14g Oceanic Biocube ?'s

[jd949]

Hello all,

I have recently purchased a 14g bio cube. I have been reading a lot, and I am one who prefers to explore all of my options before I start. Having said that I have a few questions that I am looking for some other people's opions on.

First here is what I have so far:

14g Oceanic Biocube with lights and filters included.
10lbs of fiji live rock
approx 12lbs of live sand
R/O premixed saltwater from high end LFS.

I am looking at doing some simple corals, and only a couple fish, CUC, and a couple shrimp.

I also have a 150g tank in storage right now, that I plan on setting up in the future as a nice reef tank with some higher end corals one I have gotten used to the nano, and gained some experience.

Having said that, I am looking for a good test kit. One that I may have more then I need for the nano, but also be useful for the larger tank down the road.

I also was wondering what people's thoughts on the Oceanic bio cube protein skimmer are? I like the idea of it being housed in the chamber on the back of the tank out of sight, but if it is lacking in functionality, I would opt for a better one and live with it being in plain view.

Sorry for being long winded. Thanks for your input.

Jon

 

[Ritsuko N]

A quality brand of test kit suitable for a Nano will be equally suitable for a larger 150 gallon tank. You will be running the same test on a system irregardless of its size. At a minimum you will need to test for Salanity, PH, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates but there are others such as Copper. Iron, Phosphate, Calcium, Silica and Alk that may need to be tested from time to time as well.

Refractometers and other test equipment can be exceptionally accurate to use unfortunately there aint test equipment like this available for all of the test you might want to run. These test equipment items are pretty pricey as well. Salifert makes what many consider to be the best on the market for test kits. They are proud of thier products though. I have used API and Hagen and found them to be fairly easy and reasonably accurate.

HTH's...

 

[KidNano]

I've heard a lot of people have problems with the Salifert tests. While some of that I'm sure is user error I'm sure some of it isn't. I only have one salifert test kit and it seams cheap to me. It's not well put together. I probably won't buy Salifert again.

I've "heard" that the API test kits are very reliable.

Good luck choosing your kits and :welcome both of you to Nanotank.

Ritsuko N. It will be nice to have another knowledgeable experienced reefer on the site.