Chucktown BC 29 Mixed Reef

[divecj5]

I have been in the hobby for just about a year now and this will be my second tank. The first tank that I started was a 55g tank last year at just about this time. It was an incredible learning experience and besides learning about the majority of the basics, I met some great people over on RC (you can find the thread over there under my screen name). I kept about 10 different morphs of zoas, a frogspawn that ended up being about the size of a nerf basketball, a nice acan colony of about 30 heads and some other LPS as well. The problem that I ran into were freaking vermitid snails....they were/are the scourge of my existence. At first I read that they were something that would stay under control, but month after month I was having take ALL of the rock out of the tank and scrap the little sh*ts off of the rock. It got to the point where they were growing in between polyps and heads of my prized zoas and acans so it was time for an exit strategy.

 

Needless to say that I still have the tank running as we speak now with my two false percs (Harry and Lloyd) and my dragon sifter goby (who is a complete pain). After selling all of the corals in my tank, I decided to use all of the money to fund my current tank, who doesn't do this in this hobby

 

I decided to break down the 55 gallon tank not only because of the snails and nuisance algae, but also because I am getting married in November and we will be renting a house and moving about 5 miles down the road soon after. It will just be easier to maintain a nano, if I do it right.

 

So my current tank is a Oceanic BioCube 29. As I was in the planning stages of trying to decide on another tank, I stumbled across TealCobra's thread on his BC 29 and it was basically all the information that I needed to get started. Following his thread, here are the mods that have been currently done to the tank:

 

First Chamber

• False floor removed
  
• Purigen
  
• Heater
  

Second Chamber

• Widened lip from Chamber 1 to 2
  
• Tunze Nano Skimmer (had to mod lip of rear compartment which was easy)
  

Third Chamber

• Rio 6HF pump
  
• Phosban in a media bag
  

Currently the tank has been running for about a month and two weeks. I started off with about 30 pounds of sugar fine Aragalive sand to keep the bed somewhat shallow. I currently have about 20 pounds of live rock in the tank and plan on adding another 10 pounds. I am just being more selective this time around not only to avoid getting ANYTHING with vermitids or any other algae but also to make the aquascape to my liking. There are a mix of nassarius and other snails in the tank as well. Although all the rock was completely cured and covered in coralline, I know that the best things in this hobby take time so I've just let it sit and do it's thing this whole time and slowly introduced the CUC.

[chaostactics]

How about some pics?

[divecj5]

Before posting any pics....which I will post PLENTY of, I thought I'd explain my plans for the tank and what I plan to stock in it although I'm still not sure.

 

I planned on installing the upgraded 4.36 upgrade from NanoCustoms (which is freaking awesome) but I think that I would like to possibly have a clam down the line (about 6 months down the line) and wanted to make sure that I have the lighting sufficient. I really wanted to make sure that I didn't skimp on any equipment this time around like I did on my 55 and just bite the bullet with some things. That said, I just bought a 150w MH Sunpod so that should be delivered next Thursday (or so UPS says).

 

I plan on keeping the following that I know of:

• LPS (acans, plate coral, brains)
  
• Zoas
  
• Clam (way later on)
  
• SPS (although I don't know anything about it yet)
  

As far as stocking goes, I know that I will be for sure keeping my two fat false percs that will be moved over from my 55. I am also heading to the LFS to check out a purple firefish that they have there. Not sure if I will get it or not but thought that I would add that one first before the clowns lay claim to the WHOLE tank

 

Any other ideas as far as stocking are more than welcomed and I would love to hear some suggestions. I have kept a sixline before and although he/she was great at first, he became way too aggressive with my clowns after a while. He was an awesome fish but him hiding in the rock and then darting out and pegging my clowns in the side got old REALLY fast!!!

 

Pics to follow below....

 

 

View from the front

 

Rear Chambers

 

Front Left

 

Looking in from the right

 

From the left

 

Pierre the peppermint

 

Jacques

 

Nice surface agitation with locline

 

 

 

Enough with the posting already....I know. Just wanted to mention that I hope to make this thread a open forum where we can bounce questions and answers off one another. I know that I will feel free to ask for suggestions and I hope that you all do the same. Don't hesitate to ask questions or anything....I'm sure someone will have a good question.

 

I can't wait to get some corals in this bad boy now....

 

 

Adam

[alexmurovec]

pictures do not want to show for me....your using photobucket it looks like so copy the img code into your forum post

[divecj5]

I'm actually using PBase but I swear their pics hardly ever come through I'll load them to my photobucket account and reload...

 

Alright, no more PBase....pics should work now. Let me know if not.

 

Adam

[msn711]

Personally, I would add a lot more live rock. But you may have a reason for doing so little. I saw one in a LFS when I lived in Austin, and if I were ever to set up an all in one, this would be it. They had sort of a slope design from top to front, and were keeping sps and a clam at the top right under the stock lights, and soft/lps corals everywhere else with a pair of percs if I remember correctly. There were also some nice caves, so it wasn't completely filled in.

