New 29G BioCube

[DACJ]

Hi all !

First of all, I am a total newbie to salt water aquarium, and this is my first tank, so please bare with me if I did, asked or said anything that is really stupid...

I had the BC for quite a while but I used it for fresh water instead, and things seemed to work out quite well back then, only problem is that waterflow which all the BC owners will definately know what I am talking about whether they had the problem or not, and I've already cut open the flow gate from the 1st chamber to the 2nd chamber.....Then I moved last year, and unfortunately the fresh water fish did not make it, so I washed out the whole thing, had it dry for a little more than half an year, and I am ready to try out salt water now!

I did my initial setup last wednesday (29th of April), within 2 hours, I had live rock, live sand, and water, pump, everything basic in the tank, and then I left for work, by the time I got home (maybe 8 hours later?) water was crystal clear already.

Here is my setup...

The LR was 8.99/lb...which I bought 30lb and costed me a loooooot of money...almost $300. I had the sand in there, then assembled the rocks, then I added the water and made sure the SC was up to where it's supposed to be. I still have the bioballs in the 2nd chamber as the water dripping was way too loud without the balls. I know it's not good for salt water as I will remove it as soon as I get chance. I had no convenient ways of getting spring water or RO water, so I had to use tap water form the shower and used API Stree Coat Conditioner, and used KENT Sea Salt to mix with the water. I forgot what brand was the live sand as I threw the bag right after I finish setting up. I also added a Koralia 1 as the LFS suggested I will need more flow in the tank.

PS- I don't plan to set up a refuge as I don't know how and it seems to need more space and then loses the meaning of me buying a BC.

So at this point the tank seems to be fine, and I went back to do my research on how are people setting it up.

After all the research, I've decided to do the following for my filtration.

-Replace the bioballs with CPR SR3 Skimmer (I am not sure if I can put LR rubble around it as well?)
-Use Chemi-pure Elite and Purigen on top of the drip tray in the 2nd chamber with floss at the flow gate entrance to prevent build up of dirt on the media bags.

Now here are the questions,

-For my CUC, I haven't decide yet what to use but I am leaning towards all hermit and shrimp as someone suggested that hermits will sometimes not get along with the snails very well and people said that eventhough snails do a good job at cleaning but they leave trail marks behind as well, so I just might get a MagFloat with hermit and shrimp instead, that ok?

-I read in an article which the aurthor suggested using Chaeto Algae will greatly keep the other undesired algae growth under control , and it is easy to remove if it grows too big, and it states " The Chaeto will provide a safe area for little critters such as isopods and amphipods to multiply, thus adding a natural food source for your fish.", is that true, if so would you guys suggest of using it in the main tank? (Some say I can put it in the second chamber but then it wouldn't get any light at all then...

-I still haven't figure out how to replace the stock filter yet, as I have never tried anything else, If I just use any filter media bag, it wouldn't cover the chamber completely right? I mean things will still pass throught the filter and flow into the 2nd chamber correct?

-I heard that someone had SeaChem Matrix in their 2nd chamber, but to my understanding, isn't carbon not so good for salt water tank?

To be honest, I am still confused as there is simply too much information for me to abosrb all at once, and I need to jump start the tank and have it all set before end of May...meaning that I need to have all the corals and fish in there by then...bad idea eh?

Please please, for those who owns a BC, let me know all the clever things you have done to it to get it work nicely.

Please comment and help me on this if I am missing anything or if you guys have any suggestions...as I said, I am a total newbie on this....:cry:

I also posted some of my tank pictures, it is 24 hrs after the setup (next morning).

