Help Starting Over With my Biocube

[ItsNotaNemo]

So I'm not exactly new to the hobby, but I have been out of it for quite some time. I recently broke down an old biocube 29 (my former roommate had let go to hell because he was focused on a 180g tank) and moved it to my home.

After much cleaning and salvaging whatever coral and fish were left alive I cleaned up the tank. I am have gotten some dead rock and have playing with the aquascaping for the past couple of weeks arranging the rock and letting it sit to make sure its something I like and after much fiddling I have it where I want it (photos to come). I'll add water and start cycling it soon but I wanted some feedback as of the to the equipment I am going to be purchasing for it.

Powerhead : Jebao WP10
Return: Upgraded cobalt aquatics with a hydor flow deflector
Lighting: Kessil A160WE (currently have the rapidLED retrofit)
Media Reactor: Bulk Reef Supply Carbon/GFO mini reactor w/ cobalt pump.
ATO: Tunze Osmolator Nano
Skimmer: Tunze DOC 9002 (may want to change it up though)

Should I worry about having something set it place to filter the water like pads or floss? Is there somewhere in the tank that I should place them? I also may want to place some rubble in the back of the tank for pods to develop away from fishy predators.
If I'm running the media reactor with ROX .8 carbon and GFO do you think it would be necessary for me to worry about running macro algae in the back of the tank?

For livestock I plan on filling it mostly coral, LPS and some zoas and a couple of fish to keep the bioload low. I'm thinking a blenny or goby and a couple more little buddies. Any suggestions? No wrasses… they can be butt heads.

Thanks guys.

 

[melypr1985]

i like your plan. I personally have both the Tunze osmolator nano and the tunez skimmer your talking about getting and love them. They were easy to install and work well. I know you said no wrasses, but I gotta say the pygmy possum wrasse is really cool and tiny! Then there are clown gobies that are cool and small, spike fin goby is tiny and really cool too. So many others, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

 

[ItsNotaNemo]

So here are the pics of my rock work. The center smaller rock will end up being my "zoa island." All the rock is at least a couple inches from the tank walls and glass.

 

[ItsNotaNemo]

i like your plan. I personally have both the Tunze osmolator nano and the tunez skimmer your talking about getting and love them. They were easy to install and work well. I know you said no wrasses, but I gotta say the pygmy possum wrasse is really cool and tiny! Then there are clown gobies that are cool and small, spike fin goby is tiny and really cool too. So many others, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

How do you find the noise of the Tunze? I've had it setup att he old house before i moved and found it to be very loud. Did you mod it anyway? I've seen some things people have done to help silence it.

I guess I should have said no 6 line wrasses

 

[melypr1985]

How do you find the noise of the Tunze? I've had it setup att he old house before i moved and found it to be very loud. Did you mod it anyway? I've seen some things people have done to help silence it.

I guess I should have said no 6 line wrasses

I don't hear it as long as the water level is right in my sump. The fans on my lights seem to be louder than the skimmer. If the water level is causing it to make noise then you can position a small powerhead to blow water up at the water intake of the skimmer. (assuming that your water level being too low is caused by making a mistake in building your sump like mine and Not something else that needs immediate attention)

 

[Tahoe61]

I have the same Tunze equipment and no noise.

GFO bag is placed between a foam pad and charcoal under that, no reactor.

Scape looks good.

 

[ksfulk]

I had a very similar set up to what you are looking at there and I have to say that while I went rimless, I found that without a reactor I couldnt keep the parameters in check. I ran a modded phosban reactor to run both gfo & carbon and it worked rather well for me. I ran the Kessil 150 Sky Blue (10k) and was happy with the look of the light and the shimmer, but I never really had much luck getting anything but mushrooms and torches to grow. My zoas never really took off. Not sure if it was the light or not, but in 15 months, I saw only about 4 or 5 new polyps and there were a couple dozen to start with, of varying types. Even the nuclear green palys never took off.

I love the Tunze skimmer and ATO, both of which ran smoothly and flawlessly. I had a little trouble with the skimmer noise, but as others have stated, if you get the water level right, it quiets right down. The jebao's are decent little work horses, but you have to clean them once a month, and when you do, you need to be sure that you dont lose any of the tiny plastic spacers that are on the shaft. Ive lost a couple of them and the pumps buzz a little bit. Still, bang for the buck, they are great!

Here's a few pics of my old cube

 

[BaritoneJP]

I had a very similar set up to what you are looking at there and I have to say that while I went rimless

Mind sharing how the rim came off the tank? easy, hard, glued, ... thinking about doing the same.

 

[booth2010]

Look into the Jebao RW4 instead of the WP10. It costs a little more but seem to have better reviews, more reliable, and they are able to be controlled more. I am getting one as my second powerhead for my 40B

 

[ksfulk]

Mind sharing how the rim came off the tank? easy, hard, glued, ... thinking about doing the same.

