Joshik's 29 Biocube 29

[joshik]

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Update: 2/2/13

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I moved to San Diego several months ago. I tore down my nano and just kept everything in a frag tank in my garage for a few months. However, it got too cold and my heaters couldn't keep up. I didnt want to run 900Ws of heater so I shut the frag tank down and re-setup my nano in the house.

 

 

I finally got a chance to cut and rough up a screen and put my algae turf scrubber back in. I started to have a small outbreak of GHA on my frag plugs. Weird, the GHA was only growing on existing frag plugs, not on any regular rock surface.

 

Anyways, my tank is EXTREMELY QUIET. I had the scrubber running with out a screen for a while and it made a loud splashing noise. My wife and I got used to it. After installing the screen, there was a weird silence in the house. Feel's strange. LOL

 

I have uploaded a video of my tank. You can tell that it is really quiet and you can faintly hear drops of water that is dropping from the scrubber tray (you can see at the end of the video). I could prob fix that so it makes zero noise... but some other time. Please excuse the "mess". I had no place to put all my corals neatly

 

 

Currently for fish I have:

 

Pair of BW Ocellaris Clowns

Royal Gramma

Female Flame Wrasse

Orbic Cardinal

Green Mandarin Goby

Yasha Hase Goby & Candy Strip Pistol Shrimp pair

Pseudochromis Fridmani

 

I just put the fridmani in last week which was a mistake. The gramma picks on the fridmani so it is always in hiding. I see it come out from time to time to eat. I read that they look similar and are of similar species so they don't get a long. I am going to try to catch him and sell him.... that or sell the gramma and get a smaller one.

 

3/9/12
video

12/26/11



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so i finally got my new to me biocube 29 up and running! i am downsizing from 2 40g's and a 12g nc to a single biocube 29 because i am getting married and moving into her apartment.

man, we had quite a time bringing up 6 5g jugs full of nsw up to the apartment on the 3rd floor!

so here is a shot of the tank setup with some sand and some rocks before filling it with water.


i got the inspiration for the light tree from rbaby! i love 80/20! man you can do almost anything with it!


it's mounted to the back of my stand


here is a FTS before aquascaping.


here it is after some aquascaping. not 100% satisfied. ill probably adjust it a little but..maybe add a few more pieces of rock.


So right now, the tank is setup with:

maxijet900 for return
MP10 for flow
DIY 60w (50/50 3w blue and white) LED fixture (from a fellow NRer) mounted to a light tree using 80/20

i have in the works a cool filtration system. still trying to plan and design but i'll put up pics once i'm done.

cant wait to put in some livestock!

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Stock List Update: 3/8/12

EQUIPMENT:
Bio Cube 29
Eheim 100w jager heater
MJ 900
MP10
60w 50/50 RB:CW LED fixture from Aquastyles

FISH & others
2 BW Ocellaris
1 Yellowhead Jawfish
1 Red Firefish
1 Purple Firefish
1 Helfrichi Firefish
1 Yasha Hase Goby
1 Candystripe Pistol Shrimp
1 Yellow Coris Wrasse
1 Red Pygmy Possum Wrasse
1 Flame Angel
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Harliquin Starfish
1 Red Brittle Star
Tons of Blue Legged Hermits, Ceriths, Dwarf Ceriths and Nassarius
1 Scarlet Hermit

SOFT CORALS
Zoas:
Red Hornets
Lunar Eclipse Morph
Purple Death
Nuclear Green
Jokers
Pink and Golds
Pink Zippers
Organisms
Big Fat Blue Paly
Hawaiian Nebulas
Green Armageddons
Darth Mauls
Magician
Tongas
Various un-named zoas

Others:
Neon Green Toadstool
Ricordea Floridas
Ricordea Yuma
Various other mushrooms
Orange Tree Coral

LPS:
Unknown Chalice
Various Lobos
Candy Cane
Duncans
Neon Green Torch
Various acans
War Paint Scoly
Green Fungia

SPS:
Superman Monti
Rainbow Monti
Meteor Shower
2 unknown acros
2 unknown pocillopora

OTHERS:
2 Maxima Clams

ROCKS and Sand
Primo Reefs premium rock
Fiji Pink Sand

[joshik]

well its been a few weeks and my tank is doing great! i transferred all my corals from my old frag tank, got some new fish and all seems well.

 

i currently have:

 

2 mocha clowns

1 super black onyx clown (partner died while my friend was holding them in his tank)

2 neon gobies

1 yellow head jaw fish

1 candy pistol shrimp (gonna get a yasha hase soon)

1 cleaner shrimp

lots of blue leg hermits, nassarius, astreas, dwarf ceriths and a scarlet hermit

 

corals:

tons of various zoas and palys

big duncan colony

superman montis

meteor shower

reverse prism favia

warpaint scoly

various acans (some rainbow)

large lobo colony

fungia (hitch hiker i found a few months back)

red monti cap

tyree neon green toadstool

candy canes

pocillopora (hitch hiker i found a few months back)

 

 

future:

fire fish (helfrichi, purple and red)

basslet

hifin blenny

catch my superblack onyx amd sell

gorgonia

kenya tree

more sps and zoas

 

here is a FTS.

