# 29G Biocube HQI Noob Help



## circky (Jan 28, 2013)

*29G Biocube HQI Noob Set Up*

Hello Everyone. I've only joined this forum for about a week and I am completely new the Aquarium hobby, but I've been learning a lot from this forum plus other google search results. Since I'm from Toronto, I thought this forum would be the best place to start for some experienced advice and suggestions from fellow members. Here is a list of all the items I've purchased thus far:

1) 29G Biocube HQI with stand
2) Aquasafe Aquarium II RO/DI System with Kitchen Faucet Adaptor
3) Online Purchase from inTank to upgrade the stock tank:
Aquaticlife 115 skimmer 
Biocube 29 Media Basket
Biocube 29 Fuge Basket
Cobalt Aquatics MJ1200 to replace the stock pump
Hydor Theo 100 Watt Heater
Chemi-Pure, Purigen, Poly Filter for the Media Basket
JBJ nano-Glo LED Fuge light for the fuge basket to put cheato in (I don't fully understand this process yet, but seemed like a lot of members were suggesting it)
Vortech MP10
4) I went to Sea U Marine in Richmond Hill and purchased:
a 30lb bag of sand (I believe it was CaribSea Aragonite Aragamax Sugar Sized)
a bag of salt from Kent
a hydrometer
43.5lb of marco dry rock
5) Purchased Ecotech coral glue from Advanced Reef Aquatics

I've watched a couple of videos to know how to install the inTank stuff, but I'd like to get some opinions on how to properly prepare/clean/and in what order to put the RODI water, salt, sand, and rock in the tank so that I know I did it right the first time. Questions I have for example are:

a) Do I need to clean the sand before putting it in the tank?
b) Do I need to do anything special with the rock since it's not live (ie: submerging the rock in some special water mixture for 24h) other than giving it a quick rinse to get rid of any residue that's on it
c) Do I need to put the RODI water in a large bucket and have it "circulating" by putting my pump inside it or can I put the water tubing that's coming out of my RODI system directly into the tank
d) same thing with the salt mix. Do I need to put the salt in the bucket or can I put it directly in the tank once the RODI water has filled to the top of the tank
e) Is the order sand/rock/water? rock/sand/water? 1/2 water/sand/rock? What has people's experience been?

I apologize if this post seemed rather long, but I just wanted to provide as much detail to the information that I've learnt so far so that I can get the best advice from all you.

Thanks!


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## PureHash (Nov 29, 2012)

I'm no expert, but you can mix the salt in the tank if you have no livestock in there. But if you overshoot you SG then you will have to remove water to corect it.
Also if any salt is left undisolved in low current areas, this can dissolve and raise the SG over time.

You also want the rock directly on the bottom, for stability reasons. Sand may be moved away by sandsifters, currents, etc, and you wouldnt want an avalanche of rocks in ur display.

If the rocks are in, and the sand is in, you may have some troubles mixing the water in the tank.

You could put strait RO in the tank 2/3 full, then mix 1 batch of super concentrated salt water to top off, and adjust the SG.

Don't worry about anything special with dryrock. Just rinse it. You should use some established liverock to "seed" the dryrock. It takes time to go from dry-to-live and is almost impossible without quality liverock to seed it.

You can just buy a couple pounds of liverock, and break it up with a hammer. Use the pieces and place them all over (and in) your rock structure.

Also don't add water to salt, always add salt to water. 
If you add water to salt, the high levels of magneseum and calcium when the water first meets the salt can cause precipitation effects, in turn lowering the actual available calcium in the water.


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## circky (Jan 28, 2013)

Thanks for the suggestions Purehash.

I've decided to prep the the saltwater in a bucket first before putting it into the tank. My RO/DI system arrived today, but wasn't able to get the system started as I'm away for business for a couple of weeks.

But I did ship the inTank products I purchased to the hotel I'm staying at in the states. I can't wait until I'm back home to install the items into my biocube!

I've attached pics of my aquascape and my goodies from inTank. Any comments/suggestions with the placement of my rocks would be appreciated! What I found rather hard was to fill my tank with all of the 44lbs of rock I purchased (~1.5x29gal) while still making it look nice. To be honest, I only wanted to put half the amounts of rock in as I prefer a minimalistic look...but went against what I wanted and thought more of what would be best for the aquarium.


