Newbie Build- 29g biocube

[tabasco122]

New additions!

Fancy Ocellaris

Firefish Goby- Timid guy, was very hard to get a pic of him

And a few snails, cant remember the type, guy at the local reef store said that they tend to last a bit longer because they can flip themselves over or something?

The firefish promptly found that hiding spot, then i left to go pick up our new dog and when i came back he was gone, finally found him deep in another hole. Now we wait until I can afford the radion setup and start getting corals.

 

[garyinco]

Just an FYI on the GFCI cord you bought. I had to learn the hard way those things are primarily made for power tools and for safety reasons if there is any kind of power outage the GFCI will trip and stay tripped until you manually reset it with your fingertips. Probably not a big deal. I put up with mine for years. I get frequent little sub-second power outages and would always come home to find everything shut off. Never lost anything, but too many 3-4 day trips and walking in to find the whole system off.

Made sense for power tools. But not ideal for a reef tank. A guy on here asked why I just didn't install a real GFCI outlet in the wall, which auto resets after an outage. My only answer was brain damage

 

[tabasco122]

I'll probably just get the outlet in that case, I didn't buy anything yet.

 

[tabasco122]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i34alO-X3oI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfI4xgGzuqc

 

[Mark9]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i34alO-X3oI

This video shows the water surface, and it looks very calm.
You may want to aim a powerhead up to get some surface agitation.

 

[tabasco122]

i turned it off for feeding because i wanted to get some food to drop in front of the firefish's hiding place. just worried about him not getting food. i read that he eats plankton, assuming theres something i can add in that will make sure he has ample plankton in the water column?

worried about my snails also, they dont really have any algae to eat that i can see, may get some dried seaweed for them. how does one feed a snail? lol

I have 4 banded trochus snails in there now.

 

[tabasco122]

normal surface agitation with pumps on.

 

[tabasco122]

Just wanted to bump this up. Not much has changed with the biocube. The fix i did on the glass is still holding strong, i can see through the outer layer of plexi and there isnt even a drop coming through the crack anywhere. I added a neon blue goby, a black clown, and an emerald crab. The only thing i lost were a couple of hermits because i neglected a water change. I think one died and that caused a spike in garbage that killed the rest of them. One out of the original 6 survived.

Still havent added any corals yet, though my Radion XR15w comes in thursday, and i have a hammer and a few other corals waiting for me at the LFS that i already paid for.

Here are a few pics of the new guys.

And the big news, im upgrading to a 70g cadlights artisan in the next month or two. Building my own stand, going to go with jebao wp40s with the jbwave controller. Really looking forward to that. I feel like im really limited in what i can get with the biocube, and ill have a lot more room with a larger setup.

 

[gveng]

wp40 is way too much pump for a 70g... you are better off getting a wp25, or better yet two.

 

[tabasco122]

I wasn't sure, I was going off of ecotechs calculator and trying to keep the normal flow in the middle of the pumps range. The jbwave also allows you to control the pumps in 1% intensity increments unlike the jebao controller

 

[tabasco122]

Made a hanger for the radion, got it installed this morning, and picked up my hammer and two pieces of GSP yesterday.

This was before i set up the acclimation program in ecosmart.

GSP starting to open up

Hammer

Pics of the hanger i made. 1/2 inch pipe, then plasti dipped it black.

 

[tabasco122]

And now with more rimless action...

 

[BioCubeGuy]

Great build thread tabasco.. Tank looks great!

 

[tabasco122]

Doesnt look that great anymore lol. Im still battling some cyano, and everything is kind of on hold until i order the 100g cadlights im planning.

 

[kw22]

Would love to see a 100 gallon.

 

[tabasco122]

No new pictures, and no 100g, but i did kinda get back into my tank. Had an aiptasia outbreak that pretty much took my will to keep up with things, didnt do a waterchange in 2 months. Surprisingly my nitrates werent high, guess the skimmer was doing its job. I got 5 peppermint shrimp last tuesday, and they destroyed ALL of the aiptasia in 4 days. I completely recommend them provided you get the correct type. Setting up a 5g nano on my desk and i will get a harlequin shrimp and maybe a couple small fish (neon goby or something). That will allow me to move some rock from the biocube to the nano and order some more rock to redo the scape in the biocube.

As far as upgrades since the last post, I ordered two rw-8 powerheads in anticipation of the 100g i was going to get, but have been using one in the biocube and one to mix saltwater. I will probably get a rw-4 for the 5g after a while, but we shall see once i get that one running. Hopefully once i get the rock scape how i want in the biocube I can get some more corals and post some more pics!

 

[tabasco122]

Ok, i lie, have some pics, but they are kinda lame.

Aiptasia

This poly colony isnt doing so hot, im probably going to take it out.


Peppermints

 

[bdare]

Did the peppermints take out your aptasia? I've never had luck with them.

 

[tabasco122]

They destroyed it in 4 days. Hundreds of aiptasia gone. Then they destroyed my hammer and my ricordea, and my zoa colonly. Currently just have my small brain coral in there, and banished 3/5 shrimp to a 5g desktop tank with a few snails and a neon goby and a baby PJ cardinal. Trying to let the PJ cardinal grow some so I can put him in my biocube, but he's so small right now I think my clown may bully him. I am going to catch the other two shrimp before I think about getting more coral. Been distracted with other hobbies lately to be honest.