New here biocube owner

[danm1991]

Hey everyone I;m new here and to the hobby i have finally got my biocube set up after all the months of saving and researching. I bought 25 pounds of dry rock and 5 pounds of live rock. so First i aqua scaped my dry rock in the tank then i filled the tank with ro water and the required amount of salt i turned on everything and let it mix for like an hour or so i also have a hydor 425 power head along with the stock biocube return pump then i poured in my livesand and now its just a cloudy mess i think i should have put it in first. but yeah after a while the salinity is right so i put the piece of live rock in so there wasn't to much die off i probably should have gone later to get the live rock. I also have every thing running right now i figure that's good to get all the real fine stuff just to go to the filter or skimmer but any way I'm glad to be a part of this group and the hobby and look forward to the rewarding advice here If any one has any suggestions on how i did things feel free to comment and let me know if i did some thing wrong.

Thanks Again

Dan

[kfisc]

Hello and welcome- give it about half a week (or more) to settle; this is perfectly normal and a good intro into how slow things go in this hobby. It will settle eventually, and it may need tinkering with your powerhead position to avoid kicking up sand. Be sure (if you haven't yet) to read all of the "stickies" at the top of this forum.

[Cement Mule]

I just setup a 29G Biocube, and it takes a good week for it to settle down... the live rock with create an ammonia spike... I am at week 3 with my setup, and I just added a cleanup crew to help with the next part of the cycle... algae growth... and just to clean up some of the dead from the rocks. Patience... it will get better.

[homer1475]

I too have a 29G biocube, been running for almost a year. Have a look around the nano section. There are plenty of us there that have the biocube. You can have a read through our build threads to see what works and what doesn't.

Have fun, and happy reefing!

[thelawnwrangler]

Get a turkey baster your rock will be covered with settled sand. You can use turkey baster and blow it off. Also plan to siphon sucking sand out your back chambers. I just setup with and all in one tank. Was easy to get setup and sand out. I would turnoff power head and pull it from system.

Mine settle in less than a week, but partly BC I got impatience and bought a hang on back filter to clean it up.

Welcome to hobby take your time and enjoy

[danm1991]

Wow thanks for all the replies guys.... ok so about a week or so for the water to clear. so do you guys think the five pound piece of live rock is enough to start the cycle .. or do you think i should add fish food if i don't get an ammonia spike (the LR is fully cured ) and also should i be testing it when its all cloudy like this? I tested the salinity a while ago and its at 1.025 I'm not sure if its really that accurate when its that merky

[ChadO]

I started with that size of rock on my BioCube 29, and I also added janitorial strength ammonia that I got from Ace Hardware. If you search around for fishless cycle, you'll see full guides that show how to do it with ammonia. There are even calculators that tell you how many milliliters to add based on your tank volume, etc.

I didn't have clouding when I set mine up, but for my freshwater tanks, I use Seachem Clarity if I need to clear out clouding. It's safe for both fresh and saltwater, and it does a great job for me on my freshwater tanks. Might be something to check out. Waiting for the week is just fine, too- no harm there.

If it were me, I'd read up on the fishless cycling with ammonia rather than trying to do fish food. The fish food will certainly work, it's just going to be a bit of guessing game on determining how much you need to add, etc. I happen to like the science of the ammonia route and measuring, but just my preference. Certainly multiple ways that it can be done.

Glad to see you here, and keep posting on your progress! Homer's got a great thread with a ton of information in it - definitely worth the read while you wait for the cloudiness to go away.

[danm1991]

Thanks Chado i will look into the ammonia thing yeah that makes more sense having more control on whats going in your tank. Also the sand came with this packet of biomagnet clarifier inside should i use that stuff?

[danm1991]

well i did a bit of research and found slightly mixed reviews as with everything else in the hobby i guess you just gotta see what everyone else is doing and then see what works for you lol. So i added the biomagnet clarifier see if that helps at all I'm also gonna go get some filter floss and replace the stock filter with that stuffi nstead hopefully it will catch more of the silt

[DavidGraves]

Im about three months into my biocube. Are your planning FOWLR or Reef?

The biomagnet seemed to help mine clear up faster. Have you removed the bioballs from the back?

As for the cycle I used half a raw table shrimp from the grocery store. That worked great with no hassle.

Now is also the time to start thinking about acquiring the things for your QT setup. Are you mixing your own SW or buying at the store? RO unit?

[danm1991]

Im Planning to do a reef but i will start it as a fowler for a bit until its more established. I removed the bio balls and am now just running filter floss on top of that stock filter from biocube i eventually want to get a media tower but for now the filter floss is working wonders clearing up the tank. so do you guys really think i need to cause an ammonia spike or do you think the piece of live rock will do that?

[danm1991]

Hey everyone so my water has cleared up a lot in the past 24 hrs also i saw this little sea star thing in the sand with long thin arms on it was pretty cool seeing something living

[danm1991]

Also how do you guys think i should be running my light on the biocube right now?

[ChadO]

I didn't run my lights for almost the entire cycle. I finally did at the end to get practice on ramping my lights up and down with my Apex.

From the advice I've seen around here, you're opening yourself up for algae during the cycle. The cycle doesn't require light for the bacteria to get established.

[thelawnwrangler]

Yeah no reason to run lights until you have something that needs it in my opinion. I had alittle die off to push my cycle. Alot of good suggestions on fishless cycles. If you go pure ammonia make sure you get the right one with no additives (a search will tell you how to make sure you got the right one).

