Hello everyone, one of the members here Matt Carden suggested I cross-post my first intro thread from the meet and greet thread over here, so here it is! Going to try and add more pics. Warning, moar pics including some from Biocube 16 and an aquarium helper are mixed in. Quoted cross post below and build pictures below.
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I have a Biocube 16 but I also ended up getting a biocube 32 LED recently. Put black sand, base rock, a small piece of live rock from my established tank, and a raw shrimp in and now I'm just waiting on the magic to start happening. Supposed to be a few pictures below of the scape below, but it's my first post so hopefully the pics work. The big rock in the middle of the third picture was kind of an extra and will probably be removed or broken up into a smaller piece to mount a small coral on in the front. May use some for LR rubble in the back. Didn't know quite what I wanted to do with it yet, so I decided to cycle it. Going through a diatom bloom right now almost two weeks in. Rocks and sand are starting to bubble and I have already detected ammonia and nitrite. Haven't tested for nitrate yet, but I'm sure it's getting there.
Equipment list/wishlist:
-Hydor Slim skim NANO in chamber 1
-Cobalt Neotherm 100W (possibly chamber 1 vs 2, hopefully 1)
-Intank media basket in chamber 2 with filter floss and chemi pure.
-Intank fuge basket in chamber 2 (haven't decided on light yet, maybe coralife refugium light vs JBJ nano glo LED)
-Jebao RW-4 wavemaker
-Aqua Temp smart temp security heater controller
-Hanna Checkers
-refractometer
-stock circulation pump, stock lights
-No ATO system. evaporation is glacially slow on these LED biocubes.
Stocking ideas/wish list (Not a definitive list of every inhabitant). Would like to end up fully stocked at around 5 fish. Going for bold colored fish. If anyone knows of some really cool looking tank bred fish that would go well in a biocube 32, please let me know. Favorites below:
Maintenance: plan to do 10% water changes when I can, about once every two weeks and also dose with BRS two part dosing system. Change the filter floss at that time and also trim the chaeto in the fuge and empty the protein skimmer as needed.
Feeding: Will probably continue to use a blend of frozen mysis and cyclops once a day. Target feed corals maybe once or twice a week on average. may add frozen veggie blend if I get an omnivore. Going to start experimenting with reef roids too.
Let me know if you have any other ideas or input about this tank setup/build, Thanks!
I have had a Biocube since about 2009 (orginally a 14 which was eventually transferred to a 16), so not entirely new to the hobby, but also not an expert in everything reef. I might try to transfer a couple corals out of the 16 into this one, but wasn't planning on transferring a whole lot over because that tank has relatively major bubble algae and vermitid snail problems unfortunately. No matter how much I manually remove those things, I can't seem to win and most critters that eat those things are too big for a biocube."
Build:
$2/lb base rock pieces
Messing around with traced cardboard cutout of my tank footprint
Didn't take any pics of it before adding sand, but I placed all my rock on a piece of white egg crate for a couple purposes I guess, to keep it off the glass but on a firm base, but more importantly to raise it up a half inch or so so the sand doesn't cover the look I was going for... the egg crate basically added almost a half inch in height to my arch, which I think makes a difference. Epoxied it all up with Instant Ocean holdfast with some trial and error. Added from Black Arag Alive sand and clouded up the water real nice.
Sidetrack to bubble algae *cover your eyes* and vermatid infested Biocube 16.
Get back to work, Dad. I need to see some fish!
All cleared up and cycling. I like how my scape turned out I think, I know I wanted at least one arch, but I also wanted some nice relatively flat spots at multiple levels for ease of coral placement. Adequate spacing along the side of the rocks was also a must for glass cleaning purposes. I ended up chipping off little bits of rock with a chisel and hammer to get the clearance I wanted. It looks really close to the glass in the picture, but it's not too bad. super plenty of clearance on the front as well because I wanted maybe some plate corals out front as well as just negative space for fish to swim instead of just a bunch of rock piled in. fish still have some good hiding places behind and on the sides of the rock and under the arch.
With Blues.
Added extra base rock, which will be broken up and or mostly removed later and possibly turned to rubble later... I am going for a much less rock look compared to my current 16. My display will end up with about 17-18 lbs of very porous base rock.
Added an extra raw shrimp to really juice up the bacteria/nutrient load for the cycle. Not sure if it will help or not but I figured the cycling may need a little more goading given I am starting with basically dead base rock. Diatoms are in style right now about 2 weeks in... Anyhow, will update a little later on, will likely be a slow process over the next few months.
