My Biocube 14 (Coralife Edition)

[LongDoggy]

Well, my Yellow Line Goby died yesterday. Saw the poor bastard laying dead on the sand near the intake. It did seem like he and the zebra dartfish were battling for the same cave. Come on fellas, I made plenty of caves for all of you!!

But as I've seen, and many of you will probably agree, sometimes a new fish just does not jive with your environment that you've created.

He was cute, and I enjoyed our short time together.

[dpoltsdsu]

Sorry about the fish, keep your head up though, it happens to all of us

[LongDoggy]

Sorry about the fish, keep your head up though, it happens to all of us

Thanks man. Thought I lost my hector too. I did not see him for almost a week then one day I saw him out for feeding!! Have not seen him for a day now though. I'm starting to think he is a good hider. Not quite the personality of the dart fish or Blenny.

[dpoltsdsu]

That's kind of frustrating. He will probably start to come out more when he starts to feel more comfortable

[LongDoggy]

That's kind of frustrating. He will probably start to come out more when he starts to feel more comfortable

I hope so! He's a cute little guy.

[LongDoggy]

Things are starting to settle a little bit. I am still not sure I like the 'scape completely. I am making little adjustments to it here and there...

I think I need some suggestions.

 

[dpoltsdsu]

I would switch the positions of the Xenia and the Birdsnest coral if you don't want to move rock! It doesn't look bad right now though

[plainrt]

I really like that you removed some rock. Good looking setup

[LongDoggy]

I would switch the positions of the Xenia and the Birdsnest coral if you don't want to move rock! It doesn't look bad right now though

Is thinking of moving the Xenia. Problem is the Xenia is attached to a medium sized rock and it is growing like mad! I'm trying to isolate it a little. If I put in the middle it may take over too much stuff.

 

I was thinking of swapping the Xenia and monti though. That would move Xenia go back right and lower and the monti would be in the back right and higher. It would make it overall a less symmetrical scape.

[nickyz]

Love your coral selection

[LongDoggy]

Love your coral selection

Thanks Nickyz!!

There has been some natural evolution in the tank of course. It's not easy keeping up a tank and a human baby!! But I do my best and I had continued down my path of beliefs that I should let the tank guide me and the care for it. Most all of my corals are doing ok. Some better some worse. Unfortunately my acan garden and zoas have not been doing so well. By my euphylia, Xenia, monti, war coral, and Duncan's are all doing decently.

My birds nest got taken over by algae die to my lack of water changes and lost it. Also, I have no more fish. It's been easier to keep stable with no bio load. I just dose trace elements and cal/alk to maintain for the corals and do some water changes here or there.

 

I plan to get things stable again, or as stable as possible and will introduce a pair of clowns. The clowns are the only fish I have ever had success in keeping in here long term. The gobys, blenny, dart fish, mandarin, have all failed in this tank; and I feel it has something to do with the size of these nano tanks. When I move and start my next tank; it will most certainly be larger so I can keep some more fish and feel good about it. I'll keep this nano going, but will be more of a species specific tank. I've fallen in love with the Red Sea Max Reefer series and plan to get one after we sell our house and move into something bigger.

 

For now, I will not start anything big from scratch only to have to tear down and relocate within the year. My house is on the market and will sell any time now.

 

I did start something new yesterday though. It's settling and I'll put up some pics this weekend. I wanted to start a mini/pico pest reef jar. I went into my LFS and asked for mojanos and aptasia. Lol. Not the normal request but my guy was nice enough to hook me up. Bought a few crabs and got this started.

I went into Michaels craft store, bought a little jar with clear glass siding; went home and proceeded to neaten up my bio cube while grabbing out a few different types of algae I had growing and about a 1/2 cup of sand. I added all this to the jar along with some dry crushed coral and a few small pieces of live rock to colonize which had feather dusters, brittle stars, probably some pods and other reef bugs. I am sure I got some sand worms too. My nano has a four year old sand bed so it's probably teeming with life. I think I tossed in a piece of Xenia rock also.

