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New Biocube 14 owner saying hi.


Bobyboy

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RETIRED

 

Click the thumbnails once for a bigger image and click the image a second time for the largest image.

FIND MY MOST RECENT UPDATE HERE

FTS 6-29-12
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Current hardware and livestock as of 6-29-12

bc14 with stand
Upgraded return pump to mj900
In tank media basket
JBJ nano Glo
Jäger 50w heater
Koralia 425 ph

Modified hood with nanotuners 3.24 pc upgrade
Upgraded interior fans and added 2 fans on the inside above the rear chambers

Reefkeeper light with a second PC4 module
JBJ Auto top off with 2 float switches.

Current Livestock

Pair on false percs
Large lawnmower blenny (eats anything)
Scooter blenny (eats frozen meaty foods)
Pom Pom crab
Brittle star
4 legged emerald crab
4-8 hermits
1 margarita snail
2 small turbos
Various other snails

15lbs live rock
15-20lbs live sand


corals

GSP
Blue star polyps
green button polyps
Candy cane 6 heads
Duncan 6-8 heads
Toadstool
White pipe organ
Torch with 3 baseball sized heads
Yellow flower pot (moved to pico)
Finger leather 3-4 inches (moved to pico)
Blastomussa Merlett (moved to pico)
Greenbay packer zoa's
Eyes of jade zoa's
Emerald eye zoa's
Tidal zone palys (moved to Pico)
Lime berry zoa's
Red hornet zoa's
Yellow/gold zoa's
Xmen zoa's 8-10p
Cinnamon grandis 1 big head 4 small
metallic pink palys
Armor of god palys 4p
Purple death palys 2p
Metallic green and blush mushroom
Powder blur rhodactis
2 blue 1 red small mushrooms (moved to pico)

Aussie dendro 3 heads






Hi,

I dunno what all to say so I'll tell you everything.
First my grammar is horrible on the internet so please excuse me.
I started lurking here about a month ago and registered a few weeks ago.
This is my first Saltwater setup, I had a pair of Oscars that where almost 6 years that died a few years back do to a cracked tank and have decided to go a different route this time around.
I picked up a Biocube 14 and matching stand off of Craigslist in southern Jersey a few months back and have been piecing the setup together slowly ever since then. I bought a modified hood that was pretty beat up but had the nano tuners 3.24 upgrade working in it, I paid 65.00 for it and got home and swapped everything over to my hood so it looks stock and bought a new 50/50 for it.
I followed THIS guide and upgraded the 2 fans with THESE and moved the 2 stock fans to the outside of the shield.
I upgraded the stock pump with a maxijet 900, had to shave some off the intake nipple to get it to slide down in the chamber.
I made a decent order from inTank for some chemipure, purigen, JBJ nano Glo, Media rack, and a digital thermo.
I bought a used refract off Craigslist for 15,00 and had it calibrated at a LFS in Philly.
I set it up with the filtration, pumps, and 20 lbs of Fiji Pink Live-sand 2 weeks ago to insure everything worked and ordered the nano pack of live rock from gulfliverock.com on the 16th.
The rock was delayed but I got it this afternoon when I got home and now have it all set up.
I have a few pieces of rock left and the scape isn't anything super great.
The rocks are jsut stacked should I glue/poxy them in place?

Here are some pics of everything feel free to give me any advice you feel would be necessary. I only have a iPhone to take pics with so they are not the best.

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I'm not sure what to do with the extra rock, should I let it dry out?
Do you think I could get more in the tank?
Here is a pic of what I have left
photo3nl.th.jpg

I tried to keep about 1"-1.5" in between the rock and the glass/back wall, can the rock be stacked against the back wall with out problems?
I'm also not to sure on where or how to position the Oceanic circulation pump that came with the tank, I also have a unused oceanic UV sterilizer but I didn't know if it was needed or not.

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Well day 3 and it looks like my cycle is on it's way.

My ammonia has dropped from 4.0 on day 2 down to 0.50-1.0 this morning.

 

I also found what I think are 2 aiptasia 1 is really tiny and the other is about half a inch wide. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The third pic is the tiny one.

photobaw.th.jpgphotoag.th.jpgphotolyo.th.jpg

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Awsome build man! Just picked up a BC14 myself and working towards almost the same set up. Will be watching your updates!

 

Thanks,

I'm super excited for this setup. I'll be posting frequent updates.

I've still got 3-5 lbs of rock that's sitting in a bucket of saltwater that I'm considering rearranging my scape for.

