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Banasophia’s Biocube 16 & IM Nuvo 10 ☀️


banasophia

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Poison Dart Frog
3 hours ago, banasophia said:

Hi, thanks!
 

Sadly, I no longer have the spider sponge or the small red tree sponge that was in the front left... and the bigger red tree sponge had to be fragged way back. All of my sponges, in addition to my pink palys and my blue sympodium, responded terribly to water I made using an RODI filter back in August/September. The sponges all lost tons of tissue and turned clear... I’d had that small red tree sponge since the beginning and it was always very hardy... not sure what is in my water that doesn’t get filtered out, but whatever it is, it’s not good even in tiny amounts that don’t register with my TDS meter. Theoretically there are no chloramines in my water, per a perusal of the water district’s info online, but maybe there a really are. I switched back to using commercially distilled water and now get it via monthly deliveries from Arrowhead. The cost is $1/gallon, and they take back and reuse the 5 gallon jugs. 
 

Anyway, it is true that spider sponges are sensitive/difficult to keep. Mine really suffered loss of sponge tissue any time I changed my water source, but aside from that it seemed pretty happy in my system. I hope to get another small one once I know for sure I’ll be sticking with the distilled water home delivery and the Tropic Marin salt. The pink palys/zoas sure are happy now with this water/salt combo, and the GSP on the back wall is starting to improve as well. Hopefully I can stick with this combo so my tank can stabilize again.

 

 

 

Do the sponges sorta melt away when they're not happy with something in the water? I was using boxed ocean water from Petco then about a month or two ago I switched to distilled water and Instant Ocean. I think you've got the best solution. That's a pretty good way to go about getting distilled since they'll take back the jugs. I have so many gallon jugs to deal with so I just bought an RO Buddy but haven't had time to make water yet. Pretty sure my tap water is Flint, Michigan quality so I'm a bit worried. 

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20 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

Do the sponges sorta melt away when they're not happy with something in the water? 

I had one of those purple/blue photosynthetic sponges that perished when I nuked my tank.  It lost all it's color and became transparent.  It was firm/rigid when purchased, but was just....mush when I pulled it from the tank.  

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21 hours ago, Mrs. Limpet said:

Hi,

Yes I do get to Sacramento often. What type of work do you do from home? I'm a nurse too, in the ED. getting to old for that though! lol

Oh, then we should totally meet up... I can give you some corals and we could talk about work from home nursing jobs if you are interested. I have worked as a health coach for Medicaid patients, and I’ve also worked as a nurse educator for a couple of pharmaceutical companies where I educate doctors offices and/or patients on medications. My last supervisor was a long time ED nurse... she sure had a lot of good stories to tell from that experience. 

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21 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

Do the sponges sorta melt away when they're not happy with something in the water? I was using boxed ocean water from Petco then about a month or two ago I switched to distilled water and Instant Ocean. I think you've got the best solution. That's a pretty good way to go about getting distilled since they'll take back the jugs. I have so many gallon jugs to deal with so I just bought an RO Buddy but haven't had time to make water yet. Pretty sure my tap water is Flint, Michigan quality so I'm a bit worried. 

Yes, that’s what the sponges did basically, they turned totally clear starting from the outer edges, and then gradually that tissue decomposed or came off leaving only the core of the sponge... the red tree sponges were more hardy and they didn’t seem to suffer from the first run in with the home distilled water, but I lost half of my spider sponge that time... and then the homemade RODI was what affected the tree sponges, zoas, blue sympodium, and basically took out most of the remaining spider sponge so there was only a tiny nub left. I should look to see if I got any pics...

 

I used that Petco water for a while too... and then when I switched to buying gallon jugs of distilled from the grocery store it just got to be so many plastic jugs, especially with two tanks... that was part of the reason I tried the RODI. My tap water really isn’t even all that bad... maybe 30-70 TDS out of the tap as I recall... must just be something weird in it in tiny amounts. It would be good to send it for ICP testing just to know... I’ve kept both the RODI filter and the distiller just in case I decide to do it one of these days. 

