Sadies Biocube 16

[sadie]

do star polyps have sweeper tenticles?  Mine has something weird on it I've never seen before.  Don't know if I should pull it off or leave it.  HOpe the picture is okay

 

Here's a picture of when I first got it and it was closed up.  (2nd pic) and a pic I took tonight with sweeper things or something on it. (1st pic)

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, sadie said:

do star polyps have sweeper tenticles?  Mine has something weird on it I've never seen before.  Don't know if I should pull it off or leave it.  HOpe the picture is okay

 

Here's a picture of when I first got it and it was closed up.  (2nd pic) and a pic I took tonight with sweeper things or something on it. (1st pic)

Looks more like clove polyps to me (clavularia), if so they spread by sending out those shoots.

 

Glad your tank seems to be doing okay after that spike in the temp. I run a chiller in mine cuz the temp fluctuations stressed me out too much, but it’s definitely a pricey investment. 

[sadie]

Everyone is happy this morning!!

 

I am looking into chillers.  When you said pricey banashophia, I thought -maybe $100.00, but wow!  are they pricey.!  I was looking at one for 400+, it's the JBJ Mini Arctica 1/15 HP.  With the amount of money I have put into my coral, I'm sure it's worth it.   I have my tank in a corner, so I have a decent sized triangle space back there.  I could make a little table and put it back there.

 

 

[smoothette]

9 hours ago, banasophia said:

Looks more like clove polyps to me (clavularia), if so they spread by sending out those shoots.

 

Glad your tank seems to be doing okay after that spike in the temp. I run a chiller in mine cuz the temp fluctuations stressed me out too much, but it’s definitely a pricey investment. 

Where do you keep your chiller so that it doesnt heat up your house more? ... our house is very small so i ordered zoo med fans for my 32 because no real place to put a chiller that the  cats wont play with it, dog wont chew it up, and it wont heat up our living room... which is only big enough for a tv and loveseat and the tank.

[banasophia]

5 hours ago, sadie said:

Everyone is happy this morning!!

 

I am looking into chillers.  When you said pricey banashophia, I thought -maybe $100.00, but wow!  are they pricey.!  I was looking at one for 400+, it's the JBJ Mini Arctica 1/15 HP.  With the amount of money I have put into my coral, I'm sure it's worth it.   I have my tank in a corner, so I have a decent sized triangle space back there.  I could make a little table and put it back there.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, smoothette said:

Where do you keep your chiller so that it doesnt heat up your house more? ... our house is very small so i ordered zoo med fans for my 32 because no real place to put a chiller that the  cats wont play with it, dog wont chew it up, and it wont heat up our living room... which is only big enough for a tv and loveseat and the tank.

 

I use a Chill Solutions chiller on both my 16 and my 32. They run $250-300 and are very compact. My very first one broke after a year when the cord melted, but it occurred a few days after the cable guys had moved my tank and looked to me like the connection had gotten damaged, so I don’t think it was a product defect and since that time I replaced that one and bought a new one for my 32 which I installed a couple weeks ago. 
 

It doesn’t heat up the room that I’ve noticed only the localized area around it maybe... and you can get a bracket thing for mounting it on the wall, which I ordered but didn’t end up using. I am cautious to put something over the chillers to protect them from spills while doing water changes, and have to be careful not to let my hair hang down into them while leaning over next to them. 

[sadie]

that price range isn't too bad.  My tank went up to 85 today.  It would be nice not to have to worry.

[sadie]

woohoo!!  ordered that chiller thing.  Hope it works good.  I got the hookup kit too, with the tubes and all.  Should be much better then switching out ice packs!

[sadie]

Woohoo! I got my chiller.  I realize now the reason I didn't seem to need one before was that I didn't have any LPS.  They do NOT like the heat.  Both my frog spawn and my blastos are really, really mad.  I wasn't sure my frogspawn was going to make it.  It still might not.  I can see the bright green centers, but also their skeleton on the edges. The last 3 days my tank was 87*.  My ice machine broke and I only had 1 ice cue tray.  I froze ice packs and was switching those out every couple hours, but it didn't really do anything.  Maybe 1-2 degrees.

 

I must say I am pretty impressed with this company so far.  I got conformation and my order processed the same day I ordered it.  I was kicking myself for not paying the 8$ for 3 day shipping.  Instead I chose free 7-10 day shipping.  I ordered it on wed, they said I would have it Mon, but it came today!