I highly recommend upgrading your fans, my tank was peaking at 82 degrees during the day when I first set it up and ever since I did the fan mod it has been stable at a high of 78.8-79.2.

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Dont think I will be able to find a nanotuners upgrade so im going to try the LED route. Not sure if Im going to add some strips or try to do a DIY panel. I will still upgrade the fans tho, thanks for the suggestion.

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Eeven with out the nantuners upgrade the stock hood has very poor air circulation.

Post pics when you start on yours.

 

Sounds good, I dont mind modding the hood a little either. I think I will end up using Ecoxotic LEDs unless I get adventurous and create my own custom LED panel. I will start a thread when I get mine going for sure. I got a message on my phone from amazon today letting me know that the stand is out of stock and I wont get it for 2 weeks. Ive decided thats a good thing so that I can plan out my tank more and not make any impulse buys. B) Look forward to more updates from your thread. Going to order the live rock from the site you suggested once my stand gets here.

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Well it's been a week almost since I last updated.

 

My cycle finished up 2 or 3 days ago with the nitrates dropping down to 20 and staying stable for 3 days.

ammon -0

nitrite -0

nitrate - 20

I did a 30% (2.5 gal) water change today that dropped my nitrates down to about 10.

I added the chemi-pure elite in the center chamber and purigen in the bottom chamber of my media basket with a fresh filter pad on the top.

I went to a LFS up in Trenton called allquatics to see what they had and showed them a FTS on my cell.

 

Well I left with a emerald and 4 hermits along with what they said was a lawnmower blenny.

And my aiptasia has grown about double the size now, about the size of a quarter when he is fully open.

I am going to place a order for snails and cheato from reef-cleaners on Monday and let everything settle for a few weeks.

 

My original stocking plans was a Yasha goby / pistol combo with a pair of clown fish, I might just get a pair of clowns or maybe 1 clown and the goby/pistol. I dunno as of now.

 

Here are some pics I'll put the FTS in my first post.

 

photo1hl.th.jpg

 

 

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I've spent the last 2 hours watching this guy.

photo5ij.th.jpg

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Everything looks good. Bit of advice though, you have to suppliment algae for the blenny or he probably won't make it in the new tank. Try to get ahold of some Nori seaweed to feed him. Mine just ate algae and nothing else in my breeding setups. He was so fat and healthy and then located him in my new tank and the algae wasn't there for him. He wouldn't eat the Nori either for some reason. He did not make it. :(

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Everything looks good. Bit of advice though, you have to suppliment algae for the blenny or he probably won't make it in the new tank. Try to get ahold of some Nori seaweed to feed him. Mine just ate algae and nothing else in my breeding setups. He was so fat and healthy and then located him in my new tank and the algae wasn't there for him. He wouldn't eat the Nori either for some reason. He did not make it. :(

 

Thanks for the advice.

Question

Does he only eat specific alge?

I currently have quite a bit of vegetation in the tank, will he not eat that?

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nice bobyboy! I had a hard time deciding between a lawnmower blenny and a blue spotted jawfish. Glad your system cycled fast and proper. Now the fun begins.

 

I sent a message on wednesday to gulfliverock.com and still havent gotten a reply. Does this process take some time to get rock from them?

 

Getting the first shipments of stuff on monday and tuesday, but still cant get the system going till the backordered stand is back in stock.

 

Keep the pics comming.

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nice boyboy! I had a hard time deciding between a lawnmower blenny and a blue spotted jawfish. Glad your system cycled fast and proper. Now the fun begins.

 

I sent a message on wednesday to gulfliverock.com and still havent gotten a reply. Does this process take some time to get rock from them?

 

Getting the first shipments of stuff on monday and tuesday, but still cant get the system going till the backordered stand is back in stock.

 

Keep the pics comming.

He responded to my questions within 24 hours. The rock arrived within 2 days of it being shipped, mine was delayed a week due to weather before it was shipped when I ordered.

I was happy that the rock had minimal die off and cycled quickly.

I never had plans for a blenny my original stocking plans was a WYG/pistol with a pair of clowns but the LFS said the blenny would be good to help clean up the alge and my girl loved its personality so I caved in the end.

 

I'll be taking more pictures soon.

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Dont think I will be able to find a nanotuners upgrade so im going to try the LED route. Not sure if Im going to add some strips or try to do a DIY panel. I will still upgrade the fans tho, thanks for the suggestion.

