Let’s try this again. I was at a home show and saw a couple of marine displays. I dipped my hand in salt a long time ago but got out of the hobby to pursue other hobbies. Well now I’m older and make enough money to do all of my hobbies. I have 120g FW tank that used to house my Iguana. I started it up after my old lizard passed. I wanted something that would be low maintenance and the FW tank is easy. Vacuum and WC once a month is all I do.
While down at the home show they had a 29g Nano AIO on display and I thought it would be cool to do salt again. 29g is pretty small compared to my old 75g I had back in the day. I thought the maintenance would be pretty easy once I get everything set up. After some looking around at the different AIOs at my local LFS I ended up with the Oceanic BioCube 29g. I couldn't pass up the deal, $199.
I bought live rock from 2 different stores. I also bought all the usual equipment to go with a tank. I did not take the LR home right away. I tagged the rock and left it at the LFS for a couple of weeks. In that time I built the stand, checked the tank for leaks and finished buying some equipment.

Here is the tank before water.



I mixed some Instant Ocean salt with the RODI I bought from the LFS for $.50 a gallon, that’s cheaper than Wal-Mart! I let the tank run for a few days and got the temp. set and the SG at 1.023. I also wanted to see the evaporation rate. Seems about 8oz a day.

The rock I picked from the stores were pretty well cured and I left them there for a while to be sure. I loaded up a couple of buckets with SW in them (half full) from my tanks and went to the LFS to pick up my LR and LS. When I got home I set up the aquascape the best I could and then added the sand. POOF!!! No more rocks.
Day 1




Day 2
The cloud is almost gone.

FTS

I found this on the side of my rock. I asked around and was told it was aptasia. I never had to deal with that before. I thought it was some kind of algae or worm at first. I'll buy some Joe's Juice and will take care of it later. Not much later, but later.


I also checked the parameters. Zero's. To be expected I was told.

Day 4
I changed the 'scape. I like the new one better. I also found out that my tank was missing a part from the factory. I thought they shipped me the wrong filter cartridge but as it turns out one of the slots was missing. This explains why I scratched my head for a couple minutes on how the filter mounted. In the end I rubber banded the cartridge to the bottom of the drip plate. Seems to work well there right now but I will ditch it in a week anyways. I also put in some polishing pads on top of the Chemi-Pure bag that is on top of the bio balls. I also installed a protein skimmer.

While I was at the LFS the marine manager said I could buy some fish to help cycle the tank further. He was not surprised when I told him what my numbers were. He said it was to be expected because of the fully cured rock I bought from him and another reputable LFS. I kinda raised an eyebrow at the suggestion so I thanked him for the "Joe's Juice" and went to Petco to have a look around. At Petco they had a sale going on. Cool for me since I don't think the fish would live in such a new tank anyway. I bought a Green Chromis for $3 and a False Clown for $7. And to top it off they had crabs (blue hermit) 3 for $1. So in the end I left with a little bag of water towards home.

I know all of you think I'm crazy for buying fish so early. I was told In my other thread. The one that was hi-jacked and then locked. That I added them way too early. Nothing I can do about that now.

So on to the pictures...
Here is the new a-scape w/ flash

Floyd

Right,

Left,


Here are a couple of pictures of the PS I modified to fit. It is a SeaClone 100. I got it from the LFS and saw one in action at the store. I made a couple of mods to it to make it work. FirstI bought some 1" clear vinyl tubing and extended the hose that went to the pump. I also extended the hose that went from the u-bend to the skimmer. I don't know if it will work but I'm going to try. I had to cut some holes in the back of the lid but as you can see it was minimal and the only thing you can see from the front is the foam canister.

to the BC crew

Really nice rocks you got there. Might be too early for fish but time will tell. I would definetly wait to see how the tank reacts to your new inhabitants before adding anything else.

Also the stock filter cartridge sucks. Check around for the filter mod that most BC users do. There are actually details on how to do two different filter mods in my thread. Either will increase the effectiveness of the filtration significantly and save you mucho dollars.


Happy Reefing!!!

