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Banasophia’s Biocube 32 - Return of the DragonReef 🐉


banasophia

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12 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Ah, thanks! That greenbanded goby is a cool looking fish, as are yasha gobies... and yasha gobies and pistol shrimp might look really nice under the Biocube beauty lights too since a lot of oranges and reds really glow with that lighting. Will definitely consider those!!

I shouldn't edit my posts as much as I do lol <___> The pikeblenny I mentioned will likely eat most-anything they can fit in their mouths, the one downside, though they stay surprisingly-compact themselves haha. No hands-on experience though sadly, supposedly-not long-lived but a fun community-style species-tank.

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23 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

I shouldn't edit my posts as much as I do lol <___> The pikeblenny I mentioned will likely eat most-anything they can fit in their mouths, the one downside, though they stay surprisingly-compact themselves haha. No hands-on experience though sadly, supposedly-not long-lived but a fun community-style species-tank.

Oh yeah, that’s an interesting one too, thanks!

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I love my yasha... He was in front in my 21g but the damn brat now hangs out in the back of my 80g where I can hardly see it. 🤬 I guess that's the risk with a little fish in a big tank. 

 

Pearly jaw fish have a lot of personality once they settle in. 

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11 hours ago, banasophia said:

Thanks, yes I’m glad you brought that up about the two spots... I was hoping people would chime in with feedback on this very thing... that had been my understanding about them as well, and I actually had heard they are even harder to keep than mandarins. But as of late I’ve been getting lots of contradictory guidance on sand bed sifting fish options, with people telling me two spots aren’t particularly difficult and would be a much better choice than the other sand sifting fish I was considering... I will definitely research further. Any suggestions on a better sand sifter choice?
 

I may end up not needing a sand sifter anyway, since this will be a lower nutrient tank than my 16, but just trying to save “room” for one in my stocking plan for the future... I regretted adding fish to my 16 without planning out the addition of “working” fish down the road, so I’m trying to plan ahead this time. 🙂 

 

As for the chromis, I have a friend keeping 4 blue green chromis successfully in his Biocube 32, which was what led me to that choice, hopefully I will be able to keep them successfully. 

Love the tank so far! Following along. 😊 super excited for ya. 
 

I’ve had golden head sleeper gobys before and they are wonderful + easy to keep. Sift through the sand all day long. Don’t touch anything else. 

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3 hours ago, ReefAdoRe said:

Love the tank so far! Following along. 😊 super excited for ya. 
 

I’ve had golden head sleeper gobys before and they are wonderful + easy to keep. Sift through the sand all day long. Don’t touch anything else. 

Thank you! And looks like a great suggestion - dragony even!! 💛💛💛 

 

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10 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Pearly jaw fish have a lot of personality once they settle in.

Jawfish definitely will move some sand, I can attest to that! 😂 I wouldn't really call them sand-sifters but they have tons of personality and seem to do well in a community reef environment since they mostly keep to themselves. You'd have to commit to a fairly deep sand bed to keep one happy though.

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21 hours ago, billygoat said:

This is very exciting. Another BioCube in the hands of the BioCube Queen herself! I can't wait to see where it goes. 😁

 

I really like your fish selection too. We have some of those Salarias blennies at work and I have to say they are hilarious to watch. It looks like they just slam their face against the rocks when they are grazing.

 

6 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Jawfish definitely will move some sand, I can attest to that! 😂 I wouldn't really call them sand-sifters but they have tons of personality and seem to do well in a community reef environment since they mostly keep to themselves. You'd have to commit to a fairly deep sand bed to keep one happy though.


 

Thank you! Biocube Queen haha... I do really love my Biocube 16, and hope I’ll be successful with this Biocube as well. 🤗

 

I was thinking about your jawfish, and I looked them up last night and saw the sandbed has to be really deep... probably won’t do one for this tank because of that, but looks like an interesting fish to consider for a future setup!!  

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1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Jawfish definitely will move some sand, I can attest to that! 😂 I wouldn't really call them sand-sifters but they have tons of personality and seem to do well in a community reef environment since they mostly keep to themselves. You'd have to commit to a fairly deep sand bed to keep one happy though.

