New BioCube 24g, follow along...

[Big Jay]

Yes that idea with a raised platform with the chemipure is a good one.....you could replace the balls with live rock pieces under the chemi pure. I wouldn't make it a fuge unless there is a way to light it as the macro algae would need a light source. The light for the qt could be just the straight pc that comes with the tank but upgrade the bulb to a daylight bulb. Most soft corals and polyps, shrooms etc would be okay under this lighting for a short time frame and then acclimate them to the main tank light slowly......Once you get into lps and sps corals you should think about upgrading the light for your qt to something stronger....you'll be a better judge of that as you get more into the hobby.

Your aquascape looks great. Your rock is close to the glass and you realize you won't be able to clean it, but it appears to be the back side so that is okay....just make sure you can fit a mag cleaner between the rock and the glass all the way round the other sides. You also have a nice large aiptasia in there that you will want to get rid of asap as it will spread and they are not beneficial will sting everything and take over your tank......get some joe's juice and zap it. DO NOT TRY to pry it off or pull it off or squish it as it will spread and every piece will create a new one.......beleive me you want to get rid of it while it is relatively small and hasn't spread. I remember the first thing I saw on my live rock was one, and I was excited......a few peppermint shrimp took care of it. Though peppermints are not guaranteed to eat them mine did..... Oh and nice clown and chromis

Thanks Lorna! I will go pick up that Wal-Mart tank and some water while I'm out tonight. I'm also going to get the other items from Lowe's to make the shelf and provide shelter in the QT. I really appreciate you help and encouragement. I will post back with what I find and do to get more ideas. It's a good thing to have little side projects going on as my BC continues to cycle. I noticed that some of my LR has a green tint to it. Green is good right? Should I be thinking about some snails with in the next week?

 

[Lorna]

I would wait at least a week after everything comes up zeros.....

for snails look for nassarius, nerite, turbos and cerith snails. They sell a lot of astreas but they can't right themselves and tend to die. Margaritas are temperate water snails and die due to the high temps.......the 4 mentioned will clean everything up nicely and turn your sand over at the same time. Juice that aiptasia......and thing long and hard before putting hermits in......if you do get hermits only use blue legs or true scarlets.....red legged and zebras are too opportunistic and will shell jack your snails and kill them

 

[Big Jay]

Last night I stopped by a LFS and bought 4 nassarius snails and 2 Scarlet Hermit crabs. One of my blue legged crabs swapped shells. It was WAY too big though and was funny to watch him struggle. He switched back to his old home this morning. I boiled some shells this morning and dropped them in. It went shopping for a bit and hasn't not made a choice. I checked the water this morning and still zero's and 8.2. 79* @ 1.024 SG. The snails went strait under the sand but came zooming out when I feed the fish. Quite amusing.

So I left the bio balls in for now so they can get some bio on them before I transfer them to my QT.
On top of the balls I have a chemi bag.

Filter pad.

Dissipation Plate.

Sound dampener for the PS.

 

[Big Jay]

You can see how big the shell is on the right. The crab thought he stole a mansion but in reality he stole a double wide.

It feels good to be home.

FTS

FTS Left

FTS right

Green eyes

Feather Duster

QT

 

[Lorna]

Looks great! good looking hermits. Some take or leave them, definitely personal choice. I have had to put some of mine in the dungeon as they were trying to shell jack some snails........by dungeon I mean the fuge

 

[IDunnoWhy]

That's a heck of good looking start! *thumbsups I look forward to seeing it all grown in!

Nice job on the QT! *thumbsups

 

[Big Jay]

So I was looking around on liveaquaria.com and I noticed something interesting about my crabs. I don't have dwarf blue legs I have the Vietminese Dwarf Yellow Tip Hermit Crab. They have a darker blue body and yellow strips on their legs. Then I read that both the Yellow Tip and the Blue Legs are of the same sized claw family but one of my crabs has a mondo-sized claw. So can anyone ID this guy? Second from the left.

 

[Big Jay]

So I'm going through a serious diatom bloom. My crabs are fat. My one turbo snail is slow and my tank looks like hell. I'm almost positive my fish are going to kick the bucket but I checked the levels last night because I was worried and I got zero's across the board again. But my pH is up to 8.4. Should I do something about the pH? I thought for sure my Nitrates would be through the roof. Really weird.

 

[Big Jay]

Anyone know what this polyp thing is?

 

[Lotus]

It looks like a zoanthid

The diatoms are a normal tank progression, especially just after the cycle has finished. They'll disappear on their own, so try not to worry too much.

 

[Lorna]

seconding Lotus....that looks very much like a zoanthid or palythoa of some sort. A good hitchiker. Keep your eye on your params....8.4 is not bad just watch for wide fluctuations that is what you want to avoid. You want them steady as possible. Just take it slow, diatoms are normal. Did you use RO water? if not use it going forward for all water changes and top offs......it helps keep diatoms down.....

 

[Big Jay]

So it's been almost 3 weeks and everything is still alive. I did another WC and the parameters are still in check. I lowered the time the lights are on a bit and switched to feeding once a day. The nitrates are at 5 and I want to keep them there or lower. I have been reading a lot about 'fuges and I think I'm going to lean that way. I also ditched the stock sponge in chamber 3. I pulled the sponge off the PS intake. I'm changing the filter pad about every 4 days right now and will probably change it to once a week when I do WCs and everything is super stable in a couple months. The diatom bloom is on it's way out.

