New Biocube 29

pappa d

Member
YAY! I just finished setting up my 29 Biocube! I was downsizing from my 58gallon oceanic tank (which is up in the classified forum incase anyones intrested, and its with all the equipment). But anyways, from the old tank i made a 2-3 inch sandbed, not sure how many lbs of live rock but i think its plenty to start with, and transfered all of my astrea snails/nass snails, scarlet hermit crabs, two starfish, coral banded shrimp and my two clowns!!! its like an established tank already!! haha, well kind of. but my two questions are: i noticed when moving one of my brittle starfish that it only had two legs left but still had life to him!! i'm thinking it had to be one of the crabs right? the onlything i have heard could have done this are blue legged crabs so i just put them in my tank upstairs where there are no inverts along with the emerald crabs because i thought it had to be one of the two. are my right in my assumptions? the other queastion is that the only thing i couldnt really get working is the filter in my biocube. that little filter/carbon strip thing is suppose to stand right behind the intakes and theres nothing to insert it into and it just floats back there and its suppose to be against the wall....does anyone know how i'm suppose to get it to stay in place?/has that happend to you? alright, i'm done with this rediculiously long thread. heres some pics of the new set up!!! im so proud



 

pappa d

Member
on a side note, i am kind of disapointed with these pictures...it looks alot better in person! but, keep in mind i just set this whole tank up a few hours ago and its kind of cloudy still. i love those little blue moon lights that are on, they're probably my favorite feature mostly because it was a suprise that it came with those.
 

pappa d

Member
thanks, haha. i made that back in 1998 with my mother right after bulls won their 6th championship! it brings back alot of memorieis
 

bigarn

Active Member
looks like your off to a good start .... don't forget progression pics and good luck with it.
 

pappa d

Member
New Pics everyone, here it is at day 2. i havnt done anything differntly besides just move one pice of live rock to the back because before the front was higher up than the back and it didn't look so good. what do you think????
...but also, can anyone please help me with what i was saying before about the filter just floating in back by the intake. its not pressed up against it like it should be. how can i fix it?

 

bill109

Active Member
have u cycled?
it says day 2 and u have abunch or inverts, and 2 clowns, it is mean to make them go tru the cycle. it burns theri gills from what i have heard.
JMO
Goodluck!!
-bill109
 

pappa d

Member
yeah, its all from my 58gallon tank. on my first thread it says all the stuff i transfered. so basically everything including the live rock, water and sand was from my other tank. thank you for making sure though!
 

bill109

Active Member
Originally Posted by Pappa D
yeah, its all from my 58gallon tank. on my first thread it says all the stuff i transfered. so basically everything including the live rock, water and sand was from my other tank. thank you for making sure though!
ok im sorry i jumped to conclusions.
sp what do u have planned?
corals?
FIsh?
pics are always welcome

-bill109
 

glasta

New Member
i just set up a new 29g the other day too and the filter goes in the slots by the runoff into the camber where most of the bio balls are. I only have 20lb of LS and 19lb of LR in mine so far with 2 hitch hikers (hermit crabs) GL with the tank looks good so far.
 

pappa d

Member
thanks, if you get any pics of yours i'd like to see it too since were kind of starting this at the same time. good luck with yours as well
 

pappa d

Member
bill109 what do u have planned? corals? FIsh? I'm going to go for the full out reef! [img said:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/data/smilies/hot.gif[/img] haven't done too many corals before but i'm very excited to try. i think that since this put a nice hole into my wallet by next month i should start adding some corals. i'm going to go slowly with this though. eventually i'm going to add another fish or two tops as well. i was thinking either a midas blenny or a goby as my next fish in another month or two also.
 
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reefernana

Guest
can anyone please help me with what i was saying before about the filter just floating in back by the intake. its not pressed up against it like it should be. how can i fix it?
I have the 29g biocube and the filter cartridge slots are in front of the wall between the right and middle chamber or that's where mine are anyway. But, if you want a good flow I would remove it totally and just lay it on top of the grate over the middle chamber. Now the next thing I suggest, is getting rid of all the bioballs. I read a lot about how others had set up their biocubes and this was the most mentioned modifcation. A lot of people just put live rock pieces in this chamber for filtration and others just have filter floss or purigen or charcoal. I decided to go with the following after considering it all. I added 2 jars of Seachem's Matrix, a bag of Seachem's Purigen and a couple of pieces of filter/foam floss. And I do have the filter laying over the top of the grate. I keep my water level just above the maximum line, this way I don't get any bubbles out of the return. I, also, added a MJ-900 PH for more circulation. My tank has been up since May 1st, no fish yet, 3 hermits, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 emerald crab, 50+ ilyanassa snails and 3 small coral frags. I have to upload some recent shots and then I will post a pic. It's coming along nicely, very plain yet, but I said I was going to go slow, and that's what I'm gonna do, I hope...........lol!
 

pappa d

Member
thanks alot for the help reefernana, i dont want to bother you too much more but if you happend to have any pics of your filter set up with the different chambers and such i would greatly appreciate it if you posted them. but if not, dont worry about it and thanks for explaining a little more in detail
 
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reefernana

Guest
I don't think I could get good enough pics for you to actually see what it looks like back there with the water going thru everything. But, when it was empty, I added the Matrix (which look like little pumice stone balls and never have to be replaced), then I just placed the Purigen bag over them and laid the filter/foam floss over all. Naturally, when the water started flowing into the middle compartment upon starting up the tank, the Purigen and floss started just floating but there is a good turnover of water from the pump (230 gph) so the water gets filtered pretty well. A lot of people suggested keeping the water level a little higher and I soon found out why because without the bioballs there's much less of the wet/dry action and the water flow moves pretty quickly leaving the 3rd chamber with the pump a little skimpy with water which would pulse out some micro bubbles every now and then. By keeping the water level just above the maximum line this doesn't happen. It also makes this a 30 gal tank instead. Even though with the live sand and live rock added mine is about 25 gal, but everyone loses water size because of that. Like I said I just lay the original cartridge over the top of the grate and this has the water, also, filtering thru some charcoal, too. Instead of buying these cartridges (because I hear they're fairly expensive), I will probably just get a bag of charcoal when I can't clean this cart. anymore and replace it with that. Hope this helps! It's really working out well for me.
 

pappa d

Member
alright thank you. i think im going to just give the original filter a try for the next month or two, despite what everyone says, and see how my levels are doing. i will eventually switch over to what you are doing but i would like to personally see how this works in a little bit of time. thanks for all your help!
 

pappa d

Member
just tested my levels. the readings came out as:
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-10
phosphate.2
sg-1.024 (i usually keep it at 1.026 so i'll top off with saltwater until then)
and heres the one i cant figure out...
ph-7.8 - 8.0
how did the ph get so low and how can i bring it up?...at least having a low ph is better than cycling the tank all over agin
 
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