Adam_B's Biocube 32

[Adam_B]

This is my second reef tank in four years (or so), and new to this site as well (but not new in terms of using it for information). The previous tank was a 20 long that started out as a reef and then turned FOWLR when I didn't have the time to keep up with the proper maintenance. After some time in my new house I finally got the chance to start this tank up and shut down the old one. All I kept from the previous tank was the rock and the fish. 

 

Tank: Topless Coralife Biocube 32 gallon with an Octo Aquatics Lid. This was started on November 26, 2017 with water and sand, rock and fish added a week after

Lighting: Orphek Atlantik V4 Compact Gen 2 (modified LPS/Soft coral program)

Heater: Eheim Jager 125W

Filtration: stock return pump, blue bonded filter floss, GFO/Rox 0.8 mix, and Seachem Purigen in an InTank media basket

Biological Filtration: ~30 lbs live rock, 40 lbs CaribSea reef sand

Other Equipment: IM Spin Stream, Tunze 9001 skimmer, IceCap ATO, and IceCap 1K gyre (ramps up and down from 0-300 GPH on 20 second ramp up/down)

Livestock: Dwarf angelfish, orchid dottyback,  pincushion urchin, 11 rock flower anemones, 1 trochus snails, 5 hermit crabs, 5 turbo snails, 1 astrea snail, and other various hitchhikers

 

As much as I would love to have a larger tank, it just isn't feasible. This tank is meant as a slight upgrade over the previous (as well as make the livestock and rock move much easier). I have plans for this that will be added I can. The previous tank that was shut down wasn't in the greatest of shape, so that made this one a little harder to work with from the start.

 

- Tank placement and water mixing

Biocube 32 Tank and Stand by Adam B., on Flickr

 

- First full tank shot

12/17/2017 FTS by Adam B., on Flickr

 

- Most recent full tank shot with a new rock (the layout makes more sense when it is viewed from the normal angle in the room)

1/6/2018 FTS by Adam B., on Flickr

 

Yellow assessor basslet (Assessor flavissimus) by Adam B., on Flickr

 

Clownfish by Adam B., on Flickr

 

Hector's goby (Koumansetta hectori) by Adam B., on Flickr

 

- This photo was taken with only the color enhancing and moonlight channels on

Rock flower anemone (Phymanthus crucifer) by Adam B., on Flickr

 

Rock flower anemone (Phymanthus crucifer) by Adam B., on Flickr

 

- I have yet to get a good photo that shows the green color of this coral well. The odd placement of the rock to the left was because this snapped at the base when it was put in the bag at the store. It has since attached to the rock below and the other piece.

DSC_1455 by Adam B., on Flickr

[Adam_B]

Bit by bit this tank is moving past the issues that carried over from the previous tank the rock and fish were taken from. I picked up a couple new corals yesterday from a local store, a long polyp toadstool (Sarcophyton species) and a branching hammer coral (Euphyllia paraancora). Seeing the coral color difference between the store and home has me contemplating a retrofit sometime down the road for overall appearance, coral growth, and a wider range of corals that can be grown. I don't hate the stock lighting, but it seems to have room for improvement in my opinion.

 

1/14/2018 FTS by Adam B., on Flickr

 

Hammer coral (Euphyllia paraancora) by Adam B., on Flickr

 

Long polyp toadstool (Sarcophyton species) by Adam B., on Flickr

 

DSC_1479 by Adam B., on Flickr

 

DSC_1485 by Adam B., on Flickr

[rO.oster]

Things are looking great!!!  I really wish I could have the few extra gallons in the new BC32 tank, it looks like a great display volume!

[Adam_B]

On 1/23/2018 at 11:55 PM, rO.oster said:

Things are looking great!!!  I really wish I could have the few extra gallons in the new BC32 tank, it looks like a great display volume!

Thank you! The display volume is rather nice, especially for laying out the rock upwards. Unfortunately, I had a fairly major setback with a purigen mishap that killed off some of the invertebrates and damaged the corals. Things are slowly getting back on track now though.

[Adam_B]

So, life got in the way of this tank's maintenance schedule earlier in the year, but I have been working at getting it back on track. Turf algae took hold across a majority of the tank, so the manual removal of that was my jumping off point (the tank was much worse than it is in the attached photo). Many of the other issues were partially attributed to my original rock layout, which was rather dense for the flow I had. The rocks were removed individually, and I blew the detritus out of them in a separate container with old tank water. The layout was then changed to incorporate a more open, and taller, layout that would work with the rock dwelling fish I have now. The flow was also changed courtesy of an Icecap 1K gyre, which currently ramps up and down between 0-40%. In addition to the algae removal, multiple water changes have helped to clean things up in other ways. 

