rosieosieee
Well-Known Member
Recently my Bio Cube 8 crashed.....I ran all my coral to a friends house and only lost my nem and my war coral. To this day I still have not figured the reason of the crash. Levels were tested three times in one week, all were normal. Recently moved, but this was about a week and a half after the move. So, I threw out the tank, dried out the rock, and started over....kind of.
I was browsing craigslist and saw this 30 gallon Nuvo stocked with some softies, a clown, and some other fish, for $200. I went over to the guys house to check it out. It had been professionally set up by our large pet store (Preuss Pets in Lansing, MI). It looked nice, but the guy had no idea how to take care of it, and it was pretty dirty, not only with algae on every surface of the tank, coral skeletons littering the bottom, along with dead snails and hermit crabs, not to mention just build up of crap around the bottom edge of every rock. I figured, what the heck, I can clean this mess up!
a picture of the set up at the guys house:
the ONLY filtration being used in the back was filter pads and some baggies of something....not purigen or chemipure...but something of the sort. I threw all of it out. the light fixture is a Skyye Light Dimmable Dual Strip 18, found here: Innovative Marine Skkye Light Dimmable Dual Strip LED Fixture.
I don't know if i'm being picky, but it doesn't seem as bright as it should to me, although I have little experience with light. On my BioCube, I ran a panorama exotic that my LFS ordered me, and that thing is BRIGHT. I was thinking about maybe supplementing this tank with it.
So anyways, down three flights of stairs and left with three very tired friends, we finally got the tank home.
That thing was NASTY! Spent a couple hours cleaning, still have a long way to go. Since I had live fish and corals, I had to get the tank set up again that night though. Put in A mixture of clean water that I could salvage from the move, and some new water as well. Annnnd of course the sand was still dirty, so had to wait a few hours for it to settle.
Gross right? I would've loved to spend more time really cleaning everything but lack of time and water was a large issue. But, the next morning, it looked a lot better, just a little hazy.
So, still a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, over night the cinnamon clown fish did not make it. :sad: That kind of freaked me out, so when I went to the LFS I took a water sample, and picked up 3 trochus, 3 cerith, and 3 astrea snails, to boost the CUC. (previous owner only had one living hermit crab and one snail that I could find) Peram's as follows:
pH 8.1
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 2
phosphate .25
kH 10
calcium 420
salinity 1.026
When I got home I did some rearranging, along with adding a fuge to the back, and a fresh bag of purigen. Hopefully through meticulous cleaning, a sparse feeding schedule, and my ball of cheato I can bump those phosphates down. My BioCube was TOO clean. My CUC died besides one astrea. Never had any visible algae, EVER. Also added a new Hydor Koralia 425GPH to help out the circulation. The current output has the spin stream nozzle which works great for creating surface agitation, LOVE IT.
Went for the "arch" look, and added some of my dry rock.
picture of the filtration compartments:
some LR rubble, mixed with some of my dry rubble, covered with some cheato. In the middle I have my overflow box (sump/fuge in the future) and the return pump. on the left is the heater, and the media baskets which currently only house the purigen, chemipure to be added soon.
and here is the lone survivor:
any thoughts on what he is? he's a shy little fella, and NEVER comes out so its hard to snap a picture, and he was also like this at the previous owners house. He's probably around 3inches.
Plans:
-Clean, Clean, Clean!
-Tunze ATO
-10gal sump/fuge (future...unfortunately this tank has to move, only here temporarily. will set up fuge/sump when it's permanently set up
)
-Set up my old light to accommodate current, or just plain switch out.
-Protein Skimmer (I have the one that is made for the biocube, I did have good success, I know it would be small for this size of a tank, but honestly, I don't feed that much, plan to sell the current fish, and MAYBE have two small banggai's, what do you think?)
-chemipure
-tiny flower pots for frags...I think they are adorable!
still have more room in the back of the tank for activities! what else do you guys suggest putting back there? more LR? mechanical filtration? chemical filtration?
disclaimer: unfortunately working on a budget here, being in college and everything. i'm at Michigan State University in the Veterinary Technology program. please feel free to give thoughts on the tank, things i should/shouldn't do, or just wonderful knowledge.
better pictures to come when the water clears up.....but for now, here are some pictures of my beloved coral that my friend is currently babysitting, and will keep until this system is completely stable!! not taking any chances.
will be posting pics of coral currently in tank soon so you can help me identify them.
thanks!
