Nicks 29g Coralife Biocube

[Nick James]

I thought I should start a thread for my tank on here so everyone knows what I am working with! I had a 90g FOWLR tank and a 40g sump about 7-8 years ago. My first fish, a spotted Mandarin (rookie mistake), flourished as I quickly learned what I needed to do to keep him happy. I had a pair of tank bred percs and a small cluster of chromis and a serpent star fish. I proudly have never lost a fish (knocks on wood). I had that tank for about a year than sold it when I decided to finish the basement.

I got a 29g Biocube late in 2015. I put water in it on Boxing Day.

Lighting is stock CFs with the LED moon lights. One day maybe I'll upgrade to a led retrofit kit. I have an aquatic life 115 skimmer and StevieT's media rack and fuge rack. I have a finnex titanium heater and run my lights on the old fashion timers. I have a Jebao rw-4 for flow. I am changing my water 10% every Sunday which ends up being about 2g a week. After rock, sand, equipment the tank has about 20-21g of water in it.

Current livestock:

2 Brachiosaurus Blennies, male and female.
1 Peppermint Shrimp
6 Nassarius Snails
10 Trochus Snails
Countless mini brittle stars, Asterina stars, chitons, worms of all types, pods, ball anemones, etc etc

Corals:
Red acan frag 3-4 heads
Sun Coral frag 8-9 heads
Purple and pink Chalice Frag

Now the pics with white light off..









And my Blennies

 

[Nick James]

My plan going forward is LPS and softies. I would like a rock flower anemone and a branching Cyphastrea (next 2 corals on my list). The island on the right of the FTS will be an acan garden most likely. I will try to spread out various coloured Acans and let them fill it in. The larger island on the left will have everything else. I am still learning what stings what.. So I am dragging my feet a bit on whether to get certain corals, ie torches, frogspawn, leathers. I don't want to get leathers in there starting a chemical warfare.

I also wish I Could have a BTA but not sure if my stock Biocube lighting is enough. I saw a crazy multicoloured one at Bigshows.. It looks amazing.

As far as future fish, two Wyoming White or similar clowns.. A pink streaked wrasse.. And that may be it.

I want to get some Stomatellas into the tank, some collumbelid snails and some ceriths to round out the CUC. A blood shrimp, glass anemone shrimp.. Or two and that is it for invertebrates.

Any thoughts on my future stocking plans?

 

[jmonker]

Love the acan idea, looks like a great start and sweet rock work!

 

[monizb]

Looks great

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[BigReefer]

i think it looks great

 

[Nick James]

Thanks guys

 

[Nick James]

Couple close ups of my brachiosaurus Blennies.. The males colours seem to be getting better as he grows.

 

[salty1]

Very nice

 

[Nick James]

New FTS.. Water change day. Also test results for calc at 520 and dKH at 9. Tested after water change.

I am going to remove the shell I placed in the tank. I put it in there bc the Blennies come from Oyster bed areas but they don't seem to care it's there and it probably traps detritus under it..

 

[BigReefer]

looking good

 

[jeffopentax]

Where'd you get the brachiosaurus blennies? I've never heard of or seen them before. They're cool!


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[Nick James]

Where'd you get the brachiosaurus blennies? I've never heard of or seen them before. They're cool!


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The Blennies came from The Coral Reef Shop in Burlington. I figured with only 5-6 fish max in this size tank I should get some not so common ones.

I would like to get a pair of Wyoming White Clowns and a Pink Streaked Wrasse. That might be it unless something else jumps out at me.

 

[Nick James]

I drove up to Toronto yesterday and picked up a few frags from Gtareef who has waaaay too many awesome corals on his hands. My brother in law picked up some frags as well.

Here are a few tank shots from today and close ups of the new additions. I added another peppermint shrimp and 8 cerith snails as well.







Branching Cyphastrea Frag:



Japanese Lemnalia



ORAnge M. Setosa



Now it's time to save some $$ for fragfest and watch these frags grow. Need to buy some back up equipment and replace my noisy return pump with a Cobalt Maxi Jet 1200.

 

[Nick James]

Random fish stocking scenario...

McKosker or similar wrasse PLUS a Pink Streaked Wrasse in the same Biocube 29.. any thoughts?

Someone I know started pondering this as he was looking at pretty fish on the net...

 

[Nick James]

Tested Mag with my new Red Sea kit. Mag is at 1300. First time I tested as I didn't feel I needed to until I put some more coral in.

I was looking at trying sponge power and amino acid LPS from Zeovit. Not looking to run a Zeovit system on my Biocube but from what I read sponge power will increase the activity/size of sponges which will help lower nitrate/ phosphates. Anyone have experience with this product?

The amino LPS I just thought would be a good quality food for my corals. Thanks for any input.

I also thought of mixing up some DIY coral snow to use once in while....

 

[Nick James]

Drumroll please...



.. Just playing with the settings to make sure I have everything working the way I want it to before I replace my current hood. This is Steve's LED retro kit, I picked it up yesterday already installed in another hood.

I am going to start with it at 25% power with a two hour ramp up for each blue and white LEDs. Blue will be on from 1000-2200. And white from 1200-2000. So it will get peak lighting from 1400-1800 with the slow fade in for the two hours before and after. I will increase the intensity of the light after a week and maybe do 1% a day until I find that magic %. I'll have to relocat and lower/ shade a couple things. Any thoughts on this? Am I being too cautious? Not enough?

 

[Nick James]

Got Mitchell's hood on my tank. Took about ten minutes total since I had to unplug things and run chords through the tiny hole in the back of the stand. Otherwise it takes 30 seconds to take off the hood.

Before:



After:

 

[Nick James]

New FTS..

I lowered the corals that were near the top due to the previous stock lighting. The new leds are at 42% power at the time of writing, I am increasing them 1% per day still.

.

The setosa got dropped front and Center, the chalice is down the back on a lower rock.



The branching cyphastrea got a little lower near the back side but it isn't as shaded by the rocks where it is now.

 

[Nick James]

I moved the Acans down a bit and not so near the flow of the power head.



Japanese Lemnalia frag..



Setosa frag..



Branching Cyphastrea.. Growing slow but noticed its base has some encrusting onto the plug that wasn't there when I bought it.



And a not so good picture of the chalice in its new place..

 

[BigReefer]

Looking good brother

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