New Biocube 14 owner saying hi.

[NickCage]

Nice start to your setup! Make sure to pace yourself, bc in these tanks(i have a BC14 too) a small thing can make a huge impact, meaning every little thing you add will make a difference in water tests. As they said with macro you could take some off your rocks and it will grow in the back, just get some of the roots and it will take quick. It looks like a caulerpa cousin, so its got great benefits for the fish, but most people dont like it in the main tank, bc if you get corals it starts to become a growing warzone in there. I like your scape, but you could have fit the rest in. I have almost 25lbs in mine, click my signature to see. And you can put it up against the back wall without problems, but doing it how you did gives a much better flow and no dead spots back ther from no current, so you did that right leaving 1-1.5. Im at the Pa/Md line. Welcome to Reefing, and Cubing. Theres a biocube club on here, be sure to join! Im following this, love to watch "cubes" come to life.

[NickCage]

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 had 2 of these in my rock when I got it! They are a type of mollusk/filter feeder. Normally it grows with the intake part facing down. Thats why the whole thing seems to raise and lower, they dont have colot like clams do, they ger encrusted with coraline so they look like part of the rock. They dont do well in small tanks tho, but can be kept alive with suppliment feedings for fine filer feeders. Sno, zooplex, phytoplex. Stuff like that. Mine lived for a year or so. Can fould the water up bad when they die tho. You could easily break it off, and ther will be a perfect flat spot to glue a frag!

[Bobyboy]

Thanks for the advice, my rock was cured rock and cycled within a week.

I thought about fitting the rest in but decided not to do so as I wanted at least a inch of clearance all the way around tge scape.

As of now I'm not planning to add anything els until end of the month or later.

My blenny seems to be doing great his coloring has become much more vivid and I can see his belly getting rounder by the day.

 

 

 

I had 2 of these in my rock when I got it! They are a type of mollusk/filter feeder. Normally it grows with the intake part facing down. Thats why the whole thing seems to raise and lower, they dont have colot like clams do, they ger encrusted with coraline so they look like part of the rock. They dont do well in small tanks tho, but can be kept alive with suppliment feedings for fine filer feeders. Sno, zooplex, phytoplex. Stuff like that. Mine lived for a year or so. Can fould the water up bad when they die tho. You could easily break it off, and ther will be a perfect flat spot to glue a frag!

 

How do you feed it?

Will it die if I break it off?

[NickCage]

It helped you had good sand also, just be careful, test often. I have never heard of a one week cycle, even with live rock and sand, it just seems extremely fast. Add livestock slowly, everything, fish, coral, inverts, ect. And max fish is 4, some say 3, but 4 seems to be fine for most. All small of course. Good luck!

[Bobyboy]

It helped you had good sand also, just be careful, test often. I have never heard of a one week cycle, even with live rock and sand, it just seems extremely fast. Add livestock slowly, everything, fish, coral, inverts, ect. And max fish is 4, some say 3, but 4 seems to be fine for most. All small of course. Good luck!

 

I've been testing daily since I added the first livestock.

Ammonia and nitrite have remained 0 and my nitrates seem to vary from 0-10.

[NickCage]

You feed it by adding the stuff i mentioned to the whole tank. It will eat it from the water column as it needs to. If you change your water atleast once a week it should be alright. It would die if you broke it off.

[msscha]

I've been testing daily since I added the first livestock.

Ammonia and nitrite have remained 0 and my nitrates seem to vary from 0-10.

My live rock had that effect, too. But I found I had a second smaller cycle, solely with diatom. And during my first cycle I got a whole lot of green hair algae, bryposis, just covering the whole back wall. The CUC dined like kings when they were first added . My personal belief is that stuff that came in on the rock didn't all die off at once. It sort of happened on and off. I waited 3 weeks before adding the CUC (I had so many anemones, I didn't mind), and another 3 before adding my first fish (a barnacle blenny -- very cool, but eaten by something that ate all my rock-dwelling fish) and coral frag.

[primeform]

still havent gotten a response from dan at gulfliverock. gettin a little worried and might need to look into some other options if hes taken a break or something.

[Bobyboy]

still havent gotten a response from dan at gulfliverock. gettin a little worried and might need to look into some other options if hes taken a break or something.

That sucks man, Hopefully he is just busy or something.

 

As for a update I received my Reefcleaners order yesterday.

All I can say is wow...

