8 Gallon Cube

[frontline]

New to Canreef. Been lurking around for awhile reading some amazing build threads. This is my first adventure into salt. Last tank i had was a 90 gal Chicild tank in my old basement suite. All was fine and beatiful till coming home to my roommate bathing in the tank. He was nearly drowned.
Just set this up the other night. A Oceanic Biocube 8. Hopefully this will tide me over till my 46 gal. bowfront is ready.
Thanks to the guys at Hidden Reef (mike\dan)

Ok so far. about 11 pounds of live rock and 4 pounds of live sand. comes with pc lighting. one 10000k,one true actnic blue 3 and two one watt moon lights. I love the idea of the plug and play set-up. So now just waiting for it to cycle. Any ideas for stocking?
It is currently in the kitchen for my g\f to get used to the idea of having a couple tanks in the house:razz: Only problem i can see so far is that the temp in my apartment building is pretty high. Tank is sitting around 80 right now.

oh and i also have a ten gallon with about 25 lbs of live sand and 11 lbs of live cycling in my office. A friend just wanted to join the bandwagon. My guess is that whatever ends up in there will eventually make it into my 46gal. I will leave that for another thread. Pictures to be up as soon as i find the cord for my camera. just moved.
Any ideas for stocking?

[muck]

Welcome to Canreef! Looking forward to seeing the pics..

One question... All was fine and beatiful till coming home to my roommate bathing in the tank. WTF????...... You Serious..??? :eek:

[Redrover]

In regards to stocking...the person to talk to in this regard would be Marc from Hidden Reef...hard to beat his knowledge...he's the man to talk to...
He did all the construction on my 120 reef...rock work...advised on the stocking...I did a lot of reading then asked his thoughs in regards to the type of fish I was looking at.

RJ

[niloc16]

for the 8 gal size you could a few really cool gobies in there, cleaner shrimp or fire shrimp,

[justinl]

welcome to canreef!

ive got an 8gal biocube myself (from HR no less). have you done any mods to it? it says plug and play but that's only if it's for FW. there are a few minor things that should to be done to make it perfect for SW.

I ended up making mine a mantis shrimp reef tank. have you considered a mantis? otherwise, i think a goby/pistol shrimp combination would be cool.

man, if i had a roommate take a dip in my tank i woulda gone ballistic.

[frontline]

my roommate in the tank was not all that bad. Made up mind about going salt water.
Here are a couple snapshots: First is of the whole tank. Don't mind the smudged glass.
The tank is in the kitchen in the enclove where a microwave oven usually sits. I am revamping the kitchen and am making an encloser around the tank so all you see is the curved face. Should turn out pretty cool. As long as I do it all while the girlfriend is out.



1707

[frontline]

I have yet to do any mods. What did you do to yours? I am going to put some small pieces of LR instead of the bioballs. Besides that I am pretty fresh to the salt world :mrgreen:





close up of upper right side.

1708

[justinl]

are you leaning that rock against the glass? aren't you afraid of scratching it up?

the mods i did to my biocube were really quite simple. removed the bioballs and replaced with LR rubble (roughly ping pong ball sized), removed stock filter pad and replaced with a sock with a bit of carbon, and widen (not deepen!) the overflow between chamber 1 and 2.

i may replace the stock pump with an MJ 900, but im still sittin on the fence for that one.

is that you heater on the right side? why dont you throw that into one of the back chambers? mine fits inside chamber 1 with the sock of carbon.

[frontline]

I don't think it is against the glass. Will check though. the heater is just sitting there as of yet to use it. I am planning on putting it into chamber one. I think that the flow in the tank is quite good would not mind branching the nozzle to help redirect water though.

[frontline]

Water Parameters as of 830pm last night.
temp: 80 degrees
Ph: 8.2
Nitrate: 0
Phosphates: 0.2<
Calcium: 315mg/L
Alkalinity:250ppm
Side note rock is not quite touching the glass

[frontline]

Update. Tank cycled quite nicely. I am quite enjoying this nano cube. Currently have about 15 lbs of rock now. Added a Couple of hermits and three chromis, so the g\f would see that fish "could actually live in there." My heater does not fit into chamber one. Any suggestions on a heater type that will? Have had to lately have the lid up and been blowing a fan across the surface. Looks like a chiller maybe in order for the new bigger tank.
Will provide picture update tommorow.

[justinl]

good to hear that it's going well and that you're enjoying the tank.

i would remove two of those fish though. in an 8gal tank, especially one with no skimmer or sump, i would say maximum one fish (size of a chromis) or two - maybe three - small goby sized fish. you have to be careful with small tanks because they require much less of a screw up to crash.

you should also stock much slower as well. one fish at a time and give the tank at least a couple of weeks to settle before introducing anything else significant.

I have a visitherm stealth that fits just right. i cant remember if i had to take out the false bottom or not. just take a wire (like from a coat hanger), and make a hook. you should be able to pull out the false bottom (it's like a grate) using that.

[frontline]

thanks for the coathanger idea. Yah it is stocked a little quick. Not too worry though they will be in the 46gal in no time. Will have the tank staying as is for quite a while.

[Mik_101]

Nice little set up you have got goig. What are you going to kee interms of live stock besides the 3 chromis and the few hermits. IMO a fire fish would look stuning in the little tank:biggrin:

[MoeReefer]

your tank sounds great. i love this hobby, id say the only downside is trying to get out of town for a while and have a competent person who can care for your baby when you are gone.
i have to ask, what happened with the room mate and your old tank?????

cheers

[frontline]

Well when my roommate was still in the tank bathing (after a night of gin) I helped him "rinse" in the tank. Then when i finally got his butt out of the tank, into the backyard for a nice hosing off. haha 5 degrees outside. I let him stay out there for about 20 mins. As he was having a hot shower to warm up. I mistakenly flushed the toliet, ran the dishwasher, and the kitchen sink a billion times. Opps!
By the way I like the name Jordan, it is mine too.