Biocube 29 and 10g Reboot

[Lazydayz]

So this week has been a whirlwind of activity. I was able to get my rock out of the bleach bath and they came out great, drying up nicely. Then I had to prep for hurricane Dorian, all ready for it to get here. I was able to sneak in a trip to MACNA. It was great and was able to pick up a few new additions .

The new rock scape is done it will be added to the biocube after I cycling. Probably wont start cycling until after the hurricane just in case I lose power.

 

[Lazydayz]

Sitting here bored waiting on Dorian to pass. Was able to clean and mount the new additions. Cant wait to get the new rock work added to raise some of the coral off the sand!

I dont know any of the names of the corals just know generally what they are haha!

3 Mushrooms

Acans

Favia

Duncan with 5 baby heads on it (clowns kept swimming in front they dont like anyone near their anemone or duncan)

Zoas

 

[Jenksreef]

Love the tank so far. Can’t wait to keep up with the progress.

 

[Lazydayz]

Love the tank so far. Can’t wait to keep up with the progress.

Thank you! Will be updating later while at work. Everything is settled in nicely and starting to take off

 

[Lazydayz]

Meant to update this yesterday but was in the TSA back to school live sale. Got 4 new peices that I will be picking up this weekend, I can't wait! The new rock work appears to be cycled so I will be redoing the aquascape in the bio cube tomorrow. All the corals seem extremely happy and are coloring up nicely. The branching hammer (I believe that is what is) has one head that is almost split, two separate mouths have formed. Two more of the heads appear to be splitting because the mouths are starting to stretch! I think I have been able to get rid of all the pests in the 10g. Water is clear and fish seem happy. I'll post more pictures this weekend when I get the new pieces. Here are some from the past couple of days:

Top down

The head that started splitting exactly 1 month ago

The 2 new heads starting to split

 

[Lazydayz]

Got the new rocks in today. Not sure if I like the placement. All the coral are mad that I moved them around. I'll probably play with it a little more this week.

All the rock and coral are far enough off the glass to run the mag float around

 

[Lazydayz]

Picked up the 4 new frags I got on the Top shelf Aquatics live sale. They are settling in nicely, found a brittle star attached to one of the frags (awesome bonus) so I saved him before dipping. Color is looking good! I plan on moving around some rocks on Tuesday.

TSA Madman favia

Camo favia

Forest fire leptastrea

Mystery frag (JF Aquaman MONTI maybe??)

Brittle star bonus (bad picture sorry)

 

[Lazydayz]

Tank had a bit of a hiccup, the 1 Duncan has 3 heads melting. I'm not sure why, may have been stung or the clowns are being too rough with it.

So perimeters were steady but since the 1 Duncan was unhappy I started testing daily. Apparently everything is starting to grow, alkalinity dropped by 0.45 and calcium dropped by 60. Guess it's time to start dosing. Ordered kalkwasser from BRS so hopefully that is all I need for now. I will test that to see if I can keep up.

 

[Lazydayz]

Well the Duncan didn't make it :( all the heads started to melt off.. The rest of the coral seem to be thriving, the zoas are sprouting new heads all over. The blasto also has 2 new heads, the big mushroom split in three now I have 5 mushrooms (was 2 with a baby)!! The hammer or frammer still has the 3 heads splitting can't wait to see it fill in some. I also have a slight algae possibly Dino bloom going on. I have already reduced the lights to 10 hours and will probably needed some more snails since these just aren't keeping up. I think when I rearranged my rock work I may have reduced my good bacteria. Has anyone tried Microbac 7? Been reading about it and may try boosting my bacteria back up.

Sorry I got a little picture happy! One last picture of the whole tank, you can see the tank is a little dirty almost feel like I'm going through the ugly phase again lol

 

[Lazydayz]

Tank is settling in nicely, nitrates and phosphates are a little higher than I'd like so there is a small outbreak of GHA but nothing that CUC hasn't been able to keep in check. Corals are thriving, the zoas have new heads popping up left and right. Green mushroom split into several and are starting to fill up the rubble rock I placed them on. If things keep going well I hope to have some mini colonies to frag by December.

