Banasophia’s Biocube 32 - Return of the DragonReef 🐉

[banasophia]

And just wanted to repost this video where SaltFishTV showed PAR readings for the Biocube 32, in case you missed it before. People keep telling me they think he faked it haha… haters gonna hate. 😝

 

 

[banasophia]

Okay that encrusting monti is chopped. Looks terrible right now but hopefully it will heal up okay and it should provide better visibility to the new corals I’ll be adding. 

[banasophia]

Hmmm new coral list… the guy I’m getting my corals from has a huge 500 gallon tank with tons of different SPS. I asked what his recommendations were for hardier SPS that look good under both whites and blues and will do better under lower PAR, he sent me this list instead:

 

 

Now the question is, where the heck am I going to fit all these corals? I guess if they don’t do well they won’t grow much from their little nubbins… if they do well, then I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. 

[A.m.P]

Slimers are great, you could always tryin' hit up some of the yongei collectors and attempt to get purple, blue, yellow, green, and teal slimers.

[mitten_reef]

7 hours ago, banasophia said:

Hmmm new coral list… the guy I’m getting my corals from has a huge 500 gallon tank with tons of different SPS. I asked what his recommendations were for hardier SPS that look good under both whites and blues and will do better under lower PAR, he sent me this list instead:

 

 

Now the question is, where the heck am I going to fit all these corals? I guess if they don’t do well they won’t grow much from their little nubbins… if they do well, then I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. 

if PAR is the main issue, stick with Green slimer, OT and LRF on that list.  they should keep their colors pretty well with or without high intensity PAR - and should look good under full spectrum.  for example, OT will grow faster with highlight, but will never lose color with lower light.  the rest of those are def more toward sticks-aficionados with strong lighting system.  

[banasophia]

Yes, thanks so much, keeping my fingers crossed, we’ll see what happens… per the video I posted by SaltFishTV, you can see the PAR readings were around 300 near the top.  I run my stock lights for a longer light period in all my tanks to compensate for them being less powerful lights. Will have to see how this method holds up with acros, though. 🤞🤞🤞

 

I’m thinking of switching to Fritz Pro Salt… I like the parameters it mixes at better. Have any of you used it? 

[banasophia]

Nice reference 

http://blog.coralwonders.com/en/identificar-acroporas/

[banasophia]

 

 

Kinda hard to believe there are six fish in there

[banasophia]

 

[banasophia]

Hope you all had a happy Halloween yesterday. Should’ve posted these pics in here last night too, let me see if I can paste the IG post. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVtprgDPpvY/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Hmmm that didn’t work. @Snow_Phoenix , I think you repost your IG posts in here sometimes, any tips? 
 

I guess I’ll just post the pics. My crabber wants to be Spider-Man, and we made some snacks yesterday in his honor:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

My crabber made me think of Spider-Pig:

 

 

[banasophia]

Took the day off work today, post Halloween, and it was so nice to have an extra day. I had a chance to read @florida_reef_keeper’s article about his tank in the current issue of Reef Hobbyist Magazine. That tank is really a show stopper, check it out if you haven’t already, you will not be disappointed! Reef Hobbyist Magazine is free, online or in print at LFSs. 
 

https://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/read-magazine.php?did=6574320_86355526

 

 

 

Anyway, his tank and discussion of flow inspired me to dial my flow in a little better in this tank. I had been considering adding a third powerhead because I was noticing a lot of crud settling on my monti caps each day, and I just wasn’t see the movement I wanted. I was really grateful @florida_reef_keeper included his mp40 settings because I had my mp10 just sitting around unused and decided to get it out and do a little comparison with my other spare powerhead, a jebao slw-10. 
 

I ended up using the mp10, and used the same setting he’s using for his mp40. The flow with all three powerheads was really too chaotic with the old settings I was using on the two jebao slw-10s I already had in there, so I switched both jebaos to a constant flow to allow the mp10 reef crest mode to really determine the flow pattern, and I’m loving it so far, hopefully the corals will do well. 
 

And I was going to switch salts to Fritz Reef Pro Mix tonight, but I tested the parameters of the fresh mixed saltwater before doing my water changes and I had some concerns. I did just clean my mixing bucket yesterday with vinegar, and it seemed to be dry before filtering my water this morning, but maybe there was a contaminant that caused these results, or something else going on.
 

 

I’m not really sure, but I think I’m going to dump it and stick with Red Sea Blue Bucket. Here are those results for comparison:

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

5 hours ago, banasophia said:

Hope you all had a happy Halloween yesterday. Should’ve posted these pics in here last night too, let me see if I can paste the IG post. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVtprgDPpvY/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Hmmm that didn’t work. @Snow_Phoenix , I think you repost your IG posts in here sometimes, any tips? 
 

