Bio Cube Owner's Thread

[homer1475]

Always best to start your own thread. We all do things slightly different and a lot of times the good juicy hints/tips/mods get lost in threads like this.

Posting in every one elses thread is what made me finally start my own thread. Just my thread alone I know of 2 mods I did which people have started copying, which would have never been seen had I not done my own thread.

 

[CantImagineWhy]

Hi guys - wanted to share a pic of my recently completed custom Coralife Biocube 29. I have a sump/refugium and skimmer (among other things). All rated for an aquarium up to 75gal so I'm getting great skimming and extra capacity all in the same space as the original stock stand. Happy to share details of people are interested. Also have a 24 led configuration built into the biocube hood. From the outside, the setup looks exactly like the stock tank and stand.

I am interested in hearing the details. I'd like to build a sump for mine soon to accommodate a better skimmer and yours looks pretty awesome.

 

[ReefWreak]

Always best to start your own thread. We all do things slightly different and a lot of times the good juicy hints/tips/mods get lost in threads like this.

Posting in every one elses thread is what made me finally start my own thread. Just my thread alone I know of 2 mods I did which people have started copying, which would have never been seen had I not done my own thread.

FYI I started a build thread finally:

ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!

 

[CantImagineWhy]

Finally learned how to upload pictures!

Here is the tank at the previous owner's house.

Here it is currently at mine:

Keep in mind its still a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with it so far!! My next post will be pictures of some of my frags and what I think they are identified as. Hopefully I got a few of them right, but if not please correct me! Bear with me, these pictures were taken with my iPhone so they're not the greatest.

 

[ReefWreak]

Very nice! If you're ever in the mood to shuffle things up a bit, I would always recommend moving rock away from the glass where possible, so you can clean in between (and minimize dead spots), but that's up to you.

Otherwise nice assortment of corals, and things look good! Be ready for any aggression between the three fishes you have, they're all damselfishes and plantivores, so they may end up fighting with each other (likely to the death).

 

[CantImagineWhy]

My sixline hanging out next to some zoas. I guessed the ones on the bottom are bam bam oranges. Not sure what the other two different kinds are in the picture. (Help?)

Fuzzy mushroom and green star polyps

Clown and sixline with my bigger brain coral (What kind?)

Smaller brain coral

Blue damsel with purple mushroom

Red/Blue/Green zoas and brown zoas above them(what is their common name?):

Xenia?

Is this hard coral dead? It looked like this when I got it. No clue what it is

Shot of the left side of my tank

One more post to make after this!

 

[CantImagineWhy]

What are these?

What is this?

Peppermint shrimp

Blood shrimp (who molted two days ago!)

 

[CantImagineWhy]

Sorry those are so picture heavy! There's a couple more I need help IDing but I can't get good pictures of them. I'll keep trying!

 

[ReefWreak]

The "Brain corals" are Favia.

The "What are these" are blastomussa merletti

The "xenia" is a clove polyp, which is better than xenia, because they don't walk around. They will not pulse like xenia though.

The former "hard coral" is an LPS (Large polyp stony) coral of the family euphyllia. It may have been a frogspawn (divisa/paradivisia), torch (glabrescens/paraglabrescens), or hammer/anchor (paraancora/ancora) coral.

Hope those help

 

[ReefWreak]

Also, I really like your corals. Looks great

A nitpick that I have is that you shouldn't call a coral something because it looks like a coral with a name. If your corals look like bam bams, then call them "zoos that look like bam bams", but don't call them "bam bams" unless you bought them as such from someone who also specified them and got them from whoever originated the name, however dumb it may be.

In zoanthids it may not be as important as it is with SPS, but when I'm buying an SPS coral that is "named" like a "Paletta Pink Tip" I expect that it's heritage can go back to Mike Paletta, and I expect that I can find a thread where people who purchased a "Paletta Pink Tip" acropora describe how the coral is adapting in their tank, what works for it and what doesn't, and I can see exactly how that exact coral does in different tank situations.

I mean no offence, but I figure it might be something useful to know going forward, so if you ask people "how do I make Bam Bams color up" and you're not sure if yours are the same as all of the other Bam Bams, you don't nuke them from sticking them directly under a bright light, where an original "Bam Bam" may do best. Hopefully that makes sense?

 

[CantImagineWhy]

Yeah that makes sense and no offense was taken! I'm still learning and corals have been the hardest for me to get the hang of as far as the lingo involved. I still haven't felt comfortable enough going into a store that sells frags to buy some because I don't want to sound like I have no clue what I'm doing (which may be true, haha!). I just go in and stare at them and take notes of what I like. I have trouble with the latin names of them so I have been using the common names. Should I avoid that from now on and brush up on my latin?

I'm guessing there's no saving the LPS? It's got a few zoas on the same rock its stuck to, so I'll keep it in there as decoration for now.

Thanks for the help again. I have been sifting through the sand every so often because many of these were rescued from my sand bed and epoxied to the rock work. Its amazing what's popping up in there! I just found the clove a couple days ago and it was difficult to get it epoxied in place. I stuck it in a hole and mushed the epoxy around it and it seems to be stuck now thankfully. Can't wait until the coralline algae covers up the white epoxy mess I've made.

Should I relocate the bigger favia from the sand bed and try to get it mounted on a rock? I make sure to use my turkey baster to blow the sand off of it after I mess with the tank. I just want to make sure its happy and grows. So far I've seen a tiny bit of expansion and I'm hoping it will repair the damage it came with. There's a pretty big chunk of skeleton exposed on the poor thing.

