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


Jackal227

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3 hours ago, Wyatt45 said:

Well ok!  Today Amazon brought my new therm 75 watt. Placed it into chamber one. I already removed the false floor in chamber 1. I placed the koralia 425 in the tank.  

 

So I tested the ammonia. It looks like I have .50 PPm 

 

biggest question I have is the copepods/ refugium/ chaeto thing.  Not quite sure what the pods are for..

 

looks like a protein skimmer on a 16 is not needed?  If it was recommended I would want something in a chamber where the lid could close if possible. 

 

Do do you run an ATO?  It gets hot here. 

Hi Wyatt, did we meet at AquaWorkz over the weekend, or is there another person in our area starting a Biocube 16 this week? Awesome either way!! I’m in FairOaks. Jackal’s build thread was my inspiration too. 💛 I just started my Biocube 16 in March, and an IM Nuvo 10 in June. I use a Coralife skimmer which is made for the Biocube, fits perfectly in the first chamber (so don’t remove that tab, if you haven’t already, like some people do, because the skimmer hooks over it). The skimmer works great for me but you may not need one... most people don’t with our tank, but I need it because I feed heavily due to my livestock... I would hold off on getting a skimmer until you know you need one. 

 

As long as you have the lid on your Biocube you probably won’t need an ATO because the lid prevents a lot of evaporation. You may end up wanting to get a Chill Solutions chiller for it at some point though, because without the evaporative cooling the temp can creep up in the summer. I’m guessing you may not need it until next summer though since we should be cooling down now here. 

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I don't see a lot of evaporation on mine.  I top up only around 1 quart a week so I haven't invested in an ato but it is certainly a good thing to have. 

 

The refugium does two things.  As the algae grows it absorbs nutrients from the tank and when you harvest it you are removing those nutrients.  So it can help to keep nitrates lower.  It's debated as to whether the small size of our refugiums can make a noticeable difference in these numbers. But the 2nd thing it does is provide shelter for microfauna like copepods which will reproduce and become food for certain fish.  

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Reef Update:

 

The tank is still covered in GHA.  The new clean up crew isn't making much of a dent in it yet so I'll add some additional help soon. 

 

The cyano is receding and had cleared up pretty significantly.  I attribute this to my dosing hydrogen peroxide for the last 5 days.  I'm currently dosing 1.5 ml every 12 hours. I started noticing a difference after about 3 days. There's still a few spots on the rocks that I'm hoping will dissipate soon. 

 

The blue sympodium, Zoas, and Palys are the only corals that survived the crash.  It's sad to pull out the skeletons from all the dead corals. There's still a couple left in because I hope that one day they start showing signs of life again. 

 

The new corals are doing ok for the most part.  I've picked up my first gorgonian that is showing polyps out so it appears happy. 

y4me6b0zzcXmIQMyUCb9pV9JHB_JuDpqnY40sjSG

I also picked up two new Blastomussas to replace the ones that I lost.  I got a red one and a purple one.  They are pretty tiny but are open. 

 

I also picked up a new Duncan coral, however my clowns must've took offense to it because I found them nipping at the flesh and the actually ripped the entire head off of the coral.🤤  I wouldn't of thought that it was possible if I didn't witness it...

 

And the last addition was a cheap rock flower anemone.  This is also a first for me so it's a test to see how they do.  It's been mostly hiding in a crack between the rocks so I don't believe it is doing well.  It also appeared completely bleached when I received it so I don't know if it was healthy to begin with. 

 

Current plans for the tank:

-eradicate the ugly GHA.

- continue to add corals

- decide on the new theme for the tank.  I'm considering making the tank mostly softies to keep it as low maintenance as possible.  Another option is adding ultra RFAs to create an anemone dominate tank (the colors on these are stunning). Last option is going back to mostly LPS with a few SPS  mixed reef like I had before the crash. 

 

All in all the tank is on cruise control as I don't want to make too many changes out of fear that it goes downhill again. 

 

Here's a current FTS with all the ugliness included (the white stump in the middle is the Duncan skeleton after the clowns decapitated it):

y4mNUot97eNI2fhv0UHMdkb2WHAZqrGIoyDvB9Z4

 

Hopefully the next pictures will be less 'green' 

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On 11/14/2017 at 4:26 PM, Jackal227 said:

Week 8 Update:

 

Not a lot has changed but things are staying stable so that seems like a good sign.   Still performing weekly water changes of 2.5 gallons, and changing the poly filter bi-weekly.

