New 29G BIOCUBE ( my first tank ever )

[Nosey]

Can anyone tell me how you get the counter at the bottom, telling me how many days my tank has been up for?

[Dooderino]

www.tickerfactory.com

 

I'm going to make some suggestions. Your filter floss idea is cool but it will get old real quick. And if you don't stay on top of it your chambers will go out of balance. TUDIZZLE did a filter mod that is pretty slick. Run with that idea. That's what I did. I left mine about 3 times longer than his but now I just buy some floss at Petsmart, white and flossy not blue and spongey, cut a whole bunch into shape and change every few days. It takes about 30seconds from start to finish. As long as you make the daily chores easy the hobby won't burn you out. Now that my tank is pretty well established the only things I do is weekly water changes, dose every 3-4 days, check pH/Calc/kH/SG every couple of weeks or so and top of daily. That's it. Now that tank doesn't consume my life.

[Nosey]

Thanks for the info, do you know how i find were he put his mod in this forum??

[Nosey]

Anouther question, I was looking at my tank today, and I saw a small claw sticking out of a hole in the rock. As I was watching this a little crab about the size of my finger nail slowly cam out of his hole. He was eating some of the algae that was on the rocks. I moved to grab my camera, and he was gone. I watched again for about 20min or so, and he would make his way to the edge of the hole, and continue to pull off peaces of algae. I couldn’t get a picture of him, but he must have come with the last batch of LR. He looked like he had small black and white strips on his legs, with the white being the larger of the strips. He also appeared to have small hair on his body, but im not sure about that. My question is, and I know with the info that I have given you it will be hard to say, but do you think I should hunt him down, or do you think he might be good for my tank?….part of my CUC that I’m soon to get.

[Nosey]

I'm going to try and set a water bottle trap, and see what I get. I went into my local store to get some bait for the trap, and came out with a new Maxijet 1200 pump..lol...I had to go back, because i forgot to pick up the frozen shrimp, that i went to the store for in the first place. So now Im running the new pump, and i took the elbow out of the return line, and set it with bigger hose. It has increased the water flow so much that it now keeps me up at night( my tank is next to my bed ), I guess I can’t win everything.

[Nosey]

live sand

 

I tryed to put in the link about the sand that i used. If it doesn't work, the sand i used is "Caribsea" caribbean live sand

[tcreefr]

I'm going to try and set a water bottle trap, and see what I get. I went into my local store to get some bait for the trap, and came out with a new Maxijet 1200 pump..lol...I had to go back, because i forgot to pick up the frozen shrimp, that i went to the store for in the first place. So now Im running the new pump, and i took the elbow out of the return line, and set it with bigger hose. It has increased the water flow so much that it now keeps me up at night( my tank is next to my bed ), I guess I can’t win everything.

 

How did the Maxijet go in...any fit issues? I've got a Rio 6HF on order at the LFS and its due in tomorrow but I've heard its a tight fit. Decided to go with that over the Maxi due to reported heat issues with the Maxi. What size and type tubing did you use? Not sure if you meant larger diameter or longer due to elbow removal.

[biocube8]

Nice setup!

I think when I buy my house I'm gonna upgrade to the 29.

I have the flow deflector also.I was going to get rid of it cause it cut so much flow.....until......I took it apart and cut off all but 2 of the little propeller blades...Much better flow,and it still turns fine!

[Nosey]

How did the Maxijet go in...any fit issues? I've got a Rio 6HF on order at the LFS and its due in tomorrow but I've heard its a tight fit. Decided to go with that over the Maxi due to reported heat issues with the Maxi. What size and type tubing did you use? Not sure if you meant larger diameter or longer due to elbow removal.

 

It's funny that you say that, because i was at home last night, and i had just read what you said about the heat issues, and i was thinking " what heat issues!"....my tank has been 79 since i started it, I don't think i have ever realy seen it over 80. I was on my way to bead, and i thought i would check it, and when i did, it was reading 82!. So i guess there is some truth behind what your saying. I im going to have to play around with my heater somemore. I took some pic's of what i did in the back with the hose, and will post ittonight when i get home from work...ps..It is a tight fit in the back, but it worked.

