NanoN00b's Oceanic BioCube 29G

[NanoN00b]

Greetings,

 

I had typed a bunch of insightful info... but alas, I am using a awful notebook keyboard that has no CTRL key to jump between words... so instead, Alt+Left Arrow = all my typing gone.

 

I just started a BioCube 29G. I moved to a new place and wanted to try a saltwater tank. I've always wanted to but never had the time as I travelled >200 days a year for my last job. I'm now working from home, so I've got the time to dedicate to a new project.

 

I started with:

• 1 - Oceanic BioCube 29G
  1 - Hydor Koralia 2 Pump
  1 - 150W Visi-Temp Stealth Heater
  29 Lb of Indonesian Live Rock
  Seachem Reef Salt (1.025 SG)
  

 

I installed everything, set up my water, checked the SG using a refractometer, then installed the rock. There is a bunch of living things on this rock, and I got first choice at the store since the new shipment came in that morning. It's semi-cured from what I can tell, based on what I've read on different sites about the condition of live rock after shipment. There are no Bio-Balls, I plan on purchasing a protein skimmer in the coming months... but plan on relying on water changes and filtering to assist with the balance of the tank.

 

I plan on adding/modding later on:

• Stronger pump in third chamber
  Modding water overflow from first to second chamber
  Modding stock filter to accept bulk filter pad media
  Protein skimmer in second chamber, until then, charcoal and filter media.
  

 

I have no plans on fish or CUC yet... I'm not rushing to place inhabitants in the tank until I'm really confidant with the measurements and setup. I'd feel really bad if I kill a bunch of creatures and also waste a ton of money.

 

I'll attach some pictures below.

[dakar652]

Hey! that's some nice looking rock! what'd you pay per pound for that stuff? i think those are feather dusters, but i'm certainly no expert...looks like some nice hitchhikers you got there though. good choice on the patience issue...my tank was up for 2 months before i got a shrimp and now it's been up 3 months and doing just fine. the bulk of my rock was fully cured, with NO life on it (it was dry before being cured) but i'm seeding it with a few pieces of rubble in my refugium (and hopefully soon it will take). i'll tell you what though...i don't know how long your tank has been up, but you got me beat already and i think you can probably add a few snails or hermits. are you using the R/O yet? if not, i'd get into that as soon AS POSSIBLE...nothing but problems can come from tapwater...looks effin' GREAT though...keep up the work and the attitude and you'll have so much fun with this!

 

p.s. i wouldn't expect much of a run time out of that APC battery backup unit...i have the same one for my PC and i only get 2 minutes of run time out of it. go big if you really want to run the whole setup in a power outage...or just hook up the essentials (circulation pumps, heater)...and then hook the rest up to the wall directly or to another power strip.

[NanoN00b]

Thanks for the great praise... I really wanted this project to turn out well.

 

Hey! that's some nice looking rock! what'd you pay per pound for that stuff?

I paid $7.99/lb at a LFS. I saw some cheap prices online, but it was all uncured and then I had to pay for shipping. The going rate seems to be ~$7.99 for live rock in Calgary, AB - where I am. I don't expect great LFS prices when I live in the praries.

 

i wouldn't expect much of a run time out of that APC battery backup unit...i have the same one for my PC and i only get 2 minutes of run time out of it. go big if you really want to run the whole setup in a power outage...or just hook up the essentials (circulation pumps, heater)...and then hook the rest up to the wall directly or to another power strip.

I just have the pumps and the heater on the one side on the UPS for battery, the lights and moonlights are on the surge protection alone. I calculated the wattage as 150W (Heater) + 9W (Koralia) + ~10W (Stock Pump). Based on that calculation, I should have a runtime of about 8-9 minutes if the heater is on... I just want enough to handle a small brownout or a short outage. I run just about everything essential at home on UPS (Computers, Portable Phone, Cable Internet, PC's, Wireless) so I could just buy a bigger UPS and use that somewhere else, but then the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) would go down.

 

I'm going to wait a couple weeks and test the water. The inital fill is with tap (I know... I know...) but in the future, I will be buying a RO/DI unit. Simple RO unit at the LFS is $99, but I'd like to get a RO/DI from eBay for $130 including shipping. Then I'll have some sweet water, but I'll have to hide the unit from my wife.

