llj's 8g Oceanic Biocube

[lljdma06]

I thought I'd post this topic here. I've got a macro tank over in the macro section. I've learned a lot from lurking here and in chat. Here's the journal.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2062622

This new one will be my fourth Marine system. I couldn't pass it up. A friend of mine was moving and couldn't keep this tank. It's small, but I don't mind, I tend to like nanos and picos.

Oceanic BioCube 8 Gallon

Mods (of course not made by me, because I do not do this sort of thing):
-Custom made NanoBox 18x Rebel LED fixture - 18 CREEs, 12 Royal Blue and 6 Neutral White with a programmable controller. Does thunderstorms and stuff like that. Wooooo!
-InTank BC8 Media Rack
-Dual 10w Submersible Halogen Lights for refugium
-Mini-Jet 606
-Hydor Flo
-inTank fish saver

Structuring the chambers
-Chamber 1 - refugium for chaeto
-Chamber 2 - Media rack, so far with chemi-pure elite, also ordered purigen, but not certain I'll need it now
-Chamber 3 - nada right now, don't need a heater, I lives in Miami.

What I'm adding
-Red Sea Coral pro salt
-RO/DI water
-10lbs of Fiji pink live sand
-8-12lbs of LR, depends on what I find

No clue really with regard to livestock yet. I've got some time to mull it over. I don't want what I already have, so I'll be bugging my lfs with "can you get me this?" & "can you get me that?"

Some pictures of the setup.

Tank out of the box. Shipped great, leak test came out great!


Extras it came with


The LEDs...


The controller for the LEDs. It's pretty sweet and easy to use. Second gen controller will be in a case and allow for the 3rd row to be totally dimmable. I'll be setting the lights to about 25% intensity max. Uh, this light can grow sps in a 40g, but my friend wanted a special light fixture. He got one, and now I've got it.


Tank with the lights on


And video of the Thunderstorm. I put it on everyday cause I can.


Setting up tomorrow, with the help of plenty of beer, pizza, and loaded chili and cheese potato chips.

[Flame_Angel]

Looking great!

[lljdma06]

Originally Posted by Flame_Angel

Looking great!

Yeah, I just about died when I saw the lights. The tank is whatever, a tank. It's nice and all, but it's not the draw of the system here. It's all about the lights and on my salary (adjunct college professor), I'd never be able to afford lights like these at full price.

L

[lilpatty19]

Hi Ms. J its Patty! excited to see how your new tank comes along! hope all is well!

[lljdma06]

Originally Posted by lilpatty19

Hi Ms. J its Patty! excited to see how your new tank comes along! hope all is well!

OMG!!! It is you!

New tank? Try like 4 new tanks since we last talked. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[lilpatty19]

I tried sending you pm but I coulnt because I hae not posted enough times....I started with 1 freshwater tank and now I have 5! this is such a bad hobby lol...now Im learning a lot on the forum because i was going to change my 25 gallon planted tank to a SW tank but I just found out that my dog needs surgery so its going to wait, so Im still just reading and learning while i wait. How are things at FIU?

[lljdma06]

Originally Posted by lilpatty19

I tried sending you pm but I coulnt because I hae not posted enough times....I started with 1 freshwater tank and now I have 5! this is such a bad hobby lol...now Im learning a lot on the forum because i was going to change my 25 gallon planted tank to a SW tank but I just found out that my dog needs surgery so its going to wait, so Im still just reading and learning while i wait. How are things at FIU?

Oh, so sorry about the puppy. I remember when you first got him. He ate the loaf of bread.

What do you have in your FW tanks?

What have you read so far? I can't believe this'll be reef #4 for me. I still got my planted tank though. It's getting a rescape tomorrow.

L

[lljdma06]

I set it up today. Wooooooooo

I've got some lousy iPhone photos. Comes out super blue, which it really isn't that blue. It gotta figure out how to filter out the blue in photos.

Rock arrangement below, went with good old Haitian cured LR. Has served me extremely well. Got two freebie blue-legged hermits in the rock, only found them after I put the sand in. Oh well. The combination of this cured rock with the livesand resulted in minimal cycling, so they'll make it I'm sure. Super tiny guys. Could technically put them in my 36, but they'd be lunch. Smaller than ceriths they are.



Haha, don't stare into the lights!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I'd show you more pictures, but right now, I have a lovely little sandstorm going. One of my best scapes. LOLOL

Thanks for looking. Birth of reef #4. Wow, that's a lot.