 

I purchased an itc-308 temperature controller to provide some peace of mind and an alarm in case of a heater failure.  It uses a metal probe so I coated it with silicone today to prevent corrosion.   I'll let it cure for 24 hrs before installing it.

 

The Clowns are still going strong.   They've put on a little thickness since I've gotten them, but are still pretty small.

 

The Zoas seem to be doing well.   They've grown 3 new polyps now so they are up to 10 heads (unfortunately 2 are hidden on the back side) .   Hopefully soon they will flow off the frag plug and onto the rock.

y4m6rfALAC5_SS37m0fRKVoOkPg1ZdK-q0nMiqxc

 

The trumpet coral also appears to be doing well.  It's still 2 heads, but they have gotten fuller and there are a couple vine-like growths coming out of the sides of the skeleton (maybe new heads?).  It's neat to watch them when they're feeding tentacles are out.   If my nitrates continue to stay low I may look into feeding them periodically.

y4mcFjrPcEfdJG83vduYzQuW5UUNKKmujdOM1MRv

 

Also the Chaeto in the refugium seems to be working well.  It started off around golf ball sized, and it is now probably a little bigger than a softball.  My nitrates have been near zero since running it. 

 

With things staying stable it may be time to look into a new addition.

 

FTS:

y4my3KdMlUBxd3GPKBz61s5EXjeimM2eO00pimIu

nice scape!

 

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40 minutes ago, Wyatt45 said:

I need to go back through the thread and see what you said caused that.  Was it the temperature spike?

 To be honest I'm not completely sure but I believe it was a big contributor.

 

18 minutes ago, Wyatt45 said:

Jackal, do you still have your conch? Trying to think of cuc for my tank once it’s ready.  

Yes I do, it hides in the sand during the day a lot but I just saw him munching on the base of the rocks earlier today.  I only see him out about once a week. 

 

10 minutes ago, Ladytank said:

Hey Jackal, do you need a refugium to keep copepods? I want to add a Mandarin goby but don't want it to starve. Thanks for your time.

The pods need a place to live which is what the refugium provides.  A mandarin can eat all of the pods in the display quickly which is why they normally aren't recommended for nano tanks.  I've considered getting one myself, but a plan would be needed to add pods to the tank regularly or find one that eats regular food.   I've read that some of the captive bred ones are raised this way. 

 

11 minutes ago, dferrari13 said:

nice scape!

 

Thank you. 

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3 minutes ago, Ladytank said:

Thanks jackal. I also heard that captive breed mandarins will eat other food as well. I'm gonna sound crazy, but I have a 3rd tank. I haven't set up yet. 

Hi @Ladytank, I have a captive bred mandarin in my Biocube 16 that I’ve had since 4/2. I’ll start a thread this evening so everyone can share their experiences. 

  • Haha 1
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1 hour ago, Jackal227 said:

Reef Update:

 

The tank is still covered in GHA.  The new clean up crew isn't making much of a dent in it yet so I'll add some additional help soon. 

 

The cyano is receding and had cleared up pretty significantly.  I attribute this to my dosing hydrogen peroxide for the last 5 days.  I'm currently dosing 1.5 ml every 12 hours. I started noticing a difference after about 3 days. There's still a few spots on the rocks that I'm hoping will dissipate soon. 

 

The blue sympodium, Zoas, and Palys are the only corals that survived the crash.  It's sad to pull out the skeletons from all the dead corals. There's still a couple left in because I hope that one day they start showing signs of life again. 

 

The new corals are doing ok for the most part.  I've picked up my first gorgonian that is showing polyps out so it appears happy. 

y4me6b0zzcXmIQMyUCb9pV9JHB_JuDpqnY40sjSG

I also picked up two new Blastomussas to replace the ones that I lost.  I got a red one and a purple one.  They are pretty tiny but are open. 

 

I also picked up a new Duncan coral, however my clowns must've took offense to it because I found them nipping at the flesh and the actually ripped the entire head off of the coral.🤤  I wouldn't of thought that it was possible if I didn't witness it...

 

And the last addition was a cheap rock flower anemone.  This is also a first for me so it's a test to see how they do.  It's been mostly hiding in a crack between the rocks so I don't believe it is doing well.  It also appeared completely bleached when I received it so I don't know if it was healthy to begin with. 

 

Current plans for the tank:

-eradicate the ugly GHA.

- continue to add corals

- decide on the new theme for the tank.  I'm considering making the tank mostly softies to keep it as low maintenance as possible.  Another option is adding ultra RFAs to create an anemone dominate tank (the colors on these are stunning). Last option is going back to mostly LPS with a few SPS  mixed reef like I had before the crash. 

