Ramos' Rimless Oceanic Biocube 29: Feb 10 Photo Update and algae... (Help)

[reefaramos]

(This tank was just started. Previous logs taken place over the past 3 days can be found here http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/378935-ramos-reintrodction-to-the-hobby-ft-craigslist-biocube/)

 

Hello, all. I just recently got back into the hobby after 2 years, due to my job. I just recently moved into my own place, and immediately I found this biocube on craigslist for 60 bucks with the stand, and had to buy it. Originally I was going to go FW planted, but after not seeing aquariums for 2 years I got bit by the reef bug. My wallet hates me.

 

I plan on making this a primarily LPS dominated reef, with acans and zoas/palys on the base rocks and mid-ground, with some encrusting montiporas, chalices, and birds nest/stylos towards the upper third of the tank. As of right now, its only been running a few days. I'm just waiting for the cycle to kick in. Current Specs:

 

Equipment/filtration:

-29 Gallon Oceanic biocube, de-rimmed

-AI Prime HD

-Tunze 9001 Skimmer

-inTank Media rack with filter floss, purigen, and chemo-pure, from top to bottom in respective order (currently being shipped)

-Cobalt Aquatics 100w Neo-Therm Aquarium Heater

-Jebao PP-4 w/controller

 

 

Fish:

- 1 Black Ocellaris Clownfish

 

Coral:

- 4 cheap zoa frags as "testers" to see how my tank is going.

- Gold Dust Palys

- Strawberry Fields montipora

- Branching Frogspawn

- Neon Green Birdsnest

- Duncan

- Blostomussa Wellsi

- Acanthastrea Lordhowensis

- Green Star Polyp

- Kryptonite Candy Cane

- Bird Of Baradise Birdsnest/stylo

 

Inverts:

- 6 Blue Leg Hermits

- 3 Red Leg Hermits

- 3 Tonga Nassarius Snails

- 2 Mexican Turbo Snails

- 1 Sexy Anemone Shrimp (Thor amboinensis)

- Maxi-Mini Carpet Anemone

 

 

Current FTS 12/23/2016:

(I'll have a better quality camera and in turn, better quality pictures in a few weeks)

13 Feb 2016:

 

 

Coral Wishlist:

 

X Kryptonite Candy Cane

-Various Morphs of ricordea, to form a "carpet" on either open space

-a purple, green, and rainbow acan morph. Not really sure what I have now

X Blastomussa Wellsi red/green variant

X Neon Green Birdsnest

-Pink Pocillopora

-Bali Green Slimer

-Darth Maul Palys

-Bubble Tip Aneomone (Likely Green, if I can find one with actual bubble-tips)

-Ultra Derasa or Maxima Clam

-Elegance Coral

-Orange/Purple Montipora Digitata

-Orange Monti Cap

-sunset montipora

-Wellso Brain, preferably green or red/blue

-Ultra rock flower anemone

X mini-maxi carpet anemone

-More color variants of euphyllia

-Orange/green fungia plate coral

-Superman Montipora

-Red Aquacultured Goniopora

X Aussie Duncan

X Metallic Green Star Polyp, might attach to back wall.

[reefaramos]

Looks like I've finally started a cycle. God's be praised. With the tank by your bedside, a couple days feel like an eternity. Will test again on wednesday, and again when I get back from my leave period I'll be in Tx for (roughly 1 week).

 

pH is hard to decipher through this picture, but it's sitting at about 8.0-8.2.

 

[reefaramos]

Considering Stocking Options, fish wise. Just for some input, I suppose.

 

Option 1:

-Pair of ocellaris clowns (haven't decided on morph)

-canary blenny

-hi-fin red banded goby, or a bonded pair if I can find it

-cintron clown goby or neon blue goby

 

Option 2 (contraversial?):

-Dwarf Fuzzy Lionfish. I know there's a lot of contraversy over what these can/cannot be kept in as far as minimum tank size. I think with the skimmer I'll be running, the filtration, and the fact that theres not many accounts of these getting bigger than 5" in most aquariums, I'm feeling alright about it. Just please, be aware that I'm aware that this is probably against popular opinion, and I've had enough experience with them to know, generally, what the internet tells me vs. actual experience.

