Daniels Biocube 32 Build

[Daniel266jz]

Hello all,
I have been reading and researching on R2R since I first started my tank. I’ve had it for about 2 months now. I love R2R and it’s gotten me to a good place with my very first reef tank. My wife and myself really love the hobby and reef tanks make your living room really pop. I’ve had reptiles most of my life but I think I’m sticking to reefs for the rest lol. Well here is my Biocube build. I don’t have too many pictures from the very beginning but I have plenty of progress pictures. My first few posts will be very pic heavy. Now onto how it all started and where I am now. I bought a Biocube on the recommendation of a friend and I had no idea what I was doing. I used dry argonite CaribSea sand with dry rock and 28lbs of saltwater. I have an intank media and refugium media baskets. I use a jebao wavemaker, and a eheim Jaeger heater. I don’t have too much in terms of equipment, and I use the standard Biocube lighting. All I run for my media right now is filter floss. I have been going thru my diatom and green algea stage over the past few weeks and my diatoms are starting to clear up. I am dealing with micro bubbles right now at the moment. My current live stock are (2) Oscelaris Clowns, (1) Firefish Goby and some CUC. Corals are (1) Purple Tip Frogspawn, (1) Australian Red and Blue Blasto, (1) Disco Mushroom, (1) Bounce Mushroom Sunkist, (2) Green and Pink Duncan’s, (1) Dragon Soul Favia, and (1) Green BTA. I have to give a huge shoutout to @brandon429 for helping me with my cycle issues and guiding me to having the tank I have today. I will continue to update this with any new additions to the tank and/or livestock and questions on the Biocube.

 

[brandon429]

Your preparation and execution of assembly is really noteworthy, several new reefers have been directed to your work thread for the tank and they tell me in chat its awesome.

 

[Daniel266jz]

I also forgot to mention that I recently found this hitchhiker on my rock and am being told it is an amphipod. I have the best picture I could take below. Hopefully theres more and they boom in numbers!

 

[brandon429]

Hey I see him thats rather unpredicted with a dry rock start/ bagged sand. He rode in on corals for sure, they bring neat stuff unless you added pods from a source?

that gammarid is directly the organism set that eats invaders up / dinos


that’s first sign of coral food web and heading toward making that former dry setup fully active live rock. He and his associates are dinos clean up crews and he directly benefits from the feed/water change interval.

 

[brandon429]

Another aspect your reef shows amazing resilience regarding the changing rules of cycling in marine tanks


you have corals, fish, hitchhikers, and reef substrates actively reefing before our eyes/changing pigments leading to coralline / long before your bacterial communities are set.

that’s supposed to matter in reefing, laws have been broken lol. You have Jessie James’d a nano reef into existence using up to date cycling approaches and the tools of the day/bottle bac start, the bacteria can catch up later. This is cycling 2020

what you did will be norm in twenty years but for now what you have done is illegal lol and looks just great.

@AquaBiomics

Eli the reason I wanted to alert you here is because testing these quick start reefs / many upcoming in the hobby/ directly lets us know basal conditions required to support a reef, this tank is a go quicker than most. It was stocked (safely) before nitrites cleared as Daniel had verified ammonia control
the measures from a new reef that clearly hasnt had maturation time yet keeps corals, compared to fully matured reefs that keep corals is great comparative science. The going testable theory is control ammonia and prove it, can start reefing, the rest will catch up whenever

 

[brandon429]

this aquarium is among the new wave of aquariums that have forced a new definition of what a completed cycle means/when one can start a reef. the system bucked all the old rules with a great outcome, a new definition of cycle complete / when we can begin reefing is required for the hobby. very neat science imo

 

[Daniel266jz]

Hey I see him thats rather unpredicted with a dry rock start/ bagged sand. He rode in on corals for sure, they bring neat stuff unless you added pods from a source?

that gammarid is directly the organism set that eats invaders up / dinos


that’s first sign of coral food web and heading toward making that former dry setup fully active live rock. He and his associates are dinos clean up crews and he directly benefits from the feed/water change interval.

Yes I can only think he came hidden within a coral. It’s nice to know I have pods without adding any myself! I sure do hope his associates keep living within my reef.