[roushinator]

Looks great Adam. I woul dput some more LR.

[diggman08]

looks like ur off to a great start.. you know you can stick that temp probe right in the 3rd chamber

[chaostactics]

looks good

[divecj5]

Thanks for taking a look guys and commenting on the tank. I have made some MAJOR changes to the aquascaping as of this morning. Just to update what I got at the LFS yesterday and this morning, this is what I got:

 

Yesterday I ended up stopping off at the LFS to see if they still had the purple firefish that I had seen there about a week ago. They did and the owner (since I've been there SO many times) ended up giving me the 25% off deal they had last week. So I ended up getting it for about $25!!! Couldn't have been happier.

 

That's all I was planning on getting there at the time other than just taking a look at the live rock they had. I ended up getting only about 2 pounds of rock yesterday that have three nice green hairy mushrooms on it. They also had ricordia florida polyps for $5 each so I got a really nice bluish colored one for the tank. After acclimating the fish for about an hour, I sat back and just enjoyed the tank for a bit.

 

After reading your comments and thinking more about my approach for the aquascaping, I knew that I needed to grab up some more rock. This morning I went to the LFS and got another 12 pounds of really really nice rock. I came back and was getting ready to put the rock in the tank and.....

 

I couldn't find the firefish ANYWHERE in the tank with just the little rock that I had. I figured he had just jumped into one of the back chambers and decided to just find him after rescaping. Needless to say I spent about 30 minutes taking ALL the rock out, setting things up on a towel with the new rock, and placing it all in the tank. I never did see the firefish. After taking everything out of the rear chambers...still no firefish so I figured he must have dug into the sand. I was really really bummed out since I figured that I must have killed the bugger by putting a huge rock on top of him.

 

My fiance came over to my place and we sat down for some lunch. Then all of a sudden she said, there he is. Luckily he must have avoided the rock somehow and now he is out in the open and he was just eating some flake I put in the water.

 

What an adventurous morning to say the least. In all, I am really really happy with how the rock is looking in the tank now and can't wait to get some pics up here to show you guys. I think it's pretty bada** myself and I think it's going to work out great for the corals I want. It is A LOT taller now and still I was able to keep the horseshoe shape I really wanted.

 

I am off to a housewarming party for the rest of the day but I will post some pics up tomorrow morning so you guys can comment and see the new fish and coral.

 

Thanks for following this thread and hope people still continue....

 

Adam

 

looks like ur off to a great start.. you know you can stick that temp probe right in the 3rd chamber

 

 

Hahaha...yeah, just laziness. I will move it back there once I get my ATO setup...which is my next project to tackle

[msn711]

Get those pics up!

 

You did add cured LR right? I'd hate to see you go through another cycle and lose your firefish.

[divecj5]

Get those pics up!

 

You did add cured LR right? I'd hate to see you go through another cycle and lose your firefish.

 

I'm loading up some of the pics now Some of them didn't turn out all that great so I"ll have to redo some of them to get some more aquascaping pics. I'm sure you guys can get the gist of what it looks like though.

 

All the rock I got is completely cured and has been in a tank at the LFS for about a month or so now and it all had some great coralline on it.

 

Pics to come soon....let me know what you all think...I might add another piece or two or rock but probably not much more.

 

Adam

[surftaco]

Great start dude!

 

I love skunk shrimp they are the best!

 

I hand feed mine.

[divecj5]

New Pics with the new rock and aquascaping. Let me know what you all think...

 

Actinic Love

 

 

New Ricordia Florida

 

 

Shrooms

 

Purple Firefish

 

 

 

From the front

 

Hope you enjoy the new pics. I will try and grab a few more tonight or tomorrow from the sides where I created some nice swimthroughs and caves. Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out. I still think it might need a few more rocks to top off the back part to get it a little higher but it's actually a lot more full looking in person.

 

Adam

 

 

 

Great start dude!

 

I love skunk shrimp they are the best!

 

I hand feed mine.

 

Thanks for commenting....I really like my shrimp as well. The first time that I put my hand in the tank with them in there, they swam over to my arm and started picking at it. Startled me at first but it's freaking cool how they just want to clean EVERYTHING.

[roushinator]

Looks great. Looking forward to getting those lights.

[noobwithatank]

how are you finding that light? roughly how much evap are you getting. im looking at upgrading to the sunpod150 or the nanotuners. id prefer the sunpod lol.

[divecj5]

Looks great. Looking forward to getting those lights.

 

Thanks for commenting on the tank....your lights should be headed your way in the mail around noon today I will ask them when they think they should get to you and I will send you the tracking number (although USPS tracking system kinda blows).