I guess I’ll just post the pics. My crabber wants to be Spider-Man, and we made some snacks yesterday in his honor:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been having trouble recently pasting IG links in my journal as well. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Not sure why. 🤷‍♀️

[banasophia]

Nighty night from my lil crabber, just sitting there waiting for me to turn off the lamp after the tank lights went out

 

 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

Here are the new corals I’ll be picking up Sunday:

 

Front row, L to R in the first pic:
UC Strawberry Shortcake 
RRU Orange Passion 
OG Oregon Tort 
WWC Little Red Ferrari 
ORA Pearlberry 
Bali Green Slimer

 

Frag in middle of tank in second pic:

RRU Rainbow Loom

 

I need to figure out where I’m going to put them. I really want to use some kind of magnetic attachment method so I can easily switch the locations, but NanoRox isn’t selling his frag/mag collars anymore, so I ordered some plastic coated  neodymium magnets and tried to make some myself with epoxy and a material called Habitat, but they look too chunky and the magnets seem too strong, so I don’t like them.

 

Supposedly ceramic magnets are reef safe, and they aren’t as strong, so I might just use them on their own… anyone have experience using ceramic magnets in their tanks? 

[banasophia]

Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention… I postponed getting the new corals last weekend because I decided to treat the tank with Prazipro last weekend… the fish had white stringy/spiral poop and I wanted to treat for parasites. 
 

 

I can report that the Prazipro did not kill off the bristleworms. The corals did okay, though lost some color, especially the red monti cap… hopefully they will color back up. Not sure the medicine helped with the parasites though, my sixline still had a funky poop tonight. 

[banasophia]

Added an extra rock into the middle of the scape today to provide more spots for corals, and I moved the sour apple birdsnest out of the prime light location since it’s usually a pretty fast growing coral and is doing well in the tank so far. 
 

Here’s what I’ve come up with for my coral placement plan after lots of staring at the tank today. The problem really is where to put the slimer… worried it will not blend in well with the rest of the tank. We’ll see how it goes. I guess I can rehome it if it looks too out of place… I’ll be sure to keep that one on a frag plug. 
 

Maybe I’ll swap the locations for the green slimer and the pearl berry… Im just worried that the slimer won’t have enough room for vertical growth in that spot. 
 

Let me know if you have any other ideas. 🤗

 

[banasophia]

Well I don’t know why I didn’t take pics of this, but probably just feeling rushed and trying to figure out a new plan in a pinch while the clock was ticking on my new corals.
 

I glued regular ceramic magnets in 7 spots in my tank and glued some to the frags which I popped off their frag plugs prior to dipping. When I attached the coral onto the scape I could see that the two magnets were just too thick so the frags were sitting too high up off the rock.

 

I then removed the magnets and glued the corals to the scape. 

 

The corals are now in their new home, we’ll see what happens. The reefer I got them from runs his nitrate around 5 and phosphate around 0.18, with extremely strong lighting. You should have seen his 500 gallon tank, it was incredible! I didn’t take a FTS, but I got some pics that show the colonies my corals came from:

 

Rainbow Loom

 

Some other purple/blue coral on top, then Oregon Tort in the middle, Pearlberry below next to the small yellow coral which is the Orange Passion

 

Orange Passion

 

Green Slimer

 

Little Red Ferrari

 

 

[banasophia]

Well, the corals are still settling in and I just added Chemipure Elite and Purigen back in tonight after taking them out prior to the recent Prazipro treatment, the pics aren’t great, but just wanted to have some pics of day 1… we’ll see how they do.

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Those new coral are going to look great when they grow in a little. 

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Those new coral are going to look great when they grow in a little. 

Thank you! Hopefully!!🤞🤞🤞 We’ll see if they retain their color… they may all just turn green or brown in my tank. I just hope I don’t need to take my scape out against remove any inhabitants… my corals have really taken a hit in their coloration the three times I’ve done that. I’m still waiting for my green monti cap to get its bright green color back again… it has colored back up before though. 
 

I’ve thought about adding an extra blue strip to my lights to provide a bit more blue to enhance the appearance of the corals, but I really want to stick with fully stock lighting if at all possible. 
 

I need to do a little more work to cover up a couple spots where I didn’t quite fully cover some old encrusting corals that I don’t want at that location.

 

The other thing is, I forgot how very boring blue corals look in the Biocube stock lights… I found this when stocking my 16 as well. I’m kinda thinking the Oregon Tort and Pearlberry just aren’t good choices because even at their best they won’t look great under the blues with the stock lighting. They will probably look good under the whites though, especially the Oregon Tort… so maybe I’ll keep that one and swap out the Pearlberry. I think a California Tort would have been a better choice for this tank than the Oregon Tort because that’s the one with some teal mixed in with the blue.

[banasophia]

Maybe the Oregon Tort and Pearlberry will look good if I put something in their background… maybe something pink like a bubblegum digi or pink birdsnest that will fill in and they will show up against… 

[banasophia]

Also, I need to put something else on that top rock with that encruster that doesn’t look good, so it can stop the spread of the one I don’t like… maybe a different encruster… any ideas? 

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, banasophia said:

Maybe the Oregon Tort and Pearlberry will look good if I put something in their background… maybe something pink like a bubblegum digi or pink birdsnest that will fill in and they will show up against… 

yes, you'll need something red or green or yellow interspersed in between the blue corals for it to stand out.  examples of mine can be found on this page

https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/374445-mitten_reef’s-im30l/?do=findComment&comment=5997305

 

 

 

[banasophia]

15 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

yes, you'll need something red or green or yellow interspersed in between the blue corals for it to stand out.  examples of mine can be found on this page

https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/374445-mitten_reef’s-im30l/?do=findComment&comment=5997305

 

 

 

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