Even Humbler Reef - Biocube 32

wpeterson

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I setup a new, small tank in our living room - a Biocube 32 with Coralife stand. We're beginning this as a low-maintenance FOWLR, but I'm sure I'll get sucked into upgrades and keeping more kinds of coral down the road. We've previously has 3 other medium sized mixed reef aquariums.

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I setup the tank in early December 2021. Current stocking list:

* Clownfish
* Royal Gramma Basslet
* Purple Firefish
* Mexican turbo, 10x Astrea, and 2x Nassarius snails
* Pink Sea Urchin
* Fighting Conch

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wpeterson

wpeterson

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I have setup the tank with 30lbs of Caribsea Black Hawaian sand and Caribsea Life Rock. We're running a refugium with about half a liter of chaetomorpha algae in the center chamber of the AIO sump.

I'm using the following equipment:
* Neptune Apex Classic (EB8, temp probe)
* Jebao SLW-20 - on rear/sump wall of display
* Innovative Marine Chaetomax refugium light (9w) - exterior sump chamber 2 glass
* Stock hood/LED lighting
* Finnex Titanium 150w heater/digital controller (HMH-150S) - in sump chamber 1
* Coralife Protein Skimmer - in sump chamber 1
* Coralife filter and extra poly-floss - in sump chamber 2
* Bag of carbon - in sump chamber 2
* Coralife UV filter - in sump chamber 3
* Coralife Return Pump - in sump chamber 3
* Neptune probe(s) - in sump chamber 3

I used the stock Coralife filter rack, but I run it upside down. This holds a bag of carbon on a shelf about 2" above the bottom of chamber 2. It creates a large upper chamber, which I filled with Chaetomorpha.

I love the way the stock hood looks, sealing in light (crucial in our living room), and prevents evaporation. I only have to manually top off about 2-4 cups of RODI/week.

The 150w heater may be oversized, I suspect a 100w heater would have been fine and better sized to the tank/sump.
 
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wpeterson

wpeterson

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As much as I love the stock hood, I hate the stock lighting. The controller/programming is a pain. It's neither bright enough nor the right mix of colors. I have two Kessil A360WEs from our former tank, I'm planning to remove the hood and install a Kessil A360 with a shroud on it. I'll probably install the ATO at this point as well.

I'll miss the hood, but having better colored light and proper intensity of light should be worth it. I added one small but colorful ricordea florida, but it's gone from vibrant orange/blue to a sickly greenish yellow over 6 weeks under these cheap LEDs :-/

I do love the hood and was tempted to try and build some kind of replacement canopy.
 
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