Side view of the tank
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5439/dscf1058p.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf1058p.jpg)

Another Side view
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/473/dscf1059a.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf1059a.jpg)

Front View
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7908/dscf1061g.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf1061g.jpg)

Front View-2
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3506/dscf1062d.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf1062d.jpg)

Left Side View
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4408/dscf1063l.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf1063l.jpg)

Crab Shell found...it wasn't there until I came back from work on DAY 1
and it acutally red back :mrgreen:! must have came of the LR.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8556/dscf1069h.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf1069h.jpg)
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/580/dscf1067.th.jpg (http://img379.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf1067.jpg)
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/9225/dscf1068.th.jpg (http://img407.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf1068.jpg)

I found this on an edge of the LR, it looks like little yellow fish eggs...sort of like capelin's egg...maybe snail egg? i am waiting for it to hatch =.="
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5774/egg2o.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egg2o.jpg)
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/1043/egg1.th.jpg (http://img379.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egg1.jpg)

[Palster]

A couple of thoughts for you. Definately ditch the Bio Balls. When you remove the Bio Balls you can disregard the fill lines on the side of the tank. Most people fill their Bio Cubes untill the water level in chamber 3 is at the 90 degree elbow where the return line goes into the back of the tank. If you do this then the tank will be almost completely quiet.

Also if you want to run Cheato in the back of the BC (most peope who do so put it in chamber 2) then you will need to scrape the black paint off the back of the tank so that you can mount a light on the back to provide the lighting needed by the Cheato. When I say scrape the paint off you only need to take off enough paint behind chamber 2 for the light. You don't want to scrape all of the paint off the back.

[DACJ]

Also if you want to run Cheato in the back of the BC (most peope who do so put it in chamber 2) then you will need to scrape the black paint off the back of the tank so that you can mount a light on the back to provide the lighting needed by the Cheato. When I say scrape the paint off you only need to take off enough paint behind chamber 2 for the light. You don't want to scrape all of the paint off the back.

Here is the thing, from my setup, I want SR3 in the 2nd chamber along with some LR then filter media on top of the drip tray, seems like there is no more room for chaeto there, and I am not very sure how to mount the light as the tank is against the wall firmly, if I do mount light, I would need to keep the back hatch open at all times? or does the light go "inside" the tank, but it will take risk from getting wet then short circuit...I read that someone people did but no pictures at all so I don't know how ^^" But would I be able to put it in the tank like shuffle it under a rock or something and let it grow there? or the cuc is just gonna eat it all =.=?

[Snaz]

This is a great DIY fuge light for the BC29 but you would have to pull the tank away from the wall.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=170506&st=0&p=1818210&#entry1818210


There are also submersible fuge lights.

[DACJ]

This is a great DIY fuge light for the BC29 but you would have to pull the tank away from the wall.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=170506&st=0&p=1818210&#entry1818210


There are also submersible fuge lights.

Thanks for the link ! It's so detailed too!

Anyways, so I went to LFS today, and the guy suggested that there is no need to use protein skimmer, so I just bought some LR rubble and placed Chemi-pure on top of the rubble then closed up the drip tray on top.

I did add more water to get rid of the water fall noise, but then the chemipure is now soaked in water all the time...that will be no good right? or is it actually better? and he also said there is no need for purigen, chemipure will be enough...and I stayed around a little longer after that looking around, and realized that they were out of purigen anyway...but it is true that either one will be good enough?

Brown algae is starting to grow on the rocks, I hope it's not gonna over grow too much cause I only planned to put CUC in the tank next saturday...one week of time will probably get the tank real dirty...full of slime algae eh?

[Palster]

That link explains the light pretty well but in order to make that work you would have to move the tank away from the wall but only by a couple of inches. Here is another great link for you which shows a lot of the mods that people typically do to the Biocubes.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=180788

[Palster]

Brown algae is starting to grow on the rocks, I hope it's not gonna over grow too much cause I only planned to put CUC in the tank next saturday...one week of time will probably get the tank real dirty...full of slime algae eh?

The brown algae that you are seeing is called Diatoms and is perfectly normal in a new tank. There are a few "Phases" that a new tank will go through and this is just one of them. My Biocube has been set up for just over a month using live rock from another tank and I am still experiencing a bit of a hair algae bloom right now. Most new tanks will also go through a hair algae phase as well.

[DACJ]

wow... I just discovered something real amazing...good or bad I am not sure but...truely amazing.