 

[Lazydayz]

Starting adding MicroBacter 7 every day, it has made a huge difference in just 3 days. The growth of GHA has slowed and together with CUC and manual removal during water changes I feel like the amount has decreased as well. Phosphates dropped slightly (1ppm down to 0.5ppm), and nitrates are stable (5ppm) still need to reduce them a little more. The bottle says the results are most evident in the first 2 weeks so time will tell how well it works!

 

[jk_s124]

Nice tank! I really like your rockscape. Corals all look beautiful too! Did you start dosing kalkwasser yet? I think that’s the perfect way to dose with your type if set up. I didn’t see equipment listed, or maybe I missed it, but are you running a skimmer or any filter media like carbon or gfo?

 

[Lazydayz]

Nice tank! I really like your rockscape. Corals all look beautiful too! Did you start dosing kalkwasser yet? I think that’s the perfect way to dose with your type if set up. I didn’t see equipment listed, or maybe I missed it, but are you running a skimmer or any filter media like carbon or gfo?

Thank you! I have not started dosing yet. Before it came I did a water change and noticed it was back up, I tested every day that week and there was no drop. I have it ready just in case. I have all the standard equipment that comes with the except I put a cheap LED off Amazon the Hipargero. I use the standard carbon filter replacement cartridges. I had a skimmer back in the day when it was a FOLWR but they didn't have the nice nano options that they do now so I stopped using it, looked awful hanging off the side of the tank! I know if I start SPS I'll definitely need something as my nutrients run on the higher side.

 

[jk_s124]

All sounds great and your tank looks great too. Skimmers are very optional on small tanks in my opinion. I’ve tried a few and ended up going skimmerless. They are great for gas exchange though. I really like your coral selection. Some beautiful stuff!

 

[Lazydayz]

I really like your coral selection. Some beautiful stuff!

Thank you! This was my first attempt at keeping coral and to be honest I didn't put too much thought into selecting other than no SPS yet and they had to be cheap.

 

[Lonely reefer's]

I have the same tank as your
You can successful keeping sps with good light, strong water flow and low bio load
No skimmer is needed, just weekly water change and dosing 2parts when needed

 

[Lazydayz]

I have the same tank as your
You can successful keeping sps with good light, strong water flow and low bio load
No skimmer is needed, just weekly water change and dosing 2parts when needed

Great thank you! I do want a mixed reef eventually but I'm intimidated by SPS still. I feel a little bit better now that I've been keeping these LPS and Softies alive for a few months. I think if I get to upgrade my tank like I want to next year I'll turn the Biocube into an SPS tank and start small to get a feel for it.

 

[Lazydayz]

So I was going to update this last week but decided to get out of the house for a long weekend and drive over to Orlando. Hit up Universal, Busch Gardens Tampa and SeaWorld.

Since it was a last minute trip I really didn't have time to get everything I would have liked done to the tanks before we left. But much to my surprise when we returned home everything looked great. Only thing that seemed to happen was a small head of the Frammer got broken off somehow, it is still in great health and I glued it to a piece of rubble I have.

I need to do a water test again but just looking at the tank I'd say the Microbacter 7 is working wonders! Water seems clearer and the GHA has grown much slower. Also I haven't been cleaning the glass as much, was doing it 2-3 times throughout the week but now down to 1-2 times. Corals are thriving and growing like crazy. I can't believe how fast blasto has started sprouting heads and the wwc Jingle bells cyphastrea that I got as my mystery frag has started encrusting nicely for only being in the tank for a month.

I haven't posted very much about the 10 gallon because nothing is really going on with it. I basically changed it to a Fowlr and have been contemplating selling it.

Few more pictures of the corals.

Tried top down and played with the phones exposure, not sure if I like it.

 

[Lazydayz]

I stopped using Microbacter 7, I believe it added to the reduction of my nitrates and phosphates a little bit too much. I have some dinos that are starting so I've upped my feeding and been dosing hydrogen peroxide. Pretty sure I have them in check and will eliminate them shortly (fingers crossed). Corals are still extremely happy, all are encrusting and growing like crazy.

 

[Nano1908]

I am thankful for alot of things. Almost lost my life in 2002 (motorcycle accident). I am extremely thankful that I am still here. To make it simple I am thankful for my health, family, friends R2R & Noopsyche (wink).

Good luck to all.