Biocube 32: the cubening

Grootzilla · May 22, 2019

I just wanted to start a solid thread about my tank that isn't in the meet and greet forum lol.
I have a Biocube32 with the stock lights at the moment (though I do plan to upgrade when I have the money for it), with an intank media basket that has filter floss on the top shelf and packed with pond matrix and bioballs in the other two shelves. I also have a small refugium and that cheap protein skimmer made for the tank (it pulls some crap out so I'm keeping it..). Still have the stock return pump on, though I have the upgrade/backup for when it stops working.
I upgraded my circulation pumps from cheap 40-50$ ones I got on Amazon to a Nero 5 from AI about two months ago and I am so happy I did.
For livestock I have a pair of regular clownfish, an orchid dottyback, and a firefish (introduced in that order). I have a tuxedo urchin and a cleaner shrimp along with some trochus snails and one nassarius and one hermit crab (yeah I know. I need to beef up my CUC. I've been putting it off for a bit since I don't really like the LFS that sells the inverts I need. The LFS I actually like didn't seem to have any tanks with snails in them and it is a 45 min drive to either of them and they are in opposite directions. ***).
I have a mix of LPS and softie corals, though I prefer LPS. Especially euphillia and lords. Oh and blastos. And alveopora. And candy canes. Yeah. LPS. ..
Some lords came in today but don't seem to be the ones I ordered though I am going to wait for a day to see if they color up the way they are supposed to. But one of them has three polys when the wysiwyg picture showed only one. With a light pastel yellow surrounding an orange mouth. But instead its almost all orange with three heads. Hmmmmmm. And the other one has the correct number of heads. But is the wrong color. It is supposed to be a green mouth with red and purple surrounding it, but the one I got has a green mouth with just purple and grey around it. I'm stumped. I hate being That Guy but it seems like I'm gonna have to be here which sucks since they have never screwed up an order with me before. Maybe my lights changed the coloring of the lords? I heard that can happen.........

Edit: oh and the tank is 6 months old

NY_Caveman · May 22, 2019

Nice. Welcome to R2R. I have had Acans that have changed color under different lighting. I had a rainbow that became predominantly red as I increased LED light over time. That said, all of the Acans I have ordered online looked just like their pictures when I got them. A different number of heads, if it was a WYSIWYG order, is a sure sign it is different.

Grootzilla · May 23, 2019

Received a reply to my email about what happened with the order.
Apparently the frag with one polyp that I had ordered was not available even though I paid for it and it was a WYSIWYG item? Which means they sold it twice probably. So they decided to just send me a different frag without telling me what happened or consulting me. They claim that it is a "nicer and bigger frag" and while it is beautiful, it is not what I ordered and I would have appreciated a heads up. I had paid for a named acan and expected one. As for the other frag, they claim that the lights changed the coloring of it, which I would believe if the coloring had changed from the original morph to what it is now under my lighting, however it has not. That being said, the stock lighting on this tank isn't great and only has one white and one blue color on it's spectrum so it is what it is.
I don't think I will be buying from them again any time soon which sucks because they have better pricing for their corals than wwc. But I have never had trouble with wwc like this company... ugh.

Captain Quint · May 23, 2019

32's are nice.

Welcome aboard here at the best forum on the planet R2R!!!

Grootzilla · May 28, 2019

Couple of photos of my gals hangin out. They are best friends! Always paling around together.

I don't take nearly enough photo's of my tank as I should. These are from early April.

ReeferReefer · May 28, 2019

Looking good!

Grootzilla · May 28, 2019

Some new photos from today now that my cyano bloom issue has been resolved!

The view from my bed:

The front:

The other side (which isn't looked at all too much lol)

And then the acans on my frag rack that I haven't found a place for yet.

Grootzilla · May 28, 2019

ReeferReefer said:
Looking good!

Thank you!

Grootzilla · Jun 9, 2019

Just a quick update!

