Ya clowns are odd balls mine sleeps upside down
I started my biocube in march. I had the coralife protein skimmer running for about 2 months. It was very hard to get set correctly, also after 2 months the skimmer completely failed on me and was pushing tons of micro bubbles into my main display. But who knows you might get lucky. I would give it a shot, at the time it was working it was pulling out some nasty stuff. I decided to upgrade to the Aquamaxx 1.5 HoB. As for the hood I removed it. The blue channel 3 I believe would not turn off, it would go through the ramp down but would not completely shut off. So upgraded to kessil A160. Really wish I knew all this I would have bought a used 75 gallon lolSo, I just started this tank yesterday... Well, just started 'cycling' it yesterday, to be exact. I've been scaping rocks for the better part of a week while reading and watching videos like crazy.
Here is what I have right now:
Nothing super special but here is what this is:
Coralife Biocube 32
Coralife Biocube Designer Stand
22lbs LifeRock
18lbs Coarse CaribSea Aragonite Substrate
Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5 Pump (upgraded stock pump and stock pump used in my SW mixing tub)
Sicce Voyager Nano 2000 Powerhead
Aqueon 100W Submersible Heater (Set to 78F)
CoraLife BioCube Protein Skimmer
Digital Thermometer
I placed the rock so that there is at least an inch between the rock and the glass/back so that I can get around to clean and to provide room for corals to stretch. In most places it's 3+ inches of space. There is a cave and some swim throughs so I think I have a good balance of swimming space, shaded areas, flats, etc. I also only went about 60% high to allow for growth, if I wanted to glue something to the top later to expand the rock, and to avoid exposing coral for too long during water changes. I first used the thick Seachem Reef Glue but after 15 minutes, with a tiny nudge, my bridges were popping off the structure so I found some old (seriously ancient, I didn't know I had it) dollar store crazy glue. It was very liquid but bonded nearly instantly. I then reinforced with the Seachem Reef Glue and some of the underwater hardening putty too. I hope I used enough but a few pokes and nudges produced no movement.
Salt is Aquavitro Salinity mixed until my meter read 1.026 when the meter "hole ring" thing's temperature is around 77F (Milwaukee MA887). Protein skimmer is off for now and so are the lights. I turned them on very briefly to look at things and to take the pictures I have here for this thread. I set a schedule on the lights per a thread I saw somewhere but that won't matter for a while, I think. Please let me know when I should turn these on and what the timing should actually be.
In the back of the tank I have:
Chamber 1 (far left when viewed from the back) - Heater
Chamber 2 - Stock media stacker with Seachem Matrix Bioballs in the middle and the Carbon Filter pad that came with the tank installed in the top.
Chamber 3 - Biocube Protein Skimmer (off right now), Main Pump, and Digital Thermometer Probe
I have a TON of bottles of 'stuff', likely as a result of being very excited and visiting multiple shops to see "how it should be done".
This is my current inventory (aside from what I've already listed above):
Fritz-Zyme Turbo Start 900 Salt Water
Aquavitro Seed Bacteria
Seachem Reef Buffer
Big Al's Multipurpose Water Conditioner
Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution
I'm sure I don't need all of this and I think some of it serves the same function as others, but, oh well...
I used Culligan RO water, tested with a TDS Meter and verified at 0 TDS, to mix the saltwater solution. After pumping it from my bucket to the tank, I turned on the main pump and powerhead to get that circulating before adding a little more than half the bottle of the Fritz-Zyme Turbo Start . The bottle said that it should be1 oz. per 25 gallon but also said to add "up to 5x" to jump start a tank so I did nearly 3x instead. I haven't used anything else just yet as this was at around 10PM last night (about 19 hours ago).
I do plan on getting a second heater and plugging both into a thermally monitored switch so that I have a backup heater, should one fail, and the power will cut if the temperature gets above a certain threshold.
My first full testing of everything I had a test for was done at 10AM this morning, after about 12 hours of cycle.
Here are those results:
Tested with Aquachek
0.0 CL
8.1 pH
190 ALK
Tested with MA887
Salinity 1.026
Tested with Saltwater Master Test Kit
0 Nitrate
0 Nitrite
8.3-8.4 pH
0.50 Ammonia
I'm not sure if everything is right here for the stage I'm at but I'm sure I have a long time to correct anything if it's not.
Questions:
1) I was told that I should add the Ammonium Chloride solution at some point. When would that be?
2) I've been told surprising little about actually starting the tank aside from,. "Mix your water, dump this in, wait a bit, then dump that in". No timings given so I've just been reading around.
3) I see so much conflicting advice on the Biocube skimmer and the stock lights. Everything from, "they are garbage" to "they are great". I'm open to suggestions on these but keep in mind that this is my very first saltwater tank (I've had freshwater tanks before so I'm not totally aquadumb). I haven't run the skimmer yet and will tests areas around the tank with a PAR meter closer to the end of the cycling period so I know what will work best and where. I do want to put in a clown, or two, a yellow tank, a shrimp, a star, and a maybe a few other fish/inverts, but that will be planned out in more detail when the time comes.
4) For filtration, I'm not sure if the carbon pad, bio balls, and skimmer are good enough for what I want. We are looking at the livestock above in addition to a bunch of zoas, anemones, toadstools, etc. I was looking at getting the InTank tower to upgrade the stock filtration stack and then throwing in some bioballs, carbon, floss, whatever else, in to it and maybe adding a refugium. I'm only thinking about this as it's what I see a lot of BC32 owners doing but I really don't understand why, or the benefits, aside from the copepod cultures and macroalgae from the fuge.
5) Adding livestock... I know the cycle takes some time and I'm fully prepared to wait however long it takes for conditions to be ideas in order to reduce as much stress as possible for the new tenants. I so know that the "three days is fine, then you can come Back and pIck out your fish and Get some corAL'S" (LFS to remain nameless) was a total crock. That said, I just finished watching a vid from the boys at BRS that said something along the lines of a tank only really being truly ready for corals once it has had corals. I think this means that the corals themselves are going to add biological elements that will help corals thrive, which makes sense. So, when exactly do I start adding stuff? What order? Is there something that should be added first? etc.
Any and all advice, guidance, and criticisms on all aspects of this tank are hugely appreciated.
Tanks in advance!!