 

In the meantime, I might get RO from the local Co-Op supermarket and test it... if it comes out clean... I'll use that till I can round up the $100.

 

Have a good day!

[NanoN00b]

Anyone know what those fish are in the pic?

[dakar652]

they're some sort of filter feeder for sure...i can't tell if they're just young feather dusters, or something else...but they're certainly not fish. i would post a picture in the species identification forum to find out for sure what they are (there are a TON of savvy folks on this site that should be able to help you, and i don't think this post got enough exposure to really get you any sort of answer).

[dakar652]

could this be aptasia perhaps?

[NanoN00b]

Measured the values today... Boo. I'll need to bring my pH to 8.2 later.

 

Ammonia is high, to be expected.

 

pH: 7.800

NH3 - Ammonia ppm (mg/L) : 8.0

NO2 - Nitrite ppm (mg/L) : 0.0

NO3 - Nitrate ppm (mg/L) : 0.0

PO4 - Phosphate (ppm): 0.5

 

Tank is clearing. I added some Seachem Stability to help the process of building the biofilter. I also put some more filter mesh in the second compartment yesturday night to clear out some phospate and clean the tank up since I have some die-off. It's a bulk filter pad that also removes some phosphate, so I'll swap it out soon when it gets a little dirtier... it's already going brown, so that's be tomorrow.

[dakar652]

no worries...twas to be expected...27LBS in a 29gallon should certainly create quite a spike...especially with all the life on your rock from the distributor.

[NanoN00b]

no worries...twas to be expected...27LBS in a 29gallon should certainly create quite a spike...especially with all the life on your rock from the distributor.

 

 

That's what one of the local LFS's said also. I got a bunch of grey-white matter that I thought was fungus, but I was informed it's actually die off and that I can simply scrub it off and take it out with a small water change. I was thinking of doing that to get the dead material out that fell off the rock, there is a bunch of bits and dead stuff. I'll post a pic in the beginner forum to verify what the LFS said... the last thing I need is something unexpected.

[NanoN00b]

Well.... it's been a while....

 

I'm quite happy where things are at. I'll post pics of the tank and such in the near future...

 

My rock is thriving and now even is growing it's own zoa's on one spot - I didn't even know that would ever happen!

 

I've also got a bunch of new creatures that survived the cycle, so my tank is laden with life... I can sit for hours in the dark and watch it.

 

This is the best hobby I've ever taken up I'd have to say.

 

I'll post as soon as I can.

[crash43]

cant wait to c the pics!

[NanoN00b]

Well... long time no post. lol

 

My tank is still going well - I had some lapse in maintainence and the tank grew a lot of algae - but I'm working on it. I removed most of it by hand and now I'm balancing everything out.

 

I'm amazed how well the tank handled things. I tested the levels and no issues are existing, two days after my change, I'm at 390 ppm... and I'm keeping on Alk and such... I'm not going to go crazy but I'll test and monitor to keep track. I'd like it higher.

 

I did have some issues over the last year...

 

RIP - Emerald Crab - no skeleton - no body. Poss. during move. *sniffle*

RIP - Yellow Tail Damsel - no skeleton - no body. *sniffle*

RIP - High Fin Red Banded Goby - no skeleton - no body. Poss during move. *sniffle*

RIP - Peppermint Shrimp - no skeleton - no body. Poss during move. *sniffle*

RIP - Snails. Who knows... everyone loves to eat snails.

 

I think some actually passed when I moved. I moved from an apartment to a townhouse on August 31st due to my son. He needed more room than the womb. +$150 rent and utils FTL. Son - FTW.

 

I have currently:

 

3 x Zebra Turbo

3 x Nassarius Snail

2 x Cerith Snail? Hard to tell - lots eaten.

1 x Dwarf Zebra Hermit

1 x Halloween Hermit

1 x Brittle Star - Bad advice - He's not big... he might be my issue though. Trading might be a good idea.

1 x Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus sp.) - Was paired with Goby - Haven't seen him in months... not unusual I guess.

1 x Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis) - Freaks me out - nibbles my hand in-tank.

2 x Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) - Paired (1 Large, 1 Small)

1 x Six Line Wrasse (Piggy eater... he eats till his belly is big)

 

As I was typing this... I was thinking about my fish... why did some go away... all three are originals - so I decided to view at night.....................

