Welcome Back BioCube!

[owlshead19]

2/25/2013

 

I've had my old BioCube sitting in the corner of my office for months now. I've missed the simplicity and ease of maintenance. Recently I've had some health setbacks and due to an eye condition aggravated by my diabetes I'm not supposed to lift more than 5lbs now (which is advice that's impractical to follow in real life

 

My 75 gallon has been suffering as a result - my hubby has been kind enough to help me with water changes but I've learned as a petite person it can be hard to care for a bigger tank on a taller stand (I litterally have to get a big stepladder out just to work in the tank.)

 

So I've decided to set the BioCube back up - move over my two fish (I never even bought any new fish for the 75g - and I had it set up for a whole year.)

 

Today I rinsed out the tank, put in some live sand and filled it with saltwater- waiting for the water to clear and tomorrow I'll be moving over some live rock. Hopefully this time I'll FINALLY get a scape that looks great. I have about 65lbs of rock to choose from so it should be fun.

 

 

 

7/9/2012 Cube is temporarily being used to quarantine fish for the 75 gallon project:



I moved almost everything (minus a few crabs) to the new (to me) tank and I'm planning to eventually sell the biocube. Only fish is my ever faithful clown punkin (who survived the ich outbreak and 3 months in quarantine.) See Punkin hanging around the old rock :

I still have my EcoPico going and my tailspot and sexy shrimp are happy and thriving.

3/6/12: New FTS (still no fish):



1/15/12:

Had a bad week. Picked up a midas blenny from a LFS and didn't quarantine. Now I only have one fish left and I'm trying to catch him for the hospital tank...

1/10/12:

Need to update the photo a bit - here's a couple weeks ago:

29 BioCube
Upgraded to Panorama Pro's - 1 12k/445, one 445 and one magenta/453 stunner strip
removed bioballs
removed tab between 1&2
removed chamber 1&2 floors
removed Oceanic filter media - using filter floss
blocked 90% of lower intake to improve skimming
upgrade to MJ1200 pump
Koralia nano 425
25lbs of Arag Alive Fiji Pink and some donor sand from a friend's tank
24lbs of live rock
Salt water from LFS

Currently stocked with:
2 ocellaris clowns - only 1 left (in quarantine)
1 Royal Gramma
1 Wheelers Shrimp Goby
1 Midas Blenny
1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (new)
1 Randall's Pistol Shrimp (hasn't been seen since I added him)
1 Peppermint Shrimp
1 emerald mithrax crab (Kermit)
1 blue legged hermit crab (Big Blue)
1 red legged hermit crab
5 small hermits (LFS told me they were "gulf hermits")
4 turban snail
1 spiny star astraea snail
2-3 small cerith snails
3 Tongan nassarius snails
Reefcleaners order of assorted snails

Frogspawn
4 ricordia
1 hitchhiker mushroom
2 red mushrooms
1 freebie mushroom
blue candy cane coral
green candy cane coral
1 green pocillapora coral
1 pink birdsnest coral - New!
1 toadstool leather
2 acan frags
1 red and white acan
3 chalice frags
green star polyps
green zoas
red dragon tongue macro
green implosion paly
daytrippers zoas
green leptastrea
chaeto

My very first reef system - spent a few weeks picking up info from this forum and a couple others -

I hate to admit it - but I'm not sure if I have percula or ocellaris clowns - I bought from a reputable LFS - I believe they are percula's. Punkin has quite a bit of black around the fins... and LFS told me they are both the same species. My camera is crap and they move so fast haven't been able to get a good picture yet. * update - they are ocellaris - checked with lfs.

My latest attempt at a rockscape:


My ric and frogspawn - not in a permanent spot yet:


My hitchhiker mushroom:


I have another ric and a mushroom ordered from Coral Morphologic and some frags from mr. coral - some zoa's and some other stuff - I'm keeping some for myself and trading some to a friend.

[iDream]

Great fish selection and awesome scape!

 

 

CoralMorphologic is great, I can't say enough good things about those guys too, you'll be happy with your order there

[owlshead19]

Update - after having heat problems - did a fan modification to the rear canopy. (Using the slave labor of my brother... hehe - this is payback for feeding him a decent meal once a week and letting him do his laundry at my house.)

 

area of attack - the area centered between braces in the middle:

 

 

 

Even though I wished I could have bigger fans - after measuring we decided 40mm was the biggest size that would safely fit without damaging anything structural.

 

 

Fans picked up at local computer store - power supply donated by a friend:

 

 

Had to pick up the hole saw at Home Depot:

 

 

First we marked the centers and then time for a pilot hole:

 

 

I honestly will admit I was really worried that the canopy would crack and break but they are pretty sturdy:

 

 

Cleaning up the cut with some sandpaper - this first hole was a little rough and we had to use an exacto knife to remove a few rough areas so the fan would sit flush:

 

 

Both holes - the second hole was a lot cleaner and a little sandpaper smoothed it up easily:

 

 

We decided to try some self tapping screws to attach the fans - I wanted them on the outside and they are pulling air out of the canopy.