 

All in all the tank is on cruise control as I don't want to make too many changes out of fear that it goes downhill again. 

 

Here's a current FTS with all the ugliness included (the white stump in the middle is the Duncan skeleton after the clowns decapitated it):

y4mNUot97eNI2fhv0UHMdkb2WHAZqrGIoyDvB9Z4

 

Hopefully the next pictures will be less 'green' 

@Jackal227, glad to see your update. It’s so hard to see how fragile our systems are; how a tank as beautiful as yours could crash so quickly. 😞 I really wonder what happened. 

 

Your new gorgonian is beautiful, and glad your fish are doing well. That’s really weird about the Duncan. It looks like you have a good plan for moving forward. Have you tried a sea hare yet for the GHA? I am a big fan of sea hares for my hydroid problems in my tank, and I know they can really mow down GHA too. 

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42 minutes ago, banasophia said:

@Jackal227, glad to see your update. It’s so hard to see how fragile our systems are; how a tank as beautiful as yours could crash so quickly. 😞 I really wonder what happened. 

 

Your new gorgonian is beautiful, and glad your fish are doing well. That’s really weird about the Duncan. It looks like you have a good plan for moving forward. Have you tried a sea hare yet for the GHA? I am a big fan of sea hares for my hydroid problems in my tank, and I know they can really mow down GHA too. 

I haven't looked into sea hares before but I will read up on them.  They are certainly interesting to look at. 

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59 minutes ago, Wyatt45 said:

What do you guys feed your fish?  Brand excetera.  

Pe pellets is the only food I've used.  The fish all like it. 

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Sounds good.  I think I’m close to cycle being finished since I have nitrates.  Trying to gameplan what will be the inaugural inhabitant! Crab? Clown?  Lol, copepods!

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9 hours ago, Wyatt45 said:

Sounds good.  I think I’m close to cycle being finished since I have nitrates.  Trying to gameplan what will be the inaugural inhabitant! Crab? Clown?  Lol, copepods!

If you have algae then I'd add the CUC first, if there's little to no algae then I'd add the fish first.

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I'm South of Fresno. Chiller is a must-have from June-August here at least. 

 

Ran my Biocube 16 for 1.5 years in Iowa before moving out to California in April. Would agree with Jackal. CUC first, maybe a hardy coral. 

 

As soon as you add a fish, be ready to change your entire maintenance schedule - as your bioload will spike exponentially. 

 

Unless you have a steady source of copepod production, a BioCube 16 is too small, I believe. You shouldn't need to add chaeto for awhile. Jackal had much better luck with it than I did. 

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1 hour ago, Wyatt45 said:

Did the copepods make their way to the display tank from chamber 2 or were they manually added?

They do make their way into the display from the back (even if you still have the little sponge in there), though when I add them I wait till lights out then add half to the display and half to the back. I also have a little rubble pile in the back right corner of my display. 

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35 minutes ago, Wyatt45 said:

You add them to the back?  Do you still have the refugium in chamber 2?

I took my chaeto out 3 weeks ago and added another bag of matrix media to give additional substrate for denitrifying bacteria that I’m trying to increase using nopox (which is carbon dosing). I did that because the LFS guy that took care of my tank while I was on vacation at the end of last month thought the nopox would have a more significant impact than the chaeto in controlling nitrates and phosphates in my system. I will still add pods to the back next time I add them because they hang out in the matrix media.

 

I would still recommend the chaeto in a new tank... I just have a heavily fed tank due to my fish/corals, so I have to beef up my nitrate/phosphate removal.

 

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 My Chaeto came with some amphipods as hitchhikers.  Within a couple of weeks they were crawling around the display as well.  So they can definitely move between both areas. 

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I just found this thread this morning, and enjoyed reading all of it. I have a 16 gallon biocube as well and am contemplating adding a refugium to the 2nd chamber to help reduce the food that green hair algae loves. 

 

Ive had an issue getting rid of GHA in my tank for a while. I add more snails and crabs, but they all seem uninterested. 

 

Yesterday I took my rocks out and scrubbed them in a separate container of saltwater to remove as much algae as I could, and I vacuumed the sandbed. I wanted to break up one of my rocks to make a few smaller pieces (the lfs gave me two large rocks instead of a variety and I didn’t think about breaking them up before putting the tank together). When I took that rock out the rock flower anemone wouldn’t come off, so I just changed how the rocks lay in the tank. I really liked the rockscape in your tank though, so next time I’ll be smarter with my rocks. 

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