cmross13
Active Member
Always wanted a Marine setup and a couple months ago in August I found what I thought was a Coralife Biocube 29 for $150 with stand, pump, filter basket, media, a canopy with a burnt lamp, and a pretty nice clamp-on LED. I hopped in the car and drove about 2 hours to get it and bring it home. Along the way home I picked up about 20lbs live rock, 40lbs live sand, a 20lb bag of reef crystals, a bottle of Dr Tim’s, a bottle of Prime water conditioner, and an appropriate heater. Filled the bathtub with warm water and started scooping in salt and measuring salinity with included float gauge thing. Once I hit 1.0025 I started using buckets to put into tank.
Photo was taken about two hours after I got home.
three or four hours later:
luckily in the bag of goodies that came with the tank was a brand new API saltwater test kit, and water levels were perfect. I waited two days, still perfect, so in went a pair of clowns and some decoration
At this point I decided to order a replacement lamp for the hood, for fear an aggressive fish would jump out or a curious cat would jump in. This is when I realized it was a JBJ Nanocube 28, and not the Coralife unit I was told. I hadn't noticed the badge on the front lol. So I bought a replacement JBJ Bulb and a few days later refitted the canopy. Then the cord shocked me the next day, so I bought the JBJ LED WiFi canopy for $205 on Amazon and installed a few days later. I have had pretty good results, but I don’t have demanding corals. Somewhere between deciding I wanted to reuse the canopy and replacing the canopy I added a LARGE cleanup crew with Hermits and a Mithrax Crab from Reef Cleaners, and a Lawnmower Blenny from LFS. Over the next few weeks I removed the fake decorations, did a 7 gallon water change, and had the LFS test my water regularly(still perfect), and added 5 frags, three colonies, and one soft coral, along with one fish per week including a Blue Green Chromis, Six line Wrasse, Coral Beauty, Yellowtail Fusilier, Peppermint Shrimp, and Green Mandarin Dragonette. Yes I realize this is overload, unfortunately the Coral Beauty developed some sort of scale disease almost immediately when I got home and took the larger Clown to fish heaven with him/her the next morning. This was roughly 6 weeks in, or middle of September. I had fish store test water again and still perfect. Two months later and nobody has had any issues. As for the Dragonette, she didn’t make it through the night either, but I’m blaming that on buying a fish that wasn’t quarantined at fish store for at least a week. I added roughly 20,000 Copepods while I was acclimating the Mandarin and it just kinda laid around the bottom of the tank and was dead the next day.
Changed 12 gallons of water Wednesday and this is where I’m currently at:
Photo was taken about two hours after I got home.
three or four hours later:
luckily in the bag of goodies that came with the tank was a brand new API saltwater test kit, and water levels were perfect. I waited two days, still perfect, so in went a pair of clowns and some decoration
At this point I decided to order a replacement lamp for the hood, for fear an aggressive fish would jump out or a curious cat would jump in. This is when I realized it was a JBJ Nanocube 28, and not the Coralife unit I was told. I hadn't noticed the badge on the front lol. So I bought a replacement JBJ Bulb and a few days later refitted the canopy. Then the cord shocked me the next day, so I bought the JBJ LED WiFi canopy for $205 on Amazon and installed a few days later. I have had pretty good results, but I don’t have demanding corals. Somewhere between deciding I wanted to reuse the canopy and replacing the canopy I added a LARGE cleanup crew with Hermits and a Mithrax Crab from Reef Cleaners, and a Lawnmower Blenny from LFS. Over the next few weeks I removed the fake decorations, did a 7 gallon water change, and had the LFS test my water regularly(still perfect), and added 5 frags, three colonies, and one soft coral, along with one fish per week including a Blue Green Chromis, Six line Wrasse, Coral Beauty, Yellowtail Fusilier, Peppermint Shrimp, and Green Mandarin Dragonette. Yes I realize this is overload, unfortunately the Coral Beauty developed some sort of scale disease almost immediately when I got home and took the larger Clown to fish heaven with him/her the next morning. This was roughly 6 weeks in, or middle of September. I had fish store test water again and still perfect. Two months later and nobody has had any issues. As for the Dragonette, she didn’t make it through the night either, but I’m blaming that on buying a fish that wasn’t quarantined at fish store for at least a week. I added roughly 20,000 Copepods while I was acclimating the Mandarin and it just kinda laid around the bottom of the tank and was dead the next day.
Changed 12 gallons of water Wednesday and this is where I’m currently at:
