My First Marine Aquarium (BC 14)

[Lear]

Hello everyone,

 

This is my first post, regarding my first marine aquarium ... a Biocube 14g!

I would really appreciate help & advice, but I'm the sensitive type, so be nice please!

I'm going to have a lot of Noob questions....

 

(I've been keeping freshwater fish (mostly rainbowfish) in heavily planted tanks for about 10 years, breeding them in an "oh my god, there are baby fish, what do I do now?" fashion, plus I'm a grad student in a microbiology lab, so I'm not completely clueless about fish and water chemistry -- but still fairly clueless, especially where salt water is concerned. I'm so used to the plants in my freshwater aquariums being awesome filters that I'm not used to worrying about water quality...)

 

I've been considering getting a nano reef aquarium "at some point" for a very long time, but last Friday I ran into an amazing deal I just couldn't pass up -- and suddenly I've got an awesome used Biocube 14 that's already full of life, and... oh my god, what do I do now?

 

My first questions are:

1) temperature advice

2) when to go to the store and get a cleanup crew

3) what cleanup crew to get

4) which light to use, and what time cycle

5) where to get an RO or RO/DI system

Read on for the details to help me answer these questions:

 

I just picked up my new money-and-time sink yesterday; I got an absolutely amazing deal on an already established system (with no fish or corals yet). It came with the BC14 cube (w/ a few of the standard suggested changes -- LR rubble instead of bioballs, MJ900 pump, Visi-Therm Stealth 50W heater, widened flow between chambers 1&2) , stand, salt mix, a nice digital thermometer, ammonia/nitrate/nitrite/pH/Ca Salifert test kits, Sybon refractometer, and the "Reef Invertebrates" and "Corals" books -- which I've started reading, but it will be awhile before I make it through them! It also came with... a 70W metal-halide Sunpod!

 

The current livestock is a bed of live sand, about 20 pounds of live rock, and a (looks like blue-legged?) hermit crab. The guy I bought it from says he's had it up and running about 5 months, and at one point had a clownfish, a couple of turbo snails, and 2 hermit crabs (I'm told my hermit crab, lacking empty shells to move into, took out the snails & the other hermit crab -- hence, the tank arrived with only 1 hermit crab, and no snails).

 

The LR is covered in coraline algae, what looks like a little hair algae (not out of hand yet, but needs a clean-up crew soon), some nice tufts of codium and neomeris macro algae, a little bit of caulerpa, and a small amount of green bubble algae (I removed this as best I could, but I'm sure I missed some, and that plenty of spores got released during the moving process).

 

It all made a 2-hour trip to its new home, plus a while of sitting around while I assembled the stand & got everything set up. I carted over all of the original water, and kept the sand, hermit, and LR under water the whole way over.

 

I figure I should let it sit for at least a few days to make sure nothing dies off and causes a nitrogen spike. The guy I got it from said a clown died (and disappeared - hermit food?) in it not too long ago. Current stats this morning are: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate ~10, specific gravity ~1.023 (I haven't measured the pH yet, but it should be whatever it was before I moved it). The nitrate level seems high (not toxic I think if the critters are acclimated to it, and should work itself out with time)?

 

So. My questions are:

 

1) What should the temperature be?

The current temperature is 81-82oF -- the heater came set for 80.5-ish I think

(between the "79" and "82" marks), but it went up to about 81.9 (slowly) when I

turned the day lights on this morning, and has since dropped to about 81.2. I've

got the stock hood on it -- would the Sunpod be more temperature stable, since

it's not enclosed like the stock hood? What should the temperature be, and

exactly how stable does it need to be before I can get a cleanup crew in there?

 

2) When to go to the store and get a cleanup crew, and how many members at a time?

3) What cleanup crew to get?

I'm thinking a snail or two (astrea? turbo? cerith?)

I want a shrimp, probably a Cleaner shrimp (I think they're pretty)

Maybe another blue-legged hermit or two?

(Eventually I'll want two fish (clown & undecided), and some corals)

 

4) Which light (stock or Sunpod) to use, and what time cycle?

I have both the stock BC 14g hood, and a 70W metal-halide Sunpod. Until I get some

critters in there to eat the algae, which should I use? And what is a good cycle to set

the timer(s) on for the day & night light settings? I'll probably go for corals eventually,

at which point I'd want the Sunpod for sure, but I haven't really researched them yet,

so I'm far from ready.

 

5) Where to get an RO or RO/DI system?

The guy I bought this setup from used bottled distilled water, but I'd like to get my own

RO or RO/DI system. I wouldn't need a huge one, since the # of gallons/wk is going to be

pretty minor. Any suggestions?

