Poodges' Biocube 29 - 2 Years and Counting

[Poodges]

This is my first reef tank and it's been up for over 2 years now. It's been through a lot of changes, and it's been a ton of fun to work on.

 

Tank Mods:

- chamber 1: cut tab to add more flow, popped out false floor, 100w jager heater

- chamber 2: inTank media rack: filter floss, purigen, chemi-pure elite, chaeto in media bag with underwater light

- chamber 3: mj1200, 90* elbow removed

- split locline with flare nozzles

- vortech mp10 es

- inTank fish saver

 

Lighting:

- nanotuners 5.6 LED with silenx fans

- royal blue, cool white, royal blue, cool white, royal blue

 

Fish:

- true percula clown

- randalli goby/tiger pistol pair

- ora yellow assessor

- sixline wrasse

 

Corals:

- bunch of zoas/palys

- welso brain

- florida rics

- rainbow monti

- grape monti cap

- duncan

- pink birdsnest

- bird of paradise

- red planet acro

- hawkins echinata

- meteor shower

- tricolor valida

- frogspawn

 

CUC:

- various hermits

- astrea snails

- nerite snails

- turbo snail

 

Feel free to leave me any advice, criticism or feedback.

 

FTS 12/16/11

 

[pwrmac2]

Looks Good! When I had a pistol shrimp it never stopped digging.

[BytheSea]

Looks good. I like the way you have arranged the rock.

[Poodges]

Looks Good! When I had a pistol shrimp it never stopped digging.

Thanks. He's pretty entertaining, I just hope I did a good enough job stabilizing the rock.

[Bamato]

Totally awesome rock arrangement!! love it!

[Poodges]

Thanks Bamato. I like your 14 as well. You have a lot of the same corals I would like to eventually get.

[Poodges]

Nighttime pic of the newest addition

 

[Nemo Niblets]

Nice colors on those zoas!

[lakshwadeep]

Great aquascaping!

[Poodges]

Thanks. I got a lot of help picking out the rock from my LFS. There's a guy there that has given me some really good advice (so far).

[ihatesears18]

Beautiful rocks! Which LFS did you get them from?

[Poodges]

Thanks, I got them from Bio-Reef. I think its the only store in town, but fortunately its a good one. I've pretty much gotten everything from there except the tank.

[ihatesears18]

Thanks, I got them from Bio-Reef. I think its the only store in town, but fortunately its a good one. I've pretty much gotten everything from there except the tank.

 

Which side of town are you on? The west side has Jolly's Reef Shack (corner of blanding and wilson) and Orange Park has Reef Fanatics (south Blanding almost to Middleburg).

[Poodges]

I'm on the Southside, so Bio-reef is really the only place within 30 minutes. Good to know about the other 2 though.

[Poodges]

-Here's a couple of newish pics-

 

Randalli posing (pistol shrimp bulldozing under him)

 

 

Favia under actinic - it's brighter than a green highlighter

 

 

Tank update: I have hydroids all over my glass which I'm hoping will go away on their own. They don't seem to be bothering any corals at the moment. What i thought was aiptasia on some of my rocks turns out to be some sort of purple/brownish octocoral. I can't get a very good pic because they are so small. I can count 8 tentacles and they have little frills on them, so I think I dodged that bullet.

[Poodges]

I picked up a hammer coral today. I'm hoping my clown will be interested in it, but it's a neat coral and something I wanted to add regardless. I might pick up a few rics in the next week or so, and then I'll be done adding anything for awhile. I'm pretty happy with my progress so far. I think I'll spend the downtime researching my 4th and final fish: something that perches/or a mid-tank swimmer, peaceful, preferably not orange/white like everything else I have. Any suggestions?

 

New FTS

 

 

Actinic

 

[Poodges]

Acans finally showing me some love

 

[Poodges]

So it turns out the social wrasse/red fairy was not so social. After watching him continue to pick on my clown, I decided to catch him and return him to the LFS. I ended up getting a McCosker's and he's getting along with the rest of the crew much better. I will post pics of him and some new corals a little later.

[OClownsandNanos]

Love the colors in the tank and your zoa garden rock (saw from other thread and jumped over here). Your astrea snail shells just pop against all those purples and blues. How old is your tank, BTW?

[Poodges]

Thanks for the kind words. My tank is just about 2 months old. I think it looks a bit more established because of the fully cured rock I started with. It was already covered with a pretty good bit of coralline and has really taken off since then.

[Poodges]

I recently ordered the nanotuners 3.6 led upgrade and I'm looking forward to getting it hooked up. Should be here sometime early February. I went with silentx fans, 2 white strips and 1 royal blue. Hopefully the setup won't come out looking too white.

 

Some new pics:

 

zoa garden in the making

 

 

mccosker's flasher wrasse

 

 

actinic shot

 

 

random hitchhiker - anyone know what it is? has frills coming out of tentacles, seems like they are all connected by some vein-like tissue on the rock, don't pass out (definitely not aiptasia)

 

[Poodges]

I guess it's about time for an update. I added a citron goby and a welso brain today. Tank params are stable and I haven't had any problems besides some zoa pox (treated with furan 2). I did have a skunk cleaner shrimp die for no apparent reason and I just captured a second (hopefully last) hairy crab hitchhiker.

 

I changed out the stock pump with a maxijet 1200 and added a hydor flo deflector a few days ago. I really like that setup so far and my corals do as well. Some new pics:

 

FTS

 

 

Welso brain: this thing is double the size it was at the LFS just hours ago. I guess it must really like my flow/light or maybe the additional space to stretch out.

 

 

My favorite zoas, don't know the name. Started with 3 polyps and now theres 3 more after a couple weeks.

 

 

Some other zoas

 

[Poodges]

I finally upgraded my lighting to the nanotuners 3.6 led retro. I don't know much about lighting but these leds are really cool. The shimmer in the tank is neat and I'm hoping i'll get some better growth than I did with the stock pc's.

 

I went with 2 strips of cool whites and 1 strip of royal blues. I was worried that the setup would be too white, but it's not at all. My corals don't have a ton of pop when all the strips are on but they look unreal with just the blue. I'm happy with the decision because I still have the ability to view pure blue. The royal blues are incredibly bright. I was damn near blinded when I plugged the hood in for the first time to make sure I didn't screw anything up.

 

Current FTS:

 

[Poodges]

Added some rics and already had 1 split.

 

I've turned off my koralia. I lost part of my hammer coral from too much flow after changing pumps (stock to mj1200 w/hydor flo). It's doing better now. I'm really surprised that was too much for my tank.

 

I'm down to 1 layer of window screening for acclimation on my LED's. I'm really happy with the light upgrade so far. Corals are responding well.

 

[OClownsandNanos]

Still looking good -- another update?