Setting up BioCube 14 gallon

[BlueSallymandr]

Hi everyone,
I'm brand new to saltwater tanks, but have several years of experience with freshwater. I just got a used BioCube 14 setup today, and I've been doing some reading. It came set up with live sand and filled with water but I'm not sure it's "live" anymore if it hasn't been provided with an ammonia source recently? It's aquascaped with plain rocks.

My questions are:
- I was thinking of getting a bit of cured live rock to help speed up the cycling process, and then using "ghost feeding" for as long as it takes to cycle the tank. Is this a good plan, or should I hold off on the live rock?

- I was thinking of stocking a Yellow Watchman Goby/Randall's pistol shrimp pair, along with a Royal Gamma. Do you think these would be okay? I'm open to different fish suggestions, but I really like the idea of the goby/shrimp pair. I'm not a huge clownfish person.

- How far into the process of starting the tank does one add corals?

- Would it be a good idea to add macroalgae to the tank right away to compete with pest algae?

Don't worry, I'm doing research, and haven't bought any livestock yet, but I thought it would help to ask more experienced keepers too. Thanks in advance!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Starting with wet cured live rock is the best option, compared to starting with dry rock. If you use wet cured live rock, the tank will insta-cycle and you can add livestock right away. If you use dry rocks, you need to wait for the cycle to complete. Ghost feeding is the slowest way to cycle a tank, get some ammonia and a bottle of bacteria, like Tims or something similiar, and you can cycle the tank in a couple of weeks.

Your fish list looks good to me.

You can add corals whenever you want, but its generally advised to new hobbyists to wait a few months for the tank to stabilize and to get more experience. Keeping corals is fairly complex and difficult and expensive, so better to go slow.

I would not suggest to add macro algae right away. Macro algae is to fight increasing nitrate, so you add it when the nitrate starts to get out of control. However, on such a small tank like yours, weekly water changes is the main filtration on the tank. I would not bother to add macro algae on such a small tank, weekly water changes are easier.

Good you are doing the research, its important to understand that freshwater and saltwater tanks are completely different. Lots of helpful folks here though. Good luck

 

[kevgib67]

Ya, I think your fish list looks good. I’m a big proponent of live rock, it makes starting your tank much easier. When your tank is ready start with some of the easier corals until you get the hang of things.

 

[jda]

Take the approach that the tank never finishes cycling - cyclical, like the name implies. What most people call a cycle is just getting enough ammonia oxidizing bacteria to convert some fish waste into other less toxic forms. Just have some real live rock can do this... but you are not done with anything and the tank still needs time to mature and develop an ecosystem. Once you get the rock fish are OK once the water gets clear and the salinity and temp are OK. Corals should wait until you get the spreading of some film algae and bacteria to other surfaces. The shrimp are very sensitive to environment changes, so I would wait the longest on the goby/shrimp pair until you are good at your craft with maintenance and maybe you have coralline growing or corals starting to grow just to be safe - you can likely add the sooner (many have) but the risk is higher.

 

[jda]

As for fish, there are a lot of different captive bred gobies and stuff that are good for small tanks. I love yellow tail damsels since they stay small, are cheap, colorful and not aggressive.

 

[BlueSallymandr]

Thanks everyone! Today I bought some wet cured live rock to add to the dry rock already in the tank.

Should my stocking order be something like:
1) small cleanup crew (no shrimps yet, snails and hermit crabs)
2) royal gamma
3) yellow watchman goby
4) pistol shrimp
5) easy coral(s)

The only reason I wouldn't add the shrimp and goby together is that I was thinking I'm going to set up a quarantine tank and treat with copper and of course I wouldn't do that to the shrimp.

For corals, I was thinking of getting tank raised ones from a local hobbyist if I can, on the theory that these will be well adapted to living in a hobby tank? I know I have a lot more reading to do before then. I have no idea what corals I want - just something hardy and easy to please.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Looks good to me. Personally, I add the clean up crew as needed.

When I add my first fish, thats usually when I get the first carnivores/omnivores to eat left over food that the fish miss. When I see algae, thats when I get herbivores and increase as needed.