MaineBirder Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Love the colors under the actinics! The Monti's look like they have adapted well too. Nice tank! Link to comment
akabryanhall Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Nice pics! Especially the zoa shot..killer. I have a monti cap under my stock hood, seems to be a really bright green, so montis do pretty good under pc's, not sure about the more demanding sps's though, would love to get a birds nest Link to comment
mkregs Posted August 24, 2009 Author Share Posted August 24, 2009 A few weeks ago, I had a disappointment. My Anthias WAS murdered. I made the mistake of adding that Bicolor Blenny to my tank. I couldn't believe that a fish that is supposed to be peaceful was as mean as that fish was. Within a couple days of adding him to the tank, he was chasing the Anthias and I saw him taking a chunk out of its fin. A couple days later, it was seriously going after the Anthias. I planned on moving the tank into my home office, so I removed all the rockwork and only then was I able to net him out. A couple days later, the Anthias was dead. I now have the same Percula, Sixline, and YWG for fish in the Biocube and no plans to add as all is good the way it is with the fish/inverts I have. The Biocube is pretty much almost on autopilot now. I feed it, do weekly water changes and daily top-offs which have all become a very easy routine. I did lose a bunch of coralline growth when I moved it, but that is slowly growing back. I now have my Biocube and my new CADLights 39 Pro in my home office. I just wish I could work from home more now... Link to comment
wenelyn Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Tank looks great. Sorry to hear about your Anthias I added a bunch of pics to my thread at your request o you should come check it out and tell me what ya think. Link to comment
myatt Posted September 26, 2009 Share Posted September 26, 2009 Great-looking tank, mk! I've had my BC29 cycling for a month now. I have a CUC in there, nice coralline activity, and some sort of macroalgae growing beautifully. The water consistently tests perfectly, and I haven't had any spikes of ammonia or nitrite/nitrate, just a little bit of green algae to keep the snails and hermits fat and happy. It's going so well I'm almost afraid even to "say it" here! I do have a few aiptasia starts....I used Aiptasia-X on a couple, but I got a real chemical burn on my arm when I was applying it the first time. I figure if it's that nasty to me, it has to be awful in the tank. Gonna get shrimp, and hopefully that'll take care of them. I'm glad to know that the stock lighting is doing so well for you. I've been reading and reading and reading, and I have really been dreading changing the lighting....glad to know it's not necessary for corals. I can't wait to get some livestock in there now! Thanks for the thread; I've enjoyed following it. I'll have to start one of my own now.....hopefully I'll have results half as good as yours! Link to comment
GiantBen Posted September 26, 2009 Share Posted September 26, 2009 I have stock lighting too. The nanocustoms bulbs are really much nicer than the coralife ones. Link to comment
mkregs Posted September 27, 2009 Author Share Posted September 27, 2009 Great-looking tank, mk! I've had my BC29 cycling for a month now. I have a CUC in there, nice coralline activity, and some sort of macroalgae growing beautifully. The water consistently tests perfectly, and I haven't had any spikes of ammonia or nitrite/nitrate, just a little bit of green algae to keep the snails and hermits fat and happy. It's going so well I'm almost afraid even to "say it" here! I do have a few aiptasia starts....I used Aiptasia-X on a couple, but I got a real chemical burn on my arm when I was applying it the first time. I figure if it's that nasty to me, it has to be awful in the tank. Gonna get shrimp, and hopefully that'll take care of them. I'm glad to know that the stock lighting is doing so well for you. I've been reading and reading and reading, and I have really been dreading changing the lighting....glad to know it's not necessary for corals. I can't wait to get some livestock in there now! Thanks for the thread; I've enjoyed following it. I'll have to start one of my own now.....hopefully I'll have results half as good as yours! myatt, Thanks for the nice comments. The lighting on my Biocube has been and still is totally stock. There are better fixtures out there, but the stock fixture is fine for many kinds of corals. Try adding a peppermint shrimp or 2 to take care of your aipasia problem. They have worked well for me. Good luck with your Biocube! Link to comment
Cali-girl Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 wow mkregs! I just read through your whole thread and i'm so glad I did! In thinking of switching my cube to seahorses I was planning on returning to the stock hood for lights. I'm so glad ur having such success with the acans and montis. I have a birdsnest currently as well, you think if it's as high as possible it'd do ok under the stock lighting? I've had the sunpod for about a year now. anyway, had to comment on a job well done. It gives me a lot more confidence in returning to the stock lighting with the corals I have now. Link to comment
