Donnie's Biocube 29HQI mixed reef.

donnievaz · Jul 20, 2016

Starting this tank thread to enter a contest, lol. I'll try to keep it updated. Basically a Biocube 29HQI that was an upgrade from a BC14 this past winter. I ditched the HQI light and replaced it with an Evergrow IT2040. I liked the HGI but it heated up the tank so much that it would have been impossible to open up the house and turn off the AC this spring so it had to go. I'm running the crappy Coralife skimmer and and an Eheim-Jager heater in chamber 1, chamber 2 is a refugium with chaetomorpha, and chamber 3 contains the MJ-1200 return pump and a bag of carbon. This setup is running 0 nitrates and phosphates currently. (which is a bit of a problem) I've recently been overfeeding and increasing my bioload in an attempt to get my nitrates up to detectable levels. It's a mixed reef leaning towards SPS. I currently have the following fish, Lawnmower Blenny, Harptail Blenny, Firefish, Percula Clown. I also have an Indigo Dottyback in QT that should be ready in a week.

Here's a fairly recent pic. Most everything that's on plugs in the sandbed has since been mounted to the rocks. I'll also include a few pics

of my recently purchased Crocea Clam and some corals.

donnievaz · Aug 2, 2016

Latest tank shots.

donnievaz · Aug 11, 2016

Trying to dial in my 2 part dosing in order to gain some much needed stability. I'm getting close and am seeing decent results.

rantipole · Aug 11, 2016

Love the red macro algae against the green polyps! Very well thought out. Nice tank overall, too.

Cheers,
rant

donnievaz · Aug 11, 2016

rantipole said:
Love the red macro algae against the green polyps! Very well thought out. Nice tank overall, too.

Cheers,
rant

As much as I'd like to take credit for the design, it was purely an act of nature.

revhtree · Aug 11, 2016

Looking good!

donnievaz · Aug 13, 2016

I finally got the Red Sea Algae Control test kit and love it. The API kit I was using kept coming up with 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates and I knew that was probably not the case. Red Sea shows .25ppm nitrate and .04 phosphate. I'll take it but would still like to get the nitrates up without raising the phosphate. Might try dosing some potassium nitrate.