Blake's 29Gal Biocube

[blake2shay]

Hey everyone, it's my tank's one year ish birthday so I thought I'd finally make a build thread for my tank.I will post with pictures next, so bear through the biography of my tank. I was first hooked when I saw my cousin's 30gal bowfront one day and told myself I'd get one. After a few months of way way too little research and hardly any knowledge I thought I had it all figured out. So I marched over to my not so local fish store (which sold me things I know now I didnt need and couldnt care for in my early months) and bought my tank, stand, water, rock, sand, and two fish. Took it all right home, watched a few videos on aquascaping and literally in this order: Put some sand in, put some rock, added more sand and a few more rocks, added all the water, waited an hour or so and then threw in my fish. Cringe worthy now, I know. I wouldn't even go to say that my tank cycled. By the way I was given the instructures to feed my two fish a cube of mysis shrimp once a day. Rediculous. I tried growing some SPS with the Biocube stock lighting and that didn't last long. Long story short, I have made a lot of mistakes in the past and this year I started really monitoring and watching everything really closely. I had no fish for a while and grew some zoas and torches well. The last three months I added an anenome and a pair of clowns. Last month I added a Bangai Cardinal and everything was great. Then. Everything started when I took the top off my tank and put up a new light (I blame the taking off the top) I didnt think that one through entirely, and the temperature of the tank dropped four degrees over night. Goodbye Cardinal. I knew evaporation would happen more severely now, but this is crazy. Im topping off more than I've ever done before. And today, I come home to one clown (still MIA) and two of my turbo snails adventuring on my stand. I have temporarily fixed the tank temperature problem (heater has been ordered) and a sudden but small spur of I think cyanobacteria that seems to be affecting mostly one of my zoas.I was away this weekend and my dad was on tank duty and he decided to empty the tank some because it looked too full. Then the pump was running on air, and I'm pretty sure he added salt and not fresh water into the system. I don't know what happened today/this week/weekend and this is my cry for help. My questions now are, what did I do wrong when I took of my top? What can I do now to slow or prevent all this evaporation? (ATO?) And for sudden spurs of algae that carpet my sand bed and then dissapear, whats up with that? Stay tuned for pictures..

 

[blake2shay]

Here is the tank now.

I have an AI Prime HD that I put over the top and I love the way it looks and makes the tank look.

This is the best shot I could get, this is the zoa I mentioned before that looks like cyano but there's no zoa there anymore. Not sure if this is something to be worried about now. The evaporation is more pestering to me, and I've been looking at ATO's but in the reviews I've read people seem to use them every so often to top off. But my tank seems to drop in level way faster, or more often. This was expected when I took the top off but not this much..


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[blake2shay]

After coming home yesterday to find only one of my clowns, I panicked and started searching the entire tank and compartments looking for any trace of the clown. Unfortunately I was told he jumped and was flushed while I was away. However, in my search I did some cleaning too and found some of these.

White, small, fluffy looking but squishy feeling things on the base of one of my torches. I have never seen this before and didn't see it anywhere else so I'll put this on the back burner of worries for now unless anyone knows what this stuff is.

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[j_mazzy]

pineapple sponge?

 

[blake2shay]

Could be. I haven't done much research in the sponge or what else it might be but took precaution over being curious. My levels (I use a Red Sea test kit) have shown nothing out of the ordinary. Small up in salinity when I was away this weekend and my dad topped with Salt not fresh. Water change fixed that. The lone clown was showing some white face

But has now returned to full color. Eating well and moving around the tank so I'm not too worried about him right now. Worried about a jumping problem. As much as I enjoy the topless rimless look of the tank, the jumping has me worried now about adding any more fish in the future. For the evaporation, I've seen people using additives like buffers and removers into the water before topping off. But is any of that necessary if it's already RO water, not tap, so there's virtually nothing in the water. Another thing I've been considering is adding a small hood/cover/lid on just over the compartments in the back of the tank. I have the stock hood and was thinking of using a dremel or something like that to make a small hood for the back of the tank which would also hide the wires and lines going into the tank. I haven't seen anything like this and it would also remove what little sound the tank still makes.


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[ReefWreak]

Sorry to hear about the clown jumping. The white stuff looks like harmless sponges. Throw it away once it's out of the water, as they die if removed from the water.

Going topless/rimless is definitely a problem with jumping. I would go on Bulk Reef Supply's website and pick up their clear mesh kit, and make your own top for it. There are some shops that make nice acrylic tops with clear mesh as well that are very nice.

