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Coral Vue Hydros

Vicki's Biocube 14


phoenix91

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pbjelly, Thank you! i'm quite proud of the rockwork and the fish seem to like it too. I'm so glad i stuck with that leather, at one point it looked more dead than alive but now it looks great! Yes bubble algae is evil; i think i might have done what you did. I had hair algae on some rocks so used a toothbrush to sweep it off, next thing i know tiny green bubbles everywhere :( I even had them growing in the 1st chamber intake.

 

That damsel is not only doing a good job but is also a fun little guy to watch, i'm sure at this point he thinks he's one of the clowns, he's trying very hard to be a buddy with the bigger one.

 

msscha, Hey! Yup, he adds a nice splash of colour to the tank and is a hoot to watch.

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Just a quick update. Not a whole lot going on with the tank, had a slight outbreak of bubble algae which was made worse by the fact that some bubbles grew in the powerhead and then burst, sending spores everywhere :( So i waited a few days until i could see growth and then went on the attack. Lots of corals were moved and pulled off of the rocks so i could remove the bubbles. The devils hand had loads growing on it so it had to be pulled off it's rock and cleaned. It was very very unhappy with stuff growing on it. So now it's back in the sand bed recovering, i swear this coral spends more time recovering that any of the others.

 

The saga of Lizzy and Darcy continues; they've finally descended into the tank as opposed to staying up in the corners and now Darcy is apparently living under a rock like a hermit. Lizzy is making sure he can't come out not even for a second, she's been sitting t the mouth of his little 'cave' watching for him trying to sneak out. It makes feeding him quite difficult.

 

Lizzy and the blue damsel (now called Bingley) are bestest best friends, they swim around together and get really close to each other. It worries me because all it'll take is for one of them to snap and then there'll be ripped fins and bad things. For now they seem very happy together. While Bingley is still picking off flat worms he's not exactly keeping them at bay, i just think the population might be too big for him to handle, so i'm still siphoning.

 

I did have some updated photos to post but for some reason it's not letting me attach them, something about them exceeding the size limits which is silly since they're iphone photos and are tiny. But whatever, maybe i can post them later.

 

I'm pretty sure the WORC frag swap is this weekend so i might pop down and check it out.

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Sorry to hear about the bubble algae. I hate that stuff.

 

I find it hysterical the damsel is now all chummy with one of the clowns. The little homewrecker. :P

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If bubble algae didn't go everywhere and irritate everything i wouldn't mind it, i quite like the colour of the green.

 

The damsel thinks it's a clown. It is a homewrecker. And while the clowns are chasing each other and being idiots that little damsel eats up all the food. It has a cunning plan for tank domination, and i think it's winning.

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Bozette plays with Rain all the time. I think it's funny. The LFS has the CUTEST little clown fish but I'm pretty sure Bozette would beat it to death anyway. Also, the new owner of my lfs does not impress me at all. He truly appears to know less than I do. Also, he has his 4 kids with him at work all day which personally, I find a bit irritating.

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Bozette plays with Rain all the time. I think it's funny. The LFS has the CUTEST little clown fish but I'm pretty sure Bozette would beat it to death anyway. Also, the new owner of my lfs does not impress me at all. He truly appears to know less than I do. Also, he has his 4 kids with him at work all day which personally, I find a bit irritating.

 

I find it funny and sweet that the clown and the damsel are getting along, but not at the expense of the other actual clown in the tank. Poor Darcy is all beaten up and has ripped fins and all sorts at the minute. I'm seriously considering yanking him from the tank into a bucket to give him a break.

 

Stupid new lfs owner, don't take your kids to work! How annoying.

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This is a good flat worm read link:

http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html

 

 

Also have you ever tried the squid bait method for removing flatworms? Here is a quote from "mzoo" :

 

"You may have seen my post from last November...tridacna eating flatworms decimated the 5 clams in my tank in about 4 months. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. I finally caught one on a dead clam shell and confirmed it. I ultimately decided they came in on a new clam.

 

The medications readily available (flatworm control, flatworm exit, etc.) did not work. I was pointed at some pretty heavy duty medications (IE levamisole) which would have worked but unfortunately can kill fish and I did not want to hurt my beautiful little manadarin goby.

 

I put raw squid out every week for past 4 months and caught worms on a few occasions. I impaled the bait on a long chopstick and stuck that in the sand. Less than five minutes after lights out, I caught flatworms on the bait and just lifted the whole contraption out, including worms.

 

They will multiply. They can regrow from pieces. They do eat snails.

 

I baited, watched at night, monitored my snails, and basically just was very very vigilant for the past 4 months.

