8 Gallon Oceanic BioCube Log

I have always had an interest in marine aquariums, but never decided to take the plunge. I recently decided to get my feet wet.

I, like many, am coming from the the freshwater world. Most recently I have gotten away from the tropical freshwater world, and more toward the native North American aquarium setup. My FW tank is a 55 gallon, that currently houses a Green Spotted Sunfish, as seen here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgueqqSQwpc


Anyway, I have always been interested in the marine aquarium, have done a lot of reading, and recently decided to set up a nano reef in my office at work, where I spend most of my waking hours. I figure I will be able to keep up on the tank much more efficiently while bored at work, then tired at home.

On to the setup;

8 Gallon "Oceanic BioCube"

• BioBalls removed
• All 3 chambers flooded, for future refuge
• Small heater in third chamber
• Temporarily using stock filter cartridge
• Filter floss in top strainer of second chamber

Stock BioCube Lighting

• 18 Watt True Actinic 03 Blue
• 18 Watt 10,000K Daylight
• Dual .75 Lunar Blue Moon Glow LED

Additional Equipment

• Rio 90 80 gph Powerhead/Pump (for additional flow)

Sand and rock

• AragAlive Packaged Live sand.
• 6.5 pounds of Fiji Live Rock (very lively)

Tank start date June 20th, 2008.

I am not sure if I am lucky, or if it is more common place then it seems, but my favorite LFS has a large assortment of Live Rock that has been in their tanks for many months, many pieces are very purple, and have TONS of life. I picked up roughly 6.5 pounds of some very purple pieces, with the intention of getting a bit more at one of the other LFS, for some diversity.

So far the 6.5 lbs I bought initially have been in the tank for almost 5 days. A huge amount of life has been noted. I have seen at least 2 of those type of slug/snails with the half shell on them (stomatella or something?), a couple very small translucent shrimp, a small snail of some kind, TONS of small worms of many types, lots of small feather dusters with red stripes, and what appears to be a rapidly expanding bright yellow sponge of some kind.

There seems to be some sections of the purple coraline algae turning white, indicating die off, but as more white appears, some of the deepest reds and purples are now starting to show up in small areas. The sand bed is beginning to get some color and debris, indicating the beginnings of growth in the sand bed.


So far water quality has been pretty good, and seems to be indicating that the live rock is certainly doing its job already.

24 hours after addition of live rock Ammonia test read somewhere between 0 and .25, Nitrites - 0, and Nitrates 5-10 ppm.

Two days later and the Ammonia dropped to 0, Nitrites still 0, and Nitrates went up to 10 - 20 ppm.

I am assuming the initial bit of ammonia was from some immediate die off, and the raise in nitrates shortly after, is the remaining life cleaning up.


Pictures on the way!