# 29g Biocube FOWLR setup



## sericinda (Jan 9, 2010)

So I finally decided to just go salt on my biocube. I stumbled across a semi-local reef store and some amazing help from the owner and the folks on the forum there. Very glad I found this store, the owner is just great. Bought 27 pounds of cured live rock from him at $4.99/lb and it's gorgeous rock with a lot of great life.

Sooo the live rock is in, the water has settled a bit (still is a little cloudy) and I'm seeing signs of life already. The first night I spotted various worms, a tiny white starfish with stubby legs (didn't get a picture of him as I was rushing out the door and stupidly told myself he would be right where he left himself when I got home. Um. No.) various small snails, some tiny featherdusters and some tiny...things. I can't even describe them. They are tiny, and things.

The temperature is stable at 80F, salinity is at 1.023. Readings are good across the board. Am still researching when to start adding a CUC and what to add. Will be weeks yet so I have time. Any suggestions appreciated.



The substrate is rather deep and a mixture of live sand and blue/black find marine sand. At first I regretted mixing the white live sand in there but now I rather like the mixture. I like the blue and black in there as it adds a bit of color and it's unique. I get a little tired of looking at white sand bottoms on reef tanks sometimes, but then again, I'm always a fan of the unusual and ugly. 


​ Featherduster. Found various of these on different rocks...easily startled. There are also a few tiny red ones.



​Teeny the Snail. I named a snail I will probably never lay eyes on again and have no hopes of telling apart from any other snail in there. *makes crazy finger-twirling-around-temple-sign* I've seen 5 more snails since.


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The tank the first morning.


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No idea what that little growth is. Bueller? Bueller? Am assuming its a sponge

​ Starfish. I also saw one like this the first day, only it was white.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

looks like an astrea snail and an asterina starfish. 
for a CUC i would personally avoid any type of crab, including hermits and go with a mixture of different kinds of snails.


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## outpost (Mar 30, 2010)

I you are afraid to keep corals you shouldn't be. They are a lot hardier than most people make them out to be. Especially soft coral, they are really easy to keep, grow fast and are very beautiful. You should check out these vids. http://www.youtube.com/user/ipsfdotcom?blend=2&ob=1#p/u/0/NaCu2c9XpuI
and these http://www.youtube.com/user/thelowfive#p/u They really helped me a lot. The first link had vids that will explain when to add a CUC and other important things.


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## sericinda (Jan 9, 2010)

Videos won't help me as I'm deaf and can't hear what they say, but thanks! 

I have decided to go reef...changed out the sand to live sand and added some more live rock. Here are updated pictures. I added a refugium with chaeto and a submersible LED to the back chamber along with purigen and chemi-pure elite.



















Waiting for it to cycle so I can add CUC...shouldn't take too long since I used fully cured rock. Found a local reef store and forum that gave me the confidence I needed to try reef, so I'm excited


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## outpost (Mar 30, 2010)

you will be a lot happier with a reef. So much more diversity. Fun to watch.


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## Justina (May 2, 2010)

Hey man how is your tank coming along?


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## sericinda (Jan 9, 2010)

coming along well, I added purigen and chemi-pure elite in the back chambers and boy, what a difference in water clarity!! It was clear to start with but the products really really cleared it up crystal clear.

I'm going to do a water change tomorrow, add some snails and shrimp on sat (already have crabs) and fish should start going in one a week starting next week. Then I will start adding corals. I'm excited 

I've found some more hitchhikers...a chiton of some sort, lots of snails and a bunch more featherduster worms.


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## Justina (May 2, 2010)

Are you using a skimmer on your biocube? Or are you just using what came with the Biocube, the bioballs, filter.


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## sericinda (Jan 9, 2010)

Justina said:


> Are you using a skimmer on your biocube? Or are you just using what came with the Biocube, the bioballs, filter.



Bioballs came out immediately...they are nitrite traps. I am using the standard filter, no skimmer. I prefer weekly water changes to skimming on a nano-tank. I personally think skimmers pull out valuable nutrients as well as harmful and that water changes are more than sufficient to control this. I would use a skimmer on a larger tank, but I'm bypassing it on my cube.


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## CamryDS (Oct 5, 2009)

sericinda said:


> Bioballs came out immediately...they are nitrite traps. I am using the standard filter, no skimmer. I prefer weekly water changes to skimming on a nano-tank. I personally think skimmers pull out valuable nutrients as well as harmful and that water changes are more than sufficient to control this. I would use a skimmer on a larger tank, but I'm bypassing it on my cube.


imho I would do both skim and waterchange. and since it's a biocube 2.5gals of water changes per week with top offs during the week of freshwater would do the job -- no problems with my tank since i've gotten everything levelled.

I'm enjoying the tank as is.


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## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

sericinda said:


> Bioballs came out immediately...they are nitrite traps. I am using the standard filter, no skimmer. I prefer weekly water changes to skimming on a nano-tank. I personally think skimmers pull out valuable nutrients as well as harmful and that water changes are more than sufficient to control this. I would use a skimmer on a larger tank, but I'm bypassing it on my cube.


Just for clarification, water changes and skimmers do not have the same result. 

Water changes in saltwater are for a completely different reasoning than in freshwater tanks. Water changes are not meant as a method of removal, but more as a method of replenishment. I change about 7% of my water every week or so to replace lost trace elements and to stabilize my Alkalinity.

Skimming removes Dissolved Organic Compounds (DOC) from the water column. This is different from water changes as they remove the end result of these DOCs, Nitrate & Phosphate. The problem with that is once they have broken down into Nitrates and Phosphates, they have already had a detrimental effect on the system. Alkalinity is a measure of your water's ability to stabilize pH with the introduction of acids into the system. DOCs are an acidic compound, and we need to remove them before they effect Alkalinity. 

If skimming is not your cup of tea, that is fine. There are ways around skimming. The first is a method that I use in conjuction with skimming, Activated Carbon. Carbon absorbs DOCs in the system naturally. Just place a bag in an area of water flow and it will absorb your DOCs. The other method I have not tried, is an algae scrubber. This idea is to actually grow hair algae in a localized chamber to have it absorb excess nutrients without spreading the algae. This is very similiar to growing macroalgae in a refugium.

Skimmers have their place in this hobby, but they aren't for everyone. I just wanted to differentiate between water changes and nutrient removal, as they are two different animals in this hobby.


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## sericinda (Jan 9, 2010)

Thank you, that was great info!


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