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53 minutes ago, TatorTaco said:

I had one of those purple/blue photosynthetic sponges that perished when I nuked my tank.  It lost all it's color and became transparent.  It was firm/rigid when purchased, but was just....mush when I pulled it from the tank.  

Such a bummer. 😞  Mine didn’t really get mushy, just turned clear but still firm... and took quite a while for the dead part to break down. 

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Hey @billygoat, I can confirm that at least one of the four Berghias is still alive and doing its thing! It has grown quite a bit since I got it. It was so funny trying to photograph it... my fish were totally photobombing and showing off as if to say “what’re you taking pics of that thing for, we’re the handsome ones!!”


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4 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Hey @billygoat, I can confirm that at least one of the four Berghias is still alive and doing its thing! It has grown quite a bit since I got it. It was so funny trying to photograph it... my fish were totally photobombing and showing off as if to say “what’re you taking pics of that thing for, we’re the handsome ones!!”


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How long have you had your mandarin for? Gorgeous 

Its really cool that you can track and see the Nudibranches still in the tank, do they seem to go for a specific sized Aiptasia or all of them?

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30 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

How long have you had your mandarin for? Gorgeous 

Its really cool that you can track and see the Nudibranches still in the tank, do they seem to go for a specific sized Aiptasia or all of them?

Thanks, I’ve had my mandarin for nearly two years... he’s a captive bred biota mandarin from Live Aquaria. I got him pretty early on and really built my tank around caring for him. I wanted to feed heavily/for a long time each day for him, so the NPS corals seemed like a good choice to eat the excess food. 
 

The nudibranchs are nocturnal, so you don’t see them much once you add them. They apparently like to hunt in groups, but it seemed to be just one that I saw tonight. When I got them last time it took about three weeks to start to see any effects, but then all of a sudden a few aiptasia started disappearing each night until they were all gone. 

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15 hours ago, banasophia said:

Hey @billygoat, I can confirm that at least one of the four Berghias is still alive and doing its thing! It has grown quite a bit since I got it. It was so funny trying to photograph it... my fish were totally photobombing and showing off as if to say “what’re you taking pics of that thing for, we’re the handsome ones!!”

Thanks for the update on the Berghia! I've been hemming and hawing on whether or not I should try them (mostly because of the price), but it seems that the number of Berghia success stories is quite a bit greater than the number of "they disappeared instantly and I never saw them again" stories, so I'm starting to lean in that direction. I recently increased the feeding frequency for my gorgonians from two days a week up to three, and I think the Aiptasia in my tank are beginning to grow more rapidly as a result... 🤔

 

Also, wonderful pictures! Those fish of yours may love to steal the spotlight, but I think they are beautiful enough to get away with it. ☺️

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16 hours ago, banasophia said:

Hey @billygoat, I can confirm that at least one of the four Berghias is still alive and doing its thing! It has grown quite a bit since I got it. It was so funny trying to photograph it... my fish were totally photobombing and showing off as if to say “what’re you taking pics of that thing for, we’re the handsome ones!!”


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Yay Finnik! Such a gorgeous fish those are amazing shots!! 😍
 

Wow I’m surprised you’ve still got beghias...they are such expensive little buggers and I’ve never been able to keep them once the aiptasia is gone.  

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6 hours ago, billygoat said:

Thanks for the update on the Berghia! I've been hemming and hawing on whether or not I should try them (mostly because of the price), but it seems that the number of Berghia success stories is quite a bit greater than the number of "they disappeared instantly and I never saw them again" stories, so I'm starting to lean in that direction. I recently increased the feeding frequency for my gorgonians from two days a week up to three, and I think the Aiptasia in my tank are beginning to grow more rapidly as a result... 🤔

 

Also, wonderful pictures! Those fish of yours may love to steal the spotlight, but I think they are beautiful enough to get away with it. ☺️


Thanks so much! I'm glad my fish are cooperative with picture taking. 

 

Yes, the berghias are really pricey... I really waited a long time to get them (partly due to holiday holds on shipping), and the aiptasia do spread fast with the heavy feeding, so at least it seems more worth it since the tank is fairly well populated with them... plus I got my mint pavona with the order to avoid the shipping fee and I love it... 

