Getting started

I need the breakdown of starting my tank properly so any advice or tips is appreciated! I'm going to be adding in the live rock, sand and water to my Biocube 14 today. I've read that most people remove the bioballs and use live rock/rubble instead so we'll go ahead and do that too. And I read that the carbon shouldn't be used until after the first couple of weeks, true?

For the future, do I need to heat the water before adding it during water changes? And how is that done? Is there a particular brand of heater for the tank that I should get? I know it has to be small and fit into one of the chambers (not sure which one).

Is the carbon filter fine or should we remove that along with the bioballs and just use the live rock rubble and plain filter material?

Opinions on protein skimmers. I've heard that they're amazing but also that if you do regular water changes about every 2 weeks that there's no point in a smaller tank. If I should get one what is a good brand for the Biocube?

Do you add in the inverts before or after the corals?

And I know fish come way later but can you have a yellow clown goby with a watchman goby in a 14 gallon? And does the yellowheaded jawfish eat your reef?

Thanks in advance!
I know I'll think of more questions throughout the day

 

Hi Katie

are you adding made up salt water today or are you making salt water today?
if its the 1st one, then your fine adding Live rock and live sand today
if its the second one- you need to wait a couple of days until the salt is fully dissolved and you have checked the specific gravity

swapping bio balls for live rock rubble - not a bad idea IMO - Bio balls do have their supporters ( Im personally not one of them) I do believe that live rock rubble offers more diversity of real estate for the different bacteria species required to deal with all the stages of the nitrogen cycle

water should be at same temp and same SG as you tank water - when you do a water change - in a 14 gallon tank you may start by doing 1.5 gallons every other week
a small heater in the bucket along with a small power head to mix the salt water - is what most people use to achieve this

Note - no need to do any water changes until you ammonia has spiked and zero'd and your nitrite has spiked and zero'd - then you can do your 1st 10% water change

fish I added them to my set ups before corals - as they produce more wastes and as such get your messy stuff in 1st and bacteria encouraged to deal with those wastes, means adding corals later , you dont get any major parameter spikes

if you add corals 1st they dont create much waste, thus limited bio load, thus limited bacteria - so when you add a fish later, the water quality dips until the bacteria catch up
which makes life uncomfortable for the corals -

some people mix it about, fish, couple of corals, next fish, more corals etc
but I dont think many people would add all corals 1st and fish later

inverts - snails, hermits, after the 1st fish or after the cycle ( or during the cycle)
more fancy inverts , when tank has been set up 3 months IMO


while the tank is cycling , its a good idea not to run carbon, as the carbon removes things that you want bacteria to develop to remove ( it slows down the cycle if you use chemical media at the start)

small tank, low bioload (not to much stock, you may not need a skimmer IMO)

heater for a 14 gallon - a 50 watt model should be sufficient

Steve

 

Great questions.. I can answer a few.. or give my opinion anyway. When cycling I believe they recommend you remove the carbon.

Make sure you get a good test kit so you can test your params. I prefer the liquid for sure over the strips.

The two gobys in that small of a tank may be hard to keep them fed. Watchman get pretty large. Make sure you use sand and not crushed coral if you plan on keeping gobies. Mine wouldnt filter the crushed coral, he was the first to go when I had a cycle issue due to a bad vacation trip (long story).

You shouldnt need a proten skimmer on that small of a tank.

Cycle will probably take roughly 6 weeks (could be longer, could be shorter, hence needing the test kit to follow it). Dont run your lights during the cycle to avoid an algae bloom. Test... Test.. until you see the spike of nitrates/ammonia.. then the fall off.. then test some more to make sure it stays at 0.

I would then add your CUC (clean up crew), so that answers your inverts question.

Then add fish slowly. Then go for corals.

*edit* lol me and steve posting at the same time

 

Thanks!

I'm buying premade saltwater. I'll need 2 separate heaters then? One for the tank and one for my water change bucket?

Add live rock, wait for it to cycle and get down to 0 (and stay there) then add inverts (same thing? wait for it to get to 0 and stay?), then fish, then corals? Are shrimp ok for CUC (along with the snails and hermit crrabs) at first or should they be added later? Any specific snail and hermit crab recommendations?

 

It shouldnt spike again after adding your inverts... you just dont want to add a bunch of things at once that WILL put more ammonia in and make it spike again and cause another cycle. Hence adding CUC... then fish one at a time.. etc..

Turbo snails.. nassarius snells are good for cleaning. Hermits will keep your rocks clean. I would prefer more snails than hermits. I have 3 peppermint shrimp, mostly because they are cool and they took care of my aptasia problem.

 

Alright sounds good. The snails bother me because they stick right on the front of the glass! I know I need some though, darned snails.

I have these on my lists of wants but really have no idea if they're ok or not, I figured I'd ask here first.
Queen Conch
Sexy Shrimp
Pistol Shrimp (to go with the watchman goby later)

Oh that reminds me, do you buy the pistol shrimp first then later the goby or do you buy them together? Do they always get along and live together?

 

We just not got the tank up and running and it's after 10pm! We went to the store around 7 and walked around for a bit and then went to get our saltwater and live rock etc and we realized we didn't have any containers to put the water in, oops. So we had to run to target and get some cheap storage containers and then go back for everything. It's really murky right now so no pics yet but we got 21lbs of live rock. I did my best at stacking it all up, not sure how it will look once it settles but for now it'll do.

What's the purpose of the drip tray? I think I read you don't need it if you have a protein skimmer. It makes the tank noisy, not a huge deal but it's nicer when it's not in lol

Thanks again for all the help, we appreciate it!

 

Here it is!! I got a CLAM shell too, cooool.

 

Turn your lights off for the cycle, hope you were just putting them on for the picture. Also, snails multiply REALLY rapidly, so watch out!

I think your cycle shouldn't take as long since you have bothlive rock and live sand. I would maybe get a layer of the sand from the LFS and a cycle booster (bacteria in a bottle) Repeating others, but remember to check parameters every day. Same time of day. And don't buy a kit that is expired.

And it's a GOOD thing you bought all those water carrying containers, you will need them in the future. Yes, you need 2 heaters and a small airstone pump or powerhead for the top off water bucket. My top off bucket is a 5 gallon home depot bucket that I buy RO water from the LFS, put dechlorinter in it, match sG. I let this sit and let the salt dissolve and use this for my topoffs. I do not airrate or heat this top off water as I am not adding large amounts of it. If I were doing a water change then I WOULD.

Let us know how your progress is going okay?!!!!

 

Oh yeah, lights are off. A couple times a day we take a peak just because it's hard to resist but only for a few seconds.

I need to talk to the fish store and see if they take back snails and other things that will get too big or over produce, I don't know what else I'd do with them.

We buy premade salt water so we don't need a powerhead right? Just a heater to heat it up before putting it back in the tank.

An employee at the fish store told us to use RO water for top offs because the water evaporates but the salt doesn't and then to use their saltwater for water changes.

We tested the water last night and got a pH or 7.8, nitrate 10, and ammonia 0.
Are there any other levels/chemistries we should be watching? I think our kit comes with a nitrite tester but if we need anything else we'll have to go back to the store and get it, we have to go get heaters and RO water still too.