[Oceanic BC 29g] Tank Journal (Updated 4/08)

Editing my original post so all my specs and mods are on the first page.

Tank: Oceanic BioCube 29G
Lighting: Stock
Pump: Stock
Live Rock: ~45lbs (40ish in main tank and another 5ish in Fuge)
Live Sand: 30lbs Carib-Sea Argonite seeded with 1 cup of sand from established tank.
Mods: Koralia Nano, Widened gap from Chamber 1 into Chamber 2, Turned Chamber 2 into a Fuge with custom lighting, LR Rubble, and Chaeto. Removed sponge and replaced with bag of Carbon & Polyfiber, and removed false bottom of Chamber 1 and put LR Rubble, Chemi-pure, and my heater in there.

Water Changes: 5g per week using Tropic Marin.
Dosing: Kent Iodine- 2 Drops/day, Kent Essential Elements- 5 drops per week.

Feeding: H2O Life Spirulina Brine Shrimp/Mysis Cubes and Laguna Farms Fish & Coral Food dosed with Seachem Garlic Extract and mixed with 2 caps (~10ml) of Phytoplankton. I feed 2 times per day. 2-3 times per week I feed frozen Cyclop-eeze in the bar form.

Livestock:
--> 1 Ocellaris Clownfish
--> 1 Starry Blenny
--> 1 Yashia Shrimp Goby with symbiotic Randall Pistol Shrimp
--> 1 Two Spot Hogfish
--> 2 ORA Tomato Clowns

Clean-Up Crew:
--> 1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
--> 2 Peppermint Shrimp
--> 5 Black Margarita Snails
--> 5 Turbo Snails
--> 4 Chestnut Snails
--> 4 Nassarius Snails
--> 1 Super Tongan Nassarius Snail
--> 1 Tongan Fighting Conch
--> 1 Emerald Mithrax Crab
--> 6 Mexican Red Leg Hermit Crabs
--> 2 Cerith Snails
--> 1 ORA Abalone

Corals & Other Invertebrates:
--> 1 Red Bubble Tip Anemone
--> 1 Purple Reef Lobster
--> 1 Kryptonite Candy Cane with 2 heads
--> Green Star Polyps
--> 1 Blue/Purple Mushroom
--> 1 Hawaiian Feather Duster
--> 9 Zoanthid Colonies
--> 1 Ricordea (Blue/Purple w/ Green Mouth)
--> Branching Hammer (Green w/ 4 Heads)
--> 1 Sun Coral Colony
--> Blue/Silver Xenia
--> Finger Leather
--> Yellow Finger Gorgonian
--> Blue Sponge Frag (about the size of a quarter 4/08)

I think that's it. I'll keep this post updated with the most current pic.
 
@nano_thomas wrote:
If I'm buying seeded LR from an established tank will my cycle be shorter; allowing me to put in my cleaning crew quicker? And... When I go to pick up the LR should I bring some new buckets with me from like Home Depot or something? Even if it's common sense said:
Yes, buying 'live' live rock will help shorten your cycle. I'd bring buckets or a styrofoam box and a roll of paper towels to soak in tank water to keep the rock damp if you're going to be traveling for more than an hour.
 
Spar hooked me up. Thanks a ton man! He was so helpful with answering my noob questions. Got some nice LR from him and he even gave me a cup of sand from his tank to further jump my system!
 
Got the LR in. Had to bust some into smaller pieces with a hammer, but it all turned out great. Did a water change and organized the rock. I'm starting to see lots of little creatures that made the journey!

I have pics I took with my Cannon SLR but haven't hooked it up to computer yet. As soon as I do I'll post some pics!
 
Great, can't wait to see pics. It's always fun to see a new tank start up and watch the changes.
 
Thanks Fejus! I woke up this morning to find some fluroescent green things coming out of the bottom of that rock in the back on the right.

I flipped it and realised there was like a waterfall of this stuff coming down the rock. Here's a pic. Kind of blurry cause of moving rock around.
 
Really nice aquascaping! It is a lot of fun watching new tanks grow and change. If I ever get around to buying a decent camera I would post some of mine. I have a cell phone camera log going right now, at least I can see the growth taking place.

Oh, and just a heads up. If you see any bryposis start to grow, go dark for a couple days. Its much easier to combat that shtuff sooner rather tahn dealing with it later. I am in the process of breaking down my 10g tank to get rid of some LR with GHA on there.....its the algae that keeps on growing.....seemingly from nada.
 
Thanks a lot. I've been moving some rocks around but it's still the cave/ "C" shaped. Just finding when I put the rocks in I put some upside down or backwards if there is such a thing. Having to move them so all the life on them is visible and not butting up against another rock or laying in the sand.
 
Lookin good. Be sure that when you get it all set, there's room along the edges to run your magnetic cleaner, otherwise things build up pretty quick (plus, snails can't get to any algea there).

You've got a great dose of life at setup, you luck devil. When I first set up mine, I had 2 little tiny starfish, and 1 worm come out of the sand. They vanished very quickly...
 
I try to tell people that I'm not contagious... That saltwater tanks AREN'T a disease, but bah. I give up. :D

Looks really great so far! Aquascaping is half the fun.

And Darby as in my scuba instructor Darby?

Anna M
The True Percula
 
Well it's been about a week and a half and my Nitrate has dropped to around .2

Here are some shots of the new aquascaping. I also did the Fuge mod to Chamber 2. Built a box, put a fluroescent light in it, and velcroed it to the back of the tank.

For anyone doing this mod please do it before you set up your tank. You should have seen me behind my tank for 3 hours scraping the black paint off with an exacto knife. Good lord! Not only was it a pain, but that paint is messy and sticks to everything.

I'll post the pics of that mod next. Let me know what you think about the aquascaping.
 
Hey Anna! Yep, it be me...

Wooo, look at those GSP spread. They really will take over if you aren't careful. As you know, they prefer to spread upwards first, then outwards. I have some attempting to grow over some Zoas, but the Zoas aren't letting any ground go (literally). In the future, I'm going to make it so that any GSP or Xenia I ahve can't really spread through the WHOLE aquarium, just where in selected areas.

Now that things are going well, be patient! Don't be tempted into loading up on fish and corals.


The one advantage of the 24gal Nanocube is that the back covering is black plastic laminate. Really easy to just cut and peel off! But, but the same token, nothing really wants to stay glued to it, so I had to push my tank back to the wall so that a piece of wood was against the wall putting pressur against my light to keep it in place.
...sigh...
 
Top