Coralife Biocube 14 Reef Tank

[ArowanaLover1902]

This tank has been running since December, though is not my first saltwater tank, I have been doing saltwater for 4 months now. Tank specs: I have 5 types of coral (though nine patches/frags/cutting {whatever you want to call it}) I was a little redundant with my purchasing, though most of that is owning to how i bought my Xenia coral, it came growing on several snail shells so i tried to distribute it around the tank. I have two of another type of coral as well, though the others are each unique. I buy my coral from the unlabeled section of my LFS, i get an INCREDIBLE discount. (today i bought 3 great corals for only $20, my 3 large patches of Xenia cost my $5.) Sadly, this means i don't always know what i have, only that it looks pretty and does well with everything else (I know that it is stupid to not know the names, i'm trying though, corals are very hard for me to place though.) So, other inverts include a cleaner shrimp, 2 feather dusters, an emerald crab, 4-7 hermit crabs (i don't count) 3 margarita snails, 4 cerith snails, and 1 (temporary) turbo snail. The fish stocking is a false percula, a firefish, and (added today) a nice little lawnmower blenny (something i have wanted for a long time.) Tank is actually starting to look nice now, with coraline algae beginning to cover the "dead" rock as well.
Filtration is great, though i didn't like the original filter (which is almost completely bio balls), I've upgraded to the addition of a protein skimmer, UV sterilizer, and a ton of different filter media (more to come). I want to add a refugium eventually, something to grow some copepods in.
Other equipment is a heater, hydor nano pump, and 3 digital thermometers.
The tank is coming along great and i hope it continues to do well, i'm full with basic livestock (for now), but want to add a duncan coral, some zoanthids, and a mushroom (along with some other corals, of course.) Technology upgrades for the future are a refugium, more filter media, and a wavemaker.
NOTE: picture below is without the addition of the three new corals and blenny

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

New pictures for the reef tank, i don't know all of the corals, all I know is the Xenia. The feather dusters are everyone's favorite, but they are hardly mine (I had heard that feather dusters were hard to keep, but mine have never had a problem (other than some hermit crab annoyances)). I want to move one of those reddish stony corals to the upcoming 30 gallon, along with one of the Xenia patches. Everything's doing great!!!

 

[Larry Cox]

Looks nice, I just started a 28 gal jbj, can't wait to start adding life to mine. I like the blenny, I was thinking about adding one to my tank.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

RIP little blenny, found dead behind the rock structure today, which was very strange, looked very healthy and not hungry at all (no depressed abdomen). Poor guy, shame too, he was my favorite. I'm going to wait a while to replace him, i want to find out why he died (any suggestions?)

 

[IdahoNano]

Man that sucks, sorry to hear! Hard to say why fish die. For some reason, I cannot keep fire fish alive. Water parameters for fish are relatively easy to keep. Salinity, and zero Ammonia/Nitrites. Nitrates are easier for fish to deal with, but, they do cause issues with excessive alga growth. Did he get picked on by your clown? I can't see the fire fish causing it any grief. How are your other fish acting?

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

The other fish are fine, no signs of damage to the fish (beside the hermit crabs finding him before me) and he walked/swam around the clown without any signs of aggression. I had been feeding him brine shrimp and marine pellets, though i didn't see him eat any, i also had some algae sheets coming in the mail specifically for him, though i don't know why they haven't arrived yet. Like i said, i could see no signs of hunger, though maybe he wasn't getting proper nutrients? I have a full time UV, so i doubt it was a disease from my aquarium, he might have come with a parasite though, but my LFS has super healthy fish tanks

 

[DustyXB9Reefer]

Looks good man. I have a 14bc too and just experienced some unexpected fish death as well. Pretty bummed too I really liked my two spot.

 

[DustyXB9Reefer]

Are you using the stock lighting?

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I am, it seems to hold up well, and coral growth is decent. Negative is it does give off about 4 Fahrenheit of heat. I also don't have enough in budget to completely redo, might add another bulb in the future though

 

[DustyXB9Reefer]

I'm in the process of upgrading my stock return pump and lighting. The pump I've got dialed down to the Cobalt MJ900, the lights on the other hand I'm stuck between the AI prime and cutting a hole in my hood or Steve's LED retrofit.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

The AI prime looks fancy, and is probably pretty good, but I've never heard someone bragging about its talent. I think DIY would be the way to go (If you know how to do that, because i don't).

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Just want to say, this is a major first for me. I have successfully grown coral, i can very easily see several new colonies developing around my Xenia, which i have had for about a month now. This makes me incredibly happy as i am not able to grow plants at all, hopefully this is the start of a successful coral propagation hobby. I had been planning about moving several patches of the Xenia to the new 30 gallon when it gets up and running, but I might actually have to move rocks due to the amount that is growing on the rocks. Very happy about this.

 

[Brian wea]

Those purple zoanthid with green middles look like purple people eaters

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

You're right, it does, thanks. I would not have found that on my own.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Massive heat spike of 85 degrees for around 2 hours. I am still lowering temp and it looks like they will have been in almost 85 degrees Fahrenheit water for a whole 3 hours. I hope there is no lasting damage to the system.

 

[DustyXB9Reefer]

Ouch! How did that happen?

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Think it was actually the skimmer, but not sure. Zoanthid is growing now too, some of the heads are getting pretty big, two are about the diameter of my thumb.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Tons of new corals added today, going to need a bigger tank soon.
- Frogspawn coral ($30)
- Zoanthid ($10)
- Mushroom Coral ($15)
- 1 unknown coral ($5)
- 1 unkown coral (Free)
I'll post pics later today. I literally have no room left for more corals (Still going to buy them if i see them.) I've got to get this 30 gallon's filter complete then i can wait a month while it cycles, then i can put corals in. I think I've found the right refugium/sump for sale, ill purchase it soon.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I like all these new corals, btw i saw an aiptasia on one of them today. I killed it with tweezers, for now I'll settle for decapitation, if that didn't kill it and it comes back, i'm going to destroy it completely.

 

[Mkus]

Here is my 14 gal biocube upgrades are intank media basket tru luman leds best upgrade you can do on these tanks.
My tank is 8 years old never crashed I do 2 gal a week water change reef crystals,,