 

It was pretty easy set up.  THANK YOU Banasophia for posting all the links to the manual, as well as pictures of your own tank.  I was going to put it in my RIGHT chamber, right above the false bottom, but the U tubes didn't fit well.  When I looked at the picture of your tank, I saw how the hole in the hood lines up better for the tubes.  So I put it in my LEFT chamber, above my pump.  It went together pretty easy.  

 

I only had one glitch that was my own fault.  AFTER  I get everything hooked up and installed I hear a rattling sound.  My arm is little, but short and can fit down in the chamber.  I tried to feel around to see what was making the noise, but I couldn't.  I had to pull everything out!!  MY heater, the pump I JUST installed, my other pump, all of it.  I thought it was a snail shell rolling around.  It was the magnet to one of my islands, which fell off the wall when my magnet did.  The island fell right on my RFA. He seems fine, he opened right up when I got the island off him.

 

Anyway, that was my crazy chaos for the day.  I am so glad I got the chiller.Hope my LPS make it.

 

 

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, sadie said:

Woohoo! I got my chiller.  I realize now the reason I didn't seem to need one before was that I didn't have any LPS.  They do NOT like the heat.  Both my frog spawn and my blastos are really, really mad.  I wasn't sure my frogspawn was going to make it.  It still might not.  I can see the bright green centers, but also their skeleton on the edges. The last 3 days my tank was 87*.  My ice machine broke and I only had 1 ice cue tray.  I froze ice packs and was switching those out every couple hours, but it didn't really do anything.  Maybe 1-2 degrees.

 

I must say I am pretty impressed with this company so far.  I got conformation and my order processed the same day I ordered it.  I was kicking myself for not paying the 8$ for 3 day shipping.  Instead I chose free 7-10 day shipping.  I ordered it on wed, they said I would have it Mon, but it came today!

 

It was pretty easy set up.  THANK YOU Banasophia for posting all the links to the manual, as well as pictures of your own tank.  I was going to put it in my RIGHT chamber, right above the false bottom, but the U tubes didn't fit well.  When I looked at the picture of your tank, I saw how the hole in the hood lines up better for the tubes.  So I put it in my LEFT chamber, above my pump.  It went together pretty easy.  

 

I only had one glitch that was my own fault.  AFTER  I get everything hooked up and installed I hear a rattling sound.  My arm is little, but short and can fit down in the chamber.  I tried to feel around to see what was making the noise, but I couldn't.  I had to pull everything out!!  MY heater, the pump I JUST installed, my other pump, all of it.  I thought it was a snail shell rolling around.  It was the magnet to one of my islands, which fell off the wall when my magnet did.  The island fell right on my RFA. He seems fine, he opened right up when I got the island off him.

 

Anyway, that was my crazy chaos for the day.  I am so glad I got the chiller.Hope my LPS make it.

 

 

Oh wow, what a pain having to pull all that stuff out again... glad you figured out the issue. I hope the chiller works well for your system! Takes about a day for it to get the temp down at first, as I recall, so don’t be worried if it’s not immediate. 

[sadie]

34 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Oh wow, what a pain having to pull all that stuff out again... glad you figured out the issue. I hope the chiller works well for your system! Takes about a day for it to get the temp down at first, as I recall, so don’t be worried if it’s not immediate. 

It wasn't so hot today.  When I installed it, my tank was 84.  It brought it down to 79 in a couple hours, so I was quite impressed.  It's pretty quiet too.

[sadie]

I did end up loosing my frogspawn, I think my blasto is  next.  😢  What a bummer; if I just got that chiller a few days sooner.  I will wait a few months and look for some more LPS.  

[banasophia]

3 minutes ago, sadie said:

I did end up loosing my frogspawn, I think my blasto is  next.  😢  What a bummer; if I just got that chiller a few days sooner.  I will wait a few months and look for some more LPS.  

I’m sorry to hear that... hope things will do better now you can keep your temp stable.

 

I talked with a Biocube guy a few months back about the heat retention issue in the tanks and he said he would take my suggestions to their development team, but he said that even if they did make changes in future models it would take a long time for that to happen.

 

 

[sadie]

...and my blasto is gone.  😢  What's crazy is my little meteor shower is still hanging on.  It dosen't look great, still really pale, but not dead.  I moved it a bit higher in my tank.  Everyone said low light, but when I moved it to less light it didn't do any better, so I will try a bit more light.

[sadie]

I am loving this little chiller.  It was 90* out today, 84* in my house, and the tank was 79,9.  

[sadie]

It's been a while since I posted.  Since my last post, I am still LOVING my chiller.  Wish I got one years ago. 