I ordered the following

10 Dwarf Cerith....................................received well over 50(I had to give some out locally)

4 Florida Cerith..................................received 5

3 Nassarius Vibex.............................. received 5

4 Nerite Snails (Small - Medium)........received 6

1 Chaeto

As for the hermit shells I'm kinda disappointed I received a small baggy with probably 100 tiny shells and 3 small to medium(about 1/4") shells. I dunno maybe the hermits I have are to big for a nano but the smallest of the 4 is just over a inch with the biggest being 1.5-2inch's long.

5 Medium/Larger Empty Hermit Shells

3 Empty Hermit Shells

[Bobyboy]

Well I have a mantis aprox 1/4-1/2 inch long in my live rock.

I noticed this past week my emerald crab missing 3 legs and a few of my hermits with missing legs and about half of the snail I got are now empty shells and a annoying clicking noise.

Last night my girlfriend saw something weird darting around the tank and sure enough a mantis.

I think I am going to try the plastic bottle trap baited with mysis shrimp.

Wish me luck

[msscha]

Well I have a mantis aprox 1/4-1/2 inch long in my live rock.

I noticed this past week my emerald crab missing 3 legs and a few of my hermits with missing legs and about half of the snail I got are now empty shells and a annoying clicking noise.

Last night my girlfriend saw something weird darting around the tank and sure enough a mantis.

I think I am going to try the plastic bottle trap baited with mysis shrimp.

Wish me luck

Oh *&%$@t. Best of luck! :: I've heard good things about getting mantis that way. May the tank force be with you.

[Bobyboy]

Quick update

First the mantis is gone and I have not heard any clicking since.

Second I picked up 3 frags tonight out of the 10.00 section at "The Fish Factory" in levittown Pa.

1 decent sized toadstool, a frag of Orange and Purple Zoas, and a small frag that had green wavey polyps sorta looked like a galaxy but thinner.

So far I acclimated by floating for 20 mins then adding 1/2 cup of tank water every 10 mins for 30 mins.

The toadstool and Zoas are starting to open up but the other one is not, but they've only been in for 10 mins.

 

I'll get pictures tomorrow when the lights are on.

[Bobyboy]

And here are the pics of m 3 new in inhabitants

 

.

 

Here is the link showing the mantis.

 

[louy99]

I just bought 2 panorama LED's for my 14 BC and my corals and I are very pleased

[Formula462]

Hi there. Welcome to the club.

[Bobyboy]

Hi there. Welcome to the club.

Thanks for the welcome.

 

I just bought 2 panorama LED's for my 14 BC and my corals and I are very pleased

 

I don't think I'll do anything with LED's until I have a few more corals and my last fish.

[louy99]

Thanks for the welcome.

 

 

 

I don't think I'll do anything with LED's until I have a few more corals and my last fish.

i would do it when you have to replace the bulbs in 5-6 months (i hope you know they MUST be replaced every 5-6 months). Spending 120 bucks in florescent bulbs a year or 230 bucks in LED's that last 5-7 years.

Great job with all the upgrades so far.

[Bobyboy]

i would do it when you have to replace the bulbs in 5-6 months (i hope you know they MUST be replaced every 5-6 months). Spending 120 bucks in florescent bulbs a year or 230 bucks in LED's that last 5-7 years.

Great job with all the upgrades so far.

 

Yeah I know they need to be replaced, I was planning to do LED's for Xmas this year or next years tax refund or any extra cash that pops up along the way.

 

I have a minor update

I picked up a Peppermint shrimp Friday night.

 

Then Sunday night arrives and my girlfriend and I got a few frags, I won't get anything else for a few weeks now.

 

1 head each of green and red mushrooms

2 head duncan

a green Leather of some sort

frag of green Zoa's

and a 4 head frag of neon green Candy Cane(3 decent sized heads with one budding).

 

She does have some good taste but needs to do some reading.

 

 

This little guy is very friendly every time I stick my hand in and let it sit for more then 30 seconds he's right on top of me.

 

Here is a pic of my blenny, he's become nice and fat.

[msscha]

Bobyboy! Word the wise: just say "thanks" to the girlfriend -- and drop hints of what you're looking for, the kind where you point to a picture after YOU'VE done the reading and say "Is this freaking cool or what?". Not trying to discourage your girlfriend here, but as a member of the female persuasion, being told I should read up some before making buying decisions would close my checkbook so fast and tight you'd think chastity belts had been re-invented .