 

 

I also broke down and added a Tunze 9001 with an InTank media basket. The battle is hardly over, but my weekly photos show that the algae is decreasing gradually. The lone LPS also has new tissue growth which is promising. Overall, I'm disappointed with myself for letting it get this bad, but it is good to see it getting back on track. It will need to be better than before, that's for sure. I'm planning on removing the top and switching to some new lighting once I'm certain everything else is doing well and I don't change everything too quickly. One odd thing I realized with the rock layout change, any of the coralline algae I expose to the light ends up dying back. It grows well in very indirect light, but that's all. 

 

The tank's weekly maintenance schedule includes loose algae removal, blow off the rocks with a turkey baster, change out the filter floss, vacuum the top portion of the sand bed, empty the skimmer cup, and change out 5 gallons of water (mixed at 35 ppt). I'm determined to not have this tank be a disappointment anymore.

[Adam_B]

I made yet another change that will make my life easier in the future, I finally added an ATO. The ATO is the first I have ever had (the protein skimmer was also a first for me), but my life is quite a bit different than when I started out with saltwater aquariums back in 2013. I guess they are items I see for long term stability, and the ATO will definitely be useful when the top is removed and the light is upgraded. The ATO is Icecap, and the container I settled on is a large cereal container. It has two gallons of water in the container in the photo. 

 

In addition, I brought the clean-up crew back to useful levels. The CUC is now made up of my lone trochus snail, some turbo snails, hermit crabs, and the random tiny snails that have appeared over the years. I also acquired one of those new-fangled "green" pincushion urchins. It carries around a piece of macroalgae to reduce its nitrogen footprint 😆Anyway, I added another FTS since that previous photo is pretty bad. Finally, I added a photo of two of the three rock flower anemone offspring that came from the only large one I have (the urchin photo has another one of the little anemones).

 

[Matteo]

Low key I loved your other scape but do what makes you happy! 😊Nice tank

[Adam_B]

22 hours ago, Matteo said:

Low key I loved your other scape but do what makes you happy! 😊Nice tank

Thank you. I honestly wish I could have kept it as the original scape, but it just kept accumulating detritus in hidden pockets. The new layout opens up the flow and the fish love it, yet it looks kinda boring in some ways. Maybe it just needs more coral, or some outside input on some changes 🙂

[Matteo]

48 minutes ago, Adam_B said:

Thank you. I honestly wish I could have kept it as the original scape, but it just kept accumulating detritus in hidden pockets. The new layout opens up the flow and the fish love it, yet it looks kinda boring in some ways. Maybe it just needs more coral, or some outside input on some changes 🙂

I mess with my scape a lot haha until I see it perfect. But I feel you. More coral is always the answer 😎

[Adam_B]

Welp, there's been a few things that have changed since the last post. Unfortunately, I found the midas blenny dead one day with nothing really wrong that I could see up until that point. It seems like that has happened to others occasionally depending on the source of the fish. There wasn't anything out of line, and the other fish have continued along without any signs of distress. I guess I am putting that one in the back of my mind as something I cannot answer currently, but maybe I'll figure it out someday.

 

Anyway, the other changes. The tank has gone topless (I'm currently waiting on a mesh/poly cover to cover the tank in case any fish decide to go carpet surfing. Going topless means the light has been upgraded. I picked up a slightly used Orphek Atlantik V4 compact and installed it a few weeks ago. It hangs approximately 13 inches above the tank and is set on the LPS/soft coral program with the percentages slightly reduced (this was after the acclimation program). The light is overkill for this tank, but I hope to upgrade to a larger tank that this light would work well over in the somewhat near future. Next, I also picked up some coral locally on black Friday (and the day after since I won a gift certificate in a drawing for the same store). I am also waiting on a few rock flower anemones and a couple other corals to be shipped, so that'll be fun (I've never had corals shipped).

 

Finally, the algae has continued to decline quite well, and it seems like everything is coming back around for the better. I cannot say if the tank improvement is due to the regular maintenance and improved waste export, the Vibrant dosing, or a mixture of both (most likely this), but it is welcome either way.

[Adam_B]

I got the better camera out to try and get some decent photos of a couple of the new corals, and one of the old. The bowed front and 100mm macro don't play well together though.

 

[Adam_B]

For my first time ordering livestock online it went pretty well. I added seven new rock flower anemones (could only upload a couple photos) to my tank and two mystery corals (seller's choice, blasto and favia). I've become rather fond of RFAs though. These are still small, but if they grow anything like the offspring from my adult RFA I should have them at a decent size in no time. The photos were taken only 6-7 hours after I put them into the tank. I'll have to slowly ramp the gyre back up to the settings I had it before. One of the anemones was already relocated by the flow, but they can't get themselves into any dangerous situations.

 

 

[Adam_B]

Now I don't have to worry about randomly finding a fish on the floor. I've only ever had that happen once a few years ago, but that was all it took to make me paranoid. Since the tank is covered again, I might try to work on some fish restocking ideas, and probably more coral, since the aquarium still seems kinda empty to me.