L

[lljdma06]

More pictures... The day after I added the LR, I saw a piece of cured Tonga at the lfs and had to have it. Also, you've got the controller at work.

[lljdma06]

Ok, so I have 4 SW tanks, right. CUC's get repetitive after a while. So I've been chatting with John Maloney from reefcleaners and trying to figure out an interesting, yet easy to care for CUC for this biocube. This is what he came up with. Now, Maloney's great with CUCs and I did research before, so his stuff all checks out, though it's unusual.

5 dwarf ceriths
1 dwarf cowrie
2 Nassarius vibex
1 Electric Blue hermit
1 Scarlet hermit
1 Chiton
1 Limpet
1 Orange pecten - a small scallop, easy to care for
1 mini yellow cucumber

So there you have it, a weirdo CUC for the girl who has almost everything. I may replace the hermits with two Orange knuckle hermits, same genus as the Electric blue, just in orange. I asked if he could get those. Cause I already got Electric blues and Scarlet hermits.

Btw, hh hermits are still doing great as is the hh mushroom. Seeing diatoms, so I guess I should test the water and see where I am in the cycle. He's not sending me my CUC until the tank's cycled, we're just planning ahead since some of the stuff isn't in stock yet.

L

[lljdma06]

Haha, it's been a while, school got crazy, had to grade a load of tests. Stuff has happened.

My CUC from Reefcleaners arrived, Wednesday, March 1 as promised. No scarlet hermit or Electric Blue & the white claw hermit I did end up getting was DOA but I was refunded. Everybody else is ok. I went with an unusual group. Considering how much of a pain my CUC is being in my old 8g Finnex with them bumping and knocking down corals, I may not add a showcase crab to this tank with the exception of maybe another pompom crab, or porcelain anemone crab. The Electric blues constantly knock down stuff as does my emerald crab and trochus snails. NO MORE! I'm SICK of it!!!!

fts



5 dwarf cerith snails... See, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Only 5. Not 50, but 5. Count 'em, FIVE!



Hairy chiton



Limpets



cowrie



Orange pecten scallop. Unusual choice, but I think he's cool. He lives in a corner of the tank now. He was exploring a bit there.



Where he finally settled. Great little animal, fascinating to watch. Poor man's clam. Hahaha.



I also got a yellow sea cucumber, but it's sort of in the back of the tank in a place that's impossible to photograph. I feed phytoplankton for the scallop and the cucumber.

Another fts



I gotta move a few frags over this coming week. The Finnex is getting crowded as it's serving as a holding tank until this one is a little bit more ready.

I also put a Helfrich's firefish on hold. He's a beauty, or she...

L

[lljdma06]

Well, I've got corals. Lots of frags, yikes. Bad, I know, bad, but I've been down this route before and it seems to work. Expect more pictures... Soon... Still need to work out my camera. I actually have to edit the photos. I take them, they are blue and then I use a program to gradually get them to kinda how they look in real life. Except the shots below are the real deal. Came out great. Still learning.

Tank looks great. Can't find my pecten, will search for him tonight. He moved, so now he's hard to find. When the blue rebels are on, the color is sooooooo intense it's not even funny. Impossible to get a photo that's totally accurate. Some diatoms, but I don't have a very strong CUC, on purpose. I don't want things being knocked about. May add more ceriths and possibly a trochus when I've secured everything. Will be acquiring the following today...

-Valentine's Day Massacre Palythoa
-God of War Palythoa

I need to secure a few acan frags, yes, I've got acans. I got a lot of stuff in this tanks. It's bad, I have no restraint. Thank goodness I do big water changes, but nothing's up, params are great.

Won't tell you the rest of what I've got. All I'll say is that I've got a mixed reef and most everything has a name and things have been doing great for a few weeks.

The planned livestock is terrible, don't do it, but I have a gut instinct about this lineup. I'll just say that two fish are on hold for me at the LFS and one of them is a Helfrich's firefish.

Some teaser shots...

GSP


Ponape Birdsnest


4 head, well now 8 headed, duncan. Yes, there's an Aussie Lord Acan colony back there... Sigh, told you. I've been bad.



Thanks for looking.

L

[insipid]

Wow that really coming along great!

[lljdma06]

Originally Posted by insipid

Wow that really coming along great!

