Biocube 29 setup help

New here, first post. I am fairly new to the hobby, less than 2 years in. I just bought a new biocube 29 HQI with stand. It currently has bio balls in chamber 2, stock pump in 3 and an Innovative Marine Skimmate Protein Skimmer in chamber 1, had to mod it a little to get hood closed. I have about 20 lbs of live sand and about 20 lbs of live rock, will be adding more. I have the spinstream added and an Aqueon circulation pump 500. My question is would it be more beneficial to empty chamber 2 of the bio balls and fill it with cheato algea, using a nano glo, and upgrade the sponge on top? Or leave it as is? My plan for the tank is a couple clowns, snails, crabs, shrimps and soft corals. Any recommendations on coral options that would be best for this tank? Thanks for any input and I look forward to learning as much as I can, been researching tons with this site.

 

Congrats on the tank amd welcome to 3reef! Cheato would be better than bio balls IMO. Nice natural filtration and it will definitely help keep your system balanced and healthy! Can't wait to see it setup!

 

Corals

Thanks for the reply, I will post pictures in the near future. Still trying to figure this site out. Do you know of any corals that would be best for this tank and my experience level?

 

Yes I would remove the bio-balls and replace with either chaeto, chemipure and or purigen. I like to have sponge right under the over flow to collect suspended particles.

Being as it's a HQI, I would replace the stock bulb with either Phoenix or Radium but those are my personal choices.

With an HQI you can grow a lot more than soft corals. If you prefer soft than I would look at Xenia, Kenya tree, Mushroom corals and Zoanthids and or Palys.


Welcome to 3reef.