Had a bit of a nutrient spike after the chemiclean treatment but didn't realize how bad it was until I tested the water, which I had neglected doing for a bit (even though I am usually religious about testing every week along with water changes which was delayed for a week and a half). Phosphates were at .5ppm! Yikes! Nitrates were at 8ppm which I was a little less concerned about haha.
The only coral that got really affected by it were some of the zoas I had. At the time I had 5 different kinds (3 of them came from a frag plug I got at a LFS and weren't named or anything. Just some standard color morphs, and 2 were named ones from wwc). 2 of them got really upset while the other 3 were totally fine which I found fascinating. One of the unnamed ones has melted out of existence which sucks but it is what it is. The other one to get upset is a named one (I forget the name. I'll have to look up the recipt. It's not a super high end one though). It had about 6 polyps and is down to two that are barely hanging on. They have remained closed up this whole time but seem to be on the mend since I did a water change and added some gfo to the system to get the phosphates down to an acceptable level. Fingers crossed that they make it through. I'm gonna hold out hope that as long as there is some flesh left (and you can see some of the pink color from the polyp glowing through the outside flesh when the lights are blue) there is a chance for it to bounce back.
I found some really good deals for some zoas I had been looking for online recently and got them in a few days ago. All of them are acclimating well and settling in. I got my hands on some Utter Chaos, Rastas and Super Saiyan zoas for almost half the price I've seen asked for on this forum and larger coral farm sites which is super exciting. I had really wanted Utter Chaos and Rastas and had all but resigned myself to shelling out 60+ $ for a single polyp of each until I found a smaller coral sight. There was some issues with UPS delaying the shipment which was pretty anxiety inducing but all of them arrived healthy and happy.

The only issue I am dealing with now is the aptasia in the tank. I don't have a lot of them (2 or 3) but two of them are planted on a zoa plug and are really ugly and it's ticking me off! They have just gotten bigger since I started feeding my corals and I gotta get rid of them. Next time I head to an LFS I'll pick up aptasia x or something along with coral glue or putty to stick down the zoa frag plugs. My urchin has been pulling them out of their spots recently and it's getting frustrating to put the back into place since I hate sticking my hand in the tank.

Grootzilla · Aug 29, 2019

Hey all. I just realized that it has been some times since I have done an update on my tank so here we go!

My firefish unfortunatly disapeared a few weeks ago and I can't find the body. I am assuming that my shrimp and hermit crab pulled it under the rocks somewhere to pick at because it isn't in the back chambers anywhere. It had stopped eating and gotten very emaciated in the days leading up to it's disaperance which was super disheartening. I tried to feed it different kinds of foods but it showed no interest in any of them. It was super sad for me because that fish had grown on me from my initial impulse purchase of it at the fish store. The other three fishes in the tank are all happy and healthy so I am unsure if it has anything to do with a disease or parasite though it is possible. The clownfishes and dottyback are pretty aggressive eaters so my theory is that they kind of bullied the firefish into starving to death or just didn't give it a chance to get any food whenever I fed which is really sad because everyone had been getting along great up until then.
But anyways, because there is a rotting body somewhere in the tank things have been kind of wonky. I've been dealing with bubble algae which always comes up in my tank when something is up and I need to focus on it instead of let it run on autopilot. I've been manually removing the bubbles and popping the ones I can't remove which I know isn't ideal but bubble algae is so ugly to me I'd rather pop them than look at it. I have gfo and carbon in the tank to combat any nastiness coming from the body. I have been neglecting to do my water changes for a while now but all of the tank parameters are kept stable through my dosing and usage of media and refugium. All of my corals are healthy and the only intances of dieback on corals are coming from my torch coral's massive sweepers stinging things (I am honestly considering selling it given how aggressive it is which sucks because it's one of my favorite corals in my tank).
My ricordia mushroom is no more because of the torch and some of the flesh on a head of my candy cane is gone and exposing the skeleton, also because of the torch. Other than that everyone else is doing good.
The tank has been growing coraline algae out the wazoo recently and it's just all over the glass. I have to constantly go in and scrape it off only for it to come back a week later Lol.
I think that's everything going on in the tank right now. If I think of anything else I'll make another post.

Yeah the sand looks pretty gross right now. I hope it begins to clear up soon though.

Grootzilla · Nov 28, 2020

Whoa! Time flies. I can't believe it has been a year since I posted an update on my tank.
I have mostly been letting the tank run on autopilot for the past 8 months without really investing in any new livestock. I AM however starting a new tank which is exciting. I will be starting a new thread documenting that build soon once I start getting more of my equipment in. This lovely starter tank on mine will be taken down and many of my corals are going to be fragged to the best of my ability and sold off to people in my local reef club. I still have my two clowns and dottyback and plan on keeping the clowns. Debating on rehoming the dottyback. She is beautiful but a big meanie, and a big reason I have not bought any more fish for my tank despite wanting to for fear of her bullying any new additions. I'd share pictures on the tank but the glass is COVERED with coraline that I haven't found the time to scrape off due to work and school lol.