Turned my biocube to salt water..now need good advice

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

So I recently turned my biocube 32 to salt water and I used live sand live rock and bottled seawater to fill it used turbo start and had it cycle for a week... I have a clown fish, a small naso tang that might be a blonde since it started showing yellow on the top and he will be moved to my friends 70 gallon once he gets bigger and I also have a fedder shrimp for now.... So I am on a budget for the next couple of weeks of about 200-300 dollars a week to buy all the necessities and essentials I need to start getting my tank ready for corals but I'm new to this so I would love some advice... I always loved salt water tanks but I always got scared of going this route until now and I want to find some good honest help... I really appreciate it... Will post pictures soon

scottedontknow · Feb 27, 2020

a bit early to be adding life stock imo, and even in a 70gal thats not enough for a tang so id watch out for the tang police. as for equipment.... all depends on what you plan to keep. the Essentials for me are lights (i run kessils but theres a million options depending on what corals you want to keep), wavemaker (so many out there if on a budget) good heater with a controller (Inkbird or Apex will do), and i always enjoy a solid skimmer (totally optional, you'll here mixed reviews) and/or a refug.

Jamesrup0411 · Feb 27, 2020

Agree above with stocking and using live sand/rock would have been sufficient to cycle tank. I’d give your tank some time before adding corals. Your bio cube have a hood on it? The lights in those aren’t bad but I’ve seen people upgrade those hood lights. I run ai primes on my frag tank, could probably snatch up a used mp10 off r2r for pretty cheap.

Sosuke · Feb 27, 2020

Nasos need 180gal or bigger as full grown adults. I agree with the above a bit too early for livestock. The hood is not too good for growing SPS corals but you could probably get away with softies and LPS

AcroNem · Feb 27, 2020

The stock lights should be okay so long as it isn't equipped with lights for a planted tank, or if it's the old school PC lighting the bulbs are new and the 50/50 white/actinic. With live sand and rock it will cycle but definitely is not cycled yet and you should wait on corals for sure. One thing you need is a good test kit, it's worth the money. On a 32 I wouldn't say you need a skimmer as long as you're doing water changes regularly(along with testing your water) and run some good chemical filtration(carbon, purigen etc). Fish should have waited as well and you might have some problems with them being added so early, the tang definitely has to go. I wouldn't add any tang to a 32 especially not something like a Naso sp. even a 70gallon is too small for it. But aside from that, test everything every day for now while you're getting started because you have livestock in there and you'll likely see some ammonia building up and you'll need to control that with water changes.

Cell · Feb 27, 2020

Are you testing for ammonia? Nitrite? Are you sure you are cycled? As mentioned, that tang isnt even suitable for your friends 70 gallon.

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

Jamesrup0411 said:
Agree above with stocking and using live sand/rock would have been sufficient to cycle tank. I’d give your tank some time before adding corals. Your bio cube have a hood on it? The lights in those aren’t bad but I’ve seen people upgrade those hood lights. I run ai primes on my frag tank, could probably snatch up a used mp10 off r2r for pretty cheap.

Thank you and yes I need lights for future corals If anyone selling a good light for under 200 let me know I would appreciate it specially if in ny I would go pick it up

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

AcroNem said:
The stock lights should be okay so long as it isn't equipped with lights for a planted tank, or if it's the old school PC lighting the bulbs are new and the 50/50 white/actinic. With live sand and rock it will cycle but definitely is not cycled yet and you should wait on corals for sure. One thing you need is a good test kit, it's worth the money. On a 32 I wouldn't say you need a skimmer as long as you're doing water changes regularly(along with testing your water) and run some good chemical filtration(carbon, purigen etc). Fish should have waited as well and you might have some problems with them being added so early, the tang definitely has to go. I wouldn't add any tang to a 32 especially not something like a Naso sp. even a 70gallon is too small for it. But aside from that, test everything every day for now while you're getting started because you have livestock in there and you'll likely see some ammonia building up and you'll need to control that with water changes.

Thank you the tang seems to like it so far he's active eating well and being friendly and gets exited when he sees people but yeah I'm probably going send him off to my friends tank for now until get gets bigger and we can find him the best home as for test kits I need one since my friend is doing all the testing for me like every 3 days but I been good with water changes every week so far

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

AcroNem said:
The stock lights should be okay so long as it isn't equipped with lights for a planted tank, or if it's the old school PC lighting the bulbs are new and the 50/50 white/actinic. With live sand and rock it will cycle but definitely is not cycled yet and you should wait on corals for sure. One thing you need is a good test kit, it's worth the money. On a 32 I wouldn't say you need a skimmer as long as you're doing water changes regularly(along with testing your water) and run some good chemical filtration(carbon, purigen etc). Fish should have waited as well and you might have some problems with them being added so early, the tang definitely has to go. I wouldn't add any tang to a 32 especially not something like a Naso sp. even a 70gallon is too small for it. But aside from that, test everything every day for now while you're getting started because you have livestock in there and you'll likely see some ammonia building up and you'll need to control that with water changes.

My friend is doing all the testing every 3 days and I'm doing 7 gallon water changes weekly as for test kits I need a good recommendation on a good set since I been relying on my friend to do the testing

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

Here's the 3 fish and feeder shrimp that started my salt water addiction

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

This purple and yellow guy is more shy but he loves this rock spends his whole day swimming in and out of the rock

vetteguy53081 · Feb 27, 2020

Good advise?
Stick with R2R. . . your all you need resource. Stock SLOWLY and research your purchases in advance. A naso in a biocube is not a good idea. Cube for naso is a temporary home.

AcroNem · Feb 27, 2020

Yes, stick with R2R

my other word of advice would be to quarantine everything, every time before it goes into the system, which I know that ship had kind of sailed but I'd still say to do so. Is that other fish a coral beauty Angel or a different fish? Hard to tell

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

AcroNem said:
Yes, stick with R2R my other word of advice would be to quarantine everything, every time before it goes into the system, which I know that ship had kind of sailed but I'd still say to do so. Is that other fish a coral beauty Angel or a different fish? Hard to tell

Yes coral beauty angel he's super cool has purple and dark blue in the back and orange yellow color towards the front

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

By the way so it's a no go to put two different angelfish together right... Like if I wanted to add a bicolor angel fish would end up not been a good idea?

AcroNem · Feb 27, 2020

Robbieneff said:
By the way so it's a no go to put two different angelfish together right... Like if I wanted to add a bicolor angel fish would end up not been a good idea?

Probably not, also you should definitely take it easy on fish at the moment. For a 32g you've already got things that are too large, I wouldn't really say to have the dwarf angel either although some might disagree, let alone two of them. How long did you say this system has been running?

Robbieneff · Feb 27, 2020

Without fish like 10 days and it's been a week since I added the fish

AcroNem said:
Probably not, also you should definitely take it easy on fish at the moment. For a 32g you've already got things that are too large, I wouldn't really say to have the dwarf angel either although some might disagree, let alone two of them. How long did you say this system has been running?

Without fish 10 days it was getting cycled and with the fish it's been a week so 17 days I would say