It is now two days after I place the chemi-pure elite in the chamber two, the bottle says rinse lightly before putting in the tank, but i rinsed it a little more until i made sure the water that goes through the bag is no longer black(carbon)...and this morning I woke up, and I took a peak at the stick filter to see if there was anything i need to wash off. The water was clear as crystal for sure, but as soon as I took out the stock filter, i realized that it was pure black....and i mean black!! the floss on there was pure white when newly opened from bag...now its black, I took some time to rinse, but best I could do was to get it dark grey...no more than that...this sound normal at all? or maybe the chemi-pure media bag is broken(maybe?) I haven't checked, no time.

Also, after I rinsed the stock filter, when I walk bak to the tank, it's looking a little white, as if the sand was stirred a little, not very blurry, but it does look white, compared to 3 minutes ago, it was crystal clear then...

Anything I need to worry about?

Side note, there are air bubbles on the green algae...is that the actual oxgen created by the photosynthesis process?

[DACJ]

Yay! I just did my first water test, day 6 , it was taken 1.5 hr after the floursent light went off, 30 min after the actinic light went off (actinic stays on an hour after flourscent light for me), the test result seems to be perfect,

PH 8.4
NH3/4 0 ppm
NO2 0 ppm
NO3 0 ppm

I am gonna do another test tomorrow 1 hour after the flourscent light.

According to the chart I have, I should also measure the Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Iron, Iodine, Phosphate, Silicate.....but when I asked my LFS for a test kit, he gave me " API salt water test master kit" and said that is all I need...does that mean I don't really need to worry about all that mentioned in the chart? like as long as I keep that 4 things under control, rest will be fine? or did he mean that at this point it doesn't matter, I just need to test it after I get the corals and fish?

BTW, the Diatom, or hair algae...I can't tell which is which, but anyways...brown-looking algae is starting to take over my precious white sand...it looked only a little before I left home for work, came home from work it still look okay, 1 hour after all the light went off, I looked again, it's like massive army just marched in the tank =.=" (maybe I just miss-looked when I came home) if I didn't miss-look, it's as it they were alive and all came out from their hide out in the night..... I am thinking maybe I will drop by the LFS on thursday to get my inverts instead of saturday, just incase if the diatom outgrows the tank.....

I've seen on other threads where some people's skimmer actually gets some real nasty stuff....would I be needing it for a 29g sized tank? LFS said water change bi-weekly will be good enough, a skimmer so small like CPR SR3 isn't gonna really do much in BC29...

[O-Pee-Chee]

I've seen on other threads where some people's skimmer actually gets some real nasty stuff....would I be needing it for a 29g sized tank? LFS said water change bi-weekly will be good enough, a skimmer so small like CPR SR3 isn't gonna really do much in BC29...

Depends on your bioload. I just added the biocube skimmer to my 14 gallon BC and it's pulled some pretty skanky smelling stuff out. It certainly is not the best out there but it works for what I wanted without any modifications necessary.

[Myka]

Congrats on your first tank! You have great natural aquascaping skills!

If you want corals you should test for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium just before you start to add corals. You don't need to test for those until then. Be sure to use high quality test kits for these three parameters, like Salifert or Elos.

A protein skimmer is optional on any size tank, but is a great help for novice reefers, so I would suggest you incorporate one if possible. It will help to buffer the mistakes you will likely make. You need to buy a quality skimmer though, as the cheap ones do very little. The Tunze Nano skimmer is one of the best skimmers you could buy for your tank, and conveniently fits into one of the chambers.

Don't worry about the diatom algae right now, it will probably end up covering most of your tank for a couple weeks. Once your ammonia and nitrite levels hold 0 for a week straight you can add a small CUC to help get rid of the diatoms. Personally, I prefer snails to hermits. Keeping your lights off will help with the diatoms as well. There is no need to have the lights on until you add some critters.

You may find some useful information in the links in my signature as well. :)

[DACJ]

So I did another water test on Day7, this time is 9 hours after "day light" compared to yesterday, and everything seems to be the same, as to someone said that PH will alter between day and night cycle if without refug...doesn't seem to affect mine at this moment....

I think I am off a good start right? I mean, it's day7 and things seems to be balanced itself considering that there are no chemical additives at all other than the stress coat conditioner to remove chlorine from tap water (my water source...)

Anyways, I posted some updated picture just taken 5 min before this msg along with some more questions of course...please fill me in !

