Jackal's Biocube 16 LED - 3 Years In and Counting!

[Cpl_Wiggles]

I'm actually considering installing an IceProbe Thermoelectric chiller - my setup has been hanging around 84 this last week (been above 100 degrees F here in the Valley) - with my A/C on! I've been propping the hood slightly open and running a small fan across the top but I would like something a little more durable/reliable. I also have the Steve's LED upgrade so the 42W lights put out a little more heat. 

 

I too, add about 1/2 gallon (2L) of water with a 1/4 tsp of KH Buffer in the middle of the week in addition to my weekend 2.5 gallon (9-10L) water changes. 

 

*EDIT* checked salinity after posting this and salinity is 1.0255 - so loss isn't too bad. 

 

The IceProbe would go into Chamber 1 on the right side - I just have to bring myself to drill a 1-1/4" hole in the side of my tank. 💀

[Jackal227]

9 hours ago, Cpl_Wiggles said:

I'm actually considering installing an IceProbe Thermoelectric chiller - my setup has been hanging around 84 this last week (been above 100 degrees F here in the Valley) - with my A/C on! I've been propping the hood slightly open and running a small fan across the top but I would like something a little more durable/reliable. I also have the Steve's LED upgrade so the 42W lights put out a little more heat. 

 

I too, add about 1/2 gallon (2L) of water with a 1/4 tsp of KH Buffer in the middle of the week in addition to my weekend 2.5 gallon (9-10L) water changes. 

 

*EDIT* checked salinity after posting this and salinity is 1.0255 - so loss isn't too bad. 

 

The IceProbe would go into Chamber 1 on the right side - I just have to bring myself to drill a 1-1/4" hole in the side of my tank. 💀

That's an interesting chiller. 

 

@banasophia uses one where I believe that the hoses route through the holes in the lid instead of having to drill the glass.

[Cpl_Wiggles]

On 6/14/2019 at 7:55 PM, Jackal227 said:

That's an interesting chiller. 

 

@banasophia uses one where I believe that the hoses route through the holes in the lid instead of having to drill the glass.

Yes this is true. But also necessitates an additional pump.

[vlangel]

I love your scape and when the coral grow out some this tank will be amazing.  Well done.

[Jackal227]

11 hours ago, vlangel said:

I love your scape and when the coral grow out some this tank will be amazing.  Well done.

Thank you.  I'm pretty happy with all of the corals right now and I really look forward to watching them grow in.

[Jackal227]

During maintenance today I found some new hitchhikers.  I found a tiny oval shaped flat creature crawling on the glass.  Looking at pictures online I believe that it may be a Chiton.  It was too small to get a decent picture of.

 

However, while looking at the rocks I found this guy crawling out of a hole:

 

The bristle worm is pretty small but it's the first time I've seen one in the tank.  I enjoy seeing the different biodiversity.  There's always something new to look at.

 

[Krish87]

1 hour ago, Jackal227 said:

During maintenance today I found some new hitchhikers.  I found a tiny oval shaped flat creature crawling on the glass.  Looking at pictures online I believe that it may be a Chiton.  It was too small to get a decent picture of.

 

However, while looking at the rocks I found this guy crawling out of a hole:

 

The bristle worm is pretty small but it's the first time I've seen one in the tank.  I enjoy seeing the different biodiversity.  There's always something new to look at.

 

I have one guy who is always out when its feeding time! Very interesting behavior. I do have some flatworms and I found it out only when I saw that my leather coral was all closed. Found some brown spots on it and bam - it was indeed flatworms. I carefully siphoned all of them out and no sign of any from the past week. But as a word of caution - I think I need to get Salifert Flatform exit in case there are more that show up down the road.

[Jackal227]

6 hours ago, Krish87 said:

I have one guy who is always out when its feeding time! Very interesting behavior. I do have some flatworms and I found it out only when I saw that my leather coral was all closed. Found some brown spots on it and bam - it was indeed flatworms. I carefully siphoned all of them out and no sign of any from the past week. But as a word of caution - I think I need to get Salifert Flatform exit in case there are more that show up down the road.

The one that I saw looks pretty close to this:

That's a picture of one on an algae magnet for size reference.

[Kup612]

Anybody out there no what this is ? Started out as a little tube but has grown into what looks like an active coral , no idea where it came from .

[MSunkin23]

3 hours ago, Kup612 said:

Anybody out there no what this is ? Started out as a little tube but has grown into what looks like an active coral , no idea where it came from .

Thats a very nice looking Aiptasia. Could multiply, but maybe not. Can be a nuisance.

[Jackal227]

1 minute ago, MSunkin23 said:

Thats a very nice looking Aiptasia. Could multiply, but maybe not. Can be a nuisance.

I agree it looks like a rather large Aiptasia.  Nice color on it though.

