There is so much misinformation about how to setup a reef tank biocube on the internet, some of intentional, some of it guided to sell you stuff. Here’s what we did after visiting with several local aquatic dealers and after countless hours of research.
PROGRAMING LIGHTS
- Set clock to 12 hr vs hr and program time. Set clock to current time, paying attention to an vs pm setting
Phase 1, Daylight timer: 9:30am – 8:00pm (10.5 Hours for full lighting) - Phase 2, Sunrise/Sunset timer: 9:00am – 8:30pm. (White lights begin to come on gradually at 9:00am and will shut off completely by 8:30pm)
- Phase 3, Moonlights. These lights are the Deep blue night LED’s. I set mine to turn on from 7:00am-10pm.
RUN PARAMETERS TEST TUBES WEEKLY TO TEST WATER IN TANK
FEEDING
Every other day feed about a dime sized amount of frozen mysis shrimp or frozen shrimp brine (it’s good to alternate food sources), by holding in water with your fingers until it melts apart.
Once a week feed BeneReef to corals with a turkey baster tube. Mix 1/4 tsp of BeneReef reef food with 1/2 tsp of tank water or RODI water, stir, and wait 3-5 minutes before placing into tank. Feed 3 times per week the first and second weeks, and 2 times per week thereafter based on your systems needs. 1/4 tsp treats 25 gallons of water.
WATER CHANGES AND FILTER CHANGES
HOW TO DO WEEKLY 4 GALLON WATER CHANGES ON BIOCUBE 32
There are two blue jugs of RODI water. Here is how it goes, and don’t worry, you remember how to do it by yourself. RODI water can also be purchased at Neptune’s, if you want to skip step four or cannot figure it out, but you have enough water for a little more than a 4 gallon a water change with each 5 gallon bucket. The green can is also filled with RODI water right now, not salt. p.s. You can also use the plain RODI water to top off the two freshwater tanks, as it is chlorine free.
STEP ONE
Turn off tank powerstrip. Which also shuts off the Koralia Wi-Fi Pump. Here is the instruction manual for the pump. koralia wi fi pump manual
Get a clean bucket and use RO water in blue jugs (and right now the green jug has RODI water too). Do not use water in bucket on floor of basement shower, pour that one out, I was just cleaning it out.
Pour RO water in bucket, add pump to bottom to stir and mix saltwater to 1.025 salinity. Mix really well with your hand and the pump before testing.
STEP TWO
Take siphon and get a bucket.
Lightly move syphon just above bottom after putting cylinder under water to remove air and pushing on pump. Do not suck up sand (kink the tube if you get sand in it and it’ll drop back down).
Fill bucket a ¾ full.
STEP THREE (ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS, NOT EVERY WATER CHANGE)
Replace flat carbon filter in center of the back of tank on the top rack, every 2-3 weeks.
STEP FOUR (ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS–MAKING RODI WATER)
To fill RO blue jugs. Hook up twisting on long cap of filtering station on floor of basement shower to basement sink faucet. Look at two cut off tubes, one that says waste just goes down the drain of the shower. Other than says something like RODI (very short tube barely fits to top of jug), goes into blue jug. Turn on cold water handle faucet and leave running about two hours until jug fills. The spigot drips a little but that’s ok.
P.S. Remember you can always bring the three cans and just buy salt water ready to go in the tank at Neptune’s if you need to do so. BUT YOU HAVE TO DO WEEKLY WATER CHANGES OF 4 GALLONS EACH WEEK, OR THE TANK IS GOING TO GO INTO FAILURE MODE AND THINGS WILL START DYING.
Something else I just remembered about the tank. You need to take out the white chemipure bag in the second chamber below the carbon filter and rinse with RODI water (not tap) once a month, so it’s due to be rinsed soon. It only gets replaced every 3-6 months and it’s one month old currently. The flat carbon filter gets replaced every 2-4 weeks, when it gets dirty.
STEP FIVE (ONE A MONTH, RINSE WITH RODI WATER THE BAG OF CHEMIPURE ELITE IN THE CENTER BACK OF THE TANK, BENEATH THE CARBON FILTER IN THE SECOND TRAY OF THE RACK), REPLACING WITH NEW CHEMIPURE EVERY 3-6 MONTHS]
JOURNAL OF OUR TANK
November 13, 2019, Day 1: Setting up our Biocube 32 Marine Reef Aquarium that we got in the mail today. Added 21 pounds of CaribSea Life Rock which is a live rock, and 3 pounds of Figi/Totoka/Tukani/Slab Rock dead rock. Then, filled around the reef with about 15 lbs of CaribSea Arag-Alive 20-Pound Fiji Pink Sand. Added just about 20 gallons of salt water from Elite Reef. Added Tidal 55 Matrix pouch high capacity bio filtration that controls, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in second tray of media rack and standard Coralife Biocube carbon filter in top tray of the rack. Set up in the third chamber of the back the Hydor Submersible Glass Aquarium Heater – Original Theo 100W to 78 degrees Fahrenheit and a titanium grounding probe. And then added a magnetic flipper cleaner for nano tanks. We have some Saltwater from LFS and have done of that and some RO water left in 5 gallon water jugs for topping off for evaporation and for our first couple of water changes.
We were told that you can improve your water quality with Seachem 55 Tidal Matrix high capacity biofiltration bag, which controls the ammonia as well as the nitrite and nitrate levels in your freshwater or saltwater aquarium. Biofiltration is important because it acts as a substrate which allows microorganisms to grow. The 250ml bag will treat up to 55 gallons (200 Liters) of water. Matrix™ provides both external and internal macroporous surface area. These macropores are ideally sized for the support of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria. This allows Matrix™, unlike other forms of biomedia, to remove nitrate along with ammonia and nitrite, simultaneously and in the same filter. Matrix™ is completely inert and will not breakdown. It need not be replaced. Since the majority of the bacteria are internal, Matrix™ may be rinsed when needed (perhaps monthly with a 10% water change and replacing the carbon filter) without damaging the filter. Some people recommend a cut sheet of filter floss instead of the Biocube charcoal filter, together with a bag of Chemipure Elite and Purigen instead or micro algae in the media basket, and some recommend the addition of a protein skimmer but we will reserve those ideas for later. The Biocube 32 tank we like at Elite Reef is set up as ours, with just a carbon filter and a bag of Matrix is and has been healthy for 10 years.
Added dosing capful of Prime which will need to be added daily for the next 5-7 days. Added a raw shrimp to decompose in the bottom for three days, to give the bacteria something to fee on.
Also added two hearty fish, Green Chromis, just for enjoyment and to help start cycling the tank, knowing that they will need to be removed before other fish can be added because they are aggressive, if they survive the cycling process. We floated the bags for 20 minutes before draining the fish over a net in the sink and adding to the tank.
Salinity is 1.025 as it should be, using a refractometer as we bought the water premixed.
Day 2: Water is clearing some, added more Seachem Prime, and set up the clock and timer of lights on the Biocube.
Day 3: Water has cleared. Added more Seachem Prime. Waiting for the cycle of life to take its course. Turned off the lights to prevent excessive algae growth just for a day, will turn back on again tomorrow. Using API Saltwater Test Kit, and closely following the instructions, we tested the water and pH is 8.2, ammonia has spiked to .50 ppm but Nitrites, Nitratres are all good at 0 ppm.
Day 4: Added more Seachem Prime. Pulled out the remains of the dead shrimp tonight. Chromis are happy eating the pieces of the shrimp that broke off when it was removed. Once tests come in line, it’ll be time to start adding a clean up crew, using an Accudrip Drip acclimation kit.
Day 5: Added 1/2 inner cap more of Seachem Prime. Nitrate meter on side of tank says .50ppm still and temperature is at nearly 80 degrees, so ordered a stick on thermometer for side of tank. May need to turn down heater some. Also doesn’t appear that we need to top off yet with RO water, but some people go through a cup every few days or even a gallon a week, but doesn’t seem like we have lost much, if any, due to evaporation yet.
Day 6: Cycling is happening, everything on the tests are high, but Chromis don’t seem to mind. They like the frozen shrimp meal or marine tropical flakes both. Added more 1/2 cap more of Prime and topped off middle chamber on top of the filter with a gallon of salt water, as it was half empty, but viewing gauge on side doesn’t show any loss (that is puzzling and tank still appears full, is that where it loses first, strange that gauging window doesn’t show any loss). Salinity still 0.125, so used salt water to top off. No algae.
Day 7: Expecting the same high tests for a couple more days, so no point in testing for a few days.
In a few days, once the ammonia and nitrite levels should have dropped to zero, and then a water change can be performed. In the process of light siphon cleaning up the aquarium, old water is removed, and once done, you refill it with new saltwater. Doing a 20% to 25% water change at after this, at like 4 weeks, is beneficial for the following reasons.
- It replenishes essential sea water trace elements.
- It helps to correct and return changes in pH, alkalinity and other important parameters of the water to their ideal settings.
- It improves the overall quality of the water.