[FISHnChix]

Nice set up looking good😎

[Adam_B]

22 hours ago, FISHnChix said:

Nice set up looking good😎

Thanks! I just hope I can keep it that way after everything it has been recovering from.

[Adam_B]

Little by little my biggest rock flower anemone is regaining its original coloration that had faded away under the stock lighting. It wasn't that it looked bad, I just prefer the vibrant, florescent, coloration. All of the new RFAs seem to have settled into their chosen areas. Luckily, providing some rubble rock around where I placed them allowed them all to find places that worked out without traveling the entire tank. Finally, despite how useful it has been, the current pincushion urchin has been more of a bulldozer than the one I lost. So, it looks like that and the two large turbo snails will need a new home. I'll likely offset them with a couple of trochus snails.

[Adam_B]

In a failed attempt to locate and remove a eunice worm yesterday the rock layout was changed. This time I spent a bit more time to have the layout work better for the coral while providing plenty of hiding places for the fish. Somehow I seemed to make it work out well for debris removal too. Even though I couldn't locate the worm in the rock it was in, or in the substrate below, something good came out of it. I still have a rock to move from the bottom right, but I need some epoxy to secure everything before doing that. The coral sitting on the side of the tank is just temporary as well. Does anyone see anything that seems like a bad idea with the layout?

 

[Adam_B]

Despite my failed attempt at the eunice worm removal, I'm glad it had showed up. If it wasn't in there I probably would've held off on changing the rock layout into something I really enjoy. The layout has added a bit of visual depth that was lacking, and the maintenance is significantly easier. I was also inspired by @banasophia and added a single scissortail dartfish after seeing how beautiful of a fish they are. They don't seem to appear often around my area in stores though, so they never really came into my radar. Despite being a lone scissortail, it is out all of the time and doesn't seem to fear much. It hides out at night with the orchid dottyback in the hole it created under a rock.

 

I also added a duncan coral with a few heads, and my ricordea broke off a piece of itself. The piece may be small, but it seems to be growing quickly and has a small mouth too. I also moved my rock around slightly and used some epoxy to secure the questionable rocks. 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

On 12/4/2019 at 4:00 PM, Adam_B said:

I got the better camera out to try and get some decent photos of a couple of the new corals, and one of the old. The bowed front and 100mm macro don't play well together though.

 

Wow!! Beautiful photos! 😍😍😍

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, Adam_B said:

Despite my failed attempt at the eunice worm removal, I'm glad it had showed up. If it wasn't in there I probably would've held off on changing the rock layout into something I really enjoy. The layout has added a bit of visual depth that was lacking, and the maintenance is significantly easier. I was also inspired by @banasophia and added a single scissortail dartfish after seeing how beautiful of a fish they are. They don't seem to appear often around my area in stores though, so they never really came into my radar. Despite being a lone scissortail, it is out all of the time and doesn't seem to fear much. It hides out at night with the orchid dottyback in the hole it created under a rock.

 

I also added a duncan coral with a few heads, and my ricordea broke off a piece of itself. The piece may be small, but it seems to be growing quickly and has a small mouth too. I also moved my rock around slightly and used some epoxy to secure the questionable rocks. 

 

 

 

 

So glad you tagged me so I could check it out! Nice to hear a lone scissortail still stays out in the open and doesn’t get shy on its own. Love your new scape... the tank looks really good. 

[Adam_B]

On 1/19/2020 at 1:12 AM, banasophia said:

So glad you tagged me so I could check it out! Nice to hear a lone scissortail still stays out in the open and doesn’t get shy on its own. Love your new scape... the tank looks really good. 

I'm glad you like it! I haven't been able to track down another scissor tail locally, so I'm glad it stays out without others. I'd feel bad if it hid all the time if it was insecure in its environment. As for now, it still hangs out with the other fish like nothing is wrong.

[Adam_B]

Just my luck, the eunice worm survived deep within the rock I had removed. It began rebuilding its snail shell hut around its opening. It also munched a little at the base of the frogspawn I had next to it. So, I'll have to keep an eye on it to see how it behaves. The coral placement changed due to that hungry worm, and the rainbow bubble tip anemone I added. 

 

The BTA was something I have wanted for a long time, but I wasn't comfortable with the stability of the water parameters or my reef keeping skill level. The parameters have been solid for months now and all of the corals have been growing well, so I went ahead and picked up a nice one locally. I greatly underestimated the size of it in the store which was 2-3" across (max), but separated out in its own container in the display tank. Now that it has itself well anchored between the rock, and it has the oral disc safely secured to the surrounding rock it rests on (I didn't know it could do this), its overall size has increased to 5" or more across. Needless to say, it makes for a great center piece if it stays put. So far it only moved from the spot I placed it to the location that I thought it would like, and that was it. The color is more vibrant than my phone camera captured.

 

 

 

One of the oral disc attachment points, just because I thought it was neat.