Biocube 32 Build

[Eli57]

Hi all!

This is my first saltwater tank and I am excited to document it here. I have had many freshwater aquariums in my lifetime (I am only 19). Right now I have a 55 gal live planted Cichlid tank, and a 75 gal angelfish/community live planted tank as well.
I am starting this build thread for my Biocube 32. I have had it for about 3 months or so. About a week ago I had a catastrophic heater malfunction. It got fried and heated my LPS dominant stock to 96 degrees overnight. I woke up to 5 dead fish and only 2 zoas being alive (I think they are on their way out right now). Left are some unknown zoas and some AOIs who have somehow made it this far in my brother's tank.

The stock that died:
Neon Dottyback
Striped Blenny
Ocellaris Clownfish
Royal Gramma Basslet
Firefish Goby
Fire Shrimp

3 Large GSP rocks
Trumpet
Blastos
Cyphastrea
Yellow Submarine Favia (my favorite)
Unknown Favite
Yellow Finger Gorgonian
Electric Oompa Loompa Zoas
Toxic Green Palys
Ricordea Mushrooms
Duncan
Grube's Gorgonian
Giant Featherduster Worm
Sunburst Mushroom
All Margarita Snails
Nerite Snail

Stock that Survived the heat wave:
1 Blue Leg Hermit Crab (only one to begin with)
All Turbos
All but 1 Nassarius

Added Stock Since:
1 Top Crown Snail
1 Red Collar Snail (very cool snail species)
3 Unknown Hermits (sold as Hawaiian Zebras but not sure)
Finally a White Lyretail Molly for Cycling

I ordered two Yellowtail Cardinals from my lfs that will arrive Wednesday. Super excited for these and I have never seen any on this website or irl. I will be sure to update when I receive them.

Here was my tank a week ago:

And here it is now (before I added the molly):

I removed the palys because they were dying and I did not want them to take over the rockscape anyways. All coraline died and I am guessing all of my bacteria died as well. I bought this tank off of craigslist (had all of the fish, the trumpet, blastos, and gorgonian in it) and it was 2-3 years old. So that sucks.

But, I am sad I have to rebuild the tank but I am glad that I can document it here this time. I hope all of you reading this enjoy watching my journey to get back to where I was.

Thanks,
Eli

 

[Andresnyc93]

So sorry about the losses!
You should look into an inkbird heater controller just so it doesn’t happen again.
Heaters malfunction all the time, Hoping to see a turn around in the future but glad you didn’t let this knock you off.

 

[Jedi1199]

Wow... I am so sad to read about the disaster. Really stinks when something like this happens. Glad to see you are taking it in stride and moving forward. My mom always says, "Nothing bad happens that something good doesn't come from it." Sounds like you have a firm grasp on aquaria in general. I believe you will turn this disaster into a miracle and create an even better tank than the one you lost.

 

[Eli57]

So sorry about the losses!
You should look into an inkbird heater controller just so it doesn’t happen again.
Heaters malfunction all the time, Hoping to see a turn around in the future but glad you didn’t let this knock you off.

I am familiar with those thermostats. I keep reptiles as well and their heating elements are made to reach temps of 110+ which will kill them. So I have many thermostats. I wish I had thought to put one on my tank, but I definitely will now.

 

[Eli57]

I was at my lfs store today getting some water. I made the mistake of looking around in their tanks and found a very nice Citron Goby. Brought him home and he is doing great. Second fish in the tank, I will be getting the Yellowtail Cardinals in tomorrow.

 

[Eli57]

I have the cardinals in my tank. They are doing good but I cannot get a picture of them because they are hiding so much. Hopefully they will come out tomorrow so I can snap a pic of them.