My first reef tank! 32 biocube

[Calebd91]

Weekend update.
10 gallon water change an gravel vac, noticed some reddish clumpy stuff in the sand so sucked it all out.
pretty sure the candy cane is dead, no reaction to feeding an has been pretty bleached for few weeks. Not sure exactly what did it in, awhile back it got some damage from either shipping or snail grazing past it. Rest of corals seam to be doing well, always open an colorful although not noticing much growth yet. Still dosing 3ml of vibrant as I keep having patches of some algea pop up on the rocks an on the sand bed. Think I need to up my clean up crew a bit. Only have 6 trochus an a strawberry conch. Been so busy working I Havnt had chance to add any other fish stock but I’m really wanting to add a yellow watchman goby next an then maybe a fairy wrasse of some sort.

 

[Calebd91]

Little update over last few weeks, had some cyano bloom so spent extra time on water changes an sucking up much as I could. Also added a second wave maker to increase the flow. Lasted about 2 weeks but finally cleared that up. Strangely tho I got a little diatom outbreak now, maybe from silica off new wave pump? Or maybe all the extra water changes an having some in the salt mix, not sure but my conch an snails doing decent job cleaning that up.

Biggest update is Wednesday I received a Yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp from liveaquaria since non of my LFS have been able to get them in stock for 3 months. Floated them for about 30 min then drip acclimated them both, released the goby first an he nestled down at the edge of base rock an didn’t really go exploring much at all, released the shrimp and tried to get him in same spot as goby but he shot to the back of the tank and just hung out on sand bed awhile. Watched them for about 2 hours and they never moved. Started to get little worried, and unfortunately got called in for night shift and couldn’t observe any longer. I had the lights off to not shock them after shipping but before I left I set it for just the moonlight very dim blue to stay on for 2 hours just so they wasn’t in total darkness before they could find a hideout or make burrow.
Now fast foward to today an I have yet to see them again. I assume during the night they burrowed or got into the cave that is built into the rock work, but just can’t quite see all the inside of it. Trying not to worry to much since I know it’s kind of common for them to hide out few days, but even during feeding I didn’t see any glimpses of them. I did take some mysis in long spot feeder an blow some into the cave in hopes it would reach them.

 

[jk_s124]

Looks good! I have always had a bit of cyano. You could try chemiclean if it gets bad enough. I know several reefers personally that have used it, and myself, with good results. I too started with a biocube. Loved that tank! First year is going to be up and down. I had several coral mishaps, algae blooms, cyano blooms, and after about a year things settled in and balanced out and it thrived. Keep at it and don’t knee jerk react to stuff. Nothing good happens quickly in this hobby. Patience and light nudges.

 

[jk_s124]

Little update over last few weeks, had some cyano bloom so spent extra time on water changes an sucking up much as I could. Also added a second wave maker to increase the flow. Lasted about 2 weeks but finally cleared that up. Strangely tho I got a little diatom outbreak now, maybe from silica off new wave pump? Or maybe all the extra water changes an having some in the salt mix, not sure but my conch an snails doing decent job cleaning that up.

Biggest update is Wednesday I received a Yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp from liveaquaria since non of my LFS have been able to get them in stock for 3 months. Floated them for about 30 min then drip acclimated them both, released the goby first an he nestled down at the edge of base rock an didn’t really go exploring much at all, released the shrimp and tried to get him in same spot as goby but he shot to the back of the tank and just hung out on sand bed awhile. Watched them for about 2 hours and they never moved. Started to get little worried, and unfortunately got called in for night shift and couldn’t observe any longer. I had the lights off to not shock them after shipping but before I left I set it for just the moonlight very dim blue to stay on for 2 hours just so they wasn’t in total darkness before they could find a hideout or make burrow.
Now fast foward to today an I have yet to see them again. I assume during the night they burrowed or got into the cave that is built into the rock work, but just can’t quite see all the inside of it. Trying not to worry to much since I know it’s kind of common for them to hide out few days, but even during feeding I didn’t see any glimpses of them. I did take some mysis in long spot feeder an blow some into the cave in hopes it would reach them.

I just got a yasha and pistol shrimp a few months ago. Absolutely love them. They will find each other for sure and sounds like they already have. Mine disappeared for a few days at first as well. Now they come out late afternoon early evening. Each night they cover their burrow. Also several times my goby has left the burrow and hung out in a back corner. This would sometimes last a few days. Always had me concerned. I think maybe this happens when the shrimp is molting, but I’m not positive. Im sure you will start seeing yours soon enough.

 

[Calebd91]

Looks good! I have always had a bit of cyano. You could try chemiclean if it gets bad enough. I know several reefers personally that have used it, and myself, with good results. I too started with a biocube. Loved that tank! First year is going to be up and down. I had several coral mishaps, algae blooms, cyano blooms, and after about a year things settled in and balanced out and it thrived. Keep at it and don’t knee jerk react to stuff. Nothing good happens quickly in this hobby. Patience and light nudges.

I just got a yasha and pistol shrimp a few months ago. Absolutely love them. They will find each other for sure and sounds like they already have. Mine disappeared for a few days at first as well. Now they come out late afternoon early evening. Each night they cover their burrow. Also several times my goby has left the burrow and hung out in a back corner. This would sometimes last a few days. Always had me concerned. I think maybe this happens when the shrimp is molting, but I’m not positive. Im sure you will start seeing yours soon enough.

Thank you! I did pick up some chemiclean in case it got worse, it’s cleared up for now so I’ll keep my eye on things. I’m pretty strict on my water changes each weak an parameters are starting to settle in more. I’m sure it’s still creating a good biodiversity an will for several months to come. Trying my best to just keep patient with it.

