New 14g BioCube

[imlocke]

I just ordered a 14 gallon Biocube tonight, and I am so amped to get it. This will be my first tank. In time I'm hoping to have a clown fish hosted in something, probably anemone instead of carpet..

If anyone has any suggestions or tips or would like to help me get started, that would be great.

Thanks in advance. :]

 

[imlocke]

I have a few friends at work with tanks that I will be addressing most of my questions towards them, so I am not starting blind, also I am doing a lot of reading while impatiently waiting for my tank to come.

Would like a feather duster, 2 or 3 blue leg hermit crabs, one or two sea slugs, and possibly a cleaner shrimp, the clownfish, maybe a yellow clown goby, unless someone thinks that's too much fish for the tank.

I haven't seen much about sea slugs, is there anything I might need to know about them?

Also what kind of bottom is easiest for a beginner, sand or gravel? I would rather have something than nothing..

I'm thinking I would rather have sand, but could anyone mention anything about maintaining and setting up sand, and also gravel if it isn't too much to ask. :]

Thanks,
Steve

 

[yeahcheetah]

I am a newbie too but I would not get any sea slug since they can't live long in captive environment, especially small tanks becasue there won't be enough food. And when they die, they probably will destroy your tank. I'd say some zoa, ricordea, frogspawn and mushroom coral are probably good to start with, becasue they are beautiful, hardy, sizes are relatively small and not ridiculous pricewise. Substrate I would go with sand bottom with nassarius snails, one cleaner shrimp or fire shrimp will be fine, plus some other cleaning crew. I you want, add some sexy shrimps for fun. Clown fish is good but clown goby prefer to live with a few of its own species and swim in branches of stony corals. A firefish or a blenny could be other choice. For anemone, get one RBTA for ~$40-50 for added beauty. They are constantly on sale on this forum and manhattanreefs.com

 

[imlocke]

Ok cool, I guess the sea slug is out, I'd rather not see if it will crash my tank or not for whatever reason.

Was originally planning on going with a sand bottom. Yea, I was really looking forward to some frogspawn, really enjoy the way that they look.

 

[Monkeyfish]

You may want to hold off on the anemone until your tank has "matured" a bit. They can be very sensitive to fluctuating water conditions. In addition, clowns do not always host what we want them to. They may become "attached" to a frogspawn, powerhead or simply spend their day doing backflips in the corner of your tank!

 

[imlocke]

Hm, Ok, I was wondering whether I should put the anemone or the clownfish in first anyway. Whatever he wants to do is cool with me ;D

I wouldn't mind if he just swam around the tank all day as extra entertainment for me, plus frogspawns are cool, wouldn't mind if he hosted that either. ;D

So I did some reading and I should add the sand into the tank first for the first few days, then add the live rock in to cycle the tank correct? Then I could add some snails and/or blue leg hermits around the time of putting in the live rocks, or a day or two after I'm thinking?

 

[Monkeyfish]

You don't want to add any life to the tank immediately after adding the live rock. The rock will have debris/detritus on it which will rot starting a "cycle." The decomposition creates ammonia which is fuel/food for beneficial bacteria. Until the cycle is near complete the water is toxic. This can be avoided if the rock you purchase is fully cured, say from a fellow reefers tank or rock that's been in the store for awhile. Once the tank is cycled (0ppm ammonia, nitrites and nitrate) the tank is ready for it's first inhabitants.

Be patient. "In this hobby nothing good happens fast."

 

[imlocke]

My understanding was that the hermit crabs and/or snails could go in while it was still cycling. Affecting the cycle itself in whichever way they do.

 

[imlocke]

Yay, I tracked my tank, and it's scheduled to get here on Thursday. I also ordered a VISI-THERM HEATER 50 WATT with it, just need to get the salt, water, LR, and sand (i think im going with sand instead of barebottom). So how can I make sure that the sand comes out well and doesn't smell or anything, since I heard from some friends that there's smelled terrible...

 

[Monkeyfish]

If the sand is new/dry it won't smell at all. If it's good live sand it should smell like the ocean or saltwater. If it's full of rotting debris then it will stink.

 

[imlocke]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10557154#post10557154 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Monkeyfish
If the sand is new/dry it won't smell at all. If it's good live sand it should smell like the ocean or saltwater. If it's full of rotting debris then it will stink.

I talked to him today, he said that it doesn't smell normally, but when you clean the tank and accidentally suck some up or something that it stinks when it comes out of the tank. He also said that it'll be all messy from the flow of the water blowing around some of the sand...how could i prevent that?

 

[Monkeyfish]

If the amount and direction of flow is set up properly there shouldn't be any sand-storms in the tank after the initial "settling" that takes place.

 

[imlocke]

Well, I got my tank and set it up, after some drama with my mother about where im putting the tank making my live rock sit out longer than i wanted, but oh well its up...

Got a bunch of branch live rock, not really what i wanted, but i'll deal, got a little more than i thought, but again ill deal.

Not sure if the salt is the right level anymore...i think it should be fairly close, had a mishap with the water level lol

Tank is clearing up from the sand quicker than i thought it would, so that's a plus.

Gonna have to figure out how i wanna arrange this rock tomorrow when i can see all the way through and fool around with it..

I don't think my heater is on/working for some reason, it's plugged in, and i set the temperature to about 80, the instructions say a light should be on but i don't see one...I'll have to look at it some more tomorrow unless anyone has any ideas?

here is a picture of my tank right now before any real rockscaping or anything.

 

[directional]

It's about time we got a picture ;D