The Christal Caves 60g Cube (My Tank thread)

[camajestic]

So @Nibejeebies has worked hard to set up my new tank, which we are moving my stock in the biocube 14 to it as soon as we are certain its cycled.

Princess's Upgrade ( Thanks to @Chriscrna for pointing out that Im a princess at the club meet )

So here is the information in the tank-

Started: September 3, 2016
Official Volume: 60 Gallons
Actual Volume: 64 Gallons
Dimensions: 24'' x 24'' x 24''
Make: Deep Blue
Model: 60 C RR
Lighting: OceanRevive Arctic-T247 & Reef Brite Moonpad
Heater: Eheim Jager TruTemp
Aquarium: Deep Blue Professional Cube 60 Reef Ready
Stand: Deep Blue Stand
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 110INT 4'' Internal Protein Skimmer
Powerhead: Jebao RW-4
Pump::Jebao DC-4000
Sump: Aqueon ProFlex Sump Filtration System Model 3​

Set up with 60lbs Live sand, 43 lbs of Live Rock, 26 lbs of Dry Rock, 30 gallons of fresh salt water, and 34 gallons of live salt water (water from @Nibejeebies 72 gallon). He's dosed it with Aquavitro Seed each day since its been set up as well as feeding the tank pellets daily and we threw in some krill as well. We have been checking on the ammonia badge several times a day, haven't seen any yet, Nitrites has been non detectable, nitrates will be checked later tonight. We are going to be using nibejeebies' account with aquatic log to keep track of all parameters and such.

Pics coming in an edit.

All set up ready for sand

60 lbs live sand, Fiji pink and the rock didn't get a pic of the rock before he put the sand in and clouded it up.

Yay! Stars!

He had to go to Home Depot for the return line and a surge protector for the tank! Tsk tsk... He was not prepared.

He added the moon light to the center of the ocean revive.

Finally cleared up on Sunday.

He took this shell back out of the tank and took a blowtorch to this manjao. I thought it was pretty..

There's plenty of caves and swim thru's and there's not an area in the tank that can't be seen from one of the four viewing angles. There's a few "bolt holes" through out the entire rock work that should be interesting for the highfin goby.

More to follow!

 

[Nibejeebies]

You forgot to mention dear that your tank is already showing diatoms.

 

[BlueDevil]

Gorgeous tank! Looking forward to seeing it progress.

 

[Zoarium]

Sweet cube! What kinda fish and corals are going in it?

 

[AdamPhe]

Looking great

 

[camajestic]

I will be moving over my two maroon clowns and the high fin goby from the Biocube to the new tank. I have a coral rock that will be moved in also from the Biocube.

I do know i want a zoa garden.

 

[camajestic]

I am still looking for the "perfect" fish and starfish to add. I want all my live stock in this tank to be different from the main display tank. i like variety lol.

 

[Zoarium]

Variety is good! I cant wait to upgrade from my Biocube.

 

[Nibejeebies]

Here's the values so far. Between the live water,sand,rock, and the bacterial additives I kind of think it's ready for the clowns and watch it closely...

But First...
I'm going to put in some liquid Ammoina some time today ans bring it to 0.5ppm and test every other hour to watch it's progress and see if it's actually cycled since there hasn't been a spike.

 

[Nibejeebies]

Dosed 0.6ml of clear ammonia at 1415hrs

Read as 0.25ppm at 1440hrs

 

[Nibejeebies]

Tested now at 1730 ammonia is testing 0.... Interesting testing nirites and nitrates now...

 

[Nibejeebies]

Okay, nirites is zero, nirate is a 5maybe a 6 based on nyos nirate kit, going to test with a Red Sea in a moment to be sure, but what do y'all think? Safe for her to move over at least the Marron clowns later tonight maybe tomarrow...? Based on how quickly the ammonia was displaced?

Obviously we will keep the biocube running and move the fish back if there's any sign of trouble.

 

[BlueDevil]

As long as ammonia was broken down that quickly and didn't even register any nitrites, I think you should be fine with that level of nitrates.

Did you also test the nitrites at the same time intervals?

 

[Nibejeebies]

Yes I did. Never registered as having nirites

 

[BlueDevil]

Yes I did. Never registered as having nirites

Then I'd have to say you're good to go!

 

[Jeeper]

Very nice, I like your aquascape. Clam is cool, maybe some non photosynthetic coral inside it would be neat.

 

[camajestic]

@Jeeper i was thinking of putting some coral in there or hoping that a fish would call it home.

Does anyone have any recommendations for fish that will fit well with my paired maroon clowns?

 

[Jeeper]

I have 2 tomato clowns and a molly miller blenny in my biocube. They will be going in my new 45 cube. I have been thinking about a hawkish to go with them. The clowns have not paired and still fight alot (although they don't damage each other like they used to). They do not mess with the blenny and he is the best garbage disposal fish I have ever seen. I figure you probably need fish that can hold their own against the maroons. Maybe a dwarf angelfish....

 

[camajestic]

So this weekend @Nibejeebies and I went to the fish to store to see what they had gotten in since my last visit.

I ended up coming home with a Midas Blenny, Basket Star and a Pistol Shrimp.

Good news the shrimp and my high fin paired right away!

 

[cee]

Good luck with the basket star, extremely tough one to keep. Basically only eat zooplankton they catch in the current.