lljdma06 Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Greetings fellow All-in-Oners! I usually post more in the pico and biotope section, but why not make my way across all of the special interest forums? A friend of mine who's a member here (he knows who he is) is moving and can't take all of his tanks. So, I while we were talking about the cost of me converting my ADA planted aquarium into a Marine tank, he smartly suggested that I just buy his 8g biocube. So I took him up on his offer, seeing that it would be cheaper to just buy this tank rather than convert my ADA. This is my first All-in-One. Tank's being shipped on Monday. I'm excited. More to come later, I'll fill out this page as I get more equipment. Ordered chemi-pure elite, purigen, and a bag of Fiji pink livesand. That's on its way too. **********End of initial post************ Oceanic BioCube 8 Gallon Mods (of course not made by me): -Custom made NanoBox 18x Rebel LED fixture - 18 CREEs, 12 Royal Blue and 6 Neutral White with a programmable controller. Does thunderstorms and stuff like that. Wooooo! -InTank BC8 Media Rack -Dual 10w Submersible Halogen Lights for refugium -Mini-Jet 606 -Hydor Flo -inTank fish saver -Koralia nano 240 Chemical additives and mixes -Red Sea Coral pro salt -RO/DI water -Purigen (chamber 2 bottom) -Chemi-pure elite (chamber 2 top) Biological Filtration - About 12lbs of cured Haitian LR -1lb of Tonga branch LR - in 36g, soon to be given to boyfriend for his tank. LOL - 10lbs of Livesand (Nature's Ocean) -Refugium with chaeto (chamber 1) Livestock Fish - It's not as bad as it looks. Really. My params are excellent in this tank, I've just had crappy luck. -Purple firefish (Nemateleotris decora) - died from a fungal infection. -Blue spot jawfish (Opistognathus rosenblatti) - died in an accident -Tanaka's pygmy wrasse - stung by elegance *sigh* -two-spot goby - returned to LFS -High fin perchelet - did not survive quarantine -black ocellaris - arrived with ich, was treaated in quarantine. Inverts - as you can see, things do survive in my tank. -blue-legged hermits - moved to 36g reef -Nassarius vibex -dwarf ceriths -hairy chiton - MIA -yellow cucumber -cowrie -limpet -porcelain anemone crab -pompom crab -a ginormous bristle worm! Corals Zoanthids & Palythoas & soft corals -Red and blue zoanthids -Mowhawks -Nuclear greens -Green infusions -God of War -Red hornets -Purple hornets -green star polyps LPS -Duncan -Christmas Favia -Meteor shower cyphastrea -Red cyphastrea - damaged in turf war with green infusion paly fts - will update soon! L Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Another? Addict Yay! You found me! Well, when you see the lights, you'll know why I couldn't pass this one up. L Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Tank has shipped. Should be here by Wednesday. L Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 Tank is here... Stay tuned... Picture Whores, you'll finally get your fill! Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 Ok, time for the moment of truth. Tank arrived yesterday! I know, I know, why didn't I post this yesterday?! Well, I got slammed with a head cold yesterday and feel awful. So now, I'm stuck in bed and able to catch up. He kept the original packaging. How awesomely anal is that? It arrived in excellent condition. Pink towels are an added bonus. Empty tank The controller. This is sick. The LCD is easy to read and he called me on Skype to walk me through the process. When I do the setup on Saturday, he'll be walking me through the process as well. The second gen controller will have a case. I'll get that in maybe a month or so. I ran the lights for a spell and found it very easy to work with. This the lighting itself. You can see how well put together it is. Awesome, I was extremely impressed with the work that Nanobox did with this custom setup. One of the most aesthetically pleasing upgrades I've seen. It almost looks like the biocube actually came that way. All the components of the tank. You have the cords for the light, the fans, a printer cable to connect the controller to my laptop, the program to work the lights (flashdrive), the upgraded pump, Fluke by Christopher Moore (hehe, Monochrome wanted me to read it), two submersable halogen bulbs to run my in tank refugium, the fishsaver (almost out of the picture), and the upgraded media rack with the hydor flow inside. Of course, now the moment of truth, what do these lights look like? Default setting. I think this at like 25% intensity. Haha, may put it at close to full so you can see. Of course I won't run it that way. Haha, unless people are curious to see what perhaps Venus looks like? And finally some video of the Thunderstorm. I wanted to start the leak test yesterday, but I was too sick by then and just went to bed. I may try it later today if I feel up to it. Tanks also needs to be scrubbed. Was a FW planted prior and there's some dried up algae and bits of substrate about. Thanks for looking. I'm very excited to finally be able to show you pictures. L Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 I set it up today. Wooooooooo I've got