New 29G BioCube

[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.



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?




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...



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?






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?




And Finally...a full tank shot...which is by far the only good looking picture =.="


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 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

[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" 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....