[sle3pychild]

I just got my 14 gallon bio cube and started of with live rock and 14 sea snails and 14 hermit crabs. Looking for any tips as to how to get my tank ready to put fish in it. If tank has high salt level do i add distilled water to it? Any tips would help thanks!

[Brians125]

Hello
Did you cycle your cube for 6 week's before adding anything??Did you add a sandbed or is it bare bottom?? Do you have any saltwater test kit's?? Like ALK,CAL,NITRATE,NITRITE,P H,PHOSPHATE'S,AMO....IF you havent everything you buy or will be buying will probley end up dead.....And cube's are very high in maintaining like weekly 2 gallon water change's with RO.orDI water...Last. saltwater is patience and you will be set.............Check this out i would read more if i were you.Wetwebmedia, Aquarium, Pond, Marine and Freshwater Fish, reef tanks, and Aquatics Information
G/L Brian

[sle3pychild]

I started about 2 days ago, with live rock, live sand. I have a PH test kit and the Salinity test kit for the specific gravity of the water. I also have a bacteria kit in which i was told to put 1 teaspoon of the solution in the tank every 3 days or so to get bacteria going. After 2 days of having my tank running, i measured the salinity of the water and it is a little higher than what the tool says it has to be. I dunno if its because i just started the tank. Should i give it a couple of days before i start adjusting the water? Maybe the salinity will go down.

[kawboy215]

the salinity will only go up as water evaporates it goes upas salt deos not evaporate. you shouldnt have added anything but live rock and sand as yet your gonna have to do water changes early about a third a week to keep the creatures you do have already alive once the ammonia nitrites and nitrates start spiking which is supposed to happen and is normally a good thing just not with living creatures in there especially inverts some poeple use hardy type fish to cycle there tanks in but with one this size i strongly advise not to!
so have your mixed water same temp and ph and salinity ready for partial water changes.
I always have a bucket specifcally for my tank with mixed ro water ready at the same temp and all with a little submersable heater and powerhead running for my water changes and for emergency which can pop up quite fast in little systems like yours and mine i have a 24 gal nano cube . just my opinion take it how you will. and good luck

[semy]

ive got the same tank as you......but it has only been about 2 weeks sence i first started cycling it......yes, if you do have high salt levels use distilled water so you don't add unwanted nitrites or nitrates, but make sure your salt levels are at anout 1.020-1.023(1.023 is actually high but it will be ok).....if you would happen to have high levels of nitrites,or nitrates(if you've tested yet)..the best thing to do is do a 20% water change and add biozymes....which you can get at big store names.....like jacks or petsmart.....and i would let it cycle for a few weeks after the treatments have been made....but make sure that you get fish that are non-aggressive and non-territorial.....if i was you i would get small cardinalfish,some types of blennies,small gobies,clownfish that don't look like nemo,yellow striped clingfish,or you could get some types of damsil fish if it is goin to be a damsil tank(yellow-tail damsils would be good.....extremely hardy)........thats all the info that i have for you........if you need any other info ive got a friend that can help you with just about any question.......email him [email] at jpaulaquatic@yahoo.com... .his name is josh and he owns a shop and has a lot of info that helped me and it could help you if you listen to most of his advice......tell him the exact same thing and how long you've had your tank cycle and he should tell you maybe more valuable info

happy fish keeping...

[kawboy215]

being as its ony a 14 gallon, your going to be limited to one maybe to fish. the system just wont handle any more than that safely, remember 14 gallons is its capacity with out rock sand etc. you add the approprate anount of rock a you'll have more likea 8-9 gallon.

[semy]

i talked to my boss and they said that there would be able to be two to four fish in the tank but they would have to be smaller and stay at about 2-4"......and it would be true about the rock in the tank decreasing your gallons....

[kawboy215]

You did the right thing by checking finding fish that small --- that will stay that small will be quite difficult. even damsels (which can be very territrial (spelling) will not stay small enough. If you do decide to do damsels might I recomend a pair of yellow tailed blue ones as they are a lil calmer and much more hardy in my experience. You might find that a small clownfish (purculas get only about 3in max) and maybe a neon cleaner wrasse. will do nicely. maybe a few red legged hermits a couple turbo snails, about six astrea snails and a serpent star ( no chocolate chip stars if your gonna have any coral) they even been known to eat the occasional sleeping fish. its to small for tang, groupers, angels, puffers, triggers. etc. i had one of these set up for about four years with just a fuzzy dwarf lionfish but they can be dangerous and are sometimes messy eaters. Frank

[semy]

i had an experience with a yellow-taild blue damsil......i was cleaning the tank and i put it and one of the domino damsils(do not get this fish...extremely aggresive)in a one of those hang on tank fish containers and it was about 20 minutes they were in there and they were both on the death-line....i put them back into the tank and they just went straight to the bottom.....the domino didnt make it but i acted quick with the yellow-tail and held it in front of my filter output and it jumped back to and its been fine ever since....