Fingers crossed they are just hiding out and will start seeing them soon!

 

[jk_s124]

All the advice you get is to be patient and expect unstable and weird things in the first year……knowing it does not make it easier. But it really does keep getting better. Are you planning on an lps dominate tank? Or are thinking about a few lps in the future? I love mixed reefs but LPS tanks are right up there.

 

[jk_s124]

And in my experience running a biocube for 3 years, 5 gallon water change weekly, a bag with high capacity gfo and rox carbon mixed together that I changed out every three weeks worked perfectly with a fairly highly bio load. I think I had 6 small fish in my cube. I never ran a skimmer successfully. For aeration, you can point a power head or return nozzle towards the water surface. Should be enough.

 

[Calebd91]

All the advice you get is to be patient and expect unstable and weird things in the first year……knowing it does not make it easier. But it really does keep getting better. Are you planning on an lps dominate tank? Or are thinking about a few lps in the future? I love mixed reefs but LPS tanks are right up there.

And in my experience running a biocube for 3 years, 5 gallon water change weekly, a bag with high capacity gfo and rox carbon mixed together that I changed out every three weeks worked perfectly with a fairly highly bio load. I think I had 6 small fish in my cube. I never ran a skimmer successfully. For aeration, you can point a power head or return nozzle towards the water surface. Should be enough.

Yea mainly LPS for now. I plan on going bigger tank in a year or so an then may get into some sps.
I do 5 gal weekly as well right now, only running floss on top of Intank rack and small bag of rox carbon. Havnt had issues with phosphate yet so Havnt run gfo yet but I keep watching it as I increase the bio load an feedings. I do notice the skimmer not doing much, it’s been more hassle then worth. I have the RFG nozzle pointing up a decent bit for surface agitation since I have the 2 wave makers for circulation in the tank.
Still no sight of the shrimp or goby, really starting to get concerned….

 

[Calebd91]

Unfortunately the goby did not make it, found this Morning

 

[jk_s124]

Sorry to hear that

 

[Calebd91]

Still have hope the shrimp is alive in hiding, made claim with liveaquaria but not sure I even want a replacement due to the shape the little guy was in even on arrival. I’m starting to see more threads similar to what I experienced with damp and cold newspaper in the box and heater pack cold and wet.

 

[jk_s124]

Still have hope the shrimp is alive in hiding, made claim with liveaquaria but not sure I even want a replacement due to the shape the little guy was in even on arrival. I’m starting to see more threads similar to what I experienced with damp and cold newspaper in the box and heater pack cold and wet.

Sorry to hear about this. Just curious. Was this a divers Den purchase?

 

[Calebd91]

Sorry to hear about this. Just curious. Was this a divers Den purchase?

Don’t believe so. Was just under marine fish section

 

[Calebd91]

Been quite awhile since a update, have some big changes that happened and think I’m back on track an happy with the results. Water changes continued an everything was nice and stable so decided to start up a refugium using the intank fuge basket and a Amazon ACKE grow light. Has been doing great and keeping nitrate and phosphates from rapidly increasing. Also over few weeks added a jar of pods from algea barn and some other mixes from LFS. Feed phyto every few days. Hope to sustain a nice population of them.

In the mix of that I added a Ruby Red Dragonet an he has been loving life, even eats mysis on occasion but see him pecking away most the time on pods. Also added few scarlet hermits and a cleaner shrimp.

Added some more coral, a small colony of purple Goni, a bright neon green trachy, 2 frags of candy canes (purple pin wheel, light green) and a golden indo 3 head torch. All are doing well except the Goni still hasn’t seemed to settle in.

I’ve always been kind of unhappy with my scape since I was fairly new to the hobby I just ordered 40lb of base rock an stacked it all best I could…..finding my local fish store was a blessing because they have huge selection of shapes and sizes and I have learned a lot in 6 months since starting this journey. Well me and my girlfriend visit the store almost every weekend and she decided she wanted a tank of her own….sooo one weekend we spontaneously ended up bringing home a 24g aquatop cube setup and we spent a few hours in the store building aquascape before she was happy. And I was jealous of it! So I redid my scape as well .

 

[Tankkeepers]

Move all that coral up higher in the tank of under stock 32 biocube light half way down with all lights on they have 300 par anywhere above a 1/4 of the way up in the tank is good for LPS and montipora with half way up being good for acros the bottom floor will only grow some softys as it's at around 50 par

 

[Tankkeepers]

That candy cane as of last week was half way down started as 1 head a year and a half ago same with Duncan montie cap was 1/4 way from bottom and grew to that in 1 year the other 2 monties were 1/3 way up and grew to that in 1 year

 

[Tankkeepers]

Good luck and love the scape hope it goes well for you

 

[Tankkeepers]

The grafted montie is new I mean the forest fire on the left the green Stella on right and the caps up top

 

[Calebd91]

I only run my white lights for 2 hours and the blues and sunrise/sunset for 8.
just ordered 2 of the 21led actinic bars to supplement lighting

 

[Calebd91]

Little update…the day after I ordered the led bars a used ai prime 16hd popped up so snagged it, waiting on kraken lid to come in and also picked up a intank filtration cover and a auto top off setup. Pics to come of that after all setup.

Ended up pulling the Goni out an giving him another dip to see if he would revive but ended up loosing it a few days later. All the polyps was blowing out and started to form some brown…didn’t want it to spread. Sucks but maybe I’ll try another one day.