Caribbean Cubed *Live rock and FTS*

[CD_Scapes]

Well starting something new, but similar to have I have done in the past. This tank is my UNS 30a. It will be an (as close to possible) representation of the Florida Keys stuck inside a 7-gallon cube tank.

I plan to put a single fish species (potentially a colony of them)


Equipment:
Tank- UNS 30a
Heater- Finnnex HMA-50s on Inkbird ITC308S set at 78f
Return Pump- Sicce MicraPlus
Powerhead- Hygger 1600 GPH (though this may change, depending on livestock and programming)
Filtration- Bag of Marine Pure Gems (small bio balls basically) That's it. No other filtration. I've done it before and the entire tank basically is going to act as filtration with all the macroalgae. I do plan on doing 10% water changes every week as well
Lighting- ONF Flat Nano+ set at 45% right now

Dosing:
ChaetoGro
Ferrion Iron

SpongExcel

CoralAmino
Phytoplankton

Livestock plans:
Live rock- 10lbs KP Aquatics 'starter' rock
Live Sand - Caribsea Ocean Direct
Corals- Gorgonians (I hope)

MacroAlgae-Maybe some Caulerpa and Botryocladia
Fish- Possibly a group of Roughhead blennies (Acanthemblemaria aspera)

Inverts- Thinking some Porcelain Crabs, Sexy Shrimp, Mime crabs



September FTS:

 

[i cant think]

Well starting something new, but similar to have I have done in the past. This tank is my UNS 30a. It will be an (as close to possible) representation of the Florida Keys stuck inside a 7-gallon cube tank.

I plan to put a single fish species (potentially a colony of them)


Equipment:
Tank- UNS 30a
Heater- Finnnex HMA-50s on Inkbird ITC308S set at 78f
Return Pump- Sicce MicraPlus
Powerhead- Hygger 1600 GPH (though this may change, depending on livestock and programming)
Filtration- Bag of Marine Pure Gems (small bio balls basically) That's it. No other filtration. I've done it before and the entire tank basically is going to act as filtration with all the macroalgae. I do plan on doing 10% water changes every week as well
Lighting- ONF Flat Nano+ set at 45% right now

Dosing:
ChaetoGro
Ferrion Iron

SpongExcel

CoralAmino
Phytoplankton

Livestock plans:
Live rock- 10lbs KP Aquatics 'starter' rock
Live Sand - Caribsea Ocean Direct
Corals- Gorgonians (I hope)

MacroAlgae-Maybe some Caulerpa and Botryocladia
Fish- Possibly a group of Roughhead blennies (Acanthemblemaria aspera)

Inverts- Thinking some Porcelain Crabs, Sexy Shrimp, Mime crabs



September FTS:

Oo, this is going to be an interesting tank to watch grow!
I would love to try a Caribbean themed tank, just a shame I have fish that aren’t actually from the Caribbean

 

[dennis romano]

Well starting something new, but similar to have I have done in the past. This tank is my UNS 30a. It will be an (as close to possible) representation of the Florida Keys stuck inside a 7-gallon cube tank.

I plan to put a single fish species (potentially a colony of them)


Equipment:
Tank- UNS 30a
Heater- Finnnex HMA-50s on Inkbird ITC308S set at 78f
Return Pump- Sicce MicraPlus
Powerhead- Hygger 1600 GPH (though this may change, depending on livestock and programming)
Filtration- Bag of Marine Pure Gems (small bio balls basically) That's it. No other filtration. I've done it before and the entire tank basically is going to act as filtration with all the macroalgae. I do plan on doing 10% water changes every week as well
Lighting- ONF Flat Nano+ set at 45% right now

Dosing:
ChaetoGro
Ferrion Iron

SpongExcel

CoralAmino
Phytoplankton

Livestock plans:
Live rock- 10lbs KP Aquatics 'starter' rock
Live Sand - Caribsea Ocean Direct
Corals- Gorgonians (I hope)

MacroAlgae-Maybe some Caulerpa and Botryocladia
Fish- Possibly a group of Roughhead blennies (Acanthemblemaria aspera)

Inverts- Thinking some Porcelain Crabs, Sexy Shrimp, Mime crabs



September FTS:

Check out KP Aquatics for Caribbean livestock.

