oncorhynchus Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Tank: Biocube 14g Chamber 1: Stealth heater Titanium heater, reefkeeper temp probe, purigen Chamber 2: Media rack from inTank (filter floss, chaeto, chemipure elite) Chamber 3: Maxi-Jet 900, rowaphos where the sponge was Live Rock: Assorted purchased locally Sand: Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite (thin layer) Powerhead: Koralia Nano 425 Removed false floors in chambers one and two MOST RECENT TANK SHOT 10/18/2011 Dave Link to comment
cdr5y7 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 looks good. i would be careful with the big base rock on the back right hand corner. it looks like its almost touching the glass. algae will grow there and wont be able to clean it. what are your stocking plans for the tank? Link to comment
rO.oster Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 you may want to consider taking a hammer/chisel to some of the largest pieces of LR to break them into 1/2 or 2/3's so that you can vary the chunk sizes for a more ...chunky look. think about where to place your corals, and how they may look as they grow and get bigger and fill in more space. good start! Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Thanks guys. I've rearranged the rocks a bit and moved things far enough from the glass to be able to cover the entire surface with a magnet cleaner. Not sure I am brave enough to take a hammer and chisel out just yet! We'll see...things look more balanced now and I have a number of levels to place corals. Not sure exactly what I will be adding as far as corals, but for sure I want: frogspawn torch xenias GSP candycane zoas palys For fish, I'm thinking a pair of clowns. Also a CUC from reefcleaners and a peppermint shrimp or two for the aiptasia. The rock I got had a ton of starfish, I've seen sand sifting stars, red brittles and striped brittles. I also saw a two inch red bristle worm last night. Sucker was UGLY. Now I'm much more hesitant to stick my hands in. A couple questions: 1. When should I add the chemipure and purigen? 2. Any guidance as to when I could add the shrimp? I see new aiptasia each day. Thanks, Dave Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted January 12, 2011 Author Share Posted January 12, 2011 A little update. The tank cycled with live rock for about 2 weeks. I never saw any ammonia spike or nitrite for that matter, though around the two week mark the diatom bloom can in strong. I had lots of brown on the rock and glass. Conveniently my CUC arrived from Reefcleaners. Now, those guys , John in particular, have a reputation for over delivering and my order was no exception. Literally. I recieved the expected amount a nerites, florida ceriths etc. but when it came to the dwarf ceriths, where I expected a dozen I received well over 100. Not knowing what to do with them and not wanting to kill them, I chucked them all in. My loss rate was insignificant. In doing this, I worried about starting a new cycle and die off, but since there was no livestock in my tank, I risked it and was ready to wait a few more weeks if need be. It's now been a week since I added the snails and the snail farm is thriving...I've given a few bags of snails away to local reefers and will do more. Bottom line is I am way over-snailed and will need to get these guys out. I have ceriths on nerites that have dwarf ceriths on them! I plan on bringing them to the norcalreefclub frag swap and hopefully they will get taken. In addition to the snails, I put in two blue legged hermit crabs. I've also added Chemipure and Purigen (when I put the snails in) and have done weekly water changes. Yesterday, I installed a BRS RODI system in the laundry room. This is an awesome system and was VERY easy to install. I've also ordered: Nanotuners 3.24 upgrade and 3 PC-R bulbs A second PC4 module for the RKL A two little fishies nano mag cleaner A better second heater JBJ Nanoglo refugium light This hobby has high start up costs, but I can't wait to get my first corals in a few more weeks. Link to comment
Rain24 Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I hope someone answers your CUC question. I'm thinking about ordering from Reefcleaners too but I wouldn't know what to do with all the extra snails. You should take a photo of some of the snail pile-ups. By the way, I really like the colors in this rock: I hope whatever it is clinging to that rock is still there. Good luck on your tank. I'll be checking in on most of the newer BC 14s since I'll have one up and running soon. For now, you've intrigued me about this Two Little Fishies nano mag cleaner. I must go and investigate! Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 Rain24 - thanks for the comments. Everything clinging to that rock is still there and seems to be growing. A number of feather dusters have popped up. The green slime stuff is certainly spreading and looks cool. The coral is changing too (details below). Unfortunately the aiptasia is growing as well. As for an update, since the snails were added everything is fine. No detectable ammonia spike or other problems. The aiptasia have been growing and I've been unable to locate a peppermint shrimp in any lfs. I need to deal with these things and hopefully I can locate a shrimp this weekend. If not, I'll have one shipped, but the shipping charges I've seen have been pretty high for a $6 shrimp. I installed the BRS RODI system the other day. The installation was simple and the water has 0 TDS. I also installed the Nanocustoms 3.24 upgrade. I'm running a PC-R combo bulb and a PC-R dual actinic. The third bulb is the stock 10k. I really like the color of this combo, though I must say that the color of the PC-R bulbs is awesome. Way richer that the stock bulbs. Replacing the stock bulbs with PC-R bulbs should be on every biocube owner’s mod list. One of my live rock had a nice purple coral on it (in the picture above). After a few weeks, the coral sloughed a layer of skin and is now changing colors. I have no clue what this thing is, please let me know if you do. Here is a shot to give folks an idea of the number of snails. This is a little nook of the tank and there are about 20 snails in the shot. A full tank shot replete with snails. I've moved the rock around somewhat since the last picture. I like the ledge and the ravine down the center but overall I'm not 100% happy. To me it looks, well, a little contrived. I'm not a huge fan of the coral piece on top generally and many of my rocks are the same size giving everything a very regular and blocky look. Link to comment
