Bok's First Biocube 29

[bokaholic]

Welp. it's time to try the forum thread for my tank now.

Tank: Biocube 29 gal.

Flow: Biocube stock return pump and a Maxi-Jest 600.

Lighting: Basic lighting. (Soon to be upgraded to LED)

LR: About 15-20 pounds. One large rock (leftbound of tank) from an established tank (cheater rock?) and the others from many other LFS locations in Omaha.

Substrate: 18-20 pounds of aragonite live sand.

Protein Skimmer: Biocube one. (Garbage) Came with the cube. I'm trying to do better research on what to replace it with.

Mods: Replaced 2nd chamber of bioballs with rubble and chaeto.

Tank was started on Jan 27th of 2012. The old 14 gallon is now converted into a freshwater planted tank and is doing well for itself.

Livestock:
1 Ocellaris clownfish. He came with the tank as well.
3 Peppermint Shrimp (To help attack the randomly popping up aiptasia issue I've been having)
15 Asterea snails
10 Blue-legged Hermit Crab
Eagle Eye Zoas
A bit more GSP than I'd like (fragging and giving away currently. So there is actually less in the tank now than there was in this shot)
2 Ricordeas (I love these things)

As for anything else.. It's just waiting for the perfect time. I'm in no rush.. it's taking me forever to get my LR just right. It's driving me crazy. Thanks for lookin' guys. Now for some pictures, eh? I'll take some more later as I'm about to run out..

Tank as of 02/17/12

Any suggestions or comments are very openly welcome. I'm here to learn and take things easy. I've already learned a lot from the forums and IRC chat. i adore you guys and your opinions!

- Angel

 

[Pnewt]

looks like a great start. a lot of purple already. what kind of lights are running right now? what are you plans for coral and other livestock? also it looks like you have one big piece of live rock and maybe one or two other smaller pieces.. rockwork might be more fun with more pieces to work with... i had this problem myself with my 10 gallon, take a flathead screwdriver and a hammer and break up the rocks into a few more pieces. (just a suggestion, looks great like it is now tho!) keep us posted

 

[Pnewt]

well i just scrolled up a little further and i somehow missed the upgrading to LED part haha sounds like a good plan.

 

[bokaholic]

looks like a great start. a lot of purple already. what kind of lights are running right now? what are you plans for coral and other livestock? also it looks like you have one big piece of live rock and maybe one or two other smaller pieces.. rockwork might be more fun with more pieces to work with... i had this problem myself with my 10 gallon, take a flathead screwdriver and a hammer and break up the rocks into a few more pieces. (just a suggestion, looks great like it is now tho!) keep us posted

Welp, the left rock covered in coralline is all one piece. But it's mostly a flat piece so it's propped up on another wedge-like piece. The right section is.. 3 pieces, I think. I have not thought about breaking that one piece into smaller pieces! I'll have to think about that. As for livestock, I'm still thining about that as well. I love Zoanthids, mushrooms, and frogspawn. So we'll see what I end up with in the later months. I'm mostly going to be working by color. I want a lot of color in my little cube sea. And yes, for light I do plan to upgrade to LED a.sap. Which I am hoping will be sooner than later. At least before my next bulb purchase. (6-ish months)

 

[bokaholic]

Alright. Some quick shots here of the tank from different angles. Sorry about all the reflections. :I The leopard gecko lives right next door, and I didn't turn off her lights.

Right Side:

Left Side

Baby Zoes

And Fred

 

[vitz]

Tunze makes one of, if not the best, nano skimmers on the planet. Only drawback it has imo is its collection cup's bulky profile.

If you would like to try building your own limewood air driven skimmer, try contacting chris maupin (galleon on the forums and rc chat) for possibly getting the basic plans for the skimmer he built for his olasana lagoon tank thread.

And beware, as always, of a lot of the 'advice' given on discussion forums!

G'luck

 

[bokaholic]

Tunze makes one of, if not the best, nano skimmers on the planet. Only drawback it has imo is its collection cup's bulky profile.

