Justin's 29 gallon Bio Cube!
- Thread starter justin003
- Start date
Since I have installed the LED's, everything seems to be responding even better than before. Everyone say's the more PAR the better and I agree, but I decided to give the 8k LED's with the 10k PC's and it works. My clams are happy and my sps corals are no less than 5" from the bottom of the lights in the tank and they are growing like wildfire.
The mandarin is fat and happy at the moment. When I purchased, (rescued), the little bugger, he wasn't looking good. He looked as if he had ick, but it wasn't ick. He was being harrassed by a Pigmy Angel and was also completely missing his dorsal fin and parts of his tail fin. Now his dorsal fin and tail fin have grown back and his color is brighter that ever before. The best way to tell if your mandarin is healthy is to check the areas behind the eyes. If they are nice and rounded, he is eating well, oppossed to flat or sunk in, then the opposite. I do have to keep an eye on the pod population and supplement live pods about once a month or so. I have as much live rock in the tank as I could fit and still look attractive. I also have areas in the tank that fish and inverts can not access to sustain copepod breeding. I've only had this tank running now for a month and a half. Before this tank I had a 24 gallon aquapod setup with coral frags and just one fish, a mandarin. I did the same setup for him and he was always fat and happy. There is alot of buzz on the internet about mandarins and tank size. I believe that with some extra care and attention to detail, he could live a happy existence in a smaller aquarium.
I have heard a lot of similar experiences with mandarins. I had one in my 34g and I eventually got him to eat frozen mysis and brine. You had to literally put the food in a turkey baster right next to him, but he started to really like it. He was a little tubo and by far my favorite fish.
As far as size and swimming goes, as long as there is a lot of rock in the tank, the mandarin seems to be happy gliding around. I have spoke to a few people who have kept them in 14g and up, and the issue is always food supply. If you can keep supplementing pods in there until it eats frozen and then be able to mix the two food sources, I think a mandarin can stay happy.
I am no expert by any stretch, but I have personally seen this done in nano tanks on multiple occasions from people who know what they are doing, and I have heard great feedback. I think the issue comes from when the casual customer just buys one without realizing the special needs of the fish. It is pretty safe to say that if you obsessively read multiple forums everyday, you are probably doing your research and care about the health of the fish.
As far as size and swimming goes, as long as there is a lot of rock in the tank, the mandarin seems to be happy gliding around. I have spoke to a few people who have kept them in 14g and up, and the issue is always food supply. If you can keep supplementing pods in there until it eats frozen and then be able to mix the two food sources, I think a mandarin can stay happy.
I am no expert by any stretch, but I have personally seen this done in nano tanks on multiple occasions from people who know what they are doing, and I have heard great feedback. I think the issue comes from when the casual customer just buys one without realizing the special needs of the fish. It is pretty safe to say that if you obsessively read multiple forums everyday, you are probably doing your research and care about the health of the fish.
Thanks altweb. You are spot on with the comment about the casual customer. I've seen it from time to time myself. You can't persuade an uninformed person, who's been bedazzled by a madarin, out of buying one. I do read everything I can get my hands on about SW. I'm passed the point of obsession and into the point of total infatuation. I love this hobby and want nothing more than to see my charge and coral thrive. I am currently working on ways to wean the mandarin into eating frozen foods along with pods.
Great looking tank. I've just started the saltwater endeavor. Still cycling all parameters good except .5 ammonia. Will wait another week or so. I notice you have two power heads. I placed one Korila on back near intake. Is there a better position? I placed LR in place of bio balls. I am still learning. I've read some people remove the filter for bio cubes. Where would they filter their water with carbon? I am considering the UV lighting as well. Any problems with it removing good water components? Thanks and sorry if some if these questions seem dumn?