Rain24 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 That really IS snail city! How was the 3.24 upgrade in terms of difficulty of installation? It didn't look too bad from the instructions and I was hoping that I could maybe do something like this without asking the husband for help or getting too many cuts on my hands. (I used to work in IT and anytime you stick me around parts and wires, I seem to find a way to get a cut.) Regarding the rockwork, I do agree with you that the topmost rock looks a little awkward. I wonder if you could somehow get it to sit up there upside down so that you don't have that horizontalish line underneath it that mimics the line of the ledge? Maybe it'll give you some height on one side making it asymmetrical and yet more interesting? Also, why not break up some of the larger rock pieces for variety? Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 A little update... After my cycle, the first thing I got was a peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia on my live rock. The shrimp was just a little one, but it absolutely went to town on the aiptasia. Now I have a peppermint shrimp that I have to feed. The little bugger is really aggresive too. When I feed my clowns he climbs the side of the tank and hangs upside down on the surface tension devouring pellets/mysis. If anyone out there needs a proven aiptasia eater, pm me. You pay shipping and he's yours! He also comes and nibbles my fingers if I put them in the tank. After the peppermint shrimp, I needed to unload some of my overload of snails. I went to a local reef club frag swap and gave them out in ten packs. I gave away 120 dwarf cerith snails! I have at least fifty left in my tank that were in the nooks that I could not grab. Getting so many extra snails is a bit of a hassle, but come morning my tank is spick and span. Once the snails were thinned out, I picked up my first corals and fish. I got two baby tank bred misbar true percs. They were sweet, but one died suddenly after three days. Not sure what caused it, tank params were perfect. My LFS replaced it gratis though and now my two percs are doing great. I also picked up three corals initially; a dragon eye zoa, a frogspawn and some irridescent green mushrooms. They all look great and are fully extending and seem to be thriving (oh, and for newbies watching LPS coral eat is a pretty sweet). One thing about corals that I can say for sure though is that they are dangerously addicting...I've subsequently picked up a "crazy orange" chalice, a duncan, some bubblegum colored zoas and two polyps of xenia. I also have what I think is one of the coolest "hitchhikers" ever. The shelf rock in my aquascape looks like an old montipora cap. In the center of it was a small red crystal-looking spike. I think that through everything, some of the coral survived. The spike has turned into a shelf and is growing rapidly. I'll post pics tomorrow when the lights come back on, but I think I also have a nice red montipora growing in my tank. A few things I've learned that may help fellow newcomers: 1. When you get corals, be prepared to dip them. This means having some Revive or other solution on hand as well as prepared saltwater at the right temperature. Get your solution, read the protocol and be prepared. 2. The RODI system was worth its weight in gold. I could not imagine doing all this without having water at the turn of a switch. 3. Have gel superglue on hand when you get your corals as you may need to glue them to the rocks to keep them from getting knocked down by snails/hermits. 4. Having a good razor blade and a dremmel is key if you need to remove frag plugs. I hate the look of frag plugs glued to a reef. 5. Put a little silicon on the edge of the stevieT flow director if you have a media rack will get you a tight fit and perfect flow through the rack with no spillover (let the silicon dry on the edge before putting in the tank so you don't permanently attach it). I had to order a few extra to get this right, but at $1.50 a pop, a little experimentation was warranted. Now 100% of the flow in my tank goes through the floss. 6. And this is probably the most important for first timers: underscape your aquascape. A LOT of the coral you may want will come attached to decent sized rocks. You need to have room for it. Pics tomorrow.... Dave Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Pictures. Dargon Eye Zoas Orange Chalice Duncan Frogspawn under actinics Mushroom Perc Tank My hermits are #######s. Link to comment
