The Tree of Life - Waterbox Cube 10

[MrP]

(January 2021 FTS)

 

 

Hello all!

I'm new to this forum. I've been part of the aquarium hobby since childhood. I've been wanting to set up a nano for my wife and it be something she can call all her own. This will be a great learning experience for her. 

 

My plan is to set up two Waterbox cube 10's next to each other. One fresh planted and the other a reef. Coincidence that I received an email from CoralVue as I was in my planning stages. Just for fun, I decided to enter the contest. 

 

Theme: The Tree of Life.🌱

 

The following list will be updated as I add/remove/replace items. 

 

Equipment:

Waterbox Cube 10.

AI Prime 16HD with 12" Flex Arm.

Eheim Heater 50 Watt.

Finnex Max 300 Heater Controller.

Sicce Micra Plus Return Pump.

AI Nero 3 Wavemaker. 

XP Aqua Duetto ATO.

Trigger Systems 5g ATO Reservoir.

DIY Screen Top with Neat Aquatics Frame Corners.

Kraken Reef 2" Filter Floss Cup.

FishofHex Fish Food Feeder.

Flipper Nano.

 

Filtration:

8.5 lbs. Live Rock.

Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter Lattice.

Big Kahuna Filter Floss/pad.

RedSea Reef Spec Carbon. (When Necessary)

Kent Marine Phosphate Sponge. (When Necessary)

 

Salt Mix:

RedSea Salt. (Converting to Tropic Marin)

 

Testing:

Salifert- Magnesium, Nitrate.

RedSea- Calcium, Magnesium.

Hanna- Alkalinity, Phosphate, Nitrate.

Milwaukee Digital Refractometer- Salinity

Seneye- Par.

 

Additives:

Purple Non Sulfur Bacteria. (PNSB)

Phytoplankton.

Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino.

Red Sea Reef Energy Plus AB+.

Tropic Marin All-For-Reef.

BRS Calcium and Magnesium (When Necessary)

 

Livestock:

Pair of Ocellaris Black Darwin Clownfish.

Blackline Fang Blenny.

Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp.

Blue Leg Hermit Crabs. 

Astraea Snails.

 

Coral:

(Soft)

Bam Bam Zoanthids.

Bob Marley Zoanthids.

Eagle Eye Zoanthids.

Ked Red Zoanthids.

Nirvana Zoanthids.

Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoanthids.

Rainbow Infusion Zoanthids.

Sour Apple Zoanthids.

Blowpop Zoanthids.

Mystery Zoanthids x2.

Blue Discosoma Mushroom.

Briareum.

Green Star Polyps.

Clove polyps.

 

(LPS)

Duncan.

Splatter Frammer.

Purple Tip Frogspawn.

Yellow Mouth Teal Tip Frogspawn.

Green Trumpet Caulastrea.

Teal Trumpet Caulastrea.

Alveopora.

Red Blastomussa Wellsi.

Purple Blastomussa Wellsi.

Dragon Soul Goniastrea.

Bling Bling Cyphastrea.

 

(SPS)

Green Slimer Staghorn Acropora.

Orange Montipora Digitata.

Green Montipora Digitata.

Red Montipora Cap.

Montipora Spongodes.

Purple Stylophora.

Rainbow Pocillopora.

Neon Green Pocillopora.

Pink Pocillopora.

 

 

[seabass]

to Nano-Reef.com and this contest!  Glad you decided to join in.

[devaji108]

welcome! WB are nice little tanks!

[This guy is extra salty]

🤔

[devaji108]

I like the idea of 2 - WB 10s next to each other. be mind full to leave space between then so you can clan the glass. 

[MrP]

On 2/18/2020 at 10:10 AM, devaji108 said:

I like the idea of 2 - WB 10s next to each other. be mind full to leave space between then so you can clan the glass. 

There will be approximately 12" space between the tanks. Hopefully this will be enough space to minimize light spill from one tank to the other.

 

The tank is now wet and 2 weeks into the cycle. I will post a few photos once I get the tank moved across the room to its permanent location. There isn't enough room on this chest for two tanks.

