Biocube 32 mixed reef

[Oldsman]

I wanted to start a post here showing our tank progress. Its a BC 32 , started up a month ago already whew ! I used carib sea live sand , and a mix of base rock , life rock and a few pieces of live rock. The bc has the stock LED lighting and return pump for now , but added a hydor 565 ? ph for added flow . Here's the pic of it on day one .

The rockwork went in next . I planned a arrangement w plenty of caves , and several changes later settled on this . Looking back, all our fish and inverts have tons of room to hide, but not the perfect layout for corals.

 

[Oldsman]

A few weeks went by after dosing tank w biospira. After the tests showed the am and no2 had zeroed out , we picked our first fish. I admit I didn't wait nearly long enough between adding the next fish, but have been diligent about testing .
The first fish was a pair of snowflake clowns, daughter of course wanted Nemo and Olaf seemed Ike a good name for his buddy.

Stopping by a new reef shop found us bringing home a pair of pj cardinals. My wife really wanted a firefish, but hadn't found one yet at this point...but I couldn't leave without a frag of pulsing zenia.

The small diatoms started showing up, and our lfs recommended a very small cuc . I added 3 trochus snails , 3 red leg hermits , and a cleaner shrimp . Reading all the other builds , the crew start off small then add more as needed. I totally forgot about the cerith snail's up till now

 

[Oldsman]

We stopped by a petco looking for those snails and ended up coming home w Kermit. I fell for this gorgeous coral beauty angel that had just arrived. The lady said they're fish come from live aquaria , and it looked great.

That white spot is crud on the glass..not something else yikes ! The next day , my wife was chatting with a lfs. They had just taken in a firefish from a breakdown, and held it for us . It earned its name as Flash..cause it hides in a flash lol

We had more fish than I originally planned , but they all find spots and get along fantastic.
I've been testing every other day , and our tanks been very stable. I'm only running filter floss and a bag of chem pure elite in the Intank media rack. Ive done 10 percent water changes every other week using rodi only .

 

[Oldsman]

We've been admiring the softy corals during our visits, and finally decided to add a couple types.
I found a gorgeous frag of firework clove polyps from Budmans Corals , actually ended up buying 2 . They looked unhappy from traveling...our FedEx delivery person is awful. The next day all the polyps were extended and looked good

I needed rodi water for the upcoming water change so swinging by ABC reefs in Solvay NY , found us buying a neon green hammer coral . There was a small mushroom in their lagoon I really liked too..but can't recall name . Its an intense blue green color

 

[Oldsman]

the last coral I've added was a small trumpet w 4 heads . I've read these are good beginners corals, and love the green color. I placed it about 6 inches away from the hammer in the sand till it decides where it wants to be .

The diatoms are showing up, and getting a hint of green on the base rock. I assume that's part of the ugly phase and hope to maintain it w cuc. Thinking a few cerith snails would probably help keep things cleaned up .

Any feedback is welcome !

 

[Oldsman]

Wow its been a year since I updated the build thread ..sorry ! I follow tons of build getting inspired and ideas for future upgrades, and neglected my own .

We've had some coral loss, beginners luck . Slacked off on maint and lost the lps. Decided to get tank on track, then slowly try again . I added a bi color frogspawn, and another neon green hammer . They seemed happy , so a purple torch joined our tank . Fast forward to the last 3 months we've picked up a few acan frags , another candy cane and just last week, a new Duncan after my last one was removed after months of looking awful. I suspect a vermtid snail was stressing it out , along w high nutrient levels .
When the duncan arrived from aqua sd , there was a freebie included...hopefully I'm spelling it correctly- orange leptastrea. Looking forward to it encrusting the plug


Here's an updated photo from this week

I'll get my badge added asap too and keep updates frequent now lol

 

[Oldsman]

Well its with sadness we decided to sell our tank w livestock and focus on other hobbies . I really appreciate all the friends around offering help. I plan to hang around enjoying everyone else's reefs , and possibly restart another tank down the road