Ok, so im still pretty new to salt water. So far I havent had any real issues besides algae issues. I originally got 6 Nassarius snails as a CUC...They go under the sand durring the "day" and pop out at "night" (lighting cycle). They mainly climb around the glass and dont do much. I then added 8 turbo snails and figured id add 2 blue hermits to see if they helped. The snails alone put a real hurting on the algae on the rock and glass! For the 2 weeks ive had then, I really have seen them stop moving around. The crabs come out and clean a little then dissapear. The only issue I have is the sand keeps getting brown. It would annoy me and I would in a sense comb it with a scraper to bury it and bring fresh sand up. Is this still part of a cycle? The tank is 2 months old, almost 3.

Also, ive been feeling like im having some bad luck with Zoa's. I was given a few polyps and had them on a rock and they were just fine untill one day they closed up and havent come back out. While I was at my LFS, I picked up a pretty nice frag of zoa's with about 30-40 heads. They werent on anything so I glued them to a rock. For the past week they looked great then my 10k PC bulb went over this past weekend. Only the Atinic was going on for 2 days untill I was able to FINALLY find a replacement locally. Since, the little colony seems a little spread apart now and arent opening up like they used to. I also have a frog spawn which is just fine and a mushrom thats fine. Any ideas what can be up?

My current setup and inhabitents are as follows

BioCube 29
Flow Mod
Stock bioballs
Oceanic Protein Skimmer
Rio 800 Return pump
Koralia Nano Powerhead
Stock PC lighting

Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia - 0ppm
PH - 8.4ish (its between 8.3 - 8.4)
Salinity - 1.025
Dosing - Kent Nano Reef A + B

Current Population -
2x False Percular Clowns
3x Damsiels
1x Firefish
6x Nassarius Snails
8x Turbo Snails
2x Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
1x BTA

Your tank is still pretty young, so yes, part of the algae you're seeing is probably still from the cycle. It seems like you stocked quite a few fish in there really quickly, before you had a chance to truly establish your tank. Nass snails eat detritus, not algae. Different snails eat different things, I highly recommend reading the info on reefcleaners.org, then order what you still need from John.

8 turbos is a lot of turbos for a 29 gallon tank, and the general recommendation is for your tank to be quite stable (6 months to a year) before adding a BTA.

Check the biocube thread for ideas, but I think you could probably use more than a Koralia nano for flow, and remove the bioballs.

Good luck! and try to post some pics, they'll help people determine what's happening.

Thanks for the reply. I know the tank is still pretty young but all the fish are really healthy and the BTA is also actually doing quite well. Every day its looking better and the clowns are starting to pay attention.

Ill get some pics up later tho. What would you recommend as a replacement for the bioballs? I did a little looking around a while back and alot of people turned it into a whole refugium. Im not too sure yet if I wanna go that far.