I was browsing craigslist and saw this 30 gallon Nuvo stocked with some softies, a clown, and some other fish, for $200. I went over to the guys house to check it out. It had been professionally set up by our large pet store (Preuss Pets in Lansing, MI). It looked nice, but the guy had no idea how to take care of it, and it was pretty dirty, not only with algae on every surface of the tank, coral skeletons littering the bottom, along with dead snails and hermit crabs, not to mention just build up of crap around the bottom edge of every rock. I figured, what the heck, I can clean this mess up!
a picture of the set up at the guys house:
the ONLY filtration being used in the back was filter pads and some baggies of something....not purigen or chemipure...but something of the sort. I threw all of it out. the light fixture is a Skyye Light Dimmable Dual Strip 18, found here: Innovative Marine Skkye Light Dimmable Dual Strip LED Fixture.
I don't know if i'm being picky, but it doesn't seem as bright as it should to me, although I have little experience with light. On my BioCube, I ran a panorama exotic that my LFS ordered me, and that thing is BRIGHT. I was thinking about maybe supplementing this tank with it.
So anyways, down three flights of stairs and left with three very tired friends, we finally got the tank home.
That thing was NASTY! Spent a couple hours cleaning, still have a long way to go. Since I had live fish and corals, I had to get the tank set up again that night though. Put in A mixture of clean water that I could salvage from the move, and some new water as well. Annnnd of course the sand was still dirty, so had to wait a few hours for it to settle.
Gross right? I would've loved to spend more time really cleaning everything but lack of time and water was a large issue. But, the next morning, it looked a lot better, just a little hazy.
So, still a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, over night the cinnamon clown fish did not make it. :sad: That kind of freaked me out, so when I went to the LFS I took a water sample, and picked up 3 trochus, 3 cerith, and 3 astrea snails, to boost the CUC. (previous owner only had one living hermit crab and one snail that I could find) Peram's as follows:
pH 8.1
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 2
phosphate .25
kH 10
calcium 420
salinity 1.026
When I got home I did some rearranging, along with adding a fuge to the back, and a fresh bag of purigen. Hopefully through meticulous cleaning, a sparse feeding schedule, and my ball of cheato I can bump those phosphates down. My BioCube was TOO clean. My CUC died besides one astrea. Never had any visible algae, EVER. Also added a new Hydor Koralia 425GPH to help out the circulation. The current output has the spin stream nozzle which works great for creating surface agitation, LOVE IT.
Went for the "arch" look, and added some of my dry rock.
picture of the filtration compartments:
some LR rubble, mixed with some of my dry rubble, covered with some cheato. In the middle I have my overflow box (sump/fuge in the future) and the return pump. on the left is the heater, and the media baskets which currently only house the purigen, chemipure to be added soon.
and here is the lone survivor:
any thoughts on what he is? he's a shy little fella, and NEVER comes out so its hard to snap a picture, and he was also like this at the previous owners house. He's probably around 3inches.
Plans:
-Clean, Clean, Clean!
-Tunze ATO
-10gal sump/fuge (future...unfortunately this tank has to move, only here temporarily. will set up fuge/sump when it's permanently set up
)-Set up my old light to accommodate current, or just plain switch out.
-Protein Skimmer (I have the one that is made for the biocube, I did have good success, I know it would be small for this size of a tank, but honestly, I don't feed that much, plan to sell the current fish, and MAYBE have two small banggai's, what do you think?)
-chemipure
-tiny flower pots for frags...I think they are adorable!
still have more room in the back of the tank for activities! what else do you guys suggest putting back there? more LR? mechanical filtration? chemical filtration?
disclaimer: unfortunately working on a budget here, being in college and everything. i'm at Michigan State University in the Veterinary Technology program. please feel free to give thoughts on the tank, things i should/shouldn't do, or just wonderful knowledge.
better pictures to come when the water clears up.....but for now, here are some pictures of my beloved coral that my friend is currently babysitting, and will keep until this system is completely stable!! not taking any chances.
will be posting pics of coral currently in tank soon so you can help me identify them.
thanks!
