Help me stock BioCube 14

[DarthFred6996]

I have a BioCube 14. 18 lbs live rock. 2-3" live sand bed. Not going to run a skimmer, but do weekly water changes of 20%. Tank has fully cycled and only thing in there is two small hermits (not sure what kind but has red antenna and red/brown legs). I also have three aptasia I will be destroying this weekend. Tank is full of amphipods and copepods. I think I have 3 peanut worms but I am not certain as I can only see the feeler at night from a small hole in the rock. I plan on just having soft corals, zoos, shrooms, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp to eat any stray aptasia, snails of the algae and detritus eating variety, a sand sifting goby of some kind, my daughter wants a percula clown or two, and maybe another fish, maybe a brittle star. I like to balance the little ecosystem. I have had a FOWLR tank about 10 years ago with great success.

So I want advice on what to put in the tank. The above things are just what I had in mind, but I am very open to suggestions.

Thanks for your input

[caliyoshi]

Hi

I have a 29g Biocube that I bought about a 2 months ago. after 2 weeks I began stocking it first with ordinary damsels, there are bw striped ones, blue with yellow ones, and black ones. They are typically cheap so you won't risk alot of money on more expensive fish.

After my damsels survived for a week, I checked all the chem levels and all seemed okay. Next I got 3 cleaner shrimp which are very fun to watch, they swim upside down, scavenge any bits of algae and other stuff off the tank, and they are always trying to clean my fish. They are very easy to take care of I just keep a close eye on my salinity.

I am mainly interested in having a soft coral tank. So I searched www.craigslist.org for other reef keepers and found many people that are trading and selling frags or bits of zoos, xenia, and other polyps. Depending on your area you may want to check out www.craigslist.com and see if anyone in your area is trading.

Everything I have collected has done well, I have zoos of all colors, yellow polps, star polyps which I would really recommend for they have very flourescent colors. Mushrooms, waving hand xenia, anemones, and others.

I suggest if you don't already have one built, build a teering stack of your live rock in a mountain type shape with flat surfaces of rocks facing the light all the way to the top of your tank. I have noticed that each type of zoo and other soft coral likes a different amount of light, So I am constantly moving things around til they look happy and open fully.

Good luck and check out craigslist and see if you can find someone trading corals you also get to see their tank when you go to pick up the frags and check out how they have things setup.