New SW hobbyist

[Seanewby12]

Hi there. I have loved SW fish since living in Puerto Rico years ago and snorkeling with them. I have patiently waited for what is hopefully the right time in my life to start my own tank. I have a 14 gal. biocube (all in one) set-up with 24w cf lighting. I set up in Nov. and now have a couple of softies (shrooms, button polyps and blue xenia), hammerhead, plate coral, hermits and astrea star snails. I am learning everyday in this new experience! Right now I am struggling with keeping my temp regulated. These lights, tho' small to you big tank owners, seem to put off a lot of heat causing my temp to spike to right at 83 in the day. So, I have been reluctant to add more corals or fish until I get a better handle. Anyway, I think I am addicted and my one and only LFS probably is getting tired of my all too regular visits! This is also my first time to a forum, so patience please and constructive help as you see needed!

 

[carey]

Welcome to the forum! Do you have any pictures of your setup? We LOVE pictures here! lol

I also have issues with temp on my 29g biocube. I leave the back door panel open and the front open if I am home. Gets me to 81 degrees steady.

 

[Seanewby12]

No pics yet and pobably couldn't figure out how to post them anyway! I'll have to better learn to navigate first! Same goes for anything in my "personal box on the left." Glad to hear or sorry to hear your 29g has similar issues. I thought it was just the size of mine. Checked the fans today - both are o.k. Have now kept front feeding access door open (no back one I can find) today, so hope that will help. Added a skimmer last week but don't think that would have added heat?... I'm not convinced it is doing what is necessary, either since the cup hasn't had any foam yet in the 5 days running. Motor and water flow going; bubbles up to the neck, just no gunk in cup...

 

[carey]

It takes a week or two for a skimmer to break in. BUT uif you got the biocube skimmer I wouldnt expect too much from it. I hated mine and sold it off. LOL It skimmed nothing and was a pain to adjust. :-(

 

[Seanewby12]

Biocube skimmer is correct since it fits into the chamber and I didn't know any better. Should I go back to the cartridge filters? At least they seemed to be catching gunk since I had to rinse and/or replace every 3-4 weeks. May I ask how you are able to maintain several tanks at a time? I am in awe!

 

[carey]

If you do weekly water changes you shouldnt even miss not having a skimmer. I try to do 6g every week and that keeps my levels in the cube at "marginal" LOL
I have two dragonets in it, a scooter and a mandarin so i feed several times a day and my water suffers for it. I ended up buying a media rack and a fuge and put those in my biocube center compartment.

Biocube 14 Media Basket

This is the link for the rack. Very handy and it's much better than the filter cartridge. I use a filter pad on top, then underneath that I have chemipure elite and on the bottom I use purigen. Keeps my water nice and sparkling and the media is good for several months.

You can keep messing with the skimmer though if you like, some people have actually gotten them to work. Me, I just didn't have the patience for it.

 

[Seanewby12]

See what I mean?! Another whole thingie I didn't know anything about! Not only did I not know a "media basket" existed but the lingo of chemipure and purigen are foreign! More reading tonite.

 

[carey]

LOL. Glad to be of service.

The chemipure elite has GFO(granular feric oxide) in it which can help with phosphates and algae. Pretty much a carbon substitute but a bit better.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.