splitskater's 14g biocube, NEW CORALS AND CLAM!

[splitskater]

my biocube thread, here is some info and a picture timeline so far!!!!

 

system:

14g Biocube

 

mods:

70w Sunpod

widened open between chamber 1 and 2

blocked off lower intake

maxi-jet 900

 

filtration:

chamber 1 heater

chamber 2 chemi-pure elite and filter floss (media rack and fuge soon)

chamber 3 maxi-jet 900 and filter floss

 

livestock:

18 lbs figi live rock

20lbs live sand

2 ocellaris clowns (1 orange and 1 black)

1 skunk cleaner

1 emerald crab

3 assorted blue and white leg hermits

7 assorted snails (cerith, astrea, nassaurius)

1 frogspawn

6 assorted ricordea florida

1 red mushroom rock

1 fire and ice palythoa

1 nuclear green palythoa

1 kedds red zoa

1 sunset horizon zoa

1 baby blues zoa

1 neon emerald zoa

1 eagle eye zoa

1 purple plate coral

1 maxima clam

1 gsp

 

december 2009

 

february 2009

 

march 2009

 

more updates to come!!!!

[plainrt]

i love the rock work.looks to give good surface area to work with on rock and in sandbed.

 

 

check out my 14 gal biocube in sig below,has a few upgrades done

[splitskater]

i love the rock work.looks to give good surface area to work with on rock and in sandbed.

 

 

check out my 14 gal biocube in sig below,has a few upgrades done

 

thanx, i was so worried that i wasnt going to get a good rockscape but am really happy with it.

 

i have checked out your thread many times, it is not a pos

[plainrt]

well maybe not the stock in it but still will not say i like oceanic products after the troubles i had with my biocube and there crap service lol.

 

 

keep updates coming.

[splitskater]

well maybe not the stock in it but still will not say i like oceanic products after the troubles i had with my biocube and there crap service lol.

 

 

keep updates coming.

 

yea i have read the problems you have had, hopefully i will not have to find out about their customer service personally.

 

updates soon!

[splitskater]

just testing everything here are the numbers

 

ph 8.0

ammonia .25

nitrite 0

nitrate 0

s.g. read 1.032 way high have to lower

[splitskater]

has anybody ever used the petco ocean water and had a high sg?

 

should i trust this hydrometer....i have no access to a refractometer or money to buy one, my tank is completelt toped off. should i try to bring the sg down immediately?

[Mercuryne]

has anybody ever used the petco ocean water and had a high sg?

 

should i trust this hydrometer....i have no access to a refractometer or money to buy one, my tank is completelt toped off. should i try to bring the sg down immediately?

 

Did you mix your own saltwater? looks like that's the case?

EDIT: Sorry.. i read too quickly. you used water to fill that was already mixed? try the reading again.. that test unit is not as good as a refractometer.. but should get you close.. looks like you just put too much salt in.. easily enough solved...

 

if you keep reading and it come out high. then just add RO/DI or distilled water untill it comes down.

I'd recomment using RO/DI water.. I made the mistake of using tap water early on and had lots of troubles..

distilled is better than tap.. but RO is the best.

[splitskater]

Did you mix your own saltwater? looks like that's the case?

 

looks like you just put too much salt in.. easily enough solved...

 

if you keep reading and it come out high. then just add RO/DI or distilled water untill it comes down.

I'd recomment using RO/DI water.. I made the mistake of using tap water early on and had lots of troubles..

distilled is better than tap.. but RO is the best.

 

no i didnt mix my own salt i bought 5g jugs of petco real ocean water that is premixed, it says on the box sg is between 1.025 and 1.027....didnt test it when i put it in was wondering if anybody else had this problem with the petco water before

 

lol...you edited as i was replying, i did test several times with the same reading i am going to dillute the water in the tank and switch it out, i am using the distilled water for now until i find a source for RO...there is a glacier water machine in my local foodtown that refils for $.39 thats says RO/DI real small on it but i wasnt sure i could trust it yet until i did more research on it.

[burtbollinger]

you should mix your own water...asap. you should find a better store than petco btw. any advice you get there is useless, btw.

 

petco real ocean water?, sounds like a ripoff petco joke for beginners. seriously consider mixing your own salt water or buying from a reputable store....

 

its so high cause there is a bubble on your sault guage arrow...see it there?

 

fyi, a ro/di filter was the best, most helpful purchase i've made in 5 years of reefing....trusting other's water sucks.

[splitskater]

you should mix your own water...asap. you should find a better store than petco btw. any advice you get there is useless, btw.

 

petco real ocean water?, sounds like a ripoff petco joke for beginners. seriously consider mixing your own salt water or buying from a reputable store....

 

its so high cause there is a bubble on your sault guage arrow...see it there?

 

fyi, a ro/di filter was the best, most helpful purchase i've made in 5 years of reefing....trusting other's water sucks.

 

there is a much better lfs than petco that sells premixed water, but petco had the biocube in stock so i went there and figured the water was ok...first lesson learned easy fix though, and the reading wasnt becuase of the bubble i measured it like 10 times after that pic and made sure there wasnt a single bubble..anyway i got the sg down to 1.024, eventually i do want to get a ro/di filter.

[splitskater]

some update scape pics i am done rockscaping and am completely happy with it

fts

right 45 degree angle...some nice caves and tunnels

side shot

 

it has only been a day but have not seen anything interesting on the rocks or crawling around as of yet

[chriz]

Scaping looks good! GL

[cdelicath]

I use the Petco premixed for water changes. There's nothing wrong with using it. in fact my coral has looked better then ever since i switched to catalina water.