This jar has no heat or water movement and has an air tight lid. It's energy source will be indirect sunlight and/or a small light depending on where I locate it. I'd like to keep it on my desk at work. I really don't know what will happen with this thing. It's an experiment of mine.

I'm concerned of the water going stagnant, but I'm hoping the crabs and aptasia and bugs or all sorts keep things going. I'd like to put some shrimp in there too. Just wondering which ones. I may take the shrimp out of my ecosphere (Hawaiian Red Shrimp) and give them this new home. They may like it better. Lots of algae and places to hide!

 

I hope it works out! It looks pretty cool so far. I'll take this week by week and adjust the energy/light source as needed; I will feed some pellets if needed for crabs and shrimp if I put in there. I am very tempted to toss in my sexy shrimp. Lol just such a cool shrimp go look at.

 

The part I am really hung up on is the lack of water movement. Will it go stagnant? Or will it be stable?

The aptasia looked pretty happy this morning. Lol. More to come

[LongDoggy]

Well my experiment turned into sludge in about 2-3 days. I think the sand and live rock piece had excessive die off with lack of water movement and then the mojano, aptasia and unfortunately my little crabs all perished.

 

My tank on the other hand is looking good. Did some clean up and adjustment to the scape to make room for a few new corals. I picked up four new various acros. Acclimated them for a week on their plugs, and just glued them down to some clean pieces of live rock and let them settle into their new home up high near the light in plenty of varying water movement.

 

On the livestock side, I added some fish. Picked up a pair of juvenile true perc clowns who were fighting in the LFS. Figured they were close to establishing their roles. They've settled in nicely these past two weeks and seem to be enjoying themselves.

 

Couple new blue leg hermits and an emerald crab wrap up my new life!!

 

As things settle and open/color up I'll get some photos to add to my diary.

[LongDoggy]

Whoa...

So close call

 

Last week I added in another SPS acro and a yellow watchman goby. Unfortunately the goby died by the morning.

My LFS was so kind enough to exchange him for me and I got a new guy yesterday. I also picked up a real nice leather frag. My first leather! It was really pretty blue/green in color so I had to have it. Great, done.

 

Did my aclimation last night; all looks good.

 

This morning I go look at the tank to make sure all looks well and I can feel the tank heat through the glass. Something is not right.

Sure enough....

88.8 F!!

 

I immediately suspect the heater which was stuck on. Cut that off and pulled it out. Tank hanging around 86/87 with the lid open.

Then got a few zip lock bags filled with ice; stuffed one in chamber 1 and the other in 3. Had to refill the ice bags a few times but I am now down to 81.9 and falling.

Corals and fish still look ok, it was not a long heat spike and did not go over 90.

 

I think I may go back to a heater-less configuration.

I use to do that and let the tank fluctuate with the seasons.

House is central AC/Heat. Tank use to be 76-78 year round; lower in winter. Daily fluctuations about 1 degree.

 

Again; once things settle (and hopefully all survive)! I will put up some photos.

[LongDoggy]

Holding 78.5 for the past 4-5 hours.

Corals look to be fairly happy and the fish are alive and swimming. May have dodged a bullet on that one.

 

Running sans heater

[LongDoggy]

Here are some photos as promised. Things seem to have recovered well from my heat spike so a big sigh of relief there.

The tank seems to be maintaining around a 79 degree temp around the clock +/- .5 degrees.

 

New FTS with UV lens (my Ray Bans):

 

LPS Garden:

 

 

My new little dude:

 

 

FTS With no lens filter:

[Astinus]

Nice Save...Great tank

[dpoltsdsu]

Tank is looking great!

[Sharbuckle]

Glad you caught the heater malfunction on time. Damn things. Really like your tank!

[LongDoggy]

Glad you caught the heater malfunction on time. Damn things. Really like your tank!

Thanks! That heater malfunction really freaked me out. I've never had that happen. It's really got me thinking about getting a Neptune Aprx controller. Wonder if it's overkill for the biocube. But when we move and I do the bigger tank; its for sure getting an Apex controller with all the goodies.