"
I have a Biocube 16 but I also ended up getting a biocube 32 LED recently. Put black sand, base rock, a small piece of live rock from my established tank, and a raw shrimp in and now I'm just waiting on the magic to start happening. Supposed to be a few pictures below of the scape below, but it's my first post so hopefully the pics work. The big rock in the middle of the third picture was kind of an extra and will probably be removed or broken up into a smaller piece to mount a small coral on in the front. May use some for LR rubble in the back. Didn't know quite what I wanted to do with it yet, so I decided to cycle it. Going through a diatom bloom right now almost two weeks in. Rocks and sand are starting to bubble and I have already detected ammonia and nitrite. Haven't tested for nitrate yet, but I'm sure it's getting there.
Equipment list/wishlist:
-Hydor Slim skim NANO in chamber 1
-Cobalt Neotherm 100W (possibly chamber 1 vs 2, hopefully 1)
-Intank media basket in chamber 2 with filter floss and chemi pure.
-Intank fuge basket in chamber 2 (haven't decided on light yet, maybe coralife refugium light vs JBJ nano glo LED)
-Jebao RW-4 wavemaker
-Aqua Temp smart temp security heater controller
-Hanna Checkers
-refractometer
-stock circulation pump, stock lights
-No ATO system. evaporation is glacially slow on these LED biocubes.
Stocking ideas/wish list (Not a definitive list of every inhabitant). Would like to end up fully stocked at around 5 fish. Going for bold colored fish. If anyone knows of some really cool looking tank bred fish that would go well in a biocube 32, please let me know. Favorites below:
- ORA Orchid dottyback-definitely gettting this one, love the looks of it.
- Sailfin blenny either black or colored-for personality and algae control.
- wrasse of some type (pink-streaked, six-line, fourline, or canary)-hopefully for rock pest control and I also kind of like the way wrasses swim.
- yellow assessor basslet-bright bold color, supposed to be peaceful
- dwarf flame angel or pygmy cherub angel. Open to any suggestions on this idea. Not my first choice but I do like the colors and wife really wants one. I've seen them in biocube 29s before and if you get a good one, they seem to do well. would probably introduce last.
- clownfish from my current tank (maybe, this fish is kind of a jerk). undecided on whether I want to breakdown my 16 gallon or let my clown continue to host her frogspawn to her little heart's content without outsiders (she hates company).
- Possible lyretail or longnose hawfish. LFS has a really cute lyretail
- undecided on cleaner shrimp or emerald crab.
- snails and hermits.
Maintenance: plan to do 10% water changes when I can, about once every two weeks and also dose with BRS two part dosing system. Change the filter floss at that time and also trim the chaeto in the fuge and empty the protein skimmer as needed.
Feeding: Will probably continue to use a blend of frozen mysis and cyclops once a day. Target feed corals maybe once or twice a week on average. may add frozen veggie blend if I get an omnivore. Going to start experimenting with reef roids too.
Let me know if you have any other ideas or input about this tank setup/build, Thanks!
I have had a Biocube since about 2009 (orginally a 14 which was eventually transferred to a 16), so not entirely new to the hobby, but also not an expert in everything reef. I might try to transfer a couple corals out of the 16 into this one, but wasn't planning on transferring a whole lot over because that tank has relatively major bubble algae and vermitid snail problems unfortunately. No matter how much I manually remove those things, I can't seem to win and most critters that eat those things are too big for a biocube."
Build:
$2/lb base rock pieces
Messing around with traced cardboard cutout of my tank footprint
Didn't take any pics of it before adding sand, but I placed all my rock on a piece of white egg crate for a couple purposes I guess, to keep it off the glass but on a firm base, but more importantly to raise it up a half inch or so so the sand doesn't cover the look I was going for... the egg crate basically added almost a half inch in height to my arch, which I think makes a difference. Epoxied it all up with Instant Ocean holdfast with some trial and error. Added from Black Arag Alive sand and clouded up the water real nice.
Sidetrack to bubble algae *cover your eyes* and vermatid infested Biocube 16.
Get back to work, Dad. I need to see some fish!
All cleared up and cycling. I like how my scape turned out I think, I know I wanted at least one arch, but I also wanted some nice relatively flat spots at multiple levels for ease of coral placement. Adequate spacing along the side of the rocks was also a must for glass cleaning purposes. I ended up chipping off little bits of rock with a chisel and hammer to get the clearance I wanted. It looks really close to the glass in the picture, but it's not too bad. super plenty of clearance on the front as well because I wanted maybe some plate corals out front as well as just negative space for fish to swim instead of just a bunch of rock piled in. fish still have some good hiding places behind and on the sides of the rock and under the arch.
With Blues.
Added extra base rock, which will be broken up and or mostly removed later and possibly turned to rubble later... I am going for a much less rock look compared to my current 16. My display will end up with about 17-18 lbs of very porous base rock.
Added an extra raw shrimp to really juice up the bacteria/nutrient load for the cycle. Not sure if it will help or not but I figured the cycling may need a little more goading given I am starting with basically dead base rock. Diatoms are in style right now about 2 weeks in... Anyhow, will update a little later on, will likely be a slow process over the next few months.