I wouldn't add "buffer and removers" to RO water. You can add kalk to your topoff, which adds calcium and alkalinity, which are technically "buffers" in the context you're talking about. I've heard of some people adding prime or other solutions to their topoff water, and I wouldn't recommend it. Kalk is the extent of stuff to add to topoff. Short of that, RO is just fine.

 

[Reeefer]

How high is your Prime off the water? How do you have your Prime mounted to the back of your tank so it's sturdy? Using the mount I put it over the middle pin. If I try attaching to the tank it doesn't work bc of the rim.

 

[blake2shay]

Blake's 29Gal Biocube

I keep my prime at the highest height as it's not the only light in the room, but definitely a central one for the tank. And I did happen to pick up another clown. Who jumped again. Lucky I was standing right there and I put him right back in. I quickly unscrewed the prime light and put the stock hold on very roughly. Tomorrow I am off to find some mesh. I love the look of the tank and the shimmer of the water and don't mind adding a net. Plus my nephew I saw has been putting his hands in the tanks trying to get the fish to give him "kisses". So the net will be a double purpose. Will up date with pictures again soon.


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[DavidGraves]

I have the tunze nano ato with a 5 gallon tank for RO water. It was a lifesaver after taking the hood off. I also notice that when I have just a straight Hester in my QT he temperature seems to swing more than on the Display. I use the ranco temperature controller and it never moves more than one degree.

For a cover I purchased the framing from Home Depot and the clear mesh from my LFS. With the curved front end you have to do some strategic bending and cutting to get it right. Artfully Acrylic makes a top for the biocube that looks fantastic if you can drop the coin.


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[blake2shay]

I have decided to diy my own top, the only thing I am in question for is the materials. I want to use simple clear tubing and metal mesh. Does anything know how galvanized metal reacts around a tank? Not in it, but just near it


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[blake2shay]

So here's what I have so far: some half inch galvanized hardware cloth cut and bent over the shape of the rim. I left some small excess in the back that secures it by sliding into one of the drains. Tomorrow I'll be getting some clear tubing to act as "feet so that the metal isn't resting on the glass walls and will also give a stronger hold. Total investment so far: 6$

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[blake2shay]

I have also noticed my newer clown is not super fond of the flakes I feed the tank. Should I try for mysis? And also is there a tried and true way to introducing a pair to host an anemone


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[ReefWreak]

I have also noticed my newer clown is not super fond of the flakes I feed the tank. Should I try for mysis? And also is there a tried and true way to introducing a pair to host an anemone

You're welcome to try another food. The frozen PE Mysis they'll eat right away, almost certainly, and most of the good foods they'll likely eat quickly and easily. Dried food can be harder to get fishes acclimated to. When feeding dry, I've been a believer in New Life Spectrum Thera-A pellets, after seeing a number of professional aquariums feeding them, as well as a lot of hobbyists I trust.

Frozen is generally better, and is almost always easier for fish to accept as food than dry food.

As for the clowns, no, there is no easy way to get them to go into an anemone. I know a few people who have tried a lot of different ways, including Melev's "clownfish slide" which was pretty cool to see, and also sticking a picture of happy clowns in anemones on the glass, and a few other ways. Long story short, none of them worked. It'll be up to the clownfishes.

From my (limited) experience, if you have a pair, if/when they start doing their mating dances, they'll start looking for a permanent home, and then they'll probably end up in the anemone, if it is established and healthy. Mine used to swim wherever until they started the mating dances and preparing for eggs. Then they picked the rockwork in a few places to clean it, and ultimately ended up laying eggs behind my torch (that they smothered to death).

 

[ReefWreak]

Also worth mentioning, clowns will be more likely to spawn if they're on good frozen foods. When I switch to frozen foods, I see my clowns show much more spawning behavior than when they're on dry pellet foods. Not a scientific study, but that's been my experience.

 

[blake2shay]

I'll give the frozen a shot and see what happens


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[Pandagobyguy]

+1 reefwreck
Every thread i have read about breeding has said the same

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[blake2shay]

How much of one frozen cube should I use? I typically just scrape less then half of one to use for feeding my torches and what they don't hold onto, the fish will get


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[ReefWreak]

I feed about a dime sized piece of frozen food to my tank at a time, and just let it blow around after thawing.

 

[blake2shay]

So after feeding a small amount of flakes and then mysis clown 2 did not as rapidly as I've seen clown 1 eat. Could this just be new fish syndrome? She's been in the tank almost a week


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[blake2shay]

Just fed again with another small sprinkle of flakes and both clowns are eating. Also noticing they are trying to host in my torch coral and sometimes it looks like they like my GSP to host too, is this ok for the fish and the corals?


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