Really the hardest part was working up the courage to commit to doing it. LOL I used a hacksaw blade to cut the trim where the rear section meets the glass (at the back wall of the tank). I cut gingerly through the plastic rim there all the way around (three "cuts": outside the tank, inside the tank and on top of the rim) on both sides and then began to pry the plastic off of the tank. Its held in with black silcone, so it can likely be cut away, but thats something for hind sight! I had a hard time getting the rim off the front of the tank, and since I figured I wasnt going to use the rim anymore, I made an additional cut at the front of the tank right in the center of the rim. After that, it was a little elbow grease and some sweat, but it came off neatly. Once the rim was off, I used a few razor blades to scrape off all of the black silcone.

The only thing I would say is that once I pulled off the silcone, I found that the glass rim of the tank wasnt as "finished" as I would like it to be. There were a few chips and uneven edges that you can kind of see in my pictures above. It didnt look bad to anyone (at least no one mentioned it to me) but it drove me crazy.

Also, I agree on the RW series from Jebao. I have a pair of RW 15s on my 70 gallon tank (WAYYY overkill) and they are much nicer than the wp series.

 

[BaritoneJP]

Thank you @ksfulk for the info ... I also like the green mushrooms on top of the rock too ... nice

 

[ksfulk]

Thank you @ksfulk for the info ... I also like the green mushrooms on top of the rock too ... nice

Happy to help! Those mushrooms were a $10 steal at Petco. They had to sit in quarantine for a few weeks before I would put them in the tank (little bits of nasty on the rock) but they took off like a mad man once they got in there. Was an interesting looking back wall for a while!

 

[BaritoneJP]

Should I worry about having something set it place to filter the water like pads or floss?

My Biocube back three compartments have the following:

• compartment 1: heater
• compartment 2: two Eshopps Reef Sump Sponges (next to compartment 1 side with Poly-filter on top so the water spills from compartment 1 through it)
  • and 1 liter of Seachem Matrix media (in a media bag)
• compartment 3: Seachem Purigen (the one that is in a bag already) I put this in the baffel between compartments 2 and 3 on the pump side.

I'm not using a sump, so you may just want to have the sponges with Poly ???

hose mushrooms were a $10 steal at Petco.

Didn't know they did that, Petco doesn't sale much of anything marine in my area ...

 

[glb]

Here's my setup for my 12g nanotube.
1st compartment: coralife nano skimmer and one sponge
2nd compartment: heater, intake for gfo reactor and purigen
3rd compartment: return from reactor and return for tank. So far it's worked fine.
Your setup sounds like more than enough for the corals/livestock you want to keep. Good luck!

 

[ItsNotaNemo]

Thanks so much you guys. I'll look into the rw 4 for sure, would rather pay a little more for something that is a better piece of equipment.

I ran the Kessil 150 Sky Blue (10k) and was happy with the look of the light and the shimmer, but I never really had much luck getting anything but mushrooms and torches to grow.

I've heard there is a big difference in the light spectrum between the tuna blue 160 and the 150 spectrums. My LFS said for what I plan to grow I should be fine with the 160 and after a month or so it isn't working out they would be happy to to take it back and upgrade me to the 360.
Just put the sand in last night and its looking great. I'm really excited to get back into the hobby. The bf said he has never seen someone so focused and concentrated on reading reviews and forums and books on a hobby.

 

[ItsNotaNemo]

My Biocube back three compartments have the following:

• compartment 1: heater
• compartment 2: two Eshopps Reef Sump Sponges (next to compartment 1 side with Poly-filter on top so the water spills from compartment 1 through it)
  • and 1 liter of Seachem Matrix media (in a media bag)
• compartment 3: Seachem Purigen (the one that is in a bag already) I put this in the baffel between compartments 2 and 3 on the pump side.

I'm not using a sump, so you may just want to have the sponges with Poly ???


Didn't know they did that, Petco doesn't sale much of anything marine in my area ...

So here is what I think I'll do in the back of my tank.

Compartment 1: Heater and live rock rubble (after removing the divider in compartment 1)
Compartment 2: Sump sponges and Skimmer and run the media reactor intake out of this compartment
Compartment 3: Purigen in the baffle and the return for the media reactor.

For my QT Tank do you think that a 2.5/3 gallon tank will be sufficient for QT'ing the nano fish?
I want to be hyper sensitive to QT because my old roommate never did it and he introduced so much disease into the 130g that the fish kept dying despite my protestations to QT everything. I just don't want any disease in my water column.
Should I be as concerned about QT'ing my coral? Will a dip be enough? I've never QT'ed coral before and I was wondering what the best way to go about it is if necessary.

 

[BaritoneJP]

For my QT Tank do you think that a 2.5/3 gallon tank will be sufficient for QT'ing the nano fish?

... I have wondered that myself ... I'm currently using buckets to QT my fish. Not glamorous, but it works. (yes, with heater and hang on filter, seachem ammonia alert, no sand but live rock rubble in a bag in the filter). I would think that for a small fish, that would be a good size. But if you would need to QT all your fish at once then I'm not so sure. Maybe someone else with more experience will post.

Should I be as concerned about QT'ing my coral? Will a dip be enough?

... I do not QT corals. I do, however, dip corals. (don't risk it, dip it) I have been reading some about acclimating corals, the common tip/theme from just about all I have read is that you should get corals into good moving water as soon as possible. Maybe QT coral in a QT tank with good flow for observation for unwanted pest/hitchhikers, then dip based upon your observations. Temp acclimation should be considered too from what I understand. Again, maybe someone else with more experience will post.