 

[CD_Scapes]

Check out KP Aquatics for Caribbean livestock.

Already ordered some, says so in the post

 

[CD_Scapes]

Got my KP rock yesterday, was a bit of a mess as I was supposed to get them around 10:30-11:30am but since I live on campus mail doesn't show up until around 3pm. Everything turned out fine and I live the rocks that I got, I did end up with a couple extra pieces that I can use as frag frocks and accent pieces. Overall I am pleased with what I got, even came with some nice hitchhikers:

-Brittle star

-Harlequin star

-coral pistol shrimp (another was dead)

-some small red striped shrimp (maybe 1/2 inch long)

-tons of types of feather dusters

-sponges

-some macro species

-pencil urchin (removed)

-some weird red and white ribbon worm



Will be fun to see what grows and comes from the rocks, not 100% sure on what I will do livestock wise but I do want some macroalgae, besides that I am not 100% sure what I will do. Here is how the tank looked this morning which is still a bit cloudy from a bacterial bloom, but way better than last night.

 

[LegalReefer]

Looking good! Following, I just love ecosystem specific biotopes

 

[CD_Scapes]

Looking good! Following, I just love ecosystem specific biotopes

Not sure if it will be more macro-based or more gorgonian based yet

 

[i cant think]

Got my KP rock yesterday, was a bit of a mess as I was supposed to get them around 10:30-11:30am but since I live on campus mail doesn't show up until around 3pm. Everything turned out fine and I live the rocks that I got, I did end up with a couple extra pieces that I can use as frag frocks and accent pieces. Overall I am pleased with what I got, even came with some nice hitchhikers:

-Brittle star

-Harlequin star

-coral pistol shrimp (another was dead)

-some small red striped shrimp (maybe 1/2 inch long)

-tons of types of feather dusters

-sponges

-some macro species

-pencil urchin (removed)

-some weird red and white ribbon worm



Will be fun to see what grows and comes from the rocks, not 100% sure on what I will do livestock wise but I do want some macroalgae, besides that I am not 100% sure what I will do. Here is how the tank looked this morning which is still a bit cloudy from a bacterial bloom, but way better than last night.

Looking great! Also just an idea for stock:
Shark nose/neon goby
Or
One of the smaller Blennies (Although some do eat certain algae)

 

[CD_Scapes]

Looking great! Also just an idea for stock:
Shark nose/neon goby
Or
One of the smaller Blennies (Although some do eat certain algae)

Yeah I was thinking some barnacle blennies would be nice. Did some quick IDing of the feather duster worms I’ve seen and so far I have:
Ghost feather dusters-Anamobaea sp.
Blushing star coral fan worm- Vermiliopsis n. sp.
Black-spotted feather duster-
Branchiomma nigromaculata
And possibly the most epic one
A couple Spirobranchus sp (Christmas tree work relatives)

 

[i cant think]

Yeah I was thinking some barnacle blennies would be nice. Did some quick IDing of the feather duster worms I’ve seen and so far I have:
Ghost feather dusters-Anamobaea sp.
Blushing star coral fan worm- Vermiliopsis n. sp.
Black-spotted feather duster-
Branchiomma nigromaculata
And possibly the most epic one
A couple Spirobranchus sp (Christmas tree work relatives)

Wow! That’s the dream ‘pests’ to have

 

[CD_Scapes]

Listened to an Instagram live from a couple of my buddies talk about aquascaping tanks and it was mentioned that looking at dive pictures/videos can give you a better look at how the reefs exist in nature. The take away from the chat was to create depth and dynamic on the sand bed, very rarely if at all will there just be a pile of rocks on clean sand. There is usually some smaller rocks/rubble dotted around the main structure so I broke up a rock and went to work. I think it turned out great and looks a lot better and more natural looking.


Florida live rock is the greatest thing that is still available to the hobby, while it might be a bit expensive from KP Aquatics you have to think 1/4-1/3 of the price is shipping and you get the rock shipped overnight to you door. 1000% worth it and I recommend that everyone try it once. So many fun things come with the rock, I have never had aiptasia from KP rock and bristle worms ARE NOT PESTS.

Here are some of the cool "hitchhikers" I have found over the past few days
Red Fanworm

Ghost Fanworm

Horseshoe Fanworm?

Christmas Tree Worm?