Thanks, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[aquaenthusiast]

Looking great ! Love the thunderstorms

[secrest]

Looking good. It's coming along very nice.

[Skeptic9962]

coming along nicely =)

[lljdma06]

Thanks everybody.

Ok, substrate corals have been temporarily moved to my old 8g in preparation for the new fish. Also did a water change & shifted some zoas about.

L

[franny.boy]

Looks good!

[lljdma06]

Originally Posted by franny.boy

Looks good!

Thank you very much.

A bad update, sorry very bad iPhone pictures.

I got some awesome palys from Congo32. I had an extra skimmer he needed. I had a Biocube to stock with corals. He gave me some serious palys.

Valentines Day Massacre. This coral needed an RO dip yesterday, but it's much better today.



God of War paly



I also added to my growing birdsnest collection.

Ora green birdsnest


Bird of paradise birdsnest; next to my ponape


haha, so I have...

ORA pink
Magenta
ORA green
ponape
Bird of paradise

This is on hold for me...



Very small, about 2.5" or so, but that's not a bad thing, I got the perfect little corner for him where he can be pretty but not do any mischief. He'll come home in a few weeks. Another stunner has to get situated first. Here's the reason why my substrate corals were temporarily relocated.



He'll need time to make his burrow. Once he does that, the substrate corals will be fine to put back.

Thanks for looking.

L

[lljdma06]

The fish is truly being a little Mexican jumping bean! Expected from a jawfish. Thank goodness for the biocube hood and the fish saver, otherwise, I'd have a very crispy fish.

He's not quite digging his burrow yet. But I think he will in time. He's settled down a little bit from yesterday. I still don't move quickly when I'm near the tank. He gets a big feed tonight. The sooner that he learns that my presence means food and other good things, he'll settle down. My pearly jawfish already understands this and comes to me when I'm feeding.



And lousy iphone video.



Thanks for looking.

L

[lljdma06]

Originally Posted by Jmoney619

This is inspiring me to mess with my 14 gallon and 6 gallon. Thanks for the ideas.

Thank you for your kind words. He got a big feed tonight & ate a bunch of mysis. He also wasn't as skittish & really likes the gsp's for some reason.

L

[lljdma06]

What the Biocube looks like now...

For a while I've been posting bits here and there, but nothing really full out on this Biocube, it's time I showed. I've been kind of quiet about the corals I have in this tank. On purpose.

Aussie Acan Lord



Wobbgong wow zoas, blue zoas, and true Montipora undata



Red and blue zoanthids



Top down shot...



Firefish and Mantequilla



Firefish



Full tank shot with purple firefish



Mantequilla among the gsp...



Top view, right...



Top view, left...



Two videos...

Firefish and Blue spot jawfish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC-Qz...2&feature=plcp

Full tank video, very bad, I apologize.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7vsL...1&feature=plcp

Full livestock list...

Fish
-Purple firefish (Nemateleotris decora)
-Blue spot jawfish (Opistognathus rosenblatti)

Inverts
-blue-legged hermits
-Nassarius vibex
-dwarf ceriths
-hairy chiton
-yellow cucumber (still have this)
-cowrie (dunno if I have this still)

Corals

Zoanthids & Palythoas & soft corals
-Wobblegong wows
-Red and blue zoanthids
-Eagle eyes
-Cats eyes
-Pink flamingos
-Mowhawks
-Nuclear greens
-Green infusions
-frostbites
-God of War
-Red hornets
-others that haven't been identified
-green star polyps

LPS
-Duncan
-Aussi acan lord
-Acan
-Christmas Favia
-Aussie elegance
-Meteor shower cyphastrea
-Red cyphastrea
-Blue stunner chalice

SPS
-Purple stylo
-Pink stylo
-acropora (mystery frag, lolol)
-pink ORA birdnest
-green ORA birdsnest
-magenta ORA birdsnest
-ORA Ponape Birdsnest
-ORA Bird of Paradise Birdsnest

Most of these corals were purchased from other hobbyists or traded for macroalgae. The larger colonies are from my favorite LFS. Duncan went from 4 heads and now has 11. The wobblegongs went from 5 to 12 polyps, Red hornets went from 5 to almost 8. Things are growing rather fast in this tank which is awesome. I'm excited and encouraged.

Thanks for looking. I'll post more pictures later, but at least you can see some of the stuff.

L

[B3ach]

What mA do you run your LED's at?

[09bumblebee]

I love the bluespot. He's awesome