jedidad Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I've been running my biocube for about 2 years now and have had a lot of ups and downs. My system crashed back in October while I was away for training and my wife was taking care of the tank. My bioload was a little high, but I was able to keep it in check as long as I was there to maintain it. My wife didn't know what to do with it and the 4 weeks I was gone was too much for it without me there to watch it. 150 watt Odyssea metal halide with Ice Cap ballast w/ 2-18watt actinic t-5's just added 2 blue led lights for moonlight effect CPR protein skimmer in middle chamber Chemipure in last chamber Adding a eshops 10g sump next week with an eshops nano overflow Will run macro in the sump and will move protein skimmer there will run light on sump opposite of display lights about 60 lbs liverock in display homemade auto topoff Current livestock 2 occelaris clowns 5 hermit crabs 5 turbo snails 1 nassarus snail 1 wesephelia brain 1 favia brain assorted zoanthids a few small mushrooms green star polyps candy cane coral dragons breath macro algae I have finally stablilized the tank again and will start adding new livestock at the end of the week 2 peppermint shrimp (to take care of aiptasia that are popping up) 1 emerald mithrax crab (i have a little bit of bubble algae that has recently appeared) trying to decide between a blue maxima clam or a nice acan i found I will post some pics tonight when i get off work hopefully the sump will help stabilize the water quality since i have such a low water volume Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 1st three pics are updated FTS from 12/8/11 the rest are from original post. hope you enjoyed the pics. i'll post some more when i make some additions Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 going to reward myself for graduating from engineer training at work. i am torn between a $90 2.5" blue maxima clam and a $40 3 head ultra acan. they have them at two different lfs and i can get the peppermint shrimps, mithrax crabs and macro algae that i want from either. What would you suggest? Link to comment
jack1978 Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 going to reward myself for graduating from engineer training at work. i am torn between a $90 2.5" blue maxima clam and a $40 3 head ultra acan. they have them at two different lfs and i can get the peppermint shrimps, mithrax crabs and macro algae that i want from either. What would you suggest? Skip the peppermint imo. After mine ate the aptasia it started munching all of my zoas. I also have around 60 lbs of LR and trying to remove that shrimp was near impossible! Try aptasia-x. -Clam or acan.... whatever you prefer. Acan would require less attention. Nice tank btw! Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 i have been thinking about the peppermint shrimp myself. is the aiptasia-x easy to use. do you think it works better than lime or lemon juice which i have seen some suggestions on. Link to comment
jack1978 Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 i have been thinking about the peppermint shrimp myself. is the aiptasia-x easy to use. do you think it works better than lime or lemon juice which i have seen some suggestions on. I lucked out in a way. He ate all the aptasia the first night, and it's never come back. A lot of people here said to try aptasia-x, but I havent had to yet. See what everyone else says. GL Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 went to home depot today to buy some plumbing for the sump. think i got everything i need but one of the fittings was the wrong size. someone must have mixed one in with the wrong box. have to go back tomorrow. can't wait to set it up. should i use chaeto or calurpa macro in it? has anyone else had problems with peppermint shrimp eating zoanthids Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 going tomorrow to the lfs to get some livestock and some macro algae. whats everyones opinions concerning calurpa vs chaeto. i need to get some for the sump i'm gonna set up. Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 i've added a few new inhabitants and a sump/fuge. here are some pictures. firtst the sump the hob overflow had to take shelf out to make room so i mounted balast and power strips to walls my new green mandarin. lfs showed me that it is eating a certain type of pellet food. I have lots of pods and put more in my sump to start raising them. I'm going to try to feed frozen and see if I can ween it onto that also. two peppermint shrimp. hopefully they will eat the aiptasia and if they start causing trouble i will move them to the sump. harlequin shrimp to take care of asternia stars which are overrunnig my tank. he is already eating them. I never see him without one. and a emerald mithrax crab to hopefully eat the bubble algae. any comments positive or negative are appreciated Link to comment
gsechen Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 might want to check on your mandarin's spots. looks like ich... Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 yeah i worried about that too. i blew some water at him with a turkey baster and it all came off. it was just some sand stuck to his slime coating. Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 i'd like to add maybe one for small fish to my tank. any suggestions. i was thinking fire fish but would like something more out of the ordinary. Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 i'd like for the fish i get to be something that will swim around in the water column. the clowns mostly hang around the brain coral that they are hosting and the mandarin stays on the rocks. any suggestion would be appreciated Link to comment
latteslave Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Here's the pictures I promised hope you enjoyed the pics. i'll post some more when i make some additions Awesome macro... Link to comment
jfarabaugh Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 looks like you have some aipista (spelling?) in your tank Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 yea. I ordered some aiptasia-x yesterday. should get it by monday and then its bye bye aiptasia. thanks latteslave. its called a dragons breath. was never really interested in macros that much but i had to have this one when i saw it at the lfs. Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 aiptasia-x is awesome. took care of them all quick. at least all the ones i could find. i'm sure i missed some of the tiny ones Link to comment
jedidad Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 thinking about a flaming prawn goby pistol shrimp pair. any suggestions on a pistol shrimp. Link to comment
jedidad Posted May 5, 2011 Author Share Posted May 5, 2011 thought i'd post some pics of some new additions to the tank Blastomossa Torch coral. had five heads but four of them died second day it was in my tank. found out that lfs should have made sure heads were retracted into skeleton before bagging. i think they got damaged on the way home cause they never closed up.. luckily it looks like one head has made it and hopefully it will start growing for me. my new maxima clam i just added yesterday. its about 2 inches and lfs said to keep it in a bowl to keep hermit crabs away from it untill it gets aclimated and attaches to the rock. not sure if thats necessary but i figure it can't hurt and why take the chance. Link to comment
jedidad Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 two new additions today. first some kind of zoanthid. if anyone can id i would appreciate it. i just really liked it and it was only $10 think this is a hammer but might be a frogspawn. hasn't opened up all the way but when it was it looked more like a hammer. green tentacles with purple tips. Link to comment
roly01 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 hey man nice setup, would you mind putting up some more info on how you went about doing your whole sump/fuge setup ive been debating doing it for a while, also are you getting allot more evaporation? Link to comment
jedidad Posted May 11, 2011 Author Share Posted May 11, 2011 hey man nice setup, would you mind putting up some more info on how you went about doing your whole sump/fuge setup ive been debating doing it for a while, also are you getting allot more evaporation? thanks.basically i have a eshopps nano hob overflow in the center chamber running through flexible hosing to the sump. the sump is an eshopps something 75. can't remember the exact model number. i have a cpr skimmer in the sump and some macro algae. using some florescent lighting difusers to keep the macro out of the skimmer pump. using a return pump with a ball valve on it to control the flow back to the tank. i adjust the ball valve to match the flow from the overflow. the tank is open top and i have to top off about a half gallon a day. if you have any other questions let me know. Link to comment
RedStang Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Love the tank btw. How's the mandarin doing? One of my favorite fish but I doubt I'll ever find one eating prepared foods. Maybe when I upgrade! Link to comment
jedidad Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 Love the tank btw. How's the mandarin doing? One of my favorite fish but I doubt I'll ever find one eating prepared foods. Maybe when I upgrade! thanks. the mandarin is doing great so far. i feed him nutramar ova frozen prawn eggs. he took right to it. no training whatsoever. as far as i understand they all love it. i feed him every day but i have to put alot in the tank so he'll get enough because everything else in the tank goes crazy on the stuff too. he is fattening up nicely. he was pretty thin when i picked him up. Link to comment
jedidad Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 new pics of my mandarin Link to comment
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