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My Oceanic BioCube 14 Gallon


Stryprod

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MOST CURRENT INFO

 

Most Recent Full Tank Shot

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6/8/2008

Most Recent Livestock List

- 4 Cerith snail

- 2 Nassarius snail

- 1 Zebra hermit crab

- 1 Green Clown Goby (Died)

- 1 Clownfish (Died)

 

Most Recent Coral List

- Several green/brownish mushrooms

- Couple burgundy mushrooms

- 2 Red mushrooms

- Several different zoa colonies

- Orange skirted zoa

- Geeen Bay Packers

- Eagle Eyes

- Neon Greens

- More TBD

- 1 Xenia

- 1 Kenya Tree (Capnella)

- 1 Frogspawn

 

BioCube 14g Equipment List

12lbs Marshall Island Live Rock

4lbs Fiji/ Misc Life Rock

3lbs Dead Shelf Rock

10lbs CaribSea Ocean Direct Live Sand

1 - BioCube 14g

1- MaxiJet 900

1- Hydor Flo

1- Koralia Nano

1- Visi-Therm Stealth Heater-50 Watt

1- Tom's Digital Temp Reader

 

 

 

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Original Post

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I have always kept FW and SW fish only tanks, never corals or live rock, but man did I ever want to. So with a free 3 gallon aquarium, HOB filter and 1 tiny branch of live rock from a friend and all the wonderful nano-reef info in hand, I created my pico reef seen below: (pardon the flash)

 

Pico Reef

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There is not much to it in terms of coral, but then again its only a mere 9" wide and I love it none the less. Sadly as all expensive hobbies go (cough cough: cigars), once the bug bites you, you just got to go bigger so hence my title, my BioCube 14:

 

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As you can tell, I just started off and am currently cycling the tank and the aqua scape in no way reflects the finished product I hope to obtain, but rather the most conducive setup to water movement. I also purchased 10lbs of CaribSea "live" sand and plan to add the rest from my pico reef to further seed the process along once I finish the big cycle but here is a shot of the "live" sand:

 

Live Sand

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I can honestly say that anyone who wants to include live sand is better off buying the real stuff from a local store because the minute this stuff hit the water, a nuclear micro-sand cloud explosion went off and covered all my live rock in fallout material which required me to rinse them off a day later after adding them. I did not have this problem with the LFS live sand in my pico as it had clearly had a long time to sift all the small particles to the bottom of their tanks.

 

I'm hoping to eventually obtain the nanotuners 3.24 light upgrade for the tank, but for now, stock lights will just have to do. I did in fact upgrade the stock pump to a maxijet 900, which added noticeably more flow, but was far from the tidal wave I was expecting from reading some posts. In fact, I can see how adding a hydor flo could really limit this pumps output, but its well worth the expected temp drop and energy savings.

 

I will be further editing this post as I continue along my journey from time to time, and adding new pics and info, while deleting older information... I hope you check back and feel free to ask questions... Ill try my best to get back when I can.

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keep me updated. . I hope to do just about exactly what you are as soon as school gets out.

 

Thanks

 

Colt

 

just realized that you're from Orange County as well. Cool

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Hey good luck! I was in the same position as you about a month ago! Setting up a BC14 and all that I mean. Check out my thread (link in my signature) to see what you can do with the stock lighting. I just added a frogspawn today but don't have pictures of it yet.

 

:welcome: I'll be tagging along! Ask me or anyone if you have any questions! We're really friendly here. ;)

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Thanks for checking the thread out... sadly progress might be a bit slow at first since I dont want to push it but it is quite funny how we are sort of in the same boat, or rather you are just a bit ahead of me. I did leave a question on your thread about your clown goby so check it out!

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Here is a picture of the new aquascape in my biocube 14

Full Lights

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Actinic Lights

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Yes I know there is a giant white bowl right in the middle but let me explain. I went into a LFS here in O.C. and asked how much a couple loose mushrooms would be since I lacked a lot of colors... well he proceeded to just load me up a bag of loose green and red mushrooms for free, so they are in the bowl hopefully attaching to some sand/gravel and then I can glue them onto some rock. Here they are (best shot for a hard angle):

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I still plan on moving some of the small pieces of live rock at the very top, but Im lacking room with a giant bowl in the middle but I still wanted all their goodies from my old pico reef, they were teaming with life and hopefully it'll transfer over.

 

I also had to move some zoas I recently purchased on the ground but they still look great, here they are:

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Other changes include adding a Hydro Flo which makes for some great random currents although I might add another power head on the other side, just something small adding a little more current.

 

Thanks for looking!

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You're going to have a hard time gluing those shrooms with just sand. It would be better to throw in some loose empty shells if you have any, or small pieces of rock. The sand will just fall off of them, they don't really attach themselves to sand at all.

 

Looks good! I like the zoa's you have!

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You're going to have a hard time gluing those shrooms with just sand. It would be better to throw in some loose empty shells if you have any, or small pieces of rock. The sand will just fall off of them, they don't really attach themselves to sand at all.

 

Looks good! I like the zoa's you have!

Yeah it was the best option I had at the moment but I was able to get my hand on some crushed coral gravel that has large chunk of coral and hopefully they'll attach to that.