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## smcx (Mar 31, 2012)

You may have bought "live" sand. Usually the package will say that you should not rinse it. I have 30lbs of very porous live rock in my 34G, more room for corals 
I also have about half as much sand as you. I'm not convinced that a deep sand bed has any consequence in a nano tank. Weekly maintenance can't be avoided, and is your primary means of nutrient export.

Get a small live rock, and a cup full of sand from a friend or a trusted LFS to help get a good bacterial colony and coraline going. Don't forget to "feed" the bacteria though or you won't cycle (grow an appropriate amount of the right kind of bacteria).


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## kamal (Apr 21, 2009)

+1 I think you should halve the amount of sand but for me thats just an asthetic opinion. I like the rock structure though


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## d3rsk (Feb 3, 2013)

I like the aquascape.

Not sure on opinions of others, but depending on how you like it or how long you think you will like it, might want to look into getting something to hold the rock together. Not sure if the coralfix gel you got will do that or not. Just an idea.


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## kamal (Apr 21, 2009)

epoxy from Home depot works too  and its cheap!


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## PureHash (Nov 29, 2012)

I have the same type of dry rock as you and I don't have anything holding it together. That stuff stacks like a champ, it kinda "locks" together when you put it all together

At least without the glue, You can easily reshape the structure in a bigger tank when you inevitably upgrade to a bigger setup.

Just my opinion..


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## circky (Jan 28, 2013)

Just wanted to provide a status update:

I finally had some time this week to start up my tank. I ended up prepping the water in one of those large garbage cans that I purchased at Home Depot.

I removed quite a bit of sand as some had suggested and I agree that it looks better. I also ended up changing up the placements of the rocks.

I've included a couple of pictures:

















Second picture shows an additional piece of liverock I purchased at LFS to help with the cycling of the tank. A couple of things I've already noticed is that if I adjust the speed of the MP10 at more than 20% (2 lights) I can already see that it's disturbing the sand and moving it around. For a tank that size, is the mj1200 pump combined with the MP10 at 20% enough water movement? Or should I increase the MP10 and expect sand movement as the norm and move it back every so often (I'll end up seeing the bottom glass) since I opted for the very fine type.

Also, what's the highest temperature I should let the water get to? I haven't turned on the light yet (I believe I read it'll encourage algae growth during cycling), but I've tested the temperature to know that without the glass top, it's steady at 77-78F but with the glass top it increased to 82F. I hope that when I use the light that it won't increase past 82F without the glass top. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to either: create a mesh top, switch to LED, or put a fan to blow at the surface of the water....neither things that I really want to do lol. Being new to this hobby, I've really it's requiring a lot more attention that I would have wanted...Hopefully I don't drop out of this hobby after half a year since I've already spent a lot more than I would have wanted to! 

I'm going to be travelling for work tonight for 2 weeks...there isn't anything that I need to do with the tank during this time do I? My gf will be there, but ideally I'd rather not have to bother her for it lol.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank*

nice job great rock work ... nice to see someone patient at the begining .look forward to seeing your progress.
cheers


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## liz (Jan 16, 2008)

As the water evaporates from the system it will need to be replaced. So, have your GF keep an eye on the water level and add RO/DI water when needed.


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## jamie1985 (Oct 11, 2012)

Just my 2 cents but shouldnt you have more live rock and less dry rock? For overall biological filter performance...just a thought because i have a 29g biocube and i have 35 lbs of cured live rock and no dry rock and my biological filyer is a champ....nothing seems to be able to negatively affet my params...even dead things lol....plus my tank never went through a cycle and hasnt since and its been up and running for a long time now....my tank has never shown any amounts of nitrites or ammonia and i strongly believe i owe it all to good quality cured live rock...thoughts?

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2


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## smcx (Mar 31, 2012)

Good cured live rock will shorten a cycle. Dry rock will become live rock quickly.


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## jamie1985 (Oct 11, 2012)

So why would people buy dry rock instead of live rock? Price?

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## circky (Jan 28, 2013)

jamie1985 said:


> So why would people buy dry rock instead of live rock? Price?


Price is definitely one factor, and by using dry rock you're ensuring that there are no unwanted hitchhikers going into your tank

Update:









I tested my water parameters, and looks like ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm and nitrate is between 20 - 40ppm. I'm going to do a 10% water change today and test the parameters again, but I think it's fully cycled!









I went to BA Mississauga for the first time the other day and saw a Biocube HQI on display with a fan attachment on the side of the tank and blowing air at the top of the display of the tank. I decided to try to attach it into the back of chamber 3 and fits perfectly as I want to keep it looking as stock as possible. I turned on the fan with the HQI light and I think I've got it under 82F, which was a huge relief.

