New corals, new FTS. The World's Most Expensive Baby Mobile, 29g Biocube

[Nocturnal]

3/18 Update

New corals are mounted up, some SPS, a few chalices, and a couple brains. I lost the scooter blenny though. it was eating frozen food fine but I think after I lost my pod population with some bayer contamination perhaps he just wasn't getting enough food (when I travel the tank get's flake only).

 

Update 2.25.14 (bad FTS)

 

Still fighting with my dragon eye zoas. After a few dips they seem to be getting better so I assume paraiste but I can't see anything. There are some very tiny brownish lumps of junk on some of the closed zoas that could be some sort of nudibranch but I've never seen any move and they are too tiny to see any details. I had planned on fragging the rock anyway so will just separate the good from the bad.

 

I have 4 SPS light acclimated and ready to mount to the structure. The torch is going to the mantis tank, and ricordea rock will be moved to where the frogspawn is (that also needs a remount). I also picked up 2 chalices, a war coral, a red/green favia and a candy cane coral. They are on the sandbed acclimating and will be mounted soon as well. Once these corals are set into place I'll be reasonably happy with the tank (finally). May also move the brain somewhere, not sure yet.

 

Update 2.3.14

New DIY led fixture in place. After some aggressive dipping my green zoas are recovering. I'm hoping that was some pest issue. Picked up a couple of new zoa frags from my LFS. They are still adjusting but one is a nice red and the other a nice orange. Also an orange monti (my first SPS). Everybody else is happy with the LEDs so far (28 crees, W + RB 3ups, ultra and hyper violets, turquoise, blues). I still have some scaping to do as I fragged down the frogswpan and torch and both need to be moved. Once the green zoas recover I will be transplanting some of them to the dry rock structure and fragging off the rest most likely. Next step is to get a few SPS to take up some of the high up real estate.

 

Quick and dirty FTS via cell phone. It does not look as purple/blue in person. More of a slight blue tint with lots of clear light and some excellent fluorescence.

 

 

*New scape and relocated tank. Also it's temporarily rocking the Kessil 150W Sky Blue.

 

I'm feeling pretty good with the look. I would have cut down the old LR a little more but I already took out a ton and need the bio filtration. This is my first attempt at building a dry scape and then adding it to the tank.

 

 

 

Well I've been hanging out for a while and it's time to make my tank official I guess.

 

I did a lot of Fresh and Saltwater aquariums (not much reef exposure) in High School and college. I had been itching to get back into the hobby and with the birth of our son I figured a tank full of brightly colored fish in his room was way better than some stupid mobile.

 

All in all my foray back into the hobby has been a success. I went with the Biocube because it was easy, mostly just plug and play which gave me time to focus on learning about reefs and all that pesky new dad stuff. The tank has been running for almost a year now and I'm getting ready to move it into a common area so my son will have to learn to share a bit. Also, my original "dump a bunch of LR in there and sort it out later" aquascape is being adjusted with some dry rock (sneak peaks below). I started out with a fairly thick layer of sand as I really wanted a yellow goby but that never happened, and although I was doing well with the 4" of sand I've slowly decreased the amount and hope to be at an easy to clean level of 1/2" maybe for the new scape if only because rearranging the rock will decimate the livestock living there.

 

Equipment:

Using replacement HQI light and bracket after the first melted and failed. (Oceanic replaced)

Stock fan on the light swapped out for something that doesn't sound like a blender.

JBJ Fuge Light / Chaeto

2 x Koralia Nano 240s (only run the 2nd one here and there)

Extra fan in the back compartment to assist with summer temperature spikes.

JBJ ATO w Tom's Aqua Lifter

Hollowed out the original filter cartridge that I use to hold filter floss

Media bag(s) for Carbon and Phosguard

 

Coming soon: Kessil Pendant 150w LED

 

Livestock:

Two Ocellaris (who have become huge jerks lately so I think they are prepping to breed)

Cardinal

Firefish

and the new guy, a Scooter Blenny who luckily for me ate frozen food right away

CUC - Ceriths, Dwarft Ceriths, Nerites, dwarf planaxis, Nassarius'

Ton of GSP - moved out into GSP Madness

Frogspawn

Miscellaneous mushrooms

Torch

Candy Cane (that refuses to grow)

Duncan

Blastomussa

A crazy amount of feather dusters, worms, sponges, and a bunch of brittle stars.

 

I've started to move some of the existing rocks out of the tank in order to prepare for the new scape, so the layout isn't great. I've been lucky to have a ton of coraline growth. Better pics will fully extended corals will come soon.

 

 

I'll post some animal closeups soon, but I want to wait until the Duncan is back and looking good. Here is a shot of one of my new dry scape pieces I'll be moving into the Cube (modeling in from of GSP Madness). I think it's looking pretty good considering I have the artistic talent of a bucket of rocks.

 

When it is turned this way I can't not see some sort of character "shrugging".

 

[thre3leven]

You should just ship me the ten gallon GSP Madness in the background. Quite jealous. Coraline growth looks great for a year old tank. Do you dose anything, or just regular water changes?

[SpencerShepard]

When it is turned this way I can't not see some sort of character "shrugging".

 

Wow, no kidding! He's like, "Ehhhh, whatcan I do?

[Nocturnal]

^ Yeah, once I added the second arm I saw that. Not sure how I feel about it. Either the coral will hide it, or I can turn it enough to make the image go away. Worst case I'll make him hold a piece of coral in each "hand".