some lousy iPhone photos. Comes out super blue, which it really isn't that blue. It gotta figure out how to filter out the blue in photos. Rock arrangement below, went with good old Haitian cured LR. Has served me extremely well. Got two freebie blue-legged hermits in the rock, only found them after I put the sand in. Oh well. The combination of this cured rock with the livesand resulted in minimal cycling, so they'll make it I'm sure. Super tiny guys. Could technically put them in my 36, but they'd be lunch. Smaller than ceriths they are. Haha, don't stare into the lights!!!!!!!!!!!!! :haha: I'd show you more pictures, but right now, I have a lovely little sandstorm going. One of my best scapes. LOLOL Thanks for looking. Birth of reef #4. Wow, that's a lot. L Link to comment
castiel Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Wow those are quite the LEDs! And I really like your rockscape, is that just two big pieces leaning against each other? I am very interested to see what you do with this one =0) Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Wow those are quite the LEDs! And I really like your rockscape, is that just two big pieces leaning against each other? I am very interested to see what you do with this one =0) Yes, two big pieces and a couple of smaller ones. But I found an awesome piece of Tonga rock, though and had to put it in. It's extremely stable, which I like. More pictures... Controller at work. Scape with Tonga A little video L Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 Ok, so I have 4 SW tanks, right. CUC's get repetitive after a while. So I've been chatting with John Maloney from reefcleaners and trying to figure out an interesting, yet easy to care for CUC for this biocube. This is what he came up with. Now, Maloney's great with CUCs and I did research before, so his stuff all checks out, though it's unusual. 5 dwarf ceriths 1 dwarf cowrie 2 Nassarius vibex 1 Electric Blue hermit 1 Scarlet hermit 1 Chiton 1 Limpet 1 Orange pecten - a small scallop, easy to care for 1 mini yellow cucumber So there you have it, a weirdo, cool CUC for the girl who has almost everything. I may replace the hermits with two Orange knuckle hermits, same genus as the Electric blue, just in orange. I asked if he could get those. Btw, hh hermits are still doing great as is the hh mushroom. Seeing diatoms, so I guess I should test the water and see where I am in the cycle. He's not sending me my CUC until the tank's cycled, we're just planning ahead since some of the stuff isn't in stock yet. L Link to comment
buddythelion Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Nice looking tank! I'm jealous! Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Nice looking tank! I'm jealous! Hehehe... Glad you found the journal. L Link to comment
Jacob042426 Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Where is your rock from? Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Where is your rock from? Cured Haitian rock from a LFS & a piece of cured Tonga from a different LFS. Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Stocking plans? Was thinking a Helfrich's firefish, & possibly one of the pygmy wrasses, but it's up in the air. As for display inverts, I'm not sure yet. Thought about a harlequin shrimp as I do have starfish in my fuge. At my LFS, the owner is holding a brain, duncan, some acans, & a bop birdsnest for me for when the tank is ready for corals & I have some higher end zoa frags that'll be introduced to the tank. They're in my old 8g now. Wobble gong wows, Mohawks, nuclear greens, & horizons. The lights are awesome, I want to take advantage. Suggestions are welcome. L Link to comment
JMCollins24 Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Love the storm effect! Link to comment
leonel619 Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 +1... love the thunderstorm effect. very nice looking tank. I've always wanted to do an AIO. Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 Love the storm effect! I love it too, it just happened, fun to watch, I never get tired of it. +1... love the thunderstorm effect. very nice looking tank. I've always wanted to do an AIO. Thanks, I wasn't sold on an AIO at first, but this one had the tricked out lights and the mods were already done, which was a huge plus for me. My only quibble right now is that the lights are a wee bit blue for my tastes. I like some blue, but not insane blue all the time. Later tonight, though, I'm getting a tutorial on the computer program to program the controller, so I can reduce the blue. Don't get me wrong, corals look great under blue light, but I like natural colors too. L Link to comment