So the predicament is; buy a simple Apex Jr since the larger Apex is probably too much for this tanks. Or just wait and get their gold package when I do the bigger tank (planning Red Sea Reefer 250/350).

 

I also noticed yesterday that my StormX led controller seems to have a busted screen. Nice .

So the heater malfunction and the broken controller for LEDs makes the Apex even more compelling.

[LongDoggy]

I am really temped to pick up a small anemone. Am I asking for trouble?

 

I'd do a small rock cove in the front right where the zoas are to give it a secluded home (assuming it stays there).

Any thoughts on this? Going to LFS this afternoon.

[LongDoggy]

Well, after going to a few LFSs, and shopping around the anemones I ended up buying one at my absolute favorite LFS.

I picked up a green/rainbow bubble tip anemone. I did a little rescaping to TRY and give it the ideal place to stay, it settled there for day one but by the first morning the little bugger went on the other side of the wall. Lol oh well

I'll make a few adjustments later on. I think it looks great.

 

I also picked up a green birds nest coral as I really missed the one I lost last year to GHA. When my wife and I had our baby, the first year resulted in a lack of water changes and I unfortunately lost some corals. Now that our daughter is sleeping; I've got my tank looking good again. Pics to come!

[Pocket_Tamales]

Awesome tank, love seeing other Biocube setups - gets me excited for the future!

 

Have you ever had any extended periods without using purigen or chemipure? I'm still debating whether or not I want to include those in my setup.

[LongDoggy]

Awesome tank, love seeing other Biocube setups - gets me excited for the future!

 

Have you ever had any extended periods without using purigen or chemipure? I'm still debating whether or not I want to include those in my setup.

 

 

I actually did not run either for the first 2 1/2 years of the tank. It survived, but I can say that its looked better and been more stable since I started using them along with the InTank Media basket.

 

I tried the fuge in chamber two and it was OK. Became a crap trap. I tried rock rubble in chamber 2 but also became a burden to clean.

Having a light on the back of chamber two left me with pretty thick coralline algae on the inside of the glass.

InTank is the cleanest and most efficient option for chamber two in my experience.

[Orangutran]

Well, after going to a few LFSs, and shopping around the anemones I ended up buying one at my absolute favorite LFS.

I picked up a green/rainbow bubble tip anemone. I did a little rescaping to TRY and give it the ideal place to stay, it settled there for day one but by the first morning the little bugger went on the other side of the wall. Lol oh well

I'll make a few adjustments later on. I think it looks great.

 

I also picked up a green birds nest coral as I really missed the one I lost last year to GHA. When my wife and I had our baby, the first year resulted in a lack of water changes and I unfortunately lost some corals. Now that our daughter is sleeping; I've got my tank looking good again. Pics to come!

 

 

You sound like me. My biocube really suffered and eventually crashed when my daughter was born! Glad you got it under control now and good luck with the nem.

[LongDoggy]

 

 

You sound like me. My biocube really suffered and eventually crashed when my daughter was born! Glad you got it under control now and good luck with the nem.

 

 

Thanks! My daughter loves the tank and I look forward to teaching her more about life under the sea!

The tank was looking pretty rough for a while last year and probably would have totally crashed if I had not been running an ATO.

 

I'm really glad to see it back to its glory, and actually I feel its looking at its best ever now! And since this new scape and nem addition it looks great without everything being open up fully yet! I give this tank a few days and it should be absolutely stunning.

 

The hobby addiction does continue for me though... Yesterday I wandered into an LFS. \

Came out with three frags that I could not leave behind.

1) a nice piece of a Jedi Mind Trick

2) a plump piece of some red/green/blue zoas that I split in two and glued down to the zoa rocks

3) a real pretty single head of a red/green trumpet coral.

 

As a bonus, while I was acclimating the corals I noticed a neat little hitchhiker! A serpent star about the size of a quarter was crawling around my bucket! Of course I took a close look at this guy to make sure he was not going to be a pest; but everything I read said he is a good guy and great at eating poo. Wonderful!