Biocube 32 Build: the cubening

Grootzilla · 10/23/2018, 05:50 PM

Whats up y'all. My tank finally came in yesterday (yay). I set it up and it is now cycling in my room (also yay).
My cat went bananas when she slinked into my room last night. I was getting things ready and there were boxes and towels all over the place and she was perplexed, to put it mildly.
I will probably redo my aqua scape at some point when I am rested (I have had several long shifts at work for the past four days. I crave death) and the lights in the tank aren't working right so that needs to be fixed; they flash during the lights "peak" but work fine during the ramp up and ramp down.
Now I just need to figure out how to post photos from my phone here :/

Grootzilla · 10/24/2018, 03:58 PM

Alright, here are some pictures of the tank (plus my cat)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Grootzilla · 10/29/2018, 04:51 AM

It's been almost a week and the people at corallife still haven't gotten back to me about my tank lights. Which is frustrating to say in the least. I have some corals coming in within the next two or three weeks. I will need to call them soon since it seems like they have only one person going through the emails bit by bit.
It really sucks that I am going to have to make the phone call though since I have a lot of anxiety speaking on the phone ��

I inspected the lights a little when I was topping off the water this morning and there appear to be small cracks in back pannel of lights.

JVan82 · 10/29/2018, 08:08 AM

no better time than the present to upgrade them...

Grootzilla · 10/29/2018, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JVan82

no better time than the present to upgrade them...

Me? Upgrade my lights? With what money, hmm?

JVan82 · 10/29/2018, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grootzilla

Me? Upgrade my lights? With what money, hmm?

That's a problem...

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Grootzilla · 11/01/2018, 09:50 AM

Good news lads! I just called them and as soon as I told the guy on the phone what was going on he was like "huh, that's really weird. Lemme just send you a replacment hood".

Don't know when this thing will come in but hopefully sooner rather than later since I have some corals coming in soonish.

Grootzilla · 11/08/2018, 09:05 PM

We love happy corals lads!

I have some clove polyps coming in on Tuesday. This whole coral thing is quite addicting...

Had a bit of a mishap with my heater where I forgot to plug it back in after the new hood was installed but the temperature didn't drop to a scary degree before I noticed and plugged it back in. It was off for a whole day and night and dropped like 4 degree's over several hours so the corals weren't shocked (my temperature is kept at a steady 78 degrees).

I'm going to be testing my water after a week to see how much calcium and magnesium the corals absorb as well as how the alkalinity is affected to see if I need to be dosing. It's a small tank though so I think water changes will be enough. All of these parameters were super high before the corals were added. Hopefully I will be able to maintain them long term without dosing.
Parameters:
Ammonia: less than 0.1 ppm (yes I know 0 is the goal but the corals are open and happy so I'm not too worried about it)
Nitrite: 0.05 ppm (again, I know 0 is the goal but the corals aren't reacting badly to it)
Nitrate: 30-40 ppm (on the higher end but I want some algae growing for the CUC when I get them. Now that I have working lights I'm sure it will grow a lot faster. I also have a plan for a small refugium which will further lower the nutrient level once I get some cheato; I already have the light mounted on the back of the tank)
Phosphate: 0
Magnesium: 1320 ppm
Calcium: 500 ppm
Alkalinity: 10.9 dKH
pH: 8.3

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

murphreef · 11/08/2018, 09:54 PM

Looking good.

Try to bump down the alk and ca a little but otherwise take it slow and judge the tank by how some easier corals do first.

Good luck!!

Grootzilla · 11/15/2018, 12:25 PM

Interesting things are happening, friends!

We are at the three week mark of the tank running and one week since I put corals in. My parameters have leveled out to a more *ahem* reasonable level, and the corals are still very happy. I moved both hammers to the sand bed and they are a lot more extended and happy there so I'm just going to leave them.

My torch stayed in the same spot because it was already extended and happy. It is so happy that after a week in the tank it's already begun to split which is super exciting!

The clove polyps that came in on Tuesday still have yet to open completely but they are slowly but surely getting there. They look really cool under the blue lights.

There are the beginnings of a diatom bloom in the tank but not a scary amount. My phosphate is reading 0 but since the diatoms are a thing that is a suspect reading haha. Gonna order some cheato to deal with my nutrient level soon.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Grootzilla · 11/29/2018, 02:52 PM

I am about a month and some change into this endeavor, friends, and I am loving it!