[Nosey]

Nice setup!

I think when I buy my house I'm gonna upgrade to the 29.

I have the flow deflector also.I was going to get rid of it cause it cut so much flow.....until......I took it apart and cut off all but 2 of the little propeller blades...Much better flow,and it still turns fine!

I hear what you’re saying, i'm moving into a new place as well, the gf and I were supposed to move into a new place at the end of Oct, so I bought the cube with no real intention of setting it up. It was just sitting there in the box looking at me, so I thought I would just take it out, and have a look at it. After taking it out of the box, I was wandering what it would look like with water in it. Well after I justified it in my head, I added the water, and then was thinking that It need live rock, and so on. Well when the gf got home, and had seen that I set up the tank , there was a look of “ What the f$%^” on her face. She then proceeded to remind me that we are moving in Oct. I told her that I wont go any further with the build then it is now, no live fish. I also reminded her that I didn’t think they would have aware place ready for another two month or so. That day the builders called us and said that there will be at least 3 month delay on the new place…surprise, surprise. So now I have 3 months to figure out how to move it..lol….PS…I’m picking up a CUC this weekend…lol..but NO fish…that comes next weekend!

[Nosey]

Well it’s over. I just started my 29g Biocube, and it was in it’s 3rd week and doing well. I had just put in some CUC, and I was reading a post on pests, and I thought I would check my tank before adding anything else. Well I set up a trap, and caught a Cirolanid isopod. I got one at first, and did some research on them, and found out that they are a parasite, that will eat your fish. I went back to the tank and caught 3 more in about ten min. I guess they must have hitched a ride in my live rock. It doesn’t look like I can do much about this parasite, so I think im going to set up a small tank for my CUC, and drain the main tank, then either try and find new rock, or boil the stuff I have ( what do you guys think???) It sucks, because I had just finished my cycle, and was looking forward to adding things.

 

Ok so this is what I’m doing, or did. I went out last night and bought a 5.5g tank to set up as a quarantine tank. I also got a pump, and some tank sand. I got it up, and running ( I will post some pic’s soon) last night, and will let it cycle. I am going to place my snails & 2 hermit crabs in it while I re set up of my main tank. After this is done, I’ll just keep the tank running as a Hospital tank, which I guess I needed anyway. This is going to set me back about a month, and some extra $$$$. I am already excited about doing another set up, and making some improvements on the not so old tank. I have a good line on some new cured live rock from a different LFS. I think im going to do the something this time with the water bottle trap, but set it up at the beginning, mid, end of my cycle, and if I see any little critters I will dispose of them post hast. I am also going to get some new sand, I think I’ll go with a larger grain size if I can, so that it will cut down on the movement from my power heads.

[tcreefr]

Do you have any pics of the ones you pulled out of your tank? After reading this thread, I've been watching my tank (only a month old) closely at the wee hours of the morning and have noticed some rather large white "pods" that are similar. As soon as they realize they have a spotlight on them they're gone so I havent been able to take a picture.

[Nosey]

Just this article on the F*^%$#% critters: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/bp/index.php but it has pic's of them, my cam isn't good for pictures that small.

 

If you want to see if you have one, do the water bottle trap just (30-45min) after your lights on the main tank turn off.

 

Have a turky baster near by, and just site there, as soon as you see one, suck it up with the baster. If you look at it closely in a cup, it looks just like the ones in the artical. Quick question for you....Do they move realy fast?

[tcreefr]

I wouldn't say "it" moved that fast. The one i saw last night was prob .25"...almost like a sow bug, but a little flatter and white. It had antennae, but i couldnt see it's eyes.

[Nosey]

That might not be them, My guys move really fast. Still try and catch them, and have a closer look!

[biocube8]

You could try a FW dip for your rocks...it worked well for me,and all coraline and zoos lived thru the process.Got rid of the pests quite well

[Nosey]

Did you have Cirolanid Isopod's???...I was testing some of the isopods that i got in the trap, and i tryed fresh water. After about 30min it looked like they were dead, but when i re introduced them into the salt water they came back to life.

