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....

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

Side view of the tank


Another Side view


Front View


Front View-2


Left Side View


Crab Shell found...it wasn't there until I came back from work on DAY 1
and it acutally red back ! must have came of the LR.




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 =.="