New to forum and SW, setting up a Biocube 29

Cool, yes it was run-on but you packed a lot in there. Lucky for me the previous owner was running it as a reef and had already upgraded the lighting, though the fans need replacing as the bearings are wearing out and they're noisy (not a big deal). And she never used the bioballs at all. I have them, but I'll probably just throw them out since I don't need them. I think she used to use LR in chamber 2 but I'm only using the media and fuge baskets (the media basket is great for being able to hang stuff in, like the Chemi-pure, and take everything out at once - and the flow diverter does a good job of getting the flow into the floss/poly).

I have to leave the hood on because of the cats. I like open-top tanks but between our dry air and the cats it's just not really a good option. Even if the cats weren't getting into the tank, their hair would!

Oh no, not the cats! Mine never leave my tanks alone.. That's why my octopus tank has 20 pounds of weight on it and its way up high out of reach, but never out of sight. I would like a media basket whered you get one?
I hate fishing around for my medias when it comes time to change them. The only way I can have my cube hoodless is that its on a biocube stand. Only wide enough for the cube itself. No extra space at all.
I am in the market for a HUGE tank. roughly 200 gallons. Okay not HUGE but way bigger than my 29.

InTank makes them: http://www.mediabaskets.com/

Thank you those are some pretty well implemented ideas, I knew I wasn't the only one

So my skimmer is spitting bubbles like mad (it's still breaking in); most of the microbubbles don't make it to the DT, but the refugium with the chaeto is quite fizzy. Is this a problem...?

Back with an update...

I bit the bullet (and my wallet) and bought an Apex. With my upcoming schedule it seemed to make sense for being able to turn lights on and off easily, monitor the tank from afar, etc. Yeah, I know, I don't even have a fish yet.

There aren't enough outlets on the EB8 for everything I would like to have on it (my lights take up 3 [!!!] plugs alone, not counting the separate moonlight I'll just leave on 24/7) but I think I can make it work if I keep using the Oceanstream wavemaker controller on one outlet for now and use a regular mechanical timer for the fuge light. Other than that the Apex is all configured now but I still need to set up the ATO so I can stop topping off so much.

My feather dusters are doing well, I haven't seen the nudibranch again (hope he's okay) and the snails seem to be doing okay. I think I might need more, smaller snails though (dwarf cerith?). These 5 seem a little lazy and there are going to be a lot of places they can't reach. I'm starting to see some diatoms but not much yet. Other than the feather dusters, baby snails, nudibranch, and a couple of little pods there's been no sign of any other hitchhikers that I can identify. A couple of things I'm not sure yet whether they are alive or not.

Water parameters are good for ammonia and nitrites, nitrates were still 5-10ppm yesterday (hard to tell) but seem to be dropping. I'll get my phosphate tested again next week (and will be ordering my own test kit, all I have is the saltwater kit, not reef).

I replaced the fans in the hood but I'm not sure they're pulling more air, but they are WAY quieter even at 3000RPM so we'll see how that goes.

For my first fish... there's the neon dottyback that SPS Coral is holding for me. I know they can be aggressive, but this guy doesn't seem to care much about other fish and Henry says he's pretty mellow. I suppose that could change once he's in the tank but fingers crossed that all will be well. I will probably pick him up soon after I'm done messing around in the cabinet and have done a big water change.

That's it.. home stretch! I can't wait until it's all done!

something to consider for the lights, you can go from one APEX outlet to a surge protector, and plug in the entire cluster of light cords to that, and control those lights with 1 single apex outlet.

i do this with my (3) led fixtures which have a combined 6 power cords. they all go into one surge protector, and connect up to socket #4 on the EB8 (4 and 8 are the ones with relay, IIRC).

My Radions and vortech would have taken 5 outlets, good thing they have their own controller Congrats on your new purchase, you wont regret it! If you need another EB8 you can sometimes find them here. I picked up one for $100

I thought about combining them, but I want each of the LED channels (CW, RRB, and CW/RB mix) to turn on/off at separate times. But you're right, that's why I'm keeping the Oceanstream wavemaker on one outlet too. I think it'll all work out without having to drop another $160 bucks. For that money, I could put it toward a programmable light with less cords since I don't know how well the Nanotuners 5.6 is going to work out in the long run anyway and I'd love to go full spectrum eventually.

