My Biocube 14 (Coralife Edition)

[LongDoggy]

Well new order on the way. My new RapidLED retrofit kit is on the way and arriving Saturday!!

I sure hope this will add some pizzaz to the tank! (And some new coral options)

[LongDoggy]

Well I had to hold up on my LED retrofit project this weekend. The power supply had a busted fan so playing the waiting game now. Project to do that will start up again near the end of the week or over the weekend.

First impressions of the storm controller were very positive. I think its going to be pretty neat to set the coordinates of Fiji and let the controller run the day/night sunrise and set schedules. Then play in some of the cloud and storm effects.

 

I took it upon myself this past weekend to get my hands wet and do some new reefscape work. Included a new image of the new structure. I wanted to design a scape that defied gravity, and had many shelf areas to place new corals which I will be stocking in the coming months.

 

I also added the new Korila pump, Biocube Skimmer, new bag of Purigen and Chemipure Elite.

 

Placed order for the Tunez ATO and Hydor Flo which will arrive tomorrow.

The build out is moving well.

Certainly good progress towards beautifying this 3 year old tank.

 

More to come...

[LongDoggy]

Made some good progress on the tank this past week.

1) Installed the RapidLED kit with Storm controller. I love it. I went with 4 White, 6 Royal Blue, and 2 UV. Kit was fairly easy to build, took about 3-4 hours from start to finish. I am very impressed with the look and controllability. I expect this will help me sustain any coral that will fit in the tank. So far it has helped me achieve my primary concern of temperature control. I am around 77-78 through an entire day. I took out my heater also so this is just normal temperature.

 

2) Tunze nano ATO. I love it. Easy install and awesome leveling capability.

 

3) Biocube Skimmer. I know some people say this thing sucks, and I have run a decent skimmer on another tank in the past. But after two weeks now I am starting to pull some pretty decent/nasty skim. So I would say it is doing its job.

 

4) Hydor 240 pump. Its doing a good job at what i need it to do. Takes up little space, quiet, does not raise temperature and can be located low on the back wall easily.

 

5) Hydor Flo, its a pretty neat add on and for 15 bucks I think it was a good purchase to somewhat randomize the tank flow.

 

The tank looks great. I will give it a few more weeks to level out and then its off to the corral store.

I will post up some more pictures when I get some good ones, the LEDs make it hard to obtain a good clear picture.

 

On a current livestock update, my Paly's are still suffering a bit from the past year neglect, seeing if they pull through with the new LEDs.

the two Duncans seem to be doing great. My Frogspawn unfortunately is looking pretty bad and may be almost gone. Also hoping this will pull through a few good heads. As for now, its withered and bleached.

I know the past year did not help, I am sure my levels were so out of line. From my 85 degree water to no water changes in months... I brought it on myself. But with what I had going on outside of my water cube, it was the last thing on my mind. But now with my attention and recommitment, I am ready to bring this tank to new heights never experienced before.

[LongDoggy]

Adding a new image of a FTS from last night. Still playing with the photo editing and lighting.

Looking to add more corals this coming weekend.

Any suggestions?

 

[LongDoggy]

It's so hard to get a good picture. I'll have to find my good camera and start playing with that.

For now, made a quick video of the new reef-scape.

 

[LongDoggy]

I got my camera working and managed to get some decent shots. Today, I added in a nice colony of Green Star Polyps and a Maxima clam.

 

Here is the latest FTS with a recently tweaked reef-scape:

 

This is the new Green Star Polyp:

 

Here is a shot of the new Maxima Clam. Pretty neat little creature:

 

This is a pretty chalice coral that I have a hard time taking a picture that represents is vibrant colors. The red is a light velvety appearance and the blue is bright electric blue. Many mouths, I can't wait for this thing to grow out. I have it in low light on a rock shelf under a rock overhang.

 

 

Couple of frags growing out. Some assorted zoas and a hammer coral.

 

Last a cool photo from the feeding trap. The female clown is such a pig and always wants to eat.

 

 

[defender.TX]

Wow, tank is looking great! What a comeback.

[LongDoggy]

Wow, tank is looking great! What a comeback.

