Drama's Biocube

[21093r53]

get all your equipment before fish and coral spend the extra cash on proper high quality stuff as well

[Dramad1]

I got all my equipment but plan to upgrade my power head to a mp10, get a ato just because and the buy a new tank for the equipment I exchanged with the upgrades

[21093r53]

ato because they are necessary

[Javious]

Have your looked at a Yellow Striped Cardinalfish? I have one and it is active, doesn't hide and is reef safe. It's the fish that isn't the clown.

 

 

 

[Dramad1]

Update: frags arrived!

Green toadstool leather, had to have one and get it outta the way. Only been in my tank for 20 mins

Red hornets. Cause they are awesome IMO.

Kh2's. look awesome as well

King midas

Also these two. Not sure the proper name for them. Anyone.

And last my Duncan

It looks amazing.

I know I got a Lil crazy and now I need to kick back and wait a while before adding more. I left them attached to the plugs so I can move them around every 4-5 days until I find there sweet spot, then ill get them attached properly. W/c this Sunday. Water test in about an hour or so.

[Dramad1]

Just ordered an mp10. I'm going to swap out my two 425s hydors for it. Couldn't pass up all the features plus ill eliminate some of the heat inside the cube. I'm excited.

Frag update, all are fully open except the toadstool. It is barely starting to want to open up. I hope it doesn't take weeks to fully open. All water params looking good and plan a 5 gal W/c tomorrow.

I have a mini diatom bloom on the sand, seems to slowly be clearing up. My dwarf ceirths are attacking it. I did a quick count, I ordered ten from reef cleaners and counted 87. Holy ceirths.

[Dramad1]

Mp10 just arrived. I'm registering it now and then plan on putting it in and removing my two hydor 425's.

[Dramad1]

Okay mp10 is in an on reef crest mode. When I first turned it on and had it turned up full blast, I created a underwater spout. I had to move it lower in the tank. I removed one of the 425's and left the one in the lower rear for now. So far I have a lot of ditierious floating around. But mp10 is working well and a lot larger than I expected it to be.

[Dramad1]

Update: I picked up a few more frags, some mushies, birds nest and a bad ass Lil piece of monti something. I can't remember the name. Green w/ blue polyp looking things. And finally a cleaner shrimp!

I dipped all corals using revive except the mushies. And found quite a few things clinging on. Can anyone I'd the green monti and hichikers for me?

Pics:

The monti? Is a light green and you can't really tell in the pics. The second hitchhiker pic looked liked a spider but I'm pretty sure it's not a brittle star. Any comments, ID's, suggestions? Please.

[Dramad1]

So I'm doing a 5gal w/c as we speak, taking a quick break before putting new water in. I removed all the frag plugs off my first batch of frags and have attached the frags to live rock using putty and gel glue. I did all my zoa's, my red monti, toadstool and Duncan. I think the Duncan was the hardest to remove the plug but was able to get under the glue they used to originally frag it out and didn't damage it at all other than my fingers all over it.

I'm going to wait to do my new frags for a few weeks to be sure there placement in tank is okay.

So that's what I did today Drama! Lol

[Dramad1]

So I'm about to make a fairly descent size order of coral for my tank and would like your opinions if it is wise or if I'm going to fast.

Order includes:

Pink dwarf feather duster

Maxima clam

Australian big polyp blasto purple, single head

Australian big polyp blasto red, single head

Caulastrea coral, candy cane

Caulastrea coral, blue spruce

Red and green war coral

Orange guttatus birds nest coral

1/4 lb cheatomorpha

 

Reason for size of order is for the free shipping.

 

Also, my last tank (50gal) I never dipped my corals. This time around I plan dipping everything possible to help prevent introducing unwanted pest. Are there any corals on my list that I shouldn't dip like the maxima?

Anyone's thoughts, tips, advice would be greatly appreciated. I've been out of the hobby for so long and things have changed so much that I feel like a noob all over again. Thanks in advance fellas

[Dramad1]

No one has anything to comment? Talking to myself is getting old. Should I make a new thread or 6 about it? Lol come on fellas, no advice? Wtf is this guy deal? Please!

[Eclipse]

I wanna see some fish
lol When are you planning to add some? Also don't add them all at the same time, you definitely don't want to cause another cycle.

[Dramad1]

I have two fish in the tank now. Added a week and a half apart. All water parameters are stable.

Fish are:

Tanakas pigmy wrasse and a fire fish.

Both are hiding right now because I'm doing some cord management, trimming out the door on my DIY stand, adding magnets to keep front door closed and hanging my vortech controller and power bar. If I have enough time tonight I will be cutting the rear tank cover to accommodate my aquaticlife 115 skimmer. Right now with the rear cover on, the skimmer sits to low and causes to much foam in the collection cup causing to much clear skim-mate.

Thanks for the reply.

On another note I just noticed my Duncan has two new heads about to pop up, one on each side. Both of my king Midas zoa's have grown a new polyp as well. Kh2's gained 2 polyps and red hornets haven't done anything but appear a Lil larger. Green stripe mushy shed a shroom and has found a spot on the bottom middle of my tank. Red monti seems to be getting fatter and has good color. Grn monti looks the same. Birds nest and acro are doing well but my acro is still looking brown. I have it as high as I can get it and just to the left of my mp10 so its getting plenty of flow.

Tanaka just showed its face as well as my fire fish. As soon as I started poking my phone at the tank my fire fish darts into her hole.