[biocube8]

Actually I just read the article posted here earlier about that,and it seems those little suckers are hard to kill.I dipped mine to treat some kind of irritation to my zoo's.I had a HUGE pod explosion at the time,and dipped to kill them.

Your problem is totally new to me,I just thought it might help.

[Nosey]

Ya thanks for the try. I have one or two more things i can try before i give up

[Nosey]

Well I removed my CUC, and spiked the salinity level off the charts. I watched as all the parasites, and other hitch hikers died off. I left it as a toxic soup for about 24h. I then drained the tank, vacuumed most of the dead stuff off the bottom, and added new water with a higher Salinity level. As the next week progressed I added more RO water everyday, dropping the Salinity to normal levels within 2 days. I then let my tank cycle again with normal Salinity levels. As you could imagine for the first couple of day’s my Ammonia levels were not normal….( they were higher than a kite) As I was dropping the levels in my tank I was keeping a keen eye out for anything swimming in the tank, and there was no movement at all. As of this fri the tank had been cycling for about one week, with no return of the Cirolanid Isopod's. On sat I went and bought 4 more LBS of live rock from another LFS, and placed it in the tank. I then tested my levels in the tank on sat afternoon, and to my surprise my Ammonia = 0, Nitrites = 0 , my Nitrates = 5, and my salinity is holding at .023 ( I think). On Sunday night, just after lights out in the tank, I tried my water bottle trap. I thought I would try with my fingers crossed to see if there was any more that would end up in the trap. As of today I am 12 days free of the F&*k!@# parasites ( knock on wood). If all goes well i will try and add a turbo snail sometime this week, because im sure they are all starving in there holding tank, but the main tank has all kinds of growth for them to munch on.

[Nosey]

The first pic is of the 5.5 g quarantine tank that I set up under the main. I placed my CUC in this tank, and they have been there so fare for about 2 weeks. I am now into the second week of my new cycle after trashing the first set up.

 

The second pic is of the new Aquascape that i have been playing around with.

[Aqua newbie]

your scape seems to be a little unstable, remeber there will be inverts that could knock those down easily. May i suggest only one island?

[Marteen]

I was reading in the article that the Cirolanid Isopods will starve without fish in the tank. I suppose it's too late to say so but you could have just left the tank fishless for a few months and starved them out, you could still add inverts and corals.

 

Hmmm it seems they will scavenge off of food meant for corals and inverts. So I guess you would just have to let them starve out without feeding the tank. I wonder if you could have done a freshwater dip or a high salinity dip on the rocks to get them out.

[Nosey]

There was no algy in the quaraten tank, so I had to suppliment some of the CUC diet with flak, and pellit food. The Hermit Crabs loved there pelet food so much, that when I opened the can, they knew what I was doing, and when I put it in the tank, they went crazy. I put it at the end of my turky baster, and feed them by hand. They would just fall backwards on there shell, with there little claws out in excitement. I just hope that I haven’t changed there food of choice.

 

 

I have also added a ATO, with the sump in the tank stand next to the quarantine tank. I have on order a 150w Sunpod light that I should have in two weeks. I will add pic's of the ATO when i get new batteries for my camera.

[Nosey]

your scape seems to be a little unstable, remeber there will be inverts that could knock those down easily. May i suggest only one island?

 

 

I have added epoxy putty to all my live rock, and tested it out with my hands. It works like a charm, and I have added the putty at the bottom so you can’t really see most of it.

 

 

 

I was reading in the article that the Cirolanid Isopods will starve without fish in the tank. I suppose it's too late to say so but you could have just left the tank fishless for a few months and starved them out, you could still add inverts and corals.

 

Hmmm it seems they will scavenge off of food meant for corals and inverts. So I guess you would just have to let them starve out without feeding the tank. I wonder if you could have done a freshwater dip or a high salinity dip on the rocks to get them out.

 

I did try starvining them at first, but i found them one night eating the algy off the rock, and some other people said they could servive for months off it. I did the high salinity dip to kill them, it's all in my posts....and freshwater doesn't kill them. I tryed lots of different things to get ride of them.