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14g Biocube


sabrinafair

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I have a 14g Biocube with about 21lbs LR. It was set up with 8lbs of LR and 5 Damsels for 6 months before I bought it.

 

Livestock: (not including stock in "quarantine/frag tank")

- Zoas and Ricordea (too many lol)

- Green Star Polyp

- Candy Cane (neon green and blue)

- Frogspawn

- Hammer (very neon!)

- Torch

- Pagoda Coral

- Pink/Orange/Green Chalice

- Mycedium Chalice

- Sun Coral

- ORA Birdsnest

- Rufus

- 2 Ocellaris Clowns (local tank raised babies) "FISH" and "CHIPS"

- Many Orange Ball Anemone hitchhikers (Pseudocorynactis)

 

 

Modifications:

- Koralia nano powerhead

- Hydor Flo Deflector

- Chaeto, Filter Floss, and LR rubble (took out bio balls and biobag filter)

- Maxi Jet 900

- Remora skimmer w/1200 maxi jet

- 16.5 inch Sunpod

 

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12/09/08 - added 7lbs cured LR to what the tank came with

 

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12/27/08 - after adding 4.5lbs more very cured LR and re-scaping

 

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01/06/09 - after adding my frags and finishing the rockscaping (sorry for the crappy pic, hubby is traveling with the good camera!)

 

IMG_3465.jpg02/03/09 - busy month! Added two baby clowns, some frags, MJ 900, and a SUNPOD

 

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03/23/09 After too many changes and lessons to list! lol Feels like a real tank now... so happy!

 

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08/22/09 Long overdue update!

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Here is something we found living on the underside of our rock... guessing it's a sponge, although I haven't seen any pictures that really look like it. Can anyone help to identify this?

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looks like you got good start.check out my 14 gallon sometime if need ideas or anything

 

 

Any idea what the white circles are on the coralline? I just found they've more than doubled in number.. bad?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Here is something we found living on the underside of our rock... guessing it's a sponge, although I haven't seen any pictures that really look like it. Can anyone help to identify this?

 

Update on this -- I'm pretty sure it's a pineapple sponge and not only has it grown some cool feeder tubes coming out of it, but now there's a second one growing on top of the rock so I don't have to contort myself to see it under the rock. :P

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Ok, I haven't been updating this like I should and my little tank has seen a lot of action!!

 

So around Christmas we found an amazing shop in Grants Pass Oregon while visiting family and picked up another 4.5lbs of LR. It was extremely cured and was sitting in a large tank in the shop for over a year and was covered in coralline and we got it for only $7.50/lb so we were thrilled! While there we also picked up a Hydor Flo, 3 more snails, and a ball of chaeto. When we got home I worked hard to get the rockscaping done enough that I won't want to touch it again for at least a year.. until this point I stared at the rocks daily thinking how they just aren't right and now I think I finally got something that works :D Soon after the dust settled we noticed a really great shroom hitchhiker!! Shroom.jpg

 

Until now we had been too nervous to add anything in, but then we had one anyway. After a really short cycle, the shroom had almost doubled in size and finally our nitrates were down to 10 so we made a trip to the LFS. We wanted one hardy shroom or zoa and did a ton of research first. We found a rock that had two types of zoas, a polyp, a tiny blue shroom, and some glove polyps. They were all really tiny and so we decided to go for it.

 

Later we found out that there was also a tiny Finger Leather frag.. and FLAT WORMS :angry: We didn't dip and really learned our lesson, especially after siphoning out the tank twice a day and doing multiple water changes and dipping the piece we had brought home which was covered after the first feeding. We now only have 2 that I can see and I'll keep an eye on it..

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A week after that we found out that another LFS was having a giant frag sale where most pieces were $5 - $15 so we went over there and found 3 new pieces (tiny!!). We got a Candy Cane, a Flowerpot, and a Blueberry Gorgonian. I had researched a bunch before this but apparently not enough.. now that I've read up on the Flowerpot and the Gorgonian I'm nervous because they're difficult but I'm VERY determined to keep them both alive and healthy for a long time!! (yes I expect to be yelled at for this, but be gentle!!)

