Aaron's 29 Gallon Biocube

[AaronMyers]

Going on vacation tomorrow for 2 weeks. I hope my tank sitter does a good job. I'm sure he will, I gave him detailed instructions and he has a 55 gallon freshwater tank, but this is his first saltwater experience. I feel like a parent leaving my kids with a sitter for 2 weeks, I'm so nervous!

[AaronMyers]

Well, I'm back from vacation and everything is doing great. My tank sitter did a great job. Had a little bit of GHA growing on some of the frags I made before I left, nothing a little scrubbing couldn't fix. My fish look happy and healthy and well fed. Only concern I had was my fire fish had a cut or sore on his tail, it looked like a bite mark or like a crab tried to grab him or something, but its been 5 days since I first saw it and it looks like it is healing fine. All the corals are doing great. Next project is to turn my 14 gallon biocube into a frag tank so I can get all the frags that are cluttering up my 29 gallon moved out. I'll be working on that this weekend. Then start advertising corals for sale on craigs list and start making some money from this hobby that normally drains my wallet instead

[AaronMyers]

Time for more updates. I replaced the PC lights in my 14 gallon Biocube with 3 Ecoxotic Panorama Pro modules and moved all the frags from my 29 gallon to the 14 gallon. I have been advertising on craigslist and have already cleared out quite a few frags. It’s nice to have room in the tanks again. Now that I have more room, I plan on getting more SPS corals and possibly a clam for the 29 gallon tank in the very near future.

 

The sore that was on the tail of my fire fish when we got back from vacation is completely healed and the fish is doing fine .

 

I got the algae under control again after a few scrubbing sessions and water changes. I think next time I go on vacation I’ll have the tank sitter feed the tank every other day instead of every day.

 

Here’s the latest FTS:

 

Left side FTS:

 

Right side FTS:

 

I love this coral, it grows so fast for a SPS. It’s definitely the centerpiece of this tank, both in appearance and its position in the tank. These pics are from 8/15/12:

 

These are from yesterday. This is a view from low in the tank looking up at the coral:

 

Here is my Metallic Orange Pavona Maldivensis. It continues to color up from its bleaching incident and seems very happy in its new location. This was taken on 8/10/12:

 

These were taken yesterday:

 

Here’s my Frogspawn. This thing has grown so much since I first got it. It has over 30 heads now. Everyone that came to my house to buy frags asked me when I plan on fragging this one and asked me to let them know when I do. I love the way it looks and just can’t bring myself to frag it right now, but I know that I will need to eventually (or get a bigger tank, which has definitely crossed my mind ). Here is a view from down low looking up at the branches:

[AaronMyers]

Here is my 1 remaining Rhodactis mushroom. Since I plan on putting most of the SPS I will be getting on the same rock that this mushroom is on, I will be keeping this mushroom to just 1. It has been a few months since I fragged all the other mushrooms and so far this one has not reproduced, but as soon as it does it will be fragged:

 

I can never seem to get a very good picture of this coral. This is my Tri Color Tenius. I have had to move this coral a few times now to keep it away from the rapidly growing orange montipora:

 

Here’s my Duncan:

 

Trachyphyllia Brain coral:

 

Devils Armor Palythoas. I fragged about 13 polyps of this coral a few months ago and will be fragging it way back again in a few days to make room for more SPS corals that I plan on putting on this rock:

 

Porcelain crab:

 

Yellow Watchman Goby and Randalli Pistol Shrimp:

[AaronMyers]

Just got a great order of corals from cultivatedreef.com. I orderd 10 corals and got 13!

 

What I ordered:

ORA Red Planet

ORA Green Birdsnest

Electric Miyagi Tort

Hot Pink Stylophora

Rainbow Stylophora

Superman Montipora

Sunset Montipora

Bam Bam Orange Zoanthids

Whammin Watermelon Zoanthids

Radioactive Dragon Eyes Zoanthids

 

The 3 extra freebies:

Red and Neon Green Aussie Blasto Wellsi

Red People Eaters Zoanthids

Lunar Eclipse Zoanthids

 

This is my second order from cultivated reef, Greg really has some great stuff and is very generous with his orders. The corlas are very healthy and already opening up. I'll post some pics later.

