My Biocube Adventure

[fishbone]

I left the hobby four years ago to get married and focus on my family. Now, thanks to one of my closest friends Jeff Knight, aka the Reef Chief, I'm back. He decided that my kids needed an aquarium so he gave them a brand new Biocube and everything to get the mini reef set up as an early Christmas present. It has been a lot of fun for the whole family and the kids are learning something new every day.

Day One-Hundred-Seven

UPDATED February 8, 2014

 

Aquarium Specifications

 

Display: Coralife Biocube 14 Gallon

Biological Filtration: 2" aragonite live sand bed and 12 pounds of fossil live rock

Lighting: EcoTech Marine Radion XR30w G2 with wide angle lenses

Heater: Cobalt Marine Neo-Therm 75W

Water Movement: EcoTech Marine VorTech MP10wES

Filter Media: InTank media basket with bonded floss, Seachem Purigen, and Chemipure Elite

Dosing: Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter7, KoralColor, and Nano-Code A and B

Feeding: Reed Mariculture Otohime A and Reef Nutrition Phyto-Feast, Oyster-Feast, Mysis-Feast, and R.O.E.

Water: Instant Ocean Salt mixed in deionized water

 

Current Parameters

 

Salinity Level: 1.025

Temperature: 80°F

pH: 8.3

Calcium: 430 ppm

Magnesium: 1360 ppm

Alkalinity: 11.2 dKH

Nitrate: 8 ppm

Phosphate: 0.16 ppm

 

Fish

• 1 pair of Black Ice Clownfish (Amphiprion oscellaris)
• 1 Six Line Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia)
• 1 Green Clown Goby (Gobiodon atrangulatus)
• 1 Tail Spot Blenny (Ecsenius stigmatura)

SPS Corals

• 30,000 Leagues Lokani (Acropora lokani)
• Miyagi Tort (Acropora tortuosa)
• Tubbs Purple Polyp Green Birdsnest (Seriatopora hystrix)
• Rainbow Montipora (Montipora tuberculosa)
• True Montipora Undata (Montipora undata)

LPS Corals

• Rainbow Acan Lords (Acanthastrea lordhowensis)
• Dragon's Soul Prism Favia (Favites abdita)
• Mummy Eye Chalice (Echinophyllia aspera)
• Rainbow Blastos (Blastomussa wellsi)
• Green Plate Coral (Fungia sp.)

Soft Corals

• Neon Green Star Polyps (Briareum violacea)
• Eagle Eye Zoanthids (Zoanthus sp.)
• Dragon Eye Zoanthids (Zoanthus sp.)
• Bloodshot Blue Eyes Zoanthids (Zoanthus sp.)
• Tubbs Blue Zoanthids (Zoanthus sp.)
• Green Bay Packers Zoanthids (Zoanthus sp.)
• Green Lantern Zoanthids (Zoanthus sp.)
• Gin and Tonic Zoanthids (Zoanthus sp.)
• Magician Palythoas (Palythoa sp.)
• Rainbow Palythoas (Palythoa sp.)
• Metallic Flame Mushrooms (Actinodiscus sp.)
• Orange Zest Yuma Mushrooms (Ricordea yuma)
• Plum Crazy Yuma Mushroom (Ricordea yuma)

Other Corals

• Silver Gorgonian (Muricea laxa)

Invertebrates

• 1 Tri-Color Bubble Tip Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor)
• 1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
• 2 Yellow Sea Cucumber (Colochirus robustus)
• 1 Scarlet Hermit Crab (Paguristes cadenati)
• 6 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs (Clibanarius tricolor)
• 4 Astraea Turbo snails (Astraea tecta)
• 8 Nerite snails (Nerita sp.)
• 8 Cerith snails (Cerithium sp.)
• 3 Nassarius snails (Nassarius vibex)
• 7 Stomatella snails (Stomatella varia)

Macro Algae

• Dragon's Breath Flame Algae (Halymenia durvillei)

Photo Timeline

Day One

Day Seven

Day Nine

Day Fifteen

Day Forty-Four

Day Forty-Seven

Day Sixty-Seven

Day Seventy-Three

Day Seventy-Seven

Day Eighty

Day Ninety-Seven

[Gramophone]

Such a pretty little tank!

 

Welcome back to the hobby. I'm sure you missed it

[evan127]

That's a good looking tank! How high above the water is your Radion? Is it in the hood? Also, is the rock in the bottom right corner a clam shell?

[fishbone]

Thank you, and yes, I really did miss it. I was amazed at how much the hobby has changed in such a short time.