 

[Daniel266jz]

Another aspect your reef shows amazing resilience regarding the changing rules of cycling in marine tanks


you have corals, fish, hitchhikers, and reef substrates actively reefing before our eyes/changing pigments leading to coralline / long before your bacterial communities are set.

that’s supposed to matter in reefing, laws have been broken lol. You have Jessie James’d a nano reef into existence using up to date cycling approaches and the tools of the day/bottle bac start, the bacteria can catch up later. This is cycling 2020

what you did will be norm in twenty years but for now what you have done is illegal lol and looks just great.

@AquaBiomics

Eli the reason I wanted to alert you here is because testing these quick start reefs / many upcoming in the hobby/ directly lets us know basal conditions required to support a reef, this tank is a go quicker than most. It was stocked (safely) before nitrites cleared as Daniel had verified ammonia control
the measures from a new reef that clearly hasnt had maturation time yet keeps corals, compared to fully matured reefs that keep corals is great comparative science. The going testable theory is control ammonia and prove it, can start reefing, the rest will catch up whenever

Thank you for the shoutout! This was only possible with your help! But it is true my corals are already budding new polyps and growing at a fast rate it’s pretty crazy to witness hopefully soon I’ll even start selling frags as a side gig for more...frags! Lol also another thing is that my anemone seems to be doing fairly well and eating despite it being a pretty new tank!

 

[Daniel266jz]

Update- This is for the update on my water parameters for the HANNA giveaway.
ALK: 10.0
Cal: 440PPM
AMM: 0
Nitrite: 0
Salinity- 1.026
Temp- 78.6
Phos- less than 0.25

I used API test kit for this.

I also bought a "Ruby Red Dragonet" for my new fish! Seeded my tank with phyto and two types of pods for preparation (T'SBE, TIGGER)

 

[Daniel266jz]

Update- So I started my own tisbe pod and tigger pod culture for my mandarin dragonet. I had a sudden tigger pod die off but I still have my tisbe and I will post a pic of the setup. I also caught pictures of the bristle worm that has been living with me. I am looking into Steve’s LED upgrade for my tank but would also like to see what other options anyone has tried. I need the hood on because of my son so I can’t go hood less

 

[Daniel266jz]

Update- So i just pulled the trigger and ordered my Steve's LED Biocube 32 Turbo Upgrade with the wireless controller. This should be a very good upgrade and i will be posting pictures of the installation and before and afters. I will also be observing how well my corals do under this light. As before i am going acclimate my corals by keeping the lights low and slowly ramping up. I am still seeing plenty of coralline appearing on my rocks. Also if anyone knows what kind of bristle worm i have i would love to know!

 

[jcolliii]

Aww man - I just sold a Nanobox large retro that would have worked great in your BC32 hood for 200 bucks. Ah well - I'm sure the StevesLED retro will work great. Not sure how the SL kit mounts into the hood, but if you have to put some bolts through the hood, I used some black plastic bolt head covers that I got at home dumpster to hide the bolt heads - made them nearly undetectable. These are the ones I used...

 

[Daniel266jz]

Aww man - I just sold a Nanobox large retro that would have worked great in your BC32 hood for 200 bucks. Ah well - I'm sure the StevesLED retro will work great. Not sure how the SL kit mounts into the hood, but if you have to put some bolts through the hood, I used some black plastic bolt head covers that I got at home dumpster to hide the bolt heads - made them nearly undetectable. These are the ones I used...

Thanks for the tip I’ll let you know how the installs goes. I heard of nano box what do you think of them it was that or Steve’s led for me.

 

[hotashes]

Following

A.

 

[Daniel266jz]

Update- I’ve had my Steve’s led for a while now and they are GREAT! I’ve noticed crazy coral growth and amazing colors on everything in the tank. I live in Florida and I read the comments on how the lights make the temp rise but I have not had that problem, I have been within 78.6-79.3 degrees Fahrenheit. I love how you can control them from your phone and customize so much, I currently have mine on a custom schedule following Steve’s acclimation guide. My next upgrade will have to be the Sicce Syncra 1.5 pump and after that another wave maker to play with. Here is a full tank shot with the new lights.