THEEGRIMREEFER Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hello everyone! This will be my first journal. I am way addicted to this hobby and Biocubes are awesome and so is this site! So far I have a 3 1/2 month old Biocube 14 running but i feel its too late to start a journal for it. So my lfs gave me an offer i couldn't refuse for a Biocube 29 for $220!! and i had to buy it and am now officially broke lol. I will try to do the things and mods i wish i could have done off the bat with my 14 and do them on the 29. I started it up on 4/13/09 and will be checking my water chemistry soon. Heres whats currently in it: Hardware - It sits on a sink stand reinforced with 2x2's and 2x4's With a plywood top (really nice and sturdy) - Koralia 1 - 100w heater - Aquaclear ph 30 gallon rated with Hydor flo (not installed in tankyet) - Protein skimmer (oceanic brand.. i know it sucks but at least it does something, will be used after the cycle) Rocks and Sand - 20lbs live sand - 14 LBS live cured rock (more rocks when i get more money lol) Future plans - Removed bioballs for future refugium with chaeto and diy fuge light in middle chamber - Future Dosing part A & B, stronium, magnesium, iodine and fuel(by octro vitro) - Nova extreme pro 20" with 6x18w t5's or Nanotuners 4.36 - DIY sump (if i go topless) Future fish stocking plans (just what i want, i wont have all of em) - Flame angel (starting to like dwarf angels) - Bicolor angel - Chromis - Gold bar maroon - Coral beauty - Purple firefish - Sixline wrasse (favorite fish ever! i have one in my 14) - Mandarin goby (if my tank has a good amount of pods and all that good stuff and what it needs for it to survive, not the hardiest/easiest fish on the block) -Blue spotted jawfish -Scooter Blenny - more that i cant think of right now.... Future coral plans (with stock lighting) - Ricordias & mushrooms - GSP - Pom pom zeniah - Prime colored zoos (lots of em, but only ones that floss under actinics!) - blasto - kenya tree - clover poyps - frogspawn - hammer - also more that i cant think of right now.. but mainly softies. Here are the pics Water test Cloudy w/ sand Finally the rocks! Questions - Whats a good time to start dosing stuff? (besides fuel) - What do you guys think about my plans? - Any advice you think would help? im still pretty new/noob in this hobby lol. Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 bump! heres a little update on my water chemistry Nitrate - 0 Ammonia - .25 Nitrite - 0 Ph - 7.8 Im kinda slacking on my knowledge of ph... Is mine acceptable? i remember reading somehwere that it should be at 8.2 what are ways of fixing this? oh yeah and i tested this with the lights off hth. But a cool discovery i found is a bunch of amphipods on my rocks! i see a bunch of them crawling around the rocks when i shine my flashlight at the rocks. Link to comment
Ando Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 wait on dosing until your tank is done with its cycle. If its done. I dunno if you already took out your bioballs, but I would take them out and make the middle chamber a fuge for cheatomorphic algae which eats nitrates and will keep your nitrates down. check out my thread for more info. Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 wait on dosing until your tank is done with its cycle. If its done. I dunno if you already took out your bioballs, but I would take them out and make the middle chamber a fuge for cheatomorphic algae which eats nitrates and will keep your nitrates down. check out my thread for more info. Alright ill wait until my cycle is done. My bioballs are gone, i figured it was now or never lol. Im too scared to take em out of my 14 because of a possible cycle. But i currently have chaeto in a bucket of saltwater in my sunroom so it gets its sunlight, just waiting until i get to make one of the DIY fuge lights seen on these forums. Link to comment
chironerd21 Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 bump! heres a little update on my water chemistry Nitrate - 0 Ammonia - .25 Nitrite - 0 Ph - 7.8 Im kinda slacking on my knowledge of ph... Is mine acceptable? i remember reading somehwere that it should be at 8.2 what are ways of fixing this? oh yeah and i tested this with the lights off hth. But a cool discovery i found is a bunch of amphipods on my rocks! i see a bunch of them crawling around the rocks when i shine my flashlight at the rocks. Your pH is not acceptable... you need a buffer... don't need to dose your part A/B yet..since no corals are in there yet... just get a nice cheap buffer like Kent buffer pro dKH for like less than 10 buxs... and work with that.... should fix your pH before you put in anything.. Lights on / off will give you pH fluctuations..that why you need a buffer... Seems like your tank started to cycle... your ammonia is up.. then your nitrites, then last your nitrate..that how the Nitrogen cycle works... Give it some time...retest..when everything is zero..then do a nice water change... retest again... when everything is fine...then its time to have fun Link to comment
marinebiologist Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 sweet man!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 Thanks chironerd21 for the heads up on my pH i will be getting some buffer soon. sweet man!!!!!!!!!! Thanks man i cant wait untill i get more rock!! Aright heres some updates. - My water chemistry is looking pretty good. everything is at zero except my pH is still at 7.8. - I finally got to making my fuge light. It was really easy thanks to nanoreef11's design, except mine is slightly smaller... lol i miscalculated the size but oh well i dont think it will make any difference. i will be adding this onto my tank soon, i will just test it out for now. what do you guys think? here are some pics. - I will probably be building a media rack for the second chamber in the near future, just like ando did. Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 Oh yeah and quick question. what are your guys opinions on lighting schedules? i currently have my daylights and actinics on for 3 1/2 hours. Is this good? and when or how long until i start 8 or 10 hour lighting periods? Link to comment