 

Thank you, everyone (both in advance for advice, and for all the advice I've already read here). I'm very excited about my new aquarium! I'll probably post a photo soon, but for now I need to stop writing & go to work....

 

-Jen

[JustReef]

Temp: 77-82 is best. More importantly, it should be stable. Same temperature day and night.

 

When to get CUC: Retest your water in a week. If there is no ammonia or nitrite, you're ready.

 

What to get for CUC: Skip the crabs. You've already seen what they do (kill snails). I like astreas, they're cheap and help keep the glass clean. Also get cerith or nassarius for the sand bed. Cleaner Shrimp are fun.

 

Lighting: I also have the 70w sunpod. I have the white moonlights turn on at noon and off at 10pm. The MH lamp turns on at 1pm and turns off at 9pm. You can have yours run longer, but not more than 12 hours.

 

R/O Unit: Buckeye Field Supply, Air water ice, filterdirect (ebay). Lots of places to get them. I don't think the brand matters that much. I've never heard anyone complain about theirs.

[Lear]

Thanks for the advice, JustReef!

 

Day 1: I left the stock lights on for the day, about 10am - 9pm (11 hrs, which I know is a bit long). Already I can see a rust-red growth of cyanobacteria forming; it's even starting to coat one of my codium tufts. My hermit crab seems happy; he's munching away on the top of the rocks. The temperature has stabilized at 81.5. I guess I should shorten the amount of time I have the light on, until I add my CUC?... I don't want my rocks drowned in cyano before I even get a snail... Does the cyano bloom mean I should do a water change?

 

I think my biggest question right now is that of lighting... should I just start using the Sunpod? I'll start by setting up a timer to run the bright lights for 8 hrs/day...

[Rocket]

Thanks for the advice, JustReef!

 

Day 1: I left the stock lights on for the day, about 10am - 9pm. Already I can see a rust-red growth of cyanobacteria forming; it's even starting to coat one of my codium tufts. My hermit crab seems happy; he's munching away on the top of the rocks. The temperature has stabilized at 81.5. I guess I should shorten the amount of time I have the light on, until I add my CUC? I don't want my rocks drowned in cyano before I even get a snail....

 

 

When GHA appears, add a Emerald Mithrax crab, in 3 days I went from completly covered rocks to nothing, and the crab keeps the bubble algae in check too!

[Lear]

When GHA appears, add a Emerald Mithrax crab, in 3 days I went from completly covered rocks to nothing, and the crab keeps the bubble algae in check too!

Thanks, Rocket! Lots of people say to avoid Emerald crabs because they can attack and eat other critters in the tank? Of course, the only "other critter" I have is the hermit, but I'm getting fond of him already. I suppose I could see if my LFS has one I could "borrow" once I'm sure the the tank isn't going to go through a moving-induced cycle...

[Lear]

Day 2:

 

I'm pretty sure my hermit is not a blue-legged hermit. He looks more like Calcinus latens on this hermit photo site. I don't know anything about these hermits aside from that ID website... anyone familiar with them? My boyfriend is fond of the hermit; he was taking pictures of it before I got home last night. I hope he's reef-safe -- the guy I bought the tank from seemed to think he was a killer -- but he also hadn't provided any extra shells for the little guy. His current shell is about 1.5" long. He's definitely good at algae control; I can see clearly where he's been on the rocks.

[Rocket]

I'm following along, any pictures possible? Curious on how the rock layout is.

 

Also about the Emerald crab, I've had mine for 4 months with 8 Trochus snails, and 2 Nassarious snails, Along with 8 blue Hermit crabs. Never had a problem with the emerald crab. It's quite shy, I walk up to the tank and the MH light spill over lights up my body and it runs away. Only way I can see it is at night if I move slowly when the moonlights are running.

[Lear]

I'm following along, any pictures possible? Curious on how the rock layout is.

Yay! I'm working on photos; I've got some, but they're on my boyfriend's camera, so I've got to wait for him to get them onto the computer. My rock layout is... haphazard. I was mostly just trying to set up everything fast. I expect to fuss with it in the future.

 

I went by my LFS today, and it sounds like I'll be able to trade some of my overgrown freshwater aquarium plants for my cleanup crew. And they've got emerald crabs! On the downside, I swear I saw Aiptasia on their rock here & there, including in their coral frags. Does that mean I should avoid getting stuff from them?

[Lear]

Photos!

 

Here you can see my (hastily arranged and liable to be reorganized) rock, a close-up (ish) of the Neomeris and Codium tufts, and... The Famous Hermit Crab! You can also see the rust-red algae (cyano? diatoms?) that's quickly forming over everything...