[fishbone]

The Radion is in the stock hood and sits a little less than 2 inches above the water. It was a little work but it fit perfect and looks like it came that way. It is running a modified radiant color template at 30% intensity and everything is doing great, not to mention it gives off considerably less heat than the stock lighting.

The rock is actually fossil rock collected locally by my friend, the Reef Chief. It is from a reef that was buried when the Chesapeake Bay was formed and has been dated at about 18,000 years old. The piece on the right is an intact Jeffersonian scallop with a small part of the side broken off. It's big enough that the anemone and both clowns fit easily inside.

[drew11588]

i like where this is going. The rockwork looks really unique!

[Orangutran]

That's an awesome scape!! And full of history!

[fishbone]

I updated the original post to include our new additions and current parameters. The cube has been up and running for a little over two months. Most of our zoas and palys have nearly doubled in the number of polyps. The birdnests have at least a quarter inch of new growth. The acans are bigger and the partial heads have filled out. The prism favia has nearly doubled in size. The BTA has settled in and the clowns are hosting in it now. The yellow sea cucumber split. The cleaner shrimp has molted twice. The dragon's breath needs to be halved once a week. Everything is doing great!

[fishbone]

Just another update and some new pics of our clowns, Rachel Carson and Steve Zissou, and our blenny, Steve Irwin. My wife loves to name things.

[RICKMAXX17]

Could you post a picture of the radion in the hood? I have a biocube and I'm interested in how it looks and fits

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/338366-my-14-gallon-biocube/

[fishbone]

Could you post a picture of the radion in the hood? I have a biocube and I'm interested in how it looks and fits http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/338366-my-14-gallon-biocube/

 

As you wish. I also have a brief write-up of the installation at http://www.fathomtheunknown.com/2013/11/let-there-be-light.html. I wish I had thought to take pictures of every step but I did it at midnight the night I bought the light because I kept thinking about how cool it was going to be programming the light and I just couldn't sleep. I have to say it was definitely worth the 3 hours it took to finish the mod.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RICKMAXX17]

That looks really nice! Thank for putting some pictures up. I'm sure I would have stayed up finishing the hood also.

[fishbone]

Updated the original post with a current FTS, parameters, and livestock list. Next, I need to invest in a macro lens for my camera so I can get some better photos.

[fishbone]

The new 120-degree wide angle lenses I ordered for the Radion should be here Tuesday. It'll be interesting to see if they make a difference. Looks like I'll be doing another late night mod.

[fishbone]

Switched out the standard TIR lenses for the wide angle lenses. It was really simple and only took about 15 minutes to complete. The original lenses already had really good coverage so I was only expecting a slight difference. Well I was wrong and all I can think to say is WOW! There is a very noticeable difference in coverage with the wide angle lenses. There is full coverage now in our cube! The wider spread also allows me to increase the brightness. I originally had the Radion running in a modified radiant mode at 30% and now it is running at 40%.

[fishbone]

I'm proud to say that the wife is now addicted to coral! For the last couple of weeks she has been looking at different types of corals online and asking me questions about the ones she likes. When we woke up Sunday morning she actually asked me if I wanted to go to Jeff's, aka the Reef Chief, to get a new coral. While we were there she was asking even more questions before we settled on a small Lokani frag. She just made an awesome hobby even better!

 

I updated the original post with a new FTS and current parameters and livestock changes. Here are more recent pictures of our little piece of reef.

 

 

 

 

 

[fishbone]

I got a Canon EOS Rebel T3 with the 18-55 mm lens kit for Christmas. Today, I finally took the time to play around and figure out how to set it up. I never had much luck in the past getting decent photos of aquariums but I read an awesome tutorial that explained in simple terms how to set up any camera to photograph corals, fish, and the aquarium itself. I have to admit that I was amazed at the results. Here is a link to the thread and some photos I took following the tutorial.

 

Photographing Your Reef and Posting Your Photos

[fishbone]

I have to say that I really love this little cube. It has been easy to maintain to this point and everything is doing great. Our zoas and plays are adding one to two new polyps each week, our orange zest yumas have seven babies, and all the LPS and SPS corals are showing noticeable growth. The cleaner shrimp is molting every two to three weeks and the ceriths are laying eggs every week. I even discovered hundreds of baby ceriths in the second chamber when I cleaned the media basket this week. We have also made a few new additions to our cube compliments of the Reef Chief.

Here are some new photos from earlier today.

[RollaJase]

Wow, such a massive transformation over the last 2 months. The little tank looks amazing! I really like the Radion retrofit in the canopy.

[rmeugene]

• I know that this is an old thread but I just put a radion into my 29 gallon biocube hood and everyone is telling me I am going to blow it up. Just wondering how yours has done heat wise. Sent a PM also.