You Got Reef?
This is an addiction. Change my mind.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2018
- Messages
- 41
- Reaction score
- 49
- What state or country do you live in
- New Jersey
So to start off i'm completely new here so apologies if I am doing anything wrong. Let me know and I will fix it asap. I got into saltwater about 2 months ago. I have 2 freshwater tanks, one 10g planted
and a 60g African cichlid tank (i hate the look of it, only fake plants and rocks, need to overhaul it). I wanted to get another tank so i found a great deal on an old oceanic biocube 29g on Facebook marketplace. I picked up the tank, stand, hood, pumps and a few other stuff they gave me for just $75. The tank has a few scratches on the glass but not bad at all for the price. I originally wanted to do another freshwater planted but after realizing this tank is setup for saltwater and having just got back from a diving trip to Bonaire i had to do saltwater. I did some research, cleaned out my tank really well and found a local marine fish store about 30min from me. The place is called Ocean Image Aquatics. I highly recommend going there if you are in the North Jersey area. The owner is super nice and helpful, he talked me through basically everything, and his store is beautiful. He walked me through everything I needed to get and start cycling. Great down to earth chill guy, cant recommend enough. He hooked me up with some live sand and rock and I started to cycle. After cycling is when i started to notice the problems with the Biocube. Keeping the lights on for about 7-8hrs a day caused the water temps to shoot up to about 83F when my house is kept at a cool 73F. The hood has fans in it where the light is enclosed but it hardly helped. I picked up a cheep clip on fan on amazon here and it brought the temps right down, it looks bad having the hood door open with the fan in it but idk what else to do. One big downside that I hadn't noticed until disaster struck was that this caused the water to evaporate much quicker. The biocube does not have much room to let the water get too low so when it did it killed my pump. I ordered a new pump next day on amazon and I now had to get a $200 auto top off system to keep from killing my pump again. That is still on the way (i have to add water every night until it comes) but now i have my adorable 2 clowns Kevin and Clyde
They seem to be doing great so far. I cant get over how adorable they are. Always swimming and sleeping together. I also got 3 snails to help with the diatoms that were all over my rocks. They aren't as cute but do a good job cleaning. I cant wait to get more fish and start with corals but i'm taking it slow. If you have any got tips/tricks id love to hear them.
and a 60g African cichlid tank (i hate the look of it, only fake plants and rocks, need to overhaul it). I wanted to get another tank so i found a great deal on an old oceanic biocube 29g on Facebook marketplace. I picked up the tank, stand, hood, pumps and a few other stuff they gave me for just $75. The tank has a few scratches on the glass but not bad at all for the price. I originally wanted to do another freshwater planted but after realizing this tank is setup for saltwater and having just got back from a diving trip to Bonaire i had to do saltwater. I did some research, cleaned out my tank really well and found a local marine fish store about 30min from me. The place is called Ocean Image Aquatics. I highly recommend going there if you are in the North Jersey area. The owner is super nice and helpful, he talked me through basically everything, and his store is beautiful. He walked me through everything I needed to get and start cycling. Great down to earth chill guy, cant recommend enough. He hooked me up with some live sand and rock and I started to cycle. After cycling is when i started to notice the problems with the Biocube. Keeping the lights on for about 7-8hrs a day caused the water temps to shoot up to about 83F when my house is kept at a cool 73F. The hood has fans in it where the light is enclosed but it hardly helped. I picked up a cheep clip on fan on amazon here and it brought the temps right down, it looks bad having the hood door open with the fan in it but idk what else to do. One big downside that I hadn't noticed until disaster struck was that this caused the water to evaporate much quicker. The biocube does not have much room to let the water get too low so when it did it killed my pump. I ordered a new pump next day on amazon and I now had to get a $200 auto top off system to keep from killing my pump again. That is still on the way (i have to add water every night until it comes) but now i have my adorable 2 clowns Kevin and Clyde
They seem to be doing great so far. I cant get over how adorable they are. Always swimming and sleeping together. I also got 3 snails to help with the diatoms that were all over my rocks. They aren't as cute but do a good job cleaning. I cant wait to get more fish and start with corals but i'm taking it slow. If you have any got tips/tricks id love to hear them.