 

 

From the back:

 

 

I didn't think these fans would pull enough air out to make a difference - but they have been running for about 5 hours and have dropped the temperature from 80 to about 76 without the lights on and with the canopy closed. I plan to monitor closely over the next 24-48 hours and see if this will work better with the canopy closed or if I'll need to prop open the front a bit while the lights are on. The temperature had been running about 85-86 with no fans - a friend had donated some fans and I them blowing from the front which had been controlling the heat but was extremely inconvenient - very ugly and somewhat dangerous.

 

The fans are very quiet and have plenty of clearance in the back. From the front you can't tell that any modification has been made - except there is a little light spill out the back.

[owlshead19]

Well - thought my frogspawn was looking a little unhappy and one head was moving away from the others - now I know why -

 

"Big Blue" has a new friend:

 

I guess I'm going to have to move him - this was never intended to be his permanent home anyway.

[owlshead19]

Latest addition - toadstool and zoas (on left side) from PYA, a bunch of frags from mr. coral - a ricordea and red mushroom from Coral Morphologic (the green ricordea ) - the cheato is going in the "fuge" once I get my light.

 

 

 

 

I haven't added any other livestock - I'm going to wait another month before adding any other fish - and my husband needs time to recover from my recent purchases. This is what happens when a spender marries a saver, lol.

 

After everything recovers (ie - survives) I'll decide where to place things.

[owlshead19]

Top o' the reef to you!

 

The toadstool (and red people eaters) were in hiding.

 

Latest FTS

Moved a bunch of the zoa frags into my walmart pico for now.

 

My diatom problem is finally coming under control. Planning on picking out a new fish to put into quarantine.

 

Oh - and I also ordered some led's from Rapid LED today.

[fishtankbroke]

looking sweet...working on gettimg mine going! I'll send you a picture of the expoy wall and I'm hoping to get the LED this weekend

[owlshead19]

Haven't posted a new pic in a while - I've been battling a cyano outbreak. I did just pick up a wheeler's shrimp goby/randalls shrimp pair. Won a $25 gift certificate to a LFS at our Reef Club's Christmas get together and used it to buy them. I was really happy to see the wheeler's - had my eye on it at Live Aquaria and was really excited to see it in my local store.

 

Now to hope that they pair up.

[owlshead19]

Latest update - new lights are on their way!!! Put an order in with Ecoxotic for Panorama Pros - a strip of 12k/445 blue, a strip of 445 blue and a magenta/453 blue stunner strip - I ordered one of their new dimmers too. I plan to remove the stock lights and keep the moonlights and fans in place in my hood.

 

I also ordered from Reefcleaners - hopefully this clean up crew that's coming will help kill my cyano problem for good! Pics will be incoming as soon as the tank is presentable (it's sad that I'm ashamed of my cyano... )

[Ezsharkman]

love the fan mod and the new lights are gonna be awesome... i didnt see this thread until now... following

[ThatDude]

How are you liking the Koralia for flow? I put the evo 550 in my tank and I think it may be too much flow for my LPS. Debating on if I should downgrade to a koralia nano. (MP10 is not in the near future at this point)

[owlshead19]

love the fan mod and the new lights are gonna be awesome... i didnt see this thread until now... following

 

 

Thanks for the kind words - my tanks not as flashy as some in here but I've had a lot of progress and I'm looking forward to showing off the new lights and cyano free scape.

[owlshead19]

How are you liking the Koralia for flow? I put the evo 550 in my tank and I think it may be too much flow for my LPS. Debating on if I should downgrade to a koralia nano. (MP10 is not in the near future at this point)

 

 

I mostly have softies but I have one small sps frag and I have my Koralia nano aimed right at it - it's showing great polyp extension (the color isn't the best under my lights however) and my toadstool loves it too - I have to laugh because I'm not sure I have enough flow... I would probably add another 425 but I'm waiting to see what happens when I switch to my new lights. (Ref heat)

[fishtankbroke]

Christmas updates????

[owlshead19]

Lights update - I've had very noticeable response from all my corals to the new lights. I really need to get a half decent camera so I can get rid of the blue and do some close up shots. My dragons tongue macro algae has gone totally insane with the new lights and I'm getting growth from all the corals - which I wasn't seeing under the stock lights. I am debating whether to get another 12k/445 panorama pro strip or just add a stunner to get more light to the back of the tank.

 

This tank has been a good learning experience for me but I've got to admit I'm already dreaming of replacing it with a rimless - something in the 40-57 gallon range so I'm not going to invest too much more in equipment.

 

 

I'll have to get a new tank shot today after the lights come on - I've been cutting back on my lighting because I'm STILL fighting red slime...