 

how are you finding that light? roughly how much evap are you getting. im looking at upgrading to the sunpod150 or the nanotuners. id prefer the sunpod lol.

 

I actually haven't gotten the Sunpod yet although it should be coming in Thursday of this week. So at this point I can't really pass judgment on evaporation or any sort of heat issues. It will of course be open top once I get the MH so I'm sure there will be a fair amount of evaporation. I am used to topping off about 1/2 gallon of water in my 55 gallon so it won't be a big deal topping things off. Once I get off my lazy butt and hook up my ATO it should be fairly easy as well

[divecj5]

Now that I redid the aquascaping, I'm starting to notice that I have a couple dead spots in the tank and it's starting to collect some nice detritus. The main dead spot is on the left side of the tank in the rear. I was thinking about getting a small powerhead to put in the tank to get rid of some of these dead spots and also just to get some more flow. I was looking at the Koralia powerheads but I would like to see what they look like in the tank first before I add clutter in there.

 

Below is a pic of the aquascaping with two blue cirlces. The one on the right is where I was thinking of putting the powerhead. It would be placed on the glass and pointed across the back wall to try and get rid of the dead spot circled on the left. What do you guys think? Would this get rid of the deadspot? What pump would you suggest? I am not planning on getting one right away so should I just stir things up in that area for the time or just suck up some of the detritus with a turkey baster? Let me know what you think.

 

 

Thanks,

Adam

[surftaco]

Nice dude! How can you tell where the dead spots are?

 

Im trying to figure out mine too.

[spanko]

Yeah the bc29 does need more flow in general. I see the Hydor on your return. Is the return a locline Y or is it just the straight return. IME the Hydor does a good job of putting some randomness in the tank but it does cut down on the flow from the pump it is on. Is yours still the stock pump?

That being said in your tank with the amount of rock you have, (a relatively small in size amount) and the fact that it is pretty tighly scaped I think that a small powerhead place where you suggest and pointed along the back wall will serve you well.

[divecj5]

Nice dude! How can you tell where the dead spots are?

 

Im trying to figure out mine too.

 

There are a couple of ways of finding out where your deadspots are: watching when you put food in the water to see where it travels and where it falls in the water column. You can also take a piece of fishing line or string and put it in the tank at different areas to see where it moves. The only reason I know that I have a dead spot in the back is there is a molt from one of my peppermint shrimp and some greyish gunk back there and it isn't getting blown around.

 

Yeah the bc29 does need more flow in general. I see the Hydor on your return. Is the return a locline Y or is it just the straight return. IME the Hydor does a good job of putting some randomness in the tank but it does cut down on the flow from the pump it is on. Is yours still the stock pump?

That being said in your tank with the amount of rock you have, (a relatively small in size amount) and the fact that it is pretty tighly scaped I think that a small powerhead place where you suggest and pointed along the back wall will serve you well.

 

Thanks for the comments and suggestions Spanko. The pump in the back is the Rio 6HF that I used to replace the stock pump. I put a locline Y on the output on the return with a nozzle pointing toward the surface and then the hydor nozzle pointing against the corner so I could try and get some diffuse flow. I might try and move it around a bit and see how that affects things. I still think the solution may be to add a koralia or other small pump in the right rear blowing across the back wall.

[surftaco]

Yeah the bc29 does need more flow in general. I see the Hydor on your return. Is the return a locline Y or is it just the straight return. IME the Hydor does a good job of putting some randomness in the tank but it does cut down on the flow from the pump it is on. Is yours still the stock pump?

That being said in your tank with the amount of rock you have, (a relatively small in size amount) and the fact that it is pretty tighly scaped I think that a small powerhead place where you suggest and pointed along the back wall will serve you well.

 

 

how can you tell where your dead spots are?

[spanko]

Deadspots are areas where you can get multiple problems.

>Cyano Bacteria (red slime algae)

>Accumulated detritus

Those are probably the most notable problems. If you see these you know there is a need to increase flow to that area. This does not always mean you need to create typhoon rated gusts there but in general there should be enough to know that water is going through the area and not just sitting there. In a perfect (????) setup water will flow all throughout the tank including in between your rockwork and in all corners and to disturb the surface of the water some to help with gas exchange.

Corals are also in need of varying amounts of flow. Some require more that others and this is another parameter you need to educate yourself about before buying coral. Hope this helps.

[divecj5]

Did you see my response to your post above.....there are a couple of ways to try and help locate dead spots in your tank. Let me know if my suggestions help at all....

 

Adam

 

Great explanation of dead spots Spanko....

[spanko]

divecj5, I have the Rio 6hf as the replacement to my stock pump also with the locline Y. I had a Hydor on leg of the Y but took it off and now just have both legs with nozzles on them. I also have a Rio 6hf in the tank as a powerhead. My scape is a lot more full than yours in terms of rock amount\size. I figured I needed the additonal flow to ensure good current throughout.