Day 7
So I changed the 'scape around again. I think I finally got it. Lots of caves and the better side of all the rocks are showing. The parameters are well. Fish and CUC still alive. YEA!
FTS

Left

Right

You can see how big the shell is on the right. The crab thought he stole a mansion but in reality he stole a double wide. The crab second from the left is my unidentified crab. I call it "Miss. Understood"


Day 11
The diatom bloom is just starting. Parameters in check. Everything is still alive and kicking. I added a pair of scarlet hermit crabs to the mix. I never had hermits in my old 75g but I did notice thet the "blue legs" I got from Petco were not "Blue Legs" at all. Two of them are Vietnamese Yellow Tips and the other is an unknown. Ah well. I guess I will just have to keep a close eye on them. I also added water to the QT I built. I left my bio balls in the AIO and will transplant them when I need to use the QT. I also use the QT as a warmer/mixer for my water changes. I did a 5 gallon change.
FTS

Green eyes

Feather Duster

QT


Day 13
So I'm going through a serious diatom bloom. My crabs are fat. My one turbo snail is slow and my tank looks like hell. I'm almost positive my fish are going to kick the bucket but I checked the levels last night because I was worried and I got zero's across the board again. But my pH is up to 8.4. I thought for sure my Nitrates would be through the roof. Really weird.
The brown boom.

One of the yellow tips decided that this was good enough to call home

I noticed a small polyp on one of my rocks.

I was following your previous thread about this tank but gave up after things got out of hand. Either way, welcome as Tudd said to the BC Owners Crew. There are a lot of us on here that have had our tanks up and going for a little while now and there are a lot of others that are at the same step as yours.

As Tudd said and others said before, you definitely introduced the fish and snails a little too early in the game....time will tell how they do. That said, where is the tank at now parameters wise? I see that in your ticker your tank is about 23 days old?

Hope all is well in your tank and feel free to ask questions on any of our threads and we will try to help out.

One thing I did notice on one of your first couple pics is that you have a pretty big aiptasia/rock anenome that you might want to take care of right away before it becomes a nuisance. A little Joe's Juice will nuke it quickly.

Day 22
I checked the parameters and everything is zero with the exception going to the 'trates, they are at 5. The diatom boom is about over. The green hair algae is being dealt with by the CUC. I did one more aquascape. I like this one. The only thing I don't like is the one rock that is high and center. I haven't found the right spot for that one yet.

Over the past week or so I added to the CUC. I added 5 tiny blue legs, 4 nassarius snails, 2 small turbo snails, and 2 more small scarlet crabs. I also added a peppermint shrimp to eat the aptasia that seems to be all over on of my rocks. It's cool cause he lives inside the same rock and he already ate one of the bigger aptasias that is couldn't get to. I only squirted the big ones.

I was also at the LFS and they had a sale. 25% off all marine/FW life. They got a shipment in last week and in it was some clowns. I don't know what kind of clown I got but it is a lot darker and redder than my false perc. When the new clown finally did make it into the display he was bullied by Floyd (my flase perc.) all afternoon and evening till the lights went out. This morning they were good friends and seem to stick together now. I moved the chromis to the QT tank after the new clown came out of the qt tank. What a PAIN IN THE BUTT he was to catch. I didn't want to add any more bio load to the Cube and the chromis is going back the the store. I will donate it if I have to. I also caught a huge bristle worm in chamber one. It looks like the harmless kind so I left it in there. A huge brittle star came out of no where too. I have no idea where he was hiding but if I had to quess it was the rock with all the big holes all over it. I also saw a cool feather duster, tube worms, loads of tiny bristle worms, some amphipods and one copepod. So here are some pictures.
FTS

Left

Right

True or False?

Friends at last.

Hairy

Zombie

A blue with his new shell on.

Brittle Star

Miss Understood

I am concerned about your stand. 1 gallon of water is roughly 10lbs. Is your stand rated 250+ lbs?

It is anchored to the wall.

I read your whole thread. Pretty neat set up you have going there.

Thanks for the tips. I will check those out for sure.

I moved the rock the was on the very top. I didn't like it there but just couldn't figure out where it should go. I was staring at the tank last night and it just came to me. I suppose it was the angle but I could just see the where the rock was supposed to go. So I moved it and found it was incredibly stable. It looks great too. Provided a bit of an overhang and some shade on the floor.