This picture is the test results for 9hrs after day light, pretty much the same as the test I did at night cycle.
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/282/dat7test.th.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dat7test.jpg)


These are the bubbles I was talking about, they're basically all over the algaes, and even on the algaes thats growing on my koralia. I assume they are from the photosynthesis, no harm right?
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9729/bubble1s.th.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bubble1s.jpg)
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3765/bubble2r.th.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bubble2r.jpg)
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5456/bubble3.th.jpg (http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bubble3.jpg)

I believe this is the hair algae? but color is brown tho? Anyways...they are really growing...mainly on the rock at the far back end...and the most top one....I am really starting to afraid now since I won't be able to get any inverts for the next 3 days as the LFS are out of all that I want...and I don't think they can work their way up that top even if they were in stock...
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/9083/hairalgae1.th.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hairalgae1.jpg)
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/9523/hairalgae2.th.jpg (http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hairalgae2.jpg)

Then are these....little small red Algae growing on a certain piece of rock...I know the pictures aren't very clear, and it looks like there is only a little, but when you actually look at the rock top, it's like..red red, algae growth maybe 80% of the rock top surface? thought they are tiny tiny grass...but I am worried they may not be so good? Should I be concerned?
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6888/redalgae1.th.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/my.php?image=redalgae1.jpg)
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3789/redalgae2.th.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/my.php?image=redalgae2.jpg)
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/1149/redalgae3.th.jpg (http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=redalgae3.jpg)
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4441/redalgae4.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=redalgae4.jpg)
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6840/redalgae5.th.jpg (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=redalgae5.jpg)

My next concern is these flowerish algae is growing all over the place....it's like a flower but alive? it's " flower pedtal" sometimes retract and some times show...at beginning was only 1 on 1 rock, which I found amusing to watch, now they are starting to spread....and the one in the picture is the biggest one so far, maybe its a different species, but it looks like a "dandelion"...and does the samething...I mean they all look like dandelionISH flowers...should I be concerned?
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/644/whitestuff3edit.th.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whitestuff3edit.jpg)
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/6113/whitestuff1edit.th.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whitestuff1edit.jpg)
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5917/whitestuff2edit.th.jpg (http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whitestuff2edit.jpg)

And Finally...a full tank shot...which is by far the only good looking picture =.="
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/2933/tankfullshot.th.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tankfullshot.jpg)

PLEASE PLEASE all you knowledgable people, help me out before it's too late >.<

[Snaz]

If the 2nd test tube(blue) is Nitrite then you are definitely starting your cycle, patience. Don't worry about hitch hikers dying or what colour your algae is, just sit back and enjoy.

Remember that nothing comes fast in this hobby but failure. Keep your lights off as much as possible and test everyday. Don't add anything until after 4 weeks and tests say its OK to do so.

[DACJ]

Well, some updates, but I am not sure if it is good at all...

I found a few tiny tiny worms, different looking ones, there was one which was black in color and white horizontal stripes all over it, and there was one like centipede, I googled online and I'd say the 2nd one may be a flat worm? but it is way too tiny at this point to tell I guess, it is like a thick human hair...no more than that...so it's really small at this point, the 1st one is acutally a little thinner than the 2nd. But anyways, I can't get a picture of any of them. But I thought miscallaneous worms will form during cycle, so I am not too worried about that...

My main concern is.... there was one thing that looked like a clam, the kind that we use to make clam chowder, stuck in a LR I have...well, let's put it this way...one of my LR has a whole which fitted the THING perfectly, for the first week I thought it was maybe some rock stuck to it and didn't mind it very much, the 2nd week it started to open up a little like a clam would, so I wasn't much surprised if it was actually a clam...since the LR did not leave the water more than 20 min from the LFS to my place...but today, I found a little slime...snail like...SLUG i would say, in my tank, at first I was just looking at the LR looking weird, then it moved, immediately I realize it's a slug...but had no idea where it came from, then I looked into the place where the "clam" was stuck at...there is a hole in the LR...so I am very sure that it wasn't clam or anything like it, more like the slug was dormant, or maybe you could say that it was in a cocoon-like stage?

