Biocube 29 and 10g Reboot

[Lazydayz]

Quick update on the tank. I didn't use a microscope to confirm dinos but I know the tanks biodiversity isn't quite what I wanted. I finally pulled the trigger and ordered pods and phyto from algaebarn. Started dosing phyto, 10 ml of hydrogen peroxide every day. Within 3 days of starting the dinos (or whatever it actually was) seem to be a thing of the past. I still have some algae to address but I'd rather manage algae!

Oh and please don't judge all the stuff floating around in the picture I was feeding the fish and it has been the only time I really get to sit with the tank!

 

[Lazydayz]

Between the pods, phyto, hydrogen peroxide and microbacter 7 the "dinos" are gone. The water looks clearer and even the hair algae is almost gone! Oh forgot I also stopped water changes for the past 2 weeks. The only negative that I've seen is the whammin watermelon Zoas seem to be changing color, might be getting low on a trace element. I'm going to do my water change Tuesday and get back on that schedule hopefully it helps the zoas. Time for my favorite part pictures haha!

 

[Lazydayz]

Not much has changed all coral looks really happy! I think my red acan is sprouting a new head there is a small lump underneath that is slowly forming a mouth.

Also did a little black Friday shopping. Algaebarn had buy one get one on the 5280 pods so I got that and had a free 16 oz of brine shrimp. I also bought 4 new additions from Top Shelf Aquatics' online sale, can't wait to pick them up tomorrow.

I'm thinking of adding the death spiral on the top left rock, what does everyone think?

 

[Lazydayz]

Picked up the new additions today. They are already looking amazing! Zoas started opening within an hour of being in the tank. I have a frag rack coming this week so they are temporarily on the sand in the carrying case I got from Building an Obsession at MACNA.

 

[Lazydayz]

Got my pods and brine shrimp in from Algaebarn and the fish were so excited for the brine shrimp!! I got my new frag rack and it was a little bit bigger than I thought but it's ok I plan on building a bigger tank soon so it will be perfect for that tank. I did a fairly large water change, about 40% to clean the tank well and glue the death spiral to the top of the rockwork. There definitely must have been a trace element deficiency because now that I have resumed water changes the zoas are coloring up again.

 

[Lazydayz]

Last night I was looking at the new growth on the acan as it is really cool watching this head grow almost out of nowhere, I noticed 3 more heads starting to grow!

You can just barely make them out on the bottom right. Other than that I am still working on eliminating the GHA, it seems to be under control and slowly dieing off.

 

[Lazydayz]

Corals are doing great!! Everything seems to be splitting/growing new heads left and right! Not sure if the TSA Death spiral is growing or not but there are some bumps on the side

Not the clearest picture but you can see the 3 spots there. Was really excited to see a bunch of pods on my TSA paratrooper PALY (hard to see in the picture but they are all over it)

Still working on my GHA, been thinking of adding a Lawn mower blenny, a tang or maybe both but I'm nervous to get anything since we are going skiing for 6 days. Hopefully the LFS have more sales for New Years and I can get them to help my CUC control the GHA. Now my favorite part the pictures haha, Happy Holidays to all!!

 

[Lazydayz]

Just got back from a week long getaway. Tanks need some maintenance but everything seems fine. Got to finally go to the Georgia Aquarium it was awesome! Happy New Year's everyone!!

 

[Lazydayz]

After much debate with myself mostly I think I'm going to tear down the 10 gallon. I may keep it as a hospital/QT but I'm really more focused on the biocube. Got a lot of copepods from algaebarn during their 12 days of Christmas/ tank giveaway sale. It is awesome seeing so many of the little critters running around the tank! Really think I'm dialing in now since the hair algae is almost completely gone!! My daughter got me a bag of blue glass rocks for the fish tanks for Christmas so I decided to move some stuff around alittle and add those into a rubble island I created right up front. I started the initial design/planning phase for the 110 gallon frag/growout tank I want to build myself.

Oh and I forgot to add that the new zoas and poly are already popping out baby heads! Very excited!!

 

[Lazydayz]

I wanted to add some progression shots that I found when I was backing up phone pictures on my computer.
Scrambled egg Zoas:
8/26/19

9/26/19

10/23/19

11/23/19

12/7/19

1/7/2020

 

[Lazydayz]

Blasto:
8/26/19

9/27/19

10/14/19

11/27/19

12/23/19

1/3/2020

 

[Lazydayz]

WWC JINGLE BELLS cyphastrea:
9/14/19

10/14/19

11/23/19

12/15/19

1/7/2020

 

[Lazydayz]

Somehow apstia got in the biocube. I was gluing them as soon as I had seen them and thought I got them all but apparently not. So I've been researching all different livestock to control them. I think I will be looking at getting a filefish, I haven't had luck with shrimp or nudibranch before so I'll try this. I was also thinking about getting a lawnmower blenny to help get rid of the rest of the GHA. overall I'm happy with the growth and colors in the corals.

