First time tank build

[g.Smith]

Daaaaaaaay 1 of the biocube 29 build! Mmmm murky.

This is our (the hubs and I) first tank ever! So I figured I'd share for all to see so you can tell me exactly what I'm doing wrong! Just kidding...sorta.


Instead of the bioballs, I have 2 big filter sponges, a filter sock with sea chem matrix and a purigen in front of the return pump. Upgraded the return pump to a mj1200(cycles 295 gallons per hour) still have the basic florescent lights on the biocube - will upgrade eventually. Water is RO from the LFS. Used live sand and 80% live rock (20dry) for the set up.

The LR came with a few hitchhikers




This guy was promptly evicted

 

[g.Smith]

It's been up and running for about 2 weeks and the diatoms are taking oveeeer

The ammonia and nitrites have gone down to 0 so the LFS have us the blessing to add some snails and hermit crabs today

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gexpgWqvJIg

So I guess we will just let it sit and resist the urge to tinker with it. Hopefully the cuc will take care of the algae and then we can get a cleaner shrimp! Yay!

Will probably also address the asterina stars (is that what they're called) as I've heard they can pester some corals.

 

[g.Smith]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gexpgWqvJIg

This video is a time lapse of the clean up crew

 

[scason]

Cool video. I want to do that when mine finally has water in it. Was it full capture or interval pictures ?

 

[g.Smith]

Cool video. I want to do that when mine finally has water in it. Was it full capture or interval pictures ?

Thanks! Interval with a go pro

 

[g.Smith]

Update. A little over 3 weeks and we've considered the tank cycled and did a 25% water change. Diatoms are gone. Yay! But now we have some green algae growth and some bright red spots on a few snails. Also trying to catch another bristle worm...

 

[g.Smith]

Correction... 2 bristle worms! At least... ew

 

[ifarmer]

hi, just curious, in the second photo of post #6, what are those white thin thing on the glass? looks like some sort of worms to me.

Update. A little over 3 weeks and we've considered the tank cycled and did a 25% water change. Diatoms are gone. Yay! But now we have some green algae growth and some bright red spots on a few snails. Also trying to catch another bristle worm...

 

[Lucky1456]

What is that trap for the worms called?? Never seen one of those before. But I never had worms before either. By the way maybe its just me but you don't sound or even act like a beginner to the hobby. I may the only one who picked up on it but you said first tank ever. I don't believe its your first tank.

 

[g.Smith]

hi, just curious, in the second photo of post #6, what are those white thin thing on the glass? looks like some sort of worms to me.

I think it's just a combination of floating particles and a slow shutter on my phone camera making it look like a line instead of a dot.

 

[g.Smith]

What is that trap for the worms called?? Never seen one of those before. But I never had worms before either. By the way maybe its just me but you don't sound or even act like a beginner to the hobby. I may the only one who picked up on it but you said first tank ever. I don't believe its your first tank.

I just made it up out of random objects. It's a travel tooth brush lid and a piece of plastic front a to go cup cut to fit. I then angled it inward to make it easy to get in and difficult to get out. Caught 1 so far...at least 2 to go. I found another trap a may try...I'll post if I decide to do it.

First saltwater tank. We had a family freshwater tank as a kid. Thanks for the compliment! I tried to do a lot of researching before starting up the tank. The hubs and I are both into it which helps a lot too.

 

[g.Smith]

Sad story. We've had our first casualty. We lost a hermit crab. I found him naked swirling around the bottom of the tank.

 

[KorD]

Great video.. I should try that one day with my go pro also...

 

[g.Smith]

New additions!

Cleaner shrimp, fire fish goby and frog spawn frag.

We've had a blue green chromis, 6 hermit crabs, 7 snails and a conch. Also several brittle stars, asterina stars and bristle worms that came with the rock.

I'm a little worried because we can't seem to get out nitrates down. It keeps fluctuating between 20 - 40. We have a decent amount of live rock, an aquatic life mini 115 skimmer, bag of sea chem matrix, bag of sea chem purigen, some filter floss, chemipure blue. We're gonna add a bag of seachem denitrate tomorrow. I can't figure out why it won't go down. We've done about 4 five gallon water changes (biocube 29) anyone know what were doing wrong or what we should try???

Yesterday I rearranged my aquascape a bit to shake off anything that settled in the rock and restructured it to allow a little more flow around the rock. The CUC seemed to appreciate that and went straight to work lol. I also directed my power head to blow on a rock a bit. Think we're getting another power head to create more flow.

Any tricks of the trade I should try to get these nitrates down???

I did manage to convince the hubs to feed them less lol.

 

[g.Smith]

The picture of the goby sucks... He's so fast! I'll get a better one.

 

[g.Smith]

I almost forgot! We got an Ai hydra light and modded the biocube lid to fit. We gutted the factory lights and used a dremmel to cut out a portion of the plastic to fit the light. Got some brackets from lowes and mounted it to the lid. (Yes this was my idea... I'm a handy wife) we kept the acrylic bulb cover since it still fit and will keep it nice and clean.

 

[Fin]

Sad story. We've had our first casualty. We lost a hermit crab. I found him naked swirling around the bottom of the tank.

Was more than likely your first "molt" and not your first casualty. Molts will look just like a lifeless complete crab.

 

[g.Smith]

Was more than likely your first "molt" and not your first casualty. Molts will look just like a lifeless complete crab.

Really? It looked like the complete crab. It wasnt discolored either. And I've found some trying to pull others out of their shells.

 

[g.Smith]

My shrimp just spat out tons of little babies...And they all got eaten

 

[g.Smith]

Halp!

I can't for the life of me figure out how to get our nitrates down. I've fine everything I can think of. We did a half tank water change last night and absolutely no change. I shook of the LR, sucked all the crap out of the sand, cleaned the glass. My husband bought some denitrate chem matrix stuff. What is the deal?

We have the two fish, a shrimp, 7 snails and 6 hermits and a conch. 3 coral frags a good bit of live rock and sand. Our tank fully cycled but we haven't been able to get the nitrates below 20-40. We tested it before the change and after and it's still like 40ish, creeping on 80.

Nitrites are 0 and ammonia is just about 0. Ph 8.