I was very worried...since it is bigger than any turbo snails I've seen, and I googled online, most of the sea slugs people have it there tanks are relatively small, or even tiny, but mine is big...like big big I'd say, you all know what size a clam is...it's about that size...

It's dark brownish, with brighter bottom, and I saw a white dot on the back of it as it tried to run away everything I use a flash light to shine on it, it is now hiding in places of LR where I couldn't get him out and I don't want to move around the LR just yet, I will wait till tomorrow morning and see if I can try to catch it and bring it to my LFS, in the mean time, if I can't catch him, could anyone please give me an insight on what it may be? Harmful or not?

Thanks a lot!

Wow...updated, I acutally caught it before I went to bed, it was on my top LR so I decided to take it out, its not as huge as it seemed to be, so I am thinking worse case, the clam-like size was maybe because there was two of them and they were sticked on to each other? I can't really get a clear picture, it moves quite fast compare to a snail, but it looks just like one, two black dot eyes, two very long and very flexible tentacles, and two ear-looking like things at its head, which will also twich when it is scared, its got very hard back with hair on it as well, 6 main back hair, which is about 1/3 the length of the two tentacles, and lots and lots of tiny hairs. the white spot I mentioned was long stripe diagonally on his back.

[Snaz]

Don't worry about hitch hikers at this point, all that life means you have a very healthy tank. Without pictures I would say you probably found Peanut worm, Bristle worm and some bivalve clam or mussel. If it has two halves that open and close it is a bivalve of some kind.

The only hitch hiker that might concern you at this time would be a Kraken, seen any Kraken?

All is good! Nice tank!!

[DACJ]

Thx Snaz for all the info!

I managed to get a few pictures, in some of the pictures, you'll be able to see its tentacles, you have to look hard :mrgreen: two of the shot with flash light, you can see a white contrast on the back of the slug, that's where the white spot is, it's actually his body, not something sticked on or attached to it.

The two little worms I think one of the was bristle worms, but nothing like peanut, and definately no Kraken, and trust me, if I actually found one, I'd probably want to keep that more than the reef tank itself :mrgreen:

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/641/dscf0025.th.jpg (http://img36.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0025.jpg)
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8653/dscf0027y.th.jpg (http://img40.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0027y.jpg)
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3483/dscf0028.th.jpg (http://img33.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0028.jpg)
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2853/dscf0029.th.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0029.jpg)
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/2943/dscf0030.th.jpg (http://img34.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0030.jpg)
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5043/dscf0033.th.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0033.jpg)

[DACJ]

So I went to the LFS today, the guy there said it's most likely to be a false limpet, whether good or bad he cannot tell, but removing it will be safer than having it in there...he said most times these are just fine algae grazers, but he can't say for sure, so I left it there with him and he just chucked it into the garbage can O.o

[DACJ]

New updates!

Tonight, I found something caught in between two of the LR, i thought it was the so-called "kraken" :twised: to be honest I was a little excited, so anxious to catch it, and as soon as the net went in the surface of the water, it started to move trying to hide , then stopped. I then took out the fish net and used my hand to remove the rock, then it ran away, I used a flashlight to search the area and finally came to realize that it was just a crab...quite a bit of size...bigger than regular small hermits....duno what type , but shell is all the same color as the rocks... with algeas on the back of it...didn't get a chance to see the pincer...but it's got strong looking limbs, so I assume it's pincer is probably big as well, would it do any harm to my tank? like kill inverts or mess around with corals or kill fish? I think it's already messed up one of my small LR settings...was straight stick into the sand bed, now it's fallen on the side=.= (the shell from my first post, probably belongs to him....so...imaging 1.5~2 times the size of that for just the shell...)

Also, along with the false limpet I caught last time, I also found something else...also look like a slug, but i only saw one third of the body of it, so I can't tell what it is, and I can't really catch it cause it's in the middle of my whole settings....gonna wait until it comes out.

P.S. Does clamp move? like not the ones you buy and keep in coral reef, but the ones you use to make clam chowder...? Cause I think I have one in the tank except I cannot catch it cause it's been moving around and hiding in holes of the LRs....