The most logical tip that I have read here at R2R is to follow the sellers (LFS, online retailer, etc.) acclimation guide for their product. Almost always, their livestock/coral guarantee is based upon following their acclimation steps.

 

[ksfulk]

Assuming you are buying from a repuable dealer (UniqueCorals, CherryCorals, CharityCorals are ones I've used with great success), then you've already taken some of the guess work out of the process. That said, I ALWAYS dip my corals. 100% all the time... it takes only 1 pest to make it into your tank... and then you are on a slippery slope.

Here's my regiment for getting a new coral:

• • Open and inspect all packaging. Look for tears, rips or water from unknown sources. Determine if you need to transfer livestock ASAP.
  • Inspect the new corals in the bag. Check for sloughing tisse, exposed skeletons, polyp extension, and other issues that may have happened in transit. Know your vendor's DOA/Arrive Alive guarantee. Pictures could be needed at this point. Dont be afraid to contact the vendor right away.
  • Assuming the bags are not leaking and the corals are ok, I place the bags in my sump (darker place, lots of room to float and doesnt get blasted by my lights) for about 20-30 minutes while I get the rest of my treatment stuff together.
  • While the bags are floating, I rinse a bucket (5 qt is what I use) with several portions of tank water, making sure that there's nothing in there from the bucket sitting empty. Once Im close to the 30 min mark, I pull ~2.5qt of water out of my display and set it aside. You want to do this right before you are ready to open the bags, so the water temperature doesnt drop too much while you are "fiddling" around.
  • Pour about 0.5qt of display water in the bucket.
  • Open the bags up and pour the contents of the bag into the bucket - water and all.
  • Continue until all of the bags are empty.
  • Pour display water into the bucket to begin acclimation of the new corals to your water parameters. I tend to add water until I have a good 50% bag water / 50% display water mix in the bucket.
  • Give the corals about 10 minutes. then add some more display water to the bucket (You can do this slowly, adding as much display water as you like. I tend to just add water once so I get a 25 bag/75 display mix). And wait another 10 minutes.
  • While you are waiting for the corals to acclimate, Take a small bowl or tupperware container that has been rinsed with tank water (I use the tupperware containers that lunch meat comes in (washed several times over, of course), and have them marked "CORAL DIP ONLY" in permanent marker). Fill it about 3/4 of the way with tank water. Using a syringe or turkey baster thats only used for treatments, I add a few mL of Bayer Complete Insect Killer to the water. There are lots of recommendations out there for what concentration to use. I used 2-4mL per 4 ounces of tank water in the beginning. Now, I add a couple of mL, then mix with the syringe, then continue adding until the mixture in the bowl looks like watery skim milk. Set this aside.
  • Gather two more containers and fill with display water (Same containers I use for the dip. Mine are marked #1 and #2). Set these aside from your dip container.
  • Using nitrile gloves and/or long tweezers, remove the coral from the acclimation bucket and place into the coral dip bowl. I place 2-5 corals in the dip, depending on size and type. Wait 8 minutes. Using a baster, carefully suck up some of the dip and "baste" the coral frag in the dip, making sure you get the dip to all areas of teh coral. Pay special attention to the frag plug as this is where the pests usually hang out! I continue to baste for about 2 minutes, then the coral is removed from the dip, tapped gently over the dip bowl to remove excess coral dip, and placed into bowl #1.
  • Continue treating other corals in the dip bowl. I try to not leave them in there more than 10-15 minutes, as the water temp starts to drop too much after that.
  • Once the corals have sat in #1 rinse for a few minutes (2-3, though it doesnt need to be that long) and remove them from the water, tapping them over the #1 bowl, before moving them into the #2 bowl. Its important to rinse all the bits and pieces of the coral so that the Bayer product does not make it into your tank. It can kill ornament invertibrates if it does so!
  • Typically once they are sitting in #2, I prepare a few new frag plugs, setting them up with a dollop of fresh gel superglue. I remove the frag from #2, pat the excess water off of the coral frag, pop it off the original frag plug with tweezers/scapel/chisel and remount it to a fresh plug. This help to control any nuisance alage that may be on the frag plug or any apistia or other pests that might have made it through the dip. Not a requirement, by any means, but I went ultra conservative to help keep nasties out of my tank.
  • Once the corals are mounted, I place them onto my frag rack with the pumps in my tank off. I give them an hour or so to adhere/cure before hitting them with the normal flow in the tank.

Here's a link that I use as a reference. When I was starting out I never dipped anything. I got a few nasty pests that really diminished by enjoyment of my tank. I was at Cherry Corals and talking with one of the guys there and he showed me how they dipped and treated their corals, and what they suggested their customers did as well. From there, I kind of modified it to ensure that I wasnt accidently adding anything into my system that I could prevent. Since then, I havent had any pests from corals be introduced to my system at all. Part of it is because I only buy from reputable vendors, and the other is that I make sure that everything that goes into my system is healthy before introducing it.