I also made a shelf for the second chamber. I removed the false floor and balls. Inserted the shelf stand, bio balls (till I get rubble). Put the eggcrate shelf in, the chemi-pure, then some more eggcrate, the filter pad, and finally the drip plate. The chemi-pure actually sits flat now and will have better flow through it. The pad sits flat now too. I removed the plate in chamber 1 and put the heater and temp probe in there.

I was on Diggs thread and read about getting a rio6+ and replacing the stock power head. I want to add some loc-line with a y-connector. I have a dead spot on the left side of my tank that is collecting crap. I also want to move the hydro-flo closer to the center of the tank. I like that idea. At least this way I will have a pump I can use to mix my SW. Right now I am stealing water from my QT. One cool thing about having the QT set up and running is I have 10 gallons of pure, heated, mixed, SW at all times.

I will post pics later. Not much to see. I also bought a reef test kit and went through the tests. I bought some supplements to help the corals out when I get around to adding them.

Speaking of corals do any of you trade or frag out as they get too big?

Well my new clown vanished after 2 days. Poof! No where to be found. So I scratched my head for a while. I went to my LFS to tell them what happened and they said to set a trap. So thats what I did. At first I caught some zombies and my peppermint but after some modifications to the trap I started to catch bristle worms. I caught one that was like 9-12 inches long. So I'm going to catch as many bristle worms as I can. I know some people say they are good but something snagged that clown.

I checked the parameters this afternoon.
Amm-0
trite-0
trate-5
pH- 8.4
sg- 1.025
cal- 420
phos-0

I've been starving the fish, (not really but really lite feeding) until I feel like the bristle worms are almost gone. Everything is doing well.

Not too bad for adding fish on day 4.

Check your back chambers the clown fish is notorious for jumping the back wall. I will almost gurantee that is where you little buddy is. There is a simple mod that can be done to prevent this from ever happening. Check my thread for details

Sweet rock and i love the pick with all the hermits lined up!!

So I was in a book store today during lunch and I was reading a pretty cool book. I don't remember the name of it but I will be back to read more on another day. While flipping through the pages I learned that my crab "Miss Understood" is a blue eyed hermit crab. Well at least that question is answered. So now it's new name is Frank (Sinatra- Ol' Blue Eyes, get it?).

I added some loc-line to my tank. I "y"ed the line and sent water to the left side and the hydro-flo to the middle. I need to swap pumps though. The stock one is definitely not enough for this loc-line mod. Any suggestions? Rio6 or 8? Maybe a Maxi 1200? What is the stock pump anyways?

One of my scarlets got killed or died. I found a half eaten body this morning. Everything else is doing great. Since I caught that huge bristle worm I decided to replace the missing clown. I usually won't be so quick to jump but there were only a few of the red ones left and I like the color. I will post pictures Sunday or Monday. It will be 5 or so weeks by then.

The Dude Abides.

Hey Dood, glad to see you started a new thread! Your tank is coming along very nicely.

Did you check your back chambers for the clown?

Also, are you sure your scarlet died? Have a look at the first pic in this thread to see how much a normal molt can resemble a dead body:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=132719&hl=

--Diane

According to your pics it was a molt. Sweet one less death. My peppermint molted and looked like a snake skin but they are kinda clear. Good thing it wasn't my fire shrimp or I would have really been pissed.

I did a lot of reading about these brittle stars. The one that came out of my rock is pretty big. So I guess the clown could have been done through by the star. I don't know. The star is cool but if he is a fish eater he is toast. I'm going to feed him and my fire shrimp tonight. Just for good measure.

So have you found the clown? What fish are now in your tank?
Oh yeah and is the stand holding up for you?

I never found the clown. I bought a new one 5 days after the disappearance. Same hatch as the last one so he has the same dark color. His name is Rupert. If he just so happens to turn into the female I will change his name to Ruby. I do still have Floyd and Lymon. But Lymon is on borrowed time. I want to get a YWG and a firefish. Frank is by far my most entertaining crab. He has a habit of jumping on a turbo snails back and going for a ride. The best part is when the snail does it's little bucking defense thing and he falls off. My fire shrimp, Sparky, always goes for my fingers when I'm going in for some cleaning. It is cool to feed him. He take food by hand. So does the brittle star. I can't get Andre the peppermint to feed from my hand though. I think all of the BLHs have switched shells. One of my YTHs (yellow tip hermit) likes to hang out in the exact same place on one of the rocks.

