Super CatPig's 29G BioCube

[Super CatPig]

I suppose I have been lurking here for far too long. My tank was established Oct. 20th 2010 (i think). But I never was good at thinking. This is my first tank so you can imagine my goal is to keep things healthy and alive as long as possible. I have been trying to go slow and buying fairly easy inhabitants so far.

FTS 2.5 years - 5/15/13



FTS 2 years



FTS 19 months



FTS 16 months



FTS 8 months



FTS 4 months



FTS 1 week


CURRENT LIVESTOCK

FISH

Royal Gramma

INVERTS
Crocea Clam
Pom Pom Crab
Various Snails /Hermits

CORAL
Red Monti Cap

Green Monti looking thing
Birds Nest
Frogspawn
Open Brain
Green Star Polyps

Favia
Acans

Zoanthids

Palys
Mushrooms
Xenia

Cloves

 

MACRO ALGAE

Dragons Breath

Cheato

 

EQUIPTMENT
Light: Current Aquapod 150W Metal Halide + Phoenix 14K bulb
ATO: Tunze Osmolator 5017 <---Broken LOL
Power Heads: 2 X Hydor Koralia Nano 425s
Controller: Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper Lite
Middle chamber: InTank Media Rack/Fuge Basket + Nano Glo Refugium LED

[iball1804]

That looks really good... Super CatPig. Nice avy.

[Super CatPig]

hehe thanks iball I like yours!

here are some moar pic tours. It's a new camera and I have just been winging it with the settings.

IE: I push all the buttons on the damn thing till it gives me something.

 

BurtBollinger gave me this small zoa colony. I'm not sure if it's happier with me. It grows but sloooowly..

 

More Zoas some new some old.

 

Duncan!

 

Frog!

 

Open Brain.. the hermit made it all the way to the top and sat on one of his mouths.. I tweezed him to safty.

 

side

 

I <3 GSP! Burt gave me a small patch of these as well.

 

My blenny sittin around.. lazy bum!

[iball1804]

How do you know Burt?

[Super CatPig]

How do you know Burt?

 

A friend of a friend. He actually lives across the street from me. I haven't seen or heard much from him in a loooong time though.. probably because I asked him WAY too many questions LOL! He mentored me though the whole process and told me about this forum when I first set up my tank though. I'm scared to think how bad my tank would have been without him.

[JR!]

looks awesome man. id love to have those clowns

[Super CatPig]

It's been about 2 years since establishing my tank.. So I figured I would upload some new pics. In the past 6 months or so I haven't bought a single coral. I went through a move 3 months ago and after which my maintenance of this tank has lapsed several times.. I can only blame myself for that.. so I am trying to get back into the swing of things. It's not at its best but not at its worst right now.

 

The small male clown jumped out of my tank in a failure to cover the top of my tank properly. I was pretty sad about that.. So about 3 days ago I bought a little misbar and named him Chuck Testa. Chuck seems to be doing well and the female has accepted him as her only choice in men.

 

Anyway here are some photos. I still haven't gotten into the swing of the settings on this camera but I can push the button and it still goes click.

 

Chuck Testa is so small!

 

Chuck Testa with Large Marge

 

She follows him EVERYWHERE!

 

Spot loves to hide in the GSP

 

 

Scarlet Reef Hermit

 

Shrooms

 

MONTI MONTI MONTI MONTI

[andi.rahl]

anything more recent? I love your gsp - I miss mine!

[Super CatPig]

anything more recent? I love your gsp - I miss mine!

Hey thanks I've just started changing my light cycle to when I am actually at home so I need to put more pics up for sure LOL. Things have definitely changed in there some for better some not so much! But thats life! I'll throw some up this week assuming I can still find the button on my camera. Especially since i bought some new coral a .. few times.. LOL

[Super CatPig]

Ok so its been another 6 months.. I'm still not buying much LOL but things are growing... Things are dieing and things are.. well.. things I guess. My female clown started using my frogspawn as a host but unfortunately I believe she got territorial and killed the small clown a couple weeks ago. It is also possible he had a parasite but he went downhill so fast and she had become increasingly more and more aggressive toward him. I don't plan on replacing him.

 

 

She does however do this a lot which is somehow endearing in spite of it all.

The frogspawn also has a million heads now! I can't count high enough so I'll guess one million. I should frag it but I'm either lazy or stupid. I haven't decided which.

 

 

My montipora has grown out of my comfort zone as well but I'm letting it go. Maybe I'm just a being a hippy about the whole situation because I'm even letting it run up the glass. I do try to cut it back when it starts shading too much but I dunno.

 

 

I added a birds nest and a green slimer to the monstrosity. My hopes are that things get weird. I'm not terribly happy with the color of the birds nest.. Though It has grown and polyps are always extended.. but I want everyone to be happy so I'm adding DT's Phytoplankton every other day now.

 

 

Crocea clam he was one of those free ones mr. coral was giving away maybe over a year ago.. Not the prettiest but hes mine. <3

 

 

Trochus snail. I've had this guy forever!

 

 

Open Brain and acans. Brains just look like a giant acans..

 

 

My tailspot blenny is still kickin!

 

 

FEED ME!!!

[qqqqq]

nice growth!

[Super CatPig]

nice growth!

