youincolor Posted November 26, 2010 Share Posted November 26, 2010 Just set up a new tank after a couple months being tank-free! I have kept reef aquariums for the last four years. I just took down and sold off my last tank about four months ago. It was an SPS/clam dominated 58 Oceanic with a 29 gallon sump. I have an 8 month old daughter and my wife is staying home with the baby. I was losing interest in my tank, and not being able to keep up with the maintenance and daily dosing by hand, so I decided to sell it off and see how I liked being tank free. Well, it's great to not be a slave to a tank, but I got bored of not having one very quickly. I bought a Biocube 8 for a great deal from another reefer in the area and put it in storage thinking I might want to use it sometime. Well that time is now: I got new bulbs today from Nanotuners, one regular actinic, and one 10k PC-R bulb, with an internal reflector. I have new 50mm fans coming that should be silent when running. Right now I have no mechanical filtration going in the rear chambers. I loaded the second chamber with liverock rubble to jump start the cycle, and used a couple pieces of dead rock in the display from my old tank. I am running the second and third chambers totally full of water to keep the liverock covered, I'm assuming this will be fine, I can't see any reason to try to stick to the Maximum water level line on the side. My plan is to keep LPS and zoas, ricordias, acans, basically anything that will survive under 36 watts of PC lighting. I have always had halides so PCs are new to me. I want to keep sexy shrimp, and possibly a small goby or blenny. The tank is next to my computer so I think it will be fun to watch all the tiny things that would have been lost in my old larger tank. I may attempt to keep some monti caps, but we'll see. I am using my old Reefkeepr Lite to control the lights and the heater. I plan on changing a couple gallons of water a week to keep everything happy, so hopefully I wont have to be dosing for cal and alk like I was doing in my larger tanks. I'm excited to be re-entering the reefing world again, and with my first nano it should be a wild ride. Still cloudy Link to comment
youincolor Posted November 27, 2010 Author Share Posted November 27, 2010 Anyone having success keeping certain corals under the stock PCs? I'm thinking some stuff will be fine in there, it looks like plenty of light for softies/lps. Link to comment
youincolor Posted November 28, 2010 Author Share Posted November 28, 2010 Got a sponge from a fellow reefer's aquaclear 30, and a few frags that had grown onto coraline encrusted rocks. Hoping to avoid a cycle. Link to comment
youincolor Posted December 2, 2010 Author Share Posted December 2, 2010 day...5? so far so good. i havent tested for anything yet but from what i can see i will probably avoid a cycle completely. got a few of my old corals from a friends tank that is holding everything that i didnt sell when i took my last tank down. Link to comment
fearofablackmetalplanet Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 looks good! the pc's should be fine for lps. i kept a nice colony of acans in my 2.5g w/a single screw in bulb and they grew out nicely over several months. they honestly looked better under my little bulb than they did in the store since their main display is just pure white halides. the colors popped way more w/some actinic. Link to comment
youincolor Posted December 9, 2010 Author Share Posted December 9, 2010 looks good! the pc's should be fine for lps. i kept a nice colony of acans in my 2.5g w/a single screw in bulb and they grew out nicely over several months. they honestly looked better under my little bulb than they did in the store since their main display is just pure white halides. the colors popped way more w/some actinic. Nice. I'm just going to go trial and error and see what works in here. My first light I ever bought was a halide and never looked back. Now having PCs I'm like WTF can I keep! Lol. I did buy a maxi mini anemone about a week ago and it seems to be doing great, so so far so good. New (maxi?) mini carpet anemone, doing great after a week so far. I can't tell if there is two different species of mini anemones (maxis) or just mini carpets. Need to do more research. Link to comment
youincolor Posted January 24, 2011 Author Share Posted January 24, 2011 Quick update: The tank is doing really well, pretty much on auto-pilot. Had a few temp swings and the water got pretty cold, so I added another heater, 100 watt. Water still dips into the mid 70s but I'm okay with that. I was using the Hydor Flo device but I kept finding it stuck and not rotating, so I removed it. Haven't noticed much of a difference except that the corals are happier with consistent flow. I purchased a purple firefish hoping that it might avoid the maxi-mini anemone, but never saw it again after the first night. Undeterred, a few weeks later I bought an average red firefish, and that guy only lasted a couple of days. That sealed it, this tank will be fishless until I move into a larger tank and get rid of the maxi. I added two sexy shrimp, and they are total dicks unless I feed some mysis every day. If I miss a day they start tearing up corals just to be jerks. I also added a pom pom crab way back as my first inhabitant. That thing is pretty cool in a tiny tank so you can actually see it. I've had one before in a 40 and I saw it like twice after adding it. Water changes are every to every other week. No algae, not testing water often. Pictures! Link to comment
Lawnman Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Awesome I will be setting up a Biocube 8 tomorrow.Just waiting on a replacement ballist and a media basket from good ole StevieT.I will be following your thread.How big of water changes you doing 1 gallon? Link to comment
youincolor Posted January 24, 2011 Author Share Posted January 24, 2011 Thanks. 2.5 usually. Link to comment
