New 29g biocube

[cwing]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the saltwater thing but my wife and I decided we loved the serenity of it and after talking with a zoo aquarius we bought a 29 bio-cube. I started it 3 weeks ago with the water and 20lb of live sand, a week later added 25 lb of live rock and added one chunk to the bio balls. A week after adding the live rock the rock and sand turned a fuzzy brown. Now that week three is over it has turned a light almost white color and there is a little hair like looking green stuff on glass, and I have to wash off the filter media daily to wash off the brown slime. I check my water parameters yesterday and four days before that and they were the same. Salinity 1.024, PH 8.2-8.4, ammonia 0, NO2 0, NO3 20. I want to have 3-4 fish, anemone, coral, mushroom and shrimp. I've read a lot of post here but I'm not sure what my next step is any advise and suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks,

 

[chaseter]

It sounds like you are good to go. Add in your clean up crew, snails, a few hermits, and a couple of emerald crabs and let them go at it for about a week. Then, check your levels and add your first fish!
Trates are a little high, I would look into making the middle chamber a refugium to get your trates down.
Also...you need some more live rock. Get about 5-10 more pounds.

 

[curry]

The advice above is exactly what you need to follow. Keep away from the anemone for now. They require established tanks and strong lighting.
Not a fan of the emerald crabs. They can go after corals if there is not enough food in the tank.

 

[cwing]

Ok, sounds good. Do cleaner shrimp work on the clean up crew? Also not sure about how to make the refugium. Anyone have really detailed instructions for me. Also will that eliminate the need for the cartrige filter that I have to clean the brown stuff off of every day?
Thanks for the advise, I really appreciate it. I want to make sure I do everything right so it will thrive.

 

[chaseter]

Cleaner shrimp are not good cleanup crew right now. They eat leftover fish food. You need some snails and hermit crabs.
Get a few margarita or astrea snails, few ceriths, few nassarius, and a turbo if your rock work is sturdy. Turbos are big and knock over stuff but they sure do munch through algae.
When picking hermits, only get the same species. Scarlet hermits and blue legged hermits will fight. I personally like the way the blue legs look.
Let the bioload of your aquarium adjust to all the little critters in there and then add your first fish after checking levels. Wait about another week, then check levels again and add your second fish and so forth. If trates do not go down, stop adding fish until it goes down but a chaeto refugium in the middle does wonders. My trates are and have been at 0 for a long time.

 

[vcman]

Take a look at the Fuge and Media Basket by inTank http://mediabaskets.com/
They work great in the 29 Biocube

 

[cwing]

Where do I get the plant material to go in the second media backet? And do I need to add a submersiable light for the plant material?

 

[vcman]

You can get the plant material at your local fish store. I got mine at *****. Stuff is called Cheato or rather the nick name is cheato.

 

[vcman]

And yes you will need the light. Submersible is not necessary but sure is NICE to have.

 

[cwing]

Once I get the Cheato, does the light stay on 12/12 like it does for coral or is it different?

 

[chaseter]

I keep my chaeto light on 24/7. I imagine you can keep it on with the lights but if you keep it on 24/7...it will grow like crazy and you will have a chaeto farm!