-Pair of ocellaris clowns

 

Option 3:

-Dwarf Angel (I've been eyeing the potters angel, lemonpeel, and flame angel. I know the flame is *probably* not a god idea). Curious if anyone has experience with a dwarf angel in a biocube.

-Pair of Ocellaris Clowns

-yellow watchman OR twin spot goby

 

 

Option one was kind of what I had envisioned before getting this thing set up, but I hadn't been doing to much recent exploration online and in LFS's. Option 2 is extremely iffy, but I have always wanted one of those lil guys, and I've seen some success in biocube reefs and have a hunch it might work. Option 3 is also somewhat iffy, as I know any of the angels have a tendency to nip at the SPS/LPS polyps.

 

Any insight would be neat.

[burtbollinger]

looks cool so far. I'd go with Option 1.

 

how do you like the Jaebo PP-4?

[reefaramos]

looks cool so far. I'd go with Option 1.

 

how do you like the Jaebo PP-4?

much appreciated. I was beginning to think I was going to be ghosted the entirety of this journal.

Option 1 is definitely the most logically sound, and most of those fish stay so small I think the "community" aspect I desire would be fulfilled. I cant get over the personality on those dwarf fuzzy lions, though. haha.

 

The Jebao seems to be doing it's job well, although I wont be able to really tell till I start stocking this thing up with some more coral. Right now its on 3, with whatever mode scales that up and down, continuously. This thing can definitely pack way more punch than what is needed and then some, if desired, though. As far as functionality and programability for the price, definitely worth it IMO.

[reefaramos]

Did some heavy modding today. My stuff from in-tank came in. Cut the tab between chamber 1 and chamber 2, the flow director was a little off a far as sizing, so I had to remove part of it and super- the placement tab that holds the media rack about 5-6 mm farther from where it originally was. Took my water level down so that flow goes directly into the box, tank is a bit quieter now. I installed the cobalt neotherm heather, its got my tank sitting at about 76 degrees. Once I come back from leave I'll likely bump it up a little bit, but the corals were suprisingly happy in 70-72 degree temps before the heater. While my roomies are watching evap, though, I'd prefer for them to have to deal with it as little as possibly. So 76 degrees seems like a comfortable medium.

 

I installed the tunze 9001 as well, kind of a pain in the but getting that sucker in there. Actually, chamber two as a whole was kind kind of a pain. Theres a little piece of plastic meant for holding the top and bottom trays for the bioballs, that wont come off with a razorblade like the other parts, and leave the skimmer lopsided if its not in one of two very rigid positions. I don't even know if its going to skim with the water level the tank is at vs. its placement in compartment two. Anyone have any personal experience with this? Some hands-on input/suggestions would be awesome.

 

Anyways, I'm biding my time right now trying to stay up so I can sleep through my flight in ~4 hours. I got some more frags for the tank on account of how well the previous ones were doing. Got a frogspawn with 3 heads for a retty reasonable price, and a bunch of bargain ($10-$20) dollar frags, including a nice little piece of strawberry fields monti-cap. I wasn't ever aware that was montipora capricornis in the past, will it spread with the same shelf-like appearance as the standard green/orange/purple do? I can't find too much about it online, which makes me think people dont have a lot of success with it :/

 

I have some videos and pictures of everything out, I'll see what I can upload when I have some time this week or next. In the midst of installing everything, some of my rocks got a little displaced and I ended up having to do an entire re-scape. Hopefully I wont have to do that again, although I think with the way I set it up this time, I could utilize a little more rock.