12/26/11

[RedStang]

Nice but packed! Guess you had no choice with the downsizing though. Any updates on your filtration system?

[joshik]

Nice but packed! Guess you had no choice with the downsizing though. Any updates on your filtration system?

 

thanks! yeh its a bit crowded. my jawfish burried a bunch of stuff the other day. he's made a huge lair that spans under the entire rock-scape. he's chilled out on digging now. i think he's in maintenance mode now. he's so cool

 

as for filtration, nothing fancy right now. i do a lot of water changes and running filter floss in the overflow. when i have some time, im going to build a algae turf scrubber for my nano so i can have some more small fish.

[joshik]

just an update of my tank.

 

got some new inhabitants!

 

I now currently have:

 

2 BW Ocellaris

1 Yellowhead Jawfish

1 Red Firefish

1 Purple Firefish

1 Helfrichi Firefish

1 Yasha Hase Goby

1 Candystripe Pistol Shrimp

1 Yellow Coris Wrasse

1 Red Pygmy Possum Wrasse

1 Flame Angel

 

WOW! 10 fish!

 

now, now... before the bioload police cracks down on me, all my fish are SUPER tiny and I'm doing water changes 1.5x a week. I'm going to be setting up a small algae turf scrubber soon in the rear chamber too.

 

My tank is flourishing...both soft and hard corals. My encrusting monti's (superman and rainbow), 2 acros and 2 poclliopora are doing great! Duncans are growing heads like crazy and my other LPSs are nice and poofy.

 

I will post up some pics soon

[gmod]

10 fish...Gonna keep an eye on this for the long run...see how it goes for you...do wish you luck...

[RedStang]

10 fish...Gonna keep an eye on this for the long run...see how it goes for you...do wish you luck...

 

+1! Not saying it can't be done, just curious as to how it goes. I have 5 in mine and all are happy. 10 might be a crownd!

[joshik]

+1! Not saying it can't be done, just curious as to how it goes. I have 5 in mine and all are happy. 10 might be a crownd!

 

 

well my yasha hase is small and barely adds any bioload and my fish are mostly under 1.5". i feed them once a day or 2x a day (smaller amounts) of pellets and flakes. i have a ton of dwarf ceriths and blue legs plus other cuc.

 

i do a 2-3g water change every 4 days or so and am in the works to build an algae turf scrubber into the middle chamber of my tank.

 

previous to having 10 fish, i had 7 for a few months with no problems. i guess adding 3 more is 42% more though... lol

 

 

 

i'll post up a video later tonight

[RedStang]

well my yasha hase is small and barely adds any bioload and my fish are mostly under 1.5". i feed them once a day or 2x a day (smaller amounts) of pellets and flakes. i have a ton of dwarf ceriths and blue legs plus other cuc.

 

i do a 2-3g water change every 4 days or so and am in the works to build an algae turf scrubber into the middle chamber of my tank.

 

previous to having 10 fish, i had 7 for a few months with no problems. i guess adding 3 more is 42% more though... lol

 

 

 

i'll post up a video later tonight

 

Not judging or criticizing . If it works for you more power to you!

[joshik]

Not judging or criticizing . If it works for you more power to you!

no worries! Thanks!

[joshik]

just an update.... its been a week or so since i added my last 3 fish. Things are doing well. I tested my water today after not having done a water change since last week. I wanted to see how my tank would do the first week. All levels are good. Nitrates are 0 but my Phosphates are at 1ppm. I will do a water change tomorrow to lower this. I started my algae turf scrubber yesterday. It's gonna be a while before it takes real effect.

 

Here are some pics of some inhabitants in my tank:

 

Neon Green Toadstool with a blue leg hermit hosting it:

 

An acan my wife won from a raffle for $1!

 

Wild zoa

 

Joker colony

 

Hitch hiker that was 1/5 the size originally

 

One of my fav new fish...but he doesn't come out often

 

short video:

[dorkymk3]

now that's a fully stock tank hehe. Nice collection!

[joshik]

now that's a fully stock tank hehe. Nice collection!

 

yeh, too many corals. it all came from my frag tank tear down. im trying to get rid of some stuff to make more room

[joshik]

I made a frag rack today to mount to the side of my tank with a magfloat. now i can get my frags off the ground and free up some real estate on the sand. i have several new macro algae species coming in and i need somewhere to put them!

 

i'm going to start stocking my tank heavily with macros now too to help with the nutrients.

 

i am also running an algae turf scrubber. this will compete with my macro for the nutrients but i'll be able to feed more and possibly get more fish!

 

here is the frag rack!. Made out of acrylic that i drilled with a step drill bit. the specs match that of egg crate so i can stick a ton of plugs on it!

 

after drilling the holes on the drill press

 

Weld-on #16 drying!

 

rack locked and loaded!

[cdrewferd]

Dang. That is one full 29g Biocube. Any pics of the algea scrubber? I would have though you would have kept the 12g nano as well.

[joshik]

Dang. That is one full 29g Biocube. Any pics of the algea scrubber? I would have though you would have kept the 12g nano as well.

