Coralife Biocube 14 Reef Tank

[ArowanaLover1902]

Dang thats nice. The aiptasia is back, I'm treating it tonight, I have a plan. First scrape off the dead layer on the bottom as this is where the aiptasia are located. My friend is telling me about treating them with lemon juice, and seeing as I have some of that around the house I'll probably do that too. I want this coral to live though, It's kind of pretty, I could see it being much cooler in the future too. I need a frag tank though, I want to start growing more corals, I want to wait a few months though, in this time I'm going to set up the 30 gallon (undecided stocking, either frogfish, or classic reef tank, lots of shrimp and fish), then a nice little 20 gallon frag tank.

 

[Mkus]

Thanks easy to take care of tank love that aspect you can squirt super hot rodi water on aptasia to kill them

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I did the lemon juice thing. Before i did though, i tried to scrape off some of the dead tissue at the bottom, found a little (super small) serpent starfish, thats kinda cool, I'll let him hang out until he becomes a problem, btw the largest of my hermits was found dead today, looks like someone killed him and took his shell. I had spare shells in the tank though. Thats the second hermit dead in three days.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Also do you guys think the tank could handle a little blenny, I've got a ton of filtration on it and weekly 2.5 gallon changes? If so, any recommendations on a blenny, I want a simple one that is colorful and isn't too picky regarding food.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

small (perhaps 1 - 2 inch diameter banded sea serpent hiding in rocks with the mushroom coral. That's the second one I've seen today, this is why live rock is great, the mystery surprise of what is in there, one time i went to my LFS and they had an octopus in a display tank, I asked them how much they had paid for it and they asked me what I meant, confused I pointed to the medium sized blue octopus strutting about the tank. Half the employees came over to see it, I was laughing pretty hard, who needs a cleaner crew, just by a ton of live rock, you'll get something interesting.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Xenia coral is growing (perhaps too much now, might have to trim soon). The older zoa and the new mushroom coral also both shows signs of growth. The polyps are getting wider in diameter, hopefully I'll see a few new mushroom heads popping up soon. The stonier corals are just kinda being corals, not really showing any signs of growth. I'm going to add another skunk cleaner soon so that (hopefully) I could get some shrimp eggs going as a occasional source of food, if not it's fine anyways, I'm just happy to have two cleaner shrimp. Also how fast do feather dusters propagate. I've had these two for a while and have yet to see any new ones popping up, even though these feather dusters have grown around 1/2 of an inch. I've only seen the sea serpent once since last post, maybe he got eaten by the shrimp or is just hiding down in the rocks somewhere, both are pretty possible. Algae growth has gone way down, almost none growing on glass anymore. I really like the frogspawn too, but I wish it would grow faster, it's kinda small. Also I had a question regarding feeding, I've been doing frozen brine shrimp, instant ocean herbivore pellets kent microvert, and kent phytoplankton, this seems to be working well, but is it a good enough diet for coral growth in the stony ones? Thanks

 

[DustyXB9Reefer]

I have a serpent in my tank when I first set it up too. I'll see if I can post the video of it I have. It was pretty gnarly looking. As for the xenia, that stuff can take over a tank if you aren't on top of it. I've got mine on a small rock in my sand bed by itself so it doesn't spread yet. If you arent, I would try spot feeding that stoney coral and maybe move it around to different spots see if it needs more light or more flow or less even.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I wish i had done that, but it was my first coral and I wanted it to thrive. I'll start spot feeding, the frogspawn is probably big enough for brine shrimp too.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I think that the red and green corals i have are red Aussie donuts

 

[DustyXB9Reefer]

I don't think Frogspawn eat anything.... Could have sworn they're a photosynthesissisisijdlki coral?

same with the Xenia

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I think most corals are autotrophs (generate own energy from sunlight, though technically its the symbiotic zooxanthellae that actually makes the energy), but also appreciate extra supplemental foods. And it makes sense that if they are getting stuff from the water column, stuff that i put in the tank, it would be even better if it was directed at them. However I am new at corals so correct me if i am wrong. P.S. don't worry, I wouldn't dream of feeding the Xenia, it grows fast enough already.

 

[KLEMS]

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,,


What percent are you running your (B & W) trulumens at?

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I've been really missing my blenny these days, I was actually checking out a pet store for one, their saltwater tanks were not that impressive though. What was impressive is now currently sitting in a acclimation tank. He had been living in a tank with a few rocks and some wrasse, the owner didnt even know he existed, she thought he had perished long ago because she didn't think she had a copepod population (she didn't I checked). So apparently my new mandarin dragonet has been living off of frozen brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, and fish pellets (I am buying some mysis this weekend). I plan on eventually moving him to the 30 gallon (when it is set up) that way he will have a larger environment. However, he certainly doesn't seem oversized for this tank, a good bit smaller than my clownfish. Fingers crossed that all goes well.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Have to get rid of my favorite hermit crab, he has been eating the feather worms shells, they won't come out.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

MASSIVE bristle worm moving around today, the rock with the mushroom corals was loaded with stuff, I've seen 3 serpent stars, copepods (before the mandarin), and today a massive bristle worm (almost 2.5 inches), should i eliminate him? Also, good news, the mandarin eats frozen mysis.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Mandarin looking healthy again

 

[DustyXB9Reefer]

I've seen the debate go back and forth as far as the bristle goes. Personally, I sam get rid of em. I've heard others say so long as it's not harming anything, why not keep it.

Awesome score on the mandarin btw! Love those little guys!

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Yeah, but I've spent a lot of time getting him to eat, and still having trouble. Added some copepods to the tank today and am culturing Phyto and Copes

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Mandarin still looking skinny. Though the rest of the tank is looking awesome, super happy with it. However, i do have a turbo snail that is a bit big for the tank and keeps knocking over the corals. Also the feather dusters won't come out, the hermits messed with their tubes and now I think they need to heal.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Tank still working, new tank is being setup so that I can buy more corals and probably move out some of the old ones. Two negatives are that the feather worms and Xenia are both unactive, neither will really expose themselves, any reason for this?