Holy_makerel
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2016
- Messages
- 720
- Reaction score
- 646
- Location
- Richland
- What state or country do you live in
- Washington
Hi everyone, just thought i'd post up here with what i've been doing since i got into the hobby.
A friend of mine decided she wanted to travel and get out of the hobby so i was the lucky person that got her biocube and all her equipment.
The tank came stock with compact fluorescent lights which i had to repair the wiring for to get to work correctly again. It was running but completely fallow for months except for a small unhappy sponge colony. The back compartments were crammed full of liverock with no other filter media inside. And LR from both her tanks crammed into the display. I removed most if the coral and LR rubble from the back compartments keeping some in 2 media bags so it wasnt just loose in there. Also removed about 1/3 of the rock from the display since there was just too much to deal with.
I moved and set the tank up on 3/5/16. Let it run for several weeks while i did a lot of research into saltwater reefkeeping. I started with 2 ocilaris clowns and later added a lawnmower blenny on top of my cleanup crew which consisted of 3 blueleg hermits, 2 cerith, 3 nerite snails, and an emerald crab.
A month or do into keeping the clowns the slightly larger one started picking on the smaller one. Not knowing any better i just figured they had to establish a picking order and the larger one would turn female and they would be fine. Well i lost the smaller clown and then lost the other one when i was rearranging the scape and i didnt notice it jump into the return chamber and got chewed up by the return pump. My lawnmower blenny perished as well, i tried mysis, nori and brine shrimp but it would not accept any food and after eating what algae was available it slowly starved. I still feel bad for not just returning it to my LFS.
While i was having very bad luck with fish i was having better luck keeping the coral i had been slowly introducing into the tank. I battled a cyano outbreak and a bad bout of GHA but eventually with the help of a mexican turbo snail, religious weekly WC, phosguard, and nitrate absorbing filyer pads I got everything under control and my coral flourished. Mostly softies and some LPS.
I eventually added some more fish which i'm happy to say are still inhabiting my tank. A bangaii cardinal, firefish, and a neon goby.
In August i upgraded my lighting to a 16" SB reeflights wifi unit and had a glass top cut for the front part of the tank. I have left the back compartment open for better gas exchange and to make room for the aquamaxx hob 1 skimmer i purchased. Also added a JBJ magnetic fuge light and have a nice patch of cheato growing in the large compatment in back. Since then i've been slowly acclimating my coral to higher light intensities which i'm still slowly bumping up every couple of weeks.
After introducing some SPS to the tank and backing off my 20% WC to every other week i started really paying attention to my cal, alk, and mag numbers to help properly take care of my new inhabitants. I'm now slow dripping kalkwasser 24/7.
I've been dealing with low mag and alk in the tank in the last month or so which i attribute to the rookie mistake of not premixing my first bucket of salt before use. Been dosing alk and mg to try and keep my levels up where they are supposed to be. Just purchased my second bucket today and made sure it was good and mixed. Gonna test my perameters when i mix up the first batch this weekend.
Anyway i think that about brings this thread up to speed.
Thank you to everyone who contributes on this site. There is a wealth of knowledge that i've been steadily sifting though. Always striving to be a better reefer.
Here is a pic from today.
A friend of mine decided she wanted to travel and get out of the hobby so i was the lucky person that got her biocube and all her equipment.
The tank came stock with compact fluorescent lights which i had to repair the wiring for to get to work correctly again. It was running but completely fallow for months except for a small unhappy sponge colony. The back compartments were crammed full of liverock with no other filter media inside. And LR from both her tanks crammed into the display. I removed most if the coral and LR rubble from the back compartments keeping some in 2 media bags so it wasnt just loose in there. Also removed about 1/3 of the rock from the display since there was just too much to deal with.
I moved and set the tank up on 3/5/16. Let it run for several weeks while i did a lot of research into saltwater reefkeeping. I started with 2 ocilaris clowns and later added a lawnmower blenny on top of my cleanup crew which consisted of 3 blueleg hermits, 2 cerith, 3 nerite snails, and an emerald crab.
A month or do into keeping the clowns the slightly larger one started picking on the smaller one. Not knowing any better i just figured they had to establish a picking order and the larger one would turn female and they would be fine. Well i lost the smaller clown and then lost the other one when i was rearranging the scape and i didnt notice it jump into the return chamber and got chewed up by the return pump. My lawnmower blenny perished as well, i tried mysis, nori and brine shrimp but it would not accept any food and after eating what algae was available it slowly starved. I still feel bad for not just returning it to my LFS.
While i was having very bad luck with fish i was having better luck keeping the coral i had been slowly introducing into the tank. I battled a cyano outbreak and a bad bout of GHA but eventually with the help of a mexican turbo snail, religious weekly WC, phosguard, and nitrate absorbing filyer pads I got everything under control and my coral flourished. Mostly softies and some LPS.
I eventually added some more fish which i'm happy to say are still inhabiting my tank. A bangaii cardinal, firefish, and a neon goby.
In August i upgraded my lighting to a 16" SB reeflights wifi unit and had a glass top cut for the front part of the tank. I have left the back compartment open for better gas exchange and to make room for the aquamaxx hob 1 skimmer i purchased. Also added a JBJ magnetic fuge light and have a nice patch of cheato growing in the large compatment in back. Since then i've been slowly acclimating my coral to higher light intensities which i'm still slowly bumping up every couple of weeks.
After introducing some SPS to the tank and backing off my 20% WC to every other week i started really paying attention to my cal, alk, and mag numbers to help properly take care of my new inhabitants. I'm now slow dripping kalkwasser 24/7.
I've been dealing with low mag and alk in the tank in the last month or so which i attribute to the rookie mistake of not premixing my first bucket of salt before use. Been dosing alk and mg to try and keep my levels up where they are supposed to be. Just purchased my second bucket today and made sure it was good and mixed. Gonna test my perameters when i mix up the first batch this weekend.
Anyway i think that about brings this thread up to speed.
Thank you to everyone who contributes on this site. There is a wealth of knowledge that i've been steadily sifting though. Always striving to be a better reefer.
Here is a pic from today.