 

[ReefWreak]

I would try to get to know scientific/latin names as much as possible, at least at the higher level (knowing a favia from a euphyllia). This (Aquarium Corals : Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History by Eric H. Borneman) has to be one of the best books I've ever picked up for learning about corals specifically (though I've read and own dozens of them). He used to spend a lot of time on ReefCentral helping people out as well, and is an active publisher and researcher in the hobby.

You might want to try using some GEL thickness superglue to glue smaller frags down, or frags to epoxy and/or epoxy to the rock. the superglue helps in the short term while the epoxy hardens. I use just superglue on most of my frags. Make a ball of the gel at the skeleton, and then stick it to a rock, rock it back and forth to break the film on it so it sticks, and should be set.

You can mount them to the rock, but just be careful because favia will grow on to the rock you put it on, and continue spreading. They will often open up with feeding tentacles, and can sting anything nearby, so plan on the rock being it's own rock after some time.

If you look on my nano build thread, I have a picture of my old 120g tank there. I had a small rock of favia that I kept next to one of the bottom base rocks in my rockwork. It grew and eventually grew to the rock, then took over that entire rock (about 12"x6"x6"), and had sweeper tentacles at night that would reach 6" from the farthest head.

I have a "war coral" favia right now that has some damage to it that I'm hoping it grows in to sooner than later. I haven't been directly feeding it though. You can feed faviids meaty foods BTW to get them to grow/heal faster.

 

[CantImagineWhy]

I will definitely pick up a copy of that book.

I've been using a combo of both epoxy and gel superglue. I put epoxy on the rock in the spot I want the coral, put some on the bottom of the coral's base and then put a bead of gel on top of the epoxy on each side. Then I sandwich them together, pressing them into place. Maybe that's overkill and I'll try using just gel next time!

I've got the little favia mounted to a rock which it shares with the clove. I'll consider moving it now that I know it can sting! I haven't seen the feeding tentacles yet. The only things I've seen are the long white strings from the vermetid snails I have.

I've looked at your build thread a couple of times. Its very impressive and your 120 was amazing looking!! Sorry to hear that you lost it. Your cube is also beautiful. I'm jealous!

 

[CantImagineWhy]

I finally got some decent pictures of the two other LPS corals and the other unidentified coral:

The last two pictures are of the same piece, one picture is just zoomed in to help see it.

 

[homer1475]

I've been using a combo of both epoxy and gel superglue. I put epoxy on the rock in the spot I want the coral, put some on the bottom of the coral's base and then put a bead of gel on top of the epoxy on each side. Then I sandwich them together, pressing them into place. Maybe that's overkill and I'll try using just gel next time!

I do this exact method too. It helps hold things while the epoxy dries. Not sure what epoxy your using, but JB waterweld works way better then the stuff you buy at the LFS( I have a tube of it, but forget the name. its a 2 part with one being green, but mixes to white), and cheaper! I just used it for the first time today, mixes up faster, doesn't leave a film on your fingers, and sets up faster.

 

[homer1475]

First one looks like a gorgonian of some sort, have you ever seen it open? Others I have no clue but none of those look real healthy.

 

[ReefWreak]

I've looked at your build thread a couple of times. Its very impressive and your 120 was amazing looking!! Sorry to hear that you lost it. Your cube is also beautiful. I'm jealous!

Thanks! I really appreciate the comments

Pics #1 and #2 look like dead skeletons... can't see any flesh. #3/4 is an interesting montipora battling for its life. Just keep it towards the light and don't let it get buried in sand, and it should do well.

FWIW, Montipora (lots of different varieties) are all SPS (Small Polyped Scleractinians), but they're the easier to keep ones. Acropora are SPS that are (usually) much more difficult to keep. There are beautiful colors and forms of all SPS.

 

[CantImagineWhy]

First one looks like a gorgonian of some sort, have you ever seen it open? Others I have no clue but none of those look real healthy.

Yeah all of those ones were rescued from the sand bed. I'm assuming they were there for a very long time. The ones in the first two pictures are tiny. The pieces in the second two pictures were about to be tossed until I looked harder and saw the tiny dimples. The dimples have developed since I pulled it out of the sand and look like they have greenish rims. No I've never seen any of these three open.

I've been using JB water weld (two parts, white and grey that get mixed together) and super glue gel from the dollar store that I've been using to repair stuff for years. It works great on everything! I thought about mixing purple food coloring in with my future epoxy. I'm assuming since you can eat food coloring that it is most likely reef safe?

 

[ReefWreak]

To be more precise, #1 looks like a dead Montipora Digitata, and #2 looks like a dead acropora of some variety. There might be some flesh on that first one towards the bottom, but I can't tell. If they are white, they have flesh, if they're covered in coralline algae (pink/purple), they're gone

Also, that montipora in #3/4 actually looks like a sunset montipora that I used to have. That brown base turns brilliant orange, and those slightly green/white polyps turn bright neon green. Might be worth trying to nurse it back to health

 

[CantImagineWhy]

#1 is so tiny, I got a magnifying glass out and couldn't see any flesh. #2 is covered in coralline and even has new, deep red coralline growing on it. I'll pull these two out, double inspect them and toss them. I will keep nursing the montipora. It was one solid piece when I found it, but it snapped as I was gluing it down. I've got nothing but time so I'll keep trying to nurse it!