[Bobyboy]

Bobyboy! Word the wise: just say "thanks" to the girlfriend -- and drop hints of what you're looking for, the kind where you point to a picture after YOU'VE done the reading and say "Is this freaking cool or what?". Not trying to discourage your girlfriend here, but as a member of the female persuasion, being told I should read up some before making buying decisions would close my checkbook so fast and tight you'd think chastity belts had been re-invented .

 

Thanks for the advice, I didn't tell her to do any reading yet but I hinted at it.

She seems very interested in the tank and watches it more then I do.

I'm taking her to a store up in North Jersey tonight that I found online.

 

As for a update the pepperment shrimp died overnight.

My water params are all in check

sg 1.024

PH 8.0-8.2

Amm 0

Trites 0

Trates 5-10

 

I'm pulling my monster hermits and going to replace them with the smaller blue legged ones, maybe one of them got to the shrimp but they are bulldozers as it is.

 

These mushrooms are giving me problems they popped of the rock rubble in transportation and I tried super gluing them to a frag disk, they seem to wiggle free after a few hours.

Does any one have any advice on how to get these guys to attack to something?

I have them at the bottom of my tank in a low flow area now.

 

I also picked up a Nove Tech Ice Probe with Controller for 85.00 last night, my temps are struggling to stay where they are now and my house temp is at 72 so I know I will be needing this during the summer.

Plus it was a great deal.

[msscha]

As for a update the pepperment shrimp died overnight after downing 2 of the aiptasia over the weekend.

My water params are all in check

sg 1.024

PH 8.0-8.2

Amm 0

Trites 0

Trates 5-10

 

I'm pulling my monster hermits and going to replace them with the smaller blue legged ones, maybe one of them got to the shrimp but they are bulldozers as it is.

 

These mushrooms are giving me problems they popped of the rock rubble in transportation and I tried super gluing them to a frag disk, they seem to wiggle free after a few hours.

Does any one have any advice on how to get these guys to attack to something?

I have them at the bottom of my tank in a low flow area now.

 

I also picked up a Nove Tech Ice Prove with Controller for 85.00 last night, my temps are struggling to stay where they are now and my house temp is at 72 so I know I will be needing this during the summer.

Plus it was a great deal.

You know, both of my shrimp died within a couple of days of each other, too. I'm going to try another one this week and hope for the best since I really, really like them. In my tank, I think it was likely weirdness with salinity and false nitrate readings that had me thinking that my tank was freaking out. I did gallons of water changes, and I wonder if it wasn't too much fluctuation for them.

 

Some of my mushrooms move, too. One brown one has moved into a grate on the back wall. I can't get the thing out of there. Another which had also been glued to a frag has moved several times, though seems to have settled now. I won't say that is' going to stay, though. I think that's just something mushrooms do and may be why some don't keep them. I like their color and texture, so it's okay!

 

Have fun at the fish store!

[Bobyboy]

Update

I stopped by the LFS whe I was out to see what they recieved in their order today and ended up finding the only Pom Pom crab I've ever seen with both of his Nems.

I couldn't resist and at 15.00 he was a steal.

They still haven't recieved any of the dwarf hermits sadly, I'll have to see about ordering them sometime.

[Bobyboy]

Another update

I stopped by Best Pets in Trenton last night to see what they had saltwater wise.

They didn't have any corals and just 1 row of saltwater fish.

The tanks where clean and the fish all looked happy and they had a 6 inch red mantis aswell.

I picked up a pair of ocellaris they only had three so I got the biggest and smallest one.

They acclimated and started eating frozen mysis right away.

 

I'll get updated pics when I get home this evening.

[ecogirl22]

Yeah I know they need to be replaced, I was planning to do LED's for Xmas this year or next years tax refund or any extra cash that pops up along the way.

 

FYI you have LED options that are around$100 (way less then $230!) rapidled has a plug n play (re: NO SOLDERING!) 12 led kit i used in my 12g AP. Cost 102 w/ shipping (w/o lenses which not needed in shallow thanks < 18"). I'm really happy with it, my acros are growing really well I waited until i used my PC bulbs for 5 months-- by then a few acros weren't too happy! but my monits and birdsnest grew well under pc's.

[Bobyboy]

Recieved the koralia nano 425 power head and Hydor Flo Deflector from Dr foster and smith today.

I'll get it installed tonight or tomorrow.