Red & White Ribbonworm


I have also have seen a brittle star, harlequin star, coral pistol shrimp, and a very small red/white striped shrimp.

 

[i cant think]

Listened to an Instagram live from a couple of my buddies talk about aquascaping tanks and it was mentioned that looking at dive pictures/videos can give you a better look at how the reefs exist in nature. The take away from the chat was to create depth and dynamic on the sand bed, very rarely if at all will there just be a pile of rocks on clean sand. There is usually some smaller rocks/rubble dotted around the main structure so I broke up a rock and went to work. I think it turned out great and looks a lot better and more natural looking.


Florida live rock is the greatest thing that is still available to the hobby, while it might be a bit expensive from KP Aquatics you have to think 1/4-1/3 of the price is shipping and you get the rock shipped overnight to you door. 1000% worth it and I recommend that everyone try it once. So many fun things come with the rock, I have never had aiptasia from KP rock and bristle worms ARE NOT PESTS.

Here are some of the cool "hitchhikers" I have found over the past few days
Red Fanworm

Ghost Fanworm

Horseshoe Fanworm?

Christmas Tree Worm?

Red & White Ribbonworm


I have also have seen a brittle star, harlequin star, coral pistol shrimp, and a very small red/white striped shrimp.

I regret going with man made rock, I didn’t get the joy of all these nice looking ‘pests’

 

[CD_Scapes]

I regret going with man made rock, I didn’t get the joy of all these nice looking ‘pests’

I hate the word “pest” it’s not a pest, it’s an animal that is living and our human views of “perfection” decide that they don’t belong

 

[i cant think]

I hate the word “pest” it’s not a pest, it’s an animal that is living and our human views of “perfection” decide that they don’t belong

That’s true, although most people look at them as pests, I keep trying to stop calling them pests because they’re really not and they just try to help our aquariums in sometimes bad ways

 

[CD_Scapes]

That’s true, although most people look at them as pests, I keep trying to stop calling them pests because they’re really not and they just try to help our aquariums in sometimes bad ways

I usually call them hitchhikers or freebies

 

[i cant think]

I usually call them hitchhikers or freebies

Haha, freebies is the best name for them. Unfortunately because I don’t have natural rock, I don’t get any freebies like feather dusters

 

[CD_Scapes]

Welp thought I’d give in update since there is actully some thing to talk about. First off I got my macroalgae from gulf ecosystems and I love it, didn’t have as much room for the caulerpa as I though but it works. I really love the Ogo and might have to try some more in the future. Speaking of the future, I got offered an RA job for the rest of the school year so that means I will be moving to a bigger dorm and that means I plan to get a bigger tank! Limit is 20 gallons so I’m looking at an IM Nuvo 20. I already got some lights for the tank, around the end of last week I won an auction for 2 AI Primes. So the most costly part of the mew tank is out of the way. Well that’s all for now, will update probably after I move. Here’s an FTS:

 

[i cant think]

Welp thought I’d give in update since there is actully some thing to talk about. First off I got my macroalgae from gulf ecosystems and I love it, didn’t have as much room for the caulerpa as I though but it works. I really love the Ogo and might have to try some more in the future. Speaking of the future, I got offered an RA job for the rest of the school year so that means I will be moving to a bigger dorm and that means I plan to get a bigger tank! Limit is 20 gallons so I’m looking at an IM Nuvo 20. I already got some lights for the tank, around the end of last week I won an auction for 2 AI Primes. So the most costly part of the mew tank is out of the way. Well that’s all for now, will update probably after I move. Here’s an FTS:

I’d love a bit of Gracilaria - I want to have a macro algae tank with only softies because they look so natural and although I want to go for mainly wrasse I still think their colours would burst infront of the algae,
Nice that you’re getting a bigger tank - You could have a Blenny or something like that. Hope it all goes smoothly! I currently have a Max Nano 20g - and a 4x2x2 tank downstairs. So I may turn the Max nano into a macro algae only tank because it’d help my Blue Star Leopard that’s being housed in there as a grow out tank with food.

 

[i cant think]

I’ve finally decided that I’ll do a macroalgae & softie tank - 1. It’s natural-ish and 2. I have a 4’ mixed reef already. Plus, Algae hits different to coral when it’s done as nicely as yours

also, is the caulerpa invasive or not really?