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Coral Vue Hydros

Banshee's Cube - What killed the clam?


banshee

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I gave up on ever getting the 40b I was working on plumbed and running so my daughter and I picked up a Marineland 45 gallon cube (24" x 24" x 18"). Instead of getting the one with the built-in overflow we're going to run an Eshopps PF-300 overflow with the Eshopps WD-75 sump system, Tunze 9002 skimmer, and control it all with a RKL.

 

After the 45 gallon cube sprung a leak and flooded my game room this was upgraded to a 60g cube (24"x24"x24").

 

 

FTS 4-6-14:

FTS_zps9311c67c.jpg

 

 

 

Display:

Marineland 60 gallon cube + Stand (replaced leaking 45g on 5/4/14)

Aquatic Life T5 HO 4 bulb light (2 actinic, 1 - 10,000K, 1 24W purple)

Aquatic Life T5 HO 2 bulb light (10,000K and 6500K)

Eshopps PF-300 overflow

2 MP10w es

RKL with 2 PC4's, SL-1, pH probe, temp probe

 

Sump:

Eshopps WD-75 sump system

Mag Drive 500 gph return pump

Tunze 9002 skimmer (out of commission until Tunze decides whether to repair or replace it)

GFO and Carbon

Aqueon Pro 250w heater

Nano Glo fuge light

IM Mini Max reactor with Phosban

 

Livestock:

Yellow Assessor Basslett - Boston

Pair of O. clowns - Twilight and Dude

Mandarins - Fiesta and Siesta (Fiesta killed her BF)

Firefish - Sparky

Bicolor Blenny - Whisper

ORA Neon Goby -

ORA Sharknose Goby

Orchid Dottyback

1 Peppermint Shrimp

1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

1 Porcelain Crab

2 Emerald Crabs

1 Pom Pom Crab

Banded Serpent Starfish

5+ Mini mini carpet anemones

Red/green maxi mini

Blue/gold maxi mini

Inferno BTA

Squamosa clam - died 5/23/14

 

CUC:

10+ various hermits

bubble snails

Astrea snails

zig zag periwinkles

virgin nerites

nerites

florida ceriths

dwarf ceriths

dwarf planaxis

fuzzy chiton

nassarius

 

Coral:

blue snowflake polyps

black cherry mushroom

pink red acro

purple heart lobo

purple patchwork mushroom

kenya tree

NPS Gorg

Green and pink star polyps

Xenia

Monti cap

Digitata

fuzzy mushrooms

Turquoise striped discosoma

ricordea

duncan

various clove polyps

green/red zoas (whammin watermelons?)

frogspawn

Bi-color Hammer

Green fuzzy mushrooms

Superman mushrooms

Purple and green blasto

CR's magic mushrooms

Tri-color acan

Blue mushrooms

Yellow polyps

green leopard palys

Purple with green tip torch

neon green trumpet

 

 

Macros:

Red Titan

String of Pearl

 

 

 

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That's the plan. The BC14 will be a quarantine/frag tank until the cube is stocked. Then it's probably being sold although my parents think they want it. I just don't think they understand the amount of time and maintenance it will need.

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Hi Hvani!

 

I picked up some frags today.

 

New Duncan:

duncanmushie_zpsce2ecd87.jpg

 

My mandarin checking out the new zoas:

mandarinzoas_zps084578d9.jpg

 

I also got some GSP and cloves that haven't opened up yet. If I manage to kill GSP a second time I might just have to declare myself a failure at reefing.

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FishBrawler

Looks good! What's you plans as far as aquascaping? It looks to be a nice softy tank! Love the 45 cubes but too deep for me! :P

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I think I might make a tall U-shaped island in the middle, possibly utilizing the tetra pond foam like hvani did for her rock wall. Then I will have seperate rock islands scattered around. I want to keep my xenia and gsp seperate from the main scape so they don't take over. Probably have a ricordea island too. I want lots of sand bed open near the front so I can get a brain coral again plus give my hermits and snails plenty of room to roam. Probably leave some room to add to the rock work so I can buy whole colonies/rocks as they catch my fancy instead of buying tons of frags.

