New salty 29g biocube

Bleigh · Jan 15, 2019

New to salt water... and to this thread. I’m
Sure I’ll have some edits after I see what others look like.
Tank setup on January 12:

Live rock
Live sand
Protein skimmer
Chemi pure in filter area

Added 2 clown fish the next day (lfs owner was certain that it would be a quick cycle, and so far he seems correct. (0 ammonia, .2 nitrite, 8 nitrate before water change):

Mocha occelaris and bullet hole occelaris. They fought pretty intensely when I initially put them in. I could hear them very clearly. But within about 5 minutes they calmed down and have been near each other ever since. I read that’s a good sign.

Updated stock list as of 8/7/2019:

Fish:

2 mocha clowns (now paired)
6 line wrasse
Diamond goby

Inverts:

Cleaner shrimp
Blue legend hermit crabs
Redlegged hermit crabs
Turbo snails
2 other types of snails I need to look up

Corals:

Toxicity favia from WWC (added 8/7/2019)
Flower petal montipora from WWC (added 8/7/2019)
Hollywood stunner chalice from WWC (added 8/7/2019)
WWC Lich King zoanthids from WWC (added 8/7/2019)
WWC demon eye favia from WWC (added 8/7/2019)
WWC awesome rainbow platygyra from WWC (added 8/7/2019)
Jason Fox high voltage platygyra from WWC (added 8/7/2019)
WWC bicolor platygyra from WWC (added 8/7/2019)

bsn_rn_cen · Jan 15, 2019

Pretty close in size, can't wait to see which becomes the female.

dantimdad · Jan 15, 2019

Welcome aboard!

Bleigh · Jan 15, 2019

The mocha is slightly bigger, that picture doesn't show scale well. (I'm going to call her a she.) She also seems to be the aggressor as far as charging the other. The brighter orange one tends to "play dead" and do what reminds me of a dog rolling over and showing it's belly. Now that "he" is doing that, she cuts the attack off and doesn't seem to bother him. He also did the "seizure dance" a few times during the initial fighting. They've been sleeping in the same location. From what I understand, that may be a good sign that they have agreed to pair or at lest tolerate one another's existence.

Bleigh · Feb 18, 2019

The corals and inverts in the tank aredoing pretty good. Both clowns got brook a few weeks ago. I’m waiting for the tank to go fallow and invested in a QT tank. Waiting for it to cycle before any new fish will be considered.

Made me so sad. When I found the first dead, I had no clue what had happened. The smaller fish was just staring at her in what seemed to be shock. That one started showing symptoms quickly and treatment just wasn’t fast enough to save him. I did think he would pull through for a little while, but about an hour later, he had died. So sad and crazy that you can get attached to such small creatures.

TexasTodd · Feb 18, 2019

Welcome. Here is a great overview for starting out.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/15-steps-to-starting-a-saltwater-aquarium-the-lasse-method.597/

You're going a bit fast, but you'll get if figured out.

Bleigh · Feb 18, 2019

TexasTodd said:
Welcome. Here is a great overview for starting out.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/15-steps-to-starting-a-saltwater-aquarium-the-lasse-method.597/

You're going a bit fast, but you'll get if figured out.

Thank you for the link.

That lists a lot more in the CUC than I have. I think I have 10 total snails (different varieties) and 8 hermits.

I was able to get some good live rock/sand/bacteria. My tank cycled pretty quickly. I had a small blip in the ammonia and nitrites, but haven't seen it since. Nitrates have held around 15-20 ppm with weekly water changes. I've buffered my pH and kH twice. They seem to like to drop, but I don't have test kits for anything else at the moment. I did start a QT tank. I won't get another fish until the QT has cycled and I can treat start fish there to make sure they're okay/prophylactically treated. Just started getting some nitrites in it today.

It is very hard not to get excited though.

TexasTodd · Feb 18, 2019

Of course you don't have to use Cucs but his overall method is good.
The main thing is go slowly.

Bleigh · Feb 19, 2019

Frogspawn looks like it’s starting a new head!

Considering I thought I had killed it at one point, I think it’s doing VERY well.

Bleigh · Feb 20, 2019

Went to get something that would eat the aipstasia. You can see the two of them near the bottom poking their heads out of a hole. Also picked up a zoa. It’s mid tank. It hadn’t opened in this picture, but most have opened now.

Hemmdog · Feb 20, 2019

Bleigh said:
Went to get something that would eat the aipstasia. You can see the two of them near the bottom poking their heads out of a hole. Also picked up a zoa. It’s mid tank. It hadn’t opened in this picture, but most have opened now.

Awesome! It’s looking like a reef

!

Lovemyreef2015 · Feb 20, 2019

I like the set up! Following along

TexasTodd · Feb 20, 2019

Looks like you found some good rock.
I've been able to keep a Derasa clam in a stock BioCube in the past. With PC bulbs. I'd guess the new LED have more PAR.

Bleigh · Feb 21, 2019

Hemmdog said:
Awesome! It’s looking like a reef !

Thank you! I’m pretty happy with it.

Bleigh · Feb 21, 2019

Lovemyreef2015 said:
I like the set up! Following along

Thank you! Getting lots of help and advice!

Bleigh · Feb 21, 2019

TexasTodd said:
Looks like you found some good rock.
I've been able to keep a Derasa clam in a stock BioCube in the past. With PC bulbs. I'd guess the new LED have more PAR.

I definitely need to do some research on how to keep it happy. I know nothing about them. Any pointers?

Hemmdog · Feb 21, 2019

Bleigh said:
I definitely need to do some research on how to keep it happy. I know nothing about them. Any pointers?

It should be fairly easy for you since your already have coral. Just keep your alk, cal, and mag stable at what your salt mixes out to. They filter feed through the water so don’t keep it overly clean. If you still have the biocube stock lights, that may be the first big upgrade you want to look into. Oh.. and keep salinity stable, lol.
-Chris

Bouncingsoul39 · Feb 21, 2019

Captive bred clowns should never have "Brook". Either it was something else, or they got infected by the holding sytem at the LFS. Maybe find a new LFS or QT the fish if you have to buy from them. But yeah, captive bred saltwater fish *should* be disease free. If you order captive bred ORA clown fish online from live aquaria, they will be shipped directly from the ORA breeding facility and free of disease and not needing a QT at all.

Captain Quint · Feb 21, 2019

Welcome to R2R fellow Carolinian!

Your tank looks great.

Bleigh · Feb 21, 2019

Hemmdog said:
It should be fairly easy for you since your already have coral. Just keep your alk, cal, and mag stable at what your salt mixes out to. They filter feed through the water so don’t keep it overly clean. If you still have the biocube stock lights, that may be the first big upgrade you want to look into. Oh.. and keep salinity stable, lol.
-Chris

I do still have the stock lights. My thought was I would invest in a bigger DT if I was enjoying this one and managing it okay. I was thinking 6 months- a year time line, but now that seems SOOOO long away.