started my first saltwater tank - BioCube8 nano reef

[gheitman]

After keeping freshwater tanks for over 10 years I finally decided to jump into saltwater. A few weeks ago I picked up a used BioCube 8 off of Craigslist and just finished setting it up last night. It has the standard lighting (2 blue moon-glow LEDs, 1 18W 10K daylight CFL and 1 18W Actinic 03 CFL) but I removed the false bottoms in the first and second chambers and put a 50W heater in the former and InTank's Media Basket in the latter. The Media Basket is used in place of the standard filter cartridge and bio-balls and currently just has filter floss in it but eventually I'll add Purigen and Chemi-Pure Elite. I also added the BioCube Circulation Pump which pushes water at 250 gph for good circulation. I put in 8 lbs of live rock and 10 lbs of live sand and filled the tank up with 5 gal of RO water treated with Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. Here are the water parameters.

Specific gravity - 1.024 gm per cubic cm
Temperature - 79 deg F

I have Kent Marine's Nano Reef Parts A and B which I add to the water daily. Because of the high temperatures in my apartment during the summer I've added dual fans that blow through the access panel opening. I intend to eventually stock the tank with one fish (probably a goby), some soft corals and SPS, one or two red-legged hermit crabs and Astraea snails and also some shrimp. I've been doing some research on the forums here and also picked up a few books on reef tanks, marine invertebrates and saltwater fish. I'd appreciate any suggestions or comments.

[abdhalim2]

nice and simple setup there...i dont think u can keep SPS with that fixtures....

[carey]

Looks good. I have a 29 cube and I also replaced the back compartment with a media basket and a fuge. I run purigen, chemipure elite and filter pad on top in mine and it works quite well.

The stock lights will et you keep most soft and easy corals too. As far as SPS you might get away with someof the lower light ones placed high in the tank, but the lighting isnt the best for that particular coral type.

A nice goby sounds great, nice to see you not wanting to put like 4 or more fish in there. LOL You could maybe add a firefish too.

[gheitman]

I realize that the SPS may not work because of the lighting and haven't made up my mind yet one way or the other. I'd like to get a sand-sifting, algae-eating goby like Hector's or Rainsford's if I can find one but my LFS would have to order one.