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Well back when I had my pico reef, I had what looked like some chaeto growing on one of the rocks. Well as you know, I transfered all my rock over to my 14g BioCube and this algae has blown up! I was worried at how fast it was growing compared to how fast it grew in my 3g pico, but all my parameters are looking great and it seems this stuff grows like weeds. I will post a pic after my battery charges for a few hours and see if my assumption of this being chaeto is correct. I also added some zoas and will be throwing in a couple more corals today, so stay tuned for pictures!

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Okay, here are the crappy pictures of the Chaeto I promised, or at least what I believe it to be.

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Some new additions thanks to djpaul81 who not only hooked me up but was extremely easy to buy from... high recommendation if you are in the O.C. are

 

Frogspawn

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Orange Skirted Zoas

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Kenya Tree (bad shot) and Red Mushrooms

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New Full Tank Shot

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Well I recently added a green clown goby last Tuesday and it disappeared within 2 days and has yet to be seen. I will continue to keep my eye out but I am losing hope after a week. I would have posted about it but I thought I would wait until it had a few days to acclimate but it looks like it was a no go from the beginning.

 

My significant other's stipulation for me getting the tank was that there must be a fish in it unlike my pico-reef SO I will be adding a clown fish soon... just cant go wrong with a clown fish. If I get him tonight, I will post pictures along with pictures of my updated coral placements.

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Everything looks good so far! If I may make a suggestion, I think you should add more flow to your tank. Much of the power from your maxi900 is lost on the turning mechanism in the hydor flo. In my 14 biocube I added a koralia 1 and all of my corals really appreciated the extra water movement. Also if you are looking to upgrade your lighting I suggest you upgrade your fans as well. The stock fans are small and are known to fail over time. If you don't care about keeping the stock look then just lose the top altogether and get a sunpod or viper.

 

chaeto?

You are right, thats chaeto. I keep a big ball of it in the corner of my 14. Its great stuff to have in your tank. It competes with nusiance algae for food, thus keeping the other algae in check. It also workes as a mini fuge because fish and other inverts can't get inside a thick ball to eat the pods, which inturn breed like crazy.

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Everything looks good so far! If I may make a suggestion, I think you should add more flow to your tank. Much of the power from your maxi900 is lost on the turning mechanism in the hydor flo. In my 14 biocube I added a koralia 1 and all of my corals really appreciated the extra water movement. Also if you are looking to upgrade your lighting I suggest you upgrade your fans as well. The stock fans are small and are known to fail over time. If you don't care about keeping the stock look then just lose the top altogether and get a sunpod or viper.

Thanks for the info!

 

I am aware of the reduced flow from the hydor flo but I love the random flow. I have been wanting to add additional flow as well, and was thinking of utilizing the koralina nano, but funds are short at the moment. I was a little worried the nano would turn the tank into a surge of flows, but its good to hear you have a koralina 1 and think its fine.

 

As far as the top, I would like to keep the stock look but I have looked into replacing the fans, just need a free weekend to mod it.

 

Thanks again for looking!

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Well again, I delayed on posting because of more bad news, grrr!

 

No sign yet of my green clown goby and I checked everywhere; he’s gone and I’m sure my hermit and nass. snails made quick work of him.

 

Checked water parameters, excellent quality all around and have been doing 3 day water changes just in case of pollution if my goby died and was rotting somewhere I couldn’t see him… just playing it safe.

 

I decided to go ahead and add a clownfish due to a credit with my LFS dealing with the green clown goby I had along with the knowledge that all my water parameters were great after a week of testing

 

Day 1: Clownfish seems happy, eats like a pig

Day 2: Clownfish still seems happy although there is a small bit of his slimy coat coming off, could be stress so continued to watch, still eats like a pig (Water params good)

Day 3: Clownfish has significant slime layer coming off, barely can swim, gasping for air at the surface… DIES!!! (Water params good!!!)

 

So after much research and questioning, I’m thinking I might have a lack of oxygen in my tank. I had removed the drip tray originally because it was loud, but have now placed it back in and I see more micro bubbles within my tank, but not too many to ruin the view.

 

Despite my lack of funds, I figured it would be a better investment to get another powerhead in there aimed at the surface to get more o2 exchange, which never hurts the corals either, so I purchased a korolina nano. I aimed the nano at the surface and I am getting constant surface agitation, whereas with the hydor-flo, the water would nearly become placid between its rotating cycle.

Sorry for the long post, but these are my best estimations at what has happened, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them

 

My next attempt at fish will be a cheapy damsel where he will be returned or donated to a bigger home assuming he lives for a couple weeks in my death trap tank. If he doesn’t, I have no clue what to do….

 

Argh!

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I just wanted to say that I highly suggest the koralia nano powerhead for additional flow within the BioCube 14g. It can add quite some turbulence to he water which the corals love, and you can always aim it in different directions to lessen the flow. I hope this addition along with adding my drip tray will allow me to keep a fish. If another one dies, I might suspect a parisite or some form of disease and let my tank go fallow of fish for 2 months... wish me luck!

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Added a new FTS (Full tank shot) in my first post.

 

Looks like despite my fish issues, my cerith snails have been doing quite well indeed. In fact they have been "dancing" so to say and looks like we have some eggs...

 

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Granted these eggs won't stand a chance in the tank, neat to watch none the less.

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