 

Question: Since I'm moving over from the 14 to the 45 do I need to cycle the 45 completely? I'm using the leftover rock from when I set up the 14 and when I took down my 3G. It's been in a bin of saltwater in my basement with a heater and a powerhead all winter so it should be beyond cured. The sand is brand new, just been sitting in a container in my basement too. I'd like to run the 45 with just filter floss and the leftover rock until the light I ordered comes in and then move over the rock and livestock from the 14. I'm imagining that cycling for 2 weeks and then moving over rock from the 14 that won't have any die off will be fine and won't cause an ammonia spike. Thoughts?

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Wow....look at you!!!! I'm gonna do a little dance cuz you're back :happydance:

 

I love the new cube!!!!!! You can play with bulbs too with that light fixture. I have a 4 bulb T5 fixture as well. I can give you suggestions if you like :)

 

Welcome back :happy:

 

Sounds like you will have little if any ammonia spike and if you do it would be from the sand and the cured rock should completely take care of it! phew....long sentence :lol:

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Let the cube cycle, then move the 14 if you can keep them both running. Don't want you to have a disaster like I did.

 

So exciting! I can't wait to see this baby setup and full of your corals and fish! B):wub:

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Thanks all!

 

Hi Gena! Hi Randi! Glad to be back. I haven't had much to say since my BC14 is just kind of stagnating. I'm out of room and out of inspiration for it so I'm ready to go bigger and better!

 

I was planning to use the new T5 with 2 actinic blues, 1 10,000k, and a purple. Does that sound good Gena? I would love if my corals perked up and looked like yours once they are all switched over! Right now the Ecoxotic panoramas that I put in the 14 are slowly burning out. My corals just look worse and worse so I'm super excited to get them moved over. I just have to decide if I want to get some more rock and possibly cycle the 45 completely or go with the rock I've been cooking forever and hope I can turn it into a good scape.

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Helllooooo :D

 

Which brand of bulbs did you choose? That combination sounds pretty similar to what I run. I went with the ATI brand. I have 2 blue plus, 1 coral plus (looks whitish), and 1 purple plus. I couldn't tell you what the spectrums are off-hand. They are supposed to be great bulbs though. My corals have really responded well to them. Once you burn through the bulbs you bought you might want to check out ATI. But I think the combo you went with sounds perfect!!!!

 

My panorama pros started to go out on me as well. I had the one replaced. the other two were fine and I ended up selling the NC12 with the panorama pros in the hood. I won't ever go with those again. Maybe they've since improved them? I haven't really heard yet.

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Welcome back :):D Thanks for not being dead.

 

LOL.

 

She's 100% filled and sand and rock is in. I'm running the filter overnight with just floss to help clear the water. I also ordered 15 pounds of dry rock help me fill in the scape. Now I just wait for all the stuff I ordered to arrive! RKL, light, AC110, media basket, rock, skimmer, etc. I'm sure it will all arrive this weekend while we're away for a wedding!

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The water is not clearing up at all. I let my AC70 run with filter floss for the last 24 hours but I still can barely see the rocks at all. I changed the filter floss after work as well. I also wiped down the inside of the glass to get the clinging sand particles off. I don't remember it taking more than 24-36 hours for my BC14. Thoughts?

 

While this is still boring, here's an update on my Biocube. My older daughter will be 8 tomorrow and she wanted a firefish so now we are introducing Sparky.... :)

 

tankfirefish_zps7e9e6bdc.jpg

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Not sure on the cloudiness. Maybe just needs more time. Or a bacterial bloom. If so, they sell bacteria in a bottle that may help it to clear up. I know Brightwell sells one called MB7. I have some of that and used it at the startup of a tank. Not sure if it did anything though :lol:

 

Sparky sure is a cutey!!!! Happy Birthday to your daughter :happydance:

 

The BC14 looks so mature. I LOVE it :D That monti is in the perfect place. It would look so cool if you were going to let it continue to grow there. It will fill out the new tank nicely though.