Once the aquarium is cleaned up and refilled, it’s time to rinse out or replace any mechanical water filtering materials, such as prefilter flosses, cartridges, sponges or pads with RO water. For now, let the system run for a few days to allow the filters to polish up the water. If at this point any prefiltering materials appear to be dirty, clean them up again. But this first water change is a few weeks out still and we decided against a water change or filteration change until 5 weeks, after advice from several people not to do this during the cycling.
Tip: No water changes should be performed, or any ammonia destroying products added to the water while the tank is cycling, as this only delays and drags out the completion of the cycling process.
Day 8: A Chromi has died and got stuck inside a hole in the rock, which could not be retrieved, which caused more ammonia to spike again. Looking at some upgrades, here is the advice we received: A skimmer isn’t really necessary for such a small tank as long as you are diligent with weekly water changes.
If you want to get serious about coral then you’re going to want to upgrade the lighting. The stock lights are fine for fish and hardy soft coral, but still not ideal for much more than that. Some say, that they upgraded to Steve’s LED kit and can say with confidence that it is the single best upgrade they have made to my tank. It’s expensive at $300 but we will see as many others, stick with stock lights.
Day 9: The stock media rack is certainly acceptable however a better option according to some recommend the InTank media basket for around $60, according to advice on the internet. But we went with three of the LFS salt water store owner’s advice, and our homey’s advice at Elite Reef, as they all run nothing. Recommended to us the cheato and a fudge light, at some point maybe.
The Internet forums say a stock setup would also benefit from more flow via powerheads. They can range from $25 to $200 depending on brand and features. The advice was recommend at least one cheap one to start with. Some say they got an MP10 and many say that that it is the second best upgrade made to the tank. We returned ours, as many if not most experts say it is not needed and it is detrimental to a bigger anemone, that we intend to add soon. This was the best wavemaker that we found, which would then be covered on the sides with prefilter foam, to keep the anemone from getting into it, but we decided to return it as we don’t think we will need it. Hydor Q01011 1 KPS-Wavemaker Pump WiFi CONTROLLABLE, Later added a JBJ Nano Wavemaker, for which our jury is still out on, as it was only $25 but it is not adjustable and seems too powerful for most of the corals to like.
Excited for the cycle to finish to add a couple hearty corals and some livestock. You don’t have to wait 6 months for some of the easy to care for SPF corals – just the anemone. Others say go ahead and add the anemone now.
Some say the lighting that is stock on the Biocube are great, others say not so much, but I’m reading the booklet that came with my tank and it says:
PAR 53
Peak PAR @ 12″ 81
LUX 2200
Peak LUX @ 12″ 3430
Recommendations, were to look into leathers, zoanthids, mushrooms, toadstools, which are all softies, as well as acanthastrea, favias, trumpets and euphyllia, (LPS corals.) These corals may be kept under higher lighting at stores, so would have to adapt to the lower lighting in your tank. This means they may be unhappy for a while after you get them home. I would suggest taking it slow, starting with a softie or two to see how it goes. If it goes well, try a more difficult coral like an LPS and give it some time before adding more. If you can happily house softies and LPS, then you could feel comfortable trying an anemone. ‘Nem’s don’t really do well in new tanks anyway, so best to wait and allow things to mature a bit. Two to six months depending on who you ask. Some say they are ok right away.
Duncan coral or bubble coral for the clowns to play in are the most interesting to us, and the Stormtrooper Clowns or long finned clowns are the coolest, at a high price of $140-160 each, but there’s some ultra fancy clowns that are nearly as cool for $29, which is what we opted for doingBut most aquarium shops run nothing in established Biocube racks for chemical filtration, we discovered. Filled to full on the water window and wait 2 for weeks. No carbon, stop doing Bacteria supplement, etc., no nothing, according to some, but we have the carbon filter. Then add coral and fish slowly, 1 fish per week. Added one bag of Marine Pure media to the bottom below the media rack, with a bag of Matrix above and above that in the top shelf a standard filter or will be replaced soon with blue and white filter cut to fit. Advice was with anemone, turn off the powerhead, or don’t bother with one at all. Returning mine, as it seems not necessary, with small weekly water changes.
The non-live coral and rock was white, now it’s yellow, green and purple, covered with bacteria and algae, almost there for the cycle to be completed by nitrites are high.
Week 3. First cycle is complete. Added 6 Red tipped hermit crabs and 4 Banded snails (not sure what kind) and two beginner’s corals that we got for $5 each, one with orange zoas on a dead mussel and another that looks like grass, called a green star polyp. Time for some Snowflake or Stormtrooper Clowns this weekend. Added some more caps of bacteria supplement, which was a mistake as water got cloudy, with a bacteria bloom.