Thanks its surprising how some things have taken off and others not so much but I'm really happy to see some things thrive in there.

[andi.rahl]

looking good <3 need more pics more frequently please (and add something new for me so I can live through you while I have an empty tank?)

[jball1125]

Tank looks good, great pics too.

[Super CatPig]

I've been playing with the macro setting on my camera thingy so I figured I would update with some new pics.

 

Mantle

 

 

This was the only coral that hitchiked in on my live rock when I set my tank up.. One green spotted mushroom.. It's really nice to see it still around.

 

 

My tiger sand conch.. I knew I needed one of these the second I saw one. What a ridiculous looking animal! And the most peaceful thing I've put in there! It's always ready to pick up after my bad husbandry too!

 

 

 

 

These damn zoas!!.. I've moved this rock more times than I can remember. They tend to get unhappy after every move. Most recently, the ones on the bottom bleached or something, you can make out white spots surrounding the skirt. They are starting to open more. Hope they pull through... So I am trying not to move anything. I've also been bombarding the rock with more zoa frags. I feel the rock is getting somewhat closer to what I want.

 

 

And these zoas are ALWAYS happy and I have never moved them.

 

 

Haven't been able to sneak a pic of this little pompom crab until now. He disappears for weeks at a time unless I am looking closely.. Very reclusive.. I'm glad he is making good use of my ball anemones. He's really interesting when I can catch him running around.

[Super CatPig]

I haven't posted in forever. I think I'm past the 3 year mark. EXCITING! I've been terrible up until a couple weeks ago though. Havent kept up with water changes, cyano got waaaay out of control. It was actually choking out ALL my zoas and they are still recovering..I cut my lighting schedule down to 5hrs a day and hacked up my monti the other day It needed to be done - that crap was taking over and disrupting the water flow. Same with the frogspawn. It was going on 30 heads and something needed to stop.. The clownfish hates my guts for it though. I think she knows what I did.. she wont stop attacking me. I also added some halimeda in the front and some cheato in the back. It is looking more open now with the frog and monti not so huge and my zoas down for the count.. I am thinking of maybe adding some small LPS or SPS. Softies just hate these halides..

 

Other than that.. I don't think anything is new.. OH I kicked out all my crabs cept pompom and only have snails now.. I also bought a royal gramma. I'll have to take pics.. Really pretty fish and so far she has been a model citizen and is very very shy. She made a cave and moved some of my macro to block the entrance.. but it takes more than that to keep my from spying.

 

I'll take some pics later it would be good to be able to look back and see where I went wrong as reinforcement to do it right from now on.

[andi.rahl]

I cant wait to see. what'd you do with the monti?! I want some! lol

[Super CatPig]

I cant wait to see. what'd you do with the monti?! I want some! lol

Lol I just give the stuff I don't want to the fish store I don't like to throw things out.. sometimes I think about setting up a frag tank or rack.. I know I could make money. but im a pretty lazy person so two tanks sounds like a lot and I dont like the look of frag racks on the sides of tanks.. If you were closer I would just give you some. I started out with like a 2 inch frag it doesn't take long for it to take off.

[andi.rahl]

That makes sense. I wouldn't want to throw anything out either. That's sweet of you to say. X.x

[Super CatPig]

OK I'm a total liar. After I made that post I went to the fish store yesterday and found some nice live rock. It pushed me to set up another tank just in case something happened to this one. Right now it is curing in a cheap 10 gallon. I've never had anything set up in case of an emergency. EVER! lol So I decided to go with this! Anyway I plan on putting softies only in it and if the **** hits the fan I'll use it as a hospital or more like a safty net. But I really think it will be a fun project. No plans for fish. No skimmer. YES Macro Algae.. Sand.. Softies.. Water. gotta figure out the rest later LOL. I'm excited!

If anyone is reading this and has any ideas or options for lights/ equiptment let me know. I don't plan to drill it. It will just be very simple with a small bioload.

[Sunar357]

Nice Cube! Loved the frogs and monti. We need a recent pic after the cutback!

[Super CatPig]

Nice Cube! Loved the frogs and monti. We need a recent pic after the cutback!

I suddenly realize I can't find my camera LOL. I think my girlfriend "put it back where it belongs". I just need precise directions to where that is.

[andi.rahl]

OK I'm a total liar. After I made that post I went to the fish store yesterday and found some nice live rock. It pushed me to set up another tank just in case something happened to this one. Right now it is curing in a cheap 10 gallon. I've never had anything set up in case of an emergency. EVER! lol So I decided to go with this! Anyway I plan on putting softies only in it and if the **** hits the fan I'll use it as a hospital or more like a safty net. But I really think it will be a fun project. No plans for fish. No skimmer. YES Macro Algae.. Sand.. Softies.. Water. gotta figure out the rest later LOL. I'm excited!

 

If anyone is reading this and has any ideas or options for lights/ equiptment let me know. I don't plan to drill it. It will just be very simple with a small bioload.

that's a pretty tank I love macros and softies. I wonder if you could put seahorses in that?

 

I suddenly realize I can't find my camera LOL. I think my girlfriend "put it back where it belongs". I just need precise directions to where that is.

text her and be like "I need a list of step-by-step instructions on where you put my camera, please."

[Super CatPig]

got it today and the camera is found! YAY! now im just being lazy...