My 14g piece of the pie

[Waterchange]

-4yr old 14g oceanic biocube, mixed reef
-I run led's with 2 blue strips, no skimmer
-I do tiny water changes Tuesday and Thursday followed by a little bit bigger one -on Saturday
-Filtration is a bag of Seachem purigen and phosguard
-1 clown several blue legged hermits
-I dose iodine, calcium, magnesium, essential elements, DT's reef blend, reef
energy part a&b, oyster eggs, alkaline 8.3-P KH BUFFER



Here we goooo

 

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[brandon429]

The aquascape is not only reef wall great it exposes the larger part of the sandbed for access and export should the need arise-contrasted to typical stack that covers most of the usable volume, common old school approach.

This design does not isolate detritus in a way that challenges longevity. 4 yr 14 gallon isn't the norm, 1.3 yr old 14 gallon is the norm I think its great to see detailed shots of the older tanks. Nice macro, we can see you aren't on the verge of eutrophication barely holding on, the structure is mostly algae excluding coral flesh of one variety or another everywhere I look even with ipad zoom is enviable color. The fish bioloading is balanced imo. The feed quality is superb

A friend Andrewk online has a 4 yr old two gallon like your tank, he uses active phosphate control like your tank.

Lastly, its one thing to stock with mediocre colored common corals and get out 4+ yrs, its another to have done it with all cherry corals. Dang.

 

[brandon429]

Can you describe hair algae cycles, did the tank have phases or just not much ever of a problem

Also would like to relate the lighting to the overall lifespan. Is it same bulb config the whole 4 yrs

 

[Waterchange]

Can you describe hair algae cycles, did the tank have phases or just not much ever of a problem

Also would like to relate the lighting to the overall lifespan. Is it same bulb config the whole 4 yrs

Thank you for the kind words...

The hair algae, I still go through cycles but they're mild compared to a few years ago. I just maintain it, clean and inspect what I can at every water change. I think what led to the strong outbreaks was almost my entire pod population died off. There were so many at one point they would walk over everything, not hide and eat anything that wasn't 100% healthy! Even battled through bryopsis recently....

Lighting, I purchased this tank new (long story how it happened) so I went with stock lighting for about 2 maybe 2-1/2 yrs before upgrading to led. I've always had the 1 true lumen blue strip though because it made everything "pop". A friend sold me the led, Prism ES, very out dated I know.....he got them used from an lfs so who knows how long they've been running. I added another true lumen blue strip maybe 6 months ago because there just wasn't enough light getting to coral up front (had the existing strip aiming towards the back) Honestly I'm thinking of getting the coralife mini t5 because I really like the way t5's color things up but my options on bulbs are very limited. I might stick with Radion xr15, I hear they're pretty good!

 

[Waterchange]

It's going to be fun updating this thread every few months! I've had pretty much every coral you can think of in this tank. I learned a lot and how they grow. I eventually settled into a zoa dominated tank but fell in love with sps. There are tricks I've learned, had to learn in order to keep what I wanted happy in a tight space, especially the encrusting things. One of my favorites is putting green star polyps where I don't want a monti to grow, the polyps will irritate anything preventing growth and give a barrier! It's a delicate balance where you have to tip toe around every corner and think ahead.

 

[nanoman28g]

Nice tank and pictures.

 

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Few random pics

 

[czreef]

Nice work, impressive tank!

 

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New light!

 

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New eye candy!!

 

[Waterchange]

Nice work, impressive tank!

Thanks!!

 

[arashsheikhpoor]

Very Nice! so many coral.

 

[bontrager]

New light!

very nice work. When you use this light you will be elimination the hood altogether; correct?

 

[Waterchange]

very nice work. When you use this light you will be elimination the hood altogether; correct?

Negative....

 

[bontrager]

Thank you; very creative. I can see why you are successful. Have you secured the light to the top in any fashion?

Also please excuse my lack of proof reading my sentences on my original question.

 

[Texas Reefer]

I'm getting my new/used Biocube wet for the first time today! I can't wait to see your tank with the new light!

 

[IdahoNano]

Ohhhh more details on your new light and how you mounted it to you hood, looks great!