Ice9Kills
New member
After seeing dozens of people post about their new bio cubes I figured I might as well make one for myself.
I have the Coral Life stock 29g biocube. Works great in my room right now as Im probably moving in 18-22 months from now and can take that chance to upgrade
Everythings stock in the cube except i added a skimmer and i pulled the bio balls in the back in place for live rock.
I cycled my tank maybe a 2 months ago with a combo of dry rock, cured rock and sand some from a old established tank from my friend (who im probably moving in with and getting the bigger tank in about a year or so) and some live rock form the store he uses. I missed the initial ammonia spike as I went away for a week for break. but I currently have a auto tester that checks both ammonia and ph constantly throughout the day.
prams are steady ammonia is .001 nitrite is undetectable, nitrate holds at 5ppm with a max of 40 when my cycle ended.
when my tank started my ph at the end of the day cycle was at 8.14 but now it seems to only max out at 8.07/.09
I added a air stone last water change to pump a little extra air into the tank I read online that it can help.
about 4 weeks into the cycle I had such a algae bloom that i couldn't even see my rock anymore. so I added a small cuc
5 Astraea ninja star snails
10 reg astrea snails
and 5 emerald crabs.
and a skunk cleaner shrimp.
in less then 3 weeks the little buggers cleaned the tank top to bottom. haven't seen a build up of algae at all since then.
First fish I added was a little Ocellaris Clownfish. Added him 2 weeks ago this saturday
I didnt QT him (first and last fish I wont QT) mainly cuz I hadn't set up the qt yet. (its fixed and up and running now) scared the crap outta me first night cuz he slept sideways on the outflow valve all night. thought I lost my first fish..bad omen. but now he swims around and is king of the tank eats twice a day and plays in the outflow. very fun to watch. he even started playing in the bubbles from the air stone that get caught in the outflow.
Now cupple questions.
1 Im looking to add more live rock to the system. one in the display where theirs a spot that I want to even out. and another piece or two in the back sump. Will I end up with another cycle if I do this cuz if so Im not gonna do it. Its a max of 3 maybe 4 fist size pieces of rock.
2 should I worry about declining PH values? the air stone was added less then24 hrs ago so I have to wait and see if it helps.
3 im (trying to be) religious about water changes. Even if my nitrates aren't high. I do 5gallons (1 bucket) every other week. they might hit 10 by the time I change it but that being generous to the api color chart. im thinking its because the my bio load is so small for the tank size. the clown cant possibly produce enough waste to crash the tank on his oneness. I just want to get into the habit of spending an hour every other Saturday to do a full tank work up. part of that is doing the water change.
now im thinking the next fish I want to add is a second juvi clown. I was thinking getting it the same time i got the rock. put the rock in the tank, fish in the qt. if i qt the second guy for about 4 weeks by the time hes out of qt the first clown would be in there a total of 6 weeks before i placed the second in. I read that you shouldn't do more then double your fish in a month. so 1-2-4-well how much can i comfortably fit in a bio cube.
last but not least, should i be worried that this cuc well cleaned the tank. will they run out of food i mean the tank is now spotless. don't they need something?
anyways im not sure what else to say. im not sure of the future of the tank. eventually i want to put some softies in and maybe some kind of bubble tip for the clowns but thats like 6-8 months from now right?
right right i did forget something... the filter that comes with the cube.. the coral life biocube filter... literately has no other description of what is in it.... says it doesn't need to be changed for 4-6 weeks.. but.... this thing is dirty after 1-2 weeks. i mean dirrrty. should i be swapping it every week or should i not worry about it and do it every 5?
I have the Coral Life stock 29g biocube. Works great in my room right now as Im probably moving in 18-22 months from now and can take that chance to upgrade
Everythings stock in the cube except i added a skimmer and i pulled the bio balls in the back in place for live rock.
I cycled my tank maybe a 2 months ago with a combo of dry rock, cured rock and sand some from a old established tank from my friend (who im probably moving in with and getting the bigger tank in about a year or so) and some live rock form the store he uses. I missed the initial ammonia spike as I went away for a week for break. but I currently have a auto tester that checks both ammonia and ph constantly throughout the day.
prams are steady ammonia is .001 nitrite is undetectable, nitrate holds at 5ppm with a max of 40 when my cycle ended.
when my tank started my ph at the end of the day cycle was at 8.14 but now it seems to only max out at 8.07/.09
I added a air stone last water change to pump a little extra air into the tank I read online that it can help.
about 4 weeks into the cycle I had such a algae bloom that i couldn't even see my rock anymore. so I added a small cuc
5 Astraea ninja star snails
10 reg astrea snails
and 5 emerald crabs.
and a skunk cleaner shrimp.
in less then 3 weeks the little buggers cleaned the tank top to bottom. haven't seen a build up of algae at all since then.
First fish I added was a little Ocellaris Clownfish. Added him 2 weeks ago this saturday
I didnt QT him (first and last fish I wont QT) mainly cuz I hadn't set up the qt yet. (its fixed and up and running now) scared the crap outta me first night cuz he slept sideways on the outflow valve all night. thought I lost my first fish..bad omen. but now he swims around and is king of the tank eats twice a day and plays in the outflow. very fun to watch. he even started playing in the bubbles from the air stone that get caught in the outflow.
Now cupple questions.
1 Im looking to add more live rock to the system. one in the display where theirs a spot that I want to even out. and another piece or two in the back sump. Will I end up with another cycle if I do this cuz if so Im not gonna do it. Its a max of 3 maybe 4 fist size pieces of rock.
2 should I worry about declining PH values? the air stone was added less then24 hrs ago so I have to wait and see if it helps.
3 im (trying to be) religious about water changes. Even if my nitrates aren't high. I do 5gallons (1 bucket) every other week. they might hit 10 by the time I change it but that being generous to the api color chart. im thinking its because the my bio load is so small for the tank size. the clown cant possibly produce enough waste to crash the tank on his oneness. I just want to get into the habit of spending an hour every other Saturday to do a full tank work up. part of that is doing the water change.
now im thinking the next fish I want to add is a second juvi clown. I was thinking getting it the same time i got the rock. put the rock in the tank, fish in the qt. if i qt the second guy for about 4 weeks by the time hes out of qt the first clown would be in there a total of 6 weeks before i placed the second in. I read that you shouldn't do more then double your fish in a month. so 1-2-4-well how much can i comfortably fit in a bio cube.
last but not least, should i be worried that this cuc well cleaned the tank. will they run out of food i mean the tank is now spotless. don't they need something?
anyways im not sure what else to say. im not sure of the future of the tank. eventually i want to put some softies in and maybe some kind of bubble tip for the clowns but thats like 6-8 months from now right?
right right i did forget something... the filter that comes with the cube.. the coral life biocube filter... literately has no other description of what is in it.... says it doesn't need to be changed for 4-6 weeks.. but.... this thing is dirty after 1-2 weeks. i mean dirrrty. should i be swapping it every week or should i not worry about it and do it every 5?
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