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Alex's Biocube 29


xAyanex

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fishfreak0114

That sucks that they haven't been able to get the midas in.  I'm sure you'll get it eventually!  If you got a nanobox retro you'd be able to grow pretty much anything including nems.  Looking forward to the FTS!:)

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I know the shipping is expensive, but Live Aquaria/Diver's Den is always an option. And they have a 14 day no questions asked guarantee on all fish, which I've never seen an LFS offer.

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You guys are always so sweet and understanding! That solidifies my decision on the nanobox retro. And I had considered ordering from Live Aquaria. I specifically want a small midas blenny. My LFS got a few in over time but they were always large, so they never contacted me about them. I found out because I called them every week when they got their fish in for a while. Eventually I gave up. Now I just call every once in a while and they're like "Oh, don't worry. We didn't forget, we just haven't gotten any in." Psh! It's frustrating, because it's literally been months. At least I think it has. But I am trying not to be upset with the LFS because it isn't necessarily their fault that I'm picky and will only accept a small one and their suppliers just so happen to not be giving them any even though they have requested them.

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I've already typed this whole post up once, but something came up at work and now I have to retype the whole thing. Doh! Oh well, I'll take this opportunity to be more thorough and include more detail. Edit: I realize my pictures are not showing up except for the last one for some reason. I haven't uploaded pictures since the site update. I uploaded them the same way I would have before the update, so something changed and I need to figure out what to do differently to get it to work. ***Update-I read the pictures on N-R may still be transferring from one server to another, so I will wait it out and see if that is the issue.

 

So anyway, update time. To be a little more thorough and scientific in case anyone is following my thread or that reason (haha): When I say I've been a little lazy, what I mean is I don't do any testing except for specific gravity. I only test that when I do a water change. And I've been lazy about water changes in that I've been doing them about once every two weeks instead of once a week. Also, I haven't changed my filter floss as often as I should, I haven't kept up on manual removal of algae, I haven't scraped my glass often enough, and I haven't been vacuuming my sandbed regularly like I used to.

 

So you can imagine why I was scared to do my testing. I was nervous nitrates would be somewhat high, and had no idea how the coral parameters would go. But, to my surprise and excitement, here are my testing parameters before doing a water change, performed 2/20/17:

 

Temperature: 79 degrees F

Salinity: 35 ppt/1.025 specific gravity

pH: 8.0

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 0 ppm

Magnesium: 1500 ppm

Calcium: 480 ppm

Alkalinity: 8.6 dKH

Phosphate: 0-0.03 ppm

 

So with nitrate at zero, mag and calcium still high, and alkalinity finally within the range I want it, I couldn't be happier! So after testing I did a water change, cleaned up the algae as best I could, fed the plate which is looking the best is has in weeks, changed the filter floss, etc. The next morning I snapped a few quick pictures of the tank, which I will include below:

 

Here is my newest FTS, taken 2/20/17:

 

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Here is another FTS, but I like the first one better because you can see both Bob and Dot:

 

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Here is a shot from the right side of the tank. You can see where the torch has receded from its skeleton in one area. This evening when I got home, the torch was very closed up because the lights were off, and I noticed it almost looked as if it had tried to split again on the side, but failed and died. I don't really know what happened:

 

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Here is the right side again, from a higher angle:

 

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Here is a shot of the left side of the tank:

 

32976700536_f73192146e_b.jpg

 

Last but not least, here are a couple pictures of the baby stomatella snails. Some of them definitely aren't babies anymore. They make it very difficult to clean the glass, especially near the sandbed, because that is where they like to hang out. Also, these pictures are horribly unfocused because I still don't have a real camera and the snails are too small for my phone to take a good picture:

 

32976689856_3d3bb0af27_b.jpg

 

32892110401_157b667cba_b.jpg

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Also, what do you guys think about me getting a fourth fish? I am still set on a midas blenny, but I think my tank could handle four fish. The two new fish (blenny+whatever else I research and decide on) would be added at least 4 weeks apart, giving the tank plenty of time to adjust to the increased bioload. I think I'll go start looking for my next fish-besides-a-midas-blenny and coral purchases now! :D

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So, today, I was offered a free 55 gallon tank. It only comes with a pump, I don't know what kind, and I don't know what condition it is in, but I couldn't say no! I doubt I will set it up anytime soon even after I get it. Once I do, I'll probably take my sweet time cycling it and just add some basic lights and fish. Whenever I'm really ready to embellish the tank, I'll get some new lights appropriate for corals and so on.

 

However, before I do anything with it at all... I want to plan the entire tank out. So that will probably take at least a few weeks.

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So I think I've decided on a fourth fish for my biocube. Since it's taking forever to get a Midas Blenny (which I will still get eventually), I want a Royal Gramma.

 

I realize that according to Live Aquaria's compatibility chart, caution is required when adding both a blenny and a basslet to a tank, but I think it will be okay. In terms of which to add first, I've read that Royal Grammas can be territorial and midas blennies can be aggressive, so maybe it doesn't matter which I add first. Of course I want to add the royal gramma first because I can probably get it first.

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Just now, LbulletM said:

I've been thinking about a Royal Gramma lately, too! Nice splash of color to break up all of my orange with a Potter's and a clown.

Yes! Purple is my favorite color and it is such a beautiful fish!

