Help Please Biocube, bio balls and other stuff

[acmefish]

Hi all, this is my first salt water tank I have a 50gl with african chiclids and I just love it.

I just got a 14gl Biocube..... I am on day 4 right now. I saw a few other forums mentioning the 1st thing to do for the Biocube is to toss the included filter cartridge and the bio balls but when I take out the bio balls it sound like I have niagara falls in my room. What can I put in there? Should I put liverock in the 2nd chamber? Should I get a skimmer for the 3rd chamber? I can also see a white little starfish in the tank will it make it? What will it eat?

 

Thanks

[airangel]

 

Not familar with the biocube but yes remove all the stuff, some do keep a bit of the foam sponge but its a mess to clean and collects nitrates. Use floss like you can find in craft section of Walmart, big bag =real cheap. Use a bit and change weekly if not sooner (depends on how full it gets) Live rock will just collect garbage too. Down the road you may want to change a chamber into a fuge (refugium) with a submersible lite or peel off the backing and attach a lite there as well, helps filtration (macro algae called chaeto)

 

Not sure why your tank is so noisy, mebbe someone has the answer. There is some biocube skimmer I believe, not sure how good it works, but you wouldnt use it till after your cycle.

 

Starfish, Asterina spp should do fine, it will find things to eat on the live rock.

[Sctn4Elk]

Don't know much about the tank, but the starfish will probably survive the cycle as it will acclimate as the tank changes. Unless you have a real bad Ammonia or Nitrite spike that is...

 

I am sure someone will help you out about the tank...

[acmefish]

One more thing I don't get what I would use the blue light is for? It has 3 lights white, moon light, and a blue light. Like dental floss? Sorry I must sound silly...But what would floss do?

 

Thanks for your help

[bossdj]

blue lights are acntics, some people run them with their white lights some people run them before or after their white lights and the moonlights of course can be used at night when the other lights are off. the floss is polyester fiber fill, it is made to fill quilts or sometimes pillows. you can find it in the crafts section at walmart. people on the forums call it filter floss but you want to refer to it as polyester fiber fill or just explain to the people at the store that it looks cottony and used to fill quilts and pillows if you can't find it and they don't know it by name. do a search on the forum for filter floss to see pics if you can't find any i'll try to post later.

 

basically you want to take a clump of the floss and put it in your 1st compartment in the back of your tank where the water drains into the back of your tank and as water comes into the back compartment tiny particles, food and other things in your water will collect on floss and thus removing them from your water. the bag of floss is super cheap so i change mine everyday or every other day. you can also goto your lfs and ask them for a sponge that will go under your filter floss as a secondary device to catch stuff. i put a clump of floss the size between a baseball and a softball so i hardly ever get anything on the sponge. when you change your floss out take your sponge out and give it a rinse to clean it off then put it back in your tank.

hopes this helps

[acmefish]

Thank you so much now I get it.... I think But the cube is stating to make me crazyyyyyy! The first one I got was leaking it was an 8gl so I called the store they said it would be a week before they got an 8gl in but they had 14gl ones so I got a 14gl. Now my white light is not working. the fan is working but not the light. Grrrrrr If I have to move everything one more time I am going to go crazy plus I have some hitchhiker I don't know if they will make it in the move.

[khill13]

Thank you so much now I get it.... I think But the cube is stating to make me crazyyyyyy! The first one I got was leaking it was an 8gl so I called the store they said it would be a week before they got an 8gl in but they had 14gl ones so I got a 14gl. Now my white light is not working. the fan is working but not the light. Grrrrrr If I have to move everything one more time I am going to go crazy plus I have some hitchhiker I don't know if they will make it in the move.

Just see if they can switch the hood that way you don't have to move anything. Also about the water noise just add a lot more water, forget about the min/ max line. BTW you might want to keep enough room between your LR and glass for cleaning.