14g Biocube my first reef tank!!

[bskinn77]

So after about a month of reading and planning I finally bought a 14 gallon Biocube I plan on filing my reef tank with mostly soft corals along with the cube I also ordered:

1)Master Liquid Test Kit Saltwater

2)Thermometer 2-1/4" x 1-1/2"

3)Liquid Crystal Thermometer 1.010 to 1.030 specific gravity and 64-97°F

4)Coral Pro Salt 55 gallons

I will be purchasing the Live Rock and Live sand from my LFS.

PICS soon to come once everything gets started within the next couple of days!!

[novanosis]

Cant wait to see it! Where are you located by the way?

[bskinn77]

Thanks Novanosis I am pretty excited pretty much all I read up on at work all day oh and I am located in Tampa Florida.

[bskinn77]

So here are some pics

First the live rock before it went in


FTS empty


Putting the live sand in!


and finally the rock and water in with the cloudiness

[sambrinar]

drop a raw deli shrimp in a nylon sock in there for a few days to give the cycle a quick jump start. lookin' good. keep us posted

[novanosis]

Yep let it start the cycle, and wait 2 weeks before putting a CUC. Looking good post pics when water clears!

[bskinn77]

Well I made a stop at Publix (local grocery store) and picked up the shrimp was rather funny asking for 2 shrimp the guy handed it to me and just said "put it in your pocket" but anyway here it is a little cleared up.





Testing kits should be arriving in mail any day now so I will post water parameters as soon as those get in.

[yungreefer2410]

looking nice can;t wait to see it advance

[bskinn77]

Ok so test kit in and first results are:

Temp-78.9
PH-7.8
Ammonia-8+? (my chart only goes up to 8)
Nitrites-1.0
Nitrate-0

here are new pics FTS all cleared up and also can anyone help me ID this guy!
also salinity readings were across the board depending on location in tank they were taken whats the cause of this?

[bskinn77]

So I am pretty sure its aiptasia from all the pics I looked up best way to get rid of this? I think i may have a bit to much rock in the tank should i just take that peace out?

[yungreefer2410]

many ways to get rid of atipsia. i haven't have a problem with it so i would know what works best...

[Spex]

I like how the rocks look. Keep em. Bummer all the nasty things that come off of fresh LR. I like to get mine off of craigslist. That way I figure the person that had the rock already took care of the really bad stuff hahahaha.

[bskinn77]

yea the guy takes the LR right out of Tampa Bay here I got it basically right off the boat gave me a hell of a deal too. I think im going to go buy some Aiptasia X today as suggested by someone else here other then that I took water parameters today again and they were the same:

Ph-7.8
Ammonia-8+
Nitrites-1.0
Nitrates-0
Temp was 75.9 this morning should I maybe start running this little tank heater I have over night?

Thanks in advance!

[AndtheBonus]

Aiptasia can be a pain but it is really easy to get rid of. When I had mine the LFS gave me this stuff called Aiptasia-X by Red Sea. It's basiclly a blue looking die that you inject into them. It killed mine right away and it never came back so I would look into using something like that.

[bskinn77]

Ok so Aiptasia appears to be gone hopefully for good! and the new water test readings are:

Temp-75.3 (This is in the morning when the lights have been off while the lights are on the temp stays in the 78 range is this normal? or should I run heater at night?)

PH-7.8
Ammonia-8.0+?
nitrite-5.0
Nitrate-15.0
Salinity-1.021-1.023

are these readings looking normal?

Thank you!