 

[Lazydayz]

So I wanted to put up a quick update. I won the weekly contest from AlgaeBarn. My Ecopod combo pack came today. I'm super excited to add in the ecopods, this will be the second jar I've added of them and so far I've been really happy with the results!!! Thank you again @AlgaeBarn really awesome company with great products!!!

 

[Lazydayz]

The biocube stand looks like it is starting to lean to the right. It has been driving me crazy for a while now. With the corals starting to grow and take off I'm worried it will finally give out. So I started building my own stand. Originally I was going to put both tanks side by side but my wife doesn't like the look of that and wants me to build the 10 into the wall. I had already started the build so instead of wasting lumber I decided to continue with the design and just make the 10 gallon side a flat work surface for when I do maintenance, feed or frag in the future. Still a lot of work to do but feel like I made pretty good progress in 1 afternoon.

 

[Lazydayz]

Sad news my diamond goby jumped out of the tank 2 days ago. Somehow made it through the small opening on the edge of the biocube. Couldn't figure out why he was fine the day before, but yesterday I noticed the clowns looked dusty. Pretty sure they have velvet. Not taking any chances I converted the 10 gallon into a hospital tank and started copper tonight. The biocube will run fishless for 2 months. On a positive note I won the exact idip contest on here and will be receiving it tomorrow! I can't wait to start testing with it!!!

 

[Lazydayz]

Copper treatment is going well. The fish are looking better, did lose 1 chromis but the other seems to be coming around. Clowns are swimming all over and eating again! I got to try my exact idip today. I haven't bought the marine bundle yet so I can only test Alk, PH, TDS, and Salinity but man does it make testing faster! I still think I have some learning to do because I tested the biocube Alk before the water change and the idip said it was 7.68 dKH but my Salifert kit said between 9.9 and 10.2 (I tested 3 times to ensure it wasn't me). I tested the new water and they were almost spot on idip said 11.43 and Salifert said 12. Overall I really like it and I'm sure the more I use it the easier and more dialed in it will be!
Corals are growing nicely and cant wait to get the fish back in but I'm going to do a full 90 day fallow period to hopefully reduce the risk of infection.

 

[Lazydayz]

Quick update before the superbowl. I bought an acrylic fixer upper tank for $20. Thought I could turn it into a nice frag/grow out tank. Needs a lot of work so I will be taking it very slowly and learning how to bond acrylic.

The copper treatment is still ongoing, not as well as I would have liked though. I lost all my fish except for my 3 clownfish. But the clowns all seem happy and I think they will make a full recovery. I have been ghost feeding the biocube from time to time to ensure that the CUC will still have food and the nitrates and phosphates will hopefully not bottom out. Seems to be working so far fingers crossed!

 

[Lazydayz]

Been awhile since I lasted updated. Haven't done anything with the acrylic tank yet, but was thinking I'm going to cut it all apart clean it really well then reassemble it. It holds about 45 gallons now so when all is said and done it should at least be 40 gallons which I think is a perfect size to start.
The clowns are done copper on Saturday and it appears that I got rid of their issues! They are gaining weight and swimming all over the place again.
I was supposed to go to the Florida Frag Swap last weekend but ended up getting sick On a positive note though Topshelf Aquatics had a live sale that weekend so I joined that while I was laying around. I won a $20 giftcard right off the bat and used it to get 2 peppermint shrimp to start combating the apstia in the Biocube. I hope it works because the apstia is starting to get out of control. I was gluing them as I had seen them but there must have been one in hiding somewhere I can't see. I was also able to get a nice little frag of green bay packers zoas. As for the rest of the coral they seem to really like the biocube, my red acan has so many little heads popping up it's hard to count! My Frogspawn or Frammer whichever it is now has 2 little heads starting to grow under the others that have split three times now. My mushrooms split and the zoas are spitting out babies left and right!! I don't have many pictures so that will have to wait until the next time!

 

[Lazydayz]

Not 100% sure that the peppermint shrimp are eating the apstia but it seems like some of the smaller ones have dissapeared. I got to frag and sell my first corals. Started working on the project tank I bought. Cut it all apart since the seams were terrible and falling apart.

I will now have to clean all the peices and get ready to put them back together. I think it will make a pretty nice frag tank.
Now a couple of pictures