JulianHuntToronto
Community Member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2020
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Hey all, Julian from Toronto, Canada - I have been meaning to write up something regarding my new Biocube 32G that has now officially hit 5 months and 5 days since being setup.
I was invited to write something by Owner/Admin @revhtree to detail the process of setting up my new tank. At first I thought that mine really was not that interesting. As a preamble, I had a 100 gallon "reef" tank from 1996-2005. Yes, I am really dating myself there, I was presented with an aquarium by my ex as a birthday present and he said I could set it up anyway I wanted. So after being that "nerd" in boarding school in the UK as a child, and having filled our school lab with aquariums and vivariums full of everything from stick insects to endangered slow worms, newts to grass snakes etc, I decided I wanted to try my dab hand as a wildlife enthusiast to fish from the sea. Living in the UK I used to love going rock pooling on the beaches and seeing all the creatures captured therein that would change from tide to tide. Then I met the sea anemone. In Europe it was the Red Beadlet Anemone (Actinia equina))
Much like the Pacific inter-tidal anemones on the coast of Vancouver and Oregon, they open when the ride is in then contract to their little balls of mucous above the tideline until they can open again. I thought this was just so amazing. Now, back in the early 90's the reefing hobby was still quite new. I was and still am still learning all about the "new" advances in reef aquatics. Back then in my 100, with a skimmer, I suppose it was more of a FOWLR tank then, no one had ever told me that I needed to do water changes. What, I had my tank for nearly 10 years, and I never did a water change! The fish were fine, I had a great Tang Gang, 2 clowns that always laid eggs - but my pride and joy was the Bubble Tip Anemone - Any coral I tried in the tank died within days- I was never told to test parameters. But as Ian Malcolm says in Jurassic Park, Life finds a way. And it did. The fish were ding great, the anemone flourished, I even had a whole Porites rock full of Christmas Tree Worms. Then when I moved to Vancouver I broke down my tank and gave it away to friends in the hobby.
Now, 15 years later I have my new Biocube 32 by Coralife. I think it is going to be too small, but when I got back into the hobby. in March 2020, I wanted something small and compact for the apartment.
OK from the start, I used dry-rock. Corallife salt, Hydor Korallia wavemakers with wifi, Cobalt heaters etc - spared no expense... (again Jurassic Park) -
So all was testing fine, again spared no expense, bout everything Hanna.
So this is an image I found on here that I am reposting - par levels for the Biocube 32.
Then after a month the dreaded green hair algae set in. This has been my major concern for the past few months. I have been treating it daily with rock scrubbing, changing filter floss daily, lowering the light duration and treating with Vibrant. Vibrant works, but not in the 2-4 weeks that they want you to believe, more like 8-9 weeks. But we are now down to this and I am managing algae with a few turbo snails, hermits, emeralds and some nerite snails.
As of this morning - the tank looks like this...
Still fighting algae, but the rockflowers and the mini-maxi and Bra are doing well as are the Zoas, It is still in the ugly phase but slowly getting better. I am an anemone fan as you know if you have read this far and will be filling this up with mini max carpets, rockflowers, I will keep the BTA to the top if I can, but they are such amazing creatures. Ask me about my carnivorous plant greenhouse
I was invited to write something by Owner/Admin @revhtree to detail the process of setting up my new tank. At first I thought that mine really was not that interesting. As a preamble, I had a 100 gallon "reef" tank from 1996-2005. Yes, I am really dating myself there, I was presented with an aquarium by my ex as a birthday present and he said I could set it up anyway I wanted. So after being that "nerd" in boarding school in the UK as a child, and having filled our school lab with aquariums and vivariums full of everything from stick insects to endangered slow worms, newts to grass snakes etc, I decided I wanted to try my dab hand as a wildlife enthusiast to fish from the sea. Living in the UK I used to love going rock pooling on the beaches and seeing all the creatures captured therein that would change from tide to tide. Then I met the sea anemone. In Europe it was the Red Beadlet Anemone (Actinia equina))
Much like the Pacific inter-tidal anemones on the coast of Vancouver and Oregon, they open when the ride is in then contract to their little balls of mucous above the tideline until they can open again. I thought this was just so amazing. Now, back in the early 90's the reefing hobby was still quite new. I was and still am still learning all about the "new" advances in reef aquatics. Back then in my 100, with a skimmer, I suppose it was more of a FOWLR tank then, no one had ever told me that I needed to do water changes. What, I had my tank for nearly 10 years, and I never did a water change! The fish were fine, I had a great Tang Gang, 2 clowns that always laid eggs - but my pride and joy was the Bubble Tip Anemone - Any coral I tried in the tank died within days- I was never told to test parameters. But as Ian Malcolm says in Jurassic Park, Life finds a way. And it did. The fish were ding great, the anemone flourished, I even had a whole Porites rock full of Christmas Tree Worms. Then when I moved to Vancouver I broke down my tank and gave it away to friends in the hobby.
Now, 15 years later I have my new Biocube 32 by Coralife. I think it is going to be too small, but when I got back into the hobby. in March 2020, I wanted something small and compact for the apartment.
OK from the start, I used dry-rock. Corallife salt, Hydor Korallia wavemakers with wifi, Cobalt heaters etc - spared no expense... (again Jurassic Park) -
So all was testing fine, again spared no expense, bout everything Hanna.
So this is an image I found on here that I am reposting - par levels for the Biocube 32.
Then after a month the dreaded green hair algae set in. This has been my major concern for the past few months. I have been treating it daily with rock scrubbing, changing filter floss daily, lowering the light duration and treating with Vibrant. Vibrant works, but not in the 2-4 weeks that they want you to believe, more like 8-9 weeks. But we are now down to this and I am managing algae with a few turbo snails, hermits, emeralds and some nerite snails.
As of this morning - the tank looks like this...
Still fighting algae, but the rockflowers and the mini-maxi and Bra are doing well as are the Zoas, It is still in the ugly phase but slowly getting better. I am an anemone fan as you know if you have read this far and will be filling this up with mini max carpets, rockflowers, I will keep the BTA to the top if I can, but they are such amazing creatures. Ask me about my carnivorous plant greenhouse