Yellowhead jawfish are pretty happy to make more horizontal/diagonal caves but blue dots seem more picky. Mine is in a 1-1.5 inch deep tank and he piled it up near the rock he likes and built himself a fort and behaves normally, no jumping.

 

They really like if you add a small handful of rubble. 

 

 

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Almost there!! I broke down the Nuvo 10 today and took my fish and other livestock to the LFS to rehome... it was hard to leave my fish there, but I don’t plan to keep a nem in the new tank and the clownfish loves his nem so much I wanted him to go to a new home where he can have a BTA... the LFS set up a little tank for him, snipped my gorgs off my rock and stuck them into the sandbed, and added a BTA, making him a nice little home until someone buys him along with the BTA.

I’ll miss this little guy!

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Set up the Biocube 32 tonight, and plan to get it wet tomorrow. Still have to decide which sand I’ll go with. I ordered CaribSea Ocean Direct Original Grade live sand (same thing I used in the 16) which has a varied grain size ranging from fine sand to small shells, and I picked up some Caribsea Aragonite dry sand which is more uniform in size with larger grain. I really like the sand in the 16, and I like using live sand, but not sure if I’ll have too much of a sand storm with it in the new tank since it will have high flow.

 

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7 hours ago, Poodges said:

Sweetness!  Looking forward to watching this unfold. I cut my teeth on Biocubes and will always be tempted to start a new one. 

Do ittttt! Getttt the Biocube! Haha... 

 

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And thanks!! 🤗

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I love the way you've arranged the room! The two Biocubes fit in perfectly with the rest of your decor. It looks so nice! 😊 Do you have any plans for the Nuvo 10 now that it's been broken down, or are you just going to keep it under wraps for awhile?

 

I'm itchin' to see how this 32 comes together. Can't wait!

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31 minutes ago, billygoat said:

I love the way you've arranged the room! The two Biocubes fit in perfectly with the rest of your decor. It looks so nice! 😊 Do you have any plans for the Nuvo 10 now that it's been broken down, or are you just going to keep it under wraps for awhile?

 

I'm itchin' to see how this 32 comes together. Can't wait!

Thank you! The Nuvo 10 and equipment are being donated to my LFS today... I think they’ll be selling it for a few bucks and my friend there said they already have a taker, so I need to take it there soon. 

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On 11/21/2019 at 12:08 AM, banasophia said:

Ah, thanks! That greenbanded goby is a cool looking fish, as are yasha gobies... and yasha gobies and pistol shrimp might look really nice under the Biocube beauty lights too since a lot of oranges and reds really glow with that lighting. Will definitely consider those!!

I just took this picture of my two green banded gobies that were just moved into the 10g :wub:

20191124-untitled-029.jpg

 

I'm excited for the new tank! 

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23 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

I just took this picture of my two green banded gobies that were just moved into the 10g :wub:

20191124-untitled-029.jpg

 

I'm excited for the new tank! 

Why are these fish suddenly impossible to find at LFS lol... I needs them.

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12 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Why are these fish suddenly impossible to find at LFS lol... I needs them.

I've found many stores don't carry them because they are too small for big tanks. I've had mixed luck with the stores in my area. I used to get them in five-packs from a seller on Ebay who shipped direct from the Caribbean, but I haven't seen anything from him lately. My best bet has been to ask the LFS to include some in their next order. 

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1 hour ago, teenyreef said:

I just took this picture of my two green banded gobies that were just moved into the 10g :wub:

20191124-untitled-029.jpg

 

I'm excited for the new tank! 

Oh wow, I love them!!! Great photo! 😍😍😍 Were they a bonded pair when you got them? Don’t know much about them yet... will need to research!!

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26 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Oh wow, I love them!!! Great photo! 😍😍😍 Were they a bonded pair when you got them? Don’t know much about them yet... will need to research!!

No, they were just part of the group I got from Ebay. These two lived in the 30g tank until today. I could never see them in the 30g, but apparently they got to know each other there 🙂

 

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Yayyyy! We’re making progress! Looks like a misty morning. 

 

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Here’s some additional detail, for anyone interested... I tried to take pics of the setup steps for anyone new to the hobby that might be reading this.