 

5 hours ago, Sancho said:

Yay Finnik! Such a gorgeous fish those are amazing shots!! 😍
 

Wow I’m surprised you’ve still got beghias...they are such expensive little buggers and I’ve never been able to keep them once the aiptasia is gone.  

 

Thank you! Finnick has been showing off a bit more lately, allowing me to get more pics... got some more tonight I’ll post tonight or tomorrow. 
 

These berghias are new ones... you are right the previous ones vanished, I really didn’t see those much after introducing them, the aiptasia just disappeared bit by bit... I’m hoping these will continue to show themselves so I can catch them and rehome. 

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10 minutes ago, Sancho said:

That candy cane is looking amazing 😍

Thanks! I totally didn’t even look at it until you said that... I snapped these pics quickly when Finnick was right by Hank and I grabbed the iPad to catch them. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Soooo many sunnies big and small! 😍 I've been keeping my eye out for some all yellow ones recently and it seems like they've been harder to come by. Back when I was looking for my black ones I had an impossible time finding them, now I've been seeing black/green all the time. 

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7 minutes ago, lizzyann said:

Soooo many sunnies big and small! 😍 I've been keeping my eye out for some all yellow ones recently and it seems like they've been harder to come by. Back when I was looking for my black ones I had an impossible time finding them, now I've been seeing black/green all the time. 

Yes, the suns are really spreading!! And I agree... they seem to go in waves here, too!! My LFSs got tons of dendros in a couple months ago, not enough people interested so they’ve been withering away since I’m sure they’re not being fed enough. 

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I'm not sure how reputable the sellers are, but aren't they pretty cheap on Ebay? I've considering purchasing them from Ebay but I worry the sun corals will prosper "too well" and spread throughout the tank. 

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I haven't searched on eBay lately, I'll take a look! 

 

They certainly might spread throughout the tank, but I've had mine for a year and a half at least and the tiny polyps that I've seen pop up all over haven't made it, or are just growing so slow that they aren't very noticeable. I spot feed directly to my sun corals every other day, and I think banasophia does more of a broadcast feed more often, so that might make a difference!

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On 2/11/2020 at 11:48 AM, lizzyann said:

I haven't searched on eBay lately, I'll take a look! 

 

They certainly might spread throughout the tank, but I've had mine for a year and a half at least and the tiny polyps that I've seen pop up all over haven't made it, or are just growing so slow that they aren't very noticeable. I spot feed directly to my sun corals every other day, and I think banasophia does more of a broadcast feed more often, so that might make a difference!

Yeah it’s true... maybe if I didn’t feed them so much they wouldn’t spread all over... I’ve been trying to cut back... it’s such a fine balance though because I find they tend to get tissue loss if I feed less. 

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Just posted this info in another thread and thought I should post here as well:

 

A guy that works for Coralife sent me this info on how to fit the new Coralife/Biocube v2 skimmer in the 16, which requires removing the false floor... I got one but I haven’t tried to install it yet. I do use one in my 32, and it is still getting a lot of microbubbles after a month of use, but I don’t mind since I view it as a way to increase oxygenation, and I just run it at night. I still have the old model Coralife/Biocube skimmer in my 16 for now (and I’ve actually been running a bubbler at night for the past couple months).

 

With my skimmers in chamber 1, I keep my heaters in chamber 3... you have to be very careful about evaporation when you do this since water level drops in chamber 3 with evaporation in the tank... I don’t get significant evaporation in either of my tanks though, so it works for my systems. 
 

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Some pics from Friday. Spotted a little candy cane-on-rock flower warfare for the first time. The candy canes have been growing like crazy since I switched salts... was doing Tropic Marin since January, and then switched to Red Sea Blue Bucket with this last water change. 

The last three top down pics are with no lights at all, with the lid open.

 

Oh yeah, and check out that tiny bleached out pinkish orange rock flower... it wandered into the cave right after I got it at RAP in August and it finally decided to come out... starting to see some color already after about a week. 

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