SPS corals in a Biocube

rodrigo123 · Feb 2, 2017

I was wondering if anyone has been successful with growing SPS corals in a Biocube. I started a mixed reef (SPS, LPS and soft corals) in my Biocube 14 around 3 months ago. I have the stock lights currently but have excellent flow for SPS corals. If so, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

bevo5 · Feb 2, 2017

I think ultimately you're not going to have enough light for the SPS to really flourish.

I popped the lid off my biocube and mounted a radion x30 - which was way overkill, but I was upgrading to a larger tank so the light was only temporary. Either way, stuff grew like crazy. You could upgrade to a x15 or any of the other high quality lights available.

There are also hood upgrades you can do if you like the look of the top. Those are more intensive though, and require you gutting the lid and installing new lights.

ludnix · Feb 2, 2017

Definitely possible though difficult. I don't know if you're lighting will be enough, but if it is you're still facing a tough battle with maintaining consistent parameters in 14 gallons of water. I wouldn't hesistate to give some of the less demanding SPS a try in your tank, but I wouldn't get my hopes up for expensive designer acros IMO. In my biocube I found that I could get some slow steady growth out of almost all of the hard corals I tried with a few exceptions. I did however run into issues with lack of durability of the tank. If I missed a single bi-weekly waterchange I would set back growth and color for a month or two.

WadePW · Feb 2, 2017

I have an IM Nuvo 16g with an upgraded light (AI prime) that over time has some how gotten more colorful sticks in it. They are growing well, color is coming in nice on them. Just have to make sure to keep up with water changes since it is a smaller tank. Definitely agree with bevo, an upgraded light would be very helpful.