There are new additions to the tank which is very exciting.

Since my last update, I added a small protein skimmer to the back of the tank. It's cheap and small but it is pulling some nastiness out of the water so it is staying. I also got some cheato which was also added to the back. I turn the light for it on at night opposite my tank lights. I also added another powerhead to create a more varied flow within the tank but it would turn off after about 20 minutes and I kept having to plug it in again to get it working again even though it was supposed to be a constant stream. So that was taken out today.

As for livestock, a skunk cleaner shrimp was added a few days before thanksgiving. The diatom bloom in my tank was starting to get out of hand so the Saturday after thanksgiving I brought my mom with me to a fish store. The closest one is a 30 minute drive from me which is annoying. The people there were super nice and helpful. I bought 6 nassarius snails, 3 trochus snails, 3 hermit crabs, and two ocellaris clownfish.

I read a lot about clean up crews and the size it should be in relation to the tank and a lot of people say one critter per gallon but a video on BRSTV changed my mind about getting 32 critters to clean my tank. I figured getting a smaller one that I could beef up later was a better call than getting a large one that would decimate the algae quicker but then starve slowly and become little nutrient bombs. After less than week pretty much all my diatoms and algae is gone, and the hermit crabs started looking to my snails.

They killed one of my trochus snails a few nights ago while I was asleep so I just let them (and the shrimp) eat it and figured that I would just feed the tank more since up until that point I was feeding enough so that the two clowns were full. However, last night I shined a flashlight into the tank because I was curious where my clowns slept (near the top where the return pump thing is, which is adorable) and saw one of my hermit crabs climbing on top of another trochus snail and picking at it. I immediately took all three out and put them in a plastic fishbowl I had lying around with some food and left them there overnight.

I'm going to be returning them to the fish store this weekend. If I have a bad outbreak of algae I may grab some hermits again but for now I think I'm just going to stick with snails and the shrimp for cleaning up...

Both of the clowns are doing great; they are so small but already establishing who is going to become the female, even the first day I got them which is super fun to watch.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

bcb577 · 12/06/2018, 10:27 PM

Looks great

Grootzilla · 01/12/2019, 01:58 PM

It's been over a month since my last update friends. Let's do this.

Both of my clowns are doing great. They are still small, but noticeably bigger than they were when first purchased. My mom got me two corals for my birthday (some zoas and a candy cane) and I recently bought a tuxedo urchin who is adorable. I also picked up a few more trochus snails, though the two that were in my tank were breeding. I have two baby trochus snails in my tank right now. Also some baby nassarius snails which is wild.

The nassarius snails aren't really doing to much for my tank besides becoming snacks for my shrimp and hermit crab. I bought six more for my birthday because three out of the original six had become meals for other inverts in my tank but they don't really do anything. They burrowed in the sand and stayed put and slowly starved to death. Not understanding the hype for them to be honest. And I don't like the idea of needing to constantly replenish them every other month. I'm looking into other cuc members that stir up the sandbed atm.

The diatoms are pretty much defeated but now I am fighting a cyano outbreak. Just patches along my sand bed which is annoying and ugly. I'm not super worried about it since it's a new tank and still establishing, but it's still not fun to look at. I'm going to be doing water changes twice a week for the next month or so and then downgrade to once a week for two months and hopefully by then the tank will be established enough that I will be able to do bi weekly water changes.

Coralline algae is growing along my rocks and pumps like crazy which is good to see.

There is a strange growth thing on the side of my torch coral though. Can anyone identify what it is and if I should remove it?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Crooked Reef · 01/12/2019, 10:20 PM

On the left of the base? Looks like a sponge to me.

10/23/2018, 05:50 PM	#1
Grootzilla Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16	Biocube 32 Build: the cubening Whats up y'all. My tank finally came in yesterday (yay). I set it up and it is now cycling in my room (also yay). My cat went bananas when she slinked into my room last night. I was getting things ready and there were boxes and towels all over the place and she was perplexed, to put it mildly. I will probably redo my aqua scape at some point when I am rested (I have had several long shifts at work for the past four days. I crave death) and the lights in the tank aren't working right so that needs to be fixed; they flash during the lights "peak" but work fine during the ramp up and ramp down. Now I just need to figure out how to post photos from my phone here :/

10/24/2018, 03:58 PM	#2
Grootzilla Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16	Alright, here are some pictures of the tank (plus my cat) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk __________________ We out here loving fish Current Tank Info: 32 Gallon Biocube - some euphyllia corals ...