Thanks! It sure has been a big comeback and I am definitely in unchartered territories with the progress of this reef. It is gratifying to see it thriving.

 

 

I think I am addicted to re-scaping my tank. I built a cool new structure to replace the paly tower that was in the back right. I think it looks better.

 

 

Also created a rock rubble area for my clam to lay its base into.

 

Once everything settles I will post an updated picture.

[LongDoggy]

Found myself at my awesome LFS again today. Big thanks to the crew at Manhattan Aquariums. They have been tremendously helpful in my revamping the tank.

 

Today, I bought and added some new life to the tank.

 

Added:

• Four new various zoa frags (assorted greens, oranges, and reds).
• Rainbow and pink/green Acan
• War Coral
• Metallic green hammer coral
• birds-nest coral
• Cleaner Shrimp
• Sexy Shrimp

Once everything settles in and opens I will add some new photos of the additions.

[LongDoggy]

I managed to grab some decent pictures this evening now that the corals have settled in. The cleaner shrimp has come out, the sexy shrimp is still chilling in a cave.

 

For photos, I use a Nikon Coolpix AW100. It is waterproof down to 33 feet, so I started playing with underwater shots as well. Some came out well, but I'll be playing with this capability over time. It was a pain holding still because my female clown kept biting my hand!

 

Here are some photo updates and photos of some of the newly added corals and modified 'scape:

 

Updated FTS from the front. Notice the new back right rock structure I made. This was created for a few purposes. First, I wanted to rid my tank of the ugly Protopalys. Second, I wanted to create a structure that masked the Koralia pump. And third, I wanted to have a fresh structure to build a striking zoa wall. I've had this rock cured and running in a bucket for the past few years. It has come in handy:

 

 

FTS from the right (notice how I am hiding the Koralia):

 

FTS from the left (way in the back by the wall, you may notice my badly damaged frogspawn which is healing. I'll give it another 3-6 months to see if it does anything. So far I stopped the receding and bleaching and has been stabalized for the past three months). After that I might consider it a lost cause and make use of the real estate:

 

Here is a good photo of a few of the new additions. In the foreground are two of my new Acans, one purple/green and the other is a rainbow. These things are vibrant! In the background/left you can see a war coral I picked up on the cheap as it was recovering from being stung (looked like it was worth the $8 to see if I could rescue it). Also further in the background/right is my chalice coral. Way in the back is my huge duncan colony. Its been demoted to a moving backdrop):

 

I thought this one was cool, it is an underwater photo from the top down of my clam. This guy has been looking happy since being added into my nano:

 

This one I really like. I was struggling getting a good zoa shot until I went underwater:

 

This is the best photo I was able to get so far of this coral. It was sold to me as an encrusting monti. I am not able to find many like it and the polyps resemble goniopora, but they are not long. Anybody seen these before?

 

Top-down underwater shot of the birds nest, plating monti and part of the hammer:

 

Here is a shot of my filtration and my DIY second return pump. I was tired of looking at my ugly maxi-jet 600 in my display tank (after all space is limited)! I thought about doing an MJ 1200 or something similar but I wanted to have another return line for flow and I do have a budget (sort of). This DIY fit the bill as I was able to setup with $0 extra spent and made use of parts/pump I had laying around. Can't beat that IMO. Filtration in chamber 1 is just the Biocube skimmer. Chamber 2 from the top down is filter floss, stock drip tray, cheato with rear mounted LED, filter pad, Chemipure Elite, and Purigen) and stock false floor. Chamber 3 has the stock Biocube (Coralife version) pump and the MJ600:

 

Nice underwater shot of the hammer coral. I thought this was a great pickup for $22 bucks:

 

 

Well, thats about all for now. I am going to do a feeding before nightfall and let things settle in.

More to come...

[wildbill79]

Your tank looks great! Everything looks healthy and happy.

[LongDoggy]

Your tank looks great! Everything looks healthy and happy.

 

Thanks Wildbill! Your son is a lucky boy! Very nice of you to setup a reef for him!

When my daughter gets a little older I am going to make a pink reef for her.

[sunburn]

Looking great!

[CosmicCanine]

Yeah thats an encrusting monti. its bleached though. id suggest putting it in the shade.