The stand is working out great so far. Hold pictures and books and behind all the decor is some of the tank stuff.

I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh. I sure hope he makes the finals.

Did you see that caligirl found a fish in the back chamber after 3 weeks!

Sometimes they hide inbetween chambers 2 and 3 at the bottom. Have you ever tried feeding a little in the back, powerheads off, with some floating food to see if it comes out? Do you still have the false bottom on chamber 2? I guess I just can't give up hope!!


I always crack up at the pic of all of your hermit crabs. Looks like a line-up from the Usual Suspects!

I actually tore my tank apart. After he vanished I took the false floor out of 2, took out the skimmer pump, the sump pump, and the floor in chamber 1. No fish.

I love that movie. That's where I got my catch phrase: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And poof. Just like that, he's gone.

I use "and poof. Just like that, he's gone" all the time in daily life. I might change it a bit every once in a while though. Like when my woman gets mad at me and goes for a walk. Perfect for, "And POOF! Just like that, she's gone!" That usually makes it worse but when she calms down she actually laughs most the time.

The favored replacement pump for stock pump is the Rio 6hf (hyper flow). Less wattage used than the stock and 350 gph.

Is it favored because of the low wattage? Less heat? Cause the rio 1100+ is about the same gph and I can get it locally. I can get the 6hf over the net but after shipping it's a wash. I see the outlet is 5/8"OD. Is the stock hose this size or do I need a new one. Also do I need to change something in the bulkhead fitting to make this hose work?

Yes low wattage, less heat and it is a direct fit for replacement with no modification.

I will order it today.

So I got my Rio6hf today in the mail. The place I order from must be near by to get here so fast. 1 day WOW. I also got some loc-line and a 1/2" y-fitting. I moved my hydor-flo towards the center of the tank and ran the remaining pieces with a flare fitting towards the left front floor corner. I installed the loc-line first and turned on the stock pump. I was surprised how much the hydor-flo slowed down with the addition of the other outlet. So I installed the Rio. I know the Rio flows more but it seams barely noticeable. I'm thinking about ditching the hydor-flo in favor of my other flare fitting and just getting a wave pulse controller for the Korelia2.

I checked all the parameters today. Everything is normal.

I'm also trying to decide on the final stocking of my tank. As you all may already know I have two Ocellaris Clowns now and a Green Chromis that coming out.
So here is what I like so far.
Green Clown Goby


Or

Yellow Clown Goby



Yellow Watchman Goby


Firefish


Yellowhead Jawfish


I plans on having softies and LPS in the future. I have read that the gobies like to eat SPS sometimes but I don't think I will be diving into that anytime soon.

So any of you have anything to add about the above fish? Opinions welcome!

Dood,

I'm no kind of fish expert, but I do believe the Catalina goby is known to be more of a temperate species that requires cooler temps than the average reef tank. I suggest you research this species a bit more.

The only fish I have are a pair of breeding green banded gobies, and believe me, nothing could be more rewarding than witnessing their behavior. I would think with a 29g you might be able to add a pair of small fish, and if so I'd suggest you consider it. Fish with conspecifics can be so much more interesting.

BTW, do you mean you're returning your Chromis?

--Diane

I read that about the Catalina Goby awhile back and forgot. So that's one down.

Anyone have any luck with a Royal Gramma?

Can get mean, territorial.

Yep, back to the LFS.

So this Monday will be 6 weeks. I checked all the parameters I could this morning. Everything was great. Nitrates were 5ppm and Cal was 460/480 a little high. I'm really considering getting a submersible 'fuge light so I can add some Cheato. Does the cheato have to be totally submersed? I was thinking of just adding filter floss to chamber1 and ditching the filter pad. I wanted to put the light under the drip tray. I do have my tank pretty full. Like 3/4 the way up in chamber 3. So chamber 2 would stack like this.
Bioballs (some removed for space)
Chemipure
eggcrate
cheato
light
drip tray

Would this work?

I'm also considering modifying chamber1 to accept my stock Oceanic pump. I want to set up the stock pump kind of like it was in chamber3. With the pump at the bottom and the return through a drilled hole with some more loc-line. This would get rid of the Korelia.