But I'll still keep an eye out.

So far I'm loving the Apex even if it says my old thermometer sucked and the tank is hotter than I thought by about a degree.

I love the Apex! I wasn't sure which pump was making an annoying deep hum so I just turned everything off one by one from across the room.

Just thought I'd check in... has it really been only 3 weeks?

All is well in Biocube land. I filled the tank on 9/12, added 30# cured LR on 9/13, and added the first snails a few days later. After a few more days and all parameters looking good we added a red-banded pistol shrimp and yellow watchman pair, who promptly split up when we put them in. Also added two nassarius snails and a sally lightfoot crab, all from Vivid.

The goby did fine and marked out his spot by the next morning under a rock, but other than hearing clicks we didn't see the pistol shrimp for days until we finally located his burrow in the back of the tank. The goby mostly hid but would start coming out when he was hungry. I was feeling very cheated that the most exciting thing in the tank was the crab.

However the crab died mysteriously a week after putting him in... found him right next to the pistol shrimp's burrow. Hmmm... probably not, but ya still have to wonder.

Went to the frag swap last weekend and Dave pulled some xenia (I know, I know... its on its own rock and I'll move/frag it if it starts to creep), a monti cap frag, and some green birdsnest from his outdoor tank for me. Most of the xenia died but one colony took off and is thriving. I also picked up some GSP (I know, I know...) at SPS Coral and it came right out by the next morning and also seems to be doing well. On its little rock. Out on the sand, not close to anything else. I broke the birdsnest into 3 pieces and it also seems to be doing well.

The day before yesterday I stopped at Rainbow and got another nassarius, two peppermint shrimp, and a young royal gramma who doesn't like the flow in the tank but will come out as soon as the pumps turn off for feeding.

And this morning the pistol shrimp finally burrowed through to the goby's cave. We saw him this morning during feeding, and the goby seems bolder now. Total time to reunite: 12 days.

As for tank upgrades, I've added:
Intank Media and Fuge baskets (have chaeto thriving in the fuge with a submersible light timed offset to the main tank lights)
AquaticLife 115 skimmer
ViaAqua Titanium 100w heater that hasn't had to turn on once
JBJ 1/15 chiller (still have to plumb it in but running into space issues in the back)
Tunze Nano ATO
Apex full with lab PH probe. I LOVE THIS THING.
Jebao WP-10 (and just got the cable to control it via Apex - took the Koralia and JBJ wavemaker out)
Hydor rotating deflector for the return
Cobalt Aquatics MJ1200
Swapped out 6 of my 30 LEDs for 1 green, 1 red, 4 UV from RapidLED. Have a cable to hook them up to the LED controller but am waiting for some mono-coax adapters to arrive before I can hook that up.
R2 moonlight
Replaced the hood fans with 2 Noctua 60mms, which are high CFM/low dB

Got some great deals on some of this at the Marine Depot sidewalk sale and picked up the chiller from jayhawk on here.

Parameters have been good but I need to re-test my phosphate (it was .14 when it was tested a couple of weeks ago, but hopefully the chaeto and extra GFO I've been running have helped). All I have is the API test kit and the range goes from 0 to .25 so that's not useful. I wound up just buying all my water (RO/DI and saltwater) at SPS Coral, since I'm only changing 5 gallons at a time.

Had a diatom bloom, but the snails made short work of it. Other than that no sign of algae; my rocks are turning green but it seems to be coralline, not real algae.

So, so far, everything is looking good. I might add a skunk cleaner, but otherwise the CUC is complete. I'll be looking at more coral and fish... probably not too many more fish, 1 or 2 and ultimately a pair of ocellaris.

Yaaaay!

And here are the pics, I learned my lesson!

Sounds like everything is going good. Congrats on the equipment and livestock.

Thanks for all the advice!!