My next steps are to buy CUC for the tank at SUM over the weekend. I'm not exactly sure what combination of how many I should be getting. Any suggestions?


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## circky (Jan 28, 2013)

Update:

Went to SUM this past Saturday with intention on getting CUC, and guess the two staff there were too busy, as I waited for about 20 mins for assistance before leaving without any help. I'm not sure if they get large shipments of snails but when I looked in their tanks, it mostly looked like empty shells!

I decided to go to Big Als at Yonge/Steeles and ended up buying a variety of snails. I've decided to only go snails as I've heard crabs just end up eating the snails anyways when they get bigger. I purchased:

12 Nassarius snails, 12 Florida Cerith snails, 12 dwarf Cerith snails, 3 astraea snails, and 3 star astraea snails. Whoever knew I'd be spending >$100 on snails...probably should've been patient and waited for sales at other LFS.

I've been having issues lowering my nitrates right now and don't want to add any fish/corals until I do. I did a test again, and my ammonia/nitrite levels still show 0ppm so I believe the tank is cycled. I did 2 10% water changes in 3 days with the second time doing it, I also put in a new filter floss, rinsed the purigen and put in a new chemipure. However, the test still looks like I have 20ppm in Nitrate . I plan on getting some chaeto for the refugium so hopefully that will bring the levels down. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I also learnt the hard way, that I clearly didn't rinse the chemipure enough before putting it in my tank as the whole tank turned black! Completely freaked out, but luckily my google search showed that many other newbies did this same mistake and that it isn't serious. I can confirm that the next morning it was all cleared up except now my rocks and sandbed have a slight black tint to it....I'll try cleaning/brushing it up with a turkey baster when I have the time.


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## circky (Jan 28, 2013)

Big update on my tank:

Over the last month, I've spent quite a bit of time working on this tank. I realized how much the water from my tank was evaporating from the MH and cooling fan, and figured that pouring RODI water in the back chamber every other day, I bought a ATO from Tunze with the pump going into a 5 gallon tank that fits inside the stand.

I've been wanting to add moonlighting effect on my tank for awhile, but based on the mods I've seen online, I never saw an option that looked aesthetically pleasing until I went to Big Als Mississauga and saw their Biocube with a LED attachment made by Marineland. I'm very pleased with how it looks attached to my stock light fixture and the lighting it creates.



Question: Are moonlights supposed to be turned on for only a couple of hours after the main lights been turned off? Or do people leave them on all night?

Since my tank was finally cycled, I have slowly added a few corals, a clam, and livestock into the tank which includes:

1 Firefish

2 ocellaris clownfish and Yellow Watchman Goby


A cleaner shrimp, and a pistol shrimp that paired up with the goby after the first night (they've chosen a spot where I can bairly see them, but when I do get the chance to catch them in action, it's so amazing to watch how they just knew to pair up)

I'm thinking of adding 1 or 2 more fish in there... either a cardinalfish or a wrasse. Any opinions?

I've also included some pictures of the corals I've bought as well.


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## CRJ (Sep 7, 2012)

little advise. a rock wall looks twice as steep with water in it. just FYI.

id also slow down on the stocking. clams are very sensitive, and i dont even see growth on those rocks. be careful, and go slow or you could crash the tank.


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## circky (Jan 28, 2013)

CRJ said:


> little advise. a rock wall looks twice as steep with water in it. just FYI.
> 
> id also slow down on the stocking. clams are very sensitive, and i dont even see growth on those rocks. be careful, and go slow or you could crash the tank.


1st comment response: Sorry, I don't completely understand this comment. Are you comparing my most recent image to a previous one without water? I did a slight change in the aquascape at the top of the "cave" structure. Or are you suggesting my current set up of rocks is too steep? And would that just be an aesthetic difference of opinion or would you recommend me to change it for the benefit of the corals? Your advise is much appreciated.

2nd comment response: Duly noted. Based on the pics I provided, I can definitely see how it looks like there is no growth on the rock, but there's definitely green algae with some purple dots showing up all over the rocks. I'll take another pic and if you can identify whether I have the right kind of algae growing or whether I need to make some corrective actions, that would appreciated! I'll definitely try to take it slow. Last thing I would want is for the tank to crash, its' so just hard being a new reef hobbyist and driving all over the GTA area to visit new reef shops for the first time and to have the self control to leave empty handed


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