gdlyorchi Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 hahahaha i got a same sice but now im moving into a bc29, 14 is amazing biy i want a bigger one lol, nice pics BTW!!!! Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted February 6, 2011 Author Share Posted February 6, 2011 Well my peppermint shrimp went off the reservation and attacked my Xenia and Duncan. Suffice to say that little $@*ofa$*&ch is not in the tank any longer. I hope someone catches a nices grouper with you.... Other than the shrimp attack, the tank is doing well. Tomorrow I unload another volley of corals including a Palau Nepthea and a nice blue Ricordea Yuma. Thinking of taking my hermits out too, all they seem to do is walk on my zoas... Dave Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 My tank is doing well. I think I'll need to get an ATO soon as I have to top off 1/3 to 1/2 cup of RODI water each day which is not going to work the next time I need to go out of town. I'm looking at the Tunze ATO system. Salinity is 1.025 pretty consistantly for though. I'm also monitoring Ca, Mg and Alk trying to determine my tank's consumption in order to titrate in the proper amount of 3 part to add. I've yet to dose anything though, just want to get a sense for how things are going. Other parameters are good: 0's on the Nitrogen trifecta and Phosphate. Ph is 8.2. I'm looking to stock some more corals, but I just need a moment to sneak off to my favorite LFS. What I'd like to add is a neon green palau nepthea, a nice blue ric and some pulsing xenia. Latest shots. My mushrooms are multiplying. Both percs have moved down from the powerhead to the front corner near the frogspawn. They've yet to swim in it though. It is nice to see them using more of the tank though. One is slighlty bigger and it bullies the smaller one, particularly when I feed them. I love these zoas. Unfortunately there are some plain grey ones mixed in with the colony I got. Lower half of tank. The duncan head on the left got ravaged by my peppermint shrimp but is recovering. The one on the right is sprouting a few new heads. Link to comment
rb1685 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Your tank is looking good! How do you like the duncans? I'm thinking about getting a couple. Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 Your tank is looking good! How do you like the duncans? I'm thinking about getting a couple. I love the duncans. They are a great looking coral with large dramatic polyps and also seem to be pretty fast growers. They also are cool because you can really see them eat. When they grab food, they contract quickly and use their tentacles to manipulate it into their mouth. One of the heads actually grabbed and ate a pretty good size pod. It took it a few hours to get it all the way down. Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 A question and some new pics. First, the question: what is this? I've got a ton of them. They are little purple nodules with a tube extruding outward. When I dust up the tank with a baster, the tube releases a tiny string of 3 to 6 inches. After 5-10 minutes the string goes away. I assume they are filter feeding. This is a macro algae hitchhiker. At first I thought it was coral but folks ID'd it as algae. I touched it and it's soft. I presume it's good for the tank. It sure is growing quickly. New camera, manual focus and zoomed in. Now I want a macro lens. My duncan is good at eating and being eaten. He ate a hermit leg. A peppermint shrimp ate half of him. And now he is eating chaeto. Starfish legs... Link to comment
msujeff Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Nice pic of the zoas. What kind of camera do you have? Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 Nice pic of the zoas. What kind of camera do you have? Canon XSi with the stock lens. I'm just hitting the learning curve with it. Btw, both of my folks are MSU alumns. Link to comment
msujeff Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Canon XSi with the stock lens. I'm just hitting the learning curve with it. Btw, both of my folks are MSU alumns. Great shots. I'm starting to research some DSLRs and just seeing what people are using. Didn't want to keep the family tradition going?! I had 20+ relatives go to state including my dad so it was pretty much standard I went there as well. Very glad I did. Link to comment
rO.oster Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 cool baby mushroooooms! i love it when stuff multiplies, tanks doin great Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 cool baby mushroooooms! i love it when stuff multiplies, tanks doin great Thanks. Btw, I checked out your tank thread. I really like your aquascape. It's original, looks cool, and provides lots of great area for coral. I'm kinda bummed how mine turned out. Thinking about making some changes, particularly in taking out the big coral piece and adding some rocks. I wish I had had the patience to do dry base rock and really set it up nicely like you did. As it was, I picked up some rock at a LFS (though thankfully it was dirt cheap, $25 bucks for all of it) and although I think it filters like crazy, I don't love the way it looks. I wonder how dangerous it is to pull a big rock out of the tank.... Link to comment
srkdaz Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 nice tank and pics... what camera do you use? i have t1i but can't figure how to get the settings right to capture true colors of corals..and i always have problem with focus too... Link to comment
oncorhynchus Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 nice tank and pics... what camera do you use? i have t1i but can't figure how to get the settings right to capture true colors of corals..and i always have problem with focus too... Thanks. I'm using a canon XSi with the stock lens. No flash and with the 10k light on. I added some new corals today, a palau nepthea, some star polyps that looked yellow in the store, and a small orange monti frag. Waiting for them to open to take some shot... Link to comment
Funktastic Wint Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 A question and some new pics. First, the question: what is this? I've got a ton of them. They are little purple nodules with a tube extruding outward. When I dust up the tank with a baster, the tube releases a tiny string of 3 to 6 inches. After 5-10 minutes the string goes away. I assume they are filter feeding. pretty sure its a vermetid snail. i have hundreds in my tank. they reproduce like crazy and string a web out to catch debri and then pull it back in the extrusion to feed on its catch Link to comment
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