Titus's first biocube #2

[Jeremy hall]

well got it on the stand and filled I used instant ocean salt and black beach nature's ocean live sand ....by the way wasn't black at all ended up looking sand box sand or pcb sand with slate pieces in the mix . Watch brs youtube and went with a bonsai tree aquascape using a mix of live and dry rock . Put a chemi clean bag in my over flow live carbon bag and foam sponge for filter media .have already added two jaw fish and two clowns a peppermint shrimp a sand star but he was devoured by blue hermits the second day .
I'm only using a Walmart blue led 12" bar light for lighting atm...want my tank to cycle and trying out Ryan's start method from brs by running low to know light and keeping just a fishtank for the first four months to try and bypass the ugly brown start .
Sunday I'm adding vibrant and a yellow tang and some emerald crabs trying to get my cleaning crew rolling as fast as possible but I have seen some brown algae patches started I'm hoping I didn't get the memo late about the lights off for four months or that my blue led is going to feed the brown algae like my coral lights would ...

 

[MNFish]

Man I know it is hard but I personally would wait on adding anything more for a while.
Did you add any beneficial bacteria product?

 

[Jeremy hall]

Man I know it is hard but I personally would wait on adding anything more for a while.
Did you add any beneficial bacteria product?

Not yet ..think adding the extra jaw fish was a bad idea he didnt make it ...I just home from work and pulled it out ....but I used live water, sand and rock planned on getting vibrant Sunday but then I seen this two part additive that has the same bacteria and 7 kinds or coraline "live" in it
Its called purple helix and pink fusion
It's made by the same company as vibrant I think
And a extra thing I did was ...is I got a bunch of the build up from the filters at the pet shops big sump and put it in my over flow before I turned the pump on hoping it grew or spread a bit on the ceramic pellets and sponges

 

[Jeremy hall]

Not yet ..think adding the extra jaw fish was a bad idea he didnt make it ...I just home from work and pulled it out ....but I used live water, sand and rock planned on getting vibrant Sunday but then I seen this two part additive that has the same bacteria and 7 kinds or coraline "live" in it
Its called purple helix and pink fusion
It's made by the same company as vibrant I think
And a extra thing I did was ...is I got a bunch of the build up from the filters at the pet shops big sump and put it in my over flow before I turned the pump on hoping it grew or spread a bit on the ceramic pellets and sponges

But yeah I planned on waiting on more fish for at least another two weeks ...would you recommend longer ??besides the two clowns and jaw fish I only wanted a yellow tang and blenny maybe a urchin just before I turn the real lights on

 

[Jeremy hall]

But yeah I planned on waiting on more fish for at least another two weeks ...would you recommend longer ??besides the two clowns and jaw fish I only wanted a yellow tang and blenny maybe a urchin just before I turn the real lights on

 

[MNFish]

I am sorry to hear about your Jawfish.

It all depends on your tests of the water.

I would personally still add Brightwell Aquatic’s MicroBacter7, or SeaChem’s Stability or another product that can help as they have helped me in the past build bacteria fast. Also you may want to buy some prime as you might get some swings in your cycle and it can be used in an emergency to help get you leveled down.

Getting some already established filter media was a good idea as well.

I am not sure if a Yellow tang would be a good fit for the tank, as they like lots of room to swim and can be a bit aggressive if they do not feel they have enough of their own space.

Blenny's are cool, but again from my experience the algae ones need a tank that has a good population of algae to graze on or they can be a bit hard to keep happy.

Clean up crew can be hard to start prior to the tank getting a build up of stuff for them to clean, and inverts can be very sensitive to a tank that has not yet found its balance, which can take some time.