[danm1991]

great advice i have been running the light so far justcause im sittinghere starring at it but i think ill just leave themall off while im at work tomorrow im just worried that any life on the piece of live rock will die off completley and i will have no colourful algae growth i picked out a nice piece covered in pink and purple also im having an issue with my temp its steady at about 82 degrees since i got the thermometer i think it should be a bit lower i have my heater set to 77 and i havn't seen it turn on in a while my house is fairly cool as well i live in a basement in canada

[ChadO]

Do you have the stock lighting? I switched out to LEDs right away, so I don't know how much the stock lights add to the temp, but you might just try turning them off and making note if the temperature drops at all.

Also, heaters can be off in their calibration, so even though you have it set to 77, it may be running hotter. The fact that you don't see it turning on may be that it is holding you steady right at 82. You could try dialing it back down to see if your water temp drops down. If you do, leave the lights alone - just change one variable at a time so that you know if it is your lights or your heater.

[danm1991]

Will do thanks Chado!

[danm1991]

hey every one so my biocube is now crystal clear so i have decided on using the fish food method for cycling but clearly the live rock is working i tested for ammonia last night and it was .25 ppm then tonight it was at 1ppm so i think its slowly building up does anyone think i should start adding fish food now or just wait and seee how high it get over like a week?

[danm1991]

biocube day 3

[danm1991]

another

[thelawnwrangler]

another

looking good

[chefbill]

Since that you have visible life in your tank now, I would not add ammonia. Ammonia is very poisonous to all things living. Well most of them. Attached is a picture of my bio cube in its heyday.http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/16/02/09/328d207f650fad329dec5910ddcf4dca.jpg

[danm1991]

thanks so you think my tank will cycle all by itself? should i expect an ammonia spike?

[danm1991]

also i found out the actual room temp in my house is 25 degrees (because the people upstairs control the heat and the thermostat is up there and they keep their door open all day and i don't so the heat just pumps down here so ive been keeping my front door open when i can to cool it down a bit thats why my tank is getting so warm

[danm1991]

and wow chef bill your tank looks awesome!

[chefbill]

Thank you. If you look closely you can see the beginnings of a hair algae outbreak. the algae outbreak and wanting a bigger tank led to the breakdown of my bio cube and the move to a 90 gallon.
Turns out even after a four-month light out. And no nutrient import whatsoever and regular water changes I still had hair algae. I removed two rock that I had added later. Scrubbed the remaining rocks and dipped in peroxide. tank is crystal clear algae free and I still have palyzoas alive and opening. Seriously. 4 months with only ambient light and still have z and p. No idea what they are, none have colored up yet.

[danm1991]

Hey guys so im not at 1 week with my biocube and have noticed ll sorts of new life along with the starfish i keep seeing all these really fat centipede looking bugs whiping around and i see these long antenae coming out of a hole but im not sure whats in the hole yet it it has long antennae with like a fan kind of like a big moth also i have all these tiny bubbles forming on my live rock and i did a bit a of research and i hear it could be the algae on the rock and also im kinda curious as to how long it will take for my tank to cycle with the live rock in it i tested my water parameters yesterday and ammonia is at .5-1 and nitrite and nitrate are zero and ph is at 8.2-8.4 i am really worried im not doing something i should be and my cycle is just gonna stall or something because everyone i ask tells me something different and its frustrating not being sure if your doing things right

[chefbill]

Google image bristle worm. That's your centipede looking critter. As for
antennae sounds like micro brittle stars. Both are beneficial.

[Darren B]

Hey guys so im not at 1 week with my biocube and have noticed ll sorts of new life along with the starfish i keep seeing all these really fat centipede looking bugs whiping around and i see these long antenae coming out of a hole but im not sure whats in the hole yet it it has long antennae with like a fan kind of like a big moth also i have all these tiny bubbles forming on my live rock and i did a bit a of research and i hear it could be the algae on the rock and also im kinda curious as to how long it will take for my tank to cycle with the live rock in it i tested my water parameters yesterday and ammonia is at .5-1 and nitrite and nitrate are zero and ph is at 8.2-8.4 i am really worried im not doing something i should be and my cycle is just gonna stall or something because everyone i ask tells me something different and its frustrating not being sure if your doing things right

I sometimes brew beer at home and we have a saying in that hobby:
RDWHAHB.

RELAX
DON'T WORRY
HAVE A HOMEBREW

Also applies to this hobby. If you see critters, your doing well so far. Keep your temp and salinity stable and let the bugs do their thing. If you start chasing it, your parameters will never level out.

[Itchy fishy]

Love my nano cube. The media tray/ insert is awesome. I put carbon, filter floss and block, sponge filter (not in that order)

[danm1991]

Thanks for all the help guys so my ammonia nitrite are zero and nitrate looks like its a bit above the yellow zero so i was wondering i was gonna add a few snails and hermits to get rid of my brown algae i got goin on on but i wont be adding them until next weekend the earliest if all my levels still check out i was wondering should i need to feed the bacteria with fish food in the meantime or just let all the critters feed them another question i had was i have to add 1 litre of water to my cube a dday to keep it topped up is that normal?

[danm1991]

hey everyone its been a while and my biocube has come a long way 6 month update

[Chibils]

Biocube is looking great danm! Thanks for the update!

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