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Sorry if I'm overposting! The LFS has a royal gramma in stock so I am hoping to get that tomorrow! Also, he said they may finally be getting my blenny in tomorrow! It would come later in the day so I would have to get it Friday. 

 

I'm so excited, but nervous about having them both in quarantine and adding them both to the DT at the same time! But I think I'm going to go ahead and get them both.

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fishfreak0114

Exciting!  That's awesome that you got a tank for free!  When you do set it up, will you move the stock from your current tank, or have two tanks?

 I bet QTing those two together will help with the aggression issues. And if they really don't get along, at least you would know before they were in your DT and hard to catch :)

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New fish! I went to the LFS around noon and the midas blennies had come in early. They are medium instead of small but I'm just happy to have one. So I picked up a midas blenny that was a beautiful yellow, along with a royal gramma. I also got a new toadstool which I will post when it is happy. Here's to hoping they are happy and healthy after 4 weeks of quarantine.

 

Here are some pictures of the new fish! The midas blenny is very stressed out from transporting. He changed from his beautiful yellow color to a camouflage-patterned brown:

 

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The Royal Gramma by himself:

 

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Another picture of the two fish together:

 

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A close up of the stressed out Midas Blenny:

 

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I can't wait to get home and check up on them!

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The fish are doing okay in Quarantine today. I tested the QT Tank:

 

Temp: 78 degrees F

Salinity: 35 ppt/1.025 specific gravity

pH: 8.0

Ammonia: 0.25 ppm

 

So I started water and will do a water change when I get home (about 10 hours after testing, that is the soonest I can do). I remember ammonia running about 0.25 with the clownfish in QT and I did water changes about every other day. I'll probably test ammonia every day and do water changes every day if I have to, since there are 2 fish and they are significantly larger than a clownfish.

 

The blenny is still very stressed in his camo-mode brownish color. He likes to back into a corner and be scared. The royal gramma sometimes gets brave and swims around the tank, exploring, but then he goes back into hiding. He likes to hide behind the HOB or underneath the PVC pipe elbow, because he hasn't figured out how to get inside of it. Here is a picture of them this morning:

 

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And here is a picture of the toadstool just kind of waking up. I think the LFS said it is a green polyp toadstool:

 

32936344662_178ecc1168_b.jpg

 

Also, although my tank isn't just terrible, the cyano is really getting annoying. I am going to go research how to get rid of it. The whole "more flow, suck it out, etc" doesn't seem to be working.

 

I hope in a few days these two fish in QT get more comfortable and don't feel the need to hide so much. I don't want them to be stressed, but I know it can take a few days to adjust.

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Prime is good stuff. It doesn't hurt anything to use it, and it helps de-stress fish in addition to knocking out any ammonia. Plus it's nice to have on hand if you ever need to bleach something and want to make sure the chlorine is all gone :)

 

I wonder if the blenny can't find a hiding place because the gramma has got the PVC elbow?

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1 minute ago, teenyreef said:

Prime is good stuff. It doesn't hurt anything to use it, and it helps de-stress fish in addition to knocking out any ammonia. Plus it's nice to have on hand if you ever need to bleach something and want to make sure the chlorine is all gone :)

 

I wonder if the blenny can't find a hiding place because the gramma has got the PVC elbow?

Well I'll order some prime shortly then.

 

I don't know if the blenny has looked. He has only been in the front right corner or back right corner of the tank. In all fairness, after I bought them and acclimated them I was gone for about 14 hours for work. Saw them for a few minutes when I got home, then slept for a few hours. Saw them for 2 hrs then came back to work. So I've only had a little over 2 and a half hours to observe them, and my boyfriend just makes sure they're alive when I'm gone and he's home from work.

 

I'm off this weekend, so I should have more time to observe them.

 

In other news, I was thinking about that 55 gallon tank I'm getting for free, and though I would start planning it. I quickly realized a 55 gallon is not much bigger than my Biocube, which was a bummer. So then I started looking at bigger tanks and thought I could use the 55 as a sump. However, I failed to find any build threads in the few minutes I spent looking that used a 55 sump. So then I started looking at Red Sea Reefers and such, but that kind of defeats the purpose of planning a new tank around a free 55 gallon glass box. So then I decided to dream up my "dream reef tank", and made a fish list:

 

Blue Tang – 180 gal.

Yellow Tang – 100 gal.

Flame Angelfish – 70 gal., reef compatible with caution, may nip at corals

Bicolor Blenny – 30 gal.

Blue/Green Reef Chromis – 30 gal.

Female Pictilis Anthias – 125 gal.

Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse – 75 gal.

Ocellaris Clownfish X2 – 30 gal.

 

This is theoretical, but according to Live Aquaria if I followed the difficult lines of the compatibility chart correctly, these should all be okay together. So since the Blue Tang has the largest tank requirement at 180 gallons, I am assuming I would need a minimum of 180 gallon tank. I don't know how much of a bioload a 180 gallon tank can hold-how much larger of a tank will I need? Well, all my research has been centered on nano reefs of around 50 gallons or under, so I don't know the first thing about a large reef tank. I am particularly an expert with Biocubes and mods, for obvious reasons. It will probably take me a few months to really figure this out! I have a lot of research to do. Just thought I'd share my brainstorming. :)

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fishfreak0114

That would be a sick tank!  

 

I wonder if not hiding in PVC is a blenny thing, because mine sits in the corner despite having PVC, or wedges himself just under the edge. 

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