[Adeline Nano]

So it doesn't look as blue as the pics show? I am about to order Panorama Pros from them but am still deciding on Colors. They recommend just 2 Pros for a 29 Biocube as plenty of light.

[owlshead19]

So it doesn't look as blue as the pics show? I am about to order Panorama Pros from them but am still deciding on Colors. They recommend just 2 Pros for a 29 Biocube as plenty of light.

 

If I were keeping this as my long term tank I'd upgrade to 3 Panorama Pros ( 2 12K/445 blue and one 445 blue) and a magenta stunner strip... I have seen growth from my corals since I got the Panoramas but some of my ricordeas in the bottom of the tank still seem to be reaching for the light.

[owlshead19]

I know it's been a long while since I updated - have been busy and the whole ich debacle threw me for a loop for a bit - I picked up a used 75g with a 29g sump from a local guy from my reef club and after 3 months of cycling just completed the move -

 

the cube is acting as a quarantine tank for a bit until either my father-in-law decides he wants it or I put it up for sale.

 

Right now I'm still learning how to fine tune everything but I plan on led's in the future. I have 2x150w hqi and 2x130w pc that came with the used tank.

 

I'm finally learning some patience and plan to wait about 6 months before adding any new corals - I lost my favorite chalice during the cycling phase (another aggressive coral got knocked off the rock and fell on it) because the bc29 was so crowded.

 

Left side - old rock

 

Right side - brs reef saver rock (why I did the long cycle)

[Rabb.D]

i hear you on that ich debacle... i had the same problem no quarantine just acclimatized then dump them in, few days down the road, spots everywhere, and everything went downhill and fish started dying, then my new setup learned how important patience is, been staring at an empty tank since May,

 

very much interested in seeing how your new tank goes, good luck

[owlshead19]

7/26/12 Updates - metal halides are on -

 

 

Once I started using the metal halide lights everything seems much happier - unfortunately the lights I got second hand have 10k bulbs and they are way too yellow for my taste. I am saving up for new led's so I really don't want to waste led money on new 14k bulbs...

 

Unfortunately - along with the light came this! Ugly Cyano!

 

So the next step was to finally strap on my big girl boots -

 

My lfs (which unlike most - is truly run by AWESOME guys who really know what they are doing) recommended I use RowaPhos and I'm hoping to see the ugly ugly cyano DIE DIE DIE....

 

My sump: (please don't laugh too hard - plumbing is so not my thing which is why I got an AIO in the first place:)

 

Well - I of course couldn't NOT buy anything - so I picked up a flower anemone, a new ricordea and a gorgonian which promptly died as soon as I put it in my tank. Luckily the free extra gorgonian seems fine.

 

Well I thought it was totally dead - but now I see at the very bottom near the plug there's about 1/2 inch still alive and actually extending polyps. Figures.

 

And finally - my clown Punkin - slowed down enough so my crappy camera could almost catch her for a good picture:

 

Punkin and shrimpie are currently the stars of the show. Punkin has lived through all the ups and downs of first the BioCube and now this project. I figure Punkin is a survivor.

 

I'm trying to decide on what I want for the new tank - the hubby wants a royal gramma (only fish he ever has shown any real interest in) and I'm thinking a midas blenny and maybe some wrasses? I would love another tailspot blenny but I've heard you can't put blennys together - anyone have both a midas and tailspot in the same tank who can pipe in?

 

Thanks for looking!

[owlshead19]

It's time to pull the old BioCube out of it's dusty corner and start over - I enjoyed it way more than I have the 75gallon - and I think with my health problems it will be lots easier to keep up with maintenance.

 

I've got 6 Panorama Pro's to work with - so I may put three strips in this time instead of two Panorama Pros and one stunner. And I'm going to use my Tunze 6025 instead of the koralia's. Other than that I'm trying to decide if I want to get a jbj refugium light or not.

 

My corals have all been suffering because my water changes were few and far between on the 75 so I'm going to need to baby them and see what can be salvaged.

[owlshead19]

3/10/13 Moved some rock over from the 75 and the two (and only) fish - haven't moved any clean-up crew other than a couple hitchhikers.

 

I'm getting a lot of microbubbles - I think due to the filter material I'm using - I haven't washed it yet and new filter socks always made a bunch of microbubbles if I used them before I washed them. I just sort of tossed the rock in - I have to move stuff around and I have lots more rock I can work with if I need it. I'm planning to test all my levels tomorrow and if everything looks good I'll move over the rest of my corals.

 

Got a picture of Punkin - my much suffering clown - since they've moved into the smaller tank the tailspot blenny has been bossing him around.

 

[owlshead19]

Still working on the rockscape - still not happy with it Moved in the rest of the corals yesterday and they all seem pretty happy.

 

 

 

 

[ward827]

Looks good. W-