Bo0sted Cube Build thread (30G)

[bo0sted2g]

Yeah those just wouldn't eat, I use brine for evry picky fish. Can't wait to see them

Yeah not much I could do for them
I hate losing fish but I should've stayed away from that particular pair being so tiny. But I wanted to get them small so they would pair up. My girlfriend actually cried when we had to give it the farewell flush

 

[trevormass7]

I know the feeling, I got a pair of clown gobies as my first fish that passed away

 

[bo0sted2g]

Time for some much needed updates. I have been slacking in keeping this build up to date, so here's 5 months of updates in the next few posts.

I picked up a Royal Gramama and a six line wrasse (couldn't get a picture of the wrasse)

I also participated in my first online coral auction and got a pretty decent haul

Got this Moon Favia

Green with orange rim Rhodactis Mushroom

Fire and ice zoanthids

Dragon eye zoas

Grinch Acans (starburst acans behind them)

Green and purple tip hammer.

The starburst Acans

In June I got a Diamond Goby

Unfortunately shortly after that my Nitrate and Phosphate bottomed out at zero and I got a bad Dinoflagellate outbreak, I believe that this was deadly to my sand sifting goby. After the Dino's took over I never saw the goby again.

I have been battling the Dino's for a couple months turkey baster blasting the corals off trying to help them survive the outbreak. Manually scraping thick matts of Dinoflagellates off the rocks and siphoning the sand. Only to have it come back within 20 minutes.

 

[bo0sted2g]

After a while of making no impact on the Dino's it was time to take drastic action. It seemed to regenerate the quickest from the sand bed. So I pulled all my rock coral and livestock and removed the sand. At this time I also took the opportunity to filter all the water through a filter sock while I drained the display tank.

During this time I set up a temporary tank on my kitchen counter with a heater and a power head to house the corals and the fish, and just put the rocks in a tub while I worked

I then put everything back In the tank and hoped for the best.

So far after a week I'd say 90% if the Dino's are gone! I also bought a 55w UV sterilizer to help gain the upper hand

I had to rig it up on top of an extra tank I had next to it because the UV sterilizer ended up being way bigger than I thought. I also wanted to hook it up straight into the display tank to get maximum carnage on the dinoflagellates.

 

[bo0sted2g]

Also as seen in the post above I got a new pair of healthy and this time willing to eat clown fish!

 

[bo0sted2g]

At the same time I picked up the clownfish I couldn't pass up the frag tank without picking up a couple new pieces.

The first one is a Hollywood stunner chalice

The second one was sold to me as an assorted frag which I was told was a Green Monti but I think it may be a chalice as well.
Possibly an Ecinopora?

 

[bo0sted2g]

Unfortunately the Hollywood Stunner had gotten some flesh blown off while I was going to hard with the turkey baster.
I tried to frag it to just the healthy part but when I tried to break it off of the frag disc the whole thing just crumbled

 

[bo0sted2g]

The blasto is still getting huge and loves to pig out on mysis. It was about 4-5 polyps when I got it but is now about 11-13 but most of them are covered by the 4-5 super large polyps

Also my orange rim Rhodactis is splitting into two!

 

[bo0sted2g]

Went to the Rocky Mountain Subaru Festival last weekend down in Denver at the Broncos stadium. Met a lot of cool people and saw a bunch of sick cars. Also had to stop by Elite Reef on my way back up to the mountains.
Ended up getting a Duncan and a Toadstool.

 

[bo0sted2g]

Here are some of the latest shots of the tank, everything is looking pretty good at the moment. I have to do a little algae control on the bare bottom but am going to wait until this weekend when I do a water change.

My frogspawn is looking good!

The new clowns are settling in nicely

This the hardest coral for me to get a decent picture of is my pink zippers

Starburst Acans starting to color up

Haven't put up a full tank shot in a while

 

[trevormass7]

Looks great man

 

[newbreefer316]

Everything is looking great and I dig the concept of breaking it down and building it back up how you want it. Quick note, in one of the pictures it looks like you were using the silicone with the mold inhibitors in it. I've never used it myself but I've read that it can sometimes cause problems in reef tanks due to the additives. May have nothing to do with the dino outbreak but it might be something to keep an eye on just in case you keep having random issues with the tank.

 

[bo0sted2g]

Everything is looking great and I dig the concept of breaking it down and building it back up how you want it. Quick note, in one of the pictures it looks like you were using the silicone with the mold inhibitors in it. I've never used it myself but I've read that it can sometimes cause problems in reef tanks due to the additives. May have nothing to do with the dino outbreak but it might be something to keep an eye on just in case you keep having random issues with the tank.

Well dang! That GE 100% silicone has been highly recommended around these forums, but I just looked at the tubes and it definitely says mold free. I just built a new sump using this silicone too.... thanks for pointing that out I'll have to run it by the DIY forum group and see what the deal is before I put the new sump into action.

 

[newbreefer316]

Well dang! That GE 100% silicone has been highly recommended around these forums, but I just looked at the tubes and it definitely says mold free. I just built a new sump using this silicone too.... thanks for pointing that out I'll have to run it by the DIY forum group and see what the deal is before I put the new sump into action.

Yeah, I was just in the hardware store the other day and all the different ones are confusing. GE makes 2 different formulas, 1 and 2, one of them doesn't have the additives and you can find it at the hardware store as well but the mold-free stuff takes up like 95% of the space. I was trying to find some in a small resealable squeeze tube but could only find it in the large cartridge. You may be able to "cure" the sump like you would rock to pull whatever baddies are in there out but it may just be simpler to redo the sump and save yourself the potential future hassle.

 

[bo0sted2g]

Yeah, I was just in the hardware store the other day and all the different ones are confusing. GE makes 2 different formulas, 1 and 2, one of them doesn't have the additives and you can find it at the hardware store as well but the mold-free stuff takes up like 95% of the space. I was trying to find some in a small resealable squeeze tube but could only find it in the large cartridge. You may be able to "cure" the sump like you would rock to pull whatever baddies are in there out but it may just be simpler to redo the sump and save yourself the potential future hassle.

That is such a kick in the gut! This was the best sump I have made to date! This is also the third one I have ever made and my silicone skills have improved with each one I have done. I know the struggle of trying to razor scrape the silicone off the glass. The first sump I made had to be redone. It was such a pain to get all the silicone off that I just turned that one into a quarantine tank and bought a new one.

I really don't want to scrap this masterpiece

 

[bo0sted2g]

After reading a long debate thread on wether or not there are additives in the "mold free" version I decided to just use the sump as it was already done and I was pleased with the outcome.
Plus apparently I had been using the "Mold Free" all along and everything is doing fine. This sump is kind of a sneak preview of the tank upgrade... I have actually torn down the Bo0sted2g cube because I didn't like how the acrylic was bowing.

So I will post a link of the new build here at the end of this thread to show you all what I've been up to for the last few months.

 

[bo0sted2g]

After reading a long debate thread on wether or not there are additives in the "mold free" version I decided to just use the sump as it was already done and I was pleased with the outcome.
Plus apparently I had been using the "Mold Free" all along and everything is doing fine. This sump is kind of a sneak preview of the tank upgrade... I have actually torn down the Bo0sted2g cube because I didn't like how the acrylic was bowing.

So I will post a link of the new build here at the end of this thread to show you all what I've been up to for the last few months.

Forgot to come back and post the link!
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bo0sted-40b-build.355682/