My first saltwater aquarium!! Biocube 29

Blindrage

Blindrage

Anthias
M.A.S.C Club Member
#21
#21
Balz3352;289777 said:
I know I need to wait for my tank to cycle but in the meantime I'm planning or trying to plan a cuc. What is all of your guys thought on cucs. Some say no hermits some say hermits but no other crabs... Too much info available that contradicts each other. So I'm going to base it off of this forums wisdom... What do you think would be good for my cube. And where to get them from

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I may have missed it, but a list of what kind of fish you plan on having would help since some CuC can be incompatible with some fish.

Basic CuC:
Dwarf or Florida Cerith for basic film algea clean-up.
Narcissus Snails for sand bed turn over and detritus cleanup.
Nerite snails for glass and all around cleanup.
Hermit crabs (small ones) for sand top and rock cleanup.

Lots of variations on that, but that is a good basic crew.

I suggest you check out --
http://www.reefcleaners.org/

Reefcleaners seems to be the best way I have found to get a CuC. You can get them sized to almost any tank from there. So0me of the local vendors can help with a total CuC buy, but based on my asking around they do often have any packages that work for smaller tank. You could also find someone to split one of the larger local CuC crews with.
 
Shaunv

Shaunv

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#23
#23
These are some of the ones I like. I did not take into account your fish stock list-

Bumblebee snails- they are small and clean the rocks plus have an interesting look.
Banded trochus snails- they clean glass and rocks.
Nassarius snails- they live in the sand and pop out during feedings (meat eaters). Fun to watch.
Astraea turbo snail- they clean glass and rocks
Porcelain crab- filter feeder, fun to watch
emerald crab to help with bubble algae
skunk cleaner shrimp or peppermint shrimp
sexy shrimp- they are sexy!

I use a variety of hermit crabs but my one blue leg hermit is a PITA! It always steals food from my corals and my clown hates him too!

I would recommend being choosy about your CUC since you can't have very many compared to larger systems. I like having variety so I can observe the different behaviors of these critters as well as having them be functional to the upkeep of my tank.
 
Balz3352

Balz3352

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#34
#34
A Well had a little mini tank crash this week. It's slowly recovering I'm hopeful that most of my few corals will make it others don't look good couple are definitely gone. This post is mostly for new people to hopefully learn from my mistakes and some things that I think I did well. We'll here we go
Possible causes
1. Although I took my time with fish I went crazy with corals. I added a bunch in a short amount of time. I didn't allow time for my tank to adjust to the new loads of coral and such. (most likely problem)
2. My water temp got down into the 76 range. More about this later
3. I vacuumed most of my sand. Coming from well established freshwater aquariums I always vacuumed all the messy stuff, but with this being a new aquarium I bet I sucked all my good bacteria right out of my tank.
4. I left the heater and skimmer unplugged!?! Who does that. When I unplugged them in the first place I guess I pulled out the 3 to 1 plug at the same time, and when I plugged the stuff back into it itself wasn't in the power strip. CHECK DOUBLE CHECK THEN CHECK AGAIN WHEN YOU PLUG AND UNPLUG THINGS. Luckily I realized relatively short amount of time but I'm sure that didn't help anything.
5. Test your water. Get a decent test kit the api one may be the cheapest but it has been giving me false readings.

The good
1. I had water heated and ready on hand to do a water change.
2. I used this forum! This place is full of kind helpful and amazing people who will step in and help when they can even if you've only talked to them for 5 minutes at a meeting or not even at all! There's a wealth of knowledge here use it.
3. Although it sucks losing what you've been working on and have been taking a lot of pride in don't be discouraged. Everyone has problems! Everyone makes mistakes but the important thing is that you don't make those mistakes again but make new mistakes!


THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO GAVE ADVICE AND HELPED ME THROUGH THIS!! I SINCERELY APPRECIATE IT.

Take it slow on everything you do!

"the more slowly you can stand, and that's probably almost slow enough!" - Cindy
 
MuralReef

MuralReef

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
MASC Vice-President
#38
#38
Hasn't the Jr. been discontinued? I am sure you can find one used though.
 
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