 

After not getting any more on baits, and seeing new baby snails all over, I finally put in a new little maxima two weeks ago. IF I had any worms left, he would have been eaten by now."

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First photos of the new additions i got at the worc frag swap.

 

Wrong, i can't upload photos for some random and completely stupid reason. Sometimes i hate the internet.

 

I got some lovely pink zoas with long and frilly skirts :) and a hybrid hammer which is green and pinkish. I i could upload photos they would be very pretty indeed.

 

Now onto more unpleasant tank business. My tank started to leak from the seams today so i had to transfer everything over to a tub. My rock scape was broken into pieces in the move (my dad helped me bless him) and somethings will probably have a little die off.

 

Poor Bingley has lost off of his colour and is now grey, Darcy is doing remarkably well but i think this has to do with the fact that i have Lizzy trapped in a bag floating in the tank. I've set her up a container and she's acclimating right now. She was being super aggressive today, she chased him under a rock and then dove in after him and dragged him out so she could attack him. He looks terrible, his fins are all torn and he just looks miserable poor soul. My plan is to either take her back to the store which i am considering as plan A, or set up a tank for her.. this is like plan G right now since i have almost no spare money and it would take a month to cycle a tank, could she really survive in a qt type tank (which is very small) for a month? probably not.

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The biocube is dead. Started to leak on sunday so i emptied into a tub and cleaned out the tank to check where the problem was. Huge crack along the bottom glass panel. RIP biocube, i'll miss you!

 

post-69752-1332892215_thumb.jpg

 

I now have the tank in a tub. I like it so far :) Lots of space to spread out my broken rock structure. The fish are getting along a lot better, no more fighting over territory as neither have any anymore. Live stock is a tiny bit po'ed but not dead yet so that's a bonus.

 

post-69752-1332892295_thumb.jpg

 

Corals i bought the other day at the swap:

 

post-69752-1332892439_thumb.jpg

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Wow -- this is turning out to be some adventure! I wonder what made the BC crack like that? The top down shot of the tub is fun! Best of luck with the corals fingerscrossed.

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Thanks! It's turned out to be some kind of adventuresome nightmare!

 

All i can think is that the large piece of rock that was connected to the bridge, so the bit on the left side of the tank, maybe had some sharp pointy bits on the bottom. When i filled the tank i didn't set the rock directly on the glass, i put sand in first then put the rocks in then more sand. All i can think is that the weight of the protruding bits of rock being pressed on the one spot in the middle of the glass over a long period of time made it give and crack. I'm sad because i really liked the biocube and don't have the $$ to replace it.

 

So the plan for now is to relocate my dwarf puffer out of his 20G into a 5G, he'll be happier because the open space in the 20 freaks him out. Then i'm going to convert the 20 to salt, i'm planning on installing a 3 chamber section at one end of the 20 so i can hide my equipment and reuse the intank media basket. I have plastic at work that i can use for this. I'm also going to use eggcrate (if i can find it) on the bottom of the tank and sit the rock structure (which is probably going to change slightly) on it. That way i can evenly spread the weight of the rocks and hopefully avoid this happening again. I'm also going to upgrade to a rapid LED lighting system which will be nice but probably won't happen for a little while, so while i'm waiting i'm going to sit the biocube lid on the 20g and use up the light bulbs that i just bought.

 

Hopefully all of this will be achieved by the end of the weekend because my corals are looking even more po'ed and i'm sick of my cat trying to catch the fish as they swim around in their tub.

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Hopefully all of this will be achieved by the end of the weekend because my corals are looking even more po'ed and i'm sick of my cat trying to catch the fish as they swim around in their tub.

I think I read somewhere that you can get the egg crate material at places like Home Depot. I know I shouldn't laugh at the cat...but my cat at home watches the 45 gallon FW tank with salacious glee, but cannot get inside it at all. It's hilarious to watch her stretch to swat at the fish.

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Yeah i figured i'd go along to home depot/lowes today or tomorrow. I need silicone to get the 3 chamber section held in place too.

 

When i'm at home i've been leaving the top off the tub so she can stand with her feet on the edge and look in. The water level is about 3/4 of the way up so i don't think she could reach the fish but this cat likes water. I'm going to look over and see her standing nose deep in water still trying to catch fish :D

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I'm so sorry about the crack. You seem to be dealing with it really well though - I would be a wreck!

 

I think everything will look great in the 20. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

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Thanks so much. I'm very calm in a crisis. The clowns are really enjoying zipping around all the rocks in the tub so i think i'll go for a more spread out/island type of layout in the 20. If i wasn't stuck doing an essay i'd be getting the tanks sorted out right now.

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