Week 4: Parameters still all great. Added two fancy snowflake clowns, and a tuxedo urchin after dripping them in a bucket for 20 minutes with half tank water and the water they came in. And added a few more sale coral frags, mushrooms and hammerhead. Everyone seems happy and corals reopened right away. Neon green trumpet coral, five red mushrooms on a big piece of rock, two blue mushrooms on a smaller rock, a neon hammerhead, and they are all doing well. Need a bone saw or dremel for cutting the drag stems. Added a few algae wafers. Fed some frozen shrimp and some flakes to the new fish. Woke up to a cloud of diatom bloom. Tests are all good and within parameters. Added a chemipure elite bag (note to rinse first next time with RO water, as this clouded the water even more for a day) to the second tray with a sheet of blue filter, replaced the carbon filter which was gross, and then we added some water clarifying treatment. Did a 3 gallon water change. It cleared up two days later, then some rocks were moved to re-position the coral and it clouded again. Treated with the water clarifying treatment again and it seems to be improving. Probably time for a 25% water change, which we will do this week.
Next on the daughter’s list when things mature a bit more, is a tiger pistol shrimp, watchman goby, starfish that is marine reef/coral safe, which chocolate chip are not, and a bubble tipped anemone.
4.5 weeks. Set up an LBJ Oceanstream Nano WM-3E Wavemaker and did a 2.5 gallon water change, on three days this week, water is clearing. Changed the carbon again after only a week and rreplaced blue pad from second chamber where chemipure is also at, as it was filthy. Added a little more clarifying solution. Added Aquarium Green Killing Machine Internal UV Sterilizer with Power Head, for a few days to return chamber 3, looking better already. Balanced salinity with a small water change and RO water added, as was at 1.027, returned to 1.025.
All cleared up after a couple smaller water changes, vacuuming the sand and turning on Green Killing Machine UV for 12 hours. Added a Dracula Watchman Goby, and 4 year old Tiger Pistol Shrimp, gifted from a friend at at Murrman’s. They also said small water 3-5 gallon changes do not require temperature heated water changes, so sending extra heater back.
A second one of the original banded snails died, and a red mushroom coral fell off or decided to move, saw it floating around in the tank, which is concerning, maybe UV wasn’t as great of a solution or the power head was too strong, so shut both of those off. But, maybe not enough algae left to eat, so went back to regular light schedule sand added an algae wafer, tests all still in parameters. Added a Sunset Bubble Tip Anemone which came to the Murman’s Reef shop by way of Texas and related rare Red Death Palys coral pieces on the same rock and it has a purple elephant ear mushroom coral that we forgot the name of on it next to the anemone, along with two different Kenya Tree corals next to it. He made us a deal together with an electric green Elegance Coral and a couple more corals that I think are like purple leather corals, both thown in from Murrman’s Reef, together with a replacement trochus snail with pink coraline on its shell. Thanks Jack! Reset a lot of coral rocks and glued a few down. Everything seems pretty happy but we had some red hair algae on three smaller rocks that I removed, scrubbed with a toothbrush and soaked in hydrogen peroxide for 3 minutes, soaked in RO water for 25 minutes and returned to the tank, with the rest of the bag of sand, as many say you need 2” of sand for the shrimp and goby. In the morning, the sand had all been moved around by the shrimp into burrows.
December 17, 2019, Almost out of both salt and RODI water and after having been told that they will pay for themselves in less than a year, I purchased a complete RODI system (which was inexpensive on Amazon and highly recommended), auto float shutoff, tester, and some salt water for under $100. Will get started making our own water tomorrow. Decided to use the Nano wavemaker for the pump in mixing the salt, as it seems too powerful for our corals to enjoy. Going to use the $20 nano wavemaker as the pump to mix the water, as it doesn’t work well and the corals aren’t happy without the timer/controller, which we didn’t get and is another $45, which makes the original recommended wifi wavemaker a better option, so I am reordering the Hydor Q01011 1 KPS-Wavemaker Pump WiFi CONTROLLABLE.
Instant Ocean Sea Salt for Marine Aquariums, Nitrate & Phosphate-Free, 50-Gallon
We will also want to get some foam prefilter for the wavemaker to keep the anemone out of it, if it ever gets this big.
Calcium a little low, ph a little high, everything else perfect.
Surprisingly the RODI water filtration system is perfect, 0 ppm, Elite reef RO was 10ppm, our fridge car on filtration was 90 and tap was 110. Seems like a good investment. Shop says we will pay for it in a year’s time. Already seems great, not needing to balance fir our other two freshwater tanks with chemicals.
GETTING RID OF RED SLIME ALGAE (CYANOBACTERIA)
Excital is the new way of removing cyanobacteria without using antibiotics or compounds which contain copper.
