Aaron's 29 Gallon Biocube

[AaronMyers]

Thanks Anthony, it is a bummer when our prized little fish die. We might not be able to cuddle and pet them like a dog or cat, but they still leave and empty space in our tanks (and hearts) when they go. And keep up the good work on your tank, it looks like its come a long way, its looking great!

[AaronMyers]

A friend of mine is in the process of breaking down his 90 gallon in wall reef tank and I picked up a few nice pieces from him. I got this flame blasto colony with 13 heads:

 

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And I got this colony of radioactive dragon eyes zoanthids with over 200 polyps. They were on a large piece of live rock and I didn't have room for the whole thing so I broke off a large part of the rock that didn't have any zoanthids growing on it and in the process the part with the zoanthids growing on it broke into 2 pieces. Here is the small piece:

 

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And here is the larger piece:

 

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The dragon eyes are currently in my frag tank until I decide what to do with them. I dont have room for the whole thing, I'm planning on keeping the smaller piece and either selling the bigger piece as is or fragging it up and selling the frags.

[AaronMyers]

I'm bummed about my frogspawn. Ever since I fragged it it hasnt been opening up all the way like it used to, the polyps barely extend out of the opening of the branches. I also had a problem with green hair algae growing all over the skeleton, so I took it out of my main tank and put it in my frag tank. I'm hoping it comes around, its one of my favorite pieces. If anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it.

In other news, I recently started using the Red Sea Reef Energy A & B and the Red Sea Coral Colors A B C & D. I've been using it for about 3 weeks now and I'm already seeing a difference. I'll post some pics soon.

[AaronMyers]

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a year since my last post. I really suck at social media. Just wanted to provide an update on the ol' Biocube. I'm moving this weekend and I'm SOOOOO NERVOUS!!!!! . This tank has been sitting undisturbed for 5 years now (5 years exactly this month) and it breaks my heart that I now have to disturb that stability. I hope the move goes well, wish me luck and keep my tank in your prayers! If anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it. Not a whole lot has changed in the tank other than fragging corals as needed to prevent crowding, and I still have my mandarin and yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp pair. My frogspawn has made a comeback and is looking like its old self again, I even had to frag it again recently. I'll try to post some final pics of the tank before the move and updates after the move.

[markalot]

Yes, you need to update us more often! Good luck, I hope it works out. I might remove the sandbed first just to be safe, or gravel vac it really well. The biggest issues I've heard about is the sandbed getting disturbed and releasing a lot of nutrients all at once which can kill corals. A good vac or removal should prevent that ... I would hope.

[hinnenkm]

I've got to move my tank in a couple weeks too and am nervous as well, your tank is beautiful and best of luck moving it!

[AaronMyers]

Thanks Markalot, I actually plan on replacing the sand except for maybe a couple of cups to seed the new sand. Here's my plan:

Fill 5 gallon buckets (I have 9 on hand so I should have plenty) with 2-3 gallons of clean tank water and move corals and live rock into the buckets, that way they are not exposed to the nastyness of the disturbed sandbed. Once everything is removed into the buckets then I'll siphon out whats left and clean the tank and pumps and other equipment real good. I have a few corals that I will also frag at this time since they are hard to reach, so it will be nice to have the rock out of the tank where I can easily frag the corals. Then I'll transport everything to the new house, set up the tank, put the rock and new sand in, fill it up with part old tank water from the buckets and part new saltwater that I plan to have mixing and ready to go at the new house. Turn everything on and hope for the best.

 

Hinnenkm, I visited your tank thread and it looks like you have experience with moving your tank already, I hope you have success again with this move. I'll let you know how my move goes. I love the close up picture of your mandarin, I wish I could get pictures like that of mine. Every time I move the camera up to the tank mine runs and hides. I have to sneek up on him to get pictures.