I also went picture crazy today. First time in a while. I took like 300 pics but only saved about 20. I have added to the tank too. God bless the internet. I took the advice of many on here so far and it has helped me quite a bit. Thanks guys and gals!

Enjoy!!!


FTS, cloudy because I just turned the pumps back on and the Korelia sucks air at start up.

FTL

FTR

Ember the firefish

Floyd and Ember

Sparky

Candycane

Hitchhiker polyp

Ric

Ric

Sparky with Neon Mushroom

Zoas

So I have the awesome frogspawn with like 6 heads and I thought it would be really cool for the clowns to host it. Nope, instead Floyd decided to host my biggest ric instead. So now all he does is attempt to perch on it like a clown goby. Wouldn't be a problem if this particular ric wasn't attached to the side of a rock. This ric gets big too. Like 3 inches when it's all open up. Seems a little pissed with the clown hanging of it right now though.

Happy Holidays!

Dood,

I love your latest set of pics! Your tank is looking great!

You got some amazing fish pics...I find those very hard to do, myself. What a gorgeous firefish!

Everything looks so clean and nice in that fts! And you have very nice rics.

--Diane

Thanks. I'm really having fun now.

Bummer.

I haven't quite figured it out yet. Something in my tank is is hungry. My first clown, Floyd, was not hanging on his ric this morning. I got out the flashlight and found his half eaten body near the lower intake grate at the back of the tank. He was covered in slime from the nassarius snails and I saw a bristle worm near by as well as the brittle stars legs. Floyd was doing fine yesterday. He ate and was acting normal so I don't think he was sick.

I have grown to hate the zombies. They make a slimy mess every where they go. I'm thinking about getting rid of them all together.

I'm going to donate the star to the LFS along with my chromis.

I'm pretty sure I don't have any other predatory hitchhikers. I haven't seen any evidence of any other critters. The first disappearance was a clown too. But it didn't happen until after I saw the brittle star.

Everything else in the tank is thriving. My shrimp are doing well. All my corals look great. All my hermit crabs are still working. My turbo snails are doing well too.

I'm going to set my worm trap back up and go back to my lite feeding schedule to draw out the worms and anything else that might be hiding in the tank.

Any other suggestions on what might be going on?

Some species of Brittle stars are known to become predatory when there isnt enough food around. Im not sure what species hitchhiked into your tank but i suspect hes the culprit. And from the looks of your pics he isnt a small specimen.Check out this link

Well after reading loads of information about brittle stars I have come to the conclusion that it was most likely innocent. Although he is rather large there is no conclusive evidence that brittle stars of it's species are predatory at all. In fact, because I did actually find the clown covered in a slimeball near the intake grate has most people thinking it was just one of those unexplained deaths that happen sometimes in a captive environment.

While I was out yesterday I stopped by a couple of the marine only LFSs in town to see what was new. My favorite place had some new corals in and loads of CUC members but I decided to move on. My next stop landed me in one of the stores I bought my LR at. They had a lot more live stock than usual and I got a new clown to replace my old one. They also had some unique hermit crabs for a couple of bucks so I bought two of those too.

I will post pictures in a few days after the fish has settled in.

I noticed a white dot on Ember. Ich. So last night I set up my QT and a FW dip. Caught all the fish. Gave 'em a dip, and in the QT they go for a month. I feed them with some garlic additive and added some copper. Hope it helps out.

Need to let the tank sit fishless for two months (6 weeks bare minimum) to let the parasites in the tank die.

I thought I read that the parasites died in like 5 weeks?
"The lifecycle of the parasite is interesting and important to understand when evaluating a treatment. The stage where the parasite is attached to a fish is called a trophont. The trophont will spend three to seven days (depending on temperature) feeding on the fish. After that, the trophont leaves the fish and becomes what is called a protomont. This protomont travels to the substrate and begins to crawl around for usually two to eight hours, but it could go for as long as eighteen hours after it leaves it's fish host. Once the protomont attaches to a surface, it begins to encyst and is now called a tomont. Division inside the cyst into hundreds of daughter parasites, called tomites, begins shortly thereafter. This noninfectious stage can last anywhere from three to twenty-eight days. During this extended period, the parasite cyst is lying in wait for a host. After this period, the tomites hatch and begin swimming around, looking for a fish host. At this point, they are called theronts, and they must find a host within twenty-four hours or die. They prefer to seek out the skin and gill tissue, then transform into trophonts, and begin the process all over again (Colorni & Burgess, 1997)."