 

First of all, as far as my scape goes, it’s made with CaribSea Liferock and it’s made using 4 pieces - 2 of their arches that I was able to individually select from my LFS (pricey at about $50 a piece), and then I bought 40 lbs of regular Liferock from Amazon for only $83. It made it in good shape and I was very happy with the purchase... I only needed 2 of the 9 pieces that came in the 40 lb order, so I’ll be selling the rest locally.
 

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I played around with the Liferock arches quite a but and they are very versatile, and just what I wanted. I really had a vision for this tank and the arches helped me build exactly what I had in mind. Here are a couple initial tries I’ll show you, just for fun, so you can see the versatility of the arches:

 

This one would have been really nice if I hadn’t been planning to do the castle:

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Too wedding-archy, though kinda reminds me of Stargate, or one of those SciFi shows:

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Trying out different castles:

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Awesome but waaay too big for the tank. Why didn’t I get a 60??? 😂

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Also really awesome, but too much shade and not enough room for corals:

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3 minutes ago, banasophia said:

I played around with the Liferock arches quite a but and they are very versatile, and just what I wanted. I really had a vision for this tank and the arches helped me build exactly what I had in mind. Here are a couple initial tries I’ll show you, just for fun, so you can see the versatility of the arches:

 

This one would have been really nice if I hadn’t been planning to do the castle:

A75DE169-7AB3-4050-BBB5-B85B0B43B95C.thumb.jpeg.74fdf6bf227d81a23ed3faee594a7444.jpeg


Too wedding-archy, though kinda reminds me of Stargate, r one of his SciFi shows:

5CE8BA9C-FF57-48D4-AB33-3AC511A45E53.thumb.jpeg.10b55e4da9c1cce94c7c744598fb96fe.jpeg

 

Trying out different castles:

824D9858-9B05-4FC0-AA99-B224084B8C6D.thumb.jpeg.5540fe73d9d54885cc18fc3b3e02af60.jpeg

Awesome but waaay too big for the tank. Why didn’t I get a 60??? 😂

C6C2B4DD-A2A1-46B2-870B-EA2E297C4A3B.thumb.jpeg.04062f34433f325c3d7d8909263b1076.jpeg


Also really awesome, but too much shade and not enough room for corals:

ED44722A-771D-4296-A280-AB37C2CBE50C.thumb.jpeg.6b5b00b49f3f163b1ccb5dc069360e43.jpeg

r these some of your previous scaping experiments?  I thought you have the scape set in the filled tank post above? r u redoing the scape? 

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7 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

r these some of your previous scaping experiments?  I thought you have the scape set in the filled tank post above? r u redoing the scape? 

Yes, they were my initial tries... just trying to show the versatility of the arches. Maybe it’s confusing though haha sorry. I’m trying to post some background info, but it’s only letting me include a few pics in a post... hang tight. 🤗

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So, with feedback from a couple friends that do a lot of SPS, I ended up with the final version with the hope I’ll be able to maximize light and flow, while leaving enough room for coral growth. 
 

I learned the hard way with my Biocube 16 how important it is to look at the scape from the top down to see how the light will hit the corals. (Of course all the shade in the Biocube 16 made it perfect for NPS, but that wasn’t intentional, and NPS certainly wasn’t my original plan for the tank!) 
 

And then importantly had to make sure my siphon would be able to siphon the sandbed all the way around, my Flipper algae scraper could reach all areas of the glass, and my other tool will be able to reach the back wall. (In the Biocube 16 I can’t siphon all the way around or clean the back wall.)

 

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Also, I wish I had taken pics of the separate pieces, but the scape is modular:

 

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I attached the two arches to each other (using a sandwich of epoxy and superglue (thanks for the heads up on this method, friends!), but they sit snugly on the base rock, and the rock on the right fits in loosely like a piece of a puzzle. This is another learning from the Biocube 16 because I cannot remove that scape from the tank without destroying it, so I could never take rocks out to treat them, remove unwanted fish/critters, or to move the tank if I ever need to in the future. 
 

Still deciding about the rotation of the scape... may play around with shifting it a bit more front facing, but space is tight and I have specific plans to try to keep monti caps in the front right growing from the right hand rock. I could take that rock out altogether and grow them from the side of the arch, we’ll see... at least I have options with it being modular as it is. 

 

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  • banasophia changed the title to Banasophia’s Biocube 32 - Return of the DragonReef 🐉

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