For starters my past aquarium experience is about 2 years of maintaining a 10g and now a 20g freshwater barb tank. Its been a great experience and I really enjoy the hobby.
Ive been lurking around the forum on and off for a few months now. Lately Ive spent much more time researching the forum . The reason being is a finally decided to start a saltwater tank. Due to ease of setup and my lack of knowledge and physical space in my house I decided to go with the 29g Biocube. Id like to have a tank with as many fish as the tank permits and many different corals ect.
My biocube currently has been set up for 8 days now. I went with the best LR I could find which is from a fish store in San Diego called Fontains and also live sand. Two bags of live sand and about 35 lbs of live rock. The rock seems to be quite alive, at least that’s how it looks to me the newbie. My water was purchased pre mixed from the same store that I bought my LR from.
7 days ago, after putting the raw shrimp in I noticed what looked like a fireworm eating off of the shrimp. I only saw an inch or so of it, but it was ¼ inch thick. I have also spotted many bristle worms since. Upon closer examination I noticed at least 15 tiny (smaller than my thumbnail) starfish crawling around on a few of the different rocks. The shrimp was in the tank about 36 hours and then it disappeared. I assuming the worms ate it.
Obviously I wont be acquiring an of the fish any time soon but here is my wish list. As per the advice of my LFS which I’m skeptical of after reading so much on this sit They recommend starting with mushrooms and leathers after my cycling is complete because they are quite hardy. ( any input on good/bad choices is welcomed)
Gobies- Orange spotted or pair of wheelers shrimp if compatible a green clown goby.
Can two gobies, such as a green clown and orange spotted cohabitate peacefully in a 29g?
1 Percula clown or Ocellaris
Six line wrasse- which I hear will eat the bristle worms.
Kaurderns Cardinal
Harlequin Shrimp- I was told that the Harlequin will eat all of the tiny starfish I have in the tank.
CUC including scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp and electric blue hermit.
Various corals which I still need to research
Anemone- In hopes of clown hosting it. LFS says to put the anemone in first so that he can move around and find his “spot” wondering if this is good info or not? Also how feasible is a anemone in a biocube?
So im assuming I have some thing wrong, I did call it my “wish” list after all
As far as questions go.
Any other fish recommendations or also fish pairing suggestions? Like a clown with an anemone. As far as the paring is concerned, I read that certain gobies pair up with certain shrimp and create a pairing where the shrimp digs and the goby over watches. Perhaps that’s where the watchmen goby got his name?
As of now I have taken out the bio balls and filled the 2nd chamber with live rock. I still have the filter in slot one and the sponge in slot 3 next to the pump. Im wondering if I have taken the correct steps or should the filter and sponge be removed and replaced in some kind of charcoal or other type of filter?
Also Ive noticed the water level in chamber three continues to slowly creep down to the minimum water level. Can anyone tell me if this is normal or is my LR slowing down the process of water getting from slot 1 to slot 3?
I have purchased the biocube protein skimmer which I hear is half crap, but its small and Im assuming it does SOME good. Also a 240 gph powerhead.
Lastly I will start a blog hopefully tomorrow with a picture of the tank and current rock set up… Still in the process of figuring out how I want it.
Anyway I think I’ve finally finished my novel of a post. Sorry for the long one!
Thanks for your patience and input, just a newbie trying to set myself up so that I don’t unintentionally create problems for future fish, coral ect. Main thing Ive learned is GO SLOW!
Using the API Salt water master test kit I checked the tank on day 4 and here are my results.
PH- 8.0
Ammonia .10 ppm
Nitrite- 0 ppm
Nitrate- 15 ppm
Also salinity level of 1.026. Water bought pre mixed from the fish store I got my LR from.
8 sept
Did not test PH
Ammonia- 0 ppm
Nitrite- 0 ppm
Nitrate- 30 ppm
Temp 82
11 September
PH 8.1
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20ppm
All comments welcome!
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