New here - 29 gallon Biocube

[Llebcire]

Found out about this forum from someone in my local IA club (GIRS) - here's a thread for my 29 gallon Biocube.

Backstory -
I've been involved with saltwater since 2003 when I decided to switch from Cichlids to saltwater when I found a deal on a 75 gallon Oceanic reef ready tank. I've had a variety of larger tanks (72 bow, 75 rr, 120 rr) and smaller tanks (12g Nanocube, 12g Biocube) with only two breaks - 2008 (6 months) and recently when I moved and sold my 120 in June 2018. Last December I stumbled upon a great deal on a 29 gallon Biocube (power compact) with stand, pump, heater, some LR, new lights, pump, test kits and other supplies. It seemed like a great size and my wife and daughter love "Nemos" (clownfish) so I thought it would be a good idea.

After I picked up the tank I found the fans in the hood were missing - purchased replacement fans and a 12v AC to DC power supply to fix it.

-Eric

Some YouTube videos on the process.

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Llebcire]

Thank you!

Will continue with the thread throughout the weekend.

-Eric

 

[Llebcire]

I cleaned up the tank, rinsed the existing sand and live rock (didn't find sponges, critters or coralline) and set the tank up December 26th 2019. I used 2-3 pieces of existing rock and the rest was dry rock I had left over from my 120g. I also added 20 pounds Carib Sea Arag-Alive sand (never purchased live sand before) .

 

[jayala12]

Welcome to Reef2reef fellow biocuber!!!

 

[Llebcire]

Initially I was doing 5 gallon water changes every week and testing ammonia, nitrites and nitrates using whatever was on the existing rocks to create the cycle. I know this is risky as once in undesirable hitchhiker is introduced, especially if nuisance algae, it can be difficult to eradicate (I've struggled with bubble algae and aiptasia in the past).

I watched ammonia rise and fall over a few weeks and the same with nitrates. I never saw nitrites spike and this isn't uncommon when starting with live sand.

My initial plan was softies and LPS with emphasis on zoas and frogspawn the the PC lighting was adequate. I took the time during the cycle to replace the power supplies (eBay) and fans (Amazon) as I wasn't using the lights. Total cost was low and around $20 to fix the hood (came with new/unused Coralife bulbs (daylight and actinic)). Videos above.

On January 12th I added a colony of Purple Death palys from a local reefer on GIRS to ensure the tank was stabilizing - pics and a video below.

-Eric

 

[Llebcire]

Same weekend I added the frag above I added 3 more - then started realizing I had excessive salt creep. Internet research pointed to condensation from the hood as the probable culprit, but since I hadn't had the tank long (and didn't leak test - rookie mistake), I decided to look for an alternative.

I found a 29 gallon Coralife HQI that I picked up and transferred the livestock to.

-Eric

 

[Llebcire]

Here's the videos of the tank swap which took me about 1 hour 40 minutes from start to finish.

No a professional YouTube creator and I did this on my day off - apologize for my casual attire ;Facepalm

I didn't have any fish so it was rock, sand and a few corals.

-Eric

 

[Llebcire]

Just realized I'd forgotten about this thread and was maintaining a thread on nano reefs.

Long story short - this tank has been taken down and is for sale locally (Central Iowa).

I had an outbreak of bubble algae that I believe came from reusing old rock from my 120g. I'd let that rock sit (did have small amount of bubble algae in the old 120) and the spores survived. I read about using Vibrant for bubble algae and while it worked it created all sorts of issues in the 29g.

I broke the 29g down and started a 14g Biocube LED tank with just the remaining coral and the fish. I took the rock from the 29g, the remaining dry rock I had and the sand from the 29g and bleached it for a week.

Currently refinishing a 92g Oceanic reef ready corner tank that will be our new display - I'll likely start a build thread for that tank.

-Eric