 

I am Captain Ahab and I actually have slain my Moby Dick!

 

I caught a small hairy crab that I saw come 8 months ago from my tube coral. He was tiny then... and he disappeared - I thought he got eaten. NO! He was crawling around and was now an inch across. He was hairy and without shell. I hath slain him.

 

I installed a Hydor Flo Deflector - has anyone had luck with them? It seems to decrease flow a small amount on the stock head in the BioCube... so I think I may upgrade the pump and use the old one as a pump for changes. I light it so far though... it directs the water all over - which is nice in my tank. I also have the Hydor Koralia 2 moving things around... but just figured it couldn't hurt.

 

I'm thinking about the lighting upgrade for my tank... what do you think about adding two more bulbs (Nanocustoms Kit) to jump it to four 36W bulbs (2 x 10K and 2 x Actinic)? With this and 6 Mo. change schedules (2 per 6 Mo - 1 Act/1 10K) be able to support SPS corals? That would be 4.97W per Gal.

 

I want to get back in here... I missed all the reading.

 

ttys

[NanoN00b]

Nobody has "any" comments?

[patrick1234]

It is looking nice 7.99 for that rock is not that bad. The going rate around co for that kinda rock is 13.00

[SiLkk]

Tank looks good, have you noticed if the feather dusters have gotten bigger?

[NanoN00b]

Tank looks good, have you noticed if the feather dusters have gotten bigger?

 

Yeah, some have grown over time... but none have grown into tubes like I've seen in the LFS or anything.

 

A bunch have come alive in other spots and are tiny... guess it takes time.

 

I have two-three vermetid also... but they're not bothering anyone.

[NanoN00b]

Okay - I replaced my yellow watchman goby... with a.... yellow watchman goby.

 

I'm original eh?

 

Can someone explain why after I added some candy cane coral... and the fish... all the sudden the clownfish pair started to host my frogspawn? Just out of the blue they're swimming in it!

 

I'll keep an eye on it. Weird.

[Khayman]

Hello NanoNoob

 

Thought I would stop by after your post on one of my threads. Your tank looked good at the beginning of your cycle a year ago. Do you have any recent pictures? You went about 1 year with never a post or an update give us some pictures.

 

I wish I could answer why your clowns are hosting now instead of before. I do doubt that the introduction or Candy-cane coral had anything to do with it, just coincidence.

 

The things you asked about on your original post are defiantly feather Dusters. They are not the variety that get large as far as I can tell, just hitchhikers.

[NanoN00b]

Added a new full tank shot.

 

Added a shot of my Xenia. Getting the right color tone on Frogspawn is a pain. Anybody have recommendations on how to photograph green colors well?

 

What do you think?

[Nanobuds]

i like it

[THEEGRIMREEFER]

awesome tank man. lovin the sixline! cant wait till my 29 kicks off.

[NanoN00b]

*yawn*

 

Finally on the forum again. I got behind on my maintainence, everyone is alive... but my coral wasn't opening nicely, so I bought 20 gallons of water and did two 10 gallon swaps over a week plus a overhaul on all the pumps and refresh of all the filter media and such. Everyone is quite happy now.

 

Update:

1st Chamber - Stealth heater

2nd Chamber - Tunze Nano DOC 9002 skimmer

3nd Chamber - Piping to and back from a Rena Filstar xP3 in the cabinet.

 

My son is mobile now, so it's always fun trying to keep him from beating on the glass with his hands, since he thinks he's somehow saying, "Hi!" to the fish. No Son, they don't like that.

 

I hate the PC lighting on this thing. The fans are annoying and it's a pain to change them. I think I'd like to hack out some of the fins, put them on a pot and then put LED's in someday.

 

Have a good one!

[cheryl jordan]

Very nice tank. I really love the stand, really love the stand. But alas no place for sumps, ballast and power cords. You have an eye for detail and it shows in your awesome tank.

[NanoN00b]

Added a firefish. My six-line is a jerk to him. *sigh*

 

I fed them really well and everyone is happy, but the firefish is smaller than the rest of the club. I'll have to fatten him up so he can kick some behind.

 

I've ordered my new RO/DI unit. Yay, I'm so sick of buying RO water at my supermarket. This will be a godsend.