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Cultivated Reef

My first tank 29g Bio-Cube


Valadon

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Hello everyone, I am new here and new to the hobby. After doing research for a few days I decided to go with the 29 gal Bio-Cube (the reef max was a bit over my budget) I got it home two days and set it up. I got the saltwater all mixed up and added to the tank. Then last night after it had been running for 24 hours I added 34 pounds of LR. The sand is just normal sand, but I have been told that after a while the LR will turn the sand into LS. I hope this is ok, I was going to get LS but the LFS said I didn't really need it.

 

 

 

Here are all the test results for the water after the rock had been in for a few hours.

 

 

 

temp: 78.6

 

SG: 1.023 (a little low maybe?)

 

PH: 8.0 (It was 8.2 before I added the rock, not sure what happened? should I be worried about this?)

 

Ammonia: 1.2

 

Nitrite: 0.1

 

Nitrate: less than 5

 

 

 

This was my first time using the test kit so there is a good chance I made some errors in my tests. I am using the Nutrafin master test kit.

 

 

 

I have a 100w stealth heater in chamber 3, and the temp probe in chamber 1.

 

 

 

I have a question about the lights in the tank. This tank has a 36w 10k light and a 36k actinic (sp?) light and the moonlight LEDS. I am not really sure when to run the different lights. I bought a power strip with light timers built in. So right now I have the 10k and the actinic lights set to come on from 11am to 11pm. and then the LEDS are on from 11pm to 11am. I am not sure if it is ok to have the 10k and the actinic on at the same time? But the way my timer works, I have day sockets and night sockets to plug the lights into. If the Day sockets are on then the night sockets have to be off and vise versa. They can't both be on or off, it has to be one or the other. So I'm not really sure what to do, can I just leave the 10k and the actinic on or do I need to get a better timer? I hope that made sense.

 

 

 

Also my temp has been going from 78.2 - 78.9 all morning, back an forth. I have my heater set to 79. Maybe I need to but the heater in a different place? its in chamber 3 now which is where the water collects before being pumped back out into the tank. Or is this kind of fluctuation ok?

 

 

 

I really don't want to mod my tank too much right now. I will probably get better lights later, but for now I would kind of like to leave everything as is. I know most people say to take out the bio-balls and put in LR rubble. After doing alot of reading on here and talking with the LFS, I think I will stick with the bio-balls. It seems this will work ok as long as I do the 20% weekly water change. (bring on the flames)

 

 

 

Do I need to add and more power heads to the tank? and if so will this make the tank too hot?

 

 

 

Do I need to do water changes while the tank is cycling or should I wait till its done?

 

 

 

It seems like I had more questions but thats all I can think of right now. Please point out anything you see that I might be doing wrong, or give any other helpful advise. There should be some pictures below, if I did it right :)

 

 

 

Thanks :)

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