buddythelion Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 ...Wobble gong wows...The lights are awesome, I want to take advantage. Suggestions are welcome. L WANT. Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 WANT. So, my CUC is coming on Wednesday... I've done up chamber one as a refugium, and chamber 2 has the media rack with Purigen (bottom), chemi-pure elite (top). We're ready for the children on Wednesday. Also have some pods and the hermits are still doing really well. Also chatted with Monochrome5, the original owner of the biocube and worked on the lights. We made it a bit less blue. I don't need so much blue (he is obsessed with blue) and he showed me how to use the board and the controller software. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=258503 If mine is half as good as his was, I'm pretty darn happy. L Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Haha, it's been a while, school got crazy, had to grade a load of tests. Stuff has happened. My CUC from Reefcleaners arrived, Wednesday, March 1 as promised. The white claw hermit was DOA but I was refunded. Everybody else is ok. I went with an unusual group. Considering how much of a pain my CUC is being in my old 8g Finnex with them bumping and knocking down corals, I may not add a showcase crab to this tank with the exception of maybe another pompom crab, or porcelain anemone crab. The Electric blues constantly knock down stuff as does my emerald crab and trochus snails. NO MORE! I'm SICK of it!!!! fts 5 dwarf cerith snails... See, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Only 5. Not 50, but 5. Count 'em, FIVE! Hairy chiton Limpets cowrie Orange pecten scallop. Unusual choice, but I think he's cool. He lives in a corner of the tank now. He was exploring a bit there. Where he finally settled. Great little animal, fascinating to watch. Poor man's clam. Hahaha. I also got a yellow sea cucumber, but it's sort of in the back of the tank in a place that's impossible to photograph. I feed phytoplankton for the scallop and the cucumber. Another fts I gotta move a few frags over this coming week. The Finnex is getting crowded as it's serving as a holding tank until this one is a little bit more ready. I also put a Helfrich's firefish on hold. He's a beauty, or she... L Link to comment
pbjelly Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 LOVE the scallop! Actually, I love the whole start to this tank. It rocks that you got this all tricked out. I can't wait to see where you go with it. Totally in agreement with the hermit hate. (Actually for me sort of love/hate. They are really funny, but they seem to go out of their way to knock s&*t over and step all over everything in the tank.) I've got scallop envy now... Cheers Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 LOVE the scallop! Actually, I love the whole start to this tank. It rocks that you got this all tricked out. I can't wait to see where you go with it.Totally in agreement with the hermit hate. (Actually for me sort of love/hate. They are really funny, but they seem to go out of their way to knock s&*t over and step all over everything in the tank.) I've got scallop envy now... Cheers Awwww, thank you. Don't get me wrong, I love my Electric blue hermits, but my scarlets are a lot less of a pain as are my blue legs in the biotope. Something about these crabs. They are larger and more clumsy. It's also me being very lazy. I need to glue my frags, but I haven't found the exact right place for them yet. And I got more coming in on Monday. Yikes! My biggest concern with the pecten is that if I get a burrowing fish like a goby, he'll harass the pecten. I don't think that'll happen, but you never know, and i'm getting attached to the pecten. I love that he staked out a cave right in the front of the tank. L Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Well, I've got corals. Lots of frags, yikes. Bad, I know, bad, but I've been down this route before and it seems to work. Expect more pictures... Soon... Still need to work out my camera. I actually have to edit the photos. I take them, they are blue and then I use a program to gradually get them to kinda how they look in real life. Except the shots below are the real deal. Came out great. Still learning. Tank looks great. Can't find my pecten, will search for him tonight. He moved, so now he's hard to find. When the blue rebels are on, the color is sooooooo intense it's not even funny. Impossible to get a photo that's totally accurate. Some diatoms, but I don't have a very strong CUC, on purpose. I don't want things being knocked about. May add more ceriths and possibly a trochus when I've secured everything. Will be acquiring the following today... -Valentine's Day Massacre Palythoa -God of War Palythoa I need to secure a few acan frags, yes, I've got acans. I got a lot of stuff in this tanks. It's bad, I have no restraint. Thank goodness I do big water changes, but nothing's up, params are great. Won't tell you the rest of what I've got. All I'll say is that I've got a mixed reef and most everything has a name and things have been doing great for a few weeks. The planned livestock is terrible, don't do it, but I have a gut instinct about this lineup. I'll just say that two fish are on hold for me at the LFS and one of them is a Helfrich's firefish. Some teaser shots... GSP Ponape Birdsnest 4 head, well now 8 headed, duncan. Yes, there's an Aussie Lord Acan colony back there... Sigh, told you. I've been bad. Thanks for looking. L Link to comment
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