Banasophia’s Biocube 32 - Return of the DragonReef 🐉

[banasophia]

Taking the scape apart did not go as planned, but could’ve been worse. I set my step stool and a card table up next to the tank with cookie sheets, cutting boards, measuring cups, tools, superglue, epoxy, paper towels… everything I thought I might need. Had the hubby wash his hands and be on the ready to assist. 
 

I had this plan to use the superglue - epoxy - superglue sandwich technique to reattach the two arch pieces of my scape back together as soon as I got them out of the tank. (They had broken apart the last time I needed to remove an inhabitant from the tank and they have just been propped against each other and the back wall since then.)

 

So… I mixed the epoxy and lifted out the two pieces, but of course the epoxy balls were already dry within about two minutes and I couldn’t use them, leaving only a tiny smidgeon of epoxy remaining to join to rocks together structurally in two places.
 

I tried to keep my calm, telling the hubs where to hold the rocks and which corals to be most careful of while I’m trying to grab the crabs that have fallen off the rocks and are scurrying across the table, catch the shrimp, and devise a new plan. 
 

I used the sandwich technique with the small amount of epoxy remaining and it seemed like it was going to work at first, but the rocks broke apart once I put them back in the tank. With no more epoxy, I was lucky I had a few tubes of the superglue, and I used it all. Unfortunately the angle of the rocks had shifted, but I didn’t want to make a lot of adjustments with the rocks in the tank because the fish were all hiding under them at this point, and I didn’t want to crush them, so I just had to go with it. 
 

Seems to have worked out okay. I can’t fit the castle in the scape anymore, but I kind of like the new location on the sand bed. And I didn’t make any major breaks to the corals. All in all I can’t complain too much and I’ll be happy with it if it stays stable. All the fish seem to be safe and the fish and emeralds were all out tonight and seemed relieved that the shrimp is gone.  

[banasophia]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

5 hours ago, banasophia said:

So today I took apart the tank so I could get the shrimp out and take him to my LFS

That must have taken up your afternoon. Not an easy task. At least with the shrimp gone you can relax and not worry about the fish. The new scape looks good.

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

That must have taken up your afternoon. Not an easy task. At least with the shrimp gone you can relax and not worry about the fish. The new scape looks good.

Thanks. 🤗 Yes, definitely took some time along with the water changes and LFS trip. I am glad the new scape turned out okay. Seems to be easier to photograph a FTS actually, so maybe I’ll end up liking it more. I had to move one of the powerheads and it looks like I need to adjust the flow because it’s not cleaning stuff off the red monti cap. 
 

Now if only I could get the clownfish to swim somewhere besides the back of the scape so I could see them. 

[banasophia]

Crabber got big after his molt!

 

 

[banasophia]

You know that feeling, when you think your crab died and you get all sad… but then you search the tank and discover it’s just a molt 🎢 😅

 

The other one apparently molted today… 

 

[horseysurprise]

4 hours ago, banasophia said:

You know that feeling, when you think your crab died and you get all sad… but then you search the tank and discover it’s just a molt 🎢 😅

 

The other one apparently molted today… 

 

Geez your tank looks so beautiful! Definitely following 

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, horseysurprise said:

Geez your tank looks so beautiful! Definitely following 

Thanks so much! 🤗 Hoping it will start looking even better once I start testing and dosing regularly.🤞

[banasophia]

The Aquaspin is so quick and easy to use… that alkalinity translates to 6.64 dKH. I’ve been dosing only the alkalinity part of two part to bring up the alk from 4.64 on Tuesday. And tonight I dosed both parts since the calcium has started dropping. So the tank should now be in the 7-8 range where I want it. 
 

I’ll test my new saltwater after I mix it up tomorrow and see if I can set up my doser. 

[banasophia]

Hmm… setting up a doser is kind of a pain. Still working on it.

 

 

And I just tested my new saltwater (made with Red Sea Blue Bucket and RODI) and this is what I got with SG of 1.025 and temp of 78 F. The alkalinity translates to 6.776 dKH. No wonder my alk was so low in my tank. What salt do you guys use? What do you guys with SPS experience suggest I do?

 

New Saltwater, Red Sea Blue Bucket

 

[banasophia]

Okay, the doser dispensed its first round of dosing! Let’s hope I did it right, looked like it worked as expected!! 🤞

Need to figure out what corals to add next! Any suggestions? 

[banasophia]

Here’s how I set it up, btw. I am very limited in usable space in my cabinet due to the way I had my buddy reinforce the cabinet, so I had to get creative to come up with a shelf. Still trying to decide if I’ll use that intank rack. 
 

 

And the holders I’d gotten for holding the tubing in place did not fit the tank with the lid, so I ended up using zip ties. I did order a new holder from BRS before I came up with the zip tie idea, so I may “upgrade” to the holder once it arrives, but this seems like it will work for now.

 

[A.m.P]

From what I recall quite a few prefer to hook those jebao dosers up to simple on-off switch timers because they tend to be inconsistent or even get stuck on.

The cabinet's looking great.

[banasophia]

36 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

From what I recall quite a few prefer to hook those jebao dosers up to simple on-off switch timers because they tend to be inconsistent or even get stuck on.

The cabinet's looking great.

Yikes that’s terrible. I’ll have to do more research on that… I thought they had decent reviews. 

[banasophia]

Ode to Reef Cleaners emeralds… if you ever have a bubble algae problem, these guys are probably what you need

 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

[debbeach13]

King of the castle. 

[banasophia]

okay… I hope I don’t regret this… I think these two mint pavonas are from different colonies… just set the lettuce shaped one on top of the other one because I didn’t want to keep it on the sand bed, but I couldn’t keep it up in the best lit part of the scape because I needed that location for other higher light corals… hoping the pavonas do not murder each other… stay tuned for the outcome of this coral fight club match 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

Also, where can I put a green slimer in here? And why did I add those encrusters up top??? 😫😫😫

[Ratvan]

13 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Also, where can I put a green slimer in here? And why did I add those encrusters up top??? 😫😫😫

Back wall?

[banasophia]

44 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Back wall?

Hmmm… that’s a creative idea… I like it but my back wall does already have GSP and cyphastrea covering it… but maybe just behind the scape a bit sticking out… 

[banasophia]

Okay, getting ready to give a few acros a shot again… I had tried a Wolverine in the beginning, but the tank was so new it was doomed. Reefing’s not cheap, at least I was able to find a local reefer with most of the corals on my list.

 

 

 

And I’d like to thank @pokerdobe for this awesome list of different acros and their characteristics and ratings based on their experience… very, very helpful!

 

[banasophia]

Also, the pavonas seem to be fine together, so far at least. And it’s not that they can’t fight other corals… I had the lettuce shaped colony touching the encrusting montipora for about 5 minutes at one point and it did appear to sting the monti. 
 

[banasophia]

Now, trying to figure out how to cut back the encrusting monti at the top of my scape to make more room for the acros. See the yellow line. How should I do it? 

And the orange line is showing where I need to put some kind of cap over the little forest fire digitata spot where I do not want the digitata. Someone should make coral caps to cover up coral bits we don’t want to grow. I also have an area of the lettuce shaped pavona that I couldn’t get off the rock where it started encrusting.

 

 

[banasophia]

Just read this article which I thought might be a useful overview for anyone else reading this and considering trying SPS:

https://www.reefhacks.com/the-ultimate-guide-how-to-successfully-grow-beautiful-sps-corals/