 

[Lorna]

Sounds good and looks like everything is under control....can't wait to see this develope

 

[Big Jay]

Day 22
I checked the parameters and everything is zero with the exception going to the 'trates, they are at 5. The diatom boom is about over. The green hair algae is being dealt with by the CUC. I did one more aquascape. I like this one. The only thing I don't like is the one rock that is high and center. I haven't found the right spot for that one yet.

Over the past week or so I added to the CUC. I added 5 tiny blue legs, 4 nassarius snails, 2 small turbo snails, and 2 more small scarlet crabs. I also added a peppermint shrimp to eat the aptasia that seems to be all over on of my rocks. It's cool cause he lives inside the same rock and he already ate one of the bigger aptasias that is couldn't get to. I only squirted the big ones.

I was also at the LFS and they had a sale. 25% off all marine/FW life. They got a shipment in last week and in it was some clowns. I don't know what kind of clown I got but it is a lot darker and redder than my false perc. When the new clown finally did make it into the display he was bullied by Floyd (my flase perc.) all afternoon and evening till the lights went out. This morning they were good friends and seem to stick together now. I moved the chromis to the QT tank after the new clown came out of the qt tank. What a PAIN IN THE BUTT he was to catch. I didn't want to add any more bio load to the Cube and the chromis is going back the the store. I will donate it if I have to. I also caught a huge bristle worm in chamber one. It looks like the harmless kind so I left it in there. A huge brittle star came out of no where too. I have no idea where he was hiding but if I had to quess it was the rock with all the big holes all over it. I also saw a cool feather duster, tube worms, loads of tiny bristle worms, some amphipods and one copepod. So here are some pictures.
FTS

Left

Right

True or False?

Friends at last.

Hairy

Zombie

A blue with his new shell on.

Brittle Star

Miss Understood

 

[Helena21]

Tank is lookin fantastic! Very nice and clean
Those clowns are falses

 

[Lorna]

I tend to agree with Helena, though it is hard to tell by the pics as the only real way to tell is by the number of spines in the dorsal fin, or so I am told. Trues tend to be darker with wider black bands separating the white and orange......are they the same size? when introducing a new clown you always want to ensure it is much smaller than the existing clown as the existing clown will no doubt have turned female if it was alone for any length of time. As they are not harassing each other my guess is that they are probably both juvis and neither is dominant yet......watch for the pecking order to start....

otherwise everything looks absolutely great! Yes that one rock looks tippy.....I would try and stabilize it but overall I love the scape....

 

[Big Jay]

I was staring at the tank last night and it just came to me. I suppose it was the angle but I could just see the where the rock was supposed to go. So I moved it and found it was incredibly stable. It looks great too. Provided a bit of an overhang and some shade on the floor.

The red clown is smaller than Floyd (orange clown). Floyd was bullying the little guy around the tank for about 3 hours and the the lights went out. By the next morning they sorted out their differences. Every once in a while Floyd will dog the red but it ends quickly. I need to name the red. If Floyd ends up the female and the are a pair then he will change to Floie, pronounced flo-ee, and the red will be...? I will have to think about it.

I also made the shelf. I removed the false floor and balls. Inserted the shelf stand, bio balls (till I get rubble). Put the eggcrate shelf in, the chemi-pure, then some more eggcrate, the filter pad, and finally the drip plate. The chemi-pure actually sits flat now and will have better flow through it. The pad sits flat now too. I removed the plate in chamber 1 and put the heater and temp probe in there.

I was on NR and read about getting a rio6+ and replacing the stock power head. I want to add some loc-line with a y-connector. I have a dead spot on the left side of my tank that is collecting crap. I also want to move the hydro-flo closer to the center of the tank. At least this way I will have a pump I can use to mix my SW. Right now I am stealing water from my QT. One cool thing about having the QT set up and running is I have 10 gallons of pure, heated, mixed, SW at all times.

I will post pics later. Not much to see. I also bought a reef test kit and went through the tests. I bought some supplements to help the corals out when I get around to adding them.

Speaking of corals do any of you trade or frag out as they get too big?

 

[kendakr]

Tank looks good mine is still cycling. I found a cheaper way to make a salt reserve. Just get a big 10 or 12 gallon Tupperware box with a lid that closes down the middle, heater, and powerhead. That is what I use now it works fine.

 

[shift_9k]

Tank looks awesome! I would move the rock a little off the edges just so you can get in there to clean it. I made the same mistake when i started, im so glad i did move them because it can get dirty fast, better to aquascape right the first time. When it comes time to remove the bioballs do it slowly only a couple at a time. Also rubble doesnt really do much from what i've read, just keep more rock in the display if you can.

Good luck friend.

 

[Lorna]

Rubble provides surface area for bacteria to populate. It can also collect detritus so needs to be rinsed with tank water. It also provides a place for copepods to breed and populate also.....in all it is a good thing for a fuge to have some rubble piles. I wouldn't trust a rio powerhead for anything.....they are notorious for failing and taking out tanks......just an fyi...get a maxijet much more reliable.....