How long have you been cycling? I do have two korallia nano 425gph wavemakers on each side of the glass. This way the oppossing water forces create turbulance much like that on a natural reef. I'm thinking of putting another one in there but I can't find room. I have live rock, bottom to top, on the back wall. Why replace the bioballs with live rock? I've heard of others' doing the same. The point of the bioballs is to culture a nitrifying bateria colony on as much surface area as possible. Live rock will do the same but less surface area and it will filter the water naturally. Either way will work though. Bioballs are cheaper. You could use that rock for your display. Some people will remove the bioballs and top and bottom shelves in the 2nd chamber and purchase a rack to put in it's place that would have 2 or 3 chambers in which to place chemical filtration. With the UV lighting, it is only supposed to destroy the harmful bacteria and algae in your water. I wouldn't be surprised if it destroyed a few beneficial bacteria as well but the benifits are substantial. I would say get one. They aren't really expensive and don't use alot of energy. I run mine about 18 hrs a day and I have little to no algae or diatom blooms in my tank.
Thanks!!
I have been cycling about four weeks now. Still going through the Diatom phase. I like the idea of two power heads directed in the same direction. I've read some on the media racks, but not sure if more benefical than LR in second chamber. I'm still exploring this one. I have the biocube skimmer, but not sure if it is working yet. Where did you get your stunners? I definitely want to upgrade my lighting. The pump is not creating enough flow. I am purchasing the Max Jet 1200. With another Korila this should be enough gph. Again, thanks for the advice. Any additional info. is much appreciated.
I have been cycling about four weeks now. Still going through the Diatom phase. I like the idea of two power heads directed in the same direction. I've read some on the media racks, but not sure if more benefical than LR in second chamber. I'm still exploring this one. I have the biocube skimmer, but not sure if it is working yet. Where did you get your stunners? I definitely want to upgrade my lighting. The pump is not creating enough flow. I am purchasing the Max Jet 1200. With another Korila this should be enough gph. Again, thanks for the advice. Any additional info. is much appreciated.
Sweet, almost there. Maybe another week or two and you can start stocking. Whats up with your skimmer. You say its not working? Could be that you have almost no organic compounds to skim. You could also check that you have it installed at a proper level to produce a foamy skimmate. I had to install an ATO to keep my water level in the 3rd chamber at a constant level so the skimmer would perform at an optimal level 24/7. I ordered the stunners from fosterandsmith.com. I got the 403nm and 2 8k daylight strips along with the reflectors and two power supply cords. I bought two power supplys' so I can operate the actinic separately from the daylight for the dawn/dusk feature. And boy, that purple light really makes the colors POP! All together it was $210 but really worth it. I do believe that the main return pump could be a little stronger. I think the maxi-jet 1200 is a good choice. It is probably one of the higher quality pumps you could use to replace the original one. I took the original pump apart when I bought the tank and I have to say, it's a quality pump. I'm still running it but @ 243gph its not bad. Another pump you may want to look into is the Rio 6HF. I think it does something like 350gph. I definitely recommend the oppossing korallia's, just as long as you have a way to cool you water with all those pumps going. You may find that your water temp will slowly start to climb above 80. Alot to think about. If you have any more questions, I ll try to answer them with the best of my knowledge. Send me some pics when you get a chance. I want to see what you got going on over there.
The DIY chemical filtration media tubes I built earlier for my setup were working but I wanted to move more water through the chemical filtrants. So after thinking about the situation and space I have to work with, I came up with a plan. Petsmart sells a submersible 12v mechanical and chemical filter unit made by Toms Aquatics for use with small volume tanks. I took the carbon cartridge and sponge out of the filter, cut and sewed a fine mesh bag to fit inside the entire volume of the filter cartridge and filled the bag with purigen and phosban. Then I taped the side ports of the cartridge with vinyl tape so that the only inlet for water to pass will be from bottom to top. The water is pulled from the bottom of the cartridge, through the phosban, then through purigen and out the top. I installed a custom cut poly prefilter into the cap on the bottom to screen any debris before reaching the media sock. The poly filter will be much easier to clean and prolong the time between cleaning the entire unit. I placed the completed unit into the 1st chamber so that the flow is forced through the Biocube's main filter and after a few hours I can already tell a difference in water clarity. If you install and power on the unit and find there is no flow through the unit, you may have an airlock or air bubble trapped between the pump and the filter itself. If this is the case, separate the unit, submerge both pieces under the water line, reattatch filter to pump and set into place. This should eliminate any air bubbles inside the unit. This is a cheap and effective way to mechanical pass water through any chemical media and it took less than an hour to build!
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