Banasophia’s Biocube 32 - Return of the DragonReef 🐉

[mitten_reef]

Just now, banasophia said:

Omg yes! Thank you for that great example!! What is the pinkish-red coral with the green base? It’s gorgeous!!

the linked one is with PC rainbow (red/deep pink) and ASD rainbow (orange)

 

and if you scroll part way down that same page, the other OT is between pink lemonade (actually yellow), and a variant of red planet

[banasophia]

12 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

the linked one is with PC rainbow (red/deep pink) and ASD rainbow (orange)

 

and if you scroll part way down that same page, the other OT is between pink lemonade (actually yellow), and a variant of red planet

Thanks so much! Beautiful!! I originally had a Pink Lemonade and a Walt Disney on my list of corals to get from the local reefer… I think he swapped them for something else because he didn’t think they’d do as well in my tank, but I especially love Pink Lemonade. 
 

Any suggestions on what to do about that encruster up top that doesn’t look as good? Thinking maybe Jedi Mind Trick…

[mitten_reef]

14 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Thanks so much! Beautiful!! I originally had a Pink Lemonade and a Walt Disney on my list of corals to get from the local reefer… I think he swapped them for something else because he didn’t think they’d do as well in my tank, but I especially love Pink Lemonade. 
 

Any suggestions on what to do about that encruster up top that doesn’t look as good? Thinking maybe Jedi Mind Trick…

if it's the mind trick? chuck it?  lol, i was never a fan of the color of that piece...

 

i'd chip/break it off completely and placed it elsewhere in the tank if you feel the need to keep it.  I never had one, so idk how they fare with acros when they run into each other, better safe and sorry.  my old starburst cap coexisted just fine with my cali tort. 

 

 

[banasophia]

Well, the Little Red Ferrari didn’t make it… it started losing its tissue right after the doser did it’s thing so I’m thinking maybe it was because it was in an area where the two part pools a bit before dispersing… I tried to frag it and move it to save the tip, but it lost the rest of its tissue today. Bummed cuz it was my favorite.
 

I may need to figure out a new location for the dosing lines… maybe need to have them empty into the back chamber instead of the display?  
 

The other new corals are still alive. 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

My doggo and my tank 💛

 

Also, you guys, someone in a Facebook group just mentioned an amazing photo editing app which I used to adjust the exposure only on my dog so you can see him better. The app is called Snapseed… looks like I had gotten it a long time ago but never used it, and seems to be really good if you want to check it out too! 

[banasophia]

Switched salt on Saturday night from Red Sea Blue Bucket to Red Sea Coral Pro, so I’ll start running higher alk in this tank. 
 

The Blue Bucket has been okay for this tank since I dose it; I was running it at around 7 dKH which the Blue Bucket mixes at for me, that’s with adding 6 ml each of alk and calcium daily with my doser.
 

But I’ve really been feeling like the tank wasn’t properly balanced and I wasn’t crazy about the alk running so low. Also, the sand and rock have been looking pretty crappy… not sure if it could be from the rock I added back in that I had taken out a while back. The coating and everything dried on the rock before came off and it turned white for a while, now it has been looking like a new tank going through the ugly phase. 

 

The biggest issue with the salt, though, is that for my other two tanks, the alk was dropping to around 5 in between water changes which I didn’t like and I don’t want to dose them if I can avoid it. So I’m transitioning over to RSCP and so far all the tanks are looking good after the first water change. 

Before the switch to Red Sea Coral Pro, under the white lights. 

 

Also before the salt switch, you can see the green monti cap in the back right has colored back up. You can also see how my emerald crab seems to have broken off one of the lower plates of the red monti… it actually got dragged into the cave where the fish usually hang out, but I pulled it out before taking the pic. That monti cap seems to grow pretty fast, so I’m not too worried about it. 

[banasophia]

I put in my order for my next batch of new corals from the local guy with the huge dream tank:

 

 

He’s also going to give me another frag of the Little Red Ferrari which didn’t make it the first time. I hope I have better luck with it this time, it was my favorite. And I’ll probably rehome the strawberry shortcake… it was one he had suggested for me, but the color really doesn’t look good under any of the Biocube light phases. 
 

I’m not really sure how I’ll squeeze all these corals in… the Little Red Ferrrari may make it impossible. 

[banasophia]

Well, I had to rotate that added rock in the middle of the scape because it didn’t seem like the sour apple birdsnest was getting enough light and new branches were looking kinda spindly. I don’t love how it’s now blocking so much of the view behind it, but I’m just going to go with it for now. 
 

Also, GSP is kind of a pain on the back wall in a sense that it’s a magnet for GHA. It does that in my 16, but I always thought that was because the nitrate and phosphate are so high, but it does it in this tank too. Anyone else have that problem? In addition, the GSP was starting to grow branches outward from the wall and I decided to cut them off… wish I hadn’t, looked better before… they’ll probably grow back though.