 

Well, enough talking to myself. Just wanted to give whoever might be keeping up with this an update. If anyones interested in some photo/video updates, just say the word and I'll make time to make it happen.

[uwharrie]

As a Biocube owner I love seeing your updates.

[Water Dog]

Love the rimless Biocube look... just be careful of jumpers!

[reefaramos]

Love the rimless Biocube look... just be careful of jumpers!

 

Thanks; with the plans for the AI prime, I couldn't leave the rim on this without the hood; looked too tacky. I come back from leave in roughly 6 days and I'll see where my cycle is at. Currently my roommate has been watching the tank, i gave him a detailed guide regarding how to top it off. There seem to be a lot of diatoms on the glass, not really on the sandbed or rocks though. I'm eager to see what my levels look like when I come back. Corals are apparently flourishing, so I might have just had a really small cycle. My only concern right now is fluctuating salinity. It keeps getting really low and he's having to top off with SW on occasion to counteract whatever is happening to drop it. Any insight here?

 

Still overwhelmed with the idea of having a tank again and I can't decide 100% on what I want to stock it with coral/fish wise.

Probably going to go with the dwarf lion, and possibly 1-2 other fish depending on his size. I already know I'll likely be getting another tank when my ship actually goes into dry dock in august and I move to a more permanent housing situation. I'm thinking, I've I can find a tank raised mandarin that eats frozen, and either a large royal gramma or clownfish, I'd have the desired movement of livestock in the tank and the species I really want to keep.

 

I didn't get a change for any real photo updates, I did rescape the tank a bit though. My rocks weren't really held together in any solid fashion, and in putting in the media basket/skimmer/everything else, some fell over and I ended up just redoing everything. I'll see if I can't find some current pictures on my phone of the corals or have my roommate send me some.

[reefaramos]

Got Some pictures I finally got around to uploading, from about a week ago. I can only hope the corals still look as good as they do here, just a few more days and I'll be reunited with the tank. Sorry bout the contrast. Working on that whole... better camera thing.

 

zoa garden, if anyone has some insight as to the trade names for any of these guys, thatd be awesome.:

 

 

Acan:

 

Frogspawn:

 

Strawberry Fields Montipora:

[FLOPEZ83]

Hey, I've been following this thread and think your tank is awesome, keep updating for those that follow.

[reefaramos]

What I recieved from inTank, save the media. Pretty excited about this stuff, its all been running in there (save the reefrack, its too big) for the week.

 

[FLOPEZ83]

What are you running in your media basket? I'm getting ready to fire up my oceanic biocube 29 and thinking about going with that in the back.

[reefaramos]

What are you running in your media basket? I'm getting ready to fire up my oceanic biocube 29 and thinking about going with that in the back.

I have filter floss from inTank n the top rack, purigen in the middle, and chemipure on the bottom. It seems to be working really well so far, and i expect the filter floss they sent to last me at least a year f i replace weekly.

 

Once its running for a little longer, I'll be able to give you a more accurate synopsis of how this thing works. But so far, it seems to be doing a great job. My corals are super happy and my tanks cycle was flawless and speedy.

 

One recommendation I have is, if you know you're going to ger the basket, go ahead and make the neccesary mods to the compartments before hand. Kind of a pain in the butt/a little nerve racking to do it with a full tank.

[FLOPEZ83]

Thanks for the info, as far as removing the prepping the tank, I thought all of had to do was remove the plastic pieces and cut a tab on the top, is that it? It's empty now so I want to get all that done before hand just like you mentioned.

[reefaramos]

Thanks for the info, as far as removing the prepping the tank, I thought all of had to do was remove the plastic pieces and cut a tab on the top, is that it? It's empty now so I want to get all that done before hand just like you mentioned.

Yea, its really not super labor intensive, but I definitely would have been more comfortable doing it in a dry tank, rather than my newly up and running, full, still cycling system. I had a few mishaps along the way and had to re-do my hardscape and readjust some stuff in the back compartments. Worth the hassle for sure, but not if you can avoid it.

