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I'm getting a new marine tank today, a 14 gal. biocube from a coworker who's moving. I have a lot of FW experience over the years, but haven't had a saltwater in ages (last time I did, you had to have an UG filter, and in order to get a reef tank it required a special hood with something like 7 different lights). At any rate, I'm stoked about it. There are currently 2 damsels and a tomato clown inhabiting the tank, in addition to some crabs. I've picked up some live sand to swap out the old stuff with, and have a bucket of mixed up saltwater to replace what was taken out during the move. The hydrometer is with the tank, and the LFS was sold out of refractometers, so I just went with taste to ballpark, but I realize that the salinity of the water I deal with at work (I work at a public aquarium, with jellies, mainly coldwater, and it occurred to me that going by taste is disgusting, but I get mouthfuls of the stuff all the time, so I would think it's pretty accurate) is probably lower than what is needed for tropical saltwater. Anyway, I can fine tune it once the tank gets here. I'm thinking of trading the fish currently in it, since I recall damsels as being quite aggressive, and I think the tomato clown might be a bit large. From the photos, there doesn't look to be a lot of live rock in it, which I'll soon remedy. Apparently the biocubes are kind of lovely for lighting, which eliminates some of the cooler stuff, but it looks like it'll still be pretty good for a variety of inverts. Ultimately I would like a Red Sea Max, since I'm not so keen on all of the cords at the moment (but they're a little pricey and I'm saving my pennies for a new saddle right now), so I think that the free biocube is a good way to get myself back into SW maintenance. Does anyone have any suggestions for a tank of this size, or anything to look out for with this particular brand? I'm fairly sure that I'm limited to perc clowns, blennies etc. for fish, but I would like to get maybe an urchin or two (would they bugger up the acrylic?) and some seastars (I know some of them can be aggressive, so I'm not sure if in a tank this small they'll just eat some of the slower inverts). Any suggestions are appreciated, I'll try and post some photos once I have it set up again.
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Aug 24, 2008 17:21
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 18:43 |
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Thanks for the advice on biocubes and the referral to nano-reef.com guys. The temperature actually seems to be about spot on, but the room I keep it in is on the lower level, which tends to be a bit cooler. I'll keep an eye on it in the summer though, because it's just about perfect without a heater. I'm thinking about upgrading the lights, as the lights that come with the biocube limit what I can have (no nifty clams  )I traded in the fish at the LFS the day I got it - turns out that the girl who I got the biocube from hadn't done much maintenance recently, so I didn't feel so great about putting them back after the move. I bought some snails, zoas, yellow polyps (both of which I were assured were fairly hardy) and a pom-pom crab (not so hardy), all of which have done quite well over the week, with the exception of the two snails. One of the already present hermit crabs killed and ate them. I'm assuming it was due to needing a new shell, since he's been wearing the larger one. I know it's just how things are, but still, it's a little morbid so I've named him Buffalo Bill.Everything's been testing well over the week, so I got some palys, feather dusters, more snails and a yellow Watchman Goby today. The store was out of the specific shrimp that went with him, but I guess he's ok without having his little shrimp friend for now. I've gotten rid of most of the algae that was covering everything, but there's still a lot, so I'm hoping that the snails take care of the rest eventually. Nifty-est thing yet though is a tiny seastar I discovered while fiddling with the filter media this morning. I thought it was dead, since it was little and hard, so I just chucked it in the bottom of the tank, and as I type this, I can see it zooming up the side of the glass. It's small - if it had all four arms, it would be just smaller than a nickel. It looks as though it should should have four arms, yet is growing three new ones where the one broke off. Not sure how that's going to work out. ETA: Turns out the little seastar is actually a pest, so I hope he doesn't start eating anything he shouldn't. I'm a little concerned about the little anthropods I see in the LR, but everything I've read indicates them to be good in reef tanks - I just know that they bugger up jellies, and that removing them from the jellies doesn't always end well for the jelly. We've had to euth entire tanks of cyanea and others because of anthropod infestations. ChloroformSeduction fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Aug 31, 2008 |
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Aug 31, 2008 00:52
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