[LongDoggy]

Yeah thats an encrusting monti. its bleached though. id suggest putting it in the shade.

 

Yea, when I got it it was a good neon green. It has been loosing color recently so it is going to get demoted lower in the reef. Thanks for the confirmation!

I always thought Monits need lots of light, this one seems to need less (at least less than my LEDs are pumping out).

[CosmicCanine]

Yea, when I got it it was a good neon green. It has been loosing color recently so it is going to get demoted lower in the reef. Thanks for the confirmation!

I always thought Monits need lots of light, this one seems to need less (at least less than my LEDs are pumping out).

I used to have a little red monti and i put it UNDER a rock in complete shade and it was doing fine haha. Not sure. my leds are way too strong for the chalice i have so i need to move it around i think ha. keep up the good work man!

[reefernanoman]

Nice tank.

[LongDoggy]

I used to have a little red monti and i put it UNDER a rock in complete shade and it was doing fine haha. Not sure. my leds are way too strong for the chalice i have so i need to move it around i think ha. keep up the good work man!

 

I've got my chalice in a very shady spot on a rock ledge and under the upper arm of my 'scape. It seems to be doing well there as the blue and red started to pop shortly after locating it there.

 

The encrusting monti is going down low somewhere tonight. I've got some Zoas to relocate so while I've got my hands out and the glue open I will do some moving around.

While I am at it, I will probably frag up my war coral and place in a few places.

[dpoltsdsu]

Those Clownfish are beautiful

[LongDoggy]

Those Clownfish are beautiful

 

Thank you! I sometimes feel bad for clowns because they end up in that 'nemo' category and people shy away from them. I happen to think they are some of the most beautiful fish. And their ability to thrive in nano tanks along with their paired behavior is something I could watch all night. Its quite relaxing to observe them doing their dance together; so graceful...

[LongDoggy]

OK, so I swear I will keep my hands out for a while.

I did a WC today and noticed one of my Acans was a bit unhappy, thought it was because it was too close to the war coral. So it was relocated to a small rock on the sand-bed in a slightly shadowed area. The war coral was also relocated to the side of the main structure.

The encrusting Monti was moved lower to prevent bleaching, hopefully it likes it's new spot. I think the picture above was making it look washed out, possibly because its right underneath one of my UV LEDs. Besides, I think that spot is prime for a piece of my birds-nest coral; I will frag it and put a stick back there when my main colony grows out a little.

Last, I threw out my healing frogspawn. I am tired of looking at its withered bleached heads, its too sad and not the theme I am going for. ITs done nothing in the past few months. If my tank were a 100g and I had plenty of room to hide things perhaps I'd find it a space for a year to rehab. But, in this nano world, real estate is a valuable commodity!

[LongDoggy]

Few new pictures from last night.

 

New FTS:

 

 

Macro of the Birds Nest:

 

 

Macro of the Hammer:

 

Macro of the Encrusting Monti:

 

 

Macro of Rainbow Acan:

 

Macro of the Purple Acan:

[Matthewdvm]

Very nice looking. It is a nice contrast to the very heavily stocked tanks (not saying one is better or worse than the other, just nice to see some that aren't wall to wall coral). My tank is only a month old, and just got its first corals last week, so it is truly minimalist. I'm still not sure what planting density to go for. Time and finances will probably dictate that. Anyway, Illl be following the progress of your tank.

[LongDoggy]

Very nice looking. It is a nice contrast to the very heavily stocked tanks (not saying one is better or worse than the other, just nice to see some that aren't wall to wall coral). My tank is only a month old, and just got its first corals last week, so it is truly minimalist. I'm still not sure what planting density to go for. Time and finances will probably dictate that. Anyway, Illl be following the progress of your tank.

 

Thank you! I wanted to maintain a somewhat minimalist scape, but not too much. Also, wanted to maintain some good negative space.

I am not done stocking, but will be adding in a few more choice pieces and I will then let it grow out. Hope it does not get too overgrown, but thats what fragging is for.

I am already planning to do some relocation of my duncan because I feel it is taking up too much space in the back. This is taking away from my depth I am going for. I will probably fidget with this when I do my WC later.

[dpoltsdsu]

That Zoa wall is going to look really cool when it grows out