[reefaramos]

I've been Compiling A little List of corals/inverts I want, for my own future reference.

 

-Kryptonite Candy Cane

-Various Morphs of ricordea, to form a "carpet" on either open space

-a purple, green, and rainbow acan morph. Not really sure what I have now

-Blastomussa, wellsi red/green variant

-Neon Green Birdsnest

-Pink Pocillopora

-Bali Green Slimer

-Darth Maul Palys

-Bubble Tip Aneomone (Likely Green, if I can find one with actual bubble-tips)

-Ultra Derasa or Maxima Clam

-Elegance Coral

-Orange/Purple Montipora Digitata

-Orange Monti Cap

-sunset montipora

-Wellso Brain, preferably green or red/blue

-Ultra rock flower anemone, or mini-maxi carpet

-More color variants of euphyllia

-Orange/green fungia plate coral

-Superman Montipora

-Red Aquacultured Goniopora

-Aussie Duncan

-Metallic Green Star Polyp, might attach to back wall.

 

 

I'm sure this list will grow. I'll probably pin it to the initial post once this thread starts gaining some more headway and checking off what I do have.

 

I desire way more zoas/palys, I just am terrible with the trade names. I don't even know what I have now, there are so many.

[FLOPEZ83]

That's a good idea to make a list before hand. I'm kinda of a impulse buyer hence why I got into reefing. But so far I'm less then $50 into this hobby. I've got the biocube, stand,3 koralia powerheads and a hydor heater. I plan on upgrading the heater and eventually get a mp10 but right now I want to get the tank cycling. I'm going to order the AI Prime HD, I think k that should be efficient enough for my cube.

Actually I just seen that you have AI Prime. How do you like it? ANY regrets or any other fixtures you would suggest?

[reefaramos]

That's a good idea to make a list before hand. I'm kinda of a impulse buyer hence why I got into reefing. But so far I'm less then $50 into this hobby. I've got the biocube, stand,3 koralia powerheads and a hydor heater. I plan on upgrading the heater and eventually get a mp10 but right now I want to get the tank cycling. I'm going to order the AI Prime HD, I think k that should be efficient enough for my cube.

Actually I just seen that you have AI Prime. How do you like it? ANY regrets or any other fixtures you would suggest?

 

Yea, I don't know how well I'll stick to it. This has mostly been impulsive so far, especially that monti. But I knew I wanted a frospawn/euphyllia that color before I got it, as well as the acan.

 

AND... I commented on your thread regarding this pretty much responding directly to the last portion of your post (lol). I don't know why it says that you said this here, I'm quoting a post of my own. Your thread, my post. I've been overactive on here today. Also, 3 powerheads seems excessive. I would suggest ditching those, see if you can get something back for them, and go with a jebao or mp10 if you can swing it (though it looks like you're trying to ball on a budget too). I would also recommend, if that is a glass encased heater, to get a cobalt neo-therm or titanium heater (i forget the brand). I've had really, really bad luck over the years with glass heaters. Of the tens of tanks I've had, I've had 2 tanks get fried from the glass cracking. Not a huge ratio, but not a risk I'd take if I can avoid it.

 

Not trying to treat your life through your tank here. Just making some suggestions. You could definitely be fine with what you have right now, but you might could plan ahead with some upgrades before you start or soon after to avoid pains later.

 

 

I'm really happy with my prime HD. It is super controllable, hooks up relatively easily to WiFi, and covers the tank perfectly. So far its keeping great color in my zoas and acans. I have no complaints. Granted, nothing to compare it to, but still, no complaints.