 

Final observation is that the strawberry shortcake (on the rock with the sour apple birdsnest) still doesn’t look good in my tank… really should rehome.

 

 

 

[banasophia]

Merry Christmas!

[TheKleinReef]

That back wall is so cool. How long did it take for the corals to cover it?

[banasophia]

6 hours ago, TheKleinReef said:

That back wall is so cool. How long did it take for the corals to cover it?

Thanks! Only a few months as I recall, maybe 3- 6 months… that cyphastrea grows really fast. It was interesting though because I had actually mounted two different cyphastrea frags near each other and the blue and green one didn’t grow at all.

 

I’d probably do cyphastrea only next time because I don’t like how the GSP seems to be very prone to growing GHA, even when there’s no GHA anywhere else in the tank. 

[TheKleinReef]

interesting. my parents were having some trouble with their GSP and when i came home i found it covered in algae and some flatworms. dipped what i could and picked up a yellow wrasse. they majority of it opened back up again. I'll look into cyphastrea for them, I've never kept it.

[banasophia]

A couple pics of my dartfish from earlier this week.

 

 

It has been a stressful week because we had our cottage cheese ceilings removed, so we had to remove almost all of our belongings from the house and leave for several days.
 

The two Biocubes are in the family room, so they didn’t need to be moved, but our central heating had to be totally off for two days then blasted at night for two days, so there were issues maintaining a steady temp in the tanks. I had added a couple space heaters for the first two nights, then didn’t realize they had turned the heating back on and up, so it was an oven in here when I popped in to check on them Thursday night. Thankfully the chillers kept the tanks from getting crazy hot, but they did get up around 84 F that I saw. 
 

So far it looks like most of the corals and all the fish fared okay. I may lose the sour apple birdsnest; it has some areas of tissue loss. I fed Brightwell Restor last night, which says it can help with healing from exposure to temperature extremes, hoping the coral will recover. 🤞🤞🤞

 

I’ll add a pic later once my white lights come on, so we can see what happens with the coral and whether it will pull through. 

[banasophia]

Hmm… I think my sixline is inspecting it and saying I should frag it. What do you guys think? 
 

 

 

[banasophia]

[banasophia]

This tank definitely needs it… nano-reno tag added, and here we go!
 

[banasophia]

This tank has a major infestation of vermetids - they are growing on the rock, the corals, and even on my turbo snails. I had to remove the branches of my forestfire montipora digitata that were sticking out of the monti cap because vermetids really loved to grow on the digi… it looked kinda like a rose bush with thorns.

 

I picked up some bumblebee snails from my LFS tonight and I’m hoping they will help. 
 

 

 

I also ordered a draining soap dish from Amazon for holding my Flipper in between uses. I had gotten one of the new pricey Flipper Floats for Christmas and I didn’t want to leave it in the tank to get all funky, but I wasn’t using it much since I didn’t have a good place to keep it instead of inside the tank. Hoping this dish might be a good solution to allow it to dry and also keep it handy close to the tank. It looks nice!🤞🤞🤞

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Don't you just love when a common relatively inexpensive household item becomes a tank accessary/tool. 

I got 3 bumblebee snails, and it is a slow process, but they are making a difference.

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Don't you just love when a common relatively inexpensive household item becomes a tank accessary/tool. 

I got 3 bumblebee snails, and it is a slow process, but they are making a difference.

Yes definitely love finding household items that work! 

With the bumblebees I’m wondering if I’ll need to break off the vermetids’ tubes…do you? 

[debbeach13]

48 minutes ago, banasophia said:

With the bumblebees I’m wondering if I’ll need to break off the vermetids’ tubes…do you? 

I haven't yet but might be worth a try. I probably should have gotten more than 3. I also haven't actually witnessed eating but a small rock with an RFA that one was on for a couple days now doesn't have any vermetids.

[banasophia]

On 10/19/2022 at 8:32 AM, debbeach13 said:

I haven't yet but might be worth a try. I probably should have gotten more than 3. I also haven't actually witnessed eating but a small rock with an RFA that one was on for a couple days now doesn't have any vermetids.

Well they do seem to be hanging out in areas that have a lot of vermetids… I’m hopeful!

 

[banasophia]

I should take more pics of this tank. It’s just not too exciting… maybe I need to add some new corals and a new fish or two. One thing I can tell you… the cyphastrea has totally overgrown the GSP, and the pavona has just started clashing with a montipora. 
 

And the red monti cap grows very fast… I’ve had to start fragging it so it doesn’t totally take over. 
 

[banasophia]

Started medicated food soak treatment with General Cure and Seachem Focus for internal parasites for my fish in this tank yesterday… the dartfish has been eating well but he is very skinny… I hope I’m doing the treatment right and that it works.

[debbeach13]

I hope the fish respond well. How many fish are in here now? 

 

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I hope the fish respond well. How many fish are in here now? 

 

Thanks! I have one dartfish, my clownfish pair, and my sixline. Only the dartfish seems to have signs of internal parasites.