My First Ever Saltwater w/ Biocube 14

[little_ocean_treasures]

FTS 4-12-12

 

Hello and welcome to my NR MA page. I have spent countless hours reading as much info on the web as I could get after purchasing my first saltwater Biocube 14g (tho I have to say NR is by far my favorite place). I wanted to know what to expect with each step I was to do next and to learn the best way possible to be successful at this first time around being I didn't have much $$ to test too many products with. I took things pretty slow and read AS much as I could (and still am) and I'm now almost 3 months into it. So I want to share my experience thus far to help encourage anyone else out there that has no idea what they're doing, like I did.

 

Okay, so back in January of 2011 I finally broke down and got the Biocube 14 to try my hand at saltwater for the first time. I wanted to have a reef aquarium for years but knew it was much work...and money. Anyways, I was excited as ever but extremely nervous as well after getting this home cause I felt I would end up killing everything due to my often lazy freshwater aquarium habits ( I have 3 freshwater tanks but rarely pay attention to them other tan top offs and feedings). Well after getting the Biocube home and set up with just saltwater and aragonite sand I read and read and read before ever adding my live rock a few weeks later.

 

So to cut a long story short, my adventure and learning has brought me thus far-

 

-14 gallon Biocube w/ modified filter system. I removed the tab between chamber 1 & 2 for increased flow,

-chamber 1 has 50 watt heater with false floor removed because it trapped too much detritus,

-chamber 2 has InTank media basket with filter floss on top, then Chaeto, and Chemi-Pure Elite underneath,

-chamber 3 has Biocube stock pump

 

-Stock lighting but I have added 2 Reef Brite mini mags for added light and nice shimmer. Tho after adding the 2 I realized it really wasn't enough. Timer turns on the Reef Brites at 8am and the stock lights turn on at 10am via a timer and then go out at 7pm and then the Reef Brites off at 9pm. (I want to upgrade to all LEDs when I get the money)

 

-Hydor Koralia Nano powerhead Vortech MP10es

 

-Coralife digital thermometer

 

-15 1/2 pounds cured Fiji live rock with plenty of space between each piece for good flow (also the aragonite sand was not live sand but dry sand instead)

 

-Aqua-Mag Mag Rock Jr.

 

-corals are:

-zoanthids (Radio Active Dragon Eyes (emerald green guys), Incredible Hulk (bright green with brown edges), and unknown variety & TFC Gold Nugget)

-palythoas (Valentine's Day Massacre & Tickle Me Pink)

-orange and green clove polyps

-green star polyps (2 varieties: one is a bright metallic green and the other is a much lighter less bright green with "hairs" on each arm)

-blue stripped mushroom

-metallic green hairy mushroom

-neon green Palau Nephthea

-pulsing Xenia

-sympodium

 

-2 fish (yellow tailed damsel and clown fish which I feed every other day because there is no skimmer on this tank)

 

-4 snails of different varieties

 

-1 blue red legged hermit crab

 

-emerald crab

 

For water changes, that I do 1.5 gallons weekly (Tuesdays) , I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals mixed in RO/DI water made here with my Spectrapure RO/DI unit. I used to get just RO water from my grocery store but if the filter isn't changed often enough like the last time I used it, it regrows those ugly brown diatoms and would kill off my snails due to copper traces in the water). Anyways, I mix it in a 7 gallon storage tub 5-6 hours before with a heater and powerhead.

 

Before I siphon out the water, I turkey baste the sand and live rock to stir up as detritus as I can stir up. When I siphon out the water I sometimes siphon the very top layer of sand if there is any algae, poo, or anything that needs to be cleaned out. I rinse the filter floss and Chaeto in the old water and place it all back in the aquarium clean. I also use a clean unused toothbrush to clean off algae where needed...usually twice a week.

 

Every Saturday I change out the filter floss, rinse Chaeto, turkey baste the liverock, clean the glass, and rinse out my Chemi-pure bag.

 

And every 4 days I do water testing using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals both saltwater and reef test kits . I started out by doing them every other day but nothing ever changed from day 1 of the live rock being added so after 1 1/2 months I changed to every 4 days. Test as needed now which isn't too often anymore.

 

My parameters are as follows-

 

-salinity is just about 1.026 or 35 ppt

-PH stays at around 8.0 - 8.2

-Ammonia is 0 though it rose a little after adding the damsel fish but is now back down

-Nitrites 0

-Nitrates 0

-KH 196.9

-Calcium 460+

-Phosphates 0.04

 

Okay here's pics of my tank so far. I wanted to be able to add more pictures but the attachment editor won't let me, says I'm at my max. Bummer! I'll have to post more below.

[RayWhisperer]

Welcome to N-R.

Everything looks good.

 

As for posting pics. Use an image hosting site like phtobucket. Copy the IMG tag and paste it in your post. No dealing with the attachment editor and the pics are sized to match.

[little_ocean_treasures]

Thanks! I really enjoy this website and I like how it is pretty active on here too. I have used Photobucket before for things like eBay but hate all the downloading and the getting the html codes so I was hoping this would be easier and a little faster but it's greatly limited so that's the down side. I might have to just go and use my Photobucket account. lol

[little_ocean_treasures]

It's been a while since I have updated but here's a picture from November of my tank. I do have some problems in there I'm not too sure about. Like one is I don't find it easy to keep "easy" soft corals at all. They either grow barely or die off slowly (except the Xenia)...and they seemed slightly bleached in color. I was told to cut the light back a bit and so I think I will. I'm not sure if I should cut the strength or the hours. But I'll try one and then the other if the first doesn't work. I haven't seem amazing growth like some other new reefers many times have to show. So it's got me slightly depressed, but I'm not giving up.

[little_ocean_treasures]

Things are slowly balancing out in the tank finally. I think my problem was I was still constantly (but slowly) changing things in here. I was every week working on removing bioballs and not removing detritus like I should have been. So now a have a fuge in the back with Chaeto and an InTank media basket and added the Mag Rock on the side as well as the MP10. The cyno on my sand finally disappeared as well. It's a slow progress but it's finally going up hill. lol And if nothing else, it was a learning experience I think I needed...gotta think positive.

 

Here's some updated pics for you guys.

 

FTS 4-12-12

 

My Damsel. If it wasn't so pretty I tell ya...



 

Caught my clown "yawning". lol