 

My advice would be buy a refractometer from Ebay $40 and stick with the catalina water.

 

I do 1 gal water change every Sat or Sun. "make sure you test the waters salinity level before using it"

I have heard of people getting bad batches.

[splitskater]

Scaping looks good! GL

thanks took me a while to get it the way i wanted

 

I use the Petco premixed for water changes. There's nothing wrong with using it. in fact my coral has looked better then ever since i switched to catalina water.

 

My advice would be buy a refractometer from Ebay $40 and stick with the catalina water.

 

I do 1 gal water change every Sat or Sun. "make sure you test the waters salinity level before using it"

I have heard of people getting bad batches.

yea a refractometer seems to be in order soon i really dont see myself mixing my own water, i live it a very small apartment, with my wife so it is a little cramped, but i will defiantely check the salinity before i add it

[splitskater]

day 3 nothing noew to report have yet to see any hitchhikers or anything of interest.

 

i do have a couple of question i was planning on removing the bioballs and sponge, and adding some live rock rubble and filter floss on the top tray in chamber 2, but then i was reading up more on chemi-pure, so what do people recommend the LR and floss in chamber 2 to or chemi pure and floss in chamber 2?

[splitskater]

just got back from the lfs with some chemi-pure and some filter floss. took out the bioballs and put the chemi in the bottom of chamber 2 with the filter floss in the tray on top, but this created a very loud trickling noise, i think i may take out the tray and put the floss directly on top of the bag of chemi-pure i believe this will cut down on the noise i hope......there seems to be a lot more particles floating around in the water coming out if the pump now, i dont know if this is anything to be concerned about or not but there is a lot of fine particles in the tank...and there is also some black particles coming from the chemi-pure bag i believe...any answers would be appreciated

[splitskater]

have some brown/green algae growing on rocks, not sure if it could diatoms this early seeing my cycle hasnt even started yet....also the algae has tons of bubbles in it not sure whats up with that.

[plainrt]

i just use filter floss in stock cut filter tray..........thats all.I started with rubble in back but then removed it all so would keep cleaner in chambers.I do have some chaeto in back also.I have a very big bioload with 4 fish and inverts but water cond is in check with this setup.

[splitskater]

yea i would like to do the cheato but i dont want to do the light mod right now, i havent really done any research on it but maybe there is a submersible light out there but i just got the chemi pure so maybe

later....anyway you know whats up with those air bubbles?

[splitskater]

just checked my parameters new numbers are confusing me a little

 

ammonia 0

nitrite 0

nitrate 0

ph 8.2

 

my tank is only 5 days old and was showing ammonia at .25 and now two days later my ammonia is 0 i didnt see any spike in my nitrites and zero in my nitrate, i am little confused by this, i dont think my tank can be done cycling yet?.......could anybody shed some light on this? i do have a small bloom of diatoms i have a decent amount on my sand and rock....and was wondering if it is to early to add a cuc?

[splitskater]

also spotted this worm, that i posted in the ID section

[nanofish36]

just checked my parameters new numbers are confusing me a little

 

ammonia 0

nitrite 0

nitrate 0

ph 8.2

 

my tank is only 5 days old and was showing ammonia at .25 and now two days later my ammonia is 0 i didnt see any spike in my nitrites and zero in my nitrate, i am little confused by this, i dont think my tank can be done cycling yet?.......could anybody shed some light on this? i do have a small bloom of diatoms i have a decent amount on my sand and rock....and was wondering if it is to early to add a cuc?

 

Did you use uncured or cured live rock? I use mostly cured live rock and didn't see much of a cycle at first so I was told to add a formula (Microbacter) to help establish biological filtration in new aquariums. I did not turn any lights on during my tank's cycle in order to help prevent algae blooms. I did water test daily and slowly noticed ammonia, nitrite & nitrate. After the cycle was complete I turned the lights on and did my first water change. I also have a 14 gallon biocube and did a 3 gallon water change. After that I began adding 2 parts calcium/ph alkalinity booster daily in order to encourage coralline algae growth. About a week later I added a various snails. I now just do weekly water changes and testing. I consider my tank still new at 10 weeks and will add corals in a few weeks. I hope this helps

[splitskater]

Did you use uncured or cured live rock? I use mostly cured live rock and didn't see much of a cycle at first so I was told to add a formula (Microbacter) to help establish biological filtration in new aquariums. I did not turn any lights on during my tank's cycle in order to help prevent algae blooms. I did water test daily and slowly noticed ammonia, nitrite & nitrate. After the cycle was complete I turned the lights on and did my first water change. I also have a 14 gallon biocube and did a 3 gallon water change. After that I began adding 2 parts calcium/ph alkalinity booster daily in order to encourage coralline algae growth. About a week later I added a various snails. I now just do weekly water changes and testing. I consider my tank still new at 10 weeks and will add corals in a few weeks. I hope this helps

 

i used cured live rock, and i have been running my light 10 hours, antics 2 hours and the moonlight leds... dialy. i do have a lot of diatom growth, and a green algae the is about a 1/4 of inch high with tons of tiny little air bubble in it (i hope its not dinoflagellates, but looks a lot like it from the pictures i have seen), and have also noticed a tiny red furry thing on one of the rocks, but i have see it move yet.

[splitskater]

more pics kind of blury i have a panasonic lumix 9 megapixel but have to figure out how to use it.

bubbles in algae

red feathery thing in center of picture more red in person

no what i thought were diatoms on the algae in the sand has bubbles too