Cyanobacteria (red slime algae) often arise if the water temperature rises, sometimes in combination with a high level of organics in the water or rotting bottom material. Excital effectively gets rid of cyanobacteria. Excital is easy and safe to use and is harmless to fish and corals. If there is a serious infestation, then it is recommended to first remove the cyanobacteria by hand as much as possible and then add Excital. If there is a serious infestation, the Excital treatment can be prolonged for a few days, even with a double dose. Took forever to arrive so got som Ultra Life Red Slime Stain Remover recommended by LFS, they said every tank in the shop gets treated with this several times a year. Lauren also got a conch and blue starfish. Also hooked up the Hydor wavemaker and set on SPS 100 cycle.
Blue starfish and pistol shrimp both dead, seems to have attacked each other, removed both, shrimp was mostly gone, pieces of shell and legs all over, so no feeding for a few days. Added 3 new large snails and 3 corals, one SPS. Did a 2 gallon water change, replaced carbon filter with foam sheet, chemipure Elite still below it, and checked parameters. Seems to be more algae now on the rocks and glass.
The Pistol Shrimp is still alive, he apparently just molted! He’s my favorite creature, so I’m so happy about that. No signs of the goby today though at feeding time. Hopefully he’s in there somewhere.
Lauren got a Big Polyp Blastomussa “Blasto” coral is also referred to as a Blastomussa Pineapple Coral from Elite Reef. … It is a large polyp stony (LPS) coral and has many round swollen discs, that when open, resemble a mushroom anemone. It is blue, brown, red, green, or a combination of all of these colors.
Starting to get some bubble algae. Trying to get rid of it with the UltraLife Red Slime Remover. If that doesn’t work, going to try the Easy Life Exictal, recommended by a friend, which is a bacterial solution, as opposed to a chemical one. The wisteria coral isn’t doing well, so turned down the flow for him, had it on the max cycle, which maybe wasn’t a good idea, so went back to the medium one.
January 25,2019, dosed with red slime remover to try to rid the bubble algae, as manual removal is time consuming. Two days later nothing really gone, so dosed Excital. Removed charcoal and chemipure as instructed. Killed all the soft corals the next two days, not sure which one did it but since Excital is a baterial supplement, I suspect that the red slime remover burned some of them. Even though I had used it once before without a problem, this time it was a little chunkier, so it maybe burned and killed some of the corals. Like 5 of them including the maxi carpet leather coral, the Blasto, Hammerhead, Cyphastrea, encrusting montipora and one other!!! Did two days of five gallon water changes and added back in filters. Dosed some beneficial bacteria. It didn’t help with the bubble algae at all. Trying manual removal and suction now. Parameters are all still good, nitrates and nitrites a little high, removed the dead corals and will recheck in a couple days.
2/1/20 Just when we thought we we’re smarter than everyone else. One clown died. Something is happening. Ph 8.2, ammonia 2.5, nitrate 5.0, nitrite 0. Phosphate 0. Was doing twice weekly 5 gal changes. Everything was testing 0 until this week, but corals maybe felt it coming, last week. I dunno. Replaced carbon filters weekly, did weekly water changes of 3-4 gallons. We are only like 2-3 months in, so maybe we got too confident, too quickly, as everything was perfect after first cycle until now. Ph was 8.3-8.2 constant since beginning. RODI water 0. Salinity tested at 1.025 etc, no expense spared. Don’t know where we went wrong.
Got a Coralife Biocube New Style Protein Skimmer (V2) with needle wheel, no airstone or air pump required for $50 from www.marineandreef.com. It’s ok, doesn’t seem to do much or we don’t have much to skim, so haven’t been running it often. Instructions say it won’t fit in chamber 1, but we got it in there just fine.
February 9, 2020–The Tiger Pistol Shimp is doing well, minus the Watchman Goby it came with, he like moving a lot of sand around. Everything is back to normal levels, but still fighting the bubble algae. Jack says to try Vibrant, but says that it sometimes kills other stuff like corals. So we ordered but didn’t use yet. He thinks the Excitol caused our mini-crash, which seems crazy to him that a bacteria can outcompete the bubble algae. So we opted for the natural route this time, added two Emerald Crabs. One really like chomping down on the bubble algae. The other disappeared for a while but is now back. The red snail died, something bit him badly severing his tongue, probably the shrimp, not sure.
And Lauren got a be Black Snowflake Clown and a sand dwelling Fungia Plate Coral today, as we’ve been normal testing for over two weeks now.
3/7/19 Went to the Denver Reef show and Lauren came home with some new corals for her tank which she is very excited about.