[AaronMyers]

Here’s some pics of the new corals:

ORA Green Birdsnest. I actually got 2 of these in the order, I thought maybe the one I ordered broke in shipping, but I sent Greg an email and asked him about it and he said he actually sent me 2 :

 

 

Here’s the ORA Red Planet. It’s very pale right now, I’m sure it will color up over time:

 

 

Here’s the Electric Miyagi Tort:

 

 

Here’s the Hot Pink Stylophora:

 

 

Here’s the Rainbow Stylophora:

 

 

Here’s the Superman Montipora:

 

 

Here’s the Sunset Montipora:

 

 

Here’s the Whammin Watermelon Zoas:

 

 

Here’s the Radioactive Dragon Eyes Zoas. Only one polyp has opened so far, I hope the others open soon:

 

 

Here’s the Bam Bam Orange Zoas:

 

 

Here’s the Red People Eaters Zoas:

 

 

Here’s the Lunar Eclipse Zoas with a clove polyp growing in the middle:

 

 

Here’s the Red & Green Aussie Blasto Wellsi:

 

 

I love the colors of the hot pink stylo and sunset monti:

 

 

Here’s more pics of my favorite coral. These were taken 2 weeks ago. This thing is growing so fast:

 

 

Here’s more pics of my goby and pistol shrimp:

 

 

Group photo with porcelain crab:

 

[AaronMyers]

Happy 3 year birthday to my tank!!!!!!

[markalot]

Woah, very late to the game and now following. This is awesome ... updated FTS?

 

Happy 3 years!

[markalot]

Happy 3 year birthday to my tank!!!!!!

 

Doesn't look like you follow your thread, so quoting to bug you with an alert. FTS! Pics, etc.

[AaronMyers]

Thanks Mark! I'll post some updated pics later tonight when I get home.

[markalot]

Thanks Mark! I'll post some updated pics later tonight when I get home.

.

 

Thanks. Could you also tell us maint info, like dosing and water changes?

[AaronMyers]

OK, sorry about the wait, I got busy last night and ran out of time. As promised, here are the updated full tank shots taken yesterday:

 

FTS:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_4089.jpg.html'>

RFTS:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_4094.jpg.html'>

LFTS:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_4095.jpg.html'>

[AaronMyers]

Unfortunately my tank does not look like that anymore as of today. I held off as long as I could, but I needed to frag the orange monti, so today it got a makeover.

 

Before:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_4106.jpg.html'>

After:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_4116.jpg.html'>

The pieces:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_4124.jpg.html'>

More pics to come, I have a lot of updates to catch up on since my last post almost a year ago.

[markalot]

Nice, thanks for the pics. Monti is awesome, even cut up.

[AaronMyers]

Thanks Mark. This is actually the 2nd time now that I've fragged that coral back like that. It grows so fast being right below the metal halide. It'll be right back to the same size within a year.

[markalot]

Thanks Mark. This is actually the 2nd time now that I've fragged that coral back like that. It grows so fast being right below the metal halide. It'll be right back to the same size within a year.

 

So you haven't mentioned maintenance. I'd love to know since it's obviously working well for you.

[AaronMyers]

Maintenance:

Temp: 78-79 maintained by chiller

SG: 1.025

PH: 7.8 - 8.0

KH: This has been a problem lately, right now at 5dkh but usually try to maintain at 9 - 10 dkh

Calcium: 420 - 460

Magnesium: 1300 - 1350

 

Daily:

Feed Fish:

Mandarin: Blood worms and Nutrimar Ova soaked in cup of fresh water with 5 drops of Selcon and 1 drop of Kent Marine Garlic Extreme

YWG (fed every other day): Mysis shrimp and brine shrimp soaked in cup of fresh water with 5 drops of Selcon and 1 drop of Kent Marine Garlic Extreme (Mandarin also picks up pieces of this)

Top off fresh water in evening

Dosing:

Kent Marine Magnesium: 3 ml dosed in evening

Kent Marine Liquid Calcium: 3 ml dosed in evening

Alkalinity: Randy Holmes-Farley alkalinity recipe #1: still trying to dial this in but right now dosing 5ml in the morning

Brightwell Aquatics Amino Acid: 12 drops in the evening with filtration turned off for 1 hour

Every 2 - 3 days:

Clean glass

Change Filter Floss

Every Week:

5 gallon water change with reef crystals mixed to SG 1.024. Lightly vacuum surface of sandbed when doing water change

Turkey baste live rock

Scrub algae on rocks if needed

Empty skimmer cup

Every 2 weeks:

Change GFO and carbon in media reactor, 4 Tbsp of each

Every 3 months:

Change bag of Chemi-Pure in media rack

Every 6 months:

Replace Ushio 20K 150 watt metal halide bulb

 

Thats about it. I should explain the alkalinity issues I'm currently having. From the beginning of this tank I have struggled to keep my dkh and ph above the minimums and I have been told it is because it is a closed top tank, and because we never open our doors or windows since its always so dang hot here in the desert our household CO2 levels are most likely high causing the low ph. A friend recently recomended Randy Holmes-Farley's alkalinity recipe so I tried it. I used the reef calculator to determine how much to add to raise the dkh to 10 and what do you know, it worked! After 3 days of dosing 60ml per day my ph was at 8.1 and the dkh was at 12. since the dkh was high I reduced the dosage to 40ml per day. But then the ph and dkh started to drop and I was experiencing massive calcium precipitation (my calcium was also high - 500 ppm). So I figured the high calcium must be the reason for the precipitation so I stopped dosing calcium and alkalinity and once the calcium dropped down to 420 I started dosing alkalinity again at 40 ml per day. PH and dkh were still low so I started increasing the dosage until I was back up to 60 ml per day but it still wasn't raising the ph or dkh. At this piont I was very frustrated. Then I learned that dosing too much alkalinity can actually have a lowering affect on dkh. So I then started dosing 10ml per day but my dkh was still at 5 so now I'm trying 5 ml per day and see how that goes. Man, maintaining alkalinity sure is a pain in the butt!

[AaronMyers]

Thought this was kinda cool. Last september I witnessed my brittle starfish population do a mass spawning event. I was doing maintenence on the tank late at night and I noticed a brittle starfish crawling around out in the open. This caught my attention as usually all I see is their arms sticking out of the rock work waving in the current. As I looked closer I noticed a whole bunch of star fish were out and then I realized they were spawning. Here's some pics. Warning: this is X rated!

 

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http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/IMG_3452.jpg.html'>

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/IMG_3453.jpg.html'>

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/IMG_3454.jpg.html'>

[AaronMyers]

Last November I went to my LFS to pick up some fish food and saw this little guy and decided to bring him home:

 

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/IMG_3576.jpg.html'>

 

Here he is on top of my brain coral waving around his new nem:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_3611.jpg.html'>

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_3612.jpg.html'>

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_3614.jpg.html'>

 

And now he has 2 nems:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_3902.jpg.html'>

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_3903.jpg.html'>

 

The Tai Chi master:

http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/amyers6447/media/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube/Aarons%2029%20Gallon%20Biocube002/IMG_3905.jpg.html'>

[AaronMyers]

I hated to do it, but on 5/28/13 I fragged my frogspawn . It had 50 heads. I cut off 1 branch that had 9 heads and another branch that had 20 heads and what I kept has 21 heads. Pics of its final days of glory:

 

 

On the operating table:

 

A much smaller frogspawn:

[1.0reef]

Uh

WOW!

[AaronMyers]

Uh

WOW!

LOL, thanks 1.0reef!

[markalot]

LOL, thanks 1.0reef!

 

You need to follow your own thread. Any updates?

[AaronMyers]

It was a very sad day in my little slice of the ocean today. My firefish that I have had for 3 years and 4 months died sometime during the night last night. He was my very first saltwater fish. I woke up this morning and was doing my daily morning inspection of the tank and there he was, laying on top of my frag rack. I'm not sure what happened, he looked fine when I got home from work yesterday and he ate well during feeding time, so this was completely unexpected. His body had been chewed up by my peppermint shrimp but I have no reason to believe they are responsible for his death, they were simply doing their job as part of the cleanup crew. Goodbye Ember, you will be missed.

 

I love this head on shot, its my favorite picture of Ember the firefish

 

You need to follow your own thread. Any updates?

 

Markalot, I apologize for not noticing and replying to this sooner, I'm terrible at this whole social media thing. I'll try to do better

[anthonym]

Wow, amazing progress on this tank! Gives me a bit of inspiration for some changes to mine. Sorry to hear the the little firefish died. You just made me realize how bummed I'll be when the day comes that my pink spot goby dies. He was part of the original gang of fish in my tank, and has so far outlived the others that have since been replaced. Anyway, keep posting updates! Love this tank