Blue's BC 14

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blue2fyre

Blue Fish
Oct 7, 2008
4,440
3
0
41
Wisconsin
Real Name
Ashley
It begins! After 4 months of solid research and gathering equipment, the tank is finally up and running!

Specs:

14 gallon biocube
Mostly stock but I will be upgrading to LEDs soon
Removed bioballs
Tried to upgrade pump but realized I bought the wrong kind. Flow seems fine though
Koralia Nano 240 is in the mail and should be here soon
18.5 lbs of fully cured rock
10 lbs of reef sand

For the lighting I figured the stock lighting is working for now since I have nothing demanding. Once I'm ready to start adding corals I'll put in some LEDs instead. For now it still looks nice :)

Rock- This stuff is amazing. I was going to order LR online but came across a local reefer that was tearing down a tank. At $1 per lbs I had to check it out. The rock has been in an established tank for a few years. It had all kinds of coraline, feather dusters, Xenia, zoas, and mushrooms! I've already seen 2 different kinds of snails and a few brittle stars. The downside of course is it came with some unwanted stuff. There is some bubble algae, several types of macros and aiptasia(tiny ones) on the rock. I knew with any LR purchase I would have unwanted things, at least it doesn't have any mantis shrimp! I'm hoping my CUC will take care of the algae and macros and I'm buying some stuff for the aiptasia. While there isn't much in the tank I should be able to get it under control.

Stocking plans

I will only have a couple fish though which ones I'm not sure of yet. At least 1 will be a clownfish. Right now I have it down to

1 pair of true percs(There is a local picasso breeder)
1 B&W clown
1 orange stripe goby w? pistol shrimp


Either way it's very far away :)

For inverts:

hermit crabs
Either an emerald crab or porcelain crab
Blue tuxedo urchin
CUC

Corals:

Well I already have some red mushrooms, UN IDed Zoas, xenia, and some other un ID ed coral that I think is blue clove polyp.

Moving forward I'm thinking
More zoas!
Frogspawn

Nothing too demanding. I also don't want a TON of different corals since I want to keep this tank long term. I wanted everything to grow in and look nice but not cluttered.


So some pictures!

Nothing too exciting yet, just waiting on a cycle.

CIMG4691.JPG
CIMG4690.JPG
CIMG4688.JPG

CIMG4691.JPG CIMG4690.JPG CIMG4688.JPG
 

greech

AC Moderators
May 13, 2009
4,193
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52
Tallahassee, FL
Real Name
Graham
Great looking nano and rock. Couple of things come to mind...

-You may not have a cycle if the rock is that well established and you simply transferred it from one tank to another. All you really need is a little time for the sand to seed and you'll be in good shape. Definitely test your water often over the next couple of weeks and you'll get a feel. If you are confident the rock is fully cured (and based on the pics I see no reason to believe it isn't), I would not attempt to force a cycle by adding an ammonia source like a table shrimp. etc. You could add an ammonia source as a test to see how quickly the tank can cycle the ammonia through but know that you could kill off some of the life (including corals) you have already in the process.

-Not sure if you were implying either a pair of percs OR a BW clown but all 3 isn't going to work.

-Unless the macro is bryopsis, the urchin you get should devour it but it will also scrape off your coraline alage. Not necessarily a bad thing but if you like the purple, it will be gone :).

-Do yourself a favor and buy a jar of kalkwasser and make your own Joe's Juice/Aptasia X. It is the same thing and you will save yourself a tone of money. Definitely nuke them as you see them and don't let them get a foothold on the tank.

-Porcelin crab if you have to have a crab. I will never trust an emerald especially in a small tank with something like a sand/rock dwelling goby.

-Pistol shrimp would be fine but I would stick with the red stripe/ candy stripes or a tiger. These both stay smaller with the former staying the smallest.

Glad you got it going and your plan going forward sounds good. Congrats on the startup!
 

blue2fyre

Blue Fish
Oct 7, 2008
4,440
3
0
41
Wisconsin
Real Name
Ashley
Thanks for the info!

I haven't been able to get out today so I zapped a couple of the aptasia with some lemon juice. It seemed to do the trick for the larger ones.

For stocking I meant a pair of percs OR a B&W clown with a pistol shrimp goby :)
 

blue2fyre

Blue Fish
Oct 7, 2008
4,440
3
0
41
Wisconsin
Real Name
Ashley
Ok so I have a few questions

If I don't have a real cycle how will I know when to add a clean up crew?

Should I be doing water changes?

Should I be feeding the tank? I have seen some brittle stars and some other type of starfish that I'm not sure what it is. I also have a few snails. Do the corals need to be fed?

How long should my lights be on at this point? Right now they are on a lot because I could watch this tank for hours. There is so much life in this rock it's amazing! It's like an alien world, much more interesting than my freshwater cycles.
 

Ace25

www.centralcoastreefclub. com
Oct 3, 2005
5,753
0
36
www.centralcoastreefclub.com
Sounds like your tank is ready to go...

Clean up crew.. add when you think you need them.. if you have algae now, you can add some things to help (crabs/snails). Always add slowly and see how they work, especially with crabs. If you add too many and not enough food for them they will kill each other quickly.

As for feeding, I would recommend picking up a bottle of coral food, something like OysterFeast. A drop once a day is about all you need for your tank at this point. That is good food for all the tiny things that live in the tank and filter feed from the water. I would not put any large food in the tank at this point like mysis/brine/bloodworms/flake/pellets/etc.

Lights, probably no more than 8 hours a day right now.. any more than that and your just helping algae grow.
 

blue2fyre

Blue Fish
Oct 7, 2008
4,440
3
0
41
Wisconsin
Real Name
Ashley
Thanks.

I found some of what looks like cyno. It's been there since I put the rock in but I just now realized what it was. I sucked it out with a turkey baster

I also fed the tank some reef chili. It was awesome! Bristle star legs just started sticking out of everywhere! Super cool

My in Tank media basket and powerhead arrive Monday, I think I will start adding the clean up crew then as long as everything is still stable.

Another round of tests this morning!

Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 5
PH 8.0
Temperature: 79

Realized this morning I never plugged in my heater. I guess it's fine without it for now
 
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