Stocking a BC29

[MTF7]

Ok I am thinking about my stock for my BC29 if you need any info let me know.
So for my stock I'll do clean up then fish then corals (corals still looking so not final)
Clean up crew
10 assorted hermits ( from reef cleaners)
3 naraisis snails
2 scarlet hermits
5 florida ceirth
About 10 margarita snails
1 peppermint shrimp
2 fire shrimp.

Fish by order
Diamond goby
Flame angle ( maybe)
Blue spotted jawfish
Black and white ocelleris
Mandarian dragonet

Corals
I don't really have a list but I would like to have green star polyps, a rose anemone, maybe some frogspawn pulsing Xenia some type of mushrooms and some others just not sure

[saf1]

Clean up crew can be any combination of those. I tend to prefer smaller hermits. IPSF has some that stay 1/4" in size or less. May want to look at something like that because snails grow and need new homes....and snails are easy targets. Also a lot of shrimp and fish. Consider size of tank, water volume, etc.

I didn't realy catch lighting. Something to consider when adding coral. Stock (compact flors) won't cut it for many of those.

Some may not agree but I am just going to throw this out there. We have two Bio Cube 29's in our home. My son placed a rose bubble tip anemone in his. It split in one year. We are on year 2 and the original when open fully is over 13" at the disc alone. Not adding anything for his tenticles. So it is BIG. His off shoot, clone, whatever, is about 8" now and growing. When they are really hungry and on full display they take up pretty much the whole tank. I guess what I'm saying is that while we have room in there still they both are taking pretty much the whole back of his tank and rock work leaving only the front of the tank left

Green star polyps are good and pretty forgiving. They can spread. Same with Xenia. If your tank can support them (some people have good luck with it, others can't for some reason) they will take off and spread. Kenya tree is another weed...

Frogspawn. I love them. But.....it grows. You get a frag and before you know it it turns into a ball, then a tree, etc. So what I'm saying is that some of your stock will require room (flame angle for example) to swim and some of your corals will take over space. Not at first, but over time. I'm now dealing with this in regards to a kenya tree coral and a hammer.

Good luck and I'm sure you will stock it well. Figured I'd throw out our anemone problem we are facing because we either have to get rid of them or upgrade...I guess that is a good thing.

[Biocubehqi]

I think the BioCube is too small for your flame. Once you add rock and consider that 29 gallons includes the back... It's a tight tank for one, I learned from my mistake... My tank only holds 21 gallons after the rock wen in, not including how muh the back takes...

[duckmeat]

problem i have come across with biocube 29 is with the stock pc lights, summer temps accidently reached 84 in mine. that was a problem till i made mine rimless... which leads mne to the bluespot... jumper, jumper, $150 jumper be careful he will jump through a
1/2" square

[MTF7]

As I said I might not do flame but my lighting is led's right now so its all good and for corals taking over I'm not too worried I plan to start a second later so I will just frag and move to the other tank and I plan to change my water about 5g if not every week 100% every 2 weeks.

[FishWrangler]

We tried a flame and he didn't last long. The one thing I noticed is that my clowns really withdrew after I added the flame so for that reason alone I'll pass on trying again.

As others have posted.....it's more like 20g of water volume so it's not really big enough for any angel. That said, I found enough threads of biocubes with them to convince me it was ok. I suppose if you want something bad enough you can find support on the web to back you up.

[Biocubehqi]

5 gallons a week would be good, I do mine 5 gallons every two weeks... But my skimmer works great... If you don't get good skim then 5 gallons a week is what you should aim for

[MTF7]

Alright got the LEDs put In last night as for filtration right now I am running just some filter floss and a 1/2 a unit of chemi pure elite, I would like to and probably will put some purigen in there but my parameters are all 0 right now my question is do I really need chemical filtration? I have 40 lbs of both live rock and sand I probably have about 41-43 pounds of live rock and I do plan on a 5g water change every week or two and I am going to get a skimmer too any suggestions?

[kenc87]

I would say that unless you get one of the rare mandarins that eat frozen you will not have enough pods to keep it happy in the long run. The blue spotted jawfish is a fish that from what I am aware does best in a cooler tank that doesn't have much going on. Also beware with the goby as it may bury your corals. I would probably stick with 3-4 fish and some cool inverts in that tank.

[MTF7]

Alright I have a update and I plan to grow pods in a different tank to feed the mandarin. Not going to do the flame angle sticking with the diamond goby BSJ (my tank is right at 72F) and its summer here right now so in the winter I will actually need a heater if it drops. Right noe my tank is about 2 months old. I have 9 astria snails 3 nass ( think they died tho.....) 4 hermits a pretty nice ball of chaeto some nice coralline algea starting to cover rocks and a little bit of the back wall, a pretty good size FREE* GSP frag and last but not least a Diamond goby which hasn't spread sand anywhere but the bottom although half my tank has a giant mound not a prob tho looks cool so so far so good fish has been in for a week haven't done a water change yet need to tho check parameters every day no ammonia spike or anything due to the fish

[MTF7]

Oh diamond BSJ mandarin and 2 clowns are the fish

[MTF7]

And while the mandarian is in the Qt I plan on trying to feed it with many frozen foods I think the best chance is garlic soaked mysis shrimp

[Charley Diesing]

Originally Posted by MTF7

And while the mandarian is in the Qt I plan on trying to feed it with many frozen foods I think the best chance is garlic soaked mysis shrimp

Goodluck, this usually doesn't go as most people plan it too.

[chad p]

Originally Posted by Charley Diesing

Goodluck, this usually doesn't go as most people plan it too.

Agreed. I can speak from experience on this one. I had a spotted mandarin that ate everything other than pellets. I went from feeding him with great success, to spending 15+ minutes twice a day trying to make sure he gets enough to eat while fighting off the rest of the tank-mates which had learned his feeding routine.

The first few weeks I thought "well, these might be best suited for large tanks but I'm going to pull this off". Unfortunately I watched him start to wither away after a couple months and he was gone a while after that.

I'd venture to say that 80%+ of people who try mandarins in smaller tanks have them die in less than 6-8 months. Even if they eat well early on it's a major struggle to keep them fed spot feeding with other fish trying to get in on it. Personally, as much as I loved my spotted mandarin I would never get one again unless I set up a tank over 100 gallons and even then I'd wait until it was well established.

I hate to steer people away from things but mandarins in a small tank are a major challenge.

[MTF7]

I have somewhat tackled the other fish trying to steal food. I am going to make a small bowl designed so that the flow won't disrupt or move the food and either just put a bunch in there or make the opening just big enough to put food in there and just big enough for the mandarin's snout/mouth can get in and suck a few up. Even if I do succeed in training him or her to be frozen food fed I am still going to supliment the tank with copeopods from my pod seperate tank. I don't have that set up now but I do have a secret to getting a lot. My tank is fairly new and If anyone looks at the glass you can see a bunch of them!

[chad p]

Originally Posted by MTF7

I have somewhat tackled the other fish trying to steal food. I am going to make a small bowl designed so that the flow won't disrupt or move the food and either just put a bunch in there or make the opening just big enough to put food in there and just big enough for the mandarin's snout/mouth can get in and suck a few up. Even if I do succeed in training him or her to be frozen food fed I am still going to supliment the tank with copeopods from my pod seperate tank. I don't have that set up now but I do have a secret to getting a lot. My tank is fairly new and If anyone looks at the glass you can see a bunch of them!

Believe me, I wish you the best of luck. It's just that it's a very difficult task that is usually unsuccessful. I tried everything...I used a bottled water cut in half and placed mysis in it so he could get in there and it wouldn't blow away or be eaten by other fish. The problem is, sooner or later every inhabitant in the tank learns the routine and within a couple weeks hermits, shrimp and fish are all storming the bottle to nab food away.

Even if these guys eat prepared food it's an uphill battle. They are very slow and deliberate eaters so faster moving critters steal their food even when you spot feed right in front of their face. Like I said, I hope you're successful. I know of another reefer here who kept one fat and happy in a small tank for 2 years before he lost his but I still think they're better left for large tanks. I hope you prove me wrong but I'm betting it's a goner in 3-4 months max. Don't take that as being mean or negative. Just passing on my experience. Good luck.