10/29/2018, 04:51 AM	#3
Grootzilla Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16	It's been almost a week and the people at corallife still haven't gotten back to me about my tank lights. Which is frustrating to say in the least. I have some corals coming in within the next two or three weeks. I will need to call them soon since it seems like they have only one person going through the emails bit by bit. It really sucks that I am going to have to make the phone call though since I have a lot of anxiety speaking on the phone �� I inspected the lights a little when I was topping off the water this morning and there appear to be small cracks in back pannel of lights. __________________ We out here loving fish Current Tank Info: 32 Gallon Biocube - some euphyllia corals ...

11/01/2018, 09:50 AM	#7
Grootzilla Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16	Good news lads! I just called them and as soon as I told the guy on the phone what was going on he was like "huh, that's really weird. Lemme just send you a replacment hood". Don't know when this thing will come in but hopefully sooner rather than later since I have some corals coming in soonish. __________________ We out here loving fish Current Tank Info: 32 Gallon Biocube - some euphyllia corals ...

11/08/2018, 09:05 PM	#8
Grootzilla Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16	We love happy corals lads! I have some clove polyps coming in on Tuesday. This whole coral thing is quite addicting... Had a bit of a mishap with my heater where I forgot to plug it back in after the new hood was installed but the temperature didn't drop to a scary degree before I noticed and plugged it back in. It was off for a whole day and night and dropped like 4 degree's over several hours so the corals weren't shocked (my temperature is kept at a steady 78 degrees). I'm going to be testing my water after a week to see how much calcium and magnesium the corals absorb as well as how the alkalinity is affected to see if I need to be dosing. It's a small tank though so I think water changes will be enough. All of these parameters were super high before the corals were added. Hopefully I will be able to maintain them long term without dosing. Parameters: Ammonia: less than 0.1 ppm (yes I know 0 is the goal but the corals are open and happy so I'm not too worried about it) Nitrite: 0.05 ppm (again, I know 0 is the goal but the corals aren't reacting badly to it) Nitrate: 30-40 ppm (on the higher end but I want some algae growing for the CUC when I get them. Now that I have working lights I'm sure it will grow a lot faster. I also have a plan for a small refugium which will further lower the nutrient level once I get some cheato; I already have the light mounted on the back of the tank) Phosphate: 0 Magnesium: 1320 ppm Calcium: 500 ppm Alkalinity: 10.9 dKH pH: 8.3 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk __________________ We out here loving fish Current Tank Info: 32 Gallon Biocube - some euphyllia corals ...

10/29/2018, 08:08 AM	#4
JVan82 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2016 Location: Valdosta GA Posts: 468	no better time than the present to upgrade them...

11/08/2018, 09:54 PM	#9
murphreef Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: simi valley Posts: 3,208	Looking good. Try to bump down the alk and ca a little but otherwise take it slow and judge the tank by how some easier corals do first. Good luck!! __________________ Justin Current Tank Info: 25G cube (finally back in the hobby in a small way)

11/15/2018, 12:25 PM	#10
Grootzilla Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16	Interesting things are happening, friends! We are at the three week mark of the tank running and one week since I put corals in. My parameters have leveled out to a more ahem reasonable level, and the corals are still very happy. I moved both hammers to the sand bed and they are a lot more extended and happy there so I'm just going to leave them. My torch stayed in the same spot because it was already extended and happy. It is so happy that after a week in the tank it's already begun to split which is super exciting! The clove polyps that came in on Tuesday still have yet to open completely but they are slowly but surely getting there. They look really cool under the blue lights. There are the beginnings of a diatom bloom in the tank but not a scary amount. My phosphate is reading 0 but since the diatoms are a thing that is a suspect reading haha. Gonna order some cheato to deal with my nutrient level soon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk __________________ We out here loving fish Current Tank Info: 32 Gallon Biocube - some euphyllia corals ...

