Help me understand... BioCube lighting

[jhast0n]

Hello out there~

I'm new to this hobby and so far, I am LOVING it. It's like art in motion. Okay so I'm reaching out to see if there is someone out there that can help me understand my BioCube lighting. My husband bought it off a guy and the guy didn't have any information or papers on it. My questions are, there are 4 switches/buttons on top, my far left operates my LEDlight, the 2nd so far doesn't do anything, the 3rd runs the actnic and fans, and the 4th the farthest to the right runs my daylight bulbs. So what is the 2nd switch/button for? And when it comes to lighting, I had to order replacement bulbs for the actnic and daylight and have been running off of my LED lights which my corals have seem to be loving. So which lights should I run together, if any? and how long would your recommend running them? Is it okay to just run the LED's on their own? Thanks in advance for the help and advice!

 

[saltyphish]

Ok the one switch that you think does nothing is probably for the extra led slots your biocube has. I am guessing you have the coralife version which has additional led slots for these little led strips you can add. I believe they are like $15 ea, but imo don't waste your money they aren't strong enough to help coral grow. You should also run all lights at the same time. I had mine on a timer before I upgraded my lights. I had it set up so the actinic kicks on first then the whites 1 hrs later and I just left the moonlights on all the time kind of gives the sun rise/set look. Any other questions feel free to post. Love my biocube

 

[jhast0n]

Thank you! So the fan running with the actnic is normal? Also what would you suggest as an upgrade in lights, (I really want to keep the hood it's for the fish and inverts safety, I've got 4 kids).

 

[saltyphish]

Yes the fan is normal If you have not dealt with heat issues you probably will during the summer time. The fans pulls some of the heat out of the canopy. Just google Biocube heat problems I am sure you will find many links. Don't be alarmed there are some easy ways to deal with it as I found out.

 

[jhast0n]

another question thats came to mind, I've added a couple of coral (Zoa, maze brain and two corals I'm trying to identify, one the store owner was going to throw out because it wasnt growing and her crabs wouldn't leave it alone, and the other a store owner sold it me saying it was one thing when I got to researching it more wasn't. So my question is how long does it take for corals to start growing and what do you look for to see that they are growing and happy?

 

[saltyphish]

Depends on the coral, lighting, flow, and water parameters. The stock lights on the biocubes will work for most zoas and soft coral, probably a little lps as well as long as it is not high light requirement. That is why many people upgrade the lights to leds to help with heat and increase lighting for corals.