New 29 gallon biocube!

[Craving-Coral]

Hello all! I just recently purchased a new biocube and thought I'd document it's progress. If anyone has any suggestions or questions feel free to let me know. I'm new to the hobby so any help is much appreciated.

 

My current set up is a 29 gallon biocube which I immediately discarded the hood of and made rimless. I purchased a full spectrum 165w LED light fixture and made a bracket to hold it. I also upgraded the pump head to a Maxi-Jet 1200 and installed a Koralia 850gph circulation pump. I added 28 lbs of like rock and 30 lbs of live sand, and for filtration I'm running chemi pure elite, purigen, de-nitrate biomedia, and a pad of poly filter on top of two pieces of eshopps sump foam. I'm also currently running an Eheim jäger 100w heater. In the very near future plan on adding an intank media basket and the tunze 9002 protien skimmer along with the upgraded intank cup.

 

Since the first livestock I plan on adding is a blue spotted jaw fish I plan on making a screen top tonight for the tank (since they are notorious jumpers). I went to Lowes and purchased a window screen kit and plan on shaping it to fit the tank (I'll post pictures afterwards). Other livestock I plan on adding aside from corals, and after the clean up crew, are two ocellarie clown fish (one black and one orange), a fire shrimp, a mandarin goby, and maybe a couple dart fish.

 

It has been cycling now for the past few days, and I've been testing my parameters twice daily, so I'm hoping to add my CUC on Thursday. I'll post pictures and updates along the way. Feel free to offer any advice that you may have.

 

Ohh, and on a side note, I purched all my water from my LFS and have been dosing it daily with Seachem Stability. I also added a raw shrimp in hopes of boosting the cycling process.

[treedog5]

Sounds like your off to a good start, keep us posted on your progress...

[Craving-Coral]

Well here is the screen top I made in hopes of keeping my future blue spotted jaw fish in. It turned out ok I guess. If I would have used a torch to help bend the aluminum it would have turned out much cleaner looking. Oh well.. I guess it serves its purpose and it will look a lot better after I paint it black. Let me know what you think!

[a_hillz]

I just got my new bio cube also and a guy I know who's the pro was awesome he has over 400,000 gallons worth salt water tanks in his basement used to have a store he came to my house and pretty much just transferred stuff he had right into it so I started off the bat with two clownfish corals sand and rock.um I have a lot of questions though he didn't put in the protein skimmer he said I didn't really need that or the heater or the air circulation pump so he set up everything and everything's fine he said I don't have to feed them for a week actual food cuz he fed today.so I pray that healthy they seem healthy and happy but there's something by where the filter sucks and I wonder if its cause they like the current? I hope nothing's wrong and like I said they've only probably been in there for 4 hours and they're swimming by the intake part where it sucks and water I don't know if it's because they like the current or what

[Craving-Coral]

From my very minimal experience, clown fish LOVE a swift current. This is likely the reason they are hanging out where it is the strongest. I would suggest getting a waver maker or circulation pump of some sort. Best of luck to you!

[Pancetta]

You should not need a skimmer if you do weekly water changes of 10 to 20% of the tank volume.

[Angel<3Nanos]

I just got my new bio cube also and a guy I know who's the pro was awesome he has over 400,000 gallons worth salt water tanks in his basement used to have a store he came to my house and pretty much just transferred stuff he had right into it so I started off the bat with two clownfish corals sand and rock.um I have a lot of questions though he didn't put in the protein skimmer he said I didn't really need that or the heater or the air circulation pump so he set up everything and everything's fine he said I don't have to feed them for a week actual food cuz he fed today.so I pray that healthy they seem healthy and happy but there's something by where the filter sucks and I wonder if its cause they like the current? I hope nothing's wrong and like I said they've only probably been in there for 4 hours and they're swimming by the intake part where it sucks and water I don't know if it's because they like the current or what

Please feed your fish everyday lol and clownfish like to hang around in a certain spot of the tank. Its very common they try to be hosted by heaters, filter intakes, etc.