 

Don't do the strips do the DIY Kit from rapid LED

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Don't do the strips do the DIY Kit from rapid LED

 

Why do you recommend the kit? price, ability to customize, better quality?

 

He responded to my questions within 24 hours. The rock arrived within 2 days of it being shipped, mine was delayed a week due to weather before it was shipped when I ordered.

I was happy that the rock had minimal die off and cycled quickly.

I never had plans for a blenny my original stocking plans was a WYG/pistol with a pair of clowns but the LFS said the blenny would be good to help clean up the alge and my girl loved its personality so I caved in the end.

 

I'll be taking more pictures soon.

 

Strange.. I wonder why I havent heard anything back from him. Ill send another message to him on monday if I havent heard anything. What did you end up doing with the few rocks you had extra?

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Why do you recommend the kit? price, ability to customize, better quality?

 

 

 

Strange.. I wonder why I havent heard anything back from him. Ill send another message to him on monday if I havent heard anything. What did you end up doing with the few rocks you had extra?

 

I ordered the 17lb nano pack and got 21lb worth.

I've had them sitting in a bucket of saltwater incase I decided to add them in later but now I'm debating about drying them out or talking my girlfriend into either a bc8 or a fluva aqueon(spelled wrong).

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Thanks for the advice.

Question

Does he only eat specific alge?

I currently have quite a bit of vegetation in the tank, will he not eat that?

Some good publications out of Australia indicate that the lawnmower blenny is dining on the stuff living in the algae (the epilithic algal matrix, EAM -- can't find anything on it in Caribbean waters), not just the algae itself. So having some in the tank will probably be good, though I would take the advice on supplemental feeding from those who know! Especially if the vegetation begins to fade as cycling continues. If you haven't added any macro algae ("plants"), you might consider that since it that will also help copepods and such colonize.

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I also found what I think are 2 aiptasia 1 is really tiny and the other is about half a inch wide. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Since this is gulf rock, the anemone hitchhikers in pics 1/2 might also be "light bulb" anemones. There is some debate on their value! They are not "evil" like aiptasia, but many contend they multiply like mad so often get rid of them just to keep that under control. I had three, huge beauties when I first started my tank, and did decide to take them out with aiptasia X -- first, I didn't want them multiplying everywhere b/c they got big. And second, one which was particularly large kept moving around, blocking the view of other corals or just plain irritating them. I found these decisions really hard at first. I had no problem taking out the aiptasia, but culling one thing in favor of another was difficult.

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Update,

I ordered the rest of my CUC from John today along with some extra hermit shells and chaeto.

10 Dwarf Ceriths

3 Nassarius

4 Florida Ceriths

4 Small to Medium Nerites

 

msscha, thanks for the advice.

I've had a ton of vegetation since I put the rock in, view my newest FTS.

I haven't done anything with the 2 aiptasia yet but I have noticed since I added my hermit crabs that it has moved up to a crevice in the rock.

I'll probably get some aiptasia x this week.

I've been readin up on what to feed the blenny and I think I'm going to try some alge sheets

 

Here are some new pics

First is Mr. Crab saying HI

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Here is the blenny in his favorite spot in between my mag-float and the powerhead.

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Cool update. Funny where the blenny likes to hang out. I still havent gotten a reply form dan at gulfrocks even after I sent him another email. Still got a few weeks before my tank goes live but hoping to get ahold of him soon.

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So this front rock in my tank a hermit crab was walking on it and it pops up.

It opened from underneath and stood up almost vertical.

I couldn't get a pic of it open but I am almost 100% sure it is some type of clam.

 

See my picture I have the rock circled any advice please.

This is a older picture from shortly after I received my rock.

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So this front rock in my tank a hermit crab was walking on it and it pops up.

It opened from underneath and stood up almost vertical.

I couldn't get a pic of it open but I am almost 100% sure it is some type of clam.

 

See my picture I have the rock circled any advice please.

This is a older picture from shortly after I received my rock.

I don't really have "advice" per se, but my rock came with lots of mollusks. I haven't seen the one I think was a "jewel box" move in a while, but the other open and close, sometimes on their own, sometimes when something annoys them. They have really pretty insides -- one is striped looking, another is almost scarlet. The acorn bivalves will flick little "tongues" to feed, which is kind of fun to watch, too.

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Cool rock set up man. How long did it take to cycle your tank?

 

With the rock I got from gulfliverock.com it cycled in a week.

 

 

I have seen a few of the acorns I thought where small clams, this one is huge and surprised me.

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