starting a biocube

[eric faatz]

Around Christmas time i am hoping to set up a size 14 biocube and start a nano. I am just wondering what i will need. For example how much live sand will i need and how many pounds of lr. Will i also need to buy a heater and a protien skimmer.

 

[nxb161]

at least 14lbs or rock and 14lbs of sand. Depends how much money you want to spend, as far as sand you dry aragonite (no need to go live, save you money for live rock) and as far as the rock, if you have the money you can get all live, if not get some base rock (dry rock) and some live rock. It will all (sand and rock) become live at some point. Heater, yeah most likely. All depends how consistent your house temp is. I keep it cool in the house during the winter to save money, so I have a heater in mine. Protein skimmer you could get away without having one (there is actually another post going on now about protein skimmers & nanos) Of course if you have it, it'll only make it better, but not necessary.


Just curious, why a 14G? I know i started with a 29G BioCube, quickly put up a second tank 38G w/ 10G sump, and I'm looking for a 125G on craigslist.

 

[Bige]

+1. On all that. You should have a heater but the skimmer is not necessary on a tank that small. If you keep up with pwc you will be fine.

 

[eric faatz]

Thank both of you for the help. The reason i wanna go for a 14 is because at my lfs they have one set up for show and its so nice. Plus i have to start goin small because not alot of space.

 

[Jimbo7]

14lbs of sand seems excessive IMO. Its been awhile since I purchased sand, so I could be wrong. I always went with 1.2-1.5lbs LR/g and just had my sand bed as high as I liked. You can find calculators to figure out how many lbs you need for a certain tank, for a certain height bed.
Make sure you do some reading into the challenges of a nano over larger systems. They require a bit more fine tuning.

 

[tone]

nice.....biocubes are sweet....good luck

 

[eric faatz]

Thank you everyone!

 

[skae310]

I have a biocube and have probably 12-15 lbs of sand. As for live rock I have about 16 lbs. Any more and I wouldnt have much room for corals. But some rock is more dense. Mine just seems really light.

 

[rive1404]

I have an 8 gallon BioCube and I just use a small 50 watt Stealth heater. A protein skimmer isn't necessary, but you will have to top off frequently and make sure to keep up with the water changes.