2nd hand biocube rebuild.

[Jake_the_reefer]

Have my final addition to my build (livestock wise) this cute little tailspot blenny! He has been a delight been very active, a good eater and has a great personality. My pet store special ordered it for me and I only had to pay 15$ I'm super happy about that. Next step is to start getting stable for corals!

 

[reef r madness]

They are so entertaining to watch...Everything is looking good.

 

[reef r madness]

I'd get al least on turbo snail...they cut trails through all kind of algae

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

I'd get al least on turbo snail...they cut trails through all kind of algae

I have a giant lumbering turbo snail in here! :)
Had to add some hermit shells because my hermits killed my favorite nassarius snail for its shell!

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Today I added the last livestock addition that was on my list. A shrimp.

I was going to go with a skunk cleaner shrimp because I love their personalities and the colors. However I decided to escape the tank again and removed the big fat awkward rock from the tank. Doing so I discovered a few small bristle worms. I know a lot of people dont worry about them because they are good scavengers, but I just dont like the look of them. This made me decide I'm going with a purple banded coral shrimp! The thing is absolutly tiny, about the size of a dime and hopefully I can get rid of the worms with it.

As i mentioned i also rescaped slightly to make the tank have more depth and texture, it was super boring with a big fat round rock. I'm pretty happy with how it is. Pointers are welcome! I am not too good at hardscaping and would love to make this as best as I can!

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

It's been a bit since an update so heres a little bit of a quick update and a future plan.

So recently I have noticed a nutrience issue with nitrates being upward to 70ppm even with frequent water changes as well as a cyano outbreak beginning. After further inspection it turns out my current usa powerhead is not doing anything at all. Even at the strongest setting I cant get it to move even the smallest piece of sand even tho when I first got it the thing did great. I just replaced it with a jebao ow-10 and it is doing amazing. Soooo much poop came off the live rock and is now in a huge pile.

Future plan:
I chose very poorly with sand substrate, the sand is a mixture of fine grains and chunks of gravel which does an amazing job at collecting detritus and algae to make its self look awful. I am thinking I want to do my first barebotton tank and the rock layout should look very nice on barebottom. I think I'll have the bottom with some nice encrusting frags and a gsp background. I plan on just scooping out a ton of the sand and doing a large water change. There is no coral in the tank yet so I am not worried about a nutrient spike.

Should I shoot for a nice clean barebottom look? Should I try another sand? Let's see where I get haha.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

While I'm at it I'll ask the question. Will removing the sand affect my bacterial balance or will the fact I have marine pure in the overflow help provide enough biological filtration?