Scotty Amen's Coralife BioCube 32 Journal

[Scotty Amen]

3 hours ago, banasophia said:

Nice zoas! And I’m impressed you were able to catch and move a shrimp!!

Well, the Nano 13.5 doesn't have much space for him to move around :) Once I had him trapped in the net against the glass I had him.

 

3 hours ago, banasophia said:

Yeah ninja stars are really good algae eaters, including eating GHA... and look so cool too!

Yes! They look really amazing right?

[Scotty Amen]

I took a stroll over to Bulk Reef Supply today (online) and bought 2 Koralia Third Generation Powerhead (1350 GPH), I will point them opposing each other.

I also sprung for the Koralia Smart Wave Controller from Hydor, to control them. 

These arrive Friday, yay fun.

[Scotty Amen]

Last weekend I bought myself some nice little birthday presents for me, for the tank.

 

A beautiful rainbow-hued coral, is this called a blastomussa or is it a different coral?

 

And next to it a pair of watchman Gobies, male and female, just like the ones in my small nano tank:

 

@banasophia and I had agreed it would be cool if we would both try acros or montis in our Bio 32s to see how they do, but stock lights may not be enough.  So far the green color is very strong, although in this photo the bright lights make it look bleached, it's not:

 

 

This beautiful maroon-and-lime green coral:

 

And settling in on the other side of the tank is this super cute, but shy, yellow-head jawfish:

 

 

  

On 12/3/2019 at 11:42 AM, banasophia said:

I don’t know of people doing acros under stock lights yet, but I’ll be trying primarily acros and montis in mine...  it would be awesome if we both gave it a shot! That being said, the lights may not be strong enough (as in - most people think I’m crazy for even trying, but I want to see how much I can push the limits so I’m giving it a shot).

 

[Scotty Amen]

New tiny little green zoas (bottom) :) 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

On 2/25/2020 at 10:36 AM, Scotty Amen said:

Last weekend I bought myself some nice little birthday presents for me, for the tank.

 

A beautiful rainbow-hued coral, is this called a blastomussa or is it a different coral?

 

And next to it a pair of watchman Gobies, male and female, just like the ones in my small nano tank:

 

@banasophia and I had agreed it would be cool if we would both try acros or montis in our Bio 32s to see how they do, but stock lights may not be enough.  So far the green color is very strong, although in this photo the bright lights make it look bleached, it's not:

 

 

This beautiful maroon-and-lime green coral:

 

And settling in on the other side of the tank is this super cute, but shy, yellow-head jawfish:

 

 

  

 

Ahhh yay! Can’t wait to see how your acro does!! My fuzzy green one and my wolverine are holding strong, but not really growing yet... my indo acros which were maricultured did not do well, but I’ve read that can be an issue and it’s a better bet to go with acros that you know are hardy in home aquaria, so I probably won’t do mariculture acros again... 

[Scotty Amen]

21 minutes ago, banasophia said:

My fuzzy green one and my wolverine are holding strong, but not really growing yet... my indo acros which were maricultured did not do well, but I’ve read that can be an issue and it’s a better bet to go with acros that you know are hardy in home aquaria, so I probably won’t do mariculture acros again..

I'll keep you posted!

[Scotty Amen]

New add: Banggai cardinalfish!

First non-Goby fish in the tank.   Super-peaceful little guy.

I'll get a pic when the lights come all the way up.

[banasophia]

8 minutes ago, Scotty Amen said:

New add: Banggai cardinalfish!

First non-Goby fish in the tank.   Super-peaceful little guy.

I'll get a pic when the lights come all the way up.

Nice! Congrats on the new addition!! They are such beautiful fish, though mine is the most aggressive fish of the 8 fish in my 32... he grew fast so he’s pretty big and very territorial... doesn’t harm any of his tankmates, but definitely insists on getting his share at feeding time. Looking forward to pics of yours!!

[Scotty Amen]

23 hours ago, banasophia said:

Looking forward to pics of yours!!

Wait no longer... 🙂

[Scotty Amen]

So far he's been very chill & docile, I hope he stays that way when I eventually add a Clown.

(He, or she, haven't been able to count the telltale vents yet)

[Scotty Amen]

"Oh, hai!"

These three all get along famously now, I thought they would be more territorial but they all hang out together all day long now.

