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Cultivated Reef

Bamato's Luring BC14


Bamato

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**New FTS**

 

BC14Update001.jpg

 

Hey everyone, I thought it would be nice to start a tank thread about my BC14 that I've recently set up. The tank is a little over a month old. It was a really fast soft cycle, only took about a week. There is so much life growing in there!

 

-Setup-

Oceanic Biocube 14

Oceanic protein skimmer (doesn't work the best, but once you get it working it does some good.)

InTank refugium with chaeto, chemipure, and filter floss

InTank sub. lights (both the lights and the refugium are highly recommended, very good stuff!)

Koralia nano

Maxijet 900 with Hydor head

JBJ ATO with 2 gallon resevoir (I hope to go bigger, just wanted it to fit in the stand)

Evil66's fan mod with two silenx 60 mm fans (I highly recommend this to anyone with cooling problems, lowered my temps almost 4 degrees.)

 

-Rock-

 

12 lbs of primo indonesian LR. This stuff was expensive, but worth every penny. There were a TON of cool hitchhikers including feather dusters, button polyps, etc... And the shape of the rock was perfect. Pictures don't do it justice

I also have 2 lbs of some unknown rock I got from a different LFS to use as supports for the structure as well.

 

-Corals-

None as of yet, but I'd like to get some really cool stuff like torches and a hammer and zoa's, but I have to do some reading first to see if thats even possible! :)

 

-Sandbed-

I used 15 or so lbs of Arag-alive. It's about 1-2" thick. Not a real deep sandbed but definately a good size.

 

-Livestock-

Male and female pair of Black Ocellaris. I know these are fairly common in the hobby and not the coolest of clowns, but I fell in love with this pair at one of our LFS and have been smearing my nose-prints on their glass for the last few months before I bought them.

 

I also have a yellow watchman goby that has since gone MIA when I put the clowns in. It's hard to tell if he got eaten, is hiding, or died from his petstore injuries :( I really hope he shows up.

 

-CUC-

(2) dwarf blue leg hermits

(1) dwarf red leg hermit

(2) Ceriths

(2) Black margaritas (awesome glass cleaners)

(2) Nasarrius (sp?)

(1) Astrea

 

And finally for some pictures! :) Some might be foggy because I stirred up the tank and made a mess with my turkey baster. And I need to mess with my camera settings more to get good shots of the clowns, as they like to bob up and down constantly....

 

Clowns001.jpg

 

Clowns002.jpg

 

Clowns003.jpg

 

Clowns006.jpg

 

ATO setup

Clowns009.jpg

 

Blurry clowns

Clowns011.jpg

 

Since I couldn't get a picture of the clowns, I got a vid of them during feeding time. You can't tell in the vid but the female is on the right and a few inches back from the male. She's twice his size :)

th_Clowns013.jpg

 

More to come! :)

 

edit: I don't actually use some of the chemicals in the stand, they were from my freshwater days, they just ended up there :/

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Sharp looking BC. you might try a turbo snail on that hair algae. the rock does look quite cool :D Do you have some sort of a lid for your top off water? Ro-Di water loves to absorb things from the air.

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Sharp looking BC. you might try a turbo snail on that hair algae. the rock does look quite cool :D Do you have some sort of a lid for your top off water? Ro-Di water loves to absorb things from the air.

 

The crabs seem to be eating the GHA and Cyano very well actually :) I'm trying to keep the snails kind of small so I don't have to worry about big clumsy oafs in my tank.

 

I do have a lid for the water actually. Didn't realize it "absorbed" stuff from the outside air. I was just feeling lazy about drilling it. But I'll do that tonight :)

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subielover

You need to get a grip on that algae now, before its gets out of control. 3 fish is really pushing it after only having your tank set-up for a month, be careful and do lots of water changes. Also those are black saddleback clowns.

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Beat me to it subie.+1 on the saddlebacks.Not sure if i would have done a pair of them........Get around 5 inches and need more room the a perc or false perc imo.

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Dang.... They really get that big huh? I didn't know they were saddlebacks. I've never heard of the term before.

 

Anybody local up for a trade? :/ I really wish I had know this....

 

Also, the hermits are mowing the algae down, and fast.

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subielover

It is always best to research fish before you buy them. As for the hermits eating the algae, I would be surprised if they ate it all. Every water change I would be pulling as much out as possible, you want to stay on top of it, trust me.

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Well they've taken A LOT of it out. There are spots that were covered in GHA that the crabs and snails have cleaned better than I can with a brush. I'm pretty sure my problem was I initially started this tank with tap water. I do pull out what I can and suck it up with the vacuum when I do WC's.

 

And I did actually research the fish before I bought them. I just did my research on the wrong species, and wasn't experienced enough to tell the difference between saddlebacks and regular black ocellaris. I had never actually heard of or seen saddlebacks until you clued me in.

 

My wife and I have a plan though. It's my excuse to buy a larger tank now in the near future. ;)

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My wife and I have a plan though. It's my excuse to buy a larger tank now in the near future. ;)

 

If your wife is in on this plan, you have a keeper. B)

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  • 7 months later...

Well there have been lots of changes since I updated this thread. No more saddlebacks, LED retro, etc...

 

Heres loads of pictures :)

 

tankshots112709003.jpg

 

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This is the clam before PM :(

ClamPM4003.jpg

 

LEDBuild004.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...
Looking good. How is your clam doing under the LED set up?

Aside from having PM, he's doing fantastic. There is lots of growth in the shell under the mantle. I thought I was going to lose him to PM, but he keeps surviving :)

 

 

Looks really good as of late! What was it that finally got the hair algae to disappear?

Time and water changes. I made the mistake of starting the tank with hose water..... (really stupid) Always use RO/DI.....

 

 

Sweet build. I like your set up and LEDs. :)

Thanks! It was a fun project, and well worth it! My SPS corals are very happy, and the clam does fantastic under them.

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  • 3 weeks later...

New addition!!

 

Never heard of fancy grade acros, but saw this at my LFS today and couldn't pass it up. Its damn near impossible to get the colors right on my camera. (very frustrating) The polyps and tips are all bright pink, and the stuff that looks like its all white in the pictures is actually a really iridescent green/purple. REALLY cool looking. Wish I had better pics... :( The LFS guy took pics as well with a much nicer camera. I'll see if I can get a hold of his as well :)

 

acro001.jpg

 

acro002.jpg

 

Got this too!

Tankpics4004.jpg

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Good to hear. I'm running the same LED set-up and just bought 2 test frags about 2 weeks ago. I'm not getting any polyp extension on one though....did your sps acclimate immediately or did it take a while? I've got these two frags about 4-5 inches from the surface?

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Yeah I've got a Koralia nano on the other side of the tank pointed right at them. All my params are good....I guess I shouldn't worry unless they start losing color. They'll probably come around sooner or later.

 

So what else are you lookin' to put in your tank?

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Well you dont want direct waterflow, they prefer to have indirect/random flow.

 

I'm not sure what else will end up in the tank honestly, it's a play it by ear type of thing. lol

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