Cody's 14g Biocube Contest Build

[cody6766]

Alright, here we go

I started this biocube build just in time, it seems. I dumped water in it and then read about the contest. There's no way in hell I'll win, but why not play along and see what happens? It's going to be a very slow, low budget build using mostly existing parts and livestock and did I mention I'm not in a hurry with it?

 

FTS, August:

 

FTS, September

 

FTS, October

 

FTS, November

 

So the details:

Tank is a 14g BioCube

Lighting is a 70w DIY MH retrofit that may or may not remain. I may go with 3 PC bulbs instead

Flow is boosted with a Koralia Nano on the intake side. The pump is back to stock since my upgraded one pooped the bed the last time i had this tank running.

No controller...yet, no LEDs, no pinche nada. I may toss a RKL on it later if funding permits, but I doubt I will.

 

Stocking

Currently:

A few zoanthid frags, some small yumas growing out, blue shrooms, a struggling galaxia frag and two very small yellow scroll coral frags.

These are basically test coral pulled from my small frag tank to see how the system is doing early on. So far so good.

 

A pearly jawfish will be the center piece in the tank. I built a PVC burrow that runs under the main rock structure and opens to the middle of the tank. I glued rubble around the rim to disguise it. Other fish are up in the air right now, but I may add a firefish (red or purple), or maybe a pair of young clowns and a BTA (if I keep the MH lighting). I think 3 fish will be the magic number.

 

Coral Selection

I want this tank to be over-blue in color and filled with awesome looking LPS corals. I will probably have a few hammers and a torch, a duncan, some chalices, maybe acans and favias too. I will also have some orange and green rics in the tank with some great looking zoas cut from my 40 breeder.

 

Oh, the stand...

it's a refinished Oceanic stand that came with my 33g cube. I stripped the old stain and replaced the old MDF top and bottom. It holds all of the power stuff from my 40 breeder next to it, along with my RKL and ATO reservoir for the breeder. I may put an ATO in the BioCube later on

 

So, here are some pics to tide you guys over. Updates will come slowly, especially initially. I used all dry rock and sand so it will take a while to come to life. I took a scoop of sand and a large rock from my breeder to seed the tank and I've been dumping food in to try to get some ammonia levels built up to start the cycle. I may just pee in it though, haha! ...but not really.

 

 

pic for the FTS contest with Zuri, my African Grey.

 

The whole reef exhibit in my house. I didn't have the BC ready to go, so just imagine it on the bare stand. Oh, a door will come shortly for the BC stand. It will match the 40g stand

 

Stand during refinishing

 

MH retro shots

 

Ballast in a computer power supply case

 

PC lighting still fits

[animalmaster6]

Lookin Good! I love the plans and the scape. You're added

[cody6766]

Time for an update.

 

The tank cycled easily and I've added some livestock, as mentioned in the first post. All are happy and puffy. I hope to start noticing some growth, but i know things move slowly. There's not a lot to mention, so I'll just post some pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[animalmaster6]

I love the zoas you have!

[cody6766]

thanks! The lighting color blows balls so the color is terrible. If the greens aren't radioactive dragon's eyes then they're damned close. The ones with the orange skirts look similar to fire and ice zoas but aren't quite the same. There are also some Ked's Reds, eagle eyes and some that look like eagle eyes but are yellow and orange instead of green and red. If they grow out some I'll toss in some tubs blues, orange bambams, and these sharp looking PEs that I cant quite identify. I'll need to change my bulb out to something that doesn't suck balls first though. I'm debating a Par38, but may go cheap with a Ushio 20000K bulb instead.

[animalmaster6]

Sweet...

[cody6766]

New pics under different lighting. I'm burning a pair of T5s now, just to see what it looks like

 

FTS

 

[animalmaster6]

Corals are looking good

[cody6766]

October's pic brings out the need for a good scrubbing (haven't cleaned the glass in a good while) and a wrasse to pick off the flatworms. The recently added damsel didn't do much, if anything, so it's on to plan B. FTS is in the first post

 

Oh, I'm back to the old, fugly 70w MH too. I plan on replacing the bulb one day, but it's working for now

[cody6766]

The damsel did virtually nothing for the flatworms. He was picking at them, but there are just too many. A good flatworm exit treatment is in store. I'll probably add my jawfish after that, then a 6 line for any stragglers. I want the jawfish in before the 6 line though.