TuRDBuRGLaR7o7 Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Funsational tank!!!! would love to get a 29g down the road Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted April 22, 2009 Author Share Posted April 22, 2009 Thanks man. Hi guys so i was out today and decided to throw in an orange tang! please dont flame me! i think i know what im doing. high in calcium promotes corraline algae growth!!!! hehehe sorry. I had this brilliant idea when i was having a convo about tang earlier today =P But on another note i added some kent buffer today and will check pH again tomorrow. oh yeah and i also made one of those DIY mag float frag racks. pretty cool! it will be in my 14 gallon for now. also here is my tank on my reinforced sink stand. got the stand at a home depot design center sale for 60 and reinforced it well with 2X2's and 2X4's and a thick black painted plywood top with a glass piece that fit fit very perfectly on top of it. turned out well. can anybody cue in on my lighting period question? =] Link to comment
Hoonie778 Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Upon the advice from my LFS I kept my lighting at 3-4 hours/day until I had fish/coral In hindsight, I would have bumped it up to 8-9 hours/day for a week or so BEFORE the fish, because I ended up with a new fish and a huge diatom bloom... all at once Everything ended up ok in the end though. Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted April 25, 2009 Author Share Posted April 25, 2009 Thanks for that tip hoonie, i think i will do that because my lfs also said about 3 to 4 hours but i think it would be better to have the ugly stage first then have my CUC make it clean before i add livestock. genius! Thanks nashman! ill post more pics soon haha. im starting to get some diatom, but soon will have hella after upping my light schedule! Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted April 28, 2009 Author Share Posted April 28, 2009 Alright heres a little update. I got some new rocks today but there kinda weird? lol can you tell me if this is even a type of live rock? im not too educated on types of live rock im just hoping it wasnt some base rock made live. but anyways i got it for pretty cheap. I just put it together real quick and will perhaps try some new aquascape tomorrow. But the weird rock is the one on the left side and on the very top. the guy said it was "tonga shelf rock" but idk, maybe someone can chime in on what it is please. heres a new FTS. This may look like alot of rock but its pretty empty on the inside haha. any advice on my aquascape would be helpful. Oh yeah and i decided to not up my lighting schedule in fear of some unwanted algae so the actinics are on for 4 1/2 hours and the daylights for 3 1/2 Link to comment
vincienzo45 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 Dope aquascape man. I like the cave! Tonga rock (from the Island of Tonga) should be good and sometimes pieces just look like that. There looks like some coraline algae on it so that's another plus. Your scape looks fine to me, but you can try experimenting on different placement if you want. And yes, cutting down your lights during the cycling period is a good idea..I had mine set for a little too long during my cycle and I'm still fighting off hair algae here and there today. Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted May 15, 2009 Author Share Posted May 15, 2009 Hello everyone, time for an update! lol well its been a little over a month since i started the 29 so now theres livestock!! So far al my parameters have been really good. New Stocking list: FISH - Maroon clown (been in there for a week in a half) CORALS - Blue clove polyps - Atomic green zoos? - Eagle eye zoos - rhodactis mushroom that just split! My rockwork has changed and its looking a little better but im not completely satisfied so expect some changes lol. Maybe during this week or the next week i will pick up a purple firefish. Alright now for the pictures!!! New fts Zoos They look very washed out =[ they looked better at the lfs.... lol Blue clove polyps Thats pretty much it for now. ill keep ya posted! Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 No love for the tank lol Link to comment
Clavius85 Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 I really like the rock scape. Nice job! Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 I really like the rock scape. Nice job! Thanks dude, more improvements on the rock in near future! Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 Does it look like i have enough rock?? lol i forgot to weigh it and see how much is now in there. Link to comment
Psychosis Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 It looks like enough to me. Trust me, you don't want to much rock. It turns in to a pain later. Plus, your 'scape looks really good. Link to comment
38gal Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 Seems like you have enough rock. I actually like it better when you have that cave open ... due to the fact that I like open landscape. LOL ... Anyhow, about the 14 gallon and the bio balls, if you were to take out a little at a time, it wouldn't hurt. Good start for the 29 gallon thus far. Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 Thanks psychosis and 38 gal now im confident with my rocks , that big shelf rock annoyed the hell outta me tho haha! i had to remove it. i felt it would of been hard to add corals onto that big plate. and for my BC14 i think i will start removing the bioballs, ill probably start taking some out every water change. Link to comment
THEEGRIMREEFER Posted May 20, 2009 Author Share Posted May 20, 2009 yayy just got a purple firefish!!! haha ill try to get shots of him tomorrow, hopefully he comes out! and luckily my maroon clown didnt bully him when i dropped him in the tank. the maroon just when up to him and checked him out and left him alone. "phewww" i thought it was gona be all bad when he approached him! more updates to come soon! edit: hmm any way i can get my thread moved to the all in one tanks section? i feel like it belongs there lol since it is a aio Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.