[Lear]

Day 2, continued:

 

I switched back to the Sunpod. It's noisier, and I'll have to worry more about topping off the water... and I sure hope my cats don't try to go fishing... but I'm hoping that the brighter, cooler light will help temper my cyano bloom. When I switched to the Sunpod, the water temperature dropped to about 80.4 -- and the crab went into hiding. The red rusty algae continues to spread. It seems to be putting out "spores" -- little balloons on threads.

[Rocket]

Sounds like the cyanobacteria is growing nicely, a lowered light schedule will reduce the spread, but will increase the length of the curing process. I just left my lights on for 14 hour shifts, cycle ended in about 1 week. Diatoms should be coming next. Also yes your sunpod has a nigher rated K value light, means less "green" spectrum to grow the algae (plants).

 

Temps should be kept between 77-82F, but more importantly a stable temperature.

[Lear]

Day 3:

Everything is covered in the little bubbles on threads. Even the crab is covered in them. I did a 25% water change today -- my first salt-water change ever! I'd set the salt mix + water stirring overnight, and had a heater in there to warm up the water... and tried to pump the water into the tank, as the guy I bought it from suggested -- but wound up pumping salt water all over our hardwood floor instead. Hopefully in the future it will work out better...

 

Ammonia & Nitrites still at 0, Nitrates still at 10. Cyano continues its rampant spread. My crab is in hiding since the water change. The temperature seems to be around 77; my heater (set to 79) isn't doing it's job. I don't know what to do about the temperature fluctuations, but I definitely need to solve this problem before my nano will be critter-safe!

[jayxem]

How the cats treating the tank running with it hood-less and sunpod?!

I want MH so bad but have two 8yr male cats and they love to go near tank.

They not fixed yet but will be soon but so scared.

Curious how yours handles the sunpod

[Lear]

Hi Jayxem! Yay, people are reading!

So far, I haven't seen my cats pay any attention to it -- but they're alone most of the day while we're at work, so that doesn't mean much. They're used to aquariums, since I've got freshwater ones all over, but those all have some level of cover. I don't have any tasty fish in my biocube yet though, so there's nothing moving to catch a cat's attention. At least they don't seem to like water, so "fishing" might not be a concern... I hope...

[Lear]

Day 4:

 

When I woke up this morning, the temperature was at 75. Something must be done. Maybe I need a new heater (it is hot to the touch, so it's not just broken), or to place it somewhere besides chamber 1 (the only other option is in the actual tank, because chambers 2&3 don't have much water in them when the pump is running). To start, I removed the cd cover blocking the lower intake into chamber 1, hoping that will help heat exchange, and turned up the heater a bit. At least my one resident critter, the crab, seems to be very hardy...

[Rocket]

Hope you figure out that heating problem. Defective heater? It is quiet possible that is a flow issue, the heated water is not moving away from the heater fast enough and is tricking the heater. I like my stealth heater. Just can never tell if it is running, so have to look at the heat waves comming off it to see if it is working. But the tank stays a nice 79F.

 

Personally I would hold off on another water change for 1 week. It sounds like you are doing a soft cycle on your tank, which is good because you have that crab. But if your up for the risk, (nitrates high) you can speed up your cycle by not changing water. The hermit crab is a rather hardy creature. Some guys tank recently was electrified by his Maxijet pump frying and the CUC all lived.

 

Just an option you have available. Depends on how long you want to wait for coral/fish

 

I waited almost 3 months before my first coral.

[Lear]

Thanks for all the help and advice, Rocket!

 

I'm not in a hurry to add fish -- I just want all that brown stuff to stop growing on everything! My tank is drowned in brown slime. It looked better after I siphoned the gravel & rocks doing my water change yesterday, but now it's back. I was hoping that doing a water change would remove some of whatever nutrients were feeding my cyano -- but I'll follow your advice and wait for awhile before I do another one. I want to get some cleanup crew critters in there asap though! Fish and corals can wait, for sure -- I'm even less ready than my Biocube!

 

I'm definitely concerned about the flow I'm getting between the back chambers, and I wouldn't be remotely suprised if that was the source of my heating woes. It's certainly causing problems for my pump. Since I inherited this setup, I don't really know "how it works" (right now, the answer is "not so good"):

Biocube 14g -- but everything stock has been removed.

Chamber 1: a bunch of (fairly large) LR rubble in a bag; heater tucks in next to this. on top of that, is a bag of carbon, and another little bag of purigen. this results in "stuff" all the way to the top of the chamber. The gap between chambers 1&2 has been widened.

