preps if you know the date your cycle was done.

the bottle bac completion dates have been derived in other posts using seneye, that's how we know it was ready by day five.

you don't have any ammonia issues that' s just the common reading those kits give for most tanks. nitrite no longer factors in reef tank cycling, it's literally ignored, and nitrate when tested digitally/accurately is for color tuning of corals it too has no bearing on your cycle completion date. this only sounds crazy because updated cycling science is like fiber internet, and old cycling science is like dialup. same ends, different speed.

what you are after is safety of fish, that carry ability is already set and does not get stronger by waiting longer, but its ok to wait longer anyway. the biggest change nowadays is the required disease preps, independent to cycling

skipping them gets you an entry into the disease forum by month 8 after stocking. / see the forum for examples

very nice tank, very nice setup, that degrading shrimp provided nice carbon for your bottle bac and some ammonia at the start too, well done. cycle=done already.

Thanks for the detailed response, I appreciate it and I’m always looking for as much knowledgeable as possible. I would never have known that you always get a small ammonia reading with normal test kits. I don’t see me buying a digital test kit for ammonia, lol. As for fish I’m probably just going with clowns for my baby boy . After a while I might as more or something else but it won’t be soon and it will define after a full QT cycle

 

[brandon429]

I personally will never own an ammonia kit for my reef nor will I ever ask for anyone's ammonia measurement on any of our running Cycle threads and they're massive, hundreds of completed cycles on file

The best part of the hundreds of people who paid $200 to get a seneye and see precision ammonia start to finish is that they revealed in their digital logs the exact patterns of compliance dates which govern all reefs that stack rocks in the center of the display


If someone *isn't* stacking reef rocks in the middle of the display then they'd benefit from accurate ammonia testing, such as a quarantine setup

But in a reef display, it's a done deal already as we've seen enough seneye logs to make the necessary prediction. We get spot tested still on cycle calls, they line up

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

Hey guys, I know I haven’t updated lately but I was at the point of letting tank settle in and deciding on first fish to put in. I finally decided on two small but beautiful Wyoming white clowns. Now that I have them in and my tank has been running for a month dark I think I’m at the point of starting to ad a little light to the tank. I’ve found some “bc32 light schedules” online but they are for full fledged coral growing settings. I’m looking for something that can bring the whites in slowly to keep uglies to a minimum while still allowing the life in the tank to start coming on. So with that said I asking if anyone out there with a BioCube has any suggestions for a good new tank light suggestions.. thanks in advance fam

 

[Crofty]

I started with the typical light schedule found online but left the primary white led (channel 1) off. So channel 2 an 3 only during the day. Did that for a few weeks and managed to avoid getting much of an ugly stage.

 

[BifrostReefer]

Good luck! Started my first reef with a biocube 32, made it about 6 months before I started putting a Waterbox 220 together. love the hobby, but it's got plenty of ups and downs as you're figuring it out. Go slow.

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

I started with the typical light schedule found online but left the primary white led (channel 1) off. So channel 2 an 3 only during the day. Did that for a few weeks and managed to avoid getting much of an ugly stage.

I’m doing pretty much the same thing except I’m rutthe whites don’t one hour from 12-1. Everything else is morning and night blues. Gonna run that for a few weeks then I’ll add a bit more whites.

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

Good luck! Started my first reef with a biocube 32, made it about 6 months before I started putting a Waterbox 220 together. love the hobby, but it's got plenty of ups and downs as you're figuring it out. Go slow.

I’m definitely not in a big hurry with it. I stay by myself so it’s not like I’m trying to impress anyone with it. Hopefully I’ll make it more than 6 months before I start upgrading tho, lol. Because I need to replace my floors before I got to a big tank. lol

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

Just wondering if anyone has used this type of light in the back of your AIO tanks. Obviously I won’t run it all the time but the “coralvue biocube uv sterilizer” is a waste of money I think. Just doesn’t seem strong enough to really work with the in-line pump and whatnot. Either way I was thinking of trying this whenever the time comes, maybe drop it in the 1st chamber with the heater and run it an hour or two every couple of days. What do you guys think? All opinions are welcome and I’m open to suggestions also.. thanks

 

[Crofty]

I've used one of those in the back a few times and it seemed to work ok as a quick and cheap solution.
You won't want it in chamber 1 though as the UV light will leak though the grates and be harmful to fish or inverts. I put it in chamber 3 next to the pump but 2 would probably work as well if you can fit it with the media tray.
Be aware that the UV can have an aging effect on some cheaper plastics like the coralife pump housing and make the plastic look dull. It can also make vinyl tubing get stiff.
I have a flow through UV now but it seems like the light stick dropped in the back worked better!!

Just adding that I don't think an hour or 2 a day will do much. Longer sustained use is better to control an an outbreak then discontinue till needed again. That's my experience anyway.

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

I've used one of those in the back a few times and it seemed to work ok as a quick and cheap solution.
You won't want it in chamber 1 though as the UV light will leak though the grates and be harmful to fish or inverts. I put it in chamber 3 next to the pump but 2 would probably work as well if you can fit it with the media tray.
Be aware that the UV can have an aging effect on some cheaper plastics like the coralife pump housing and make the plastic look dull. It can also make vinyl tubing get stiff.
I have a flow through UV now but it seems like the light stick dropped in the back worked better!!

Just adding that I don't think an hour or 2 a day will do much. Longer sustained use is better to control an an outbreak then discontinue till needed again. That's my experience anyway.

I wouldn’t think it would need to run all the time though. Probably right that an hour or two won’t be enough but basically I was just saying I don’t think it would need to be a 24/7 thing. How long do you run your if you don’t mind me asking? Also thanks for pointing out the chamber one wasn’t the best placement

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

Hello reef fam, over the last month and a half I have taken a box of water and made it and aquarium. Now the challenge is to turn that aquarium into a living “tiny” reef. My two clowns are very happy in their 32 gallon home, but I’m at the point now where I’m starting to plan ahead for corals and a tiny bit more livestock. Reason for this post is I’m at an intersection when it come to filtration. I’m stuck at wether or not I wanna run a fuge. Right now I’m running the BioCube filter thing with some filter floss over the top of it. 2nd shelf is chemipure blue and in the bottom I have some marinepure “gems” in a media bag. I know that fuge are good for nutrient removal and ph balance but I’m not planning on having anything in here but softies and maybe LPS at the most. Point is I don’t want to have a fuge just to say I have one. So what’s everyone else suggest? To fuge or not to fuge.. lol. I will add that I am a total OCD nut and I already have enough of the current filtration I mentioned to run for 12 months, so if I make a change it won’t be right away unless something happens and the tanks requires it. Either way thanks for your input and I can’t wait to hear your opinions. Thanks reef fam