 

[Scotty Amen]

Bengaii Cardinal is doing well. He's more shy than I expected, hanging out at the back of the tank most of the time.  He loves Mysis Shrimp.

 

(He/she, haven't been able to tell yet.)

[Scotty Amen]

Bengaii is a little less shy these days but still pretty shy.  He sure likes Mysis.

[Scotty Amen]

 

Accepting suggestions for a name for my new clownfish 😄
Although I rarely call these fish by their names. It's usually "the bengaii cardinal" or "the goby"
 Still they kinda should have a name eh?
Little dude is doing great, very excitable. Comes up to the glass every time you come near. GREAT personality.

 

Also the new addition has brought the Bengai Cardinal out of his shell, he / she really zooms around the tank with the clownfish, I guess he just needed a friend. 

He's all over the tank now too.

 

 

[Scotty Amen]

Everybody's doing real good in there, the 2 fish are super outgoing and friendly.

The corals are all doing great except that acro experiment up top, it's not dying but it's not growing either.

 

The jawfish sure is a character!

[Scotty Amen]

Everybody's doing great, the zoas are taking off well.

Got some cyano, need to maybe redirect the flow.

[Scotty Amen]

Cyano went away great with more flow.

Having an outbreak of cloudiness right now.

All the little fishies are doing great, and the zebra is super-outgoing along with the clown.

[Scotty Amen]

Cloudiness went away after a week, just your normal new-tank bloom I think.

 

I got a lawnmower blennie since i had heard such great things about them, and am having the beginnings of some hair algae growing.

However, he only lived a day, I found him torn to pieces the next morning.

I believe the Bengaii murdered him, because I saw him swimming around with a piece of the blennie's flesh in his mouth. But I didn't see him commit the crime so ... ?

Granted, I saw the clownfish picking at the pieces too but I think the Bengaii was the killer.

 

He came to a bad neighborhood I guess. 

[Scotty Amen]

Nobody ever replies here.

Either I'm doing everything wrong, and nobody wants to say anything for being polite,

Or I'm on secret hidden ban and I'm typing into the void.

 

We moved our two tanks around. The saltwater was catching some sunlight and growing too much algae, and the freshwater NEEDS more algae for the 18" Pleco.

 

https://youtu.be/qMxgVaXhKzY

 

[banasophia]

Holy smokes, you’re right! Sorry!! 😬😬😬 You can tag people so we can see we were tagged and may be more likely to pop in and scope out your thread and say hi... 
 

That was quite a project moving the tanks... looks really nice. Are you happy with the redesign? 
 

I know you’re having some algae issues, do you think you have enough snails?

[Scotty Amen]

Thanks ma'am

I figured at the very least this thread serves as a good logbook / diary for the tank, for me to refer to. 

But it's nice to hear from someone sometimes too 🙂

The tank move wasn't bad. Planned it out, drained a little water, slide the around, it took about a half hour total.

I definitely could use some more snails. I prefer to buy them locally instead of online and they're not always available.

Do you have a preferred type? I think I mainly have 2 trochus and a couple nassarius.

Thanks for chiming in @banasophia !

[Scotty Amen]

GSP! Oh no what have I done!

 

Just kidding.

 

I picked up a patch of GSP for my Evo 13.5's back wall, and part of it wasn't gluing down flat so I sliced that off and have glued it onto an island rock in the Biocube.

Should be a nice splash of color green in this tank. Hopefully I can keep it isolated to this area.

[Scotty Amen]

The little slivers of GSP that I glued onto the rock island has started recovering from the surgery and has started putting out its green polyps again.

[Scotty Amen]

I'm thinking about shutting this tank down.

I really am just not a fan of the curved glass.

I think I might get two smaller 10 gal nanos with traditional perpendicular glass.

[banasophia]

13 minutes ago, Scotty Amen said:

I'm thinking about shutting this tank down.

I really am just not a fan of the curved glass.

I think I might get two smaller 10 gal nanos with traditional perpendicular glass.

Sorry to hear you’re not liking the curved glass of the Biocube. Is it the appearance of the curves you aren’t liking, or the challenges cleaning the glass? I use two different scrapers in each of mine... a Flipper or Tunze for the straight parts and a Two Little Fishies Nano-Mag for the curves.