[FLOPEZ83]

I should have been more clear, I got all of that equipment for $50. Three powerheads would be a lil bit excessive. I plan to use one of the 750 Koralias and use the others for mixing salt. I plan on getting a cobalt heater like What you have, I've seen alot of good reviews on it. Do you know if you are able to connect multiple AI Prime HD together? I was thinking if I wanted to get a bigger tank that I could possibly get another one or two. Also I was curious if you thought it was a good idea to start a cycle without any filtration, I ordered the Intank basket and all the media so I was just gonna throw it in once it got here, but wanted to get it started now.

[uwharrie]

let us know how the skimmer works. I never could get my Hydor to work right in my biocube

[reefaramos]

I should have been more clear, I got all of that equipment for $50. Three powerheads would be a lil bit excessive. I plan to use one of the 750 Koralias and use the others for mixing salt. I plan on getting a cobalt heater like What you have, I've seen alot of good reviews on it. Do you know if you are able to connect multiple AI Prime HD together? I was thinking if I wanted to get a bigger tank that I could possibly get another one or two. Also I was curious if you thought it was a good idea to start a cycle without any filtration, I ordered the Intank basket and all the media so I was just gonna throw it in once it got here, but wanted to get it started now.

You can connect the prime's together, they will be in a parent/child pairing. One will be the parent that you control directly, and the "child" light will follow the exact schedule the parent does. Once you see how it is displayed in the app, its not too hard to figure out. I've considered doing the same when I eventually, inevitably upgrade, although by that time I'd like to have the cash to go all out with some radions. Good call getting the inTank stuff, its really just so perfectly set up for these systems its hard to say no. Member "stevieT" on here is associated (maybe even owns) their store, and has recently helped me answer some questions on it if you have any trouble setting your mods up.

 

I started my cycle with just chemipure in there and some live rock rubble, so I had filtration, although not much. But if the tank is running and water is moving, your tank will still start cycling. Personally I see no harm in it, but you might want to ask a more seasoned reefer. I got lucky, adding coral a few days into setting up my tank that has only been thriving through the cycle. Then again, I used to maintain tanks for a living (on a just-out-of-high school budget/lifestyle), so I think part of it is just inherent knowledge/luck.

 

 

let us know how the skimmer works. I never could get my Hydor to work right in my biocube

 

I will for sure. I've only been receiving pictures of the tank/coral and salinity logs for the past week, watched the diatoms take over and recede through snapchats and direct messages. It seems to be doing its job but I can't confirm or deny that without seeing it in person.

 

My roommate was definitely having some trouble conceiving how THAT much water could evaporate. Kind of funny actually. The pump was blowing bubbles (pulling in air due to low water level), and he didn't realize that you have to keep adding water to the back chamber until the whole tank levels out. He thought that it was displacing more than he was putting in and the front, tank compartment was going to overflow.

 

I trailed on here. I'll let you know how the skimmers working when I get back and make certain my system is running properly.

 

On a side note, I've asked about every LFS within 30 minutes of me if they have fuzzy dwarf lions in stock, and asked my two most frequented if they could get one in for me. I keep picturing a little dwarf lion hovering over a bed of ricordea and hiding in caves between various euphyllia/ LPS. I'm way too eager; I was quite literally having dreams about visiting these places last light and watching them float their shipments in tanks. I have a problem.

[FLOPEZ83]

Thanks for all the information, it's nice being able to reach out to someone who is more knowledgeable on this. Can't wait to see more pictures of your tank

[reefaramos]

Thanks for all the information, it's nice being able to reach out to someone who is more knowledgeable on this. Can't wait to see more pictures of your tank

Of course. I've been out of the hobby for a while and still have a lot of questions myself, but I'm finding my knowledge is coming back to me quick and learning new stuff is easy cause I enjoy it so much. Always willing to help if I can, glad it is appreciated.

 

Assuming snowmaggedon doesn't keep me from flying back to Virginia tomorrow, I'll try and have some update pics before the weekend is over. Might have something swimming in there by then, too.

[FLOPEZ83]

Hey Ramos, which mounting kit are you using with your AI Prime HD? I need to order that but wasn't sure which one to order.