If you would like to try building your own limewood air driven skimmer, try contacting chris maupin (galleon on the forums and rc chat) for possibly getting the basic plans for the skimmer he built for his olasana lagoon tank thread.

And beware, as always, of a lot of the 'advice' given on discussion forums!

G'luck

Thanks man. I'll look into it and ask the man. The BC skimmer is an insult to all skimmers! But it was free, so what can I say? (besides: I'll get to changing that a.sap)

 

[JTHubbard]

Looking good!!! As I said in chat yesterday, I'll be getting my thread up soon and we can keep a check on one another.

Keep me posted on your sump build as I will need advice there when the time comes.

Todd

 

[ange062]

Looks like you are off to a good start! What are you planning to do for LED, a retrofit of the stock hood or a new fixture?

 

[bokaholic]

Looking good!!! As I said in chat yesterday, I'll be getting my thread up soon and we can keep a check on one another.

Keep me posted on your sump build as I will need advice there when the time comes.

Todd

Can do! it will be a while yet though. The LEDs must come first.

Looks like you are off to a good start! What are you planning to do for LED, a retrofit of the stock hood or a new fixture?

Yes! I plan for the dimmable retrofit and a dimmer a.sap. I think about it a lot. But I will wait for my brand new bulbs to be a bit older first.

 

[bokaholic]

Welp, i went and bought a tiny bit of frogspawn today. I'll bust out the dSLR tomorrow and take a better shot. But this phone-photo will have to do..!

I bumped my rock structure too hard and it shifted. But I wedges everything together better. It's not much different than the photos above, but a little. Like I said. i'll have dSLR shots soon!

 

[bokaholic]

Ok. A few shots of the tank today after the slight rock-uascape change and addictions.

FTS

(The top stick w/ GSP wont be staying there. It's one of the large sections I made with the mass of GSP I had to start with..!)

RTS

More Fred

Details
Mushroom rock! (w/ little star)

Frogspawn Frag

My GSP is finally coming out.

Nothing else new, really. Now I wait around for a month before thinking about what I want next. I love just watching the entire process!

 

[bokaholic]

Welp folks. Not much happening here. I shifted some things around because it's just not looking good to me. but it's probably due to the lack of stuff in my tank! D: My car broke this last weekend so I wont be improving the tank too much until I get that replaced. Boo! I'll post some shots randomly though.

FTS

I moved my frogspawn (who has doubled in size!) up on the top left. The GSP is slowslowslowly opening. it's driving me NUTS on how slow it's opening. but at least it's opening, huh?

I also moved my mushroom rock w/zoas and kenya tree coral to the center for now. i'm not 100% sure where to put that thing.

I think the issue is that I'm very new to this AND I have so much open space I'm overwhelmed. Hehe.

As soon as I get a car (BOOOO) I think my first thing is going to be lighting upgrade. I really want to upgrade my lighting a.sap. I'll be searching further about LEDs and finding something appropriate for my 29g. Whether it be open topped or a mod kit. We'll see.

Thanks for looking guys.

 

[mrbubbles]

Nice setup! My gsp wouldnt open up when i first got it but when i angled some flow onto it the polyps seemed to like it!

 

[SwimsWithFish2]

Nice tank

 

[vitz]

Watch the opening scene to 'witness' (harrison ford, kelly mcgillis) - the wheat field's motion from the wind is exactly what you should see star polyp do, it appreciates moderate to strong turbulence.

Rescape all ya want it's a terminal reefer disorder heh - just stick to golden rule of minimal contact between rocks, maximum contact between rock and water in motion

 

[bokaholic]

Nice setup! My gsp wouldnt open up when i first got it but when i angled some flow onto it the polyps seemed to like it!

yes, they have begun to open after being (in what I think is) the strongest flow. But it's still pretty slow! HURRY AND OPEN GSP! *sob* ;D

Nice tank

Thanks! I appreciate the compliment! I feel like it's just so boring still.