Yea all four fish are hanging out in their new pvc furnished condo. I also did some work to the tank. I will post pictures later.

....... If the fish are moved from a display aquarium for treatment elsewhere, the display tank should be left without fish (fallow with the exception of invertebrates) for a minimum of 30 days. This is generally a long enough time period for the parasite to die out for lack of a host (i.e. fish). Again, a longer fallow period adds an extra measure of safety..............

From Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine.

So I stand corrected. I had always heard a minimum of 6 weeks. Guess that is the maeasure of safety they talk about.

I wasn't trying to correct you I was just curious if I was reading the cycle correctly. Thanks.

Well I have had a streak of bad luck. Some Ich. I set up the QT and the ammonia went through the roof. So I put the fish back in the display and then changed the QT set up. Checked the water. All was good. Re-introduced the fish to the QT then went to bed(after a few hours). Woke up and the fish were all dead. The heater stopped working. Since my home gets cold because I don't run a heater, I live in the desert, the tank temp was about 64.

So I will now work on the tank.

I removed the Korelia 2 and installed the stock Oceanic pump into chamber 1. Ran a hose up and drilled a hole near the intake grate. I used a bulkhead from a swamp cooler drain kit and a loc-line fitting. I then used a y-fitting and some loc-line with some flare nozzles. So now I have 4 loc-line exits. 3 flare nozzles and a Hydor-flo deflector. Shortly before I did the modification I saw some cyano starting to form. I'm going to get a Rio 8hf for the return pump and move the 6hf to chamber 1. I'm going to change my Chemi-Pure bag.

I am also going to clean my bio balls and begin to phase them out. I want to use chamber 2 as a 'fuge. So I'm going to add some good cured LR in large chunks. Cheato and a 'fuge light is also in the works.

I'm also getting a Sunpod MH with a 14000k Phoenix bulb. My corals are doing well so far but I want them to THRIVE. I'm also going to build a acrylic top. I'm going to use acrylic rods to elevate the top about 1/2" above the tank to allow evaporating water to exit and not "sweat" the lid. Then I'm going to add a couple of fans to blow over the acrylic top to help with heat transfer.

Then I'm going to build a ATO. I plans on using acrylic sheet to build a tank that will fit and look like it is supposed to be there. Some black paint and a black cap to keep the light out.

By the time I finish all this work the ich will have died and my tank will be ready for fish again.

The QT is getting a modded hood to accept my 10000k PC that is in my stock hood now. It is also getting a complete wash and bleach. I'm going to keep some sponges in chamber 3. Not to filter debris, but rather to grow bio for the QT. I want to keep my new corals in the QT as well. This is why I'm going to add the 10000k light to the QT hood.

So other than all my CUC, shrimps and corals doing well, that's the master plans. I will update things as I go along. Some pics to come.

I thought it would be interesting to see a progression of my aqua-scapes. Enjoy!

Here is the mod I did last weekend.

I bought this bulkhead.


Drilled a hole and used a dremel to open it as necessary.

I put the stock Oceanic pump down in chamber 1. Used a 5/8" ID vinyl hose and a plastic 90 degree fitting to attach it. Looks way better than the huge Korelia.

Nice......are you sure you have enough locline

Its always fun when a plan comes together.


Your progression pics are cool to see all together

Nice setup. I bp=ought a BC29 that I'm setting up after the hollidays. FYI 15 yrs ago we has a 55 Gal FO tank.After having it set up for several months we decided to add a hermit crab. He wasn't a big crab, not sure what kind, about the size of a nickle. When we asked if we would have any problem with him bothering the fish, the LFS said no, in a tank that size he would never see the fish. Well the 1st night he had a $850 fish dinner. Needless to say I will always leary of hermits now + that LFS is now out of business

What kind of fish cost you $850???

He ate every fish in the tank. Coral Beauty, Maroon Clowns, I can't remember every thing but I had around 12 fish that were all gone or dead.

All that from a nickel sized crab? Are you sure it wasn't a crocodile?