[devaji108]

I think that gonna look sweet. just keep an eye on the the FW light not to spill in to the SW tank and grow algae. 

[MrP]

(March Update)

 

The tank is now moved to its permanent location. It's been cycling for a month now. Getting close!

[MrP]

Fully cycled in 35 days. Hopefully I can get some life into this tank soon. A pair of black ocellaris clowns are on the wish list.

[SaltyGallon]

4 hours ago, MrP said:

Fully cycled in 35 days. Hopefully I can get some life into this tank soon. A pair of black ocellaris clowns are on the wish list.

Sterling choice and lovely scape, loads of movement 😎

[MrP]

Not much to report. I got a diatom bloom so I tossed a small amount of Kent Marine phosphate sponge in the filter sock. Problem solved. 

 

I added a jar of Tisbe copepods to the tank so they can establish in the rock prior to adding fish. The tank gets dosed with live phytoplankton daily. I'm hoping to get the pair of clowns and maybe a Blackline Blenny ordered from Sustainable Aquatics next week along with some red leg hermit crabs to keep the excess food cleaned up. In the next month or two, I will toss a few snails in there. Hopefully by then, Reef Cleaners will have some inverts back in stock. 

 

I have several corals growing out on frag racks in my other tank that will eventually make their way into this tank. I'm not in a rush to stock it. I prefer to let the tank age and stabilize prior to introducing corals. 

[debbeach13]

Good luck with your plan. Do you think the tank is big enough for 3 fish. Tons of people have great luck with 2 in ten gallons. maybe a few members will chime in about 3. I hope you and your love ones are doing well. 

[MrP]

7 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Good luck with your plan. Do you think the tank is big enough for 3 fish. Tons of people have great luck with 2 in ten gallons. maybe a few members will chime in about 3. I hope you and your love ones are doing well. 

Thank you for the warm wishes! We are doing well. 

 

10 gallons probably isn't ideal for 3 fish but I have other tanks I can transfer to if an issue arises. 

[DNR88]

Nice tank and I really dig the scape! 😊👍

[MrP]

2 hours ago, DNR88 said:

Nice tank and I really dig the scape! 😊👍

Thanks!

 

The scape consists of around 20 rocks super glued together. I had some small rocks and rubble left over from another scape. 

[MrP]

(April Update)

 

The rock is aging nicely! I had a bit of red spirulina develop. Chemiclean cleared that up. I added a few small Astraea snails and blue leg hermit crabs to the tank. 

 

I'm going to do a water change and test all of the parameters this weekend. If everything looks good, i'm going to start moving some coral over to the tank. 

[MrP]

Parameters look great!

Alk- 8.5

Ca- 425

Mg- 1300

No3- 5

Po4- .03

 

I loaded up a frag rack full of zoanthids and placed it into the tank after the lights turned off.  Here's the list:

 

Bam Bam

Bob Marley

Eagle Eye

Ked Red

Nirvana

Radioactive Dragon Eye

Rainbow Infusion

Sour Apple

 

Once they settle in and are happy in their new environment, I will start gluing them to the rock. 

[MrP]

All of the zoanthids are open and happy in their new home! Time to start gluing them down. 

[debbeach13]

Looks great. I am jealous!

[MrP]

(May Update)

[MrP]

I was looking at my tank this evening after the lights went out and noticed this sponge growth on one of my zoas.

 

I also made a few changes to the tank. I swapped out my Hydor Koralia nano wavemaker for a Sicce voyager nano. The extra flow helped with ridding the red spirulina I was having issues with. I also swapped out the return pump that Waterbox included with the tank with a Sicce micra plus. This also added a bit of extra flow to the tank and raised the water level in the display a bit.

 

I still haven't added any fish to this tank but I did transfer a few more frags over to it. Pictures to come on my next update.

 

 

[MrP]

(June Update)

[MrP]

[debbeach13]

Nice pictures!

[MrP]

(July Update)

 

Five months in and still no fish. 

 

All of the corals are doing great, though! I'm a bit surprised by how well this little tank is doing. I haven't cleaned the glass in over a week.

 

I seeded it with some coralline scrapings from my other tank so hopefully I will see some growth soon.