11/29/2018, 02:52 PM	#11
Grootzilla Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16	I am about a month and some change into this endeavor, friends, and I am loving it! There are new additions to the tank which is very exciting. Since my last update, I added a small protein skimmer to the back of the tank. It's cheap and small but it is pulling some nastiness out of the water so it is staying. I also got some cheato which was also added to the back. I turn the light for it on at night opposite my tank lights. I also added another powerhead to create a more varied flow within the tank but it would turn off after about 20 minutes and I kept having to plug it in again to get it working again even though it was supposed to be a constant stream. So that was taken out today. As for livestock, a skunk cleaner shrimp was added a few days before thanksgiving. The diatom bloom in my tank was starting to get out of hand so the Saturday after thanksgiving I brought my mom with me to a fish store. The closest one is a 30 minute drive from me which is annoying. The people there were super nice and helpful. I bought 6 nassarius snails, 3 trochus snails, 3 hermit crabs, and two ocellaris clownfish. I read a lot about clean up crews and the size it should be in relation to the tank and a lot of people say one critter per gallon but a video on BRSTV changed my mind about getting 32 critters to clean my tank. I figured getting a smaller one that I could beef up later was a better call than getting a large one that would decimate the algae quicker but then starve slowly and become little nutrient bombs. After less than week pretty much all my diatoms and algae is gone, and the hermit crabs started looking to my snails. They killed one of my trochus snails a few nights ago while I was asleep so I just let them (and the shrimp) eat it and figured that I would just feed the tank more since up until that point I was feeding enough so that the two clowns were full. However, last night I shined a flashlight into the tank because I was curious where my clowns slept (near the top where the return pump thing is, which is adorable) and saw one of my hermit crabs climbing on top of another trochus snail and picking at it. I immediately took all three out and put them in a plastic fishbowl I had lying around with some food and left them there overnight. I'm going to be returning them to the fish store this weekend. If I have a bad outbreak of algae I may grab some hermits again but for now I think I'm just going to stick with snails and the shrimp for cleaning up... Both of the clowns are doing great; they are so small but already establishing who is going to become the female, even the first day I got them which is super fun to watch. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk __________________ We out here loving fish Current Tank Info: 32 Gallon Biocube - some euphyllia corals ...

12/06/2018, 10:27 PM	#12
bcb577 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2017 Location: Whitehall ohio Posts: 219	Looks great

01/12/2019, 01:58 PM	#13
Grootzilla Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16	It's been over a month since my last update friends. Let's do this. Both of my clowns are doing great. They are still small, but noticeably bigger than they were when first purchased. My mom got me two corals for my birthday (some zoas and a candy cane) and I recently bought a tuxedo urchin who is adorable. I also picked up a few more trochus snails, though the two that were in my tank were breeding. I have two baby trochus snails in my tank right now. Also some baby nassarius snails which is wild. The nassarius snails aren't really doing to much for my tank besides becoming snacks for my shrimp and hermit crab. I bought six more for my birthday because three out of the original six had become meals for other inverts in my tank but they don't really do anything. They burrowed in the sand and stayed put and slowly starved to death. Not understanding the hype for them to be honest. And I don't like the idea of needing to constantly replenish them every other month. I'm looking into other cuc members that stir up the sandbed atm. The diatoms are pretty much defeated but now I am fighting a cyano outbreak. Just patches along my sand bed which is annoying and ugly. I'm not super worried about it since it's a new tank and still establishing, but it's still not fun to look at. I'm going to be doing water changes twice a week for the next month or so and then downgrade to once a week for two months and hopefully by then the tank will be established enough that I will be able to do bi weekly water changes. Coralline algae is growing along my rocks and pumps like crazy which is good to see. There is a strange growth thing on the side of my torch coral though. Can anyone identify what it is and if I should remove it? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk __________________ We out here loving fish Current Tank Info: 32 Gallon Biocube - some euphyllia corals ...

01/12/2019, 10:20 PM	#14
Crooked Reef Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Posts: 1,765	On the left of the base? Looks like a sponge to me. __________________ “In wine there is wisdom; in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” - Benjamin Franklin Current Tank Info: 90 gallon reef. Biocube 29 lionfish tank. Mantis tank.