plantman1028 Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Are they pom pom crab legs in the first pic? Link to comment
Funktastic Wint Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Are they pom pom crab legs in the first pic? sure looks like it doesnt it! Link to comment
Nano-Chachita-tank Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 isnt a 2.5 water change a bit much for a 8 gal ? because shouldnt you do like 10% to 25% water change idk im a noob at this still so just asking. also your tanks looks really good, Like the Zoa's i also have the hydor flo and well if your having a problem with it stopping that usually means that their is some algae or some kind of deposit in the gears if you pull it apart and clean it you shouldnt have a problem with it, i only use it because it allows the tank to not have dead spots in it so no cyanobacteria for me Link to comment
youincolor Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 sure looks like it doesnt it! yep, it molted the night before and the war coral thought that they might be food. corals are stupid. isnt a 2.5 water change a bit much for a 8 gal ? because shouldnt you do like 10% to 25% water change idk im a noob at this still so just asking. also your tanks looks really good, Like the Zoa's i also have the hydor flo and well if your having a problem with it stopping that usually means that their is some algae or some kind of deposit in the gears if you pull it apart and clean it you shouldnt have a problem with it, i only use it because it allows the tank to not have dead spots in it so no cyanobacteria for me ive never had a problem changing too much water than too little. 2.5 gallons gets me 2 water changes out of a 5 gallon jug, just seems like easier math that way. i might be wasting a little clean water but its worth it to make sure im not going to be feeding any algae or anything. i am going 100% natural filtration on this tank, nothing in the first chamber, second chamber is full of liverock rubble and the water is running at the very top, and the third has the stock pump and two heaters. no chemipure or anything like that. the flo seemed really clean inside, but i really dont need it, so i just put it away for now to avoid the trouble with it. sometimes those things can get off the tiny tracks they are on just from the water pressure from the pump. this tank is just something holding me over for another month or so until i can set up my 40br again in my new house. thanks for the comments everyone Link to comment
Lawnman Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Just set mine up today.Waiting on good old StevieT to get me a ballist and media basket.I used live sand and dry Marco rock.Gonna toss in a few LR pieces from my Elos to get the cycle going.I have everything as far as live stock goes for this tank in my Elos mini.Gonna mainly do leathers and zoas with a small fish and a few sexy shrimp.Yours is looking SHAWEET Link to comment
youincolor Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 Just set mine up today.Waiting on good old StevieT to get me a ballist and media basket.I used live sand and dry Marco rock.Gonna toss in a few LR pieces from my Elos to get the cycle going.I have everything as far as live stock goes for this tank in my Elos mini.Gonna mainly do leathers and zoas with a small fish and a few sexy shrimp.Yours is looking SHAWEET haha thanks. i wish i could add more of what i want in there, but im doing this on a budget right now. i think i have spent less than $100 on the whole set up. tank was $40 used, new pc bulbs were about $40, used my own dry rock, seeded it with free rubble from my LFS, and every coral besides the maxi anemone was given to me by local reefers and people from our local reef club. so far ive made out pretty well for spending next to nothing on it! where is your BC going? i just check out your elos, its really nice, love that blue color. Link to comment
youincolor Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 Just got paaaaaaaid. I'm skipping the 20l I think and going straight to the 40br. Look for progress pics in about a month, I'm hoping to start building it in a couple of weeks. This tank's days are numbered Also changing from a lagoon to a mixed reef probably...I miss my monti caps. Link to comment
Lawnman Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 The biocube 8 I just set up is at my mothers house.I set it up for her and my nephews to enjoy when they come over which is alot.Sorry to hear the biocube days are numbered. Link to comment
youincolor Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 We'll see what happens with it, maybe Ill get a frogfish in it I'm just excited to get back to this: Link to comment
youincolor Posted August 20, 2015 Author Share Posted August 20, 2015 Wow, I did a search for posts about Biocube 8 tanks and found my old thread lol. Well, almost exactly five years after setting this tank up, it has been resurrected again as my only tank. At this point I believe this thing would be considered an antique. Is anyone out there still using a Biocube 8 at all? Interested in talking about any potential mods, failures, and successes with them. I built a stand a couple weeks ago for this thing. Rock stacked to my liking and filled up. I used dry rock that I had kept from my previous tanks, seeded with LR rubble. Settling in. Actinics. Running this thing basically totally stock again, nothing at all in the rear chambers at the moment besides a heater. I would like to hear what others are doing with their AIO tanks for inspiration. Feels good to be back, this site was the first site I lurked on like 10 years ago before setting up my first reef. Link to comment
BRN Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 lol nice still going with carpets this time? Link to comment
youincolor Posted July 16, 2016 Author Share Posted July 16, 2016 Almost one year update: Auqatraders Eco LED 3x9. Water changes. That's about all I've done so far. Link to comment
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