Ramos' 29 Gallon Rimless Oceanic Biocube Reintroduction to The Hobby

[reefaramos]

Hey, all. I ahve posted this journal on another forum but, the more searches I do for info and threads on personal experience with a similar setup, the more I keep getting redirected here, to reefcentral instead.

That being said; I just recently got back into the hobby after 2 years, due to my job (I'm in the navy). I just recently moved into my own place and will be staying pyt for a few years, and immediately I found this biocube on craigslist for 60 bucks with the stand, and had to buy it. Originally I was going to go FW planted, but after not seeing aquariums for 2 years I got bit by the reef bug. My wallet hates me.



I plan on making this a primarily LPS dominated reef, with acans and zoas/palys on the base rocks and mid-ground, with some encrusting montiporas, chalices, and birds nest/stylos towards the upper third of the tank. As of right now, its only been running a few days. I'm just waiting for the cycle to kick in. Current Specs:



Equipment/filtration:
-29 Gallon Oceanic biocube, de-rimmed
-AI Prime HD
-Tunze 9001 Skimmer
-inTank Media rack with filter floss, purigen, and chemo-pure, from top to bottom in respective order
-Cobalt Aquatics 100w Neo-Therm Aquarium Heater
-Jebao PP-4 w/controller

Fish:
-none

Coral:
-A few cheap zoa frags as "testers" to see how my tank is going.
-1 montopora capricornis "strawberry fields"
-Small acan lord
-Branching frogspawn

Inverts:

-6 Blue Leg Hermits
-3 Red Leg Hermits
-3 Tonga Nassarius Snails
-2 Mexican Turbo Snails





Current FTS 12/23/2016:

(I'll have a better quality camera and in turn, better quality pictures in a few weeks, the rock has been re-arranged since this photo has been taken).

 

[reefaramos]

Got Some pictures I finally got around to uploading, from about a week ago. I can only hope the corals still look as good as they do here, just a few more days and I'll be reunited with the tank. Sorry bout the contrast. Working on that whole... better camera thing.

zoa garden, if anyone has some insight as to the trade names for any of these guys, thatd be awesome.:





Acan:



Frogspawn:



Strawberry Fields Montipora:

 

[reefaramos]

(Also, regarding the forum, my posts aren't showing when I'm not logged in? I'm curious if no one else can see this post, except for me, when I am logged in)

 

[reefaramos]

My order from inTank when it came in. Some media not pictured.

 

[reefaramos]

I bought this tank used, lights gutted, all that was left in the tank was the pump and some sponges. I pretty much gutted all the sponges and did some modding to put the inTank media basket and tunze 9001 skimmer in there. The tubing, however, for the pump is extremely rigid (looks like it has expanded/contracted over time) and doesn't allow the pump to sit on the bottom of the tank as it should, occasionally becoming very noisy. Apart from that, I see this as pretty unreliable; while working on the tank, the tubing has come off redirecting the return water, right onto my wall. I don't want to imagine what could happen if gravity did this on its own.



Given how long this pump wasnt in operation for potentially years, I'd like to replace it, and I'd like to replace the tubing as well. Does anyone know/have any experience with this? I've been trying to read up, and it seems the maxijet 900 is a good option for replacement (as I cant find the original pump anywhere). I don't know if its urgent to replace the pump itself, ether, it seems to be working fine.... I'm just worried about the lack of reliability that comes with age on equipment like this.



Regarding the tubing, It seems like such a simple fix but I have no idea where to start here. Sizing/material... where do I begin? If anyone has some first-hand experience with a long-lasting solution here, I'm all ears.





Thanks,

Ramos