[Jackal227]

On 6/12/2019 at 1:54 AM, banasophia said:

Great pics!!! I love all your new corals - those zoas are especially amazing!! You may already know about this... I think war corals can develop pretty long sweepers after lights out, so you may want to be sure it has plenty of space. Here’s a YouTube I’ve come across showing the sweepers:

 

 

Well, it's not the war coral but I did find one of the Favias with four inch sweepers after lights out one night:

Looks like I'll have to move it down a bit to protect the Duncan.

 

Even after trimming it the Cespitularia continues growing rather fast:

 

The Hammer and the Duncan continue to grow and fill in the middle of the tank:

[banasophia]

19 hours ago, Jackal227 said:

Well, it's not the war coral but I did find one of the Favias with four inch sweepers after lights out one night:

Looks like I'll have to move it down a bit to protect the Duncan.

 

Even after trimming it the Cespitularia continues growing rather fast:

 

The Hammer and the Duncan continue to grow and fill in the middle of the tank:

Holy sweepers!! 😬😳 Good thing you caught it doing its thing before it took out the Duncan!!!

 

Looks like you are getting some remarkable growth, everything looks beautiful and really happy! I thought about picking up a cespitularia this weekend... good to know how fast they grow though cuz I don’t have much space left at this point. 

[Jackal227]

I took some quick pictures under the blues this morning.

 

The Acans are looking hungry and the little baby heads are starting to get big:

 

The Leptastrea under the overhang has really spread out and seems to grow well in the shade:

 

The Ricordeas continue to split:

 

The Montiporas are literally growing out of the water surface:

 

The yellow on this Favia continues to get brighter each day and looks really nice with the deep purple center:

 

The Cyphastrea has almost covered the entire rock that I put it on:

 

The Urchin is still doing well:

 

I'll add in a July FTS as well:

[Wonderboy]

Awesome growth everywhere! Look at that leptastrea crawling back there! It's reassurring to see. I have been planning to fill in some of my shadowy areas with that stuff :]   That cespitularia is going crazy, too!

[Krish87]

Absolutely marvelous growth! I'll be trying a Leptastrea in my Waterbox 7G. I have a good shadowy region and it would be great if I get successful in covering those rocks with this coral.

[Jackal227]

1 hour ago, Wonderboy said:

Awesome growth everywhere! Look at that leptastrea crawling back there! It's reassurring to see. I have been planning to fill in some of my shadowy areas with that stuff :]   That cespitularia is going crazy, too!

 

3 minutes ago, Krish87 said:

Absolutely marvelous growth! I'll be trying a Leptastrea in my Waterbox 7G. I have a good shadowy region and it would be great if I get successful in covering those rocks with this coral.

I've got two different types and they have both grown quite a bit.  The one in the shade has grown to be about four times as large as the one in the light.

[Krish87]

2 minutes ago, Jackal227 said:

 

I've got two different types and they have both grown quite a bit.  The one in the shade has grown to be about four times as large as the one in the light.

Thanks for sharing that @Jackal227 . . . Hope I find some good colored ones at the LFS. As of now, I'm currently going to shuffle the corals between my BioCube and Waterbox first. Then check for the spacing as to what I can add to a reasonable level.

[Kup612]

I want to cheat and add a few pieces of fake coral any suggestions on a good website to purchase realistic pieces ?

[Wonderboy]

[Kup612]

I have plenty of real , just wanted to mix in some low maintenance artificial.

[Wonderboy]

Just be verificative of the materials used in their production - it's not uncommon for artificial decorations to leech excess chemicals. It's up to you. IME, fake stuff is more useful for purposes (immediate provision of surface area/cover) over appeal because, in retrospect, artificial things don't typically maintain themselves. It looks like you will need to occasionally clean off the coralline somehow, and living coral will eventually want to overtake them, too. There's a good chance that OG corals require less attention in the end. I also think it might be time to start a journal where your setup's circumstances are collaborated and discussed; Jackal started this thread for kind of the same idea   :]

[Jackal227]

13 hours ago, Kup612 said:

I want to cheat and add a few pieces of fake coral any suggestions on a good website to purchase realistic pieces ?

I can't recommend anything because I haven't used them.  However, googling "coral inserts" yields many results.  There are lots of replicated corals available and they are used widely in fowlr tanks where fish like angels might eat live coral.

 

Some of them look pretty good in pictures but I'm not sure how they would look next to real coral.  They might stand out like a sore thumb.

[Xanthine]

7 hours ago, Jackal227 said:

They might stand out like a sore thumb.

You mean like this? lol. Got it for super cheap during a liveaquaria clearance sale. (just popped it back in now for the pic)

Also got a ridiculous fake hot pink anemone - but that one works well in my FW glofish tank at least.

 

[Jackal227]

Every night when the blues come on all of the baby Cerith snails come alive and attack the glass:

 

I rarely even have to scrape it now 😁.