mkregs Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 wow mkregs! I just read through your whole thread and i'm so glad I did! In thinking of switching my cube to seahorses I was planning on returning to the stock hood for lights. I'm so glad ur having such success with the acans and montis. I have a birdsnest currently as well, you think if it's as high as possible it'd do ok under the stock lighting? I've had the sunpod for about a year now. anyway, had to comment on a job well done. It gives me a lot more confidence in returning to the stock lighting with the corals I have now. Thanks for reading...The tank will be 1 year old at the beginning of next month!!! I still have my Biocube running on stock lights. Those lights have proven to be adequate for LPS, softies, and even monti caps. However, you have to really play with the placement of these corals to find the spot where they are happiest with the light they are getting. While my Acans are happy being on the sandbed, my frogspawn is about halfway up the tank and my spiny brain is about 2/3 of the way up....and all have been doing well for some time. I don't know what success you would have with a birdsnest under stock lighting. I have thought about trying that before, but never did as I decided to drain my wallet on my second tank (seahorse tank) . Another possible issue with a birdsnest in a seahorse tank would be the probability that they would use it as a hitching post and damage the tissue on the coral. Take a look at the "Tankmates Guide" in the library @ seahorse.org. That site was very helpful to me while planning and ultimately setting up my seahorse tank. Oh...back to the lighting disussion...I would keep the sunpod on the BC because the tank will simply look better with the sunpod than it does with stock lighting. Also, do you have a chiller? It is recommended that seahorse tanks aren't kept at the temps that we keep our reef tanks. If you are planning on keeping tropical seahorses, the temps should remain between 72~74 degrees. Other species require even lower temps. I'm looking forward to seeing how you set your tank up. Keep us posted! Link to comment
Cali-girl Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Oh...back to the lighting disussion...I would keep the sunpod on the BC because the tank will simply look better with the sunpod than it does with stock lighting. Also, do you have a chiller? It is recommended that seahorse tanks aren't kept at the temps that we keep our reef tanks. If you are planning on keeping tropical seahorses, the temps should remain between 72~74 degrees. Other species require even lower temps. I'm looking forward to seeing how you set your tank up. Keep us posted! See that's the reason I wanted to switch back to the stock lighting. I did have some heat issues at first with the sunpod. I got them under control just by using fans but it took a while getting everything timed together and it's still not low enough for SHs. Before I switched, I didn't have any heat issues, so with keeping fans attached to the hood, I know I can keep the temp low enough for the H. Erectus. I'm thinking I'll keep the Sunpod on hand for future use, but it seems like a waste of energy to have such a powerful light for corals that can be under less wattage. With all the microalgea in the display tank, I'll also take off the back refugium lighting, which adds a couple degrees i'm sure. That's the plan for now, although i guess I won't know for certain till I can get it all switched over. Thanks for all the advice on everything! I'm sure i'll be asking more as I go along. (tho it'll probably be on your other thread) Link to comment
mkregs Posted February 23, 2010 Author Share Posted February 23, 2010 I have had the feeling, for a while, that I have pretty much neglected this tank. About the neglect...Since last Summer, I have been pretty focused on my 39CAD Seahorse tank, setting up my basement with Seahorse nursery tanks, and the daily grind of raising fry (tedious...let me tell you). So, this BC29 took the back seat to all of that. I would do daily top-offs and feed every other day, but the tank has had some cyano issues....mostly because I haven't worked to remove it and haven't been doing regular water changes. Despite the neglect, my Frogspawn, Acans, Spiny Brain, Duncan, and some of my softies have continued to grow. I still have the same Perc Clown, Boxing Crab, and YWG that I have had in there forever, but I had to move my Perc Clown over to my Seahorse tank a while ago as my Sixline was forcing him to stay in one of the upper corners of the tank. I knew it would only be a matter of time before the Clown was stressed to the point of not eating, so I got him out of there. That was a temporary solution though as Clowns are not always great tankmates for Seahorses. The Wrasse and Clown were great with each other until a couple months ago when the Wrasse thought he would claim the entire tank as his own. This past weekend, I decided to deal with both problems. I knew I wouldn't be able to net the Wrasse with the LR in the tank, so it was a perfect opportunity to remove all of the rock, clean the rock and the tank, net the Wrasse, add some more sand to the tank, totally clean my Rena canister filter, do a water change, and set the rockscape back up. My Girlfriend and I did that on Sunday and the tank looks much better. Yesterday, I transferred the Clown back into the Biocube, went to a LFS to add to the CUC (some Trochus Snails), and couldn't resist a Pistol Shrimp I saw there. I am going to add only 1 more fish to this tank and will be discussing that with my Daughter as the Wrasse was her's and she was upset that we had to get rid of him...She does understand though. Mark Link to comment
GiantBen Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 Can't wait to see a pic. I'm sorry to hear you had to get rid of the wrasse, I have been avoiding teh temptation of getting one for this reason. Link to comment
mkregs Posted February 25, 2010 Author Share Posted February 25, 2010 Can't wait to see a pic. I'm sorry to hear you had to get rid of the wrasse, I have been avoiding teh temptation of getting one for this reason. Ben, I will never keep a sixline in tank as small as a BC29 again. They are great swimmers and love to cruise. IMO, there just isn't enough cruising space in a Biocube. Mark Link to comment
GiantBen Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 Yeah, I'm considering a Banggai ir Coral Beauty for my final fish. Link to comment
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