Picked up a running 14 gallon biocube from the lfs

[ChappyChap]

One of my lfs was going out of business and they had a setup and running biocube for cheap, w all fish in it. So I bought it and brought it home, it's up and running and the water is calming down. I didn't stir up much of the sand bed but it did shift around a bit. It came w two clowns, a yellow tail damsel, a peppermint shrimp, about a half dozen different corals(forgive me for not knowing taxonomy yet but when the water evens out ill post pictures. There are bristle stars and worms, who hurt like heck I may add, they gave me a small crab to help eat the worms. Did I make a dumb purchase? It was kind of impulse, even though I know the basics of saltwater. Is this tank going to crash? Like I said I didn't stir up much detritus but there was some. The fish are in the bags, do I need to float them in the tank until tmrw or just go ahead and dump them in the tank since its the same water that was in it(plus some new they gave me) I siphoned off most of the dirty water when I was setting it up then siphoned in the water originally from the tank when I was done.

 

[little_fish]

I would get them into the tank right away, but be prepared to do a water change right away. Generally when you move a tank you want to ditch the old sand or clean it really well before you put it back in the tank. Bristle worms are also good guys to have around, they are excellent members of your CUC.

Congrats on the new purchase! I cant wait to see some pics!

 

[ChappyChap]

Here's a couple of it. The polyps haven't fully remerged yet. I did change about 50% of the water but not the sand. Wouldn't that make the tank basically start all over? I found a couple tiny smaller starfish too, different than the brittlestars. Also some kind of snail.

 

[little_fish]

Im not sure what you mean by starting the tank over. I would consider starting the tank over to mean causing the tank to cycle again, which would be a bad thing to do with fish and corals.

 

[ChappyChap]

Yes, that's what I meant and wouldn't replacing the sand bed do that? Since all the micro fauna are in there for the most part?

 

[little_fish]

No, actually most of the bacteria is in the rocks

 

[ChappyChap]

Ah my mistake then. How do I remove and replace it without ruining everything? Drain it all the way down and just scoop it out? I noticed some really hard calicnous tubles on the bottom should I get rid of those?

 

[little_fish]

At this point I would just leave the sand alone and just make sure you are keeping an eye on your levels and doing regular water changes.

 

[ChappyChap]

10% once a week? Just premixed ro from the lfs?

 

[little_fish]

No, I would do 20% once a week. I think you know this, but just to check, you need to change out saltwater with saltwater but top off evaporation with RO/DI. You can buy both from most LFS but in the long run it will be cheaper to get your own salt and RO//DI

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree with Hannah. It looks nice! I'd leave it be since it's set up already and monitor the parameters in case it cycles. If you see ammonia or nitrites, you will want to do water changes to bring those down.

 

[ChappyChap]

Any idea of the coral types? My manager at work wants to buy some of my green star polyps and I was wanting to put a couple new cool corals back in their place. They dominate the tank currently

 

[Bifferwine]

Are you wanting to know what corals you have in there now? Can you post pics of each individual type? From what you posted already, it looks like zoas and green star polyps but I may be missing a lot.

 

[ChappyChap]

Well mainly what other types I could put in there. I was thinking of upgrading to an led hood so I could do some nice sps and lps corals. Are the fish I have in too much?

 

[little_fish]

I would remove the damsel personally, i think you might do a little better sticking with two fish