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Not sure on the cloudiness. Maybe just needs more time. Or a bacterial bloom. If so, they sell bacteria in a bottle that may help it to clear up. I know Brightwell sells one called MB7. I have some of that and used it at the startup of a tank. Not sure if it did anything though :lol:

 

Sparky sure is a cutey!!!! Happy Birthday to your daughter :happydance:

 

The BC14 looks so mature. I LOVE it :D That monti is in the perfect place. It would look so cool if you were going to let it continue to grow there. It will fill out the new tank nicely though.

 

I love that monti! It grows like crazy and is always happy no matter what! The digi is a little more picky but still awesome. And I've got some green fuzzy monti growing on the rock below the GSP in the top right. I'm starting to think I'm better at the harder stuff than the easy stuff! Almost all my rics have disappeared and the rest look pretty bad. The only softy exploding in my tank is the xenia but all the LPS and SPS is doing great. I wish I could let this all grow in and end up looking like your 28 gallon but I am just dying to try out more corals and colors and maybe another fish or two.

 

Love sparky! This little tank looks great I can't wait to see what you do with the monster. ;)

 

Awww, thanks! I just hope I can get a good scape to start off with. I'm dying for my rock to show up so I can play around with it! I have like 6 chunks of cured rock from my bin in there now but only one or two of them are actually nice pieces. There's a piece of branch rock I really like and a really porous/holey rock that came out of my 3 gallon from KP Aquatics that I think I will keep. The rest will probably go back in my bin until I need it. I hope it's clear tomorrow afternoon so I can stare at it and dream!

 

I'll be out of town Friday to Monday. I hope everything will be here and the tank will be ready for a scape when I get back!

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I am stalking my shipment tracking numbers tonight. LOL.

 

RKL should be here tomorrow (3/14)!

AC110 arriving Saturday (of course)

New SpectraPure RODI filters arrive on Tuesday

Rock left Florida today. No estimated arrival (it's dry rock so it doesn't matter anyway)

Light supposedly shipped today which is odd because it was listed as back ordered on the site.

 

What's up with inTank? I ordered my media basket and skimmer yesterday but didn't even get an order confirmation email or anything yet. I have my order number from the check out screen though. I hope it will be shipping soon since the filter will be here this weekend!

 

I also found an old thread on another forum where a 55 gallon had the same light fixture I ordered with some ATI bulbs. Most of the PAR values were between 300 and 600. It was around 160 on the sand but the 55 is deeper than my cube. Are these decent values or am I going to need supplemental lighting too?

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New pics!

 

Cube is finally clearing up and RKL arrived today!

clearerwater_zpsfde2adb1.jpg

 

Biocube looks great today and so does the new fish:

FTS_zps505a9e7e.jpg

FTS2_zps0a89ba5c.jpg

 

New cloves. They are so green that I can't even get a good picture.

clovesmushies_zps67d555c1.jpg

 

New Duncan

duncan_zps62f89196.jpg

 

Frogspawn

frogspawngorg_zps338e7ac1.jpg

 

Front left corner

gorgmushieclovesduncan_zps702fc304.jpg

 

Monti and acans

montiacansxenia_zps6b7ef354.jpg

 

GSP and what I believe is fuzzy green monti growing on the edge

gspfuzzymonti_zps0df3a5dc.jpg

 

Alright! I'm off to go play with my RKL! :)

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Man looks awesome!

 

I bet the cube clears up in 48 hours, bigger tanks take a bit longer to get going, once their there though their so stable compated to the little ones.

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Thanks! I'm looking forward to having the option to delay and/or miss a water change when needed. Right now I feel like I'm tied to the local area on weekends. I did my water change last night so I can feel better about leaving for 3 days tomorrow. Once everything is in the 45 for a few months I imagine I will be able to relax a little!

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