 

yeh, its super full. i need to sell off stuff i just fragged my encrusting monti's and meteor showers. i have frags EVERYWHERE now

 

i dont have a pic of the algae scrubber but ill try to take some pics sometime.

[gmod]

Come on dude show a us the Algae Scrubber...

[Red_Blenny]

Hey, I bought a Pink Zipper from ya a long long long time ago when you used to keep that frag tank. It's great to see your tank doing very well (and super stocked).

[joshik]

Hey, I bought a Pink Zipper from ya a long long long time ago when you used to keep that frag tank. It's great to see your tank doing very well (and super stocked).

 

nice! how is it doing? i still have the same mini colony and they are doing great.

 

yeh, my tank is a little crowded. ive been trying to sell off some stuf and get everything "non-essential" off the sand bed. I want to keep the sand bed clear except for my acans and my 2 clams. i recently fragged my meteor showers, superman monti and rainbow monti so i dont have ugly frag plates sitting on my rock. i glued a few pieces to the rock so they will grow and cover the rocks and am selling off the rest.

 

so also an update on my tank. it's been about 3 weeks since i added the 3 fish to make 10 total in my tank. everything is doing well except for some of my zoas. not sure what it is. its only a few frag plugs, the heads are not opening all the way. maybe something irritating it..? maybe amphipods...

 

i did a small water change late last week to replenish elements since i don't dose (i just started dosing seachem reef fusion 1&2 so i will reduce my water change frequency while continuing to test my water). however, i kept a sample of the tank water before the water change so i could test it and see how my parameters were. so i tested the old water and the current water tonight. everything is looking pretty good. i feed 2x a day with a healthy portion of pellets or flakes and mysis. i also "dose" seachem zooplankton once a week and coral frenzy.

 

nitrates at 0ppm

phosphates between 0 and .25ppm

 

i cleaned off my algae turf scrubber today. nice algae growth. i shoulda taken a picture of it before i cleaned it. ill post a pic of the screen when i clean it next week. my macros seem to be growing slowly and all my inhabitants seem to be happy. i know i was talking of adding a few more fish. i might add a tail spot blenny and a sailfin blenny in the upcoming weeks.

 

i'll put up an updated FTS soon. my tank is "sleeping" right now.

[gmod]

How about pics of this so called algae scrubber you supposedly have

[joshik]

How about pics of this so called algae scrubber you supposedly have

 

 

about a week and a few days worth of algae growth. single sided but there is some growth went thru the screen and onto the other side. freaking hard to get this algae off

 

 

here is a quick write up on my algae turf scrubber

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=299435

[gmod]

LOL...How about a pic installed...I know what the screen looks like...

[joshik]

LOL...How about a pic installed...I know what the screen looks like...

 

 

lol. i was making a new write up post after i posted the screen pic check out the screen post again. i made a link

[Red_Blenny]

nice! how is it doing? i still have the same mini colony and they are doing great.

 

yeh, my tank is a little crowded. ive been trying to sell off some stuf and get everything "non-essential" off the sand bed. I want to keep the sand bed clear except for my acans and my 2 clams. i recently fragged my meteor showers, superman monti and rainbow monti so i dont have ugly frag plates sitting on my rock. i glued a few pieces to the rock so they will grow and cover the rocks and am selling off the rest.

 

so also an update on my tank. it's been about 3 weeks since i added the 3 fish to make 10 total in my tank. everything is doing well except for some of my zoas. not sure what it is. its only a few frag plugs, the heads are not opening all the way. maybe something irritating it..? maybe amphipods...

 

The pink zipper is doing nicely. It stayed as a 2 head frag for 6 months, then all of a sudden it just took off from there. It's now a 6+ head frag. One of my gf's favorite zoas. I'd take a plugless rainbow monti off from ya, but I gotta take care of my po4 level first

 

As for the zoas, if they stay closed or if they 'look funny', I'd do a lugol's dip on 'em. I saved some of my randoms zoas by doing a lugol's dip. I noticed amphipods will eat the zoas only if it is dead

 

Btw, cleanest algae scrubber ever

[joshik]

The pink zipper is doing nicely. It stayed as a 2 head frag for 6 months, then all of a sudden it just took off from there. It's now a 6+ head frag. One of my gf's favorite zoas. I'd take a plugless rainbow monti off from ya, but I gotta take care of my po4 level first

 

As for the zoas, if they stay closed or if they 'look funny', I'd do a lugol's dip on 'em. I saved some of my randoms zoas by doing a lugol's dip. I noticed amphipods will eat the zoas only if it is dead

 

Btw, cleanest algae scrubber ever

 

nice, im glad the zips started growing! mine dont grow too fast. i have mine on a rock now and they grew a few more heads.

 

as for my rainbow montis, i lost most of my frags. i took them to MAX to sell in our club booth and left them overnight from sat to sun. they looked horrible sun morning and when i transported them back home, the flesh was completely gone off of ALL my montis and meteor showers. meteors are making a comeback but my montis are toast . i still have one big piece and small frag im trying to grow out.

 

also, i moved my redhornets to the sump of my fish holding tank and they are doing better in there now....strange. :T