Another noob with a biocube 29

tat2spyder

hey everyone. im new to this forum and new to saltwater.
i know you guys like pics so ill post some as soon as i can.(theres one in my tank profile)

so far i got a biocube 29
oceanic biocube protien skimmer
30lbs of live rock cured
petco premixed salt water

i put the rock, about an inch of sand at the bottom, and filled it up. cycled it for a week and never saw any nitrate or ammonia.
saw plenty of little worms and bug like things crawling all over the rock. and the purple and red algea had begun to spread.
i know we should have waited longer but we bought 2clowns and an bubble tip anemane. we figured with all that great LR and premade water we would be fine. the LR never spent more than 5 mins out of water.

a week later everything is fine. the fish are eating good, the algea is growing, im assuming the anemane is fine (how can you tell?). i have not noticed any nitrate or ammonia.

ive been reading everyone elses posts and i don't want to get redundant but i got a couple questions.

1 i should remove the bio balls right? if so will it hurt the fish to do so? is there a process to doing it safely or should i just take em out?

2 my temp is running around 80-82. thats too hot and im wondering if the lights are too much. are there any mods or diffrent bulbs witch could help? or a water cooler of some sort. the tanks in a cool room with a/c so i dont know

3 is it safe to put in coral? such as some zoas? i want to do a reef eventually but we kinda jumped the gun with the fish and i dont want to do that again. also when getting coral should i quarenteen them as well or is it safe to put them straight in? should i acclemate them?

ive seen lots of helpfull stuff on this site and i'm sorry if i ask the same questions on another post. a link would be great.
thanks

tat2spyder

ok lets see if i can upload these pics right

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badxgillen

what bio balls do you mean...the one in the filter? if it is those then leave them...if your gonna do coral its better cold than hot...76-80 is optimal but you can comftorably go to about 75 - 82...try to vent the top....can you use a fan to help remove stagnant air from the surface of the aquarium....as far as corals remeber that the soft corals tend to be the more forgiving...if you do colonial polyps dont forget about palythoas...most are pretty hardy........if you have more questions shoot...PS your tank is lookin good ....keep it slow and you should be fine....ADIOS..

badxgillen

oh and with most invertabrates you should use a drip aclimation...take a piece of airline tubeing and make a IV out of it to slowly trickle water from your tank into the transport container of the specimen...and dont forget when placing a coral thet they all need a differnt amount of space between each other in case of warfare....wether it be stinging sweeper tentacles or the inhibiting toxins of soft corals...

kitten_penang

yeah a fan works wonders to cool down a tank and it cheap too.

tat2spyder

ok i got an update.

the tanks been up for four weeks now. week one and two i didn't test anything but nitrate. week 3 and 4 as follows

week3
cal 460
alk 11kh
phos 2.0
nitrate 0
temp 80-82

by week four i added 2 more blue hermits, some coral, and an A snail.

cal 440
alk 13kh
phos 0
nitrate 0
temp 78-80 i leave the lid open on the back and it lets out some of the hot air. seems to be working.
i also got a hydrometer gravity around 1.027

things are looking good

in the pics you can see i have a lot of brownish algea growth. is that the diatome bloom i should have waited for? whats the best way to get rid of that? should i get a better clean up crew?

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bearwithfish

yep thats the diatom bloom just let things bee and the CUC will get doing their job in due time... just keep track of water quality so that your live stock does not suffer to much....on a side note an SG of 1.027 is a little high i would add some fresh water to bring it down into the 1.023-1.025 range if needed siphon off about 1/2 gallon ans fill with fresh then wait for a few hours to see what you get then do more as needed...

thefishboy

Just want to say it looks like a very nice looking tank!

badxgillen

sweet euphyllia man...some good ol fashioned cyano bacteria....do you have any front tank shots....oh and about the salinity i like mine high but not that high...bears got you squared away on that ...keep us posted...ADIOS..

StampedFish

Nice tank