Chamber 2: a bag of (fairly large) LR rubble in a bag, topped with a bunch of filter floss. This chamber is almost always basically empty of water, since it's pulled into Chamber 3 by the pump as soon as it splashes in from Chamber 2.

Chamber 3: the sponge, and the MJ900 pump.

 

When the pump is running, it sucks water into the tank so fast that chambers 2&3 are always practically dry. With the Sunpod on (open top = evaporation city) by the end of the day it's pumping air (not good). Evaporation even causes it to pump air overnight. This, obviously, needs to be fixed...

 

Help!

[Rocket]

Since you are cycling, remove the carbon and bag of purigen. the LR is the best filter you will ever have. So keep that stuff. The filter floss is find just dont' let it clog up. Remove the sponge from chamber 3, unless this is used to make the flow not splash so much.

 

 

 

Basically just run the pump with LR rubble. You don't want to artificially remove the bad "curring" stuff yet. As this will setup your Nitrogen Cycle.

 

I have an AP24 and all I have in the rear chambers is a small sponge to stop the splashes from my skimmer. from there it goes into chamber 2 where the heater is, and then pumped back into the display area. I keep the heater right next to the inlet of the pump so maximum water flow is right at the heater.

 

I'm drawing up a parts list for a small light up area for Chaeto in the rear 1st chamber. But I take things slow my my tank.

[cota472]

Chamber 1: a bunch of (fairly large) LR rubble in a bag; heater tucks in next to this. on top of that, is a bag of carbon, and another little bag of purigen. this results in "stuff" all the way to the top of the chamber. The gap between chambers 1&2 has been widened.

 

i would guess this is a big part of the issue, the rock is reducing the amount of water flowing past your heater, but may also be reducing the flow from through out the tank. ie. water from the bottom may not be able to make it through the chambers as easily as water flowing straight over the top of the rock

[Rocket]

OooO Good point Cota. Did not think of that. The heater is buried? Wow how did I miss that in reading.

[Lear]

Wow, fast help!

 

Yeah, I did suspect that the buried heater could be part of the problem. It's hard to know what to keep and what to change, when I'm a noob with a used system!

 

I just removed the bags of carbon & purigen. Now for even more cyano...

I also moved the LR rubble in chamber 1 into chamber 2.

 

New setup:

Chamber 1: heater

Chamber 2: 2 bags of fairly large LR rubble, covered w/ filter floss

Chamber 3: sponge, MJ900 pump

 

So far, flow seems better... we'll see how it is when I get home from work tomorrow night...

I'm not sure what the point of removing the sponge is?

 

Thanks, Rocket & Cota... I hope this helps!

[cota472]

you are welcome, hope this helps with your temps.

[Lear]

From looking at Cota's aquarium pix, and Rocket's comment about diatoms, I think I've got diatoms. At first there was some rust-red, but now it's just brown, everywhere (although maybe the color change is due to switching the lighting). I'll take some pix of my filthy biocube tomorrow -- perhaps even with my iPhone, to be cool like Cota!

 

I know I've got cyano/diatoms/whatever the brown stuff is cropping up all over the place, indicating that some sort of cycling is going on, even though I have yet to see any ammonia or nitrite. But I don't want this stuff to smother my macro algae. If my ammonia and nitrite levels are still 0 on Sunday (1 week after moving, and 3 days post-Purigen removal), would be it be okay for me to go to the LFS & get a few snails?

[jayxem]

If the levels are all still at 0 you should do about a 20% water change Sunday and get some snails. The reason you might have so much algae growth is because your running the lights during your cycle, especially with the MHs. From what I've read people who have the sunpod with BC have to top off usually once a day since so much water evaporates due to using MHs

[Lear]

Okay, so I've been reading up like mad on diatoms, and there's a lot of differing advice out there. But one things come out: I think what I have is mostly dinoflagellates -- the little bubbles on strings, that are everywhere. I think I'm gonna put that Purigen back in, and ask for some expert advice in a new thread...

 

Edit: I went to take some photos, and all the little balloons are gone! o.O There's still the brown stringy stuff left. In the Sunpod light, they look brown, but in the stock light, they're red. I took a photo of a few strings that still have balloons. I'm not sure if my bloom is dying down, or if the balloons will just come back after the lights are on for awhile. For some reason, the photos look a lot cleaner than the real thing does...

 

 

Edit 2: I took another picture, from below instead of from above, and it magically looks dirtier! My water is actually clear, the fuzzy quality is from the stuff growing on the glass.