Saltyphish's 29Biocube

saltyphish · Sep 11, 2014

Just realized I do not have a tank thread on here yet so let's begin. I started my first sw tank back in 2000. I had a 75 gallon aquarium that I used to house my ball python. After many years and successful escapes I decided to get rid of my snake and move on to something else. Thus my 75 gallon sw tank was born and then it wasn't. At the time I had just met my wife and a few months later we were moving in together and my 75 gallon was destroyed in the move. No major losses tank was only about 3 mths old. Then life took over and a year later I was married and expecting my youngest son. As a result my plans for my tank stopped and I ended up selling my tank and equipment. Now 14 years later I am finally getting back into the hobby and purchased a 29 gallon biocube back in march. I bought my tank and purchased 32 lbs. of live rock from live aquaria. Shortly after ward I had my tank set up with rock live sand and water.

saltyphish · Sep 11, 2014

Here is my tank setup and running with my rockscape. Never realized how particular I could be until I tried to commit to a rock scape in my tank. I probably ended up rebuilding this a few hundred times. Finally I settled on this and used JB waterweld to secure the pieces.

saltyphish · Sep 11, 2014

After about 5 weeks my tank seemed to have finished cycling so I added my cuc consisting of 5 cerith snails, 1 emerald crab, 5 turbo snails, and 15 assorted hermit crabs.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

A month after my cuc was added and my parameters were still in check I finally added my first pair of fish to my system. My choices were a ocellaris clownfish and a black and white ocellaris clownfish.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

Unfortunately, both fish had internal parasites when I bought them and had not realized it until someone told me the stringy white poop was a good sign of parasites. The result was my black and white clownfish took a trip back to the lfs and the ocellaris clownfish stayed and made a full recovery. This lead to my next investment, a QT or better explained observation tank since I have LR inside it.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

Here is a picture of one of my Cerith snails laying eggs. They do this quite often.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

Saw my first fighting Conch at the LFS and had to have one. This is by far my favorite member of the CUC.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

After waiting 5 weeks before trying another fish I finally decided to buy a Green Clown Goby. This time I did it right and QT him for 5 weeks. What a pain in the neck fish to get to eat. Would not take anything I gave him for 2 weeks. I tried Cyclops, reef plankton, Brine shrimp, and Mysis shrimp. The little booger would not eat. Although I noticed the amphipod population declined significantly in my QT. So I figured he was eating them. Now had I known how shy this fish was I probably would never bought it. I knew once I added it to my DT that would be the last I saw him. A month later he now comes out at night and feeding time. I used a syringe to spot feed him in the qt so I kept trying to do it in my DT until he finally would come out to the syringe and eat now he comes out right before feeding time and even hangs out for a bit to. Pretty cool how he hugs the cracks and crevices in the rock work and lays on his side to slide underneath the rocks. Here is the best picture I can come up with of him. He is very camera shy. Oh, and now he is a pig and eats anything.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

Here is a list of the equipment I am using on my tank. Biocube 29 Gallon Coralife version. For the return pump I use the rio 6hf pump. It is rated 350 gph vs the 264 gph stock pump. Plus the pump runs at the same wattage as the stock. I use a aquaticlife 115 miniskimmer for a protein skimmer. It works well so can't complain. I have the intank media basket in chamber 2 with filter floss on top rack, purigen in the middle rack, and chemipure blue in the bottom rack. Next to it in the 2nd chamber is the intank refuge which actually has a bag of Matrix biomedia hanging in it. I use a 100 watt Cobalt heater. My current light set-up is the orbit marine led set. I know these are pretty weak but work great for a fowler tank and since I do plan on adding coral I already have an upgrade light kit on order with rapidled. Of course I will post pics once I have it installed.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

My birthday was during August so for my birthday my wife and I drove down to the Lfs and bought me a new black and white clownfish to replace the other one. Hopefully it will pair up with my other clownfish. He will be spending 5 weeks in my QT before we find out. Also bought my first piece of coral. I really enjoy the zoa themed tanks so that is what I am getting right now. My first zoa is a radioactive dragon eye with a bonus baby polyp of eagle eye on the same piece of live rock. The wife took the pics so they are definitely better than mine.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

Took a trip down to Aquarium Artisans in Cincinnati to look at the new store and walked away with this lunar zoa frag. Couldn't leave empty handed.

saltyphish · Sep 12, 2014

Here is some pics of my cerith snail with a micro feather duster attached to it's shell

Scubafrog · Sep 19, 2014

Nice looking tank!

I just set up a 29G Biocube over Labor Day weekend. So far just rocks, snails, and a pair of Ocellaris clowns. I used live rock, live sand, and ocean water so I really never saw a cycle (no spikes in ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates in over two weeks so I added the fish), just a small outbreak of diatoms.

Do you have any pics of your protein skimmer? I assume it is in chamber one. Did you have to modify anything to get it to fit properly?

Any suggestions for removing the fine sand particles floating around? I haven't vacuumed the sand or done a water change yet. Also thinking of trying some filter floss or polishing pad.

What do you look for with fish in QT? When do you know they are safe for the DT?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm a newbie to SW.

Thanks.

saltyphish · Sep 25, 2014

I will load pics of my protein skimmer tomorrow when I am cleaning it Scuba. To make it fit watch the youtube video from reefthuz he explains/shows what mods to make and the method to mount it. Also google the airline mod way worth it much quieter and yes the skimmer is in chamber 1. If yo have a problem with sand particles in the water check and see if your powerhead is aiming a little to low. I actually placed my return pump a rio 6hf inside a 7" 200 micron sock to filter/keep microbubbles out of my DT. When I have a fish in QT I look to see how well it is eating, white spots, any signs of infection, irregular swimming, parasites/white stringy poop, and sores/cloudy eyes. Sure there are many things but if the fish is acting normal and looks healthy I am good. I keep my fish in QT for 5 weeks min with no complications.

Scubafrog · Sep 25, 2014

Thanks. I have seen both of those videos on the skimmer. Just didn't know if the skimmer was still made the same and required cutting. I was hoping to find a skimmer that didn't require modification.

Thanks again for answering my newbie questions.

saltyphish · Sep 26, 2014

Big night tonight. Finally got my rapidled retro kit put together and ready to install in my hood. Hopefuly I will have this completely installed and also move my black and white clownfish with my frags of radioactive dragon eye, Eagle eyes, and lunars into my DT. Plan on making a trip to the lfs to see what new corals I can add. Lighting definitely should not be a problem after this. Will post pics when done.

saltyphish · Sep 27, 2014

So I got my leds installed everything put back together and 2 leds are not working all of a sudden. No big deal I already know what is wrong but no time to fix it. Lights still look great! I will post pics as soon as I get a chance.

saltyphish · Sep 27, 2014

Acclimation went well for new clown fish and zoa frags even though things didn't go as planned. I planned on placing the clown fish in a floating breeder container to see how it and my other clown fish react to each other before committing and not being able to catch either clown in the DT. However, upon placing my new clownfish in the container he jumped right out before I could put the lid on. Oh well. Guess there was no need for concern anyways. He swam right over to my other clownfish and started doing his sideways twitch dance they seem to be pairing up nicely.