 

tank has been doing well (I think).  I am dealing with a bit of dinos again. Not sure it ever really went away. I am going to try and slowly raise my nutrients.  Last time I tried this, my tank got really ugly.  Maybe I did it too fast.  I did some research on dosing, but I decided to go the natural route.  We'll see how it goes.

 

My pulsing xenia are mad right now and I don't know why.  I was looking at my old posts and I can't believe the difference in my RFA.  Their tentacles have gotten a lot smaller. they still have good color, but small tentacles.  Anyone know why that would happen?

 

I went on vacation for 5 days and my cleaner shrimp died.  I just picked up a new one.  I also got a blue neon goby.  I love him!  I was thinking of adding another PJ cardinal or maybe a pair of clowns (my PJ cardinal just hides in his cave all day).  They only had 1 and I wasn't sure if I could get a few more?

 

I got a nice plug of GSP, one of my favorite coral.  I was going to put it on the sand bed, but decided to just put it in my rock and let it spread.  (I may regret it later, but we'll see).

 

I also got 2 more RFA, I LOVE them too!  I will post a pic of the new one, then my old ones and you can see the difference in the tentacles.  If anyone knows why (I'm hoping just a diff. in lighting between tanks), please chime in.

 

Here are some pics.

[sadie]

I forgot the pic of my new goby. 😮

 

 

[Xanthine]

Awww look how little the goby is, it's so cute! I hope he doesn't go back into chamber 1 and then get too fat to come back out -- I have a few guppies in one of my tanks in that situation right now!

And +1 for the GSP - one of my favorites too, love how fast it grows and the vibrancy and the swaying in the flow motion is so relaxing to watch. 

[sadie]

picked up a new coral today, they just got a new shipment.  I was looking at a kenya tree that had like 3 on the plug, but right behind it was this one.  the stalk had a bit of yellow color, which I liked.  She admitted she didn't know too much and got the "cheat sheet".  It didn't really look like anything on the list, but she said it was probably the green devils finger.  It is a softie, some kind of leather, so I bought it.  Looks nice where I put it, hope it likes it there.

 

 

[sadie]

Just ordered a microscope.  The algae in my tank just won't go away.  It doesn't get better, but it doesn't seem to get any worse.  I just want it gone.  I blow it off everything in the morning and change my filter floss just about every other day.

 

I'm hoping if I can find out what exactly it is, I can tackle it better.  I did some reading in the search on this site and what scopes worked and which didn't.  I didn't go really cheap, like 10$ I debated between the $14 one and the $25 and got the $25.  

Not sure how to post the pictures off the site, but maybe this will work:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Microscope-Beginner-Magnification-Students/dp/B08CRP2DNZ/ref=sr_1_50_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=microscope&qid=1603224500&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011&rnid=2470954011&rps=1&sr=8-50-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFIWFBJVEVVOFE5Uk8mZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAzMzY5MjczU1pYNDk1UUlKTlFWJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA4MDA3ODRONkhVTEI5WVpZR08md2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGZfbmV4dCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[sadie]

I woke up this morning and found Oz (my emerald crab) sporting a new hat!!  He's so cute!

 

[sadie]

 dinos still lingers, but I think I am heading in the right direction.  I have been able to keep my Nitrates around 5 and my phos hasn't gone below .1 in a while.

 

I noticed my emerald crab lost one of his front arms.🤔 he seems to be doing fine.

 

My xinia are looking a little better. their necks are longer and at the top, little tiny polyps are thinking about coming out.

 

FTS

 

[sadie]

dinos are no longer visible!!  But I think my pulsing xinia are gone as well.  🙁  there is the tiniest piece left, but not sure it will make it.

 

I have my phos up, but now it's too high.  It goes up to .34 and after a WC it goes down to .20, which is still too high.  I added a bit of PhosBan today and also took out my carbon.  I'm trying a carbon infused filter floss.  I usually use 2 pieces of FF in the top of my tower.  I put the carbon FF on the middle shelf and the PhosBan tightly wrapped in a nylon between 2 pieces of FF on the top of my tower.

 

 

[sadie]

Just got my order, it was a whole day late!😡 But I think everything looks fine. They packed it really well.  My wowwie mushrooms are brown for some reason, hoping it's just shipping stress.  My gold yuma looks good and my neon ricordea is a little shriveled, but I think those 2 will be okay.

 

[sadie]

Early Christmas present:  I got a duncan, it has 4-5 little babies under it's head.  I also got a kenya tree.  

[sadie]

My wowwie mushroom colored up nicely and I love my neon ric.