 

 

You should just ship me the ten gallon GSP Madness in the background. Quite jealous. Coraline growth looks great for a year old tank. Do you dose anything, or just regular water changes?

 

I can't...the GSP...it speaks to me...

 

Now that it's setup I just need to do a couple small things so it actually looks nice. My temporary background is rubbish.

 

I've been very happy with my coraline growth. Only the two big rocks on the right were covered when I bought the LR, everything else has been growth. I use the Kent Marine Nano A and B combo about 2-3 x per week, and water changes probably average out to about 4 gallons (so maybe 15% if I say the tank is 26 gallons) every 3, sometimes 4 weeks. I've been forced to be pretty reactive with the tank because for a while I had very limited access as my son was younger and I could only mess with the tank sporadically due to his naps or the pesky guy who is very nice about mailing me paychecks but keeps asking me to do stuff in return for those checks.

[Lawnman]

Wow, no kidding! He's like, "Ehhhh, whatcan I do?

haha looks like a ghost saying I dont know.

 

The rock for his head has a frown face to lmao

[Nocturnal]

I need to move the smaller arm for sure.

[SpencerShepard]

I think you should keep it how it is and add GSP hair like a Chia Pet!

[Nocturnal]

^ NO!!!

 

I still have a few errant GSP polyps in my main tank that I need to remove. It's all been banished to GSP Madness

 

 

Just ordered the Kessil 150w Ocean Blue. I can't wait to pop that baby on and fire it up. (the HQI light will be moved to frag duty)

[Javious]

I had that same Kessil and changed to a ReefBreeders Value for better color and adjustability. There wasn't anything wrong with the Kessil and I got good growth, I just wanted to be able to do a rudimentary dawn/dusk and set the lights at an intensity and color that I wanted.

[Nocturnal]

I had that same Kessil and changed to a ReefBreeders Value for better color and adjustability. There wasn't anything wrong with the Kessil and I got good growth, I just wanted to be able to do a rudimentary dawn/dusk and set the lights at an intensity and color that I wanted.

Those looked like an option but the form factor trumped flexibility for me.

[Nocturnal]

Updated pics, new scape, and shots with the Kessil 150w Sky Blue (which is being returned due to noise).

 

Side shots.

 

My cardinal practically hosts the Frogspawn. Can't blame him though as my clowns have been even bigger jerks than normal lately.

 

 

Scooter (ate frozen food from day 1)

 

PIssed off Duncan. I may need to move the Blasto a bit, although it does like fairly low light.

 

 

I'm getting sick of the coraline on the back wall now. It's a pain to scrub off the plastic though so for now it stays.

[Nocturnal]

We have clam sign. It had a aipastia hitchhiker but I guess the shrimp took care of it overnight. This picture doesn't show full extension but she's looking good.

 

 

 

New acquisitions:

 

Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoa

Brain coral favites, Neon green

1.5" Maxima

Peppermint shrimp

turbos and trochus for my new GHA problem

[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

We need a new FTS!

[Nocturnal]

We need a new FTS!

 

Quick and dirty camera phone shots. I had a killer GHA outbreak after the move but the new Turbos and Trochus have taken care of most of it. I'm seeing the algae come back a little but I"m overdue for a WC so that likely explains that. I am seeing some great coraline growth. The zoas were all doing great after I got them, but the last couple weeks have been mostly hiding. I don't see any real issues so I assume they are just being zoas. I don't really like the rock they are on so I will probably transplant a bunch to the main structure and sell off the rest. I did frag 2/3 of the frogspawn off and I think it looks much better. The torch is going to another tank soon. Clam and brain are doing great. The duncan LOVES the new placement and has been growing like crazy.

 

I temporarily swapped out the standard coralife bulb for a 14k HQI from fish street (was like $15) and the colors are a bit more fluorescent now.

 

I just placed my order for my DIY LED build. I should be starting on that next week.

 

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[MyLiquidBlue29BC]

Looking good

[Nocturnal]

Couple newer pics.

 

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[richgoose]

looking forward to DIY led build. My BC29 has been sitting dry since I moved 2 years ago, but I'm getting ready to do some mods and get it going soon.

 

Love the rockwork, what did you use to glue that formation?

[Nocturnal]

I used a combo of JB water weld, plastic coat hangers and a few cable ties. My main problem now is finding corals that can take the intense light at the top of the structure.

 

I'll post up some pics of the light. I went with the makersled heat sink and I'm happy with how it looks. So far it's only set to 30% output and I'm pretty sure it's close to the intensity of the 150w hqi already.

[Nocturnal]

Couple of new guys.

 

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Plus green slimer, teal tip stag, orange digi, blue polyp pink bird's nest and a couple others.

[Nocturnal]

New shots. All corals are more or less mounted. I still need to frag off the dragon eye rock though but I'm waiting for them to fully recover from my fungus adventure.

 

[pyrokidd89]

New shots. All corals are more or less mounted. I still need to frag off the dragon eye rock though but I'm waiting for them to fully recover from my fungus adventure.

 

 

Is that a WP-10 I spy up there? How do you like it?

[Nocturnal]

Is that a WP-10 I spy up there? How do you like it?

 

It is great, just a little bit too noisy on full blast. I've had it for a bit over 3 months now.

[Nocturnal]

Back in the hobby after a major crash 2 years ago. My tank was sitting with just fish. Will post some updates soon.

[debbeach13]

Welcome back

[Okinawa_Reefer]

I too am rebooting a biocube. We can do it!!! Best of luck!