Pic of tanaka hiding in a Lil cave and one of him checking me out

[Reeftech]

You should be good on the coral order as long as its from a NR sponsor .

 

BTW the brittle starfish pic doesnt look like a brittle star.

[Eclipse]

I have two fish in the tank now. Added a week and a half apart. All water parameters are stable.

Fish are:

Tanakas pigmy wrasse and a fire fish.

Both are hiding right now because I'm doing some cord management, trimming out the door on my DIY stand, adding magnets to keep front door closed and hanging my vortech controller and power bar. If I have enough time tonight I will be cutting the rear tank cover to accommodate my aquaticlife 115 skimmer. Right now with the rear cover on, the skimmer sits to low and causes to much foam in the collection cup causing to much clear skim-mate.

Thanks for the reply.

On another note I just noticed my Duncan has two new heads about to pop up, one on each side. Both of my king Midas zoa's have grown a new polyp as well. Kh2's gained 2 polyps and red hornets haven't done anything but appear a Lil larger. Green stripe mushy shed a shroom and has found a spot on the bottom middle of my tank. Red monti seems to be getting fatter and has good color. Grn monti looks the same. Birds nest and acro are doing well but my acro is still looking brown. I have it as high as I can get it and just to the left of my mp10 so its getting plenty of flow.

Tanaka just showed its face as well as my fire fish. As soon as I started poking my phone at the tank my fire fish darts into her hole.

Pic of tanaka hiding in a Lil cave and one of him checking me out

Nice fish

[Dramad1]

Just got home to two boxes of corals waiting for me. I'm acclimating and dipping now!!

[Dramad1]

Pics nxt day. Lights have been on for 3 hours

Sorry for the crappy cell pics, need a camera. <--- spelling??

[Reeftech]

They look healthy to me.Beware that last coral because its sweepers can get quite long and sting others.

[Dramad1]

They look healthy to me.Beware that last coral because its sweepers can get quite long and sting others.

Thanks for commenting. I have the red and green war coral all by itself on a patch or lr rubble in the center bottom of my scape. I'm still waiting to remove the plugs as I move the frags around my scape trying to find there sweet spot. Few more weeks of seeing how they react and then I will remove the eye sores we call frag plugs. Lol

 

So I have a noobish question regarding corals and w/c's. when got my birdsnest coral, I placed it high atop my tallest piece of lr Aprox 6-7" from top of water line. That weekend I did a 5 gal w/c and noticed after removing 5gal of water that the tips of my birdsnest where exposed and out of water. I filled the tank back up, but then noticed my birdsnest tips where missing there polyps. I wasn't sure if it was from the tips being exposed to air being out of the water or if I had touched it somehow causing the polyps to die off.

Over the next few weeks before doing my w/c's, I have gotten into a habit of removing the birdsnest from the top of tank and placing it lower in the tank until w/c is complete and then I move it back. I also do this with my green montipora. My birdsnest tips have regenerated there polyps and all looks well again since not being exposed to air during w/c's.

so I have been thinking if it is or isn't okay for sps or certain corals to be exposed to air while doing w/c's. I plan on attaching a few pieces of coral more perminately with glue and putty but once I do, I will not be able to temp... locate corals while doing w/c's unless I move the whole piece of lr. I have seen people do 80-90% w/c's and have there coral temp exposed to air for short period of time, so I assume it is okay.

I hope I'm making some kinda sense with my indirect question and run in rant. So are some corals more sensitive than others being exposed to air. For those that have these corals, what do you do if they become endangered of being exposed to air durning w/c's. is there a topic about this any where? Thanks fellas!

[Reeftech]

My birdsnest coral was a large colony and always came out of the water during wc.So did my cactus coral.I never had any ill effects from it.

[Dramad1]

Picked up a radioactive dragons eye frag today as well as a single head dendro. No idea how I ended the day with these two frags. Started the afternoon by taking my kids to a new to me lfs just to browse around and get outta the house. Came home w/ 2 new corals, a ps4 and empty gas tank. Lmao. I told my wife it was the kids fault and I didn't remember what happend, it just did.

Crappy cell pics/

[Dramad1]

So I just got finished doing my weekly 5gal w/c. While I was at it I decided to secure my second batch of coral frag to lr and remove all plugs. It's official, I hate frag plugs. The first batch of frags I got were pretty simple to remove the plugs as the frags were on Lil rock chips. This second batch was a pita. I may have killed my purple blasto. I couldn't simply slide a blade under the glue because the frag plug had a hole in the center witch the blasto was placed and glued to all hell. I took a pair of channel locks and proceeded to crush the plug around the frag. Long story short the frag went flying across the floor and broke into three pieces. Fml. I rinsed the pieces in the tank water I just removed and threw them back in the tank in an attempt to salvage my poor frag. I was much more careful with the rest but the frag plugs were super hard to remove and crush. Just finished and glad it's over. I will be watching the nxt few days to see how well they did. Thought I'd share.

[Dramad1]

So tonight I noticed what appear to be 4 hydroid jellys sticking to my glass. Tried to snap a pic but they are to small and my light washes them out. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of these? Kill them w/ mag float? Lol.

Also, i was able to snap a pic of my fire fish. She's always shy of my phone and hides in her cave when she sees it.

[Dramad1]

Yesterday's new arrivals

The acro is toxic(neon) yellow. I forget the name already. But it would not let me take its pic.

Gonna run some water test tonight and do my weekly water change tomorrow. Thought I'd share