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very nice so far, those frags you've picked up look great. Stay on top of those flat worms, I had them once, at first i wasn't sure what they were and i left them unchecked. I was going through a rough time with my tank and before i knew it i had thousands of flat worms, I had to take apart my tank and FW dip everything to kill them!! Siphon those bastards!!!!!

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So it's only been a week since the latest frags were added and everything is doing really really well! I'm amazed at how things are growing on a daily basis. If it keeps up at this rate I'll be needing to frag in a couple months lol

 

Here were the latest that I didn't have photos posted of yet:

 

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Flowerpot Coral, tiny frag from a mother piece in the LFS.. already the tubes have doubled in length :)

 

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Candy Cane Coral, looks like a gorilla with the two "eyes" and "mouth" although I noticed today that one "eye" is growing a lot faster than the other so he's getting kinda funny looking lol

 

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Blueberry Gorgonian, great little guy (like 1.5" tall).. if only the turbos would stop knocking him over! Now I have a rock over his base which I buried in the sand and that's held him down for a few nights..

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Today I tracked down some Cyclops at a LFS (was hard to find because orders weren't shipped between the snow and then the flooding!)..

 

I wanted to diversify the food for my corals, and from what I read, this was the best choice. I mixed it with with a little distilled water and phytoplankton, turned off the pumps and spot fed. It was amazing to watch the reaction!!! Seemed like every starfish and worm (half I've never seen) came out. My Candy Cane especially loved it and put out tons of feeder tentacles. And my little Finger Leather frag (only about 1") doubled in size and seemed like all the polyps came out. I let it all sit for about 5 mins before turning the flow back on.

 

This was so much fun that I can't wait until I can feed again!! But yes, I know I have to wait.. in fact I'm afraid I fed too much this time so I'm going to change out the filter floss in an hour or so and check the nitrates in the morning.

 

Just had to share my fun experience :wub:

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just had to share that I just upgraded my 14g Biocube to halides! I was actually able to find the 16.5 inch Sunpod locally!! Now I can start planning my first SPS :happydance:

 

Also about a week and a half ago we added a pair of baby locally raised ocellaris... named Fish and Chips

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We've also been adding some frags over the last month... I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow.

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I should also add that the gorgonian was taken out by a hydor flo that launched off the back wall like a submarine.

 

The flowerpot I took back to the LFS. Even though he was doing really well, I've read enough to be too paranoid to even try to beat the odds at keeping him alive. The LFS actually had a very big mother colony they fragged him from so hopefully they'll have some luck. The good news is, I was able to trade him in for a really nice purple Devil's Hand which I'm loving! :)

 

And the lesson learned is now I don't take anything home until I've researched! lol

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Your Biocube looks great! It sounds like you're doing a lot of homework and researching which is good. Sounds like you have access to a decent LFS, too which can help a lot. Nice photos! :)

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Ok here are some of my newest additions... pics were taken on the first day and most have already grown soooo much in 3 days!!

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  • 1 month later...
sabrinafair

Wow... where to catch up!?

 

I've spent a lot of time researching and visiting my numerous LFS's and collecting many things I enjoy, including an amazing hammer, the prettiest suncoral I've seen, a lovely yellow pagoda, a gigantic rufus, and too many ricordea... I've learned so much and still have so much to learn. Let me know what you think! :)

 

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sabrinafair

I'm trying to keep it from moving to LE Chalices and Montis!! I already have the world's most beautiful rainbow monitpora on the way next week!!

 

Ok... and some purple deaths... guess I have a lot of fevers! LOL

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  • 5 months later...

Photo updates!!

 